Here on SAS I am constantly reminded by the people I meet and the sheer educational value of the experiences I am having that I am not on vacation…I am learning and traveling. Well on day 4 on South Africa, for the first time, I have to admit, it sorta felt like vacation! I was put in touch with a friend of a friend that went on SAS last semester named Michael. Well, Mike made friends with a South African guy named Gregg. Gregg conveniently organizes tours and day trips such as shark diving, and skydiving. He also organized an overnight trip that some friends and I decided to sign up for. The trip including going wine-tasting on day one and driving through an area known as Stelenbosch and a safari the second day.
The day started around 9am as we woke up to meet our group outside of the ship. Even though I'd been talking with Michael for a while about SAS and Cape Town and stuff, I had never actually met him, so it was nice to meet him (oh yeah, did I mention that he came back to Cape Town for our voyage to help out his friend Gregg?). Our group got on a bus and made our way up to the first winery. By 10am we were poured our first glasses of wine and told to taste red wines, white wines, dessert wines. I hadn't known until a few days before arriving in Cape Town, but wine country there is a BIG deal, and we definitely learned why. After the first winery we made our way to another and had a very similar experience as we sipped wine and enjoyed the views. This one was located on top of a hill with a fantastic view looking out over the vineyards. The way it looked is how I've always imagined the California Napa wine country to look…although, I would have never told that to a local!!!
It was around 1pm and we were two wineries in already so the group made a collective decision to help absorb some of that wine with lunch. We went to a very nice place for lunch and I shared a pizza with avocado…or as they called it in South Africa, Avo. It's possible that I enjoyed the avocado more than the pizza itself…man I've missed some good avocado and fresh vegetables from home (not that I'm complaining about the pasta and potatoes!) After lunch, as if we hadn't had enough wine yet, we made our way to our final winery. This one was really beautiful, we sat outside right next to a vineyard and were poured glass after glass as we all laughed about the amount of wine we'd consumed that day.
The day was nice, certainly different from any other day on SAS thus far. As I took in my surroundings and ever so elegantly (ha) sipped on wine, I kept thinking of how much my parents would have loved it.
As much as I enjoyed the day, after the experiences I've been having, I felt kind of guilty spending the day the way I did. I justified it in saying that once in a while everyone needs a break, and it certainly was one. It's odd though, in Ghana, the poverty is thrown in front of your face and you can't ignore it. South Africa is much like the US in that you can choose to ignore the poverty, but we all know that it Is there. I tried to keep this in mind throughout my trip, I tried to go to the town-ships, talk to the cab drivers, and not just have an outsiders perspective. Although on this day I temporarily forgot some of the things I'd been learning…I say temporarily though because it is not something I will let go of easily. And, I got to hang out with new friends and newer friends and truly enjoy each other's company for a day which is one of the best things I could ask for.
We got to our destination for the evening Gregg quickly got out and went to the reception…well, not knowing where he went we all sort of stood around for a while. Of course we all turned to the second in charge, Michael, who had never been there before, is from Houston and had no idea where Gregg went either. We all came to a collective decision that Gregg is the best and worst tour guide I have ever had in my life…all wrapped into one. I usually like the start with the positive, but I'd rather end on a positive with this one, so I'll start by answering the question of why do you say he's the worst? Why? Well, he was constantly doing things like this, jumping out of the bus and forgetting that we are all foreigners. Also, upon arriving to this place and asking if we could get our rooms for the evening he told us that he hadn't decided where we were staying yet…either there or a place closer to the safari. He said he'd made reservations for both and we'd decide later. So, we all left our stuff on the bus and figured we'd find out later. Then (this is the last one I promise) later on in the evening, after leaving all of our belongings on the bus because we didn't know where we were staying yet, we found the bus to be left wide-open and unlocked….good thing we were in a nice area J. Okay enough with the bad…now for the good! First of all, all of these "bads" were seriously not bad at all, they were little things that we just gave him a hard time about. Why was he the best? Because it is clear after having a good discussion with this man that he has a very big heart…he may pretend like he doesn't, but we all saw right through him. He was the kind of host that was constantly refilling everyone's glasses (sound familiar, Dad?) and just making sure that we were having a good time. His genuine concern with us and our enjoyment of our time was very clear and very kind. So, this is why we joked that he was the best and worst, and I wouldn't have had it any other way!
After getting to the location that we did in fact end up staying the night at, we all hung out and got ready for dinner. On the way up to wine-country we had actually stopped at Mzoli's (the township restaurant I wrote about in the Day 3 blog) to pick up meat for the dinner that night. The place we were staying in had a grill and when it came time for dinner I pretended to have learned from my Dad's awesome grilling abilities all those years and join Gregg and some locals in helping out with making dinner. Surprisingly (I still don't know why they trusted me) they handed me a pair tongs and told me start grilling. It really wasn't hard…I just flipped over the meat when one side looked ready, and then put it in the pan when the whole piece was ready. Once one tray was ready, Gregg took it to everyone else to eat and must have forgotten about me for a bit because I found myself alone with a grill, tongs, very limited knowledge and a whole lot of meat for about 5 minutes. So basically, this summer when I get home, Dad you can take the afternoon off when we have bbq's because now…I GOT THIS.
When it came time for dinner I used the same mentality I had at Mzoli's the pervious afternoon…this time the wine probably had a lot to do with it…and had some delicious dinner.
