Blogs from South Africa, Africa - page 5

Our morning started at 7 am as we headed out for our first game drive. Today will be drives through the local game preserve. As we climbed aboard our truck with Shaun, our guide, we were ready to photograph the nearby residents. The first large animals we encountered were impalas, wildebeests, and warthogs. The warthogs however did not hang around long. The impalas were all sizes and included a black impala. At one point we were hoping for two males to engage in a dispute over the females but they greeted each other and moved along. Farther along we stopped by a lake where two hippos were lazily residing along with several different kinds of kingfishers. We returned to camp for breakfast and an afternoon of leisure before the evening drive and an African style barbeque. ... read more

The flight from Atlanta, Ga to Johannesburg, South Africa was a healthy 15 hours. This is the longest duration for one flight that we have taken and it seemed to go on and on. We did receive dinner, a snack (a sandwich) and breakfast that helped fill time. There were also numerous movies stored in the TV that could fill more hours. The one thing that we did not achieve was sleep. So by the time we landed in Johannesburg we were tired. The flight was totally uneventful and once again we landed on time. We were staying in a hotel attached to the airport but found that getting there was a healthy hike. Having finally reached the hotel and checked in, I discovered I had left a small but needed item at home and needed ... read more

Today we were collected by Jerome. The two suitcases full of clothes were packed in the back of his van and we headed for Mid-Ennerdale. This is an area in the south-west of Johannesburg. Many informal settlements have grown up in this area and the foundation have a project in one of settlements called the Meriting. Here there is a pre-school, a grannie club, a big area of gardening for growing veg, a sewing room, and a health screening room/clinic. It is a unique and developing project that is helping the local women and children. We took a couple of photos which are below. We then went to ilumala House where 21 girls are expertly cared for by the dedicated staff. We were given a tour of the house and had a great time with the ... read more

Tourism is slightly on the way to recovery...and international divers are therefore back to our little village. I thought...been a long time since I haven't posted any pictures of my diving at home. So here we are...a little diving post! As tourism is not only on the road to recovery here, but all over the world, my lovely wife has also been able to find a new mission as Commercial Director of a top hotel on a new island for us...but that's coming in the next blog. I'm writing this from a lovely little room with a lovely view of our new surrounding. Next blog coming soon! We are not leaving Shelly Beach! We are just going to be a lot less here over the coming months and maybe years. Why do I love so much ... read more

At 20:10 the plane left Zürich airport towards Frankfurt. From Frankfurt the plane took 11:45 to get to cape town and landed at 10:00 just on time. The pilot Stefan Knubel did a very well job on his last roundtrip before his retirement. During flight I had a nice seat neighbour to chat with. She told me the story of her three years stay in USA an her life in cape town, while I told her about chocolate, chees and the mountains of Switwerland plus my up coming trip in south africa (SA). Just arrived at cape town airport I sneaked over the waiting taxi drivers, left the halls of the airport behind and headed towarts the bus station of mycity transport company, to find a map of the local public transport network and to experience ... read more