Our last day in South Africa started much earlier than expected – about 1AM as we were woken up by quite a raucous outside. We heard two men screaming very loudly, one of which was holding his head as we think they had just fought. The police quickly showed up and from my eavesdropping from the 5th floor we figured it was a taxi driver / client issue that turned into a fight and the client ran inside our apartment building. The commotion calmed once police got involved and we went back to sleep.

As we had seen plenty of runners and bikers throughout the week, Grant and I decided to do a quick jog along the beachfront when we woke up again. I forgot how great I feel when I start a day out with a run – though in some parts of Africa it’s been hard to get a good run in! We ran into building security on our way back and asked about the prior night. He was not present but in his hand-off he was told the taxi driver tried to charge the client more than he expected and when the client refused to pay they got into a fight. After our run, we grabbed a shower and rested (well Grant did while I worked on trying to finish the Kenya posts) before heading to breakfast. 

We had a few hours to kill before heading to the cricket match so we decided to visit Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. And it happened to be about a 10 minute drive from the cricket arena so it worked out perfectly! 

We grabbed an Uber and were off to navigate the traffic. Like I said previously, the city was prepping for the Formula E race and had started shutting down roads creating a traffic nightmare. Our Uber driver was crazy and would sometimes create his own lane kind of forcing people to move out of his way. We also almost rear ended a van ahead of us that was trying not to hit a dog running in the road. Aside from some fun driving techniques the drive was through a very scenic area that cut around Table Mountain and the neighboring forest. I was thankful to get out of the car by the time we got to the gardens. One thing we noticed in South Africa was how cheap Uber rides were – this drive was about 35-45 minutes and only cost ZAR264.00 ($14.23 USD). The equivalent ride in Los Angeles would probably be closer to $100 USD.

We grabbed a quick snack before taking a stroll through the gardens and enjoying the view of different plants and foliage known to South Africa and their coast. We walked along the tree canopy bridge and up towards the back of the gardens. Grant’s stomach hadn’t been dealing with the malaria pills too well, so we had to make a quick pitstop by the bathroom for him to hurl. While Grant was puking Tim and I had fun watching a couple that showed up with a huge reflector disc to shine light on her face and essentially have an Instagram photoshoot in front of all the flowers. We decided we had seen what we had wanted to and would head to the cricket match. As we were walking down the hill to the exit, Grant pointed out “nice charcuterie board” to an Indian couple having a picnic in the grass and the man promptly said to the woman, “SEE, he thinks it’s good!” We got a good laugh out of the trials and tribulations that all traveling couples have, regardless of where you are from.

We had no clue what we were getting into when we arrived at the tournament’s Semi-Final cricket match between South Africa and England, but from what we had gathered from the locals we asked, it was all about the crowd environment and participation. I quickly caught on to how the game worked along with how they were getting points and began to thoroughly enjoy the experience. South Africa had been up to bat first so it was up to them to play defense and keep England from catching their score. In the beginning of England’s inning, it looked like they had a strong chance of winning, however as the overs (basically a round of 6 pitches) quickly approached the 20 overs mark the game became tighter. The three of us began to act like locals cheering when they got a wicket and yelling when they prevented them from scoring more than 1 run. And we ended up witnessing history! South Africa won the match and ended up heading to the final! In the 12 times a South Africa cricket team has made a semi-final (both men and women), this was the first time they had made it into a final match. 

And to make the match even better, the three of us made it onto the big screen at the game! Our friends, Bhishma and Molly, gave us these floppy hats to take with us on our trip and send pics/videos as we travel the world. As the DJ played “Circle of Life”, we just happened to be sitting near a camera guy and called him over as we threw on our hats. It was just perfect timing though none of us were able to get a video of it happening. We tasked Bhisma into finding the video of us during the game and lo and behold, he pulled through! Enjoy the footage below! No better way to end our time in Cape Town than making it onto ESPN during the World Cup cricket tourney. 

We were kind of sad to end our journey in Cape Town as we realized there was still so much more we could see and do! But it was time to pack up and head to our last country in Africa! 

