Woah, what a day!!!
It was my first full day in South Africa and I think it's almost unfair that I took in more than more than a day's worth! We started at a vineyard about 45 minutes outside our hotel in Cape Town. An informative and gentle young lady explained to use the process of growing grapes. It was all interesting, and while very cool to see the huge vats of wine, it was nothing new. I've heard it all before. Whether you've done a wine tour in France or California or even Virginia, it's the same basic schpiel.
The fun part began when they passed out the wines and we had a hilarious old guide explain to us the virtues of each individual grape. I should say I'm familiar enough with the South African accent, but the accent down in Cape Town is sooo different to that of the accent in Johannesburg, where all my family is from. Here, it's much more gutteral with strong "R' sounds and it's just overall much more blunt and in your face. It seems more heavily influenced by the Dutch language and less so by the Queen's British English.
But you, reading this at home (or work most probably) don't care about the accent here. We had an awesome lunch experience with a huge display of food and a full performance by a traditional tribal South African dance troupe. Simply spectacular.
But let's move on, because what I'm here to talk about are the CHEETAHS. They're gorgeous animals that simply need to be seen in person to be appreciated. I'll upload my photos tomorrow from the cheetah farm we visited. We didn't have enough time as we all would have liked, but some of us got the chance to actually walk into the cheetah cage and pet these beautiful creatures. We visited a cheetah conservatory and learned all about the various genotypes of cheetah fur and patterns we might see in nature. Pretty cool.