Leaving South Africa

Sunset in Cape Town

District 6 as it is today

Monday we toured District 6 where more than 20,000 families were removed from that area of Cape Town. District 6 was stripped of all shacks while the owners were at work one day when the government went in with bulldozers and ran over them like they were weeds. The government wanted to build new homes for whites only, but the locals didn’t want to move. It was a very sad time for the locals.

A local in the township cooking sheep heads for sale

When we where in the township, there was a lady cooking sheep heads. She actually held one of the heads up toward the bus. No doubt in our mind it was a sheep’s head. Our local tour guide said he, when he was about 10-years-old, did eat one from the same lady that was cooking today (he does not partake anymore).

Eray in Bo-Kaap

Next, a short tour of Bo-Kaap with all the colorful buildings you will see in the photographs. Next we went to the Grand Daddy Hotel in Cape Town to view and take pictures of the 8 Airstream trailers on the roof of the hotel which are used as individual suites for guests.

Tuesday we went to the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, then boarded the SAA (South African Airways) jet for our 17-hour flight to New York with a one-hour fuel stop in Dakar, Senegal. After refueling, a final security check, and prior to closing the airline door, they walked through the entire inside spraying bug spray — go figure!

Well, here I sit at JFK International Airport in New York – we just arrived. First was customs, then immigration, and then security. We have a 3-hour layover until we board our United flight back to California – all total will be 10 more hours before we will land at SFO.

Nelson Mandela's Golden Bird of Paradise at Kirstenbosch Gardens

Table Mountain & the Atlantic Coast

Simon & Eray on top of Table Mountain

Sunday was a beautiful day so we immediately went to the top of Table Mountain where the views were spectacular. We took the bus tour to Cape Peninsula which included Cape Point and “Simon’s Town.”

Simon in "his town."

Yep, Simon has a town named after him! We had lunch there at Bertha’s, a seafood platter for each of our tour group. The wind was ferocious. Sometimes it was hard to stand still long enough to take a picture. Our tour began with a scenic drive along the Atlantic coast to the fishing village of Hout Bay, we also went to Cape Point Nature Reserve and visited the African penguins that live on the beach. We traveled through the Fish Hoek fishing village and Muizenberg. We were supposed to visit the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, but ran out of time and are planning to visit it on Tuesday morning before we leave for the airport.

Eray (left) holding onto his hat at the windy cape with his tour group.

Wild baboons at Cape Point Nature Reserve

Statue of Just Nuisance (click on image for story) in Simons Town

African Penguins at the Cape Point Nature Reserve

Non-stop Cape Town touring

Lunch in Moyo Restaurant at the Spier Wine Estates

We visited wine country and a city tour ALL DAY LONG in the bus, rush rush rush . We had dinner at the famous Green Dolphin Jazz Restaurant on the Waterfront. Took some very historic pictures, which may follow after today’s rush tour of Table Mountain and the Cape of Good Hope, starting in about 20 minutes.

Saturday we had planned to go up to Table Mountain, but it was windy and cloudy and sprinkling so we had a change of plans. We took a longer tour of Cape Town and on the way to the Cape Winelands for some wine tasting, we stopped by at the Taal Monument on Paarl Mountain. When we got there, the sun had come out and it was a beautiful day. It is a monument to the roots of the language of Afrikaans. We then stopped for some wine tasting at Spier Wine Estate and lunch at the famous Moyo restaurant. After lunch we visited Stellenbosch where we purchased more souvenirs.

Backtracking to Thursday, November 11th

Eray on Jimmy, the elephant

The Three Sisters

Thursday was early rise (4:30 a.m.) for the elephant ride, which was about 45 minutes from the hotel, then the afternoon was viewing God’s Window and the Three Sisters. The window and the sisters were on top of a very high mountain, on opposite sides. God’s Window was socked in with clouds and you couldn’t see anything, but the Three Sisters were three huge round mountains with a great view of the valley below (pictures to follow). Friday we traveled to the Johannesburg Airport and flew to Cape Town, arriving around 3:30 p.m. Got settled in and had dinner  on our own.

Elephant's tail hair

Elephant’s tail hair is very interesting. We bought an elephant’s tail-hair bracelet which is quite the unique piece. It also has sterling silver; it really is different.

You’ll have to forgive me for not sending more pictures, but the timing of participating on the tour and the bus trips is not good timing for providing proper back up of what really is happening, I will get them posted as soon as I can.

Cape Town

We awoke at 6 a.m. and departed the Kapama River Lodge and headed toward Cape Town via the JoBurg airport.