Another slow start to the morning as our ride to the wine country wasn’t scheduled until 10am. After grabbing a small breakfast, it was off to a nearby hotel to wait for our ride. We hopped on the bus and found ourselves with two couples from Sweden, a family from Scotland, and a woman from Panama. It was about a 45-minute drive to the wine country and our guide (from Zimbabwe) would occasionally stop the AC so as to not have to shout when giving information regarding what to expect along with very tidbits on Cape Town and the wineries we would visit. The brief stops in AC sometimes made the ride too hot and by the time we were at the first winery I was ready to be out of the van and breathe some fresh air. 

Our first winery was a wine and cheese pairing at Fairview Wine and Cheese. I have only done a couple of wine tastings with Grant in Los Olivos, so I was pleasantly surprised with the cheese pairing. We tried two whites, a rose, and three reds along with six different cheeses (two cow’s milk and four goat’s milk). I haven’t really had too much exposure to various goat’s milk cheese, but honestly enjoyed the goat’s milk cheeses much more than the other two. They had a softer consistency and richer flavor! We ended up grabbing a bottle of the first white wine we tasted to bring with us to Namibia to enjoy on our camping trip in the desert. 

We grabbed a quick lunch at another winery near Franschhoek where we got to talk more with Olga from Panama and the family from Scotland. Their son had recently moved down to Cape Town where he had met his girlfriend and decided to stay past his 3 month visa. He told us he has to leave the country/Africa for a week or two at a time in order to renew his visa. When we noted we were headed to Dubai soon he said that’s often where he goes to reset his South African visa because it’s such a cool city. His father was very interested in talking to Grant and Tim about Spacex, which gave me the time to enjoy being my introverted self and sit back and enjoy the conversation. 

Before we knew it, it was off to the second winery, La Bri Estate. This was a chocolate and wine pairing tasting and honestly turned out to be everyone’s least favorite tasting of the day. We tried three glasses of red wine (a Merlot, Syrah, and a blend) which I was not the biggest fan of as I prefer white wine. Though I will say, the chocolate helped to get the red wine down a little easier although everyone agreed the pairings were a little off. The Scottish father held true to the stereotype of football fan drinking in that he was putting down his whole family’s glasses of wine that they didn’t want and boisterously telling stories which we could understand maybe 50% of his English – he was a riot! We could tell one of the older Swedish men was also enjoying finishing his and his wife’s wine to the last drop.

Our last visit of the day was to the second oldest winery in South Africa, Boschendal. They specialize in making Methode Cap Classique (MCC), which is basically champagne although they can’t call it that because it is not made in France. We tried four different types of MCC and although I couldn’t really tell you much of a difference between them, they were all very good. Everyone was feeling great by the end of the tasting and we enjoyed conversing with everyone in our group. It turned out to be one of the Swedish guys 80th birthday and we sang Happy Birthday to him. He was a young 80 and we noted to ourselves that we hoped we’d be doing the same as him at that age! We grabbed a bottle of the desert champagne we tried before heading back to the van to round out our two bottle case we purchased for about $2 USD at the first winery. We were all set to enjoy our own sundowners in Namibia! 

It was sadly time to end our day and head back into town. We got some good laughs in during the drive back, particularly from one of the Swedish men. He would yell loudly at the guide to repeat random facts – “how many students???” was one of our favorites when passing a university! Also near the end of our drive when heading to their hotel, the couple decided they wanted to get out on a random street corner so they yelled at the driver to stop. They kept yelling at him several times until he actually would stop to let them out (though it had taken a while to find a safe spot to pull over away from traffic). We got off at the next stop as I had suggested we grab dinner at Uno Mas since we would be close to there. And it turned out to be a great suggestion! As we already knew their drinks were delicious, the food was even better! We yet again did not have a reservation but they set seats up for us on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant with the stipulation that we would need to hide our alcoholic beverages or keep them on the window sill so as to not get in trouble (we felt no one actually cared but we followed the rules to be respectful / safe). The three of us enjoyed people watching, especially a suave South African playboy named Gary that sat inches from us (tight quarters) and told us about his travels to Namibia and Kenya each to visit a different woman. He told us these stories in front of another woman he came to the restaurant with, and then got up to very closely greet a woman that happened to walk by with her boyfriend. He played us too in that he said he had great contacts in Namibia he would hook us up with if we left our contact info, but he never did end up messaging Grant. Made for a good story at least. We ended the night with some churros and chocolate sauce before calling it a night. 

