Today Matt, Kat and Ezra went on a shooting experience while Andy, Val and I went to the Cheetah Outreach Centre.

We drove along the coast road.

At the centre there are 7 cheetahs who have been rescued, plus meerkat, jackals, wing bat foxes and tortoises. They also breed Anatolian shepherd dogs.

Then we met up with the others for lunch at ‘Pajamas and Jam’ a restaurant suggested by Kat’s cousin.

In the afternoon we went to Vergelegen Wine Estate for a wine tasting. We tried a merlot, a chardonnay and a cabernet sauvignon, all delicious so we had to buy some bottles! We had a walk round the estate then headed back towards our villa.

The sun was going down. We stopped on the way back for a meal.

The day dawned bright and sunny but chilly at 8° C. We set off on the long drive back to Cape Town.

We followed the R62, a very scenic drive.

We drove past the ostrich farm.

We stopped for a coffee at Barrydale. By then the temperature had risen to 25°C.

It was an amazing drive over, round and through the mountains. We went through two mountain passes – Huis River Pass and the Outeniqua Pass.

We came back along the coast.

We saw a tram – quite an unusual sight in South Africa as most of the railway system has been damaged.

It was a very long day, but nice to be back with the rest of the family.

Our last safari drive began very cold and misty. We doubted we would be able to see much so we were delighted when we spotted…..

….. ‘lions in the mist.’

We were surprised to see a brown hyena running towards us, one of South Africa’s rarest carnivores and rarely seen on safari. It veered off into the bushes.

The mist decorated the many spider webs we passed.

We saw a family group of kudu usually very shy but they stayed a while, keeping an eye on us.

As the mist began to clear we saw a jackal resting not far from the track.

Lenny joked that if we couldn’t find live animals he could find dead ones!

An empty tortoise shell, a zebra skull,

and a water buck skull and spine.

As we headed back for breakfast I spotted a nyala in the bushes.

After breakfast we set off to our next stop we passed some zebra on the reserve.

Heading back in the direction of Cape Town we chose the R62 route inland through the Karoo, rather than the coastal N2 we drove on Wednesday. The scenery was beautiful.

We passed many farms, fruit and cattle and ostrich, and a township.

We arrived at De Zeekoe Guest Farm mid afternoon.

View from our balcony.

Garden and pool area.

We are off to have our dinner of ‘ostrich bobotie’.

At least we don’t have to get up at 5.45am tomorrow (although we wouldn’t have missed this experience for the world).

Up again at 5.45am to set off on our safari drive. It was very atmospheric with the mist filling the valleys.

We were on the lookout for lions when we got a call over the radio and Lenny rushed to join the other truck.

There were 3 lionesses laying down but they soon left and were lost from view in the bushes.

We also saw a young male elephant …

and a family of warthogs.

We enjoyed our private drive as there was still just the two of us. We arrived back at the Lodge for breakfast.

We walked down to the waterhole and spent time relaxing on our private balcony until lunch.

At lunch time we met the new arrivals, a South African extended family and a couple from Germany and a couple from the Netherlands. We now numbered 14 and after lunch set off in two trucks.

As soon as our group got through the gate we saw an elephant enjoying himself at our waterhole.

Lenny found some bones – a skull from a gnu and the lower jaw of a warthog.

We saw many antelope….

giraffe …

and Wildebeest (gnu).

There was a flock of beautiful blue starlings getting ready to roost.

We had looked for hippo on every drive but they proved very illusive.

Eventually two were seen.

On the way back to lodge we saw a troop of vervet monkeys.

Another fascinating drive.

After a lovely meal and some cake to celebrate Ruby’s 80th birthday we all trooped off to bed.

We woke up at 5.45am in order to be ready for our early safari at 6.30am.

If you look closely you can see a jackal to the left of the tree, with waterbuck on the horizon.

We came across Lenny’s favourite elephant who broke his tusks fighting with the big bull elephant we saw yesterday.

