Welcome to South Africa.

Good morning from Cape Town.

After a couple of weeks exploring in Namibia, which was amazing, if you didn't see that video I'll have it linked up here or down below, I've flown to South Africa to spend a week exploring here.

I'm spending a few days in Cape Town and then I'm going to be flying to the Kruger National Park area to visit Sabi Sands, which I will talk about more when I get there.

I'm staying on the waterfront here in Cape Town and to be honest, my first impression is that it reminds me of San Francisco.

This morning when I woke up there was this foggy, low marine layer and there's lots of shops and restaurants.

I have an incredible view from this room, which I was not expecting and I'm super happy with my choice to stay in this area.

So the first thing I have planned here in Cape Town is a private tour.

I thought about renting a car but they drive on the left side of the road here and that made me a little nervous.

So I've hired a private guide for half a day to take me down to Simonstown, where the boulders penguin colony is, and down to the Cape of Good Hope.

The boulders penguin colony has a pretty incredible origin story because this colony started in 1982 with just two breeding pairs.

Today it consists of around 3,000 birds and they're under the protection of the Cape Nature Conservation because the species is on the verge of extinction.

After spending some time with the penguins, we drove down toward the Cape of Good Hope, which is the very tip of the peninsula.

If you come to Cape Town, you have to do this drive and you'll probably see some ostriches along the way.

Then heading back toward Cape Town, we drove the famous Chapman's Peak Drive.

This is considered one of the most spectacular coastal drives in the world.

The road was hacked into the near vertical face of the mountain so you feel like you're hanging over the water and the views are outstanding.

Once back in Cape Town, I stopped in Bocop, a neighborhood known for its colorful homes.

I've heard a few different explanations behind why the homes are painted so bright.

One is that homeowners painted them bright as an expression of freedom.

Another explanation is people just bought whatever paint color was cheapest.

Regardless, this neighborhood has a lot of history and there are even walking tours you can take here to learn more about it.

Something else in Cape Town that's an absolute must is a trip up the Table Mountain Aerial Tramway.

When I went up, it was completely clouded in at the top which was actually really cool because I got to stand above the clouds.

And then about 30 minutes later, it opened up and holy cow, I think Cape Town wins for the most scenic big city I have ever been to.

The views you get up on the mountains around this city on this coast are unreal.

Another popular thing to do here is hike Lion's Head.

This is an iconic feature of Cape Town which you can see here there are ridges circling around it that you hike up.

You can even see some tiny people standing on the top.

This was on my list to do but the morning I was going to do it, it was cloudy and completely rained out and I wouldn't have had any views.

So I guess I'm just gonna have to come back and do it next time.

I've made it to Sabi Sands and I have so much to tell you about this area.

Sabi Sands is a privately owned game reserve in the Kruger National Park area of South Africa.

And it's considered by some to be the best place in the world to spot the big five which is lion, leopard, rhino, elephant, and buffalo.

And the unique thing about Sabi Sands is it shares an unfenced border with Kruger National Park.

You get all of the wildlife of Kruger flowing freely in and out of this land.

But because this is a private reserve, it doesn't have some of the rules that Kruger does.

And I talked about this a little bit in my Namibia video, the difference between a private game reserve and a national park.

In national parks, you can't enter until after sunrise and the gates close at sunset.

So you miss out on all of that animal activity really early in the day and heading into the evening.

You also have to stick to designated roads in a national park which means you're limited to what is visible from the big roads.

And elusive animals like leopards don't tend to hang out next to the road.

Where on a private reserve, you can drive any time of day.

You can stay out at night hunting with the lions if you want.

You can also drive anywhere on the reserve.

So you don't have to stick to a certain road.

Also, the only way to get into a reserve is to stay at a lodge there and drive with their guides.

So you're not going to be dealing with crowds which isn't to say that national parks are a bad idea.

I had a fantastic time at Atasha in Namibia.

I actually think the best thing to do would be to do both if you have the time in your trip.

So I'm going on game drives for the next few days in the mornings and afternoons and I'm excited to see what we find.

Sabi Sands has a reputation for big cats, especially leopards which is part of why I came here.

Leopards are notoriously elusive animals that can be really tricky to find and get close to.

But Sabi Sands fulfilled all of my leopard dreams.

We spent a morning tracking a mother and her older male cub through the bush.

These animals are so beautiful and they weren't bothered by us either.

They walked right up next to our vehicle multiple times.

The only time they actually looked at me was right here as I was getting this shot and I was silently losing it.

I mean, look at that!

And it's incredible how quickly they move.

They never seemed to stop for more than a few moments before continuing on their way.

