South Africa 2016 - One More Time!!

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As you have probably figured out, these travel blogs are a way for Bernard and me to keep track of our adventures. I can't tell you how many times we've referred back to one of our over 60 travel blogs looking for various details, maps, dates, etc. That said, feel free to enjoy the photos and just skim or ignore the text.

South Africa June 29 - July 23, 2016

Overview:

I know many of you must be wondering: weren't you JUST in Africa last year? Yes we were, but 2016 was Bernard's 70th birthday and he wanted to share Africa with grandson Evan and daughter Christina, who had not been. Daughter JJ had visited us in 2005 when we lived there. Long story short, after the trip was all planned, Christina and Evan couldn't make it; JJ jumped in with enthusiasm and joined us for two weeks in the northern part of South Africa (Kruger National Park, Pretoria, Sun City/Pilanesberg). Friends from Alaska, Tim & Linda MacMillan, joined us in Pilanesberg NP; overlapped with JJ for about 3 days. We then dropped JJ at the airport in Jo'burg and the MacMillans and we headed south to Mountain Zebra, Addo Elephant, Tsitsikamma National Parks and Stellenbosch and Camps Bay/Cape Town.

Pretoria June 28 - July 1

We flew 16 hours from Tucson/LA/Atlanta to Johannesburg (henceforth 'Jo'burg'), which we thought was terrible, but JJ flew Alaska/Chicago/New York/Jo'burg. We landed in Jo'burg several hours apart with JJ arriving first and having to wait for us - poor thing was a basket case. Funny story: JJ's ticket didn't say anything about refueling in Ghana before Jo'burg, so when they landed there and some folks started gathering their things to get off, JJ followed suit. She got to passport control and they asked her for her visa. Thinking she was in South Africa she told them she didn't need a one, which of course confused them. JJ was waking up about now and either she or they realized she'd gotten off by accident and allowed her to reboard the plane. On board she asked folks who hadn't gotten off if their ticket indicated a stop in Ghana, and their tickets/itinerary did reflect that. I think JJ's booking agent got a earful upon her return to Alaska. Or not, she now has a great story . . . .



JJ got in a few Zs while waiting for us at the airport. When we arrived we bought a cell phone and airtime for our stay - extremely reasonable in SA. I could then call Ian, our friend Sue & Peter's employee to pick us up. He was waiting nearby, so we blew up our red balloon, which was our identifier for Ian, waved it around (JJ was peeing her pants laughing at this point) and within minutes Ian had spotted us. We headed to Sue & Peter's lovely home in Pretoria, which is about a 45-minute drive from the airport just outside of Jo'burg. Peter and Sue were in the USA at their home in Alabama, so Ian took care of us. We actually used Sue & Peter's car for the first part of our stay in SA.



A good friend from the Pictet International Humanitarian Law Competition, Garth Abrams, and his family (wife and three children) live in Jo'burg; Garth teaches there. We see Garth most every year at Pictet and enjoy him very much. He invited us to dinner and while we were in and out of Pretoria a number of times, June 30 was the only night we could coordinate to have dinner. Yes, we were still exhausted from our travels and JJ stayed in Pretoria to sleep, but B and I programmed our GPS and drove in the dark to Jo'burg. We had a most enjoyable evening!! Garth and his family were gracious, fun, chatty and just a joy to be around, not to mention the meal was to-die-for. I took a photo on my phone, which didn't turn out - drats!! Trust us, a lovelier family you cannot find. The next day we loaded up Sue & Peter's car and heading to Kruger.

Kruger National

Park July 1 - 5


It was a school holiday, so getting a place in Kruger took some doing. Normally we like to stay at two or three different rest camps/compounds (accommodations, restaurants, visitor centers, museums), but could only get the dates we wanted at Skukuza Rest Camp. Skukuza is the largest rest camp, so has all the amenities (including a pool), so it wasn't a hardship and we drove to several other rest camps/areas during our five days there.



