Slogging our way from Sanbona

Wednesday morning...

There is rain and then there is rain. The first is the lovely rain you listen to from the warmth of your room knowing you can stay inside with a good book, having no where to be anytime soon. The other is the kind you hear pounding your roof and slamming your windows at 3 AM knowing that in 3 hours you are getting in an open car to look for Cheetahs. One is lovely, the other perhaps is my worst nightmare.

Needless to say I fortified myself with some strong English Breakfast tea (another mistake, but more about that in a moment) and wrapped in blankets and poncho climbed into the Land Cruiser for my last game drive. Natasha promised something short (I LOVE this woman) and Scott wisely took the front seat where he still got wet, believe me, but at least there was a windscreen in front of him.

Soon I had the poncho pulled tight so all you could see were my glasses, which were drenched. And off we went searching for Cheetah. There are three in Sanbona, which is not a small thing, since they are fighting extinction and there are only 1000 in all SA. Soon Natasha picked up their signal and we were viewing a magnificent herd of springbok. She guessed that behind the springbok the cheetah was stalking and hopefully we would see it soon. We watched, and watched some more, no Cheetah. So we gave up.

Lucky for us that we did, because as we turned to leave that area, we saw the two white lions lay down right on the edge of the treeline, in plain view. Mike got some gorgeous pictures with his long zoom lens. Perhaps he will post them to whereintheworldaremikeandsteve.blogspot.com (check it out anyway for another perspective on this week’s travels). We watched the lions a few minutes, while they watched us, then started the ride back. We say Gemsbok, springbok, a jackal and a very frightened hare that ran right in front of the truck! So the ride was not for naught.

Still by the time we pulled into the garage I could not feel my toes and I was grateful for the hot towel and hot cocoa that Yuan had waiting for us. YUM! His ameretto spiked cocoa was even better. The perks of a ride in the cold and damp at Sanbona. Unfortuately, then it was time to pack up and Kevin awaited us with the Land Rover, for the trip to Franschoek (French Corner) and wine tasting.

The ride was an adventure. First were the large puddles along the road out of Sanbona, then the bridge that was 1/3 covered in Montague (where they later forced evacuations because of the flooding). I may have to rethink my earlier dreams of retiring there.
As if the raging rivers were not enough, the winds were dangerously high as well and a huge semi carrying bottles of water, tipped over on its side! Scary stuff. We got through all of these obstacles, but just behind us they were closing the roads. Talk about timing.

So…we needed to distress at this point, which meant wine and lots of it! How many wineries can one visit in 36 hours? Stay tuned to find out.