I can see why it's so hard to spot them.

So I just had probably my craziest safari moment to date.

We found an older male leopard cub this morning with a dead antelope up in the tree that he was eating and we got to get so close to him to watch him up in the tree.

But then he dropped the antelope all the way to the ground right next to us and I am now splattered with antelope blood.

It's all over my jacket.

It was on my camera lens.

It's wild that you have no idea what you're going to see when you go out on these drives every day.

Every single one is different.

Over the next few days, I did game drives at sunrise and sunset and saw everything, really.

Lions, giraffes, zebras, so many elephants.

One morning we had a herd pass right through us, which was really spectacular.

Elephants are exceptionally intelligent animals.

They're one of the few species that can recognize itself in the mirror.

They're the most intelligent animal in the world.

They're the largest land mammal and can eat up to 600 pounds of food a day.

But all of that considered, they're afraid of bees.

African farmers will raise bees to keep elephants away from their crops.

I had another great sighting one morning at breakfast after a sunrise game drive.

A herd showed up at the river outside of the lodge and talk about the best breakfast view of your life.

I also saw wildebeest.

One morning, there was a group of them that had the zoomies.

They were chasing each other around and around in circles, kicking up their heels.

It was so cute.

I was really impressed with my tracker and my guide.

They were knowledgeable on every animal.

And it was incredible how the tracker could pick up footprints in the dirt and know what animal it was, how long ago it was there, what direction it was going, and how far it was going.

We stayed out after dark every night, and there is just nothing like being out in this landscape after the sun goes down.

So the lodge that I'm staying at here is Londolozi.

I'm at the Vardy Camp.

I looked at so many lodges in Sabi Sands before deciding on this one.

And honestly, they all looked phenomenal.

I don't think you can go wrong with any of them.

But the room here is what really sold me on this one because I have this enormous deck with a plunge pool and loungers overlooking the landscape.

It is what you dream of when you think of going on an African safari.

The property is beautiful.

The service has been phenomenal.

And it's all inclusive.

So you get a morning and afternoon drive with a guide every day, all of your meals.

This is not sponsored, by the way.

It might be my new best place I've ever stayed.

So my final afternoon game drive was one of the most exciting of the entire trip.

We went out in the afternoon looking for lions and found a pride napping.

Lions are kind of funny that when they're sleepy, you can pull up right beside them and they do not care.

And the reason we can get so close to all of this wildlife is they see the vehicle and everyone in it as one thing.

So they don't see us as individual beings and don't see us as something they could attack.

So we sat with these lions and hung out for a while, all the way until sunset.

And then just after the sun went down, they got up and started moving into the thickets.

And again, this is one of the reasons it's so exciting to be able to stay out after sunset with these animals.

So we drove with them all the way into these really thick bushes and found that a couple of lions from the pride had just killed a warthog.

There was this lioness with this chunk she was carrying around.

So we followed her and watched her eat it.

And you know how sometimes at night, the sky is so gradually getting dark that you don't really notice it until all of a sudden you're like, oh, it's completely black out here.

When the lioness was done eating her chunk of warthog, the guide turned all of the vehicle lights off.

And that's when I had the realization that I was sitting in a completely open vehicle in complete darkness, surrounded by hungry lions.

It was thrilling.

It was still totally safe, but wow, what an adrenaline rush.

Today is my last day in South Africa, which is so disappointing because I don't want to leave.

One week was definitely not enough.

If you come, try to come for two weeks at least.

This country is so beautiful and it should absolutely be on your travel list if it's not there already.

If you are thinking of planning a trip here, one of the biggest questions I was asked by all of you on social media and my family and friends and even locals while I was here in South Africa is how do I feel about traveling alone here?

South Africa has been on my travel list for a while, but I never thought I would come here solo.

I always planned to come on a tour, but then I signed up for this Namibia tour and Namibia borders South Africa.

And I couldn't bear to come all this way and not see South Africa too.

So that's how I ended up here by myself.

The reason I never planned on this being a solo trip, and I think the reason I received so many questions about this being a solo trip is South Africa does have some safety concerns.

And speaking to people I know who've lived here or who are from here or locals while I've been here, everyone's had the same sentiment of, you've got to be careful.

Not so much at nice private lodges like this, but in the city.

I had a great time.

This was definitely a successful solo trip for me.

If you feel hesitant about coming here by yourself or you don't have a lot of travel experience in places where you would have to be more cautious, I would recommend coming on a tour.

And honestly, you get so much out of tours.

So I think a tour would also be super awesome.

I hope you guys enjoyed coming along with me on this one and I will see you next time.

Bye.

Bye.