Our accommodations in the park were rondavels. A rondavel is a traditional, round, thatch-roofed structure. We had two because originally Chris & Evan were going to come on the trip with us, so JJ had her own accommodations. Each rondavel had a fully-supplied kitchen, but since B and I had all the food, JJ would show up before light for coffee and breakfast as we headed out at first light. **They opened the rest camp/compound gates which gave us access to the park itself. We were always waiting at the gate to be one of the first vehicles out. It wasn't unusual to see a lion pride on a kill not too far from the compound, for example, but as it got lighter and the lions were full, they'd move on. Hence our wanting to be out as early as possible.



**In Kruger the animals are free and the people are 'caged' - everyone had to be in one of the many rest camps/compounds by sundown. If you got held up by an elephant in the road, for example, they really weren't very sympathetic - you should have planned on that. They are right, male elephants are notorious for keeping cars at bay as they nonchalantly pretend to be eating. You'd think they weren't watching you, but they were and would charge your car if you tried to pass. Then they'd go back to eating along the roadside only to charge any and every car that tried to get past. It really was a game for them.



We spent five full days in Kruger and our routine was: out at first light, stop at a different rest camp/compound for a second breakfast around 10:00, head back to our rest camp to sit by the pool or watch animals down by the river from the restaurant, have lunch and a nap, out again around 4:00 p.m. for more game viewing, back by sundown, rest before dinner, dinner and in bed by 9:00 so as to get up before dawn. . . .



Our system seemed to work because we saw the big five (elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and African buffalo) very early on in our stay and every day we saw a new animal, seriously, we'd say, we haven't seen a male kudu yet have we, and by golly, we'd spot one.



I have so many photos of animals and many you've seen in our other South Africa blogs, so I'm putting them at the end of this blog - be sure to look for them.

Pilgrims' Rest July 6 & 7

From Kruger we drove to the old gold field town of Pilgrims' Rest in a beautiful mountain area not far from Kruger. Gold was discovered there in 1873 and the boom town had 1,500 inhabitants searching for alluvial gold. The gold prospectors are gone now, but it remains a quaint, picturesque town. We stayed in a wonderful old hotel, made most wonderful by the huge, deep bathtubs in our rooms and an abundance of hot water. That was important because the electricity went out for most of our stay meaning our rooms would have been very cold cold if it hadn't been for the fireplaces (which they kept stoked for us) and steamy baths. I think JJ lived in her bathtub - remember seeing a Facebook post from there with her feet sticking out of the tub while she watched a show on her computer. FYI: think the water was heated by gas.

Back in Pretoria July 8

From Pilgrims' Rest we drove back to Pretoria for one night, again staying at our friend Sue & Peter's lovely home. Ian was there and couldn't wait to get his hands on the car - he LOVES cleaning cars and before we were totally unpacked he was already cleaning it. Also, with Sue & Peter in the states, he didn't have that much to do. When they are there Ian cleans, washes and irons clothes, well, does everything except cook because Sue is such an excellent cook and enjoys it. Upshot is that I think Ian was a bit bored.



We got together for dinner that night with an old neighbor of ours. In 2005-06 when we lived in Pretoria we had a neighbor who became a good friend, Rebecca. We visited Rebecca in Ohio (has a home there too), she's been to us in Arizona, we've visited her on other trips to South Africa (2012 & 2015). She still lives in SA, now in Jo'burg with her new husband Jay. Jay and Rebecca took an Uber from Jo'burg to us for a fabulous dinner in Pretoria. What fun it was to see her and Jay again - we'd met Jay our last visit to SA. JJ knew Rebecca also from her visit to us in Pretoria in 2006; they are of a similar age and got on famously.

Sun Citiy/Pilanesberg National Park July 9 - 12

We rented a car in Pretoria for the rest of our travels. We were going to Sun City and the nearby game reserve of Pilanesberg and meeting Tim & Linda MacMillan, friends from Alaska. Tim & Linda came onboard late in the planning process, so couldn't find accommodations in Kruger and ended up doing a private safari - pricey, but according to them, worth the money. After the safari, they rented a car in Jo'burg and drove themselves to meet us in Sun City.

