On Wednesday morning we said our goodbyes to Cape Town and set out on the road. This time, we were headed for the quintessential African experience – a safari. We packed up all our belongings and piled into the van with Charley and Craig at 9:00 am. The drive was scenic and took us along a series of mountains and valleys, although most of us were either asleep or reading within ten minutes of departure. At one exciting point along the way, we witnessed a troop of baboons following along the roadway in the opposite direction as we were traveling. Our first African animal sighting of the day!
Around 11:30, we arrived at the Aquila Game Reserve, our home for one night. Driving into the reserve, we were all very excited to see the rows of buildings with thatched roofs that looked exactly like one would picture for an African safari. We were welcomed with a tall glass of sparkling wine or grape juice, and instantly felt transported into a luxury lifestyle far different than that we had experienced during our time visiting the townships of Khayelitsha. After we made our way through the reception area, we came upon a beautiful infinity pool where we instantly dropped our bags, found places on the surrounding lounge chairs, and settled right in. We had to wait until two to check in to our rooms, so we hung out by the pool for a bit, and then had a delicious and extensive buffet lunch inside the beautiful dining hall. Finally we got to check into our rooms. We each shared with one other person and enjoyed beautiful king size beds, outdoor showers, and towels rolled into the shape of elephants.
At 4 pm, we departed for our first game drive of the trip. We rode in a sturdy 4x4 vehicle with several other tourists and were each given a fleece blanket as we got in. We set off with our driver, Bergke who also acted as guide during the expedition. First off, he explained to us all what the “Big Five” animals of Africa were. Consisting of the lion, leopard, Cape buffalo, rhino, and elephant, these are the most dangerous animals because they won’t back down from a fight, and can do some serious damage if you manage to find yourself in a confrontation with one of them. Bouncing along the rough tracks of the 4,500 acre game reserve, we soon came across the first of the animals sighted, the Cape Buffalo. After that, the animals came in quick succession and by the end of the day we had managed to see:
A raft of hippos
A herd of springbok
A crush of rhinos
A dazzle of zebras
A flock of ostrich
A herd of oryx
An implausibility of wildebeest
A memory of elephants (ok, just two)
And, last but not least
A pride of lion
The lions were held in a separate enclosure and were quite a distance away when we saw them, but we heard that in the mornings they are often quite lazy and can be seen closer to the trail, so we crossed our fingers for our next game drive the next morning. As we left their enclosure, the sun had set beyond the nearby hills and I noticed it was getting quite dark so I asked Mo if she could still see anything. “Take off your sunglasses” was her response. Oh, right. Not my brightest moment.
We followed up the evening game drive with yet another filling buffet dinner where we went over many of the events of the previous days and discussed our amazing experience with Soccer 4 Hope. After a very exciting day, we all made our way to our rooms for an early bedtime, anticipating the early wakeup for the morning game drive on Friday.
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