I was so busy posting about Great White Sharks, I forgot to mention what we've been up to in this stunning place. Cape Town itself is gorgeous. While I do understand Cape Town is its own city with a unique identity... it has the feeling of San Francisco, Seattle, Malibu and my preconceived notions of Sydney Australia(not that I've been there, lol) all wrapped up into one. Like Hong Kong and Singapore, multicultural lively places similar to our own cities of origin, Cape Town is one of those places I can just see us living in... not that we would move here of course. But it's comfortable, beautiful and fun.
We hit spectacular weather for Cape Town's June (until today, but technically we spent most of the day outside of the city, shark diving in the bay 2 hrs drive away). Our first day here we did the super touristy big red hop on/hop off bus. It was perfect. I can't wait to post pictures of the sights... Table Mountain, Camps Bay, Hout Bay (fish n chips, yah!) and the very lively waterfront area. Did you know we are nearly 17,000 km from Vancouver? As demonstrated by a sign on the pier (pictures to come later)
Yesterday we rented a car. I really thought it would be a good idea, until we started driving down narrow, twisty turvy roads on the LEFT side of the road. Poor Pete, I made him drive. muhahaha. He did great though and got us all the way down to Cape Point, which is where the Atlantic meets the Indian ocean. Naturally we saw many more fantastic sights that we will bore you with once we are home with good internet.
On another note, only 2 sleeps until we are homeward bound. Hard to believe. If it wasn't for our adorable puppy and our wonderful family and friends, I'm not sure we could stand to leave. We wish we could see more of South Africa. It has been a whirlwind of great people, good fun and many delicious meals.
Tomorrow we are off to the Stellenbosch area to do a wine tour... then we are splurging on a nice hotel and dinner called Spier which is part of the Spier winery. We hear it is awesome.
Much love. Spaghetti and Peteballs.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Jaws
I could have kicked myself when the alarm went off today at 5am. As the terribly annoying sound buzzed in my ear, I remembered that yesterday I signed up and PAID to do the things in life I hate most... getting up early to sit on a rocking boat while being cold and wet. Oh and did I mention the sharks? Yes, we were rising at the crack of dawn to swim with great white sharks...
This was Pete's idea.
As if the ferry ride in Tanzania didn't teach me a lesson, on a whim I decided that I would join Pete on his adventure into the deep. I thought about cancelling this morning at 5am until I rememered the look on his face when I agreed to go along. (complete satisfaction)I have afterall, been dragging him along on all of my safaris, so why not join the shark safari? I mean I did chicken out on the bungee jump.
There's not much else to say besides the fact that we were face to face with one of natures most feared creatures... the Great White Shark. Luckily they supplied masks, wetsuits, and most importantly a cage for us to bob along in.
Do I regret this decision? Not one bit. Pete was right. It was fun. You should see our photos.
This was Pete's idea.
As if the ferry ride in Tanzania didn't teach me a lesson, on a whim I decided that I would join Pete on his adventure into the deep. I thought about cancelling this morning at 5am until I rememered the look on his face when I agreed to go along. (complete satisfaction)I have afterall, been dragging him along on all of my safaris, so why not join the shark safari? I mean I did chicken out on the bungee jump.
There's not much else to say besides the fact that we were face to face with one of natures most feared creatures... the Great White Shark. Luckily they supplied masks, wetsuits, and most importantly a cage for us to bob along in.
Do I regret this decision? Not one bit. Pete was right. It was fun. You should see our photos.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
WEDDING PHOTOS
Our beautiful, lovely and very talented wedding photographer, Emily Perello has put up wedding photos on her website.
www.emilytakesphotos.com
go to client login.
password: ernie
The photos look amazing, but my internet connection is SO DAMN SLOW all the time, I can only see the little thumbnails.
Anyways, enjoy!
www.emilytakesphotos.com
go to client login.
password: ernie
The photos look amazing, but my internet connection is SO DAMN SLOW all the time, I can only see the little thumbnails.
Anyways, enjoy!
Friday, July 23, 2010
Botswana & Zimbabwe
In the past few days, we have been in 3 different countries... Zambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. It may sound like a lot, but there hasn't been much action besides our overnight trip/safari in Botswana.