JJ and we got to Sun City a day before Tim & Linda so took the opportunity to visit the De Wildt Cheetah/Ann van Dyk Wildlife Centre. Not only does the center study cheetahs, they have a captive breeding program to introduce cheetahs into the wild. This center first achieved international recognition for bringing the cheetah back from the brink of extinction - it was largely due to the center that the cheetah was removed from the endangered species list in 1986. They were the first breeders of the rare king cheetah. In addition to cheetah, they breed African wild dogs, which are southern Africa's most endangered carnivore. Recently they started saving Cape Griffon Vultures. Elephant tusk and rhino horn poachers put out poison for the vultures so that when they kill and butcher an animal, the rangers are not alerted to their position by circling vultures. The poisoned birds can never be released into the wild again because of brain damage, but they breed them at the center and release the healthy young into the wild.



Sun City is a hoot, it is a casino resort with lots of activities for kids. We'd reserved rooms there rather than in the game reserve because in the original plans Evan was going to be with us. We spent our days in Pilanesberg seeing an amazing number of rhino every day. I think they've moved rhino from other parts of SA to this interior reserve for safety reasons. Every day we saw three or more rhino and continued to see a new (for us) animal every time we went out. At night we enjoyed amazing restaurants at the casinos.



Pilanesberg was the end of JJ's SA adventure. We drove her back to the airport in Jo'burg for her flight back to Alaska. Tim & Linda returned their car at that time. The four of us were continuing our travels south in our rented car.

Back in Pretoria July 13

After seeing JJ off we drove back to Pretoria, once again to our friends Sue & Peter's home, for a day and a night. We had to use our time well to do laundry and provision for our continued travels into SA all the way to Cape Town.

Mountain Zebra National Park July 14 & 15

Our first stop after leaving Pretoria was to this gem of a park. As many times as we'd been to SA, Bernie and I had't been to Mountain Zebra National Park. Most of the zebra in SA are Burchell's, but in a few places you can find Cape Mountain Zebra. We didn't tire of watching these beautiful animals; I never tired of trying to get photos of there faces rather than there behinds. We stayed in lovely little cottage within the park.

Addo Elephant National Park July 16

Unbeknown to us, our accommodations at this park were not actually IN the main park, but in a discontiguous part of the park. It was dark when we arrived at the office where were were to pick up our key, and while they were supposed to be open, we couldn't find a soul - drove around to different buildings trying to locate a key, but failed. Someone did tell us, however, that the cabin would be open; the caretaker knew we were coming and we should just go to the cabin. So we did, only to find the cabin locked up tight. It was getting well and truly dark by then and we were nowhere near other accommodations. Well, turns out Tim and Linda have major cat burglar skills. Tim ferreted out a window that could be jimmied, which he expertly did, and then he hoisted tiny Linda through the small, high window. Linda was able to open the patio sliding door and let us in - voilà!!

Tsitsikamma National Park July 17

Tsitsikamma is on the ocean and we stayed at the mouth of Storms River - a magnificent area. There are hikes, boating activity and fabulous views everywhere one looked. We only had one night here. B and I have been to this park three times now and still wish we'd had more time in Tsitsikamma. As I mentioned earlier, SA was having a school holiday, so getting accommodations in the popular national parks wasn't easy.

Stellenbosch July 18 - 20

This is my favorite town in SA. On our first trip to SA in 1988 we visited this wine area and I opined that I could definitely live here. There is a big university in Stellenbosch and when in 2005 we came to SA to live, part of me was disappointed (only briefly - LOVED Pretoria) that we were going to live in Pretoria as I'd always envisioned myself on a vineyard near Stellenbosch. We certainly weren't disappointed this visit either, even though the weather was rainy - that just meant that on our vineyard visits we had to sit in front of roaring fires and be treated to lovely wine tastings and amazing meals. Yeah, life can be sooooo tough.

Camps Bay/Cape Town July 21 - 22

Our next and final stop was in Cape Town, actually in a small enclave called Camps Bay from which we explored Cape Town. We did all the required sites: Table Mountain, Cape of Good Hope and the Victoria and Albert Pier venue with shops, restaurants and galleries. We did not take a boat out to Robbin Island (where Mandela and many other freedom fighters) were interred for such long periods of time; 27 years in Mandela's case. We just didn't have time and B and I have been there twice, so Tim & Linda and we opted for another adventure, to Simon's town to see the penguins.



