Kathy Rycheghem left on New Years Eve from the Moline airport. After a brief stop in Atlanta, they were off on a 14 hour flight to Cape Town, South Africa. Kathy's daughter and son-in-law treated her to an amazing vacation in appreciation for her ongoing child care and support of their family. The whole family, including the kids were ready for some “wild” adventures.
They were unloaded in Cape Town at a surprisingly clean airport without air conditioning, and found themselves in line behind about 400 people who also needed their passports reviewed. The checkers had no sense of urgency. They were thrilled to eventually be on their way to Port Elizabeth.
They stayed at a beautiful resort, that was more like a couple large houses with a pool. It was called Shumwari. Every morning they had to rise early to leave at 6 am for an excursion out to see the local wild animals. When they returned they were presented with tea, breakfast, and a cloth to clean up from their dusty travels. Later, at approximately 3 pm, they had “high tea”. They had the day to rest and enjoy the property before leaving about 6 pm for another drive. Supper was served at their return, approximately 8 pm.
The Land Rovers were well equipped for the drives and included articles for safety. A rifle was propped on each car in case of emergency encounters with an animal. They were happy to report that they had never actually needed to use them but assured the visitors they were well trained, just in case.
Their guide was informative and pointed out the various species along their trips. The preserve was 78,000 acres with more to be added soon. They make a point to not interfere with the circle of life of the animals that live on the property. They only feed water to the watering holes on very dry periods because the animals cannot migrate to other areas due to fencing on the perimeter.
The guys took a hunting excursion lasting from 5 am until about 9 pm. They are required to find any of their target animals that were injured by their shots. Meat of the animals is donated to the local community and the heads will be sent for mounting. The group got 5 in all.
They had one slightly scary moment when elephants came and surrounded them. They used their trunks to survey the inside of the vehicles, possibly looking for a snack.
Kathy had a lot of lamb and salmon on the trip. The beef had a strange taste in comparison to ours, so she at other options. Their ketchup was just tomato sauce with cane sure in it. The kids loved it! One day they went to Kentucky Fried Chicken and it was the best they had ever had. The chicken seemed very fresh. Soda was in bottles and there were no cans or plastic bottles.
At night they could hear lions from a nearby rehab center that were shipped from Ukraine. Monkeys were nearby so their rooms had to be closed to avoid them getting in and causing destruction.
After 5 days and 4 nights they left the resort to see Table Mountain and Penguin Beach. The mountain view was snowy and foggy that day, but beautiful. There were around 3,000 penguins at Penguin Beach. They found a moment to tip their toes in the Indian Ocean. It was really cold!
They ended the trip with at the engagement party of the brother of her son-in-law's friend, Zemere.
The weather was good and temperatures were about 80. No rain!
A 22-hour trip home and her bed never felt so good.
