Oh, the Places We'll Go

South Africa is a well-known wine-producing region of the world.  Stellenbosch is the unofficial capital of the wine region here, and is less than an hour from Cape Town in a beautiful mountainous valley.

Stellenbosch Vistas

Stellenbosch Vistas

Unbeknownst to me, Sal and Lar had never been wine-tasting before (Ted and I had been on a few tasting excursions in both Argentina and New Zealand).  Each wine region has their own approach, but here in South Africa the norm was to show up at a winery, pay a small fee and get the opportunity to taste 4-6 different types of wine.  We were warmed up pretty quickly when our first stop served us 6 wines before 11am!

Morning tasting!

I was hoping to get Sal and Lar on a cellar tour so that they could hear about how the wine is made and how they store it, bottle it, etc. but after 3 attempts, we realized that we should have made appointments.  Apparently, many of the workers were busy in the cellars due to it being harvest season and couldn’t be bothered to give a tour at a moment’s notice.  The nerve!  We think they should take notes from the Argentines, who will show you around any time of day.

Anyway, we had a beautiful day driving around and exploring all the amazing properties.  After our strong start with the wine-tasting in the morning, I was reminded that my folks aren’t really winos and were just as happy to stop into a winery and have a look around – they didn’t feel the need to do the tastings!  That is not something I inherited from them.

Tastings!

Stellenbosch

Beyond the excitement of Table Mountain, we did a lot of other activities that were not-so-life-threatening. One highlight was driving along the coast and to the Cape of Good Hope, a peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean south of the city. We’d stop when we felt like it to check out a cool beach or watch the fishermen bring in their catch. African wildlife viewing began here – we saw the adorable African penguins at Boulders Beach, as well as ostrich, antelope and zebras on the Cape Peninsula.

Muizenberg Beach, False Bay

Cape Peninsula

Cape Point

Lots of penguins!

We spent a morning at Robben Island which is where Nelson Mandela was held as a political prisoner for 27 years. The tours are led by former political prisoners of Robben Island which made the experience so much more authentic, and it was a stark reminder of how recently apartheid ended (1991!).

Mandela's cell, Robben Island

Robben Island

Ferry back from Robben Island

And no good trip would be complete without excellent eating. One of our favorite meals was the hilariously named Cod Father restaurant. It was highly recommended by our lodge and it was certainly a unique eating experience. There are no menus at the Cod Father – you waiter simply brings you to the display cases and shows you exactly what fresh catches the restaurant has available. As a group of four, we got an amazing assortment of different things – from crawfish (like lobster) to butterfish to prawns. It all came steaming hot to the table with overshadowed sides of fries and vegetables. We all supped to sufficiency and finished every single thing put in front of us. In honor of our memorable meal, Lar now has a Cod Father hat to add to his amazingly expansive collection that I imagine I’ll see him wearing while BBQing up north this summer.

Cod Father dinner choices

Massive seafood feast!

We arrived in Cape Town at the tail end of an extreme heat wave. Temperatures were at or near 100 degrees and the whole city was moaning and groaning in discomfort. Though the thermometer had dropped a few degrees, it was on a still very hot day that our fit and ambitious group attempted to climb Cape Town’s famous and beautiful Table Mountain.

Our host at the Lodge had tried to deter us and told us that we needed to leave early in the morning to avoid the direct sunshine on the path, but we merely smiled and nodded as we continued to enjoy our leisurely breakfast.

Upon reaching the trailhead, we were greeted with some rather steep stairs and very minimal shade. Within 90 seconds I was pretty sure that it was going to be too hot and/or difficult for our group to make it to the top however, I kept my mouth shut and we pressed on.

Nearly 1 hour into what is supposed to be a 2-3 hour hike, the group had a pow-wow to discuss our options. My mother, who is in great shape, was extremely uncomfortable in the heat and wanted to head down to the take the cable car up instead. I offered to go with her. My Dad, was determined to press on to the top, as was Ted.

View from the trailhead - a long way to go!

Mid-way up, getting real hot...

