South Africa Honeymoon: Addo to Mossel Bay to Cape Town
The third installment of our honeymoon adventure. Parts one and two.
After a great time in Addo, we headed to our guest house in Port Elizabeth. It was nice, the people were friendly, and we had a good sleep after a long long day. We woke early to head back west and onto our next evenings adventure: Nyaru.
The drive was uneventful as we were backtracking on a route we already took. We did stop at a huge gorge, but it was not that exciting. As I said before, drivers in South Africa know how to drive, they stay out of the passing lane and they pull to the side if there is none, it is beautiful.
When we got to Nyaru, which was near Mossel Bay, we drove about 10 miles or so from the highway. With their provided directions, it was quick and easy. They have a gate, which we called and were let into. The drive took about another 10 minutes on a dirt road and we came upon set of rooms, which looked brand new, then a giraffe! She was right there, just being a giraffe. We pulled up to the lodge itself, and were offered juice while we were told about our room. We drove back to the rooms and were given a huge room with a kitchen and lounge area. It seemed a waste for only one night, but it was wonderful anyway.
We went on a long walk into the game reserve, I'm not sure we were supposed to, but we did anyway. We saw a whole slew of animals on our walk, it was so amazing. We had no idea what the animals were, but we would learn the next day.
That night they had some kind of celebration, not sure what is was called, but we went to the lodge for it, there were a handful of families watching the Rugby match, South Africa vs someone. I have no idea who else was playing, but I now know more about the actual rules to the game of rugby, more than Friends! ever taught me, that is for sure.
What was wonderful, in addition to everything else about Nyaru, was that they had a fairly young giraffe, Ayane, who mostly stayed around the lodge and guest-rooms. I was wondering around at night and could not find her, and upon return to our room, she was sleeping right outside our window. What a great and unexpected addition to the stay.
The next morning, early, we got up for an ATV tour of the game park. We rented a single ATV for both of us, and as the pack had almost started we were at the back. This worked out in our favor, as I could let everyone get way ahead and zoom right on up to catch them. That was a lot of fun, having not ridden an ATV since middle school, I really enjoyed being on one again. We saw a horde of animals and learned a lot about each. We saw zebra and giraffe herds, wildebeast and sable, and at the end, we were treated to hanging out with a caracal.
The caracal was in a cage as there was a problem with it when it was born, either left by the mother or something along those lines. The reason it was in a cage (a huge cage, like, backyard sized) was they were trying to acclimate it to having to hunt on its own. She was interested in people, and I followed it around the cage for a bit, only for it to hide, then run at me and jump on my face. This was apparently what it did to play, so I let it happen a few more times. After about 20 minutes with it, we headed back to the lodge, packed up, and headed on our way back to Cape Town.
The drive to cape town was quick, but eventful. We stopped at Cape L'agulas, which is the southernmost point in Africa and the meeting point of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Most people consider Cape of Good Hope the southern most point, but it is not.
The town of L'Agulhas is pretty neat, quaint, and tiny. The point is about a mile walk from the parking lot, and there is a light house. The drive to get here is quite a bit off the route, but was worth it. On the way back to the route, we made a few wrong turns, which put us into a few dirt roads in the pouring rain, talk about adventure.
Headed back into Cape Town we were caught in a massive backup that was a result of 4 lanes coming into 1 and a stop light at that point. It was fast, though, as people there know how to drive. We made it to our hotel, got some gas station pizza, then fell asleep.
We woke up, drove up to table mountain, took a photo or two, returned the rental car, then flew right on back to Johannesburg, then onto London. In London we had a small capsule hotel which was great and wonderful to have in the midst of two super long flights. Then we flew home, pretty uneventful end of the trip.
The overall trip was amazing, I'm not sure I could say a single bad thing about any aspect of it. South Africa was a beautiful country with so much to offer. Namibia was a diamond in the rough that I'm sure many people would not even consider visiting, but they should. I would go back to either of these countries in a heart beat.
