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...

Feb 18, 2018 - Cape Town 1

Capetown day 1 We left Tswalu Motse at 2:30 for our 2:50 flight to Capetown. We were a few minutes late, but that was okay, as another couple was even later. The 2 hour flight – 6 passengers – was delayed by about half an hour. We had had to skirt a thunderstorm midway. An Austrian couple were sitting opposite us and when we told them that we were from Vancouver, he said what a coincidence as he was going to talk to the coach of the Canucks that evening. Thurs out he is a hockey player agent. He thinks that the Canucks’ coach is good but...

Feb 6, 2018 - Cape Town

Described by many as the most beautiful city in the world it is hard to argue. Cape Town has Table Mountain as a backdrop and the Atlantic Ocean all round it - really very lovely. Arrived at our hotel, The Table Bay Hotel, late afternoon Sunday. A very comfortable hotel on the V&A Waterfront where all the action is. Our room looks out to sea with a view of Robbin Island. Monday saw our last organised tour with the group. It was a glorious day with not a cloud in the sky. First stop was to the top of Table Mountain which you get to on the...

Feb 3, 2018 - Down South

Well the long coach journey wasn’t too bad. The views of the countryside were lovely sometimes very reminiscent of England. Our guide spoke of some of the economic realities of South Africa. There is 28% unemployment and generally if a person does not have a job by the age of 24 they are never likely to get one. Education standards are another big issue. In a league table of standards worldwide only Syria and Yemen are worse than South Africa. This starts to explain some of the poverty we saw when driving through towns such as Ladysmith...

Jan 31, 2018 - Lions, cheetahs and trains!

A 90 minute coach ride took us from Victoria Falls into Botswana and to Chobe. Chobe is the name of the Game Reserve and the river which later down its route becomes the Zambezi. Our hotel was on the bank of the river. We arrived around midday and spent the afternoon relaxing roun the pool for the following morning we were up at 6 for our first game drive. This was a little disappointing for the lack of animals, but we did see a couple of lions, a giraffe plenty of impala and numerous unusual birds the names of which I’ve forgotten! The...

Dec 19, 2017 - Land of the waterfalls

We spent 2 wonderful days here on our way to Kruger. Graskop is a small town in the Mpumalanga province. It was set up in the 1880s as a gold mining camp but it now serves as a tourist destination and the timber industry. The name is Afrikaans for grassy peak. “God’s Window”, a scenic view from the escarpment of the Lowveld below, is located outside the town as well as copious amounts of waterfalls. It is also the gateway to the Blyde River Canyon, the second biggest canyon in the world.

Dec 9, 2017 - Land of the Zulu!

We had seven days in Hluhluwe (pronounced Schluhluwe) a lot of the places in KWZ seem to be pronounced differently to how they are spelt, something to do with the tribal Zulu language of old. Which brings me on to why it gas taken me so long to send the first update....think the technology here has just recently moved on from drums!!! That said, KWAZULU NATAL is a crossroad of cultures where ancient meets modern and the splendour of the nature takes your breath away. The landscape constantly changes with many game reserves and parks. We...

Nov 23, 2017 - Pre Planning

Good day fellow travellers. This is just an entry to see if my blog will adhere to the terms and conditions. We are three mates who entered the Wakati challenge. It is a race from Cape Town to Zanzibar * to be completed in 14 days or less. We are, to only use public transport and have a budget of 35 US$ per day per team member, for transport purposes. On route (through South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi and Zanzibar) we will be faced with challenges, riddles, clues and checkpoints. The aim is...

Oct 1, 2017 - A TOWNSHIP TOUR

-eggs' option with brekkie -met Bobo of MoAfrika Tours for the Soweto tour -saw middle class and the very poor sectors of the township -Regina Mundi Roman Catholic Church visited, still with some 1976 bullet holes -Hector Peterson memorial site visited, the child carried in a famous picture, a casualty of the 1976 Soweto uprising -lunch beneath the tall,colourfully painted cooling towers -Apartheid Museum not as dark as I remembered it, its focus more the process issue rather the the oppression of blacks -dinner and a bit too much Amarula

Sep 30, 2017 - INTO JOBURG

-precious little sleep so going to be a long day -into Dakar c 0545, 4H time differential from IAD -on the ground for an hour -a further 2H time differential re JNB time -tried to do some reading -eventual arrival and transfer to Sunrock Lodge, Peta and Chris there -dinner at the hotel and catching up over after dinner drinks