12/22 – Aquila Game Reserve 2 hours outside of Cape Town

After a good night’s sleep, we awake nice and early and are out walking the Sea Point promenade by 6:30am. And we are not alone – not by a long shot. This is an early morning place, for certain, and there are tons and tons of walkers and joggers out starting their day as are we.

Back at the hotel, we have our breakfast, then get ready for our pick up to Aquila, the game reserve in the Karoo area of South Africa. Our driver is right on time, and we hop into the van to go pick up the 5 others who will be joining us on the drive. We have one couple and a single female we pick up in town, then we have to drive 20 minutes out of our way, in the opposite direction down toward Hout Bay, to pick up 2 others – who keep us waiting for almost 20 minutes. And the worst? They were having breakfast. Sitting right outside on the restaurant patio literally next to the van. They clearly saw us pull up, we even watched as one of the idiots left the table, went inside the hotel lobby, then came back out and went back to the table. Unbelievable!

Finally out on the road, we drive through vineyards and scrub land, the landscape changing almost as fast as we are driving. Right before our 1 hour rest stop, the traffic slows and, on the other side of the road, we witness the aftermath of a horrible crash. An adult and child are lying dead in the road, a van pulled over on the side with a smashed windshield. That vision will never go away. Truly horrific and definitely put us all into very introspective moods.

The rest of the drive was fortunately uneventful, arriving at the lodge a little after noon. The 2 idiots are not going to be with us on the drive, apparently they are staying over night here, so it is just the 5 of us. We are given our welcome drinks – sparkling sauvignon blanc, really good! – and then checked in and escorted to the buffet lunch. There are over 150 people here for the lunch, and we are at the tail end, so we take what we can get – which actually is quite a lot of really good traditional food.

We paired off with Dominique, the single female who is from Germany and visiting friends in Cape Town. She’s quite fun and interesting, and we all have a lovely time at lunch, then head out together to the game drive vehicle and manage to grab seats across from each other. Then we are off, driving through the open range, sighting a hippo sticking his face out of the water and then a couple of giraffes, right outside the lodge gates. Nice.

Then we find the rhinos – bathing in the water hole and then walking our way. A whole discussion ensues around the rhino marking it’s territory (yes, with poop) as well as how they really can’t see very well.

The rhinos meander over to some zebra, who are right outside the drive vehicle. Then we manage to find Cape Buffalo, more zebra and a pair of rhinos – mom and baby. Oh and a couple of ostrich.

The landscape here is so different than what we’ve seen so far – it is arid and filled with scrub brush or weed like plants. The mountains add interest and breakup what would otherwise be a flat and very uninteresting valley.

Our next sighting are the lions. Now, this is why Colleen was a bit disparaging when we told her we were going to Aquila. The lions are kept in a fenced enclosure area to keep them from preying on the other animals. But it is a huge area – not like the Emdoneni cages. Not at all. It is just this massive area spanning I don’t know how many acres that is fenced to protect the other animals on the reserve. Not that animals don’t get in here, and the lions hunt them. They are just not “free range” lions, so to speak. But they are still so cool – and right there, sleeping under the bushes alongside the game vehicle. So close!

Out of the enclosure we find some eland with zebras and then we find the elephants! There is this sweet elephant who was abused and worked in the circus for 20 some odd years – and she has a broken ear! Oh, poor baby. Aquila rescued her and is trying to rehabilitate her.

She isn’t 100% settled in yet, so we are careful with her and let her cross and go around before we continue on our way to our mid-drive drink stop. Hey, this is fine by us! Beer and wine and water in the middle of the preserve? We don’t have any issue here!

On our way out after our break, we pass the elephants again, this time as they are on the move, walking single file through the scrub.

A few more eland and then we are back to the lodge. We can see why Colleen would snub the preserve, it is a bit Disneyesque, sort of an open air zoo really. But to be honest, the whole experience was quite fun, and we saw a ton of animals, hung out with some really good people and had an overall enjoyable (road accident notwithstanding) day.

Bathroom breaks handled, we 5 are ready to hit the road and return to Cape Town. This time, though, we have to wait for yet another couple to finish shopping (sigh) before they finally get to the damn van and we can start our journey home. People. The world would be a better place…..finally in the van, we set off on our 2 hour journey, once again passing through the mountains, past a huge township that services the vineyards that are everywhere here on our drive.

It is a pleasant return trip – spent watching the scenery and reading our kindles (that we specifically brought for this purpose). Arriving back at the hotel by 6:30, we quickly freshen up then hit the streets in search of dinner. We find it in the form of Brads grill – which specializes in meat, but we aren’t quite that hungry, and we land on apps – calamari and grilled haloumi (yes, there is a Greek history to this place) and an excellent fresh fish dish (of which I forgot to take a picture).