Seal cruise from Hout Bay

Just after x mas we drove to Hout Bay and went on an 1 1/2 hour cruise to sea some seals and a shipwreck. You could smell the suckers way before we saw them, yuck!



















We learned this is a group of mainly bachelor males just lazing around eating and sleeping waiting to become old enough to go and mate.








They life their flippers in the air to try to cool down.









These pics are purely for Francis. Who else can appreciate this crane?
It crashed here in 1994 after a freak storm while being towed into Cape Town for a retrofit. It was deemed irreparable so they left it. I think they said it was capable of lifting (craning?) 13, 000 tonnes! Or some similar crazy amount...

Stomp

On Boxing day Suds and I went to see Stomp in Cape Town.

It was really good but different than what I had imagined. I thought the whole thing was music made from drumming on garbage cans (who knows where I get these ideas!!)
In reality they made music from everything...match books, lighters, brooms, and even the kitchen sink!



This is inside the theater. The backdrop was scaffolding with various pieces of junk attached. In one part they climbed onto the scaffolding and played the 'junk' while suspended with wires.

Our Christmas in South Africa

Here we are on the patio opening all our xmas cards! We received lots, thank you!!

Suds enjoying the water feature












Later that day we headed to Camps Bay for dinner with Jeff. We had a nap and by the time we got down there we were eating at 10PM! Afterwards we had a drink at Opium and watched all the models. Cape Town is a model mecca!








Christmas Eve Suds and I went to Century City and the Canal Walk shopping center. Inside they had a "giant" ice rink and sled rides with Siberian husky dogs. The "ice" was really a type of plastic matting you could use ice skates on. To go sledding a trainer ran two huskies strapped to a sled around in a circle a few times (you can see the track just behind my head)








I wanted to go meet and pet the dogs so bad, but you had to pay. They were so cute!!!











Because we are total tourists, we went on the canal gondola ride.
The trip was about 20 minutes. We toured around thru some nice hotels and apartments and an amusement park. The gondola was powered by a motor, but it was almost totally silent.

After the mall we started cooking our Xmas Eve Braai (BBQ) In South Africa they use wood burned down to coals to cook with. We had seen it done but this was our first shot at it ourselves.










We decided to try to burn as much wood as we could. We had quite a rager going for awhile.



























I grossly underestimated the time it would take to cook this way. Dinner was to be at 7 but we ate at 10PM. Oops!



Alex (AKA The Italian), Suds, me and Jeff enjoying dinner.


























Christmas morning opening our stockings.






































About noon we headed to SaltyCrax Bakpackers.
Carla (in the yellow) is the owner as well as a Police Constable (nice combo, eh?)

Eating outside was a nice change for Xmas. there were about 20 of us for brunch. Our courses were separated with free shots of Jagaermeister! Just your typical holiday celebration!

Here is all the food. It was fabulous! We had turkey, ham, sausage, stuffing, several salads, mince pies, and more Jagaer!

The Italian in a holiday hat.













Chris from Aberdeen, Scotland
Nicky and her dog Gucci in the hot tub.













The goat named Cheese. He knocked over a stray cider bottle and started licking up the spilt booze! There is also a duck, 2 dogs (Mango and Lychee), a cat and 5 tortoises that live at the hostle.

Merry Christmas

We hope everyone enjoys themselves over the holidays.

Please send us pictures of all the fun we are missing!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Safari at Botlierskop

We splurged and spent a night at Botlierskop Private Game Reserve. Thankfuly we got a deal on the price. They felt sorry for us b/c the only room avaliable had twin beds. Our safari started at 3 and went till 6.

These elephants are tame. They were saved from a park that was closing. They are mates, Sam and Tsotsi.

This is a white rhino. He is basically a lawnmower, eatting grass all day. He only gets nourishment from 30% of what he eats because of an inefficient stomache. That's a good excuse to pig out!

We saw 4 giraffes. The males are more brightly coloured. The others were sitting down, which apparently is rare. The don't even really sleep. they just rest for about 5 minutes at a time all night. They are afraid they will get tipped over and then eaten by a predator. Being tall sucks!

We saw about 10 zebras. I think they are my favourite animal as well (but I haven't seen and hippos up close yet!) Their faces are just gorgeous!

There are 2 male sand 2 female lions. They have their own enclosure so they don't eat the other animals. They too were saved and have been born and raised in captivity.

What are they doing?

What does it look like??

