Tanzania and South Africa

Tuesday, July 13 – Today was a do nothing day and it was wonderful. We slept in, had some breakfast and sat by the pool. In the afternoon we wandered down to a cute little shipping area called the Slipaway where they had charming little souvenir shops. We made a few small purchases and enjoyed a cocktail by the water. We ordered room service for dinner and after a small fiasco with our air conditioning, we called it a night.

Wednesday, July 14 – Today was travel day. Despite the failure of the hotel to give us our wake-up call at 4:30 am, we managed to make it to the airport by 5:15 am in time for our 7:30 am flight to Cape Town via Johannesburg. As soon as we landed it was clear we were back in civilization. We picked up our rental car (a little Kia the size of a toaster - a standard on the “wrong” side to boot) and headed to our B&B. We arrived at Abbey Manor and were greeted by the most wonderful hostess. After settling into a beautiful room with views of both downtown and Table Mountain, our hostess sat with us for almost an hour, helping us plan our route to Kruger. She suggested we head down to the V&A Waterfront, a commercial area of Cape Town, on the water with lots of shops and restaurants. It was a fabulous area to walk around. Keith and I grabbed a delicious steak dinner, at a restaurant boasted to be the largest wine bar in the world, and of course some wine, before heading back to our B&B for the night.

Thursday, July 15 – Today was a day of walking. We set out in the morning, walking for almost 5 hours straight, seeing the sights of Cape Town. We saw the Company Gardens, Greenmarket Square, the Nelson Mandela Gateway, Green Point Stadium where they held some of the World Cup matches, the lighthouse at Mouille Point and the District Six Museum, to name a few. Keith and I thoroughly enjoyed strolling through Cape Town though we were both spent by the time we got back to our B&B. We had delicious pizza dinner, a long soak in the tub and called it a night.

Friday, July 16 – Today was a day of exploring. We set out in the morning for the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. Though it was cloudy and overcast in Cape Town, Keith and I managed to find a small patch of sun that stayed with us for most of the day. It was a lovely coastal drive and we made many stops along the way, including Muizenberg, where they had brightly colored bungalows lining the beach, Kalk Bay, where there was a neat little fishing harbor, and Boulders Beach, where we visited a penguin colony. The Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve was a beautiful park. We hiked up to the lighthouse at Cape Point, visited the Cape of Good Hope and saw many ostrich. We headed home, following the opposite coast line. We took a spectacular ride along Chapman's Peak Drive – a road that is carved into the side of a mountain overlooking the ocean. The views were incredible as we took in the Twelve Apostles – 12 rock formations on the backside of Table Mountain. We ended up in Camp's Bay – a very trendy coastal town. By then our day was drawing to a close. We headed towards home, had a delicious Thai dinner and called it a night.

Saturday, July 17 - We started off in the morning taking the cableway up to the top of 1068 meter high Table Mountain. The view from the top was spectacular. You could see all along the coast and though there were some clouds, we were able to catch of glimpse of all of Cape Town. We then set out for the Winelands – to do, of course, some wine tasting. Along the way we past some of the poverty-stricken areas of Cape Town, called townships, and words can't adequately describe what we saw. Rows and the rows of tin sheds, packed close together with only dirt alleys separating them – it was in such sharp contrast to the beautiful city that lay just a few miles away. Anyways...en route to Stellenbosch (in the Winelands) we stopped at a cheetah outreach center where we saw several beautiful cheetahs. We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting vineyards, having a delicious lunch and tasting yummy wines. Both the weather and the scenery was gorgeous. We spent the night at a lovely B&B in Franschhoek. Franschhoek claims to the country's gastronomical capital and our dinner, set in a cellar cut into the side of the mountain, did not disappoint. It was one of the best meals Keith and I have had in all of our travels.

Sunday, July 18 – Today we celebrated Bastille Day in Franschhoek. My Lonely Planet says the following: “French Huguenots settled in this specular valley more than 300 years ago, bringing their vines within them. Ever since then, the town has clung to its French roots; Bastille Day is celebrated with boules matches, berets and brie.” As our luck would have it we were there just in time. We spent most of the day at their wine and food festival, sampling great wines (even purchasing a couple of bottles) and eating yummy food. Before leaving Franschhoek we picked up some delicious chocolate and brie. We then set off for the coastal town of Hermanus, a beautiful two hour drive through the mountains and valleys. According to my Lonely Planet, Hermanus is “considered the best land-based whale-watching destination in the world.” We arrived early in the evening, found a great place to stay, did a little grocery shopping and, thankfully, saw a couple of whales!

