Touring South Africa's Coast

After our day of relaxation.. we were off again. We were headed to the Cape Wineland and to Cape Town. Along the way we spent the night in Mossel Bay and saw some amazing views. We also stopped at a predator park Jukani to see some wonderful predator cats. The park is mostly to bring awareness about the endangered animals and how amazing they really are...

Mossel Bay view from Hotel


Jukani Predator Park... We saw lots of cats.. cheetah, white lion, leopard, ceracel, Bengal tigers, Siberian tigers, hyena, jackals, and more!

Hyena

Leopard

Tiger being Fed... Still a baby!

The Owner giving his male lion a hug! Unbelievable. Most of the animals have been hand raised by the husband & wife owners.

White Bengal Tiger.


Along our way to the Winelands (Franschhoek) were some amazing views..




Great start to our next adventure!!!

Relaxing...

Well even if it was only for a day we did some relaxing once we got back from Kariega. The boys swam in the pool, we headed to Sardinia beach and ate at one of our favorite outdoor restaurants.. the Pink Fig. Lots of fun...







We need the relaxation... we are off on a whirlwind tour!

Kariega

I know it has been awhile since my last real post... the Holidays have been very busy,and the boys have not gone back to school yet! Anyway... Scott's parents, Frank & Marlene arrived on Dec 11, after a very long flight and overnight stay in Joburg. We let them settle in for the day and then were off on Dec 12th to a local game reserve Kariega (about 2 hours away). We were fortunate enough to be able to stay in the Homestead at Kariega which is an old farm house on the property that has been remodeled and is stunning. Staying there means we are the only ones there... we have the whole place to ourselves, we have our own game ranger and private game drives, a chef that cooks all our meals and the manager Adri, who makes sure everything goes well. She is amazing! Of course, we are there to see the animals.. and we saw lots! Here are just a few.....





Oh .. the Lions! There amazing animals! There were a pride of about 6-7.. The mother lioness was HUGE!! At this point we have seen quite a few lions and this was the biggest lioness I have seen! Also another fact not sure everyone knows.. the male lion's have different color manes.. (don't know about you but I never really thought much about it) but the darker the mane the more testosterone they have making them the more dominant. Something new I have learned! We saw them two days and as usual they were napping. Anyway check out the photos..

This is one of the male cubs which is almost a year old.

The pride..


One very interesting thing that happened.. we came across the adolescent male lion that has been pushed out of pride laying in the grass. Out of a watering hole behind him came 3 rhino. These rhino did not like the lion being in "their" territory.. so as we sat there watching the rhino chased him off and as he got up and headed away he literally was 10 feet from the vehicle we were in and looked right at us!!!



The whole experience was amazing! Our ranger Thomas was great. He was a great tracker and knew soooo much about the animals. And the views were breathtaking! These experiences are ones I never tire of. Wonderful!



Website for the game reserve... http://www.kariega.co.za/

Happy 2010!!!

We would love to wish everyone out there a very Happy New Year!! 2009 was an amazing experience and can't wait to see what 2010 brings!!

Gingerbread Houses

Well this was our attempt at gingerbread houses... With the boys, I wanted to do them the easy way.. you know when we glue graham crackers onto milk cartons and just smear icing on and decorate. Since they don't have graham crackers here I made my own, and now milk cartons so I had to use another box. It was really all about the decorating and the boys had a great time.. I think Evan ate more than he put onto his house. Just another American Christmas tradition we are trying to continue.. maybe one day we will graduate to the Real gingerbread houses! Hope you all are enjoying the holiday season!!



Aiden's Masterpiece


Evan's .. He only got to the roof, I think he was too busy eating.

Update

Well we have been busy... the holiday season is upon us and is coming fast. The boys are out of school tomorrow and Scott will be done with work on Friday. So the last couple of weeks have been filled with holiday parties and "year end" events. The boys have finished up all their sports and classes for the end of the year. They have both graduated to the next class.. Evan will now be a Zebra and Aiden will now be a Lion. They are very excited to move to a new class. I have been busy with lots of things... I hosted a cookie exchange this past weekend and it went very well. Most here had never heard of anything like it so it was fun. The problem is that now we have tons of yummy cookies.. and all I do is eat them! We have decked our halls and are ready for christmas. Scott's parents will be here on Friday and then we are off traveling to show them the sites and be back right before Christmas. So this week will be about the last minute preparations and we are making gingerbread houses this week.. so look for more exciting posts to come. Hope everyone out there has a wonderful holiday season!

Sad Farewell

This post is a little late but...Recently we said a sad good bye to two of the American families that have been here with us. It was a great night of food, drinks and good memories. They are greatly missed and we can't wait to see them again state side. I know they are happy to be back home! Good Luck and Keep in Touch!

Troy & Kimberly Comiskey..


Joel & Candice Wolf....