Our Typical Day

Some of you might be curious as to what our days have been consisting of lately. It's pretty simple actually.

5:30am - Wake up call
5:45am - Pick up. That's right. We have 15 minutes to get up, dressed and ready to go. I suppose we could set an alarm to wake up earlier but that would be silly at 5 in the morning.
5:50-6:00am - Coffee, tea, and some biscuits/biscotti. We've learned it won't tide us over for the next 3 hours.

Sunrises in Africa are amazing

6:00-7:30am - Morning safari game drive part 1. Sometimes it's been action packed. Sometimes we don't see much. But either way it's spectacular. Fresh air. Amazing sunrises. Nothing but the sound of a diesel jeep rumbling along.

Our trusty Safari Land Rover

7:30-7:45am - Coffee break. These are more to rest our sore buttocks that have been slammed up and down on the jeep seats for the past hour and a half. Incredibly, the seats are really comfortable despite the terrain.
7:45- 9:00am - Morning safari game drive part 2. Same as Part 1.
9:00-10:00am - Breakfast. A nice spread of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, bread, cheese, fruit, cereal, yogurt, and juice. It's awesome after a few hours on a jeep.
10:00- 2:00pm - Free time. Some lounge by the pool. Some go to the main lodge and the spa. Some go on bush hikes or animal interactions. Completely open.
2:00-3:00pm - High Tea. Snacks/wraps/mini sandwiches with some cake to tide us over for...
3:00-4:30pm - Afternoon Safari Game Drive part 1.

Themba pointing out some hyena tracks

4:30-4:45pm - Wine break. Same as coffee break but with wine, beer, and sodas.

4:45-7:00pm - Afternoon safari game drive part 2.

Sunsets in Africa are even better

By now it's already dark so the tracker uses a HUGE spotlight to try to find animals. I don't know how he does it or what he looks for, but he's amazing. We got to see a baby rhino with his mommy and daddy this way.
7:00-8:00pm - Cocktails and dinner. Similar to breakfast but with some traditional foods (Springbok pie!!!)
8:00-9:00pm - Additional Cocktails by the firepit or turn in for the night. By then, it's PITCH BLACK out. We are not allowed to wander around camp on our own and must wait for a porter to escort us to our tent.

Repeat at 5:30am the next day.

The most amazing crew ever! Themba (Tracker) and Willard (Guide)

Ain't no mountain high enough

There literally are no words to express what it's like to be bushwacking for an hour not finding a thing then turning a corner and seeing a pride of lions laying out in the sun in front of you. Or locking up the brakes because an elephant is standing in the road a few yards ahead of you. Some of the highlights.

1) Big Kitty Cats

He roared at us to let us know who was boss. Hearing a grown male lion roar... O.M.F.G. Terrifying and exhilarating.

This guy was chilling out with his brother. Lean and muscular. Beautiful animal.

The cub in the middle really got curious about our truck. He stared back at us for a while. So incredibly cute.

Might be the best picture I've taken so far. Male approximately 3 years old. Gorgeous.

2) I will name him "Stampy"

This big fella walked right in front of our truck. We all sat VERY quietly. If he felt like swinging his head, we all probably would have been killed in a heap of twisted safari truck. MASSIVE and beautiful animal.

3) If my bowel wasn't frozen, I would have shat myself

I will never forget the first time I saw it. I literally forgot I needed to surface to breath. That's how hypnotic they are.

6 of 1, A Half Dozen of Another...

There is one major problem when you travel. Americans. We are ignorant, obnoxious, whiny, think we know everything about everything, and most of all, we’re Americans. It goes without a doubt that you will encounter Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum at some point when overseas. They might be together. They might be separate. There might be a Tweedle-Daa thrown in for good measure (and to test your patience).

Ok, I know what you are about to say. This sounds familiar. I think I read about it 4 or 5 posts ago. That may be true, but like the saying goes, if one person says it, it might be a rumor. If more than one person says it, it might be a fact. If this isn't a saying, it should be.

We’ve met some INCREDIBLE people here. The locals are amazing. The fellow travelers (not tourists) are a joy. However, since we bought an American arranged Groupon, we’ve been followed or have been following Americans since day one. 

