BJF Ranch

The final countdown until departure is 15 days. GET EXCITED! We cannot wait to come home and see all of you! These past few weeks have been rough. We have been without power, water, internet OR a combination of all three every single day. In fact, we have been without water for a full week now. It is not fun!

These final weeks will undoubtedly fly by, so we are spending as much time as possible with our South African friends. This past weekend we went to BJF Ranch with Anton and Candice for a relaxing weekend in the bush. It is a working game farm and hunting camp with many different types of African animals. We went on a couple game drives and saw everything from warthogs to baboons.

Besides spending time with our friends, the highlight of the trip was getting to feed a nyala. One of them is tame enough to eat from your hand!

Here are more photos from our weekend…

{eland - they are HUGE in person}

{farm dog}

{game drive truck}

{young giraffe} 

{hunter's bragging room}

{sable with abnormal horn}

{male nyala}

{red hartebeest}

{sables and nyalas}

{wildebeest}

{warthog family}

{your two favorite people!!!}

Love,

Jess & Mat

stellenbosch - return visit

{tractor transporting the freshly-picked grapes. i loved the sign behind it!}

Hi everyone! Here are photos of our most recent visit to Stellenbosch, one of South Africa's winelands. It was our second trip to the area and we loved it just as much. So gorgeous! The grapes were being harvested, so it was interesting to see them being picked and transported to barrels to ferment. Enjoy the photos…

{chickens eating bugs in the vineyard}

{historic church in downtown Stellenbosch}

{i liked the clouds in the right corner of this photo}

{entrance to Ernie Els Winery}

{Mat's favorite winery}

{hidden valley winery}

{don't touch the grapes!}

{olives}

{historic general store in downtown Stellenbosch}

{our chic rental car}

{protea, south africa's national flower}

{red grapes on the wine}

{beautifully manicured row of grapevines}

{white grapes}

Love,
Jess & Mat

great white sharks

You guys. Mat and I just had the ultimate adventure here in South Africa. We dove with the most feared creature in the ocean – the Great White Shark.

{after the dive}

I never thought I’d come face-to-face with a Great White Shark in my entire life. Not to mention 8 of them. But, I did!

We drove 2 hours SE of Cape Town to Gansbaii, a sleepy marine town world-famous for its Great White Shark population.

{the TV where we watched our safety briefing}

When diving this time of year, you don’t have to go too far offshore to find the sharks. The boat ride was only about 20 minutes. The waves were big due to bad weather and about half our boat was seasick. Yuck! Thankfully, neither of us lost our cookies.

{boarding the boat. we are wearing orange coats because it was raining and freezing cold}

The crew began chumming the water with fish blood as soon as we anchored. Within 10 minutes, the first shark arrived and we suited up and went in the cage. We think we saw about 8 different sharks during the three hours we were offshore.

{our skipper & crew searching for "the whites"}

{pre-dive}

While in the cage, you’re running on pure adrenaline. Our cage was bumped many times by multiple sharks and we were never scared. I want to believe they were more curious than hungry, but who knows? I am sure we would have been tasty morsels if the cage weren’t there.

{the shark found the seal decoy}

{now it is attacking the seal decoy}

{it is still attacking the seal decoy}

{ahhh…got it!!!!!!}

{coming at the cage}

{hitting the cage with its fin}

{get it, sharky!}

{coming at the cage again}

It was an unforgettable experience and a MUST DO if you’re in South Africa.

Love,

Jess & Mat