Chobe National Park in Botswana is only an hour or so from Livingstone, Zambia so the day after Pete's big jump, we left first thing in the morning for an organized overnight safari. I don't recommend driving 70km/hour in an open air safari vehicle at 7am in the middle of winter. (ok, Zambian winter isn't quite Canadian winter, but it was still cold enough with the wind rushing by) Our first safari activity that day was a river cruise... we saw tons of wildlife, most of which we had seen on our past 2 safaris, but it never gets old.
Then it was lunchtime. My favorite time. I must say we haven't eaten that well since our own wedding. We were served a huge buffet lunch at a really nice hotel. Pete was wide eyed and proud watching me stuff my face. It was definitely the most I've eaten in a very long time (not that I've been hungry by any means on this trip, it was just so delicious)
After lunch, we hopped in the safari vehicle (hummed the customary Indiana Jones tune) and set off for an afternoon/evening game drive. We didn't see any lions or leopards but we saw lots of other things as well as huge packs of elephants. The sheer number of them traveling together was like nothing we had seen before. Not surprising, being that there are 70,000 elephants in the park. The best was watching them swim and cross the river all in a row. The highlight of the day happened at sunset when a lone giraffe came by for a drink. He spread his legs and awkwardly bent down that long neck to lap up the water. It was quite the silhouette and a picture perfect way to end the day.
We camped that night in a beautiful site just outside the park beside a waterhole. We drank red wine as we watched a family of elephants congregate at the waterhole. They had the most adorable baby with them who kept slipping down the embankment into the water.
The next morning, we got up early and headed straight for the Zimbabwe border. We checked out Mosi-o-Tunya once again, but this time from Zimbabwe. That night, we were spoiled at a restaurant that had yet another waterhole on it's premise, home to Sebastian the hippo. We were the only guests there and the South African chef let us bring our own delicious $5.00 bottle of wine as he whipped up his own amazing creations. Including cured impala, which tasted almost like proscuttio. We had steak wrapped in phylo that we dipped in a spicy coco sauce. Sounds weird, but it was an incredible meal. The chef was the owner of the place as well as our host and server for the evening (his staff was on their day off). The hospitality and three course meal made our night complete for a whopping $20usd.
Anyways, you are now up to speed on our travels for the most part. We are back in Zambia awaiting our flight to Cape Town tomorrow afternoon. It is hard to believe we will be home in a week.
Chobe National Park in Botswana is only an hour or so from Livingstone, Zambia so the day after Pete's big jump, we left first thing in the morning for an organized overnight safari. I don't recommend driving 70km/hour in an open air safari vehicle at 7am in the middle of winter. (ok, Zambian winter isn't quite Canadian winter, but it was still cold enough with the wind rushing by) Our first safari activity that day was a river cruise... we saw tons of wildlife, most of which we had seen on our past 2 safaris, but it never gets old.
Then it was lunchtime. My favorite time. I must say we haven't eaten that well since our own wedding. We were served a huge buffet lunch at a really nice hotel. Pete was wide eyed and proud watching me stuff my face. It was definitely the most I've eaten in a very long time (not that I've been hungry by any means on this trip, it was just so delicious)
After lunch, we hopped in the safari vehicle (hummed the customary Indiana Jones tune) and set off for an afternoon/evening game drive. We didn't see any lions or leopards but we saw lots of other things as well as huge packs of elephants. The sheer number of them traveling together was like nothing we had seen before. Not surprising, being that there are 70,000 elephants in the park. The best was watching them swim and cross the river all in a row. The highlight of the day happened at sunset when a lone giraffe came by for a drink. He spread his legs and awkwardly bent down that long neck to lap up the water. It was quite the silhouette and a picture perfect way to end the day.
We camped that night in a beautiful site just outside the park beside a waterhole. We drank red wine as we watched a family of elephants congregate at the waterhole. They had the most adorable baby with them who kept slipping down the embankment into the water.
The next morning, we got up early and headed straight for the Zimbabwe border. We checked out Mosi-o-Tunya once again, but this time from Zimbabwe. That night, we were spoiled at a restaurant that had yet another waterhole on it's premise, home to Sebastian the hippo. We were the only guests there and the South African chef let us bring our own delicious $5.00 bottle of wine as he whipped up his own amazing creations. Including cured impala, which tasted almost like proscuttio. We had steak wrapped in phylo that we dipped in a spicy coco sauce. Sounds weird, but it was an incredible meal. The chef was the owner of the place as well as our host and server for the evening (his staff was on their day off). The hospitality and three course meal made our night complete for a whopping $20usd.