Hiking day! Or so we thought it would be between Table Mountain and Lion’s Head. We had a later start to the morning and again grabbed breakfast at our new favorite coffee shop before heading to the grocery store to grab a couple of snacks/water for the day. It was a fairly quick drive from our place to the parking lot of Table Mountain. Here in South Africa, they have guys that walk along the parking lot (or side of road) and help you park for a small tip to help watch your car from any break-ins. We think they are not hired by the city and rather show up, put a vest on, and ask for “donations” but it seems to help out everyone involved for them to earn some money and tourists to have someone watching over their cars. As we arrived closer to noontime, the sun was already heating up the trail and we decided against the hike. (I also took a look at how steep parts of it were and knew I may have a panic attack climbing it… read our Patagonia adventure for detail there). So the decision was made to take the tram up to the top. When we reached the parking lot and ticket area, we realized there were two different lines. One line was just to get to the ticket area to purchase while the other was the tram to head up to Table Mountain. Tim headed to the back of the tram line to hold our place while Grant and I figured out the best strategy. We found a ticket booth for paying for the “Fast Track” pass and decided it was worth the money as we didn’t know how long the wait in the tram line could take, but it seemed one to two hours would not be crazy. We purchased the tickets and within 30 minutes were on the tram up to Table Mountain. 

The view of Cape Town from the top was spectacular and no pictures can really do it justice. We could see Lion’s Head, Cape of Good Hope/Cape Point, and several different areas of Cape Town. We took several different side trails and explored more parts of Table Mountain than we thought we could. We were shocked at how much hiking there actually was up there and honestly thought it was just going to be a short hike across a couple boardwalks before heading down. Needless to say, we spent more time up there than we thought and decided against hiking Lion’s Head in the heat of the day. We grabbed a cold beverage and enjoyed a small snack along with being visited by several birds before heading back down the tram to the parking lot. 

We decided to grab a quick bite at the local burger joint near the apartment where we ended up watching one of the T20 World Cup cricket matches. None of us had ever seen cricket before and could not really grasp through the TV how the game was played. With all that being said, we decided since we were in town, what better way to end our trip with a World Cup semi-final cricket match especially since the hosting country was going to be playing. We grabbed our tickets back at the apartment (they were only $7/each!) and prepared for our next day in the wine country of South Africa. 

Day 2 started off with a quick coffee and breakfast at the coffee shop right below our apartment. This would become our go to breakfast stop the rest of the trip and became a running joke between Tim and the waiter. Grant decided to be adventurous and try a Red Cappuccino which turned out to be a type of tea with foamed milk. Grant didn’t really hear the waiter when he described the drink so wasn’t sure exactly what he was trying. He said it wasn’t bad, but when you’re expecting a coffee-like drink and get tea, it’s not exactly the way you want to start your morning. Though his bagel sandwich was delicious and ended up making up for it. 

We decided since Tim was coming off a long journey and was time adjusting, we would take the easy route for the day and enjoy the road trip up the coast to Cape of Good Hope. The journey up the coast was beautiful with rising mountains to the right of us and a large bay to the left. Just less than an hour up the road from our Airbnb was Boulder’s Beach with one of the largest colonies of African penguins. So of course we had to make a stop! We walked down to the beach to find a small colony of penguins atop a rock that had been marked off to ensure tourists did not disturb them. After all I had been reading, I was a little disappointed at first that this small group was all we had seen so I knew there had to be a different spot farther north along the beach. We saw several people up on a walkway ahead and knew we had to be close to the colony. But as we realized during our past few weeks in Africa, they know how to capitalize on tourism. After paying our entry fee, we stepped out on the walkway and enjoyed walking along the path seeing the penguins laying down, walking, hiding in their burrows, or cleaning each others wings. One difference from our time seeing penguins in Ushuaia was getting to see newborn chicks with their mothers! It was so cute to see and they couldn’t have been more than a few weeks old! Just as was the case in Argentina, I probably took about 100 penguin photos in our time watching them!

After spending time with the penguins, we walked along the trail outside the reserve and saw more penguins along with some creatures called dassies (we think pronounced “dussies” – see pictures below). We grabbed a quick bite of ice cream before it was back on the road towards Cape of Good Hope.

