TRIP TO SOUTH AFRICA—SOME THOUGHTS—February 22-April 4, 2014

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Some thoughts on the trip:

One of the questions we have been asked several times was, would we do this same trip again? Knowing what we know now, we have to say no, not really.

Not that we wouldn’t visit South Africa again, but that we wouldn’t rent this type of RV and drive so many miles in it. We could have seen the same things in a rented SUV or Jeep type vehicle and stayed at the Park Lodges or B and B’s/hotels and thereby been in more comfort. The cost of the hotel room would be offset by the cost of the daily rental fee of the RV, we believe. The better gas mileage of a car versus an RV would help in any savings we had on cooking our own food.

The RV

We wished Rosie II was with us for her compact design. The RV that was rented for us, was poorly done–for example, the air conditioning was placed on the side of the RV, in back of the bathroom wall, so Valerie sleeping in the kitchen got no air flow at all. I might freeze in the back as I had set the temp as cold as could be in order to try to get some cool air movement her way, but then it was blowing directly on me. Many nights, it was so hot and humid, that we sort of both slept head to feet in the back bed, until it cooled enough for her to move back to the kitchen area for the rest of the night. As mentioned before, the AC drip pan would get full in the middle of the night and pour water all over me, my bedding and the cushions. Not a pleasant way to be woken up.

Lighting was another thing poorly designed. There were no lights in the center roof of the RV so everything was in the shadows. The largest light was placed over the side door opening with spotlights in the corners by the tables/beds. This would be ok but a shelf was built UNDER each fixture so the light didn’t fall on the tables but instead on the shelf like you had some piece of art you wanted illuminated.

We didn’t like the way the kitchen table was hinged such that you often hit your knee on the metal frame. We really didn’t like the way the kitchen bed set up and hated that you had to put it up and down daily in order to have a place to sit and a table to eat at. OSHA would have never approved this design.

I know, however, we wouldn’t have taken the chances we took with this RV if we were driving Rosie II, as her carriage is too low for the roads we traveled. But on the other hand, Rosie II would have handled better as she isn't top heavy. These units really rocked side-to-side when we went into ruts/ditches cut by the water and potholes.

This country has had so much rain this season that roads all over have been washed away in all the national parks. We have had hairy experiences with ruts, potholes big enough to lose a kid in, and places where the river and road became one and undermined the edges of the roads making it one lane instead of two. I think a jeep type vehicle would have allowed us to go more places on these dirt roads, easier.

The Tour

The other major negative point in this was the tour itself. We have never travelled in this sort of Rally and were really naive in understanding how this would work. We were given a 1½ inch thick guide book in NY that spelled out in fine detail the roads we would travel and the places and landmarks along the way, what were good stops for gas, etc., and the directions to where we would camp for each night. That was all good, until we learned that each morning we had to meet and go over the route we would take that day. The wagon-master READ the directions to us each morning, which I could hardly believe we would spend the time doing. Meetings were mandatory and it took about ½ to an hour of time. So, no sleeping in.

Lip Service was given to “do your own thing;” however, it didn’t seem to be encouraged. It wasn’t until the end of the trip that people were venturing out on their own a bit. We still were checked in by a certain time however. I guess we felt the whole thing was too paternalistic and so we chaffed at this a great deal. I also think since we had driven all over Europe both eastern and western, to Alaska, Labrador and New Foundland, crossed the US lots of times all on our own, that we just needed good detailed maps and then just turn us loose. The things we wished to do that were not scheduled had to do with our different interests than what the planners of the tour had in mind.

We are interested in the anthropology, archaeology of South Africa, the history of the Boer Wars that helped shape the country that it is today. (Much like the American Civil War impacted the South, the Boer Wars are still remembered in South Africa by the Afrikaans.) None of this history was included in the tours. However, this is a general complaint we have of any tour we book, instead, of going on our own–they don’t spend the time nor the amount of time we want to spend to see what we are interested in seeing.

The Wildlife

We did achieve our main goal in visiting South Africa and that was to see the birds and animals in the wild (course as explained before, only the birds were truly wild)--and we saw lots and lots of them—saw and got pictures of the ones I wanted to see in the bird family--the silly looking hoopoe and some absolutely gorgeous Rollers and Bee-eaters that are 3-4 beautiful bright colors. We saw all the big 5 animals you are suppose to see, except the leopard--the BIG 5, really refers to those animals that were difficult to hunt in by gone days. And when killed, their heads were hung on the hunter’s castle or lodge walls. They make a big deal out of it here. The safari guides are so caught up in showing you the BIG 5 that they don’t look much for animals outside that list. We didn’t mind not seeing the leopard, as we were the only ones in our group to see the cheetah. Saw plenty of lions, some right along side of the tour truck.