Anyways, you are now up to speed on our travels for the most part. We are back in Zambia awaiting our flight to Cape Town tomorrow afternoon. It is hard to believe we will be home in a week.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
I told my husband to go jump off a bridge....
And he actually listened! Yes, on the 1 month anniversary of our wedding, Pete took yet another plunge. He threw himself 111 meters off of a 100 year old bridge that connects Zambia and Zimbabwe. Who knew I was such a nag?
Pete survived, and we are still happily married :) Besides stubbing his toe on the bridge to the point that it bled, swelled and turned black and blue... he is happy to have completed his first bungey jump with his eyes still in their sockets. Apparently it was such a head rush, he thought they would pop out of his head. There are still some popped blood vessels on his eyelids, but it is a small price to pay for such a feat!
Smoke That Thunders
As most of you have seen in the blog, we've experienced some interesting bus rides. After we left South Luangwa National Park, our next stop was Victoria Falls. Instead of 2 full days of busing with an overnight stop in Lusaka, we decided to bite the bullet and fly. As much as I hate to fly in countries outside Europe, the US and Canada, it seemed to be a much better option than another rickety bus.
We arrived in Livingstone on Sunday evening and Monday we went to see the infamous Victoria Falls. It was an incredible feeling to be standing across from the roaring waters as it literally drenched us with rain and mist. We stood next to strangers... and as I looked around, everyone had huge grins on their faces. It is a pity though that the falls are in fact named "Victoria Falls"... the orginal name is Mosi-o-Tunya, meaning, The Smoke that Thunders. A perfect discription for what we saw. You can actually see the mist rising from the earth about 2 kilometers before you even get to the waterfall itself. We spent hours gazing at the falls and finished the day off with traditional Zambian food for dinner.
We arrived in Livingstone on Sunday evening and Monday we went to see the infamous Victoria Falls. It was an incredible feeling to be standing across from the roaring waters as it literally drenched us with rain and mist. We stood next to strangers... and as I looked around, everyone had huge grins on their faces. It is a pity though that the falls are in fact named "Victoria Falls"... the orginal name is Mosi-o-Tunya, meaning, The Smoke that Thunders. A perfect discription for what we saw. You can actually see the mist rising from the earth about 2 kilometers before you even get to the waterfall itself. We spent hours gazing at the falls and finished the day off with traditional Zambian food for dinner.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
South Luangwa National Park, Eastern Zambia
This place is magic. From the moment we first arrived we could tell our 5 day safari would be something special. Here is a recount of the days we spent in the company of wild animals.
Day 1: Arrive at "Wildlife Camp" in a beautiful setting just above the Luangwa River. We had a great group... Pete and I, Frank from Germany and a couple from Brittany, France. After lunch we left for our first of many game drives. Right off the bat we spotted a pride of 3 female lions relaxing in the tall grass. From there we drove, umm, maybe 5 minutes... and to our surprise the guide stopped the car, pulled out a table and began pouring wine as the sun set over the park. We talked and mingled... outside of the vehicle. As it got dark, the other guide pulled out a giant spotlight. For nearly 2 hours (6pm when it gets dark until 8pm when we have to leave the park) we were surrounded by cats! We watched a leopard nearly take down impala (that is until a car came roaring by us with its lights on and scared the action off.) I had goosbumps as we drove through the middle of a pride of 17 lions surrounding our car. Something about a lion at night, is scarier than a lion in the daylight.
We arrived back at camp for a delicious 9:00 dinner. The action didn't stop there though. At about 3am... I looked out our tent window to see an elephant sneaking around in camp. And then we all heard it. Hooves trampling by in a full on sprint. Yes, I looked out the tent window just in time to see two hippos plowing by. Being woken up at 3am is not a pleasant feeling with a shot of adrenaline and a full bladder. From there on out, the hippos played a never ending game of marco polo in their big bellowing voices.
Day 2: 6am wakeup call for a morning game drive. We saw all kinds of lovely creatures, but no cats. However, we returned to camp a few hours later and found out that the hippos we heard were actually running from lions the night before. With that news, we set off for our walking safari a few hours later. The walking safari mostly consisted of looking at dung... giraffe dung, elephant dung, impala dung, anteater dung (a very rare dung to find--apparently) to name a few. Right up Pete's alley. We also walked amongst a family of giraffe... they just stood stiff and silent, staring at us and at that point, I wasn't sure who were the tourists. Us or them. We walked about 3 km to a different campsite, also overlooking the river just in time for another beautiful sunset washed down with a cold beer.