When we got to the entrance of the park, we again didn’t realize we would have to pay another entry fee to enjoy the view of Cape Point. But it was worth it once we finally got there. We had a short hike to the top of the first lighthouse and had a beautiful view of the ocean along with the Cape of Good Hope. We realized after reading a couple of signs along the trail that the Cape of Good Hope is the most southwestern point of Africa (not the most southern point as Tim had thought). We weren’t too concerned as we had already been as far south as you can go besides Antarctica when we were in Ushuaia. Though we kept joking about the signs that noted we were in the most southwestern part of the African continent.  

We took a few pictures at the top before heading down another trail to take a look at the first lighthouse that had been erected at the cape. There was a section of water just east of the lighthouse that caused several shipwrecks and in the misty/rainy weather, ships had a hard time viewing the lighthouse so they had to move it a couple hundred meters higher. The same sign also taught us that the air at Cape Point is consider the “cleanest in Africa” is it originates from the southern ocean and disperses smog – known as “The Cape Doctor” locally. Our drive back to Cape Town, we took the scenic route back through the toll road and the famous Chapman’s Peak. It was a stunning drive again with the bright blue waters of the ocean to the left and ever changing landscape to the right. We passed through a couple of beach towns that had houses you might see in Malibu and before we knew it we were back at Sea Point. 

We headed off to V&A Waterfront to grab dinner (and of course had to find a place with a not so long wait as we didn’t have a reservation anywhere). We took the long route along the beach which added about 10-15 minutes to the walk, but got to see part of the course/finish line area for the Formula E race they had coming up on Saturday. (It was the first time the country was hosting this race and traffic near the end of the week was a nightmare). We grabbed a nice dinner as we figured out our activities we wanted to do for the next few days in Cape Town. We walked home and had a funny fiasco at a Gelato store when Tim tried to order a waffle cone and Grant said “+1” and they made two waffles to put ice cream on top instead of putting scoops on waffle cones. I was first to realize they might be making waffles but when we spoke up they’d already made one waffle and so the employees put their scoops on waffle cones and then gave us a waffle since they felt bad the waffle cones were cheaper than orders of waffles. It goes without saying all desserts given to us were finished!

Random Tidbits

• Traffic lights are called robots
• They have zigzag lines in the road to inform drivers of upcoming pedestrian crosswalks
• Load shedding (most recent year it got up to almost 12 hrs of power outages/day) 

Heading into South Africa we had heard plenty of horror stories from people we’ve met on our journey (especially South America), friends, and coworkers… from people’s Airbnbs getting robbed in the middle of the night, carjackings, muggings, taxi drivers heading in the wrong direction on purpose, etc. The list of stories goes on and on, but we were pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed our time in Cape Town and never felt unsafe during those few days. Just a good reminder to us as we continue to travel the world to always look for the good in people. 

After landing in Cape Town, we grabbed our rental car and figured out real quick how to navigate on the opposite side of the road. It is a different feeling when you’re used to being on the left side of the car driving and the right side of the road. But Grant picked it up quick! He only occasionally would mix up the wipers and the turn signals – they also switch which side of the steering wheel they are each on.

Heading to the Airbnb, we met up with Grant’s friend, Tim, who had quite the journey to get there. After about 26 hours of flying (across 2 planes), he landed around 4 am and headed to our Airbnb to try and drop his bag off. However, they had told him there wasn’t a reservation so he ended up hopping around different coffee shops along the road in the pouring rain along with a 2 hour Thai massage before it was time to check in to the loft. We met up with Tim around 3pm when he could finally get into the apartment and take a much needed nap after such a journey and long day without sleep. The apartment offered a pretty view of Lion’s Head (pictured below) and a portion of the ocean to the left of us. 

