Blogs from Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa, Africa

After returning to the ship we have a day in Cape Town and plan to go to the botanical gardens at Kirstenbosch. We visited them several years ago but on one of those tours where you have 45 minutes here, a photo opportunity there and feel there was so much you didn’t see. We promised ourselves if we ever had the chance we would return and today is the day. We stop a taxi and he quotes a price. Ian never thinks of haggling and just agrees. The price (while cheaper than a Cunard excursion by some margin) is still much more than we expected. We are driven to the gardens and it is agreed the driver will pick us up later in the day. Ian offers to pay half the fare but the driver waves ... read more

Isn't life gorgeous?? Hope you are hanging there in this world that may have just re-opened...but that is facing the worst disease us travelers are fighting, I call hyper-inflation! So let see if we can make 2022 even better than 2021....after all, we all survived a crazy world, so let's try to get the best of it! Inflation is at work here in South Africa too...but due to the lack of international travelers, if you are a good hunter, this place is actually better than anything you'll find in North America, Europe or currently the few places open in Asia. So be smart...and come down under...the Africa way! I'm finally getting myself up to date with blogging! Impressive isn't it...well....maybe our own schedule pushed me...we are back on a long flight this Friday...and it's only the ... read more

You dream about this little corner of the world...you may even have your ticket for Christmas....but today, you learn in the news for the first time about B.1.1.529, or newly name, the Nu covid Variant. In few hours today, we found out that most countries could/will not welcome people having visited South Africa the last few days. British Airways and KLM won't fly in and out anymore. From tomorrow Emirates will not fly you out...only in South Africa. Lufthansa will take back home only Germans, with a 14 days quarantine on arrival. Singapore airlines will halt, I guess tomorrow Air France too. Maybe Qatar will remain! Ethiopian is a risky business these days with their own little domestic war going on. Trap in SA....and it's not that bad of a movie! Yesterday we had 2500 new ... read more

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is acclaimed as one of the great botanic gardens of the world. Few gardens can match the sheer grandeur of the setting of Kirstenbosch, against the eastern slopes of Cape Town’s Table Mountain. It is now winter in Cape Town the gardens are full of colour especially the proteas. Kirstenbosch enjoys a Mediterranean climate, with a long, hot, dry summer (November-March) and a short, cool, rainy winter (June-August). Stunning flowers with a wonderful backdrop. http://www.heygo.com... read more

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