I love America. 

Americans… not so much.

A sample of American head-shaking awesomeness.

American:

“These houses are so pretty and SO white! Are they made of shells? How do they get that way?

 Guide:

“Paint”.

Me:

It gets dark so quickly here.”

American:

“I don’t like it. It hinders vision.”

Me: (after a good 10 seconds of staring at her with a quizzical look)

“Yes. Yes it does.”

So when it came down to picking animal interactions. We had our two options. Elephant interaction or cheetah interaction. After asking around we discovered the Americans at our camp were signed up for both. 2 with one, the other 2 with the other. Dammit. Erika and I huddled up to plan our strategy. “Would you rather go to the elephants with ABC? Or Cheetahs with XYZ?” My answer. “That’s 6 of 1, a half dozen of the other.” It’s like choosing which leg you want broken by the mob enforcer that has come to collect your debt. We finally sucked it up and went with the elephant interaction since it was higher on our list. American ABC that was joining us was the same one that the previous day squealed so loud at the cheetah interaction that she scared them all away and basically ruined the excursion for everyone else.

I know I’m sounding like an asshole and I'm on vacation which means I should let these things slide and enjoy myself. Here is the thing. I can still be on vacation, make fun of those more annoying than I, and still have a wonderful time. The next argument will probably be that I should be supportive of my fellow Americans. True. And I will. However, when those fellow Americans were raised in Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, I don’t tend to play nice.

Hooked on Thanda

After 4 glorious days in Cape Town, it was time to pack up and continue our adventure. We had an early pick up (right on time AGAIN! LOVE THOMPSONS!) and boarded a quick 2 hour flight to Durban. From there we were met once again at the airport by a lovely woman named Bongi who would drive us the 3 hours to our private game reserve.

As we drove along looking out of the window, it was a stark reminder that we were indeed in a 3rd world country. I kept hearing that phrase used in Cape Town and had a hard time really grasping it. We were in a metropolitan city. With electricity, water, internet, cell phone service, etc etc but yet they still referred to it as a 3rd world country. Once we left Cape Town, it was obvious why. Whole families trying to sell pineapples along the freeway. Kids playing soccer on the grassy median on the middle of the expressway. Dangerous? Hell yes. But that's the only grass that could be seen. A herd of cows being led up an offramp, cars and trucks swerving to avoid them. All amazing and beautiful sights, but humbling.

We finally arrived at our game reserve which consisted of driving a few miles down a very rough, unpaved road and we were dropped off at the front gate. Bongi told us that she would be leaving us there with the guard because she was not permitted to drive any further into the park due to the animals. The game reserve is called Thanda which is Zulu for "Love". It's 15,000 hectacres which is the equivalent of about 58 square miles. For reference, the entire city of San Francisco is 46 square miles.

We grabbed our things and waited for a ride to come pick us up. No more than 10 minutes later, I heard the distinctive sound of a diesel truck approaching. Sure enough, an open land rover soon appeared and we scanned the occupants for any familiar faces. "Anyone we know? Anyone we know?" Sure enough, 2 of our dreaded Americans were in the truck. The driver jumped out, introduced himself as Willard, our guide, and immediately told us to grab only what we needed and in laymans terms "GET YOUR ASS IN THE TRUCK!" We did as we were told and within a minute were on our way. It turns out there were no trucks available to pick us up so he volunteered to pick us up from the front gate. That also meant we were immediately thrown into our first safari and we were on the hunt for the most elusive of the Big 5. We went from lounging in the African sun to tracking a leopard. Erika and I looked at each other, smiled in shock and awe, and soon forgot about the majestic Great White Sharks we saw just a day earlier. Here we were, rumbling along in the African bush, in pursuit of one of the most proficient killers in Africa.

There is a leopard out there somewhere

We heard just the night before that the difference between national game parks and private game parks is in national game parks, the trucks must stay to the roads. Private, not so much. We blasted and hacked our way through some serious bush. All the while ducking from having our eyes poked out by some ridiculously nasty branches. It was incredible fun. I loved every second of it. We didn't find that sneaky leopard but we came across zebras, giraffes, an elephant, wildabeasts, impalas... It was amazing. After a wine break, we headed back to the tented camp to see our accomodations for the first time. It was pitch black by the time we returned so it was hard to really see how beautiful it really was. We'd have to wait for the following morning for that. But once we saw our tent, it was apparent we weren't staying at a Motel 6.

