South Africa Adventure

On March 30th of this year, I took off on an adventure to South Africa with 5 girlfriends.  What an adventure it was! We were on the go for the entire month of April.

Three of the gals came to my house, Grette, Della and Anne and the four of us headed to the airport around 8:00 pm.  We meet the two other gals, Ginger and Treva just before take off at 11:15pm
 Left to right, Grette, Della, me, Anne

From Phoenix we flew to New York, where we had a 4 hour layover.  After going through an extensive security check, we boarded South African Airlines headed to Johannesburg.  We arrived in Johannesburg Sunday morning at 8:15am., excited and exhausted.  Flying time from New York to Johannesburg was 17 hours.

South African's know how to put on a BBQ, which they call a braai, which is all about meat!  Beef, port, sausage, lamb and chicken.  During our stay we went to several braais.

Meet the group:

Leandra&Martin Botha (Grette's brother & his wife.

Della,Anne,Grette

Ginger, Della

Treva, Dian

A Week in Cape Town:

When we arrived in Cape Town we are so excited, the fact that we'd only had a few hours sleep was quickly forgotten.  We picked up a 9 passenger van and headed to the house we had rented in Camps Bay.  Boy were we blown away by the place and the views! A three story home, a block from the water, with a spa and pool.

Spa to the left

Kitchen

beautiful tub, which we couldn't use
 due to severe water shortage in Cape Town.

Front room with a view of the cape and the Atlantic Ocean

Table Mountain-looking west from house

Bay looking east from house

Glo - looking happy

We quickly unpacked and headed to a restaurant on the bay.  Unfortunately I don't remember the name of it or what we ate, but I do remember a "cocktail" shot that we all had to try.  Let me begin by saying that South Africans love their alcohol and are very creative in the naming of their beverages.  The shot that caught all our eyes was "Blow Job".  Everyone of us had to try it.  It is primarily a mixture of a cream liquor and kahlua, topped with whip cream, though there are various recipes.  We laughed so hard while ordering the shot.

We spent 5 days in the Cape Town area.  While there we toured the Stellenbosch wine region and of course tasted wines, every where we went.  South Africa has some great wines! One of our stops was at the Vredenheim Wildlife and Winery.  Yes.  I did say wildlife and winery.  In addition to tasting wine, we got to see lions, tigers, donkeys, spring bock, rabbits & zebras.

Ginger,Treva,Glo, Anne

Glo in yard at Vredenheim

spring bock

We drove through the beautiful countryside and visited several wineries, one of which had significant meaning for Martin and Leandra.  One of their first trips to Cape Town was to the Muratie Stellenbosch Wine Farm.

The farm itself dates back to 1685 when it was granted by Governor Simon van der Stel who was Governor of the Cape of Good Hope at the time. This makes Muratie one of the oldest estates in South Africa and along with that age comes many characters and truly fascinating stories. The Melck family has revived this rich heritage in an updated yet classical evolution of the brand, naming its range after many of these colourful characters. For example, the MCC bubbly is known as Lady Alice. She is joined by Ansela van de Caab (blended red), George Paul Canitz (Pinot Noir), Ronnie Melck (Shiraz), Alberta Annemarie (Merlot), Laurens Campher (blended white), Isabella (Chardonnay) and Ben Prins (Port).

Grette & Martin

Cobwebs add to the charm.

Went to the top of Table Mountain National Park.  The ride up was beautiful. Though the mountain isn't all that tall, only 1087 meters, the views were amazing.  They have an animal called a dossie (pronounced daucy). It looks like some type of rodent, large guinea pig, but it is actually a hoofed mammal related to the elephant.  

View from Top of Table Mountain

Doussies basking in the sun.

Table Mountain

There is an estimated over 2000 species of plants on the mountain, a number that is at least as large as all the plant species in the United Kingdom.

Lion's Head, viewing from top of Table Mountain

We spent several hours on the mountain, enjoying the views and hiking all around.  We had planned to go to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandella served eighteen of his twenty-seven years in prison.  Alas it was not to be.  The tours were booked up beyond the time we would be in Cape Town.  Not to be discouraged, we went down to town and had a glorious meal at "Cape Town Fish Market."  Sitting outside, we took in the all the goings on and watched a group of men dressed in native costumes performing a dance.

We toured the Zeita Art Museum and then caught a city tour bus and learned a little about the area on our way back to the house.

You can see a lot of Dutch influence in the architecture. Everything was so picturesque.

Lion's Head in the background

A few of us went on an historical walking tour and to the Castle of Good Hope, known at "The Castle." 

Our last day in the Cape Town area, we drove about an hour out to the Strandloper Restaurant.  What an amazing meal and time we had.  The restaurant is right on the beach.  We had blue skies above and waves crashing against the beach.  We had an 11 course meal, all prepared by locals while we watched.