We ended up taking that afternoon to rest and unpack for the next few days before heading out to grab some dinner. We quickly learned it was best to make a reservation for dinner in Cape Town (though we never did) so we would just endure the wait times. We decided on a ramen restaurant and had a 30-45 minute wait time so we hopped on into the Mexican restaurant (Uno Mas) next door for a drink. Turned out to be one of the best spicy margaritas I’ve ever had (nothing beats the mango habanero one in Hermosa though). Uno Mas only allowed us to sit at the bar for half an hour and our table wasn’t quite ready yet so we hopped across the street and grabbed another drink at a karaoke bar. The bartender was quite up to date on his world politics and spent the majority of the time ranting about different topics from the Ukraine-Russia conflict, to American politics, to the load shedding problem in South Africa. We didn’t realize this was such a big problem until we realized restaurants around us had lost power, including the one we had been waiting for. It seemed like most restaurants had back-up generators to at least keep the kitchen running with some combination of dimmed lighting and/or candles to keep the tables lit during times of power outage. We learned from numerous locals that the country for 10+ years has not had enough power to serve the entire country at once, especially in peak hours, so they have to create 2-hour periods where portions of the cities/country have blackouts. There’s even an app to track when your region will next be without power. We also learned (and later were told the same in Namibia) that the government of South Africa exports power to neighbors Namibia and Botswana because they “more reliably pay than some of South Africa” – though a lady we met later in the week semi-joked that she paid her power bill last time she checked yet doesn’t always get power. Our karaoke bartender felt strongly that the previous government warned the newest government of the problems and the newer leaders just pocketed any cash rather than trying to fix the problem.

After spending another thirty minutes at this bar and listening to a couple of songs sung by the bar staff (which turned out to be a requirement when working there), it was finally time to grab our meal. May not have been Jinya worthy ramen (our favorite ramen in LA), but still worth the visit nonetheless. It was then back to the apartment with our first night time walk in Cape Town (and like I said we never really felt unsafe). 

Our last full day in Vic Falls started out checking in with our tour agency to see if it was possible to do our activities. He said weather looked good for the helicopter ride so we quickly grabbed breakfast before getting picked up by our driver to head to Flight of Angels helicopter pad. Neither one of us had been in a helicopter previously so I at least wasn’t sure how it would go. 

When it was our turn to go, they weighed us all and gave us a short safety briefing before we put on our headphones to board the helicopter. Lucky me got to sit in the copilot seat (wasn’t too excited about it, and Grant was jealous, but did turn out to be a pretty cool view). The ride was about 13 minutes long and did a couple loops around Victoria Falls before heading back to the pad. Surprisingly, I enjoyed the flight way more than I thought I would. They of course did the tourist thing of showing us our video in hopes that we would buy it. We liked the pictures they took, but the video was mostly information about Victoria falls rather than our actual ride. Grant practiced his negotiating lessons from our friends in Kenya and offered a different price for just the photos (offered to omit the videos) – try negotiating a tourist video in the US! When the guy realized we wouldn’t buy the video, he offered both pictures and video for a discounted price. We ended up getting it for another $5 off as they didn’t have any change to give us in return (per last post’s note about people not having any change in US currency).

We thankfully were one of the lasts flights up before they shut operations down due to the weather. We thought we weren’t going to be able to do our adventure activities but they surprisingly allowed people to do them in the rain. We headed up to the Lookout Cafe where we signed in for our HighWire Pass which included the Flying Fox, Zipline, and the Gorge Swing. Thankfully we were able to do the Gorge Swing tandem or else I probably would not have taken that leap. As you can tell in the video, I probably bursted Grant’s eardrum during that free fall before we finally started the swing. The worker told us afterwards that he had to shorten the ropes for us or else we would have dipped into the river with our combined weight.

Afterwards, we grabbed lunch at the Lookout Cafe and enjoyed the views of the Batoka Gorge. We headed back for a quick stopover in the hotel before it was time to head to our Sunset cruise upstream of the falls. The weather starting the drive to the dock was chilly and rainy and we didn’t think we would get to enjoy a sunset view. Even if we didn’t, it would still be a relaxing cruise on the Zambezi river. We saw plenty of hippos hanging out in the water (one of the animals we didn’t think we’d see this much of) and lots of birds. Some of the guests on the boat claim they saw a crocodile though we think it was just a log floating in the water – none of the guides could spot it either. Our sunset cruise ended on a highlight with a beautiful sunset!

We headed back to the hotel to pack up before heading to our next destination in the morning…South Africa.

Flying into Victoria Falls, we were hoping to catch a glimpse of them from the plane but were unable to. Once landed, we had to show our COVID vaccine card prior to heading to customs (surprisingly have only done this in 4 or so countries we’ve visited). Heading down to customs we may have skipped past the line (we thought people were still filling out forms oops) and were guided to the visa line. We weren’t sure exactly what visa to get as we didn’t know if we were going to hop into Zambia or Botswana. Once through customs, we had to grab some cash from the ATM. Since the currency crashed in Zimbabwe, they had switched over to using US dollars. However, we found most places didn’t have small enough bills below $10 to provide change so we tried to pay most things with card or give exact amount. 