Looking back as we near the top

After nearly losing my mother to heat exhaustion (I swear the woman doesn’t sweat), we made it safely to the bottom where we promptly consumed one Powerade and one bottle of water each (as we’d sent most of our water on with the men). Once I was sure that neither of us were going faint, we bought our tickets for the cable car and ascended the mountain like 99% of the tourists do.

Once we got to the top, it had been over 3 hours and I was almost expecting that Ted and Lar would be up there waiting for us. When we arrived and there was no sign of them, I decided to go looking. I plopped Sal (who was quite worried at this point) at our planned meeting-up spot, bought a couple of liters of water and went running down to trail to rescue my husband and father.

But no rescue was needed. I didn’t get more than 200 yards before running into to them. They were tired and had run out of water so were thrilled to see I had some (though Ted had been wishing for it about 30 minutes earlier). However, they were there in one piece and were happy to have successfully made it to the top.

After a group refueling, we finally got around to taking in the amazing panorama. The view of the city and the surrounding beaches from the top is different in every direction. We had a blue-sky clear day and we could see for miles.

Northward views from the top!

Southward views from the top!

Graces on top!

The rest of the day was rightfully spent napping and relaxing before heading out for a much deserved celebratory dinner!

It’s very exciting to be driving into a big city on the other side of the world and to know your parents are waiting for you when you get there!

Sal and Lar (my Mom and Dad) had made the long trip to the southern tip of Africa and we were thrilled to have them there. Lar had done a lot of the organizing for the trip and hit a home run finding the Rutland Lodge for our home base (Sal was busy first-time grandmother-ing in Minnesota during most of the planning). Situated up in the highlands overlooking the whole city and the ocean, the Lodge is just a short trip from the base of Cape Town’s famous Table Mountain.

View from Rutland Lodge

View of Table Mountain from Rutland Lodge

Cape Town is an impressive city that has many things going for it, from beautiful secluded beaches, to mountains as a backdrop, to a multi-cultural mix of people and music and food that is incredibly intriguing. It’s part San Diego, part Sydney but all South African. However, Cape Town isn’t all sunshine and good. Like the rest of South Africa, crime and safety are huge issues. Most houses and businesses in this beautiful place are behind tall walls with security alarms and electric and/or razor fences. It is something you are aware of at all times, but more so than in any other cities we visited in South Africa, you actually feel quite safe.

I guess you have to have at least one negative thing to say about the place or otherwise it would just be too perfect. We were excited to be there and have nearly a week to explore it with my parents.

Cape Town Beaches

Arrival in Africa - Welcome Graces!

Like all good things in life, safaris must come to an end.  After an extremely long day of travel that involved 17+ hours, 2 countries, 3 flights (stopover #2 of 10 in the JoBurg airport), 1 car rental and a 1 hour drive – in the pouring rain, at night, on the other side of the road – we made it to our hostel on South Africa’s coast in Durban.  It was New Year’s Eve and Ted and I were pumped to go out and party! Yeah? No.  We were asleep by 11:15pm.  In our defense, the hostel bar closed at 10:45, and the nearest bar was miles away – too far to wander in the un-walkable night streets of South Africa, and too much of a pain to wait for a cab.  We woke up at midnight to the sound of fireworks and dogs barking and wished each other a happy 2011!

The next day we hit the road driving west to check out the famous Garden Route with the goal of being in Cape Town on January 5^th to meet up with the Graces.  The Garden Route is a scenic coastal drive that has been compared to California’s Highway 1 – lots of lookouts, beautiful beaches, coastal National Parks, cute vacation towns and plenty of tourist attractions ranging from snake museums to butterfly gardens to bungee jumps.