Our "tent"

The full bathroom including outdoor shower through that door

The mini-bar

The view from the deck

With the french doors opened all the way

This trip has been a mixture of amazing and awesome and just keeps on getting better. We have 2 more days here and for a first taste of Africa, I couldn't be happier yet can't wait to return. I want more.

My Day of Days

It started off with a 4:30am wake up in anticipation of a 5:15 pick up for our Shark Breaching trip off False Bay. We booked a trip with Apex Predators. The same company Discovery Channel uses for Shark Week and Air Jaws. Chris Fallows is the host of those shows and I was hoping he’d be our tour guide for this day. We were picked up by a lovely lady by the name of Sharon who proceeded to drive us to Simon’s Town. All along giving us a nice history lesson. Once we arrived about 45 minutes later, we headed down to the harbor to meet our crew and find our boat. We found them quickly and boarded the boat ready to see us some breaching Great White Sharks. It took about 20 minutes to get out to Seal Island. The small uninhabited island off the coast of Simon’s Town in False Bay which is home to approximately 40,000 African Cape Fur Seals.

It’s also a major feeding ground for Great White Sharks who patrol the surrounding water waiting for seal pups to fall behind their parents and thus be that day’s lunch. We saw dolphins swimming in our wake, plenty of barking Fur Seals but no Great Whites. We hung around waiting to watch natural breaching. No luck. We towed a seal decoy in 3 different spots. No luck. Finally, the decision was made to drop the shark diving cage into the water and to try to get some sharks to play. I volunteered to go in with the first group. It was actually just myself and a friend of Chris and Monique. Super nice guy named Ben. We got into our wetsuits and waited for a shark. We were warned the water was colder than the previous day in Gansbaai. How right they were. After about 30 minutes, Jeremy, one of the crew members, spotted a shark. Chris and Monique immediately told us to get into the cage. They opened the top and Monique told me to “GET IN! GET IN! GET IN!” I had no time to assess the situation and plunged into the green-gray water. HOLY FRICKING CRAP! I’ve never had a shock like that in my life. But whatever! Let’s see some sharks! I took a deep breath and went under.

Nothing.

I scanned left. I scanned right. Up. Down. Nothing. Visibility was good. Even great. I could see a good 20-30 feet. I popped back up and turned to Ben. “You see anything?”

“No.”

We went back under and looked around again. Nothing. We did this for a good 20 or so minutes. Up. Down. The cold was starting to take effect. My head was starting to hurt. My motor functions were starting to slow. I could no longer open and close my hands. I was just about to waive the white flag and ask to get out when I decided to go under one more time. I took as deep as a breath as I could and went down. I looked straight ahead. Nothing. Then I looked left and deep in the water, I could make out a dark shadow. I tapped Ben on the thigh since he was above water talking to Monique negotiating our exit. 

Out of the murky depths came the most majestic creature I had ever seen. He was swimming coolly. It looked like he was barely exerting any effort at all. He swooped in and made a pass. Then went deep and came around from our left. He stayed with us for a good 10-15 minutes. Circling the cage so close, I could have reached out and touched him. So close I could see his pearly whites and the classic overbite you see on Great White Sharks. I didn’t feel the cold anymore. Adrenaline was pouring through my veins as I kept diving, almost forgetting I had to rise to the surface to breath. All I wanted to do is stay under and see more. After another 15 minutes (which meant we had been in the water for close to 40 minutes), we got out. The cold finally kicked back in as I struggled to grasp onto the rails. They had to pull me onboard like a dead whale. I quickly stripped off my wetsuit to get into some dry clothes. As I was zipping up my jacket, I looked out and saw him breach. It was a natural breach. He wasn't hunting, he was just showing off. I amazingly caught the whole thing. It was extraordinary. 

This is not my photo, but this is exactly how he looked. His head to the left in a "J" shape with his tail in the air. He completely clearly the surface of the water. Sadly, only a few people on the boat saw it. Fortunately, I was one of them.

