Aug 11, 2018 - Day 5

I am up to go to the Table Mountain today. Took city buses to get there instead of tourist sightseeing bus. It is much cheaper and quite easy. A crowd was there when I got there at 9:00am. Took another hour to queue up and got to the top. It is a flat area with many kinds of plants, but surprisingly not many birds at all. It was cold and windy. Saw about 10 Daisies (a large rodent like animal) sunning on a big rock. They were so used to people and not afraid at all. One let me get to about 2ft to take a photo with him. I dare not to touch...

Aug 10, 2018 - Day 4

Still had jetlag. Woke up around 3:30am. Did some research on the next stop, a small town called Maun that boarders the wetland national park Moremi of Botswana. Even though my host Diva offered to pick me up from the airport and there is taxi service, but it seems it is much convenient to have a rental car to get around whenever I desire. There is only one car rental company there called Bidvest. Got on their website and reserved a small Kia car. To reach the national park, a 4WD is needed. In that case I will hire a car with a chauffeur...

Aug 10, 2018 - Day 4

August 10, 2018 Day 4 Still had jetlag. Woke up around 3:30am. Did some research on the next stop, a small town called Maun that boarders the wetland national park Moremi of Botswana. Even though my host Diva offered to pick me up from the airport and there is taxi service, but it seems it is much convenient to have a rental car to get around whenever I desire. There is only one car rental company there called Bidvest. Got on their website and reserved a small Kia car. To reach the national park, a 4WD is needed. In that case I will hire a...

Aug 9, 2018 - Day 3

Woke up at 3:00am due to jetlag. Since I could not fall into sleep, I wrote a few blogs to catch up. Got up at 6:30am. Made a simple breakfast with local yogurt, blueberries and granola. Drank mango and peach juice. Took a bus at 7:45am to the water front where the CitySightSeeing office is. An old sailor helped me to find the office. He told me he sailed to Shanghai a few times and learned Chinese greetings. The staff told me that the tour was fully booked, and I had to be on a standby. At 9:30am I was told they had a seat for me. The...

Aug 9, 2018 - Day 3

Woke up at 3:00am due to jetlag. Since I could not fall into sleep, I wrote a few blogs to catch up. Got up at 6:30am. Made a simple breakfast with local yogurt, blueberries and granola. Drank mango and peach juice. Took a bus at 7:45am to the water front where the CitySightSeeing office is. An old sailor helped me to find the office. He told me he sailed to Shanghai a few times and learned Chinese greetings. The staff told me that the tour was fully booked, and I had to be on a standby. At 9:30am I was told they had a seat for me. The...

Aug 8, 2018 - Day 2

The taxi showed at 7:45am. It took about 20 minutes to get to the Botanical Garden that is within Table Mountain nearby. Indeed, it is a very nice place. I was early enough to see some bird activities. There were many sunbirds (an African version of our hummingbirds), Helmeted Guineafowl and Egyptian Goose. I am not familiar with the Fynbos and Protea plants. They are unique to this region with exotic flowers and fragrance. Though it is winter/early spring here right now, but many are still in bloom. I was impressed with one unique trail:...

Aug 8, 2018 - Day 2

The taxi showed up at 7:45am. It took about 20 minutes to get to the Botanical Garden that is within Table Mountain nearby. Indeed, it is a very nice place. I was early enough to see some bird activities. There were many sunbirds (an African version of our hummingbirds), Helmeted Guineafowl and Egyptian Goose. I am not familiar with the Fynbos and Protea plants. They are unique to this region with exotic flowers and fragrance. Though it is winter/early spring here right now, but many are still in bloom. I was impressed with one unique...

Aug 7, 2018 - Day 1

After another 9.5 hours flight we finally reached Cape town at local time 11:00am! There was long line for immigration and we waited for more than an hour to go through. I saw my first bird in Africa: a House Sparrow inside the airport. After Eric’s party got their 2 rental cars that they reserved, I said Good Bye to Eric and left them try to fit all their luggage into or on top of the cars. I phoned my host Marnie and got hold of him. I decided to take public transportation. It was fairly simple: first take a bus to the Civic Center, then...

Aug 7, 2018 - Day 1

After another 9.5 hours flight we finally reached Cape town at local time 11:00am! There was long line for immigration and we waited for more than an hour to go through. I saw my first bird in Africa: a House Sparrow inside the airport. After Eric’s party got their 2 rental cars that they reserved, I said Good Bye to Eric and left them try to fit all their luggage into or on top of the cars. I phoned my host Marnie and got hold of him. I decided to take public transportation. It was fairly simple: first take a bus to the Civic Center, then...

Mar 7, 2018 - Johannesburg

14 Johannesburg We arrived in Johannesburg a bit later than we anticipated. We were picked up by two girls from the Airport who whisked us through security, customs, to the priority baggage carousel, and right past all the people who were having their luggage x-rayed. We were outside as fast as we could walk, and our driver was there within minutes. He was chatty and we had a nice ride to our hotel, The Saxon, which is in the north part of the city. We had dinner reservations somewhere, but decided that we would rather stay at the hotel. It...

Feb 23, 2018 - Frannschhoek

Franchhoek is a tiny town in a lovely wine growing valley. There are galleries, restaurants, gift shops, coffee houses along the one main street. Scattered around are many wine estates. There is a wine train that people take to the wine tastings. We have something better planned for us. Mervyn picked us up at 9:00 and we headed out of the valley on the “elephant trail” across the hills. The drive south was again beautiful. There was some road work happening, so we were a bit late for our first tasting at Newton Johnson Vineyards. Carmello...

Feb 21, 2018 - Cape Town 2

Cape Town day 2 Cape Town is a pretty neat city – all about food and wine and coffee. And right now also all about water consumption and President Ramaphosa, what he will do and how he will do. Everyone is very excited. More about that later. After breakfast we were picked up by Pam, owner and first employee of Cape Fusion Tours. She specializes in wine and food tours. She is a real character. Loud, opinionated, an aggressive driver. She never stops talking. I like her, Robin not so much. She is full of information though. Our plan today...