Some general observations about South Africa

In general the land was very scenic, even though we didn’t expect so much of it to look like the US states of Montana, Utah, Arizona and other prairie and desert states. I think we envisioned something more tropical in nature, and not at all as mountainous as it is.

Food: is cheap here. Gas stations on the toll roads have ready to cook items as well as good looking sandwiches and wraps. As usually true, stopping and eating at any restaurant is not fast–even the fast food places are not as fast as in the US. Lunches and dinners eaten as a group would take two hours. It was nice to have lots of veggies, especially pumpkin at most meals and the jam of choice was apricot, which we like, and not strawberry (which is always served in the US), which we don’t care for. I wished to have had another dessert served beside the ubiquitous Malva Pudding. Once or twice was ok, but not every meal we ate as a group!!!

Physical environment: Restrooms at malls, gas stations, camping parks, and everywhere we stopped, were all free, very clean, and supplied with toilet tissue and paper towels, which is something we didn’t expect at all. We saw almost no graffiti until we got into Johannesburg and then there was some and not lots of it. In general, the roadside were clean and people were cutting the grasses and picking up litter. Of course the crew of 10-20 people they had doing it were cutting with weed eaters instead of using large mowers that we use here in the US for cutting grass along the roads and interstates.

The roadways: Other than the potholes, and the excessive rain caused other road problems, the roads were in good to excellent condition with well marked signage. The signage fell apart just a few times on the smaller rural roads or in the middle of cities like they seem to all over the world. On occasion, the signs were written in just Afrikaans, similar to just Gallic in Ireland.

Drivers seemed to behave about the same as in the USA keeping to their own lanes and following speed limit signs, unlike, the drivers in Brazil and Sri Lanka. They didn’t seem to be reckless and let you yield onto the freeways and have your turn at stop signs. On the whole trip traveling as many miles as we did, we only saw one accident and it was on a rural mountainous road.

Race relations: We couldn’t help but notice that as a nation they have a lot of work to do on race relations and trust between the races. We recognize that they have only had about 20 years to work things out and we haven’t in the US, gotten everything right, and have been at it more than twice as long. For example, repeatedly, we observed that the person to handle the money in a store was White and the clerks Black, even at the craft store, at the Zulu Village exhibit. The bosses on the road construction crews were most often White and the crews Black. Managers/owners in fast food chains were again more often White and not Black. For a country that is only 8% white, they still have a lot of work to do.

We caught a tone from the statements made by tour guides on politics that seem to indicate uneasiness with the current Black President. When in Pretoria, we were surprised at the vigil/alertness of the driver (Africans) and guide (English) in their expectation of trouble from the almost all Black people wandering around us. Neither Valerie nor I perceived any hostility nor danger (from animals, yes) from other people the whole trip, no. I had gone with expectations of having to be vigilant and on guard at all times looking for pickpockets and their ilk.

The People: We found the people of all kinds of backgrounds, to be friendly when we started conversations. I stayed often on the bus or sat on a bench as Valerie went strolling here and there and had several interesting conversations with Indian bus drivers, shoppers resting also, sales people, and with others. People responded well to our smiles and waves as we drove through the countryside. Most waved back and the children would giggle as they do all over the world.

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Photographer’s note: Taking photos on this tour was especially difficult for a variety of reasons: 1) In the case of the wildlife, we were supposed to remain in our vehicle at all times, so most of the pictures were taken through an open window, 2) the roads in some places were so narrow with no shoulders or otherwise so congested that stopping to take a picture was not possible, 3) the bright sun, especially shining in one’s lens, and the haze often challenged my knowledge of my camera and photography skills, 4) being on tours and safaris meant often getting someone’s head or hand in the photo, missing the picture all together, or getting a reflection from the bus window, or not hearing the presentation as I rushed around trying to capture as much as I could on film, and 5) I had decided not to buy a new camera with a greater focal length or a video camera, both of which would have improved the quality of the pictures; however, not carrying extra lenses and the additional weight, made this decision fine and adequate for our purposes. If I were to be more ‘professional’ in the photos, I would also need to have the things Sharon mentioned earlier: better vehicle, no touring to someone else’s schedule, unlimited time, and no weather-related road problems.

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