Me, Ben, Chris Fallows, Monique Fallows, Erika

We're Gonna need a bigger boat...

There are simply no words to describe this.

Uhhh...

Female body part... Or movie theater??

The best part of traveling...hands down

After a grueling final 6 hours of traveling, we finally made it to Cape Town! The flight had some major turbulence. So much that I vaguely remember sitting up mid-sleep with my eye mask on and blurting out to Erika something along the lines of "IT'S LIKE BEING ROCKED TO SLEEP BY A CEMENT MIXER!!!" before crashing back down and falling back to sleep. But we made it safe and sound. We were near the first off the plane so cleared immigration and customs quickly. Didn't even have to fill out any paperwork! Our bags were near the front (things are going our way so far and will soon get better!) so we grabbed them and walked out to the main terminal.

Unlike Turkey, where our pick up ride never arrived, we had a sharp dressed gentleman holding up a big sign with our names on it. We walked over, exchanged pleasantries, and he proceeded to confirm our entire itinerary down to the minute of our pickups! Pretty impressed with Thompson's Africa so far! After confirming it all, he passed us off to another very nice gentleman who would be our driver to the hotel. He proceeded to give us a mini city history lesson. Then we got to the hotel, checked in (our room was ready early. Whoop whoop!), collected all of our various travel vouchers that were included in the Groupon package, and came up to shower and get some rest.

Did I mention Cape Town is a magnificent city? It really is beautiful. Amazing landscape, amazing climate (the weather is beautiful today). Amazing diverse cultures. Amazing (though controversial) history. I love it already and I've been here less than 12 hours. I will return. Guaranteed. 

Prior to arriving, our friend Lisako (major shout out!) had introduced me to one of her friends who lives in Cape Town. We had been exchanging Facebook messages for the last week or so and it just happened to work out that we could all meet up for drinks today. We had an absolute blast! Drinks and Asian tapas for 4 hours with tons of laughing and stories thrown in for good measure. It was a great end to our first day in Cape Town with plenty more great days ahead.

Making new friends. The most underestimated best part about traveling.

Here's legit for you...

This is the view from our hotel room. Our hotel is in the shadow of Table Mountain.

So Totally legit

What falls under the category of "Legit"
Let's discuss.

Legit is:

Pre-Boarding
- The Emrites lounge at SFO
- The champagne (truly French) and Middle Eastern meets English buffet in said lounge
- Minted Pea soup; I'm seriously in love

On-Route
- Leather cushy seats with body massaging capabilities (don't underestimate the power of a butt massage)
- Seats with foot room the length of my car
- Chairs with Transformer-like powers: Would I like to lie completely down? Why yes I would, sir!
- Majestic mattresses that accompany these gifts from God

- One of the best (and longest) nights sleep I've gotten in ages
- Awaking to realize that we have 30 minutes before landing in a 16 hour flight and being awake for approximately 4 of them. We. Freakin. Win. Halverson/Chan: 1 Long Ass Travel: 0. BOO YAH

Layovers
- Having ~7 hours to kill and finding that they fly by bc the Dubai airport is full of awesomeness
- The Emrites lounge at DXB
- Getting a 25 minute leg and foot massage (1st time for the Chan man!)
- Playstation game rooms for kids (coughadultscough) to pass the time with
- Free food and drink (did you say crazy automatic coffee drink maker? check)
- The handheld sprayer in the ladies loo (no pictures, this is a Rated G blog, people!!)

Overall
- Realizing that a trip you've been anticipating for 6-7 months (and parts of it since you were 16 yrs old) is about to begin and you've immensely enjoyed the travel, rather than just tolerated it as a means to an end
- Stoked bc my travel partner is freakin awesome
- Actually looking forward to the 9 hr flight to Cape Town

I completely realize that I'm using an old (possibly 90's?) term  to illustrate my enthusiasm.
Be thankful, I could have used "fly", "fresh", "rad" (hmmm, will probably actually use that one at some point), "clutch" or "hella cool".

Here's to using old slang to describe new adventures....

Halfway there!