That night we hung around at an outdoor bar in the area. Some locals made their way over, and we talked to them for a bit. At one point my friend yelled to me that I had to come look at the stars. Well, the bus we'd been driving in for the afternoon was left over, so some friends and I climbed onto the roof of the bus and did some star gazing. It's so hard to see the stars at home, even on the ship sometimes just because of the amount of light that we have all around. I remember once during my gap year some friends and I went hiking in the desert for a night and saw the most amazing stars I've ever seen in my life. We didn't sleep at all that night as we just stared. I remember how the sky seemed almost see-through, as if it were undressed or something and we were seeing the parts of it that not many get to see. When I got to the top of that bus, for the first time since that memory, I saw that sight again. The stars were SO clear…and we were in the southern hemisphere so the constellations were different! It's so refreshing to be in a place where industrialization and modernization don't get in the way. It's funny to think that hundreds of years ago seeing the stars wasn't some sort of privilege or exciting occurrence, it was every night. It's odd to think that what we were seeing is there every night, it's just blocked by things like industrialization and modernization.
After a long day…okay this one didn't feel as long as previous ones…we all retired to our temporary homes in anticipation for the safari the next morning.
DAY 5- SAFARI
The next morning we woke up bright and early around 6:30 am. It was clear how everyone was feeling as the first thing I heard from most was "where's the coffee?" We had a quick breakfast and got into the bus for a day at the safari!!! We drove only a short distance to Aquila safari. When we got there we were immediately told to sign a waiver regarding our safety…I think if you read between the lines it went something like this: if a lion or rhino happens to maul you, we can't be held responsible. So, naturally with our cameras and sun-screen, we signed it right away as if it were nothing. While waiting for our vehicle for the safari we walked around the shop. Suddenly my ears were stimulated…I heard something very familiar yet very unexpected…HEBREW! I must have looked like a dog that was sniffing out a new location to pee as I followed cha's and rrs and other sounds of the Hebrew. When I found the culprits of the sounds I immediately struck up a conversation. They were equally shocked to meet a Hebrew speaker in the middle of a safari in South Africa. Turns out, it was a group of high school students on a two-week long trip. The group was very nice and within 5 minutes of talking I was borrowing sun-screen from my new friend and explaining my gap-year with one of their chaperones.
Our vehicle arrived and it was time to go, so we bid farewell and parted ways. We got into this truck that had a top made of tarp and open sides. It was very safari-like with it's huge wheels, ability to hold about 20 people, and hopeful ability to move through rough terrains. We got in and started moving. I immediately felt like I was back in the bus in Ghana, the one that threw me in the air and into my neighbors every minute or so. The truth is, this one was better equipped than the one in Ghana, so it actually didn't feel as rough. In South Africa they have what they call the "Big Five". The Big Five are the five animals that are featured on their money…those animals include lions, elephants, rhinos, leopards, and buffalo. While driving around we first saw elephants. I don't know what it is about elephants but I find them to be the most fascinating and somehow also cutest creatures. Right away someone on our bus asked the tour-guide a super (sorry to make fun of her) but dumb question…like exactly the type of question that locals will later laugh about over a beer. So, we decided to make this a trend for the ride and come up with the dumbest possible questions we could. We came up with Where do the animals go to the bathroom? Where do they get their food? And do they have free wifi? The tour-guide picked up on our humor and totally came right back at us with funny answers.
At one point in the tour there were two huge lions right outside our vehicle…I mean like 10-20 feet from us! Naturally, I couldn't stop replaying the opening scene from Lion King in my head and was disappointed when the lion didn't speak to me with the voice of James Earl Jones. After about 3 hours of riding around we'd seen 4 of the big 5. We were told that leopards are very endangered and to see them in the wild is very rare now-days. The place also acted as a reserve for leopards so we were able to see some at another locations that were being kept in a safe place.
After an awesome safari we hopped back in our bus and were all excited for a two hour ride back to Cape Town that I would naturally use as a chance to catch up on sleep.
When we got back to the ship a few of us grabbed some belongings and headed back out to see Gregg's house. Gregg lives in a beautiful part of Cape Town called Camps Bay. He lives up in the hills in a home that had an absolutely beautiful view of Cape Town and the shore line. It was so nice to be in an actual home for a while…don't get me wrong, the MV Explorer is pretty homey, but there's nothing like a home. I got to use some internet for a few minutes and relax.
We made our way our towards the beach for dinner. We ate in a really nice place called Carpice that was right in the "downtown" are of Camps Bay. This area really reminded me of the downtown strips in southern Florida. After dinner, more and more SASers started showing up in Camps Bay. My friend Eshley had a friend that worked at a bar nearby so we decided to walk towards it. On the way there we ran into a group of SASers sitting outside having some drinks. I said hi to all of them and was introduced to a friend they'd met. Their new friend introduced himself as Gal…Gal? Wait…that's an Israeli name. Immediately he and I went off in Hebrew. I was so surprised by how much Hebrew I'd spoken that day. Gal told me that there was a huge Jewish and Israeli population in Cape Town, specifically an area called Sea Point. I told him that a few days ago I met a woman named Zahava…naturally he knew her and told her that if I had lunch with her like I planned, to tell her he said hi (typical...I've been in the country for 5 days and I'm already playing Jewish geography with the locals).
After a few more minutes of conversation with my new friend, Eshley, myself and a few others continued on to Dizzy's. Lucky for us it was karaoke night there!!! So, Eshley, myself, a set of twins on the ship named Matt and Dan, their friend from home named Will, and Michael all got up and sang the best version of Sweet Caroline that had ever been heard in South Africa.
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