Past Two Nights in the Great City of Cape Town

The past couple of days my mom and I have been in Cape Town. Last night we got into our hotel at around 3pm, walked around the city for a couple hours, and just ordered some pizza and relaxed in our room. We had an early 5 o’clock wake up call this morning, because we got picked up by a van to go cage diving with the great white shark. We were out on the water until 1pm, and it was the most amazing experience ever! We saw a couple of great whites breach from the water, completely elevating out of the water. The used a seal replica, and slowly towed it behind our boat, triggering the Great White's killer instinct to lunge out of the water. I've seen videos of this before, but seeing it live was ridiculous. While I was in the cage, a big great white breached out of the water to take the bait that they lure them in with. Another shark went for the bait, and ran smack into the cage, so I got a real close up look at it, which was unbelievable! The biggest shark of the day, which was about 17 feet long, swam by my mom and I (who was also in the cage with me) at least 10 times. It was an experience I will always remember. Tomorrow we head to the airport at 5, and head to Tanzania to prep for our hike up Kilimanjaro, which begins Thursday! I can’t wait! If it all works as planned, I’ll be on top of the summit on my birthday, which also happens to be a full moon. Hope it’s not cloudy! Happy birthday to my mother, who turns a year younger tomorrow.

Pictures of the Day- Cape Town Winelands

Wine-lands of Cape Town

For the last couple of nights, my mother and I have been staying at La Residence, a very nice hotel outside of Cape Town. Today we visited several different wineries for my mom's travel company she is working for, Roar Africa. We went on a nice bike ride at the first vineyard we saw, so that my mom could see the property to at its full potential. Then we went to a couple other vineyards, and did some wine tasting at a couple of them. My favorite stop was at Franschhoek Motor Museum, which was a wine testing vineyard established by an Italian man, but he had about 60 different vintage and modern cars in four different garages, and it was interesting to see the progression in his car time capsule. Some of his new modern cars were absolutely incredible, and would be amazing to drive some of them on the rural roads in the wine-lands of Cape Town.

Pics of the Day- Londolozi

Our Last Day at Londolozi

Today my mom and I had a fabulous time at the Londolozi game reserve. We had a wake up knock on our door at 5:30, and went on a game drive at 6. We saw three huge male lions that were sleeping for the most part, but did get up once or twice to change position. We also got a chance to see a baby giraffe, some warthog, several different antelope, and my favorite, the leopard! It was a female leopard that just killed an impala, and dragged it up a tree. At the time she was lying at the base of the tree, and taking a bit of a nap, to recuperate from her stalking endeavor. We went back to camp, had some breakfast, and then my mom and I went and saw the original village where the workers, and other individuals have lived for many decades. After that, we did a bit of a workout, and then had some lunch. After lunch, we went on another great drive, and saw the leopard again, but this time she was up the tree feasting on the impala she had killed. At the base of the tree there were several hyena that were trying to find scraps on the ground, and attempting to scale up the tree, but had no luck. On the way back from the game drive, we got to see a cervet, which is very rare to see. Our ranger told us that this is the second time he seen one of these since he has been at Londolozi, which has been 10 or so years, so that was really cool. We had an amazing dinner, and unfortunately this is the last night we will be here. Tomorrow we head to Cape Town, to start our wine tasting journey, and then eventually I get to dive with the great white sharks! I can’t wait! One week till Kilimanjaro!!