2 24 CHEETAHS

What can I say…….

        

2 24 LIONS

We saw 2 different kinds of lions, regular tawny colored and white.  We saw 2 tawny’s, brothers and one male white.

This is one of the brothers.

 

We caught him during dinner.  Tonight he helped himself to warthog.

 

  

Then we went to a different area, where the white lions live.  They are kept separated for breeding purposes.

 

The ranger thinks he is licking the ground because a female lion peed there.  He was walking around looking for her.  He didn’t find her while we were there.  He did find 2 cheetahs.  They were playing cat and mouse, or cheetah in this case.  None of them taking the game too seriously.

              

 

2 24 SAFARI

This will take multiple blogs.  We took toooooo many pictures.  So what I will do is blog by animal.  You might overdose on an animal, but I will risk it.

First we got off the ship in Port Elizabeth.  We bussed to the Pumba Game Reserve.  Here is what the resort looks like.  It is a 5 star resort, and well deserved.

our private pool

    

Our outside shower

 

View from the lodge on rainy morning

2 22 SECOND DAY IN CAPE TOWN

No pictures today.  Today was wonderful.  We did not leave the ship.  Yes, it was windy again today.

Instead we did stuff.  Arleen polished her nails.  Sounds simple, but it has taken almost 2 months to get around to doing it.  We took our time and  relaxed, did laundry and got ready for our safari the day after tomorrow.

Tomorrow we pack.

OK, I lied.  Here are some pictures.  The table mountain did not have a tablecloth today.

In the evening we saw a folkloric show.

2 21 CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

I don’t know what I expected. but Cape Town did not look like I thought it would.  I knew it was a large city.  I did not know it had lovely mountains in the city.  The largest is called the Table.  Sometimes, when the weather is right, the Table is covered with a Table Clothe.  This covering is a cloud layer that forms right there on the top of the mountain and flows downward continuously.

When we arrived, the tablecloth was happening, and it continued to happen the entire day.

Oh, did I mention it was windy.  No?  Well, it was WINDY !!!!! It was so windy that at least 2 people were injured just getting on the ship.

We took an on-off bus.  As you can see, the top of the bus is open.  Well, we brought hats, for the sun.  As you can imagine, the wind did away with wearing regular hats.  Duane’s hat flew off the minute he got off the ship.  So, we went and bought hats with straps.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.  It turns out that wearing a strap under your chin in a gale force wind can actually strangle you.  So, we eventually went hatless.

We decided to get off the on-off bus and go indoors, rather than ride it all around town before getting off.  So, we went to the Jewish Museum, which included a Chul (Jewish Church), a museum that included a rugby exhibit, and a holocaust museum.  After the depressing holocaust museum, we saw a movie about Nelson Mandela.  It showed how the Jewish people helped him in his fight against apartide. 

We had some traditional Cape Town food for lunch.  Duane had pickled fish and I had a dish of lentils and fruit.  Both were very tasty.

Here are some city pictures.

 

          

We continued around on the tour bus and visited the base of the gondola.  The gondola takes people up and down Table Mountain.  It does not run when the winds are high.  And, as I said, the winds were high.  The views were nice from up here though.  Problem was we thought the bus would get blown over.

On the other side of Table Mountain is the beach area.  It is supposed to be less windy.  Not today.  It is lovely, though.  There were times during the ride, that was narrated via earphones, that we could not hear the narration over the sounds of the wind, even though we had the earplugs deep in our ears.   OK.  I guess you get it, that it was windy.

 

 

2 20 SAFARI PARTY AT SEA

On this sea day, the CEO of Holland America was on board and we celebrated Mariner Appreciation Day.  It was an excuse to have a party.

They decorated the Lido pool area.

 

We are going on a safari  on the 24th, so this was in anticipation.  We hope the vehicle we ride in is in better shape than this one. 

This is actually the pool.

 

Did I mention that there was an open bar?

Smoking is bad for your health.

 This is how we expect to spend our safari time.  We’ve seen the movies….

We said we would not take a picture with the Captain, but we decided to let you see how YOUNG he is.  “This is Olaf, your captain.”  That is how he greets us everyday, at about noon, to tell us about our position and the weather forecast.