I've mentioned Sue and Peter many times already. They are friends from Pretoria. Peter's brother Doug and wife Joan live near Cape Town, in Hout Bay. Camps Bay is very near there so we met for **dinner in Camps Bay at a lovely steak house - roaring fires, cozy atmosphere. This is a first class restaurant, but for whatever reason they let you bring you own wine. We'd bought so many lovely bottles of wine at the Delaire Graff Vineyard in Stellenbosch and it turned out their rosé was Joan's favorite, so we enjoyed a delicious meal accompanied by amazing wine in a beautiful restaurant with old and cherished friends - doesn't get better than that!!



**Doug and Joanie have hosted us in their lovely home many times and we wanted to see them but didn't want Joanie to spend all day cooking - and she would have; that woman is a gourmet cook that doesn't know how to do anything less than spectacular.

Back to USA July 23

And all too soon we had to fly home - we to Arizona and Tim & Linda to Alaska. We had traveled well together and enjoyed an amazing adventure. It was a huge disappointment to us that Chris and Evan didn't get to join us, but it had been wonderful to spend time alone with JJ at the beginning of the trip. As for our time with Tim, Linda & JJ, and then just with Tim & Linda, all the combinations were great. JJ had visited us in SA in 2006 and said she thought this visit was even better. I hate to break it to her, but that was our 6th time there (actually B's 7th) and it gets better each time. Do not be surprised if return.



DON'T FORGET TO LOOK AT THE PHOTOS BELOW (VERY BOTTOM, BELOW THE AD, OUR PROFILE, THE BLOG OPTIONS, NORTH AMERICA, TRVELBLOG AWARDS, TOP PHOTOS - YES, RIDICULOUS!!) AND GO TO THE OTHER PAGES - 60 TOTAL - (CLICK ON 'NEXT' AT BOTTOM OF EACH PAGE).

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Photos

Itinerary/Route Map South Africa 2016
CLICK TO ENLARGE

JJ & Kathy in Kruger
Our accommodations, a rondavel, had a patio area where we spent most of our time and took many meals as the weather was delightful - warm days and cool nights

Garth Abrams
Good friend Garth lives and teaches in Jo'burg.

Lilac-brested Roller
My favorite SA bird, mostly because it sat atop bushes in full view so I could get a nice photos, but it is one beautiful bird to boot

Kruger Elephants
Kruger still has a healthy population of elephants and they continue to captivate us

JJ & Kathy Outside Pilgrims' Rest
The Drakensberg Escarpment has amazing features - waterfalls, lush valley and river views

JJ & Rebecca in Pretoria
Good friend Rebecca and fiancé Jay met us in Pretoria for dinner one evening. JJ and Rebecca are also friends from JJ's time in SA in 2006

JJ & Linda in Pilanesberg
Those are wildebeests J & L. There are few places in any of the national parks where you are allowed out of you vehicle. When you are, it is in a rest camp or restaurant area such as here where you are removed and often looking down on the wildlife

Cheetah
@Dewildt Cheetah/Ann van Dyk Center

African Hunting Dog @De Wildt
A/k/a wild dog

Cape Mountain Zebra
In Mountain Zebra NP there are many of these zebras who prefer high altitudes and smaller family groups

Tim, Linda & B in Addo Elephant Park
This is the cabin where Tim had to jimmie a window open and push Linda thru so she could open the patio door for us. I

Tsitsikamma Nat'l Park
All of us on the foot bridge over Storms River - we hiked up the other side for great views of the mouth of the Storms River emptying into the ocean

Delaire Graff Estate Tasting Room
One of the most beautiful wine estates in the Stellenbosch area - it was a foggy, cool day, so the fire was much appreciated. We had a personal Sommelier who took excellent care of us

Camps Bay w/Doug & Joan
Linda is known for NOT smiling in photos, so we are tickling her to make sure we got a giggle/smile

Rebecca and Jay
Jay and Rebecca got married shortly after this. They live in Jo'burg