A lion may be the King of the Jungle, but he is not the king of the bedroom. He was in and outta there quick! Wham bam thank you ma'am!

Our tent for the night! Not the camping I am used too!!!

After safari it was time for wine on our private deck and then a 5 course dinner. This is Suds plate.

The far right meat is alligtor, the middle is gemsbock and the lefthand side one is zebra! Suds liked the alligator best. I wouldn't eat my new friend the zebra.

Ostrich feeding video

I think this video might take a while to load. If it doesn't work, please let me know in the comment section!

Trip to an ostrich farm

Suds and I visited Cango Ostrich Farm just
outside of Outshoorn, South Africa. We learned a lot!!

Ostich meat is almost fat and cholesterol free, but the eggs are not. One ostrich egg can feed 18 people!! We tried ostrich steaks the night before at our hostel and it was so yummy! It was like a very tender beef. Actually the meat is classified a beef, not a poultry at all.

An ostrich will lay 14 eggs, one every other day. The farmers steal the eggs so she keeps laying them and will lay over 150 per year!











Afterwards we drove to some waterfalls. too bad the sun was hiding or we would have swam a little.

Pilanesberg safari

During my 8 days of working, I had a day to take in a safari while I stayed with the crew in Johannesburg. It was myself and two flight attendants (one guy one girl) and the tour guides 9 year old daughter (school summer holidays).
First we visited a lion cub zoo and had a chance to pet and try to play with the cubs. I tried to play with the cub like Lexi, but its paws were the size of my hand and got a few scratches! Saw lions, hyenas, giraffes, leopard, cheetahs, and jackals: all were in enclosures kind of like the game farm in Cloverdale.

Went to the safari in Pilanesberg (near Sun City), a massive area where the animals are free and roam in their natural environment. We drove for two hours to get to the park, and we were not guaranteed to see any animals, but I was hoping for something. Before getting into the park, we heard an elephant tearing down trees just on the other side. Could hear it and see the tops of trees getting thrashed around but couldn't see the elephant. Kind of like Jurassic Park, with big fence and noises of something big on the other side!
After driving in the park for five minutes, we saw 5 zebras and one foal (sp?), young zebra about 2 years old. I said that the young one would be a target! Then the guide (David) spotted a lioness behind them! She was stalking the group! The zebras went down into a gully, but one adult and the foal decided to go back up to where they were...bad idea. I saw, through binocs, one lioness swipe the back end of the adult zebra and almost knocked it off balance. Apparently there was another lioness in the grass that caught the young zebra. Three, then four lioness appeared, as well as a male lion, to feast. It was pretty harsh to see the reality of it! The guides daughters' favorite animal is the zebra, so she was crying. The other zebras came up above the kill and just watched, making strange noises, like 'what can we do?'. Also a lone brown hyena showed up and waited for leftovers! The guide had been going to the park for 10 years and hadn't seen a kill! So we were lucky!?
We just entered the park, so it we had to move on. Around the next corner we saw a bunch of baboons, more zebras, and Ibis by the lake. Next corner: white Rhinos (weighing 2 tonnes, 4400lbs), brown snake eagle eating a mouse thingy in a tree, more rhinos, Kudu (Gazelle looking animal with spiral horns). Quickly saw two warthogs run away from the vehicle. 50-100 other zebras cooling under shady trees (lots to go around!), with wildebeests. Bachelor herd of Impalas (only males have horns). Monitor lizard by a river, Water Buck (shaggy deer looking), one giraffe and a few hippos poking their heads just above the water in a reservoir.
Saw tons and we got our moneys worth! It was a long day, 12 hours. I only had my cell phone camera with me, so I don't have too may good pictures. I can't post any till I get my USB cord. I asked the other guys to send me any pics, so hopefully they have some good ones.
Next month we are planning to go to Kruegar National Park to see some more!

Hiking up to Table Mountain

Here we are at the beginning of the hike. Gill said we couldn't cheat and take the cable car up, so as always I followed her advice :) It took us just over and hour and it was tough! Think the Grouse Grind but without the soft mountain soil and instead big rocks to climb all the way up.






The view from the top. We took more pics on the way up but they were sideways and I can't seem to flip them around when coming straigh from the camera.







Don't fall over the edge, Jeff!!











At the top we met up with a couple who started at teh bottom with us. We had a couple of drinks with them waiting for the sunset.









The sunset shot.

Afterwards we headed down the mountain in a large cable car. The floor spins slowly so you can see the view from all directions.