Alfred Basin

It was a really rough night for me. I had some GI issues. I am hoping that I did not pick up a bug in Port Elizabeth. Bob and I went to the World Cafe together because we find that it is hard for us to reconnect prior to disembarking for excursions. I had a piece of bread and am hoping that the medicine that I took this morning will calm my GI tract.

Since I didn't get much sleep last night, I told Bob that I should probably grab my next pillow so I could sleep on the bus. I ran to the room, grabbed my neck pillow and headed back to the World Cafe to meet Bob.

Our excursion for today is Aquila Private Game. We met Jenni at the exit to the ship so we could get on the same bus. Since we had our face to face immigration interview in Port Elizabeth, we were able to just exit the ship and quickly get our excursion bus assignment.

The drive to Aquila is close to two hours. Our guide was excellent. He gave us a lot of information regarding settlement of South Africa. The volume on his microphone was really loud. Bob took out his hearing aid and I thankfully had noise cancelling earbuds with me.

We stopped for a 'comfort stop' at a truck stop. We were told that this would be a brief stop. I went to the restroom and walked into a stall. A restroom attendant shooed me out of the stall and said she had to clean it. I went into another stall. It did not have a knob on the door lock but I was able to shut the door and rotate the nub which engaged the lock. It gave me a bit of a pause but I thought that if I can lock it, surely, I can unlock it. Well, guess what....for the life of me, I would not rotate the nub to unlock the door. If this had been a normal restroom stall, I could crawl under the door because I am a bit of a gumby. Unfortunately, this stall's door went all the way to the ceiling and there was only about a 2 inch gap at the floor. So I am now frantically trying to get the stupid nub to rotate. I know that Bob will not let the bus depart without me but no one could see me in the stall. I started banging on the door and yelling that I am locked in. Then I thought, how would anyone know which stall I was in? I squatted down and thrust my hand under the door, waiving my hand and saying, "I am here and locked in!!!" I then banged some more. My voice is now a couple of octaves higher as I continued to say that I am locked in. I hear the attendant say that she will get the key. But guess what, the key doesn't work. At this point, I have no idea what is going on outside the stall....inside the stall, I am investigating any possible escape routes. There is absolutely no way for me to get out except if the door can be unlocked. Someone asked if I was with Viking. I responded yes....please don't leave me here. FINALLY, the door opened. I flew out of the stall like a mad woman. After washing my hands, I quickly made my way to the bus. As I was walking through the parking lot, I heard people laughing about someone being locked in the restroom. This buzz continued on the bus. Someone in the front of the bus asked who it was. I answered that it was me. That caused a ton of laughter. I responded that it is never dull when the Kerrs are around. Most on the bus agreed. I guess that we have a bit of a reputation.

After the morning excitement at the rest stop, the rest of the drive was an opportunity for me to calm down a bit.

We arrived at the game reserve and noted that the vehicle were not like those in Port Elizabeth but were flat bed trucks with seats installed. This indicates that we will have a much rougher ride than in Port Elizabeth. We had flashbacks to India.

Upon exiting the bus, we lined up to sign waivers. After surviving the bathroom encounter, I thought twice about signing a waiver-after all, if a restroom stall can pose a danger-what am I thinking getting into an open air vehicle with wild animals like lions running wild? Since I am not one to shrink from danger, I am opting to continue to use public restrooms and go on safaris.

After signing the waiver, we were offered a welcome drink and a restroom break. I was gun shy so we just lined up close to the safari vehicles hoping that we could avoid the back seats as they really cause Bob a lot of discomfort.

I will note that the weather has changed significantly. We are able to wear long pants, our World Cruise jackets that Viking gave us, and I even wore a scarf.

We boarded the vehicle. Ron and Carol were able to get on our same vehicle but Jenni was nowhere to be seen. When the final person got on the vehicle, we guessed that Jenni must have gotten on the other vehicle.

We began our game drive. The scenery is absolutely breath taking. It is very arid and rocky environment.

Our seats were right by the exit to the vehicle. As a result, we had a gap where the cool air came rushing into the vehicle. I was so glad to have my scarf and warm jacket but would have loved to have a blanket. Bob and I ended up trying to use each other's body heat to keep warm. What a difference from the hot weather that we have been experiencing on this cruise.

We immediately drove by a lake (I believe that this is a man made lake). We saw some hippos-well, actually we just saw their eyes and noses.

We next saw Elands. We liked seeing the rest of the story to the Eland that we have.

It seems that this game park really emphasizes rehabilitation of animals. They have an elephant that was rescued from a circus. It has a damaged ear and tail. They also have lions who were on hunting reserves. Our guide said that these animals were injected with steroids to reach trophy size. These animal's food supply are being supplemented as they do not know how to hunt. The goal is to help these animals regain/relearn life skills. As an example, the female lions do not have maternal instincts. There was a litter of cubs that the mother did not know how to care for them. As a result, the whole litter was lost to predators. They are introducing a 'wild' female lion in hopes that she will teach the other female lions how to take care of cubs.

During the game drive, we saw the Africa Big 5. This game reserve feels very curated. There are 3 giraffes and we saw all three. There were not trees that make up the normal diet of giraffes so they were being fed via elevated feeding bins. The elephants also receive supplemental nutrition. A truck came by with carrots for the elephants. The monkeys know when the elephants are being fed. They come running from a great distance and proceed to steal the carrots from the elephants. There are 5 elephants on this game reserve and, due to feeding, we were able to see all 5 elephants.

I applaud this game reserves efforts.

As a guest, I did not feel like we were driving through a natural African environment and seeing animals in natural environment. This game reserve is in an area where the land is inexpensive. I feel like they bought the land, built a resort and put animals in a less than natural environment. It is a lovely resort but after our mobile safari with Wilderness Travel (thanks to the DeGroodts for inviting us to join you on a life changing trip), this game reserve left me wanting to see animals in their natural habitat.

After the game drive, we were dropped off at the resort's main area. There was no direction as to where we were to have lunch. We wandered around trying to figure out where to go. Finally, our guide showed up and pointed us to the buffet. The lunch was good.

After a quick restroom break (where I made sure that I would not get locked in the stall), we boarded our bus for the return drive to Cape Town.

I made very good use of my travel pillow as I drifted in and out of listening to our guide's lecture.

As we approached the port, the guide received a call. He was told that we could not go directly to the ship. Instead, we had to stop by a club for an adult beverage and to listen to some music. I was not pleased about this. Between my lack of sleep last night, excitement of being locked in the restroom, going on a chilly game drive and having full stomachs from a great lunch, we were all ready to get back to the ship.

We made a quick stop at the club adjacent to the port, had a glass of bubbly, briefly sat in the club's outdoor area overlooking the port before returning to the bus for the two minute drive to the port.

We decided to have dinner at the Restaurant because I mistakenly read that they were featuring kingklip. I discovered my mistake when I was handed the menu.

The Pritchetts joined us. I had to tell them that I had read the menu wrong. Nevertheless, we were really enjoying our meal until a group of people were seated next to us. Unfortunately, one of the guests had a ton of perfume on. I had to move to another table. I told Dale, Jenni and Bob that I would just finish my meal by myself. Jenni was having none of that. She graciously joined me at a table for two. I feel grateful that this is one of the few times on this cruise that I have had to remove myself due to perfume.

I was very ready to climb in bed this evening.

At this point, Lightroom is not cooperating with me. I will post pictures from the safari as soon as I can crack the code to get Lightroom to function. I wished that I would have taken a picture of my bathroom prison.Read more