Jeffrey's Bay, Garden Route

Tsitsikama National Park

Tsitsikama National Park

We had quite a lot of ground to cover so most of our sight-seeing was from the car.  However, we were able to stay 2 nights in the cute, little town of Knysna and overlap with Dave and Jesse, the American couple we met in South America (who are also doing an around the world trip).  They happened to be in South Africa coming from Cape Town and we were headed to Cape Town so we decided to meet up in the middle.  We had a blast eating seafood, exploring ocean-front cliffs, sitting on the beach, and hearing what they’d been up to since we’d last seen them.  We even brazed the freezing cold Atlantic Ocean one day just so that we could say we swam in it.  We’re hoping to pull off another meet-up in Asia – we’ll see if we can make that work.

Knysna Heads

Beach day, cold water, cold beer

Knysna

Mmmmm...Oysters!

Everyone knows that a group of lions is called a pride and a group of wolves is called a pack.  But did you know that…

• A group of zebra is called a dazzle
• A group of warthogs is called a sounder
• A group of giraffes standing still is called a tower but a group of giraffes in motion is called a jenny
• And my personal favorite – a group of mongoose is called is a business

Hilarious

We had the opportunity to spend the holidays in the Botswana bush this year.  Not surprisingly, we were reminded that what makes the holidays the holidays are the traditions and build-up associated with the big day, as well as the people you spend it with.  To us it didn’t feel much like Christmas as we were in Christmas carole withdrawal, we didn’t step foot in a mall, the weather was hot and dry and our families and friends were thousands of miles away.

However, our hosts at Savuti Camp in Botswana did a helluva job of celebrating Christmas and we were thankful to spending both Christmas Eve and Christmas with such entertaining people.

Christmas Party!

Our Christmas Party Hosts

For Christmas Eve, all the guests and all the staff dined together in the outdoor gathering area – the boma.  It was fun to sit outside under the stars and meet folks from all other the world.  The camps are so remote that staff work for 3 months straight and then have one month off so even though some were in their home country, they too were hundreds of miles away from family.  However unlike at home, we learned that moments before we arrived for dinner the staff had had to shew away a hyena that had helped himself to the small candies on the table!

On Christmas we kicked off the day with an early morning game drive.  Normally Christmas morning is spent nursing a mild hangover and opening our stockings, but this year we were hanging with elephants and giraffes and ostriches.  The group devised an animal-focused version of 12 Days of Christmas, based on our sightings that day.

Christmas Elephants

Christmas dinner was delicious with many of the fixins’ we get at home – turkey, mashed potatoes, veggies, rolls.  Oh, and champagne – lots of it.  The Savuti staff had a little Christmas tree (more like a dead branch) that they had decorated with lights.  One of our tour group members had given us all flashing necklaces (thanks Carolyn!) and we were spoiled with little wrapped presents both in our room as well as on the table at dinner.

Christmas on safari!

Though absolutely nothing like Christmas as we know it, we had an absolutely wonderful couple of days and we are sure to remember Christmas 2010 for the rest of our lives.

• 5:00 a.m. – You are woken up in your luxury tent by a personal wake-up knock from your guide.  A pot of hot water is provided to you, in case you need coffee upon rolling out of bed
• 5:30 a.m. – You are provided with way too much food for 5 in the morning, but you eat it and love it
• 

  Leopard

  6:00 a.m. – Morning game drive!  You bounce around in the back of an open-air converted Land Cruiser and look for animals.  Sometimes you don’t see a whole lot, sometimes you round a corner and see zebra, giraffe and wildebeest all hanging out together.  Sometimes your guide identifies an impossible to see leopard and you are in awe.

• 9:00 a.m. – Morning tea in the bush.  Coffee, tea and biscuits (cookies) are served en route.  If you need to use the bathroom, the guide has to go check to make sure that your desired location is free from wild animals.
• 11:00 a.m. – Return from game drive and time for morning brunch.  Even more delicious food is provided and once again you eat more than you mean to.
• Noon – 3:30 p.m. – Downtime.  The animals are most active in the morning and evening and kind of lay low during the hottest time of the day.  So we do too.  Ted and I spent most of our downtime napping but we also motivated to do some exercises (push-ups and sit-ups) because safari-ing requires a lot of eating and sitting!
• 3:30 p.m. – Afternoon tea.  No, I’m not kidding – they feed you again.  Afternoon “tea” would be anything from mini pizzas, to samosas, to cupcakes.  Too much good food.
• 4:00 p.m. – Afternoon game drive.  More driving around and more animal encounters.  Always exciting to come across something new.
• 

  Botho, our guide, preparing the sundowners

  6:30 p.m. – Sundowners.  We love this term as it essentially means cocktail time while the sun goes down.  We would park in some incredibly scenic spot sipping on gin and tonics and munching on snacks if your stomach had any room for them.

