South Africa Day 7

Sunday, Tim, Alan, and Miryung went on a safari. A small bus picked them up from the hotel at 6:45am and traveled 2 ½ hours to Inverdoon Wildlife Reserve. It was pouring down rain as they left Capetown, but, as they left the Cape Peninsula, crossed the Ceres region (known for their fruit orchards), and entered the semi-arid Little Karoo, the rain gradually subsided. This was fortunate because safaris are no fun in the rain. The reserve is situated on 10,000 hectares of former farmland. They have an active cheetah breeding program (2 cubs in the last 3 years, which is pretty good as cheetahs are not prolific baby makers), a retirement area for 4 lions (confiscated from illegal canned hunting operations) and a huge area with every other animal you think of when you think African animal plus a few you didn’t think of. It was fairly windy, but despite dampened expectations they had an excellent safari. They visited the cheetah enclosure first. After an interesting mini-lecture they headed to the main reserve. They witnessed several antelope including: springbok, kudu, eland, oryx and very briefly an impala. The guide had interesting things to say about each. They came across giraffes and zebras (together) and after a brief warning about rhinos and snakes they got out of the open topped jeep and walked “near” the giraffes. Miryung had a brief but transcendental moment with the giraffes before she inadvertently chased them away. They also found two white rhinos (or wide lipped rhinos). As they were not interested in getting up they got several pictures of their backs. After a visit to the lions they headed back to the lodge for a very nice lunch of spit-roasted sheep. They then headed back to Capetown to collect me and head South to Simon’s Town, which will be our base for further exploration of the Cape of Good Hope.

South Africa Day 7

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