Day 3: Another 6am wakeup call and oatmeal for breakfast as we set off to walk back to our original camp. When I say camp, I must tell you that we had huge tents with beds in them and great showers/toilets and a pool. This was a welcome change from the mattresses on the ground at the Serengeti. That afternoon we went to the Chipembele Wildlife Education Centre and animal rehabiliation for orphan animals. Here is the website. www.chipembele.org I could go on about the awesomeness of this place, but I won't... this post is already too long. That night we woke up to the pleasure of elephants munching on the trees overhanging our tent.
Day 4: We spent all day in the South Luangwa National Park. We mostly saw an incredible amount of giraffe, buffalo, elephant, hippo, kudu, impala, various birds and pukus. We also saw the first wildebeest of the season our guide has seen in the park this year. The grand finale finished off with more lions at night, lurking past our car, stalking impala while a lone hopeful hyena looked on.
Day 5: On our final morning, we set off for a watering hole inhabited by tons of birds. Luckily they stayed in the distance and we ate a huge breakfast in peace. From there we set off for the airport for Victoria Falls......
Day 1: Arrive at "Wildlife Camp" in a beautiful setting just above the Luangwa River. We had a great group... Pete and I, Frank from Germany and a couple from Brittany, France. After lunch we left for our first of many game drives. Right off the bat we spotted a pride of 3 female lions relaxing in the tall grass. From there we drove, umm, maybe 5 minutes... and to our surprise the guide stopped the car, pulled out a table and began pouring wine as the sun set over the park. We talked and mingled... outside of the vehicle. As it got dark, the other guide pulled out a giant spotlight. For nearly 2 hours (6pm when it gets dark until 8pm when we have to leave the park) we were surrounded by cats! We watched a leopard nearly take down impala (that is until a car came roaring by us with its lights on and scared the action off.) I had goosbumps as we drove through the middle of a pride of 17 lions surrounding our car. Something about a lion at night, is scarier than a lion in the daylight.
We arrived back at camp for a delicious 9:00 dinner. The action didn't stop there though. At about 3am... I looked out our tent window to see an elephant sneaking around in camp. And then we all heard it. Hooves trampling by in a full on sprint. Yes, I looked out the tent window just in time to see two hippos plowing by. Being woken up at 3am is not a pleasant feeling with a shot of adrenaline and a full bladder. From there on out, the hippos played a never ending game of marco polo in their big bellowing voices.
Day 2: 6am wakeup call for a morning game drive. We saw all kinds of lovely creatures, but no cats. However, we returned to camp a few hours later and found out that the hippos we heard were actually running from lions the night before. With that news, we set off for our walking safari a few hours later. The walking safari mostly consisted of looking at dung... giraffe dung, elephant dung, impala dung, anteater dung (a very rare dung to find--apparently) to name a few. Right up Pete's alley. We also walked amongst a family of giraffe... they just stood stiff and silent, staring at us and at that point, I wasn't sure who were the tourists. Us or them. We walked about 3 km to a different campsite, also overlooking the river just in time for another beautiful sunset washed down with a cold beer.
Day 3: Another 6am wakeup call and oatmeal for breakfast as we set off to walk back to our original camp. When I say camp, I must tell you that we had huge tents with beds in them and great showers/toilets and a pool. This was a welcome change from the mattresses on the ground at the Serengeti. That afternoon we went to the Chipembele Wildlife Education Centre and animal rehabiliation for orphan animals. Here is the website. www.chipembele.org I could go on about the awesomeness of this place, but I won't... this post is already too long. That night we woke up to the pleasure of elephants munching on the trees overhanging our tent.
Day 4: We spent all day in the South Luangwa National Park. We mostly saw an incredible amount of giraffe, buffalo, elephant, hippo, kudu, impala, various birds and pukus. We also saw the first wildebeest of the season our guide has seen in the park this year. The grand finale finished off with more lions at night, lurking past our car, stalking impala while a lone hopeful hyena looked on.
Day 5: On our final morning, we set off for a watering hole inhabited by tons of birds. Luckily they stayed in the distance and we ate a huge breakfast in peace. From there we set off for the airport for Victoria Falls......
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)