 

Our meal consisted of the following, served in courses, Bread, mussels, harder (mullet), seafood curry.  This was followed by a 30 minute break and six more courses. Snook, sweet potato, a roll, lamb stew, smoked angel, grilled hottentot, crayfish and Koeksisters(pronounced cook sisters, a South African desert something like fried bread dipped in syrup), rooibus tea and coffee.  The meal started at noon and ended around four.  We could not have had a more relaxed day.

On our way back into town, we went through the Bo-Kaap area.  Known for it's colorful housing. 

One of the many interesting things we learned about South Africa was their use of the word "now".  To us in the US we think now means immediately.  Not so in the South Africa.  If someone says, "Just now," they mean in the next twenty or thirty minutes or so.  If they say, "now," they mean maybe in five minutes or so. And if they say "now, now," they mean right now.  We laughed so hard over this.  The term for "thank you", is Danke, pronounced Donkey. The term for thank you very much is, "Baie Danke", pronounced buy a donkey.  To say the least we stayed in stitches most of the trip over this little things.

Kimberly

We left Cape Town bright and early on Friday headed toward Kimberly. We stopped at the Big Hole, noted for the diamond mining that went on there in the past.  Today it is a museum and the hole is mostly filled with water.

Kimberley was the first city in the Southern Hemisphere and the second in the world after Philadelphia to integrate electric street lights into its infrastructure on September 2, 1882. The first Stock Exchange in Africa was also built in Kimberley, as early as 1881.  A diamond weighing 83.5 carats was found here.

The Big Hole

Bakabung

Our next adventure was Bakabung game preserve, where we stayed in thatch roofed huts.  Though "hut" is relative.  The accommodations were as great as any hotel in the US. We saw all types of wildlife just outside our hut and we went on several safaris.

Our hut

back of hut

Warthog

Kudu

hipo

giraffe

gator

Wildebeest

zebras

monkeys

herds of zebra & springbok with one wildebeest

Leopard (a rare sighting)

Pretoria, Soweto & Apartheid Museum

After our week in the "bush", we spent time in Pretoria and toured Soweto; went to Nelson Mandela's house, visited his holding cell in the Palace of Justice in Pretoria; saw the Union buildings, and toured the Apartheid Museum.

Entrance to Soweto

Housing of the wealthy

Middle income housing

poor income housing

Freedom Charter Memorial in Kliptown

Mandela House

Apartheid Museum

Definition of race under Apartheid 

Changing people's color under Apartheid

Palace of Justice in Pretoria 

Old criminal record storage

Mandela's holding cell when first arrested
located below Palace of Justice

Pointing to Freedom Charter written on the wall by Mandela

Old criminal records storage.

Crime is so high in South Africa that most people with any wealth live in gated houses. High fence all around, front and back and often with electrified fencing at the top.

Union buildings are where the president stays when in Pretoria and where laws are made.

Union buildings

View from Union Buildings

Mandela's statue at the Union buildings.

Shakaland

Next we were off to Shakaland to learn about the Zulus.

Our hut

Drakensburg

Lastly we went to Drakensburg. Grette's nephew goes to school at the Drakenburg Boys Choir School.  The drive was long but beautiful.  The mountains reminded us of Arizona.

We were lucky enough to be there when the school was having their annual "Music In The Mountains" and heard the boys in concert as well as several choirs from around South Africa and a very popular South African Band.  The weekend was much like we have in the US when a school is trying to raise money.  Parents pitch in bake something or make food and vendors are there selling their wears.  I helped with the South African Pancakes, which are somewhat like what we would call a crepe.  It's rolled in sugar and cinnamon.  Yum!

Our last night in Drakenburg is one that none of us will soon forget.  We decided at the last minute to stay another night. All the typical logging was booked up.  Martin called around and found us an "old farmhouse" that had 3 bedrooms. So we jumped at it.  The fact that they wanted only $40 each in cash in advance should have been a clue.  LOL.  

We didn't get there until after dark.  We drove down a dirt road and were looking for a man in the road. A black man on a pitch black night.  We found Jackson, the house man, standing in the street.  He opened the electric gate for us and we drove down this very narrow misty road.  What we found when we got there was a house that seemed to have "stood still" through time.  The house smelled of musty books.  The calendar on the wall was a couple years old and the clock on the stove had stopped.

The bedroom, my roommate and I stayed in had pictures from the 1500's on the wall.  The bed was the old type spring mattress, and I felt every spring in the bed.  To say the least I didn't get much sleep.

When we got up the next morning our van was stuck, due to the rain the night before.  Our host, Hanzi, had to call his son-in-law to bring his truck to pull us out of the mud.  We all laughed so hard. Once out of the mud, we headed to breakfast and after saying goodbye to Martin, Leandra and Dian we drove back to Pretoria to pack and get ready for our 25 hours trip home. 

We left South Africa on May 1st and we arrived back in Phoenix on my birthday, May 2nd. 

It was truly an amazing experience.  One I will never forget.