• 8:00 p.m. – Return from game drive and time for dinner and more drinks.  Dinner was always delicious and it was fun to meet other groups on safari from all over the world and to chat up the staff at the lodges.  Everyone has a story.
• 9:30 p.m. – Bedtime for us wild and crazy kids.  Five in the morning comes way to early!

In summary – Eat-drive-eat-sleep-eat-drive-eat-sleep.  And that doesn’t include snacks on the drives!

Before we officially went off into the bush on our first safari, Ted and I had the opportunity to visit Victoria Falls with our NatHab group.  Vic Falls is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world and it is one of the most visited attractions in Africa, so we were excited to take a look.

The falls did not disappoint.  Just a few miles down the road from Livingstone, Zambia and you are greeted with the sound of rushing water and the mist in the air from millions of gallons of water from the Zambezi River falling over the edge of a cliff.  In fact the local name for the falls, Mosi-o-Tunya, means the smoke that thunders.  It is quite impressive to say the least.  There is a great set of pathways that allow you to walk along the edge of a cliff looking directly at the falls on the other side of the narrow canyon and you can entertain yourself by watching the white-water rafters go by below.  I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves but in summary the falls are truly awesome.

Victoria Falls, from Zambia

Vic Falls

More falls

We were visiting at a time of the year when the water was running low so though we saw dozens of individual waterfalls, we saw pictures of the falls during wet season when the view is just one giant wall of water.

How we saw it

Vic Falls

And for you close readers of the blog, you may have noticed that prior to coming to Africa the last thing we did in South America was visit Iguazu Falls.  We realize that not too many folks get the chance to visit the two most amazing waterfalls on the planet within one week of each other so we were excited to compare and contrast.  And because we’ve already been asked this exact question, though Vic Falls is incredible and has already earned the distinction as one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World, we would actually have to give our vote to Iguazu in a head-to-head comparison of spectacular-ness.  But no worries Africa, South America has got nothing on you when it comes to animals!

Through Ted’s miracle tourism network we had the INCREDIBLE opportunity to go on a 13-day luxury safari with a company out of Boulder – Natural Habitat Adventures (NatHab).  NatHab specializes in trips that get you up close and personal with animals and an African safari does just that.

On the first day of our trip we were picked up from our hostel and taken to a boat launch along the Zambezi River.  Within minutes of being on the river we saw our first hippopotamus.  Woohoo!  Apparently these giant, fat things are the most dangerous animal in Africa, killing more people every year than Africa’s much-talked about Big 5 (lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo, and rhino) combined.  We definitely saw a bit of their aggression as one charged our boat when we got too close!

Hippos on the Zambezi

Hippo Charging

They are big suckers

The boat eventually got us safely to The River Club – our home for the next couple nights.  The River Club is a beautiful spot sitting right on the banks of the mighty Zambezi, which ultimately becomes Victoria Falls only a few kilometers away.  The rooms were quite possibly the nicest we have ever, or maybe will ever, stay in and we were pinching ourselves with the upgrade from our backpacker hostel to riverfront fanciness.

Sunset at the River Club

River Club Bungalo

Our guides were both from Botswana, where the majority of the safari would be taking place.  Francis has been guiding for years (decades?) and though he was a man of few words around the dinner table, he was so incredibly informative out in the bush that we were nothing but impressed.  Botho was our safari coordinator who was around to help out Francis and make sure we had everything we needed.

We had a good group and we were extremely excited about our next couple weeks!

Zambezi Sunsets

Zambezi Sunsets