Blogs from South Africa, Africa - page 535

WOULD YOU BELIEVE THIS? We spent Christmas day at the beach. South Africans apparently do that. In Strand large apartment buildings, tall office blocks, and low decaying vintage seaside businesses line the shore along a boulevard. On Christmas day it looked as if the United Nations had sent all their delegates to Coney Island. Only, of course, we were in South Africa. I have never seen a more amazing and multicolored collection of people. On beaches in the United States people tend to "blanket' and stay put, relatively speaking. Here in Strand the crowd moved, walked, played cricket, ran in rugby matches, dribbled soccer balls, rolled in the sand, dashed into the water, wheeled strollers, stood on their heads, surfed. It was like Brownian Motion lathered in sunscreen. I felt like I was in the middle ... read more

Halli Hallo Gegen Ende unserer Reise haben wir noch die Kap-Region unsicher gemacht. Die Kap-Halbinsel mit Cape Point und Cape of Good Hope ist wunderschoen. Zwar wurden wir vom starken Wind fast von der Klippe geblasen, aber das hat uns nicht davon abgehalten noch einen kleinen Spaziergang zum neuen Leuchtturm zu machen. Das Cape of Good Hope ist eigentlich nur eine kleine Bucht mit tuerkisfarbigem Wasser. Da haben wir dann unser Samichlauspicknick veranstaltet ;-) Am Tag darauf haben wir die erstbeste Chance wahrgenommen und sind auf den Tafelberg gefahren. Eigentlich wollten wir zu Fuss den Berg erklimmen, aber da wir selber gesehen haben wie schnell das Wetter aendern kann, haben wir uns fuer die Seilbahfahrt (3min.) entschieden. Die Aussicht von da oben ueber die ganze Stadt ist atemberaubend. (Die naechsten 4 Tage war die Bahn nicht ... read more

We got up at 4am to leave for Kruger Park. It's definitely a Parkhouse thing that unless you get up way before dawn it isn't a holiday. We stopped for lunch at the best motorway cafe called Milly's, the one on the trout lake. On the way we must have passed at least a dozen broken down trailers on their way to Mozambique. They all seem to have a bed and half a dozen chairs lashed to the top. We got to Lower Sabie mid afternoon and set up camp, it was really hot so we then had a swim to cool down. The camp gates open at 4.30 so we rose at 3.30 to make sure we were first out of the gates. This time we weren't lucky enough to get any amazing sightings but ... read more

I officially finished my last day of work today! Seven month holiday coming up! ... read more

Our arrival in South Africa in a town called Upington after a comfortable bus trip from Windhoek; it was a sprawling return to urban life after seeing nothing like it in Namibia outside of Windhoek. Upington is in the middle of nowhere in the Northern Cape, desert scenery was all around. We collected our hire car in the normal 'Africa time' (via a hotel casino and the airport - don't ask) and were on the road about half a day after later than expected - which ironically is just about bang on schedule! The drive was scenic and our first stop was the Augrabies Falls National Park, a stunning canyon with a large waterfall cascading over the rim. We were surprised by the volume of the falls, having seen almost no water in Namibia and the ... read more