Oh, it is pouring down rain when we wake up – and a monsoon when we head to the gym, this is not looking good for our Wildcat preserve visit.  Eek, in the rain?  Oh well – the weather will be what the weather will be.  Unfortunately, this is also South Africa will be what South Africa will be – meaning the port allows a tanker to leave the channel before allowing us to sail in which puts us an hour and a half late into port.  Pooh.

We have a private guide for the tour, and we’ve been communicating with him so we know he is here and waiting for us. It is just a matter of getting us in, docked, cleared and off the ship.  Which we finally manage at 9:30, finding Aaron our guide fairly easily outside on the pier.  Unfortunately though, since we are so late, we can not make the 10:30 wildcat tour – the lodge is over an hour away from the port.  There is a family of 3 standing with Aaron and as it turns out, they have hired Zulu Safaris (the tour company Aaron is freelancing with) to go to the St. Lucia hippo boat tour.  Aaron tells us we can’t make the wildcat tour and asks if we will do the boat tour – but we’ve already done that and aren’t really interested in repeating it.  We really wanted to see the wildcats.  There is another tour at 4:30 (which I looked up to confirm while Aaron is on the phone with the tour company) and after some negotiation and phone calls back and forth between Aaron and the tour company, we end up going in the van with the family to St. Lucia.  Aaron says then he will drive us around while they are on the boat tour and then take us to the 4:30 wildcat tour. 

Ok – well, whatever!  Thank God this is an overnight call and we don’t have to worry about getting back to the ship for anything besides dinner – which should not be an issue in any way, shape or form.  And to add to our good fortune, the family is lovely, Grandmom, Mom and teenage son from Sydney, Australia.  Makes the hour drive out to St. Lucia quite enjoyable chatting and trading travel stories with them.  Arriving at the boat dock, the family has plenty of time before their 12 noon departure time.  We drop them there and then discuss with Aaron timing – there is no way he will have time to drive us around St. Lucia, pick the family up at 2, take them back to the ship and then take us back to the wildcat place.  Physically impossible!  So we come up with an alternate plan – Aaron can take us to the lodge now – it’s a lodge right? We can hang out there until the tour time.  He can come back here, pick up the family, take them back to the ship (because that is what they wanted to do – go straight back) and then come back for us.  It is a lot of extra driving – but there is really no other way to do it.  We are still an hour away from the wildcat place – so this seems like the only plan.

I looked at the lodge’s website and it said they had a coffee shop open until 1 – so that would be perfect for a light lunch.  There are also walking trails on the property which we figure we can use to burn some time.  As we are leaving though, I decide to call the lodge, just to confirm the coffee shop is open – you know, better safe than sorry.  And guess what?  They don’t have that any longer!  There isn’t any food or anything there at this time of day.  Pivot!!!  We are right here in St. Lucia and there is a Spar.  We’re handled – we’re picnicking!  Running inside, we pick up a sausage roll and a cheese and smoky beef pie, some snacks and coke and we were golden. And it is so cheap!  We got a liter of Coke zero – a liter!! – for less than $1 USD!  The pies were $1.40 each!  Just crazy.

So, off we go with our picnic lunch to the Emdoneni Lodge to hang out until our 4:30 tour time.  It takes a little over an hour to get there, as we thought, and we wait in the car while Aaron goes inside to get us checked in for the tour.  He takes a long time, finally reappearing with Nophunda, a sweet lady who takes us into the empty lodge and sets us up in this great sitting area where we can have our lunch.  Oh, and bonus!  There is a full bar with bartender, Phile, who serves us our wine and beer.  This is perfect!

And the food is great – those pies were fantastic, and we can save the coke for later – so everything works out perfectly.  As we are munching on our delicacies, Ruth, the lodge owner, comes over to make sure the guide didn’t just dump us here!  We told her the situation and she was so accommodating and sweet.  She explained everything – they have no guests today, the lodge is essentially closed as they prepare for a large event with 58 people tomorrow and then a Grand Circle Tour coming tomorrow evening!  So they are preparing the lodge, but she very nicely told us to make ourselves at home and brought us a map of the walking trails for us to explore.

So, after lunch, and stowing our bag beneath the bar to keep the monkeys away, we headed out to explore the lodge and the trails….in the rain!  Hey – that is what our raincoats and umbrellas are for!  We wandered through all the little lodge cabins, past the neat looking pool with the Braai area and the wild buffalo horns and other artifacts.  It’s a great place – and if we had more time, we’d definitely stay here overnight!

The map sort of defeated us, because the trails were actually outside the fenced in compound, but we were unsure if we should go out the gates.  So we turned around and walked out past the cat enclosures onto a trail through the grass where we had our first sighting of the herd of Elan here – a huge buck, some does and babies!  They are so cute – we love how they just stand there and look at you twitching their ears!  Then they run away when the buck comes to get them. 

Next are the Zebras!  Right there a couple hundred feet away. Just grazing happily.  Too cool!

