Why we'll never forget this South African safari!

Hello this is Renee and Tom and I are on the Ultimate World Cruise and we just docked in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. We were given a warm welcome and then got on a bus to go to the Pumbaa Private Game Reserve. It was given the name by the Portuguese sailor, Ptolemy Dias, when he came around here in 1485. The boat had come ashore where they then met up with the local Khoisan people and where they bartered for some fresh meat and vegetables and water. The Portuguese never ever settled on the South African shoreline. They did have a refreshment station in what is today Mozambique and Tilagoa Bay but they never settled here on the South African coastline. However, the name of our bay, which is Elgoa Bay, was originally given the name of Bahia de Lagoa and this is the largest bay on the African continent. It is about 65 to 70 kilometers wide. To our left hand side you'll see this very tall brick building. That is called the Campanile and the Campanile was built in 1923 to commemorate the hundred year landing of the British settlers. Your local tribes, the Khoisan people, who were a hunter-gatherer people. And so when these settlers landed, they basically landed right in front of that monument but it was on the beachfront commemorating the landing of the settlers here in Port Elizabeth in 1820 and indeed it was basically just tents on a beach. So these poor people had spent three and a half months at sea and they were sort of put in tents and from there they were then put on ox wagons and they traveled basically the road that we will be traveling today, except there was no road, make tracks and chop down trees and bush and whatever to make their way to what they called the frontier country and that is where the British government gave them allotments of lands and farms, implements and seeds and they were told to get on with life in the new colony. The main marine life are the bottlenose dolphins which are the dolphins that basically live in this bay and then we have the bride's whales and the great white shark and then every year between June and October we have the southern right whales which come from the south pole. The main street here is called Govanenbeke Avenue. Govanenbeke was one of the freedom fighters who together with Nelson Mandela was incarcerated on Robben Island. Next week we will be voting in our seventh election after democracy. Port Elizabeth as I said is also known as Cabeja. It is a city of about 1.2 million inhabitants. Nelson Mandela of course was born in this province. We are one of nine provinces in South Africa and this province is called the Eastern Cape Province. He was born in a little village called Pudu. After an hour and a half bus ride we arrived and it started to rain. Nestled in the Eastern Cape of South Africa the Pumba Private Game Reserve provides a luxurious five-star safari experience. This malaria-free reserve is celebrated for its rich biodiversity including the iconic Big Five and unique population of rare white lions. The Pumba Private Game Reserve spans about 65 square kilometers or 16,061.5 acres. The first animals we saw were wildebeest and right across the street was the giraffes. We were in an open jeep so the rain was coming in but they provided ponchos and blankets. Near the same area was zebras and then the impalas and right around the corner was the elephants. Elephants tend to follow ancient routes that are ingrained in their memory often passed down across generations. We had the incredible opportunity to watch them follow their ancient path crossing the road right before our eyes. Next we found the Cape buffalo also known as the African buffalo. It is one of the Big Five renowned for its strength and unpredictable nature. Up next we found the majestic creatures of the white lion. They were trying to sun themselves in the rain but it continued to rain. If you look real careful you'll be able to see the little baby cubs. And then we ran across the hippopotamus. Wait for it. He was hard to find but we found the cheetah. Because it was rainy and overcast we ran across the skittish bat-eared fox. Next up we found some kudu. One with horns is a male without horns is female. And a herd of impalas crossing the road. And right after that we spotted some warthogs. We were barely able to see the elusive rhino. This was a slow zebra. We navigated our way across the reserve heading towards a lunch that was waiting for us. We were wet and chilly and the hot chocolate was most welcomed. Al was good luck because he had a safari hat on, jacket and binoculars. There was just a few monkeys hanging out as we ate lunch. I did try a few items and Tom actually ate the kudu. After lunch we began our journey towards the park entrance. We were able to see a few more animals before we left. We had a great day and then we had an hour and a half bus ride back to the ship. Four thousand cars ship out of this port every week. They will be going to a tree that requires a right hand drive. We spent about five hours in the game reserve and had a blast. Make sure to like, subscribe and ring that bell for more adventures from every corner of the globe. See you at the next port.