From Vancouver to South Africa- First Blog this trip

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I am finally getting around to writing a travel blog after leaving home almost 2 weeks ago! We have been on the go, and not always connected to WIFI.Here's an overview of our stops so far: Hong Kong for 3 days in between 2 long 12 1/2 hour flights; Johannesburg to change flights to Cape Town; Nattevalleij, a farm with cottages- 3 days; an old inn in Cape Town for 2 nights; a B&B in Betty's Bay, a tiny village on the coast, about an hour's drive South East of Cape Town- 2 nights.

In Cape Town, we picked up our rental car, and drove to a rural set of cottages near Stellenbosch, where we met our other 3 travelling friends. We spent a relaxing 3 days (no WIFI, no TV, no distractions, recovering from our long trip. A highlight was a superb dinner in a country pub.

The wines and beer have been excellent and very reasonable. Also, eating out in South Africa is very inexpensive compared to our prices in Canada.Although I don't speak or understand Africaans, I can hear some familiar sounds and words from Flemish spoken by my employer when I was a nanny in Switzerland 48 years ago! It's a very colourful language with some sounds that are hard to get your mouth around. Betty's Bay is a quiet community on a wind-swept coast which reminds me a bit of the Oregon Coast of the U.S. There are sand dunes and small bushes growing out of the sandy soil.

This is our second trip to South Africa. Returning here after 14 years is bringing back great memories, and we also notice many changes. In 2000, the country was still in its honeymoon after Apartheid ended in 1994. More comments as we travel on... (I hope to add photos, once I've figured out how to do it from an i-Pad!

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