We then saw a male ostrich and a female ostrich.

Back at the lodge we had a delicious breakfast, much appreciated.

Our new friends left the game reserve for pastures new and we were on our own (apart from lots of lovely staff to look after us).

We walked down to the waterhole but no one needed a drink! We saw two warthogs and an elephant in the distance.

We had lunch in the open dining room with just monkeys and a tiny lizard for company.

At 3.30pm we set off with Lenny for our private afternoon safari drive.

By the side of the road we saw one of many termite mounds.

We saw lots of impala ……

A group of 6 rhinos….

and zebras.

We were very lucky to spot 3 cheetahs almost hidden in the bushes.

We also saw a tortoise by the perimeter fence.

Not exactly one of the big five! But cute.

We set off back to the Lodge and dinner seeing lightning and hearing thunder. It started to rain as we arrived back…

Another long drive along the N2 to our home for the next three days – Amakhala Game Reserve. We arrived and were shown to our lodge ‘Giraffe’.

After a quick lunch we set off on our first safari drive. We had just set off and we saw a herd of 20+ elephants.

Further on we came across the male of the herd.

Then we saw a male giraffe who was quite shy then the female with her calf.

We saw lots of Monkeys.

Lenny, our driver and guide, even brought snacks and we stopped for a while.

It was getting cold and nearly time to return to the lodge when we came across a lion!

A bit scary but very exciting! We also saw a rhino, Wildebeest, Hartebeest, Warthog, jackal, Zebra, waterbuck …….

Too far away for photos but we had binoculars.

We arrived back at the Lodge very happy. The family we were with said it was the best of the 6 rides they had been on and that we were their lucky charm!

We had a lovely breakfast in the main lodge.

After yesterday’s long drive we stayed close to home’ and drove around the Knysna estuary. We stopped at Margaret’s Viewpoint.

Further along was another viewpoint overlooking the Indian Ocean between Buffalo Bay and Brenton on Sea, where we were lucky enough to see 3 whales. They were only visible with binoculars so no photos.

Then we drove to Brenton on Sea. We walked down the boardwalk onto the sand.

The whelks were dancing in the sand!

We drove to the Heads on the eastern side of the estuary.

After a light lunch we walked to the East Head viewpoint where we saw lots of dolphins.

During our drive today we saw whales, dolphins, deer and an ibis – and we are not even on safari yet!

Today Andy and I left the villa to have our own little adventure (leaving Kat, Matt, Ezra and Val to do mundane stuff like swimming with sharks and surfing!).

We had a very long drive on the N2 and the Garden Route to Knysna, through ever changing scenery.

Eventually arriving at our accommodation in the Elephant Hide in Knysna.

The suite looks out over the lagoon. We went along the Waterfront drive to the Dry Dock restaurant for dinner.

When we returned our sheets had been turned down for us and the curtains closed. It was very cosy.

Today we visited Boulders Beach at Simons Town, to see the African penguins, the smallest of the penguin family.

We also saw some ‘dassies’ or rock hyrax.

We then drove to the Cape of Good Hope passing many baboons on the way.

Matt, Kat, Ezra and Andy climbed the many steps to the look out.

Then we drove to Cape Point for a snack. The queue for the cable car was too long so Matt, Kat and Ezra walked up!

We ended the day with a lovely meal at ‘Jake’s’ restaurant.

Today dawned bright and sunny so we all set off to Langebaan. The journey took 2 hours but we went via Chapman’s Peak, a coastal route with amazing views, so it was worth it.

A view of Noordhoek Bay looking down on the view from our villa.

We were heading for lunch at a beach BBQ restaurant called Die Strandloper. This would have been Matt’s birthday treat yesterday but the weather made us postpone it.

All 10 courses were cooked on the BBQ. It was delicious.

The seagulls enjoyed the scraps.

It was very scenic.

When we had finished we drove back to our villa, getting closer and closer to Table Mountain.

It was a lovely day with good food, fantastic scenery and amazing company.