The Wandering Chocoholic

The morning after the night before

Every so often, I do something that reminds me rather forcibly that I’m not 21 anymore. Consuming large quantities of wine, staying out late, and then waking up at 6am the next morning qualifies as one of those things. This morning was pretty brutal, as I cursed my alarm after far too few hours of sleep. See, I’d booked a weekend Garden Route excursion, which meant I had to pack up my gear and leave while it was still dark out.

I boarded a minivan and we headed out of Cape Town as the sun rose over Table Mountain, casting everything in spectacular hues of pink and orange. We first spent an hour or so collecting our small group, comprised of a New Zealander human rights lawyer doing an internship working with refugees, a French girl and an American girl living in Stellenbosch working as summer interns, and myself. By that point, I was pretty green, and was cursing my short-sightedness. I dozed on and off while hoping desperately that yesterday’s wine didn’t make an untimely re-apparance.

The Garden Route

A couple of hours and some fresh sea air later, I was more awake and feeling much more human. The Garden Route is a coastal stretch of road that is full of charming seaside towns, beautiful scenery and interesting things to do.

Our first stop was in a small town called Betty’s Bay, to see the penguin colony there. Yep, more penguins! It was so windy today that it was hard to stay out on the boardwalk for more than a couple of minutes, so I’m glad we spent longer at the Boulder penguin colony on Wednesday.

Next, we headed to the popular seaside resort town of Hermanus. It’s a popular vacation spot for locals and tourists alike, full of art galleries, cafes, the ubiquitous African craft market, and some amazing views. It’s also a jumping off point for whale watching and dolphin watching cruises in season. For us, it was just a lunch spot, so we spent an hour or so wandering around and checking out the town before grabbing some food and heading back on the bus. We had places to be.

Safari Game Lodge

Our destination for today was a small town a couple of hours east and inland of Hermanus. We drove through a number of farming towns, and fields full of wheat and canola before arriving in Albertina, a tiny town known for two things: Aloe production, and the reason we’re here: A safari game lodge connected to a private game reserve.

Now, I’m on a backpacker budget here, so imagine my surprise when the game “lodge” turned out to be more like a five star resort. I was handed a key to my very own luxury thatched hut room, and I started to wonder if I’d accidentally stumbled onto the wrong tour. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. This place is amazing. It has a huge restaurant and lounge area with leather sofas and a fireplace, a giant buffet dinner where anything from fish to ostrich is grilled to taste right in front of you, not one but two swimming pools, and even a spa.

Of course, the main attraction here is the wildlife. The lodge has its own private game reserve, and while it’s not quite as authentic as going to one of the big national parks, I’ll be doing that in Namibia. Meanwhile, the reserve here is small and compact enough that the game drives can guarantee that you’ll see a wide variety of wildlife up close and personal. And they weren’t kidding.

After checking in, we boarded an open-top safari vehicle and set out on a two hour sunset game drive through the reserve. We saw zebras, giraffes, eland, kudu, lions, white rhinos, buffalo, wildebeest, and even cheetahs. Not only that, but they came so close to the vehicle that at some points we were only a few feet away. It was completely amazing and surreal to see animals like giraffes and cheetahs come right up to us. I figure the odds are about a million to one of seeing even one of those animals at such close range at Etosha, so this was really something.

The game drive was followed by dinner at the lodge, and we’re just having a relaxing evening by the fireplace. It will be an early night, since not only is it the winter solstice and shortest day of the year, but we’re going on a sunrise game drive early tomorrow morning so I badly need to catch up on some sleep.

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with some wildlife photos that should make everyone appropriately jealous. Enjoy!