Courtesy: Princeton Athletic Communications A safari was just one of many highlights for the women's squash team in South Africa.

Day 5 began with an early morning wakeup and hotel breakfast before heading to the Buffelsfontein Game and Nature Reserve for a safari! We arrived decked out in full safari gear including hats and binoculars and were treated to some fresh mixed-fruit juice before boarding our vehicle. Unfortunately tigers are not native to Africa but out on the reserve we encountered lions, giraffes, wildebeest, springbuck, elon, kudu, zebras, and three-day old ostriches. We also saw two rhinoceros – the first sighting in two weeks – and we got within arms length of two male cheetahs!

After the safari we sat down to a nice lunch on the reserve before heading to our final match. On our ride over we stopped at Blue Mountain Beach for a photo-op. We enjoyed yet another view of Table Mountain from the soft white sand and some were even brave enough to dip their feet in the ice-cold Atlantic Ocean!

We had trouble keeping our eyes open on the long ride over but we re-energized after a quick nap on the coach. We arrived at Fish Hoek Squash Club run by former world number 23 Rodney Durbach and our match got off to en exciting start. With many close scores and several 5-gamers, the bottom half of our lineup clinched it for us in the end and we snuck away with an 9-8 win. We traded shirts with our opponents and sat down with them for a BBQ dinner at the club.

Our final win against Fish Hoek left us undefeated on our Cape Town tour and we look ahead to Ivy Scrimmages with great enthusiasm. We regret that tomorrow is our final day in South Africa but we’re excited for cheese and chocolate tasting in the Winelands before heading to the airport and making our way back to the orange bubble.