After getting our cash, we were bombarded by a taxi driver that refused to take no for an answer. Grant tried to tell him we had a ride arranged with the hotel (which the driver tried to tell us his taxi company was the only one N1 Hotel used). After a couple minutes bantering back and forth, I finally had enough and told the guy we didn’t have time to check the names on peoples sheets so to excuse us while we took a look around. Thankfully, we found our driver and we were able to hit the road. 

Turns out the airport transfer company is conveniently one of the only tour operators in the whole city, so they “let us” (was a mandatory stop en route) take a quick pit stop at their office to figure out some activities for the weekend. We had already decided we wanted to do some of the activities, so it worked out. After booking, it was off to check in to the hotel. Grant had chosen a hotel within walking distance to Victoria Falls park and ended up being near some good restaurants. We could definitely tell the difference between Victoria Falls and other places in Africa we had visited. The town was centered around tourism and was the best English we had heard from all the waiting staff. Our first stop was to the The Three Monkeys restaurant where we had some delicious pizza. I tried the Mexican pizza and Grant tried their arrabbiata pizza, both of which had quite the spice to it. While there we asked our waiter if it was best to head into the falls that day or wait until the morning as it was raining off and on throughout our meal. We decided to postpone until the next day and enjoy an evening relaxing in the hotel as we had been in go mode the past week in Kenya.

The next day we grabbed breakfast at a local cafe near the hotel and found out that tipping in most restaurants in Africa is different than in America. Our waiter, Fah, told us that the tip doesn’t go to him personally but is shared amongst the kitchen and wait staff. But people are so appreciative of whatever tip they receive especially if it’s more than 10%. During breakfast we saw a monkey hopping around the roof tops looking for tourists to drop their food.

After breakfast, we walked the 1km to the park entrance gate of Victoria Falls. The day started out with some clouds but a few minutes into the park we were showered with mist from the falls along with a light rain shower. There were several viewpoints along the trail to stop and take pictures of the falls. Seeing both Iguazu Falls and Victoria Falls, the amount of water and power of these falls is amazing. There were times where the mist was too much and you couldn’t see the falls at all. 

After snapping the pictures and videos we wanted, we decided to take a quick walk on the bridge over the Zambezi river to cross into Zambia. [Mainly to get that Zambia passport stamp]. After crossing customs we were “greeted” by two guys that walked with us for about 5 minutes trying to get us to buy crafts or to “sell us activities at local rates.” I got to hear all about the “80% unemployment” of Zimbabwe from the guy talking to me (the Internet didn’t seem to back-up this statistic). They eventually left us alone – we found Victoria Falls had some of the most people approaching you trying to sell things but all were harmless. It is also crazy how many baboons and monkeys you will see no matter where you walk. Though I had no desire to get too close to them. We quickly walked back to our hotel as we thought we had a helicopter ride to catch but after having it pushed back a couple times due to the clouds and rain it was finally canceled for the day. As more rain was scheduled for our last day in Victoria falls, we were worried we wouldn’t be able to do any of our planned activities. 

We ended the night at the local brewery next to the hotel where a (maybe) local singer was playing some music. They had a popcorn machine and I was thrilled to find out they give it to customers as a sort of appetizer. I think the US should definitely follow that trend! Grant had a steak that was really good – we ended up reading that Zimbabwe was known for their beef for a long time before the country’s economic collapse and subsequent foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks in the meat. However, apparently in the last few years the industry is making a big comeback – and we agreed after tasting it! After dinner, we stayed for a song before retiring back to the room knowing we would (possibly) have a busy day in the morning. 

(Warning: graphic images/videos ahead)

Our last morning in Emboo started off very early as we had to pack our bags before heading out on our last game drive of this safari. We had heard several lions roaring and hyenas calling so we were hoping we would get to see a kill this morning. (Yes that sounds dark but circle of life right?) 

