We saw elephants, rhinos, hippos, leopards, cheetahs, and the rest. The lions eluded us

Highlights -

meeting up with Warren at the airport
wine tasting tour
Cape of Good Hope/Cape Point tour
District Six Museum and visiting the townships
Visiting Robben Island
couchsurfing with Hannes for 3 nights
couchsurfing with Christal for 5 nights
climbing Lion’s Head at sunrise and walking around atop Table Mountain
people watching at cafes
lunch in Camp’s Bay
whale watching in Hermanus
cage diving with [...]

 
The drive back to Elephant Sands was over familiar territory, and went fairly quickly.  On the way back, I saw a giraffe along the road, and we saw several elephants up close.  A few even crossed the highway in front of us.  Dion stopped the van, and we watched as a giant elephant tried to [...]

On our final morning in the Okavango Delta, we set off on a two hour game walk around the same island we walked across the first night. This time, we saw our one and only hippo of the trip. It was alone, and staying well hidden in the water. It should’ve [...]

Dion was all too happy to wake us up at 4:30am for the long, four hour game walk at sunrise, even though the guides had said we would not leave camp until 5:30am. I’m sure they had their reasons, roving hippos being tops on my list. We spent ten minutes in the [...]

Between Kruger Park and my first few mornings in Botswana, I was getting use to the early wake-up calls. The birds were often noisy enough to do the trick. After breaking down the tents, we stuffed our daypacks with the limited personal possessions we wanted to take into the Delta, as the rest would remain [...]

I was a little nervous about the four of us setting off on an unguided sunrise game walk around camp given the potential for running into elephants and lions, but didn’t want to miss the early opportunity to bond with the rest of the group. We walked down a sandy track at 5am. Soon enough, [...]

Dion, the guide/driver/cook for my Delta adventure, was sipping coffee in Bob’s kitchen a full 20 minutes earlier than my scheduled 5:30am pickup. He looked comfortable in a raggy t-shirt and shorts, his feet would remain bare for the entire journey.

I grabbed my bag and Bob opened the driveway gate [...]