Cape Town - South Africa, March 26-27, 2014

March 26, Happy 86th Birthday to my dad, we again laid low to catch up on the jet lag, probably slept 12 hours - off and on but a good 12. Strolled around the V&A waterfront area taking in some view point including the view from the 50 meter Ferris Wheel. Shopped a bit, Jan returned to the room while I ventured down the wharf for a $55 CAD 90 minutes blissful message, nice why to work our the 24 hour airline seat kinks. Early night included room service dinner because we had to up early for our first day of "real" touring. a full day excursion to a private game return.

March 27, 7:00am hotel pick up by the Aquila Safari mini van to take us the 2 plus hours out of Cape Town to the Private Game Reserve. What a great day, we started out in overcast skies but the clouds soon parted and brought us a glorious day of sunshine as we boarded the Safari vehicles for a 3 and a half hour drive through the reserve.

The brochure reads, Proudly, for the first time in 250 years one can experience the Big-5, day trip safari under 2 hours from Cape Town, where visitors can enjoy a game drive experience amongst lions and other members of the Big 5 as well as enormous variety and amount of safari wildlife. These magnificent creatures once again roam the Karoo mountains, valleys, rivers and kloofs.

This day tour would be great for those in Cape Town without the time available to jump on a plane and go to the more popular big safari locations. We first must thank Helen Megan on board the MS Amsterdam, she has a travel group on board and researches and sets up port tours for her group. About a week ago, she blogged that this is the tour she was doing for her group. This directed us to have a look and book this tour, also very highly rated in the Trip Advisor website.

We did see four out of the five Big Five, they are all at this game reserve which is huge, covering over 18,500 acres, so sometimes it is just not possible to see all five within this short day. The Big Five include, the Leopard, Rhinoceros, Elephant, Lion and the one we did not see, the Water Buffalo. We drove around and saw many herds of other animals you would expect to see in the wilds of Africa, including a Hippopotamus snuggling with its new baby. Great guide, great day. BTW - meals were included, wonderful buffet breakfast and lunch as well as welcome drink and a champagne surprise from our guide who served us way out in the grounds of the reserve. The Aquila Game Reserve also has overnight accommodations and many other options to view the wildlife on, for example, horse and ATV. So, great bang for the buck...

Tonight as we returned we finally had our first look at the magnificence of Table Mountain, the pictures I hope show this incredible sight. Tomorrow the plan is to book and board the Hop On Hop Off Bus for two days of Cape Town touring, including jumping on the cable car taking us to the top of this wonderful signature site her in Cape Town.