The second spot for today's snorkeling was all for fish. It actually didn't seem much better for fish than the first spot, but, okay. Anyway, the first picture is a school of blue tangs doing their thing, then another yellowtail damselfish - I love these! Then a beautiful featherduster worm of some sort.


The fourth picture is a beautiful juvenile French angel fish. So gorgeous and teeny! Then a wrasse and a jack telling each other jokes, and our last sight underwater - a barracuda hanging out under the boat.

Snorkeling: Turtle Spot

The first stop for today's snorkel trip was at a spot known for turtles. First we saw this interesting looking ballyhoo. Then we floated around in turtle territory until we were lucky enough to be visited by a pair of turtles hanging out,




diving down for food and back up for air. It was wonderful! Then we got even luckier when this little sting ray came by to show off a bit. Then we went over to the area with reef fish. We saw this honeycomb cowfish, the blue-spotted wrasse, and yellowtail damselfish - the first picture the juvenile, the second the adult. There were lots of other fish there too, but these were the stand-outs. :-)

Dolphins in port

Today pulling into port I spotted dolphins from the balcony! There were three of them, not jumping much, we could just see them coming up to breathe. I have no idea why they would be in that area, it seems like there would be lots of better places for dolphins to frolic. But we were happy to see them!

Snorkeling: Okay bunch of fish

Our first snorkel day on the cruise. To be honest, the snorkeling was not stellar. But it was great to be in the water, and say hello to the fish we saw! :-) The first picture is of a group of French grunts, a common sight in the Caribbean. The next shot is a beautiful parrotfish.

Then we saw several butterfly fish (including spotfin and foureye) but didn't get good pictures. A nice group of surgeon fish in the third picture. Then a picture of two beautiful blue angel fish, this was sadly the best shot we got although we spent a while with them. The last shot is of a group of bar jack, nice to see these while snorkeling.

Capetown: Beach

What a beautiful day! Spent it on various beaches with Melissa and Otis. First a surfing beach where we walked around and found this beached jellyfish. Ugh. Then around the bay to the whaling spot.


So, you see the rocks of the shoreline, then there's some water, then it looks like more rocks? Just maybe 10-15 away? That's a whale! :-) After that down to visit the penguins. A great day!

Exeter: Morning Drive

Our final game drive of this trip, and it was packed. First we found a lion and stayed with it for a while, until we left it because it was too boring, and we had more exciting lions to go see. We went to see these lions eating an impala they had just killed - you can see its head in the bottom left area. Lions are not neat and clean and polite eaters. They are messy and pushy, and there was a lot of growling and swatting at each other. Intense! A jackal was waiting around for scraps, but I don't think there was any left after this crew.






Then we saw this vulture, I am not sure but I think an African white-backed vulture. Followed closely by the African hoopoe, we saw these a few times but this is the best picture. A very cool looking bird! Then there was this grey duiker, another small bambi-ish antelope. Then we found this leopard, and older one (you can tell by the thick jowls) with leftover impala in the tree. He brought it down and ate it while we tried not to gag from the scent. Crossing the river we saw again the goliath heron and croc, this time with what I think is a blacksmith plover.

Exeter: Afternoon Drive

This drive we went to the dam and found this huge lone rhino having a drink. Then we went along our merry way to find this cheetah lounging on a termite mound, looking around and seeing if anything was worth chasing. The hyena nearby did not like the cheetah being around. It moved in slowly and tried to chase the cheetah off. It was quite a showdown! The cheetah was not impressed by a single hyena, and the hyena did not call in for reinforcements. Instead it sort of slunk off. The cheetah continued lounging.