Protea Hotel Victoria Junction in Cape Town

Arrived in Cape Town, South Africa at 5:30 p.m. and checked into the Protea Hotel Victoria Junction, a 1950’s eclectic style. We are scheduled to drive up to Table Mountain this morning, but outside is a HEAVY mist and low clouds that will burn off. This part of South Africa is completely different from the northern part. This hotel, we are finding out, is a chain of them throughout South Africa. Monday we have made reservations for a restaurant on the waterfront called BLUES. It is the place to go when in Cape Town. We’ll report on it later and I will do a complete review for you.

View of Cape Town from Table Mountain

I’ll get as many pictures as I can when I get back on track. Been busy with 9-hour tours and 5 a.m. wake-up calls.

Kapama Private Reserve

Eray with the locals

We awoke at 4:30 a.m. for our early morning safari. It had rained hard over night and the ground was very damp (which the animals preferred) due to the prevailing dry conditions. This morning’s animal drive reminded us of Kruger National Park in terms of quantity of sightings. We saw very few animals roaming around, but it was an enjoyable ride in the bush, then returning to a delightful breakfast.

At 10 a.m. we embarked to Hoedspruit Endangered Species Center, about 20 minutes further into the Kapama Private Reserve . Our main focus was the endangered Cheetah; this center has 42 on the grounds. We also were shown another endangered animal, African Wild Dogs, which we saw the last day at Kruger National Park.

Termite Mound

Cheetah

Lions at the HESC

Wild African Dogs being fed

Simon and I will enjoy an elephant ride early Thursday Morning, so you mustn’t miss those photos!

Kruger National Park

Big White Hunter, Eray, armed with his camera

Sunday we left JoBurg at 7:30 a.m. and rode for 6 hours with a 1-hour lunch break to Kruger National Park, arriving at 3 p.m. We took an open safari truck ride and returned to the hotel at 6:30 p.m. for a buffet dinner. We saw the big five wild animals within the first hour of the safari (leopard, elephant, lion, buffalo, and rhino) and watched the sunset as we drove back to the hotel.

Water Buffalo

Mother & child

After dinner we just took a shower and went to bed to get ready for our 5 a.m. open truck safari the next day. I awoke at 4:30 a.m. and just made it to the last safari truck leaving (which happened to be the bird watching enthusiast).

Helmetted Guinea Fowl

At first I thought we would be disappointed by not being able to become a part of the wild animal watch, but we were treated to both worlds. We came to a stop and we all disembarked from the truck and walked into a narrow fenced pathway to a bird blind.

The bird blind was a real treat as it overlooked a body of water. Within 15 minutes we saw a hippo just sticking its head out of the water, then we saw its complete upper body.

Hippo relaxing in the water

During the drive we witnessed 12 lions feasting on a freshly killed zebra. There were seven adults and five cubs and at least five were already napping from a full belly. On our return to the hotel we followed a pack of wild African dogs, which are an extremely rare sighting as well as an endangered species.

Lions feeding on a zebra

We returned to the hotel just in time for the last call for breakfast being served. The afternoon was spent relaxing and doing laundry.

Impala

Wild African dog

Back in Johannesburg

Avacado & shrimp salad at Bull Run

Friday night we had dinner at the hotel’s Bull Run Restaurant. The menu was a knock-off of a trading venue, reflecting commodities and various prices, e.g. the South African Rand, US Dollars, British Pounds, etc.

We left the hotel at 9 a.m. and headed for the Bryanston Veterinary Hospital (BVH), a private practice within the township of Bryanston, South Africa. This is a 9 doctor hospital that has been established for 37 years and is open 24-hours a day, 365-days a year. BVH is one of three emergency pet hospitals throughout Johannesburg and is the largest of the three.

Nikkie, the manager at BVH

Nikki is their practice manager who conducted the tour for our group of western doctors. After a very delightful tour, I overheard from several of our doctors, “it is almost exactly the same as our practices. Two major vendors are the same as what we have… just a different country!”

Lunch at Gramadoelas

The buffet at Gramadoelas

Next we were off for lunch in downtown Johannesburg at Gramadoelas for authentic tribal African Cape Dutch & Malay curries and a fish & vegetarian exotic game buffet. The lunch was very good and everyone left stuffed.

After lunch we toured downtown Johannesburg and observed the devastation to what used to be a beautiful city with 5-star hotels. But now, more than 2 million illegal immigrants are squatting within the abandoned hotels. The closed hotels have been gutted of everything, and it is not unusual to see fires erupting within the tall high-rises. There is no electricity or water in the buildings, but you can see satellite dishes protruding from the buildings, most likely running their TV’s from a generator. There are city personal dressed in red uniforms who have been hired to get the squatters out of the vacant buildings, but with little success.

