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.