The start of our drive was pretty dark and we were keeping our eyes and ears open, hoping to hear the lions again. And just like that we heard a low rumble to the right of our truck in the distance and headed into the fields. I quickly spotted a male lion limping up ahead calling out. He was then followed by two more male lions, which we found out that the first two were trying to chase off the other male lion who did not belong to the pride. They must have had an altercation that he was limping from. We sat and watched them for a little bit and got scared for a second as one just fell to the ground like he had been shot. But he got up and headed towards the other two lions. Edward then heard something rustling by the bushes near us and moved the car forward. Lo and behold there were seven lionesses feeding on a buffalo! Edward said he thought the kill happened within the hour so even if we didn’t get to see the actual hunt it was crazy to watch them feast. The kill was so fresh the buffalo carcass was steaming as they were eating. We got so many videos and pictures! And even captured the sound byte of me knocking my phone off the seat onto the ground with feasting lions just feet away. Thankfully, Debra and Edward were able to retrieve it without the lions noticing anything. 

We were able to enjoy the view for 45-60 minutes by ourselves before other safari trucks ventured over. The lions would pause briefly when they heard their trucks and then would continue eating. A herd of hyenas was just waiting patiently in the background trying to get their turn at the buffalo. We had stayed there long enough to see a male lion from the pride return and get his turn to feast. It was crazy how fast the 2.5 hours went just watching these animals enjoy their meal. It was sad to head off to prepare to leave but we truly enjoyed every game drive that we got to experience. We realized no two drives are the same and you never know what you will see. 

After our last breakfast, we signed the guestbook and headed out to the truck where we were welcomed with song and dance saying goodbye. Both Grant and I said we felt a little sad leaving! Our flight ended up being delayed a little so we were able to go check out what was left of the Buffalo from the morning and found the hyenas getting in on the meal. It was crazy to hear them crunching through the bone and see how little was left. We also followed two of the lionesses from the morning along the river to grab a drink and caught three hyenas chasing each other trying to grab the bone one had in his mouth. Our last new animal to see was a crocodile sunning on a rock by the river! 

We got to the airport and ended up having to wait even longer for our flight to arrive. When the plane arrived, we said what we thought was our last goodbyes to our guides and Layler and boarded the plane. Once on board, they had us deplane as there was a flat tire they needed to repair. We headed back to hang out with the crew in the truck until they were ready for take off. I teared up a little (my emotional self) as it was finally time to head out and leave Masai Mara and prepare for our next country of the trip. 

After a hot airplane ride and an older lady talking Grants ear off, we were met by our friends Titus and Godfrey who would take us to lunch, find me some new sunglasses (lost mine in the Mara), and then finally to the hotel for an early morning flight to Victoria Falls.

Our last morning game drive with Andy and Kenny! Though Grant and I both agree this drive was probably the least eventful of all the drives we had. The sunrise was beautiful driving out of the camp and we came across two lionesses staring down some Buffalo in the distance. We thought this was going to be our opportunity to finally see a hunt, but again both lions just laid back down to rest. We also came across several hippos (maybe 20-30) hanging out in the water. We learned their skin is sensitive to the sun so they spend most of their days in the water. The morning drive ended with a group of giraffes saying hello in the distance while drinking water. 

Lunchtime was spent getting a complimentary massage, a quick dip in their swimming pool, and the Eco Tour. It was really cool to learn more about their operations and understand how they try to reduce the amount of waste. They have such a circular pattern of reusing all the water in the camp. They are trying to make life within the Mara more sustainable and eco-friendly and are hoping to pass these things along to other camps. Sammy told us he has a training coming up with several camp managers across the Mara to teach them how they can transfer over these ideas. (Grant can add more here). 

Our afternoon game drive started earlier today as we were off to try and see some lion cubs. On the way there, we ended up going through a river crossing and managed to get stuck. Thankfully with Edward’s quick thinking we were back in business to continue on with the drive. Grant and I felt bad though as Edward and Debra were trying to figure out how to get unstuck while we just sat in the truck. When we got to the site where the cubs had been spotted, we saw one just getting up and walk right by our truck. It was so cute and reminded me so much of Simba! There were maybe about 8-9 lion cubs lying there sleeping with their moms, but we unfortunately didn’t get to see any others really come out to play (too hot for them…).  After leaving the lion cubs, we headed off to see if we could get lucky and spot some elephants. With their electric vehicles, the cars are so quiet and we can get much closer to the animals. The elephants still weren’t sure about the noise so a couple ran away from the truck but it was truly incredible how close we were to them. They are such massive yet beautiful animals and it was so cute to watch the little babies play around with each other. They were too far off to get any real good pictures of the babies but some of them were as young as 2-3 months. 