All the high-rises have been vacant since 1994

This evening is a free one and we plan on walking back to the Nelson Mandela Plaza to dine at one of the many restaurants.

Sunday is an early up to leave the hotel by 7 a.m. for a 6-hour bus ride to our next destination.

Pretoria

Editor’s note: “Thu. Recovered fm flight and had dinner at Lekgottla  restaurant.”

Across from our Johannesburg hotel

The hotel provided a fantastic breakfast buffet in the main dining room from 7 am to 9 am. At 9:30 am we departed for the Faculty of Veterinary Science of the University of Pretoria, one of 46 veterinary faculties in Africa, established in 1920, and the only one of its kind in South Africa with the exception of the facilities in Khartoum, Sudan (1938) and Cairo, Egypt (1946). Dr. Henry Annandale, Dean of Clinical Studies, provided the introduction to the school. We then broke up into 3 smaller groups and toured the facilities. Next, we boarded buses and proceeded to Pretoria for lunch at the Blue Crane Restaurant. On the grounds was a 100-year-old tortoise named Wally.

Dr. Henry Annandale

Eray & Simon at dinner

Free face-painting at our table

After lunch we headed to the Voortrekker Monument. Simon and I walked up the 230 stairs to the rotunda, then took an elevator to the very top of the dome. All around the 360-degree rotunda is the complete hand-carved marble Voortrekkers journey, explaining the history. It is a massive granite structure built to honor the early South African pioneers from 1835 to 1852: the British settlers and the Voortrekker settlers.

The Voortrekker Monument

Inside the rotunda of the Voortrekker Monument

Tonight we are free for the evening and plan on walking to the Nelson Mandela Plaza to choose one of the many restaurants for dinner.

New York to Johannesburg

Amazing what I had to go through to get this laptop working. Couldn’t connect to the wireless in the Swiss Lounge at the JFK airport, so I signed up for this Goingo wireless for $9.95 per month that may or may not work in South Africa????

Security at JFK

Anyway, we landed at JFK at 7:34 a.m. at Terminal 7 and discovered we had to make our way to Terminal 4 which was a journey in itself. We needed to take an air-tram to Terminal 4, but couldn’t because it was closed for repair until November 5th, so we ended up taking the only air-tram around the entire airport and got off at Terminal 4 twenty minutes later.

Our flight aboard United stunk! The seats did not work, so we sat upright in a “seating position” for 5.5 hours while other passengers enjoyed their working seats. They did give us a coupon that allows us to go to the United website and use a code to go shopping for whatever, to satisfy our bad experience — go figure.

Our next 15-hour flight will be aboard South African Airways on an Airbus 340, and we are flying first class. Our fingers are crossed that the seats work; if not this Englishman will speak up.

Our SAA Airbus waiting for us at JFK

Well, I have taken pictures, but they will follow in about 20 hours from now (hopefully).  I am also hoping that the Wi-Fi in Jo Burg will work without additional cost.

Sam, returning home for 2 days.

While waiting at JFK International for our boarding SAA (South African Airways) for a 15-hour flight, we started talking to “Sam” who was also going to Johannesburg for a short visit. Sam was born and raised in South Africa and lived with his grandmother who just passed away 2 days ago. Sam, married and living in Los Angeles with his two “wiener dogs,” was doing a two-day flight and only staying 3 days to take care of family affairs.

Our 340 SAA Airbus pushed back at 11:15am EDT. This airbus is one of three excellent aircraft I have ever flown on — Singapore Airlines is #1 and EVA is the 2nd best.

3 pm "Snack"

2 am Snack

Enjoying First Class!

The onboard flight map showing us passing the West African coast.

During the 15-hour flight, we watched over 5 movies each, and touched down in Johannesburg at 0742, November 4th.

Sunrise over South Africa from 39,000 feet.

Back on the ground at Johannesburg Airport!

23:22 PDT (10:22 local):Landed waiting for group leader to put us on 2 buses to hotel

01:20 PDT (12:20 local):We r at the hotel waiting for it to b made room is not ready

Editor’s note: because of the nine hour time difference between Johannesburg and here in San Francisco, all flight related images and copy from Eray are included in this Day 2 entry even though, technically, upon arrival he is starting his third day. Day 3′s entry will begin after he has settled into his hotel room and his South African adventures get underway.

Simon retrieving our luggage at Johannesburg Airport

Simon in the garden near our hotel pool