Day 35
East London
Started off this morning with what might’ve been the worst chicken-n-waffles I’ve ever had. But it didn’t matter.
Docked at East London, South Africa around noon. Looks like a nice town.
But it didn’t matter, because we were off to see more critters! Reading the description of the tour, it honestly didn’t give us much hope for seeing things we hadn’t already seen. No matter, all these game reserves have been vastly different, even when they house the same animals.
And we’d left KwaZulu-Natal for the Eastern Cape, which means we’ve gone from Zulu to Xhosa (click-osa) in terms of the main tribes.
Our guide tried to teach us a little bit of the clicking sounds in the Xhosa language, but to no avail.
We got on the bus and headed out to Inkwenkwezi (in-kwen-kwezzi) Private Game Reserve. It’s amazing how different each of these game reserves feel. We’ve done three in a row now and all three are vastly different experiences. And hoo-boy, this one is something else.
We were once again greeted by traditional singer, but Xhosa this time rather than Zulu..
The Land Rover vehicles were tricky to get in and out of and quite frankly, I’m surprised that some of our shipmates managed to get into them at all.
Before we’d even left the welcome area, were were greeted by a white rhino who was perfectly content munching on the grass next to the reception.
….and then all hell broke loose. We’re in safari vehicles, which mean nine people sitting quite high off the ground, which means the vehicle is top-heavy. VERY top-heavy. The guide, Trevor, told us that recent rains had washed out a lot of the roads. We thought that meant there would be areas we couldn’t get to… but no, it meant that we’d be driving along paths where the road was basically gone. It would’ve been very easy to land a tire in a rut or bounce off a rock the wrong way and topple the vehicle. It was nuts. The photo below is actually one of the better stretches of “road”.
Trevor was an amazingly good driver, though, and even though we got tossed around quite a bit, we never once toppled the vehicle onto its side. Thank you, Trevor. Even as a 15-year veteran of these roads, the look on his face let us know that he was just as nervous as we were.
Now, as gruff as Trevor might look, I need to tell you that when he spoke, he sounded a little like Winnie the Pooh. Absolutely adorable. Anyway, he was an excellent driver and we didn’t topple over by some miracle of driving skill. He got a nice tip.
OK, so when we read the synopsis of this tour, it seemed like it would be very similar to the others we’d been on. This is the first time Viking has gone down around the bottom of Africa (they usually go through the Red Sea and Suez Canal, but that’s a war zone right now), so some of the tour descriptions were a bit off. We expected to see basically what we’d seen yesterday, but after more than a half-hour of terrifying rock scrambling and where-is-the-road-anyway 4x4 expedition, we happened upon a clearing and the roads got a little better. And by “a little better,” I mean that Trevor ditched the road entirely and drove across the underbrush. Eventually, we came upon our first real sighting: wildebeest. We’d seen plenty of wildebeest this week already, but these were very rare golden wildebeest, which I didn’t even know were a thing until today.
I think most animals are beautiful, but I could make an exception for wildebeest. Having said that, the golden ones are really pretty.
The golden wildebeest comes from a pair of black or blue wildebeest that both carry a recessive gene for the golden colour. Even when these two breed, the offspring isn’t always golden. It’s rare to get a golden one, but we saw dozen or so. Very lucky.
There were also a few crown cranes in the area. Harder to get a photo of them, but they’re very pretty.
Now, I gotta admit, as awesome as the golden wildebeest were, we were beginning to think that we suffered a half hour of terrifying terrain for not much. It was very windy today, which is bad for animal viewing, since many animals don’t like wind and hide away in the brush. We reached a spot after an hour or so, where a table was set up for refreshments.
Then we were let into a separate area. As I mentioned on previous game drives, most reserves ensure that their animals have no natural predators- and the same is true here, which is why we had to drive into a different area, about 80 acres of brush, surrounded by an electrified fence. It all felt very Jurassic Park-ish. We were looking for lions. Due to the winds, Trevor said they’d be hiding in the brush. Eventually, with some communication with other drivers, we found a pair of male lions relaxing in thick brush. Thank goodness for manual focus settings, or I’d have never gotten these shots.
I’m going to tell you that it’s one thing to see an animal in a zoo - where the focus is on human entertainment and everything is geared to make sure that you can see the animal. But it’s an entirely different feeling to see an animal in a reserve, where the animals have a massive amount of land to make their home, living as they would in the wild. You go in and look for them. Maybe you see one, maybe you won’t. But when you do, when it’s up close, when it’s obvious that YOU are in THEIR house and not the other way around, it’s absolutely magical. We felt hugely lucky to catch a glimpse of the two lions (I only got usable photos of one)… and even more lucky when we spotted a third one a bit later, this time not hidden by brush.
It was a brief glimpse, as Mufasa was on the move, looking for a secluded place to have a rest. We caught up with him as he laid down.
I’ll admit, when it comes to big cats, I’m a cheetah man through and through, but these majestic kitties almost won me over. Absolutely earning their “king of the jungle” reputation.
Not for nothing, but to solidify why I’m a cheetah guy, here’s a photo I took in 2019 on our last visit to South Africa. Yeah. I’m still Team Cheetah.
The other pictures seem a bit anticlimactic after the lions, but we saw a few giraffes as well.
Back to the ship for a nice dinner (venison tenderloin and charred lemon tart), followed by the evening show with the Viking Vocalists doing the Abba Songbook. It was a fun show.
Now we’re exhausted and heading for the blanket show. Big day tomorrow!