On our way back to the sundowner area, Debra asked us if we would rather head to sundowner or try and find the leopard. We of course said leopard! As we headed to the area, we saw several trucks on the move so we knew something good was happening. With some amazing driving by Edward (though we almost got hit trying to pass through), we were able to see a mother leopard with her cub who was only 1.5 months old. This was the first time our guides had seen it since he was born! It was truly an amazing sight and we got lucky to catch it! We were the last ones of our camp to make it to sundowner but it was totally worth it! We found out the next day that people saw the leopards in a tree eating an impala they had dragged up there. 

We headed back to the room for a quick shower and were surprised when we headed out of the tent with our own private table for dinner. After a quick time at the campfire, we headed back to our tent for candlelight dinner, champagne, and a sweet letter from Wander Africa (Jay and Brandi). No better way to end our safari week (though I was definitely tearing up knowing it was ending)! We ended up talking with Layler and another team member as we ate dinner telling random stories and causing a ruckus with our laughter. They had another team member stop by and tell us that campers were trying to sleep so it was time to end the night and head to bed. 

Our first night of sleep was rough as we heard several animals throughout the night splashing in the river below, roaring lions, an animal screaming, and something munching on grass right by our tent. We later came to find out that we had some hippo visitors near our tent (which we later tried to capture on video on our last night there but failed). 

We met up with the group around the campfire for coffee and biscuits before it was time to head out. Another great thing with Emboo was we got heated water bottles to sit with under our blankets! Made those morning temps feel a little easier to bear. We saw so many hot air balloons heading up for sunrise! It was cool to see all the zebras in the plains with the balloons up in the air. We drove by the lionesses sleeping again and then Edward got the call from a team member in the camp that he spotted a leopard. So it was off to the races to try and see it before he headed off into the bushes or tree. We were surprised that the electric vehicle actually had some speed as Edward raced over to the area. Seeing the leopard was unbelievable and our Valentines Day started off on an amazing foot. Kenny called us spoiled because this was our first safari and we were already getting to see a leopard. It had taken him almost 20 years to finally see one in person. It was incredible to watch the leopard walk by our truck and we had a good view of him for a good 10-15 minutes before swarms of other safari trucks came in to see. Right before our bush breakfast, we also got to see a cheetah lying down in the shade. Just checking off all the big cats left and right! 

After our morning game drive, we came back for a quick nap and another delicious lunch. We learned goodbye and see you later in Swahili from Layler and talked about what we had seen that morning on the drive. We were ready for our afternoon game drive because there was a chance we could see the cheetah hunt (which would have been the icing on the cake for the day!) 

Our afternoon game drive started out with a large glass full of white wine with Kenny and Andy. They had basically split a whole bottle into two glasses for each couple so needless to say all of us were buzzing a little bit on the drive. We found the cheetah preparing to hunt and watching the antelopes and zebras in the distance up the hill. She made a couple of moves forward as if she wanted to hunt but eventually just laid down. It was amazing to watch all the herd animals disappear from the scene – as soon as one animal sensed the cheetah, within minutes a meadow full of animals turned empty. We headed off to try and find the elephants for the evening but another unfortunate fail. Like they say nature is unpredictable. As we were headed back for our sundowner, we saw a group of lions that people had said just tried to attack two buffalos but were unsuccessful. Maybe we would have better luck the next day with a hunt…

Back at camp we were surprised with some of the local Masai tribe coming to sing and dance for Valentine’s Day. They performed several different songs one of which was the engagement song where the men of the tribe try to jump as high as they can to show their strength. Whoever jumps the highest looks more appealing to win over a wife. They even dragged the guests up there to join them for the last song. Kenny was able to get a video of Grant and I up there singing with the group. Then it was time for the group dinner. Nine more guests had shown up that day so there were more people to meet: family from France living in Thailand, a Dutch couple visiting her sister in Nairobi, and a couple from Chicago. Dinner again was spectacular and they ended it with a red velvet Valentine’s Day cake. By the end though, I was more than ready to head off to bed with the hopes of getting more sleep that night.