Monday, July 19 – Today we were off to go shark cage diving, but not before we saw a few whales from our balcony. We had a 30 minute or so drive to Kleinsbaai before we boarded our boat. It was a 15-20 minute ride out to our dive spot, and fortunately the weather was quite nice (as an aside, we are in the middle of South Africa's winter so the weather and the water is none too warm). As soon as we arrived at the dive spot, we saw a great white shark. We then suited up and in groups of five, we were put into a cage that was tied to the side of the boat. You essentially hang yourself from the top of the cage and when they say when, you dive down and can see the great whites up close and personal – all the while, they are throwing tuna heads and all sorts of “chum” in the water to attract the sharks. You need to keep your fingers and toes inside the cage, or there is no guarantee that you'll arrive home with all digits. The water was quite cold, but it was a very impressive way to spend the day. It was amazing how close the sharks got to the cage and the animals in and of themselves are very impressive. After a day of shark diving, on the way back to the harbor we stopped by a huge (and very smelly) seal colony. By 5:00 pm or so we were back at our hotel. We enjoyed some wine, saw a few more whales and called it a night.

Tuesday, July 20 – Today we were off to Oudtshoorn – a town up in the mountains revered for its ostrich and caves. It was a bit of a drive to Oudtshoorn (about 5 hours) and we made just one brief stop at Ronnie's Sex Shop – a small little pub in the middle of no where. The drive to Oudtshoorn was quite scenic as we drove through mountain passes, valleys and farmland – it reminded us more of New Zealand than it did of Africa. As soon as we hit Oudtshoorn we found a cheap place to stay and then headed for the Cango Caves. We went on an hour long tour of the Caves which were quite impressive. At one point in time they had even held concerts in the Caves and our tour guide gave us a brief song to give us an idea of the acoustics. They had done a wonderful job lighting up the Caves and it was amazing the age of some of the stalagmites and stalactites (some of them were over 1 million years old). After the Caves we checked out town, grabbed a pizza for dinner and called it an early night. Though our hostess had told us that our room would heat up quite nicely while we were out at the Caves, when we arrived home it was barely warmer than the temperature outside. Keith and I spent the night bundled up and huddled together, just trying to stay warm.

Wednesday, July 21 – Today we were finally off to the Garden Route – a stretch of road along the cost of South Africa that my Lonely Planet describes as the following: “High on the must see-list of most visitors to South Africa is the Garden Route, and with good reason: you can't help but be seduced by the glorious natural beauty of the scenery.” We made several stops along the Garden Route including Knysna, a cute town with a beautiful lagoon and Plettensberg Bay, were we had lunch overlooking the beach while watching the whales. After lunch Keith ventured off to Bloukrans River Bridge Bungee – at 216 meters, the world's highest bungee jump - while I played the unofficial photography. It was quite impressive to both see and jump. We ended up in Tsitsikamma National Park, a gorgeous park along the coast. We went for a brief walk to their suspension bridge and then checked into our accommodations for the night – an oceanette – a small self-contained unit right on the edge of the ocean. We did some laundry (a treat), had a delicious dinner and fell asleep to the sound of waves crashing.

Thursday, July 22 – Today was a long day in the car. We set off early in the morning, following the coast. Our first stop for the day was Jeffrey's Bay, one of the top surfing destinations in the world and the site of Billabong's Pro Championship (which we had just missed by days). The beach and waves were impressive as we watched a few early morning surfers hit the “tubes.” We continued on, checking out the city of Port Elizabeth and the Nelson Mandela Stadium (the site of many of the World Cup matches). Our next stop was Addo Elephant Park, a national park that we could “self-drive.” Keith and I were actually quite successful on our first “self-drive” gamedrive – we spotted warthogs, buffalo, ostrich, eland (we think), leopard tortoise, kudu (a very impressive looking animal), bush-buck (again we think) and of course, elephants (some of which were so close, we thought they may trample our little Kia). All and all it was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon. We continued on driving, finally arriving in the town of East London (where we would be spending night), ten hours or so after departing Tsitsikamma National Park.