Category Archives: Travel

I know, I’m a month late with this.  Things have been absolutely insane since I got back to DC.  Apologies. There are a lot of changes coming for me which I’ll write about later.

Our first day on the Cape was rainy, but turned out well.  We had a van tour of the peninsula, which gave us a good idea of the spots we wanted to hit again when the weather turned.  The van tour included a stop at Cape Point (above) and Cape of Good Hope, which is the southwestern-most point in the African continent (below).

We saw quite a bit of wildlife on the van tour, but the highlight was the African Penguin colony at Boulder Beach. They’re friendly little guys, and even in the wind and rain didn’t mind when we walked right up to them.

The second day was much nicer. We bought a ticket for the open top sightseeing bus and took it straight to Table Mountain and took the cableway up. Of course I forgot to charge the battery in my camera, so I don’t have any pictures. These are from Chris’s Flickr stream.

Cape Town from Table Mountain

After Table Mountain, we followed the rest of the open top bus route and walked around until sunset.

On our third day, we rented a car and went to a few wineries in Stellenbosch. While we were in town, we ate at Apprentice, a restaurant run by the Institute of Culinary Arts.  If you’re ever there, I highly recommend it.  Excellent food for cheap.

The highlight of the day was the Cheetah Outreach Project on the Spier wine estate.  For R180.00 (a little over $20), one can spend a few minutes with cheetah cubs.

We showed up a few minutes too late for a tasting at Jordan Wines, but the woman running the shop was very accommodating, giving us a free tasting of their excellent Nine Yards Chardonnay. This was typical of the hospitality we experienced throughout our stay in South Africa.

After the wineries, we drove down the coast on the scenic R310/M4 route to Simons Town (stopping off for another visit with the Penguins), where we had dinner at Bertha’s Restaurant.

On our final full day in South Africa, we visited the colorful Bo-Kaap neighborhood, which is the center of the Cape Malay culture in Cape Town. After that, we had lunch at Mama Africa Restaurant and drove out to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens to see what we missed on our first day.

Finally, we watched the reflection of the sun set on Table Mountain over a cocktail.

It was a very full week, and while we didn’t spend much time doing much other than sleeping there, I’d be remiss in failing to mention David’s Bed and Breakfast, where we were very well taken care of by David, Hannes, Tanya and Eden.  Cape Town is an amazing place, unlike any other I’ve been.  The city blends in with its surroundings perfectly, and the people are so friendly and laid back.  I hope to go back some day and spend a bit more time there.

The flights back to Johannesburg and the States were uneventful, and it didn’t take me terribly long to get back into the swing of things here.  I think a month away from my normal routine was just what I needed to clear my head and give me a fresh perspective on life.

I promise an update about the rest of the trip is coming Real Soon Now, but all of the pictures and videos are up.

Chris’s are on his Flickr and YouTube, and mine are on my Flickr.

Panoramic view of Johannesburg Suburb Sandton from my Hotel Room

It’s hard to believe I’ve been in Johannesburg for almost two weeks already.  The time’s flown by.  I’m sure a lot of it is to do with the fact that Chris is here now so it’s a bit less lonely, and there’s just more to do.  I had the unexpected surprise of 3 days off while I was here.  I’m not sure of the specifics, but there was a security threat that closed down all of the US Missions in South Africa, including the office where I’m working.  That gave me the opportunity to join Chris in a bit of sightseeing.  We visited SAB World of Beer, Museum Africa, Top of Africa (the tallest building in Africa), Soweto, and the Apartheid Museum. 

Johannesburg is a beautiful, diverse, and at times frustrating city.  It’s difficult to get around without your own car–I’ve spent more money on cabs this week than I care to think about.  Also, the central business district is really run down and crime-ridden.  It was especially sad to see that the Carleton Centre Hotel downtown had been closed down, as businesses moved to the less crime-ridden areas in the suburbs.

Visiting Soweto provided a stark contrast to the CBD and the suburbs like Sandton.  While there were certainly slums and run down areas, the majority of the neighborhoods we saw were well-kept.  You could really tell the people there had a pride in the property they owned, and were slowly making upgrades to their houses.  It was funny to see the additions that some had put on to their little matchbox houses.  The lots are small, so there’s really only one direction to build in–up.  Visiting Nelson Mandela’s house and the Hector Pieterson Memorial was pretty cool as well.

Of course a trip to Jo’burg wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the Apartheid Museum.  It didn’t strike me until about mid way through the exhibits that a lot of this stuff was happening during my lifetime.  Visiting the museum definitely made me appreciate how far this country has come in a relatively short period of time.

Me and Chris outside the Apartheid Museum

And that’s about it for Johannesburg.  All of the pictures I’ve taken are up on my Flickr account now. Tonight, we’re off to Cape Town!

It’s been awhile since I updated, eh?  We had quite a time on Kapama Private Game Reserve last weekend.  The lodge was pretty amazing; all of the staff were incredibly friendly (even when we showed up well past our supposed arrival time on Friday night), our tracker and ranger were incredibly knowledgeable about the animals we saw, the food was excellent, and the spa was great too!  We saw some amazing things–almost all of the big 5, aside from the Leopard; and we even got to witness a rare live kill one night, where we saw a lioness take down a wildebeest and feed it to her cubs.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves, but I have to warn you, some of them can be a bit graphic.

After the lodge, we made a quick stop at the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre.  There, we saw Cheetahs, several types of wild cat, and my favorite, wild dogs.  Here are some more pictures from there.

The only minor setback we had that weekend was that two of the tires on our rental car blew out at the same time.  There was a jagged piece of pavement that we didn’t see when we were driving, and it shredded the sidewall of both passenger-side tires on the car.  Oops.  It also happened pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Thrifty was great though, they sent us a replacement car from two hours away and we were on our way.

All in all, a great weekend at safari!

Not a whole lot to report so far in Johannesburg.  I’ve been feeling a little out of it, so I’ve been laying low in the hotel and just chilling out.  Feeling much better today, hopefully that trend will continue.

Chris is on his way now.  He’s taking quite a circuitous route to get here–DC to Boston to London, a quick 12 hour layover there, and then on to Johannesburg.  About 36 hours total travel time.  Pretty rough, but it was a frequent flier ticket.

Anyway, once he arrives, we’ll be headed for a 5 hour drive to Kapama River Lodge, which is inside a private game reserve.  Between the bush walks and game drives, hopefully we’ll get to see the Big 5 (Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Rhino and Buffalo) while we’re there.  Kapama is just on the edge of a malaria zone, so I’m being extra cautious and taking the preventative drug Malarone.  The side effects–dizziness and nightmares–are better than getting Malaria.

After Kapama, we’ll be back in Jo’burg for a week.  With the exception of one day, I’ll be working all week, but hopefully will get to see some of the city at night.

That’s about it, pretty boring so far this week…

Checked into my hotel in Johannesburg, which has unmetered internet access.  Here’s the video!