Last port day – and last – shudder – ship’s tour. Although, really, they’ve not been all that bad…well…what can you do?  At any rate, Mossel Bay is more of a resort town, and besides hiking (which did look great) the only thing we had found to do was Botlierskop game reserve.  We had looked at trying to go on our own, but couldn’t find a way.  Then, at the last minute, Azamara added this tour. So game on. 

We are actually delayed about an hour by winds and trying to get tenders in the water safely, which makes the ship tour decision even better.  Once on shore we hop onto our designated bus and wait….and wait.  The new ShoreEx guy was coming with us, and he wasn’t on our tender.  Sigh.  Oh well, again, we’re on a ship tour, not a problem with being late or timing.  Once we’re all on the buses, we take off for the 35 minute drive through the town (definitely resort town – all built up with condos and holiday homes!) before finally entering a more rural area where we start to climb into the hills toward the resort.  Along the way our tour guide gives tells us how the area was named – the rocky outcrop towering over the area (which we begin to see from the bus as we get closer to the resort) is named Botlierskop – Botlier, for the man who owned the property and skop, for the hill top/rocks that are at the top of the ridge.  Botlier used to go up to the top of the rocks and light a fire when ships were arriving – to let town people know they could go to the harbor to trade.

Entering the resort, we are greeted with a welcome coffee and some of those fried donut things that can be really good – or really bad.  These were the latter, unfortunately.  Sort of like cold fried soggy grease laden dough balls.  Ick.  But the setting is lovely, the resort is absolutely gorgeous nestled in the valley between these towering hills.  It is landscaped to the hilt – very Disneyesque! But beautiful nonetheless. 

After hitting the rest rooms, we all troop out to the game drive vehicles and load up.  They are huge, 20 pax on each, but we manage to find a good seat and then hang on!  It’s bumpy, but totally fun. And the scenery!  It is worth it to come here just for the stunning views of the mountains and the valley.  Our driver says he doesn’t like people, so he will keep us away from everyone else – a man after our own heart! 

Up, up we go to the top of the ridgeline – where the cold wind is definitely blowing – we dressed appropriately today though – onion time!  We aren’t’ seeing any animals up here – but you know what? The view is worth it, absolutely stunning.

We do run across (figuratively, not literally) a family of Blue Cranes, complete with a baby.  Then our first sighting of mountain zebra, different from plains zebra in that they are brown and white to blend into the mountain territory better, and they have goiters under their necks that retain cool air to keep their bodies cool. The first 2 we see are actually standing in the wind, keeping the cool air to their sides to capture it in the goiters.  The next group we spot are by a watering hole, and I would swear they had been rolling in the mud because it looked like their backs were brown from a distance.  You really could not distinguish their shape. Fascinating!

Continuing on the drive, we encounter a huge herd of wildebeest, who we obviously startle into a stampede as we come up upon them, then some Impala.  Plus, lots more gorgeous scenery.

But then we head off to see the cheetahs and life gets interesting.  Botlierskop just introduced cheetahs back into the reserve in 2022, and they have mated producing 3 babies.  We’re excited to see the family, and our ranger/driver (who I have decided is new) heads down this really steep, very narrow access road right next to the fence line, to get to the cheetahs.  There is one vehicle ahead of us, already down at the bottom of the steep road ogling the cheetah babies and family.  As we head down there too, the adult female wanders out and plops herself down by a tree – right in the road.  Oops.  Means we can’t really get by, nor can the other vehicle get out. 

The ranger on the other vehicle decides to go around, through the scrub to get back up to the road, but as he is circling toward us, he gets stuck in a big rut or something, and that huge vehicle starts listing and then tipping to one side.  OMG. You can’t tell it from the pictures, but it was so close to going over – the ranger even had everyone on the left side of the vehicle come over to the right to keep it from flipping over.  It was so scary.  Even Ed was worried and when Ed is concerned, you know it’s bad!!

We couldn’t go any further to turn around either, because of the cheetah, so our ranger had to back all the way up that steep hill then dump us off and go back down to pull the other truck out. As we are standing there, along with a couple other rangers and game drive vehicles, one of the other rangers says, “You should be safe, I don’t think there are any dangerous animals on this corner.” You don’t think???? Gee thanks.

All 20 of us mill around, looking at the impala we can see behind the trees, just generally milling around.  I dubbed it the “unexpected bush walk!”  I mean, what else can you do?  Finally our ranger and the others come back up, but all the other vehicles are going down the hill now to see the cheetahs.  Unfortunately, because of the rescue, we don’t get to go down there.  Bummer!!!  But – Genya is on one of the vehicles that do get down there and she got some great shots along with a couple of excellent videos which she later sent to me via WhatsApp.

After that excitement, we get to console ourselves with more gorgeous scenery and some fairly hair-raising driving through this steep terrain.  It is just gorgeous.

Next up are the Cape Buffalo. There is a huge herd up on the top of a hill that we circle around to watch. They are enormous, and obviously could care less we are here.  I do love it when they watch us though – all these animals are so cool (some more cool-scary than cool-cute) when they stand there staring at you.

It’s getting on past noon now as we continue our hunt, so to speak, for animals.  We’ve been out here longer than scheduled – due to the rescue of course – but these guys are still doing the full circuit of the game drive, which is much appreciated (and again, we’re on a ship’s tour – they won’t leave without us!).  It appears are circling back toward the resort when we spot some kudu, along with a few impala, including a rare black impala that are bred here on the preserve.  Moving on, we finally get to an elephant – who the ranger says is cheeky and will try to cut us off, so after a few moments of watching her, we take off through the stream to ensure we can get back to the game lodge before too long.

As we round the bend from the stream and elephants, we find giraffes – a small S. African species that were introduced here in 2013.  The preserve started out with 3, now they have 7.  They are so cute – I just love to watch them walk, all geeky and sort of uncoordinated looking. 

A few more wildebeest, some more impala, a zebra or two and more gorgeous scenery brings us back to the lodge. One of the last vehicles to arrive, but still with time for the gift shops, of course! 

Then it is back on the bus, back to the tender, back to the ship for our last evening at sea where we hit the gym, finished packing, bought ridiculously expensive straw animals in the gift shop – we had to spend that OBC and these are handmade, locally by women taught to weave through the generations, so there is that.

Then dinner and to the balcony for our last sailing evening.