The only drawback to this was that we had to wake up at 4:30 to grab the bus and make the two hour trek inland to the reserve. I think we’d all agree that it was well worth it. The reserve was beautiful, especially the welcome area/lodging. It looked like something out of a magazine, and as soon as our ranger for the day Grant rolled up in a huge safari van, I felt like I was finally in Africa.
The reserve was huge, with so many cool animals. First we went to the jaguars- and we actually went inside the cage, right up next to them. I was scared to death, but Grant explained that they’re rescue jaguars, and are used to the cars coming in and aren’t interested in hunting/attacking. They were such beautiful, graceful animals, and it was awesome to be so close to them. Unfortunately we couldn’t get that close to the lions, because they were originally canned lions (raised with the intention of being sold to people to hunt them), and they view humans as food.
After stopping at the lions, we went into the main reserve. It was huge- Grant said something about having over 2000 some acres, and that it’s a self-sustaining ecosystem. Humans don’t do much to the reserve except to feed the animals if completely necessary, or to help with sick animals. Probably the coolest thing we did was get out of the car and walked with the giraffes. It was amazing to be with them in their natural environment, but they were a little shy and didn’t want to come too close.
When we were leaving the area two of the males started fighting, and we got to see them swing their heads and hit each other with their horns. Pretty sweet. We also saw white rhinos, buffalo, zebra and springbok- the national animal of South Africa. It was a great day, and was one time when I actually didn’t mind being tourist-ey, which normally I’m not really a fan of.
We had an equallt great night: we had postponed Nate’s birthday celebration due to the early safari, so that night we went out in downtown Cape Town. All of us, including Aaron, the Interstudy staff and Seviwe (our tour guide who’s around our age) came with us to dinner at Marco’s, a restaurant with African cuisine. I had ostrich steak, something I never expected to eat (it tastes pretty much like normal steak), and native Guguletu beer (which tasted nothing like beer at all). There was an awesome live band that played Bob Marley during dinner, and its safe to say that we all had an awesome time.
Afterwards we hopped to a few bars downtown, and just danced and socialized with each other, as well as with Seviwe, Ajethe (an Interstudy staff member), and his friend Alaan. It was fun to be out with South Africans, and to have them teaching us dance moves and other fun things about the modern culture. I’m definitely hoping that we have a chance to do it again.
Overall, it was another amazing day in the most amazing place that I have ever been. And we haven’t even started doing the best part- the townships. You might not be able to get me home.
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