We are now hanging out in the Emirates Business Class lounge at the Dubai airport killing time before our next 9 hour leg to Cape Town. We have another 6 hours to kill before our flight boards and 6 hours 40 minutes until it departs. Considering our last flight took off 45 minutes late because apparently they thought they lost some people's luggage only to find out it was on the plane the whole time, it might be longer.

I have to say though, the 16 flight to get here was amazingly easy. By FAR the easiest long flight I've ever taken. Clearly, flying in an upgraded cabin helps but I sat down, watched a movie, was served dinner, read on my Kindle for a bit, watched another movie, then lay down around 11:30pm and got a pretty decent 6 hours of sleep. I awoke, checked the monitor which told me we had another 2 hours to go so watched Top Gear the rest of the way. Erika lay down I think about an hour before me and was out cold until I tapped her knee 30 minutes before landing.

The plan is to stay awake during this layover, then sleep during the flight to Cape Town. We arrive in Cape Town at 11:40am tomorrow so are crossing our fingers that we arrive ready to start sight-seeing! 

"All my bags are packed...I'm ready to go"...

It's 4am, this really blows.
There's not much left to do but wait and stress...
I'm leaving! On a jet plane! Don't know when I'll be back again...

Ok. This is obviously false. I know when I'll be back again. September 4th. I also know I have 36 hours of total travel time fast approaching (hence being up at 4:16am finalizing last minute details knowing I will have PLENTY of time to sleep soon). 

It seems like absolutely forever since Erika and I decided (on pretty much a whim and a Groupon) to go to South Africa. Considering I got the Groupon email back in February, in travel-speak, 6 months IS forever.

Yet, here we are, 8 hours to go before our pick up. I finished packing Monday which is a change for me. I usually wait until the last minute so I don't know what happened. I have to say, it's pretty nice. I should try this more often. I'm still amazed how much crap I manage to pack for a relatively short trip. Though this time around, my camera gear takes up about 1/3 of my suitcase and that's not even including my lenses and camera body which I'm carrying on with me. You can't go to Africa and not bring a good camera (and a spare...and a point and shoot....and a waterproof video camera for videotaping Great White Sharks while in a shark cage...and batteries and filters for them all...). Overkill? Absolutely. But I'm not flying 8000 miles to miss a MyPublisher book-worthy shot!

Traveling is strange for me. I love it, but I don't get overly excited until I actually touch down at the target destination. Probably because I know what's in store for me between home and there. Lines, waiting, airports, more lines, more airports, smelly feet, recycled airplane air, crying babies, the smell of chemical airplane bathrooms, traffic, blah. However, this time should be different. We are flying BUSINESS CLASS! International Business Class no less! Now I'm looking forward to the flight(s) almost as much as the trip itself! HA! Come on now, you know you'd jump at unlimited free food and drink, a lay-flat chair with mattress that massages your bottom, and 1200 tv channels and movies on a 17" HD tv. Not to mention complimentary chauffeur service to and from the airport courtesy of the airline. And a complimentary hotel room in Dubai for our 8 hour layover courtesy of the airline so we can rest and "freshen up". As Anthony Bourdain likes to say... "Damn."

Traveling is also incredibly stressful. I'm now finding out why Groupon had such a deal for this trip. WEATHER. South Africa sounds amazing with beautiful wine country and animals of various degrees of grace and terror. It also is located in the Southern Hemisphere. Which means for you geographically challenged people, it's Winter there. Winter means cold and rain. Cold and rain wreak havoc on vacations. I am literally emailing some of our tour operators in another window, sending it off, and writing this post while waiting for responses. (It's 4:43am now). Our itinerary is also taking us through the United Arab Emirates which is in the Middle East. The Middle East is in the Northern Hemisphere which means it's Summer there. 125 fricking degrees Summer there. Well, it's only actually 95 but it feels like 125 with the humidity. I'm not joking. I have the screencap on my iPhone to prove it. Thank goodness they have a ski resort inside the mall.

So I ask of you people who might be in higher standing than I am with the "man above" to please say a few good words wishing us safe passage and return, immunity from common travel calamities (lost luggage, delayed flights, stinky passenger neighbors, "the rheaa"), and most of all, cut us some fricking slack and give us good weather dammit!

Ok. It's 5:00am. Time for bed.