Canadian World Traveller Summer 2018 Issue

12
Out of South Africa
Exploring the Eastern Cape
WT Library Image
Article & Photography by Jennifer Merrick
Long before I heard the catchphrase
bucket list, I dreamt of going on safari.
I’d imagine myself driving through the
African plains in an open-air jeep, photographing
lions, outfitted like Meryl Streep in
the movie Out of Africa. Later Robert Redford
would shampoo my hair while quoting poetry…
(Okay, I digress.)
But now, decades later, I finally had the
chance to visit this great continent with a
dream trip to South Africa’s Eastern Cape,
located on the southeastern coast of the country.
Our safari at Amakhala Game Reserve
was magical with sights of graceful giraffes
rambling through the vegetation, so-uglythey’re-cute
warthogs darting about with their
tails up as straight as antennas and even lions
lounging at the edge of the cliff looking into
the sunrise --not to mention monkeys, zebras,
water buffalos, wildebeest and the rhinos.
These animals roamed through some of the
most picturesque landscape I’d ever encountered
with emerald green rolling plains that
dipped into a large basin lined with red sand
cliffs. At the bottom, was the Bushmans River
that wound through even more pristine velds.
(See the Stay and Play section for more information
on the reserve and our accommodation
at Safari Lodge).
Interestingly, as much as the safari experience
lived up to my expectations (with the exception
of the missing Robert Redford head massage),
there was so much more that I didn’t anticipate
on this trip to South Africa. Witnessing
rural village life, discovering a wild coastline
teeming with marine life and hearing so many
different accents spoken in urban centers with
diverse multi-cultural legacies were just as
much bucket list adventures as photographing
the big five.
Touring Mandela’s Childhood Playground
“Some of the happiest years of my boyhood
were spent in Qunu,” wrote Nelson Mandela
in his memoir Long Walk to Freedom. So it
was a thrill to see firsthand where his remarkable
life began on a Nelson Mandela early
childhood excursion with Imonti Tours.
Mandela would have been 100 this year, but
his heroic legacy lives on in South Africa and
throughout the world. In his compelling autobiography,
Mandela nostalgically described
the veldts and valleys of the village, located in
the former homeland of Transkei on South
Africa’s Eastern Cape.