We continue walking the paths, which are really nothing more than mowed tracks through the grass around the perimeter of the property – but we are at least outside, in the fresh air and walking.

Reaching the main gate, we circle back toward the lodge on the gravel (read: sand) road – and who is coming to greet us?  The Elan and the Zebra!  Walking down the road toward us.   Super cool.  Definitely walking in the wilderness!  And the rain! 

It is coming down pretty good now, making us grab the umbrellas to continue our hike through the property.  No more wildlife sightings, just scrub forest and grass – and lots of water and sandy mess!  Our shoes will never be the same – and my feet are so wet I take off the shoes and socks before coming back inside to the lodge.  I don’t want to track all that muck inside after they have prepared the place for the group event!  Even though I tried to clean off the shoes as much as possible.

And there we sat.  In the comfy lounge, waiting for the appointed 4:30 hour for our tour.  We have more beer and wine (hey, Ruth told us to get drunk!), hanging out, listening to the monsoon downpour thinking that would be our luck – the tour is cancelled due to weather.  But – that is not to be, fortunately!  Around 4:15, Phile takes us over to the reception area for the tour – and shit – there is a huge group here for the late tour.  There are like 30 people here. Geez, we thought for sure we’d be the only ones!  Oh well.  What to do?

Into the preserve we go which is not what we expected at all. It is more zoo-like than cats in the wild. We thought the cats would be running free, but they are all in enclosures. Turns out these cats are all rescued and can’t be released back into the wild, so they are used to breed. The babies are then weaned and kept separate for 2 years in another area, then released. Ok, well, we’re here, we’ll make the best of it.

The first cat we see is a wildcat – essentially like our domesticated cats. The guide tells us that our domesticated cats are descendants of this type of little guy.  Which makes sense – I mean he looks just like a cat you’d see in somebody’s home.  It’s pretty tame, you can even pet it. But, yeah, not our deal, so we just hang outside the fence, listening to the guide’s explanation.

Moving on we come to the Caracals. OMG. These are nasty scary things that hiss!!! I tried to get the sound on video, it gives you a little idea, but it doesn’t give you the full feeling. Eek.  They give me shivers!!!  They are definitely killers and you can just tell by the way they are pacing up and down the fenceline they could stalk anything. 

They are waiting for their food which is raw chicken leg. And they jump for it!!! Totally wild, and totally scary! 

We walk down to the Servals next, which are cuter and safer – judging from the fact that we get to go in their cage. And one of them is loving on the guide.  We can’t pet them, which stinks, but it is at least sweet to watch them with their handlers.  In this cage, they have a male and female together all the time so they can mate. Whereas the Caracals were separated by gender until they mate.

Across the path are the Cheetas.  Oh, they are also scary, slinking around their territory – in an elegant sort of slinking way! These are 2 males we can see from a distance. They aren’t interested in us in the least, just pacing and pacing and pacing around their enclosure.

Our final stop is to see Moira, the basically domesticated female Cheetah.  The lead guide has been with her since she was 3 weeks old, and they have a bond – Moira comes right up to her and lets the guide pet her and cuddle. 

We all get to come into the enclosure and even take pictures with her!  How cool!

She really is very sweet – and I so want to pet her – it is hard not to touch her.  Apparently visitors used to be able to touch the cats, but there were some problems (aren’t there always?) so we are no longer allowed to do so.  Bummer. But just being near her and getting pictures is pretty darn sweet!

And that’s that.  Sort of disappointing – and it would have been totally different if there wasn’t such a huge group there with us. But – it was an experience!  And quite frankly hanging out at the lodge, talking with Ruth, and walking the property was all pretty cool – and preferable to the other ship’s tours that were offered.  Since we’ve been here on both the ship (COVID cruise!) and with Gate1, we’ve pretty much done everything.  This was something totally different.

We head out to the parking area, holding our breath, hoping Aaron will indeed be there – and of course he is!  Phew. Crisis averted – we figured we’d just go back in and ask Ruth to put us up for the night!  But no need, and we start our return journey to the port.  Aaron is a doll and we chat with him for most of the hour plus drive.  He actually lives in Durban, so after this long day of driving back and forth he still has an hour and 45 minutes drive to get home.  Bless his heart!  We are so appreciative that he drove us all over and made this day work.

Arriving safely back to the port – he drives like crazy, but good crazy – the gate is closed.  What?  Aaron says it is supposed to open all the time!  We look around for an alternative way to get in, but there isn’t one.  Turns out, the gate is just shut, not locked, so we just open it up and voila! Back on the pier.  When in South Africa…….

Back on board, we dump our bag and just head straight up to Windows for the buffet. We don’t feel like changing or anything to go to Discoveries, and this works best.  We can sit outside and just pick and choose what we want off the buffet.  Afterward we head to the Living Room to hang out with the “boys,” showing them the pictures and the videos of the Cheetah and the Caracals.  Then it is an early night for us – and we retire to the balcony to hang out in the now dry evening and read the night away.