Over and out

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That was a quick three weeks. We are currently on our way home from a fantastic three weeks in Africa.

Our final destination was Cape Town and then Franschoek in the Winelands area outside Cape Town. It was six days of R&R before we return to reality.

But let me pick up where we left off, post Botswana. On the final day of our safari we enjoyed our final game drive in the Chobe National Park, and then headed for the Zambian border.

The border is actually a river so we crossed it by small boat. Most people and vehicles cross it via car ferry. There was a huge line up of trucks waiting to cross the border. KK told us that some drivers will wait up to a week in the queue!! Once over the border we got yet another passport stamp, paid US$50 for our visa and were on our way to the town of Livingstone for an overnight stop.

Livingstone's claim to fame is the spectacular waterfall and one of the seven natural wonders Victoria Falls. Unfortunately it's the worst time of year to visit the falls because it's the end of the dry season so were left totally unimpressed. In March it's meant to be very impressive but in September it's mostly dry on the Zambian side of the falls.

Next stop was Cape Town, an impressive tourist town with plenty of nearby attractions. For the first few days we were both suffering the post-Safari blues and wished we'd continued our safari rather than headed south. That aside, we decided to make the most of the visit and used our hire car to visit the spectacular Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope, the southern most tip of Africa. We also headed to the seaside town of Herminus, famous for its whale watching. Unfortunately we didn't see any whales up close and personal.

We also took an interesting side-trip to the infamous Robben Island which is about 45 minutes by ferry from Cape Town. It houses the gaol, now museum that was used for political prisoners during the apartheid era and was lock-up for Nelson Mandela for 18 years. The island was much bigger than we expected with lots of buildings other than the gaol. The highlight was the tour of the former prison conducted by former inmate Jama who served a five year sentence there from 1977. He was involved in an student uprising when he was just 17 years old.

In Cape Town we wandered around the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront area, where we both enjoyed various culinary delights in the V&A Waterfront Food Market. The rest of it we saw from our rental car. We were particularly surprised to see the substandard housing - think shantytown, that many local inhabitants occupy. Unsurprisingly the shantytowns are located inland near the airport!

After Cape Town we headed to the Winelands area where we spent our last two nights in the picturesque Franschoek. The plan was to spend our last day visiting a few vineyards of which there were many. Unfortunately I got a bad dose of food poisoning on our first night there and spent my last day of my holiday in bed, after spending most of the night before in the company of white porcelain. At least I had a really nice fancy hotel room. Needless to say I'll make a full recovery, round about the time we arrive home!





From an overall perspective, the best part of the trip for both of us was the safari. The visit to Rwanda was also good but the safari was just fantastic. If we did it all again we'd completely skip the Cape Town part and spend more time on safari.





For those who are interested in photography, don't consider going on safari without at least a 400 mm lens. During the safari I used a 100-400 mm (thanks Tom for lending me your lens) on my main camera the whole time. I also took a second digital SLR camera with my regular 28-105 mm lens on for wider shots, but I used it a lot less than the other one. I took a back-up drive and loaded all my photographs onto it as a safeguard. I was also able to view those images on my IPad which worked well (thanks Andy for your advice on that one). I would definitely recommend a second camera because it's so dry and dusty that you don't want to be changing lenses in the field. One big tip when travelling with photography equipment ....... include a small can of compressed air for cleaning bits and bobs of equipment. Two people on our tour ran into camera issues due to dust.

I did also make sure that I put my camera down on a regular basis and just looked at the fantastic things in front of me. I was determined not to see Africa through my viewfinder and I can happily say I achieved that, while taking some images that I'm really proud of.







Until next time....

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Photos

Pic 1
Stunning scenery

Pic 2
Rugged coastline

Pic 3
Victoria Falls

Pic 4
Famous faces

Pic 5
V&A Food Market

Pic 6
Famous landmark in the fog

Pic 7
Shanty town near Cape Town Airport

Pic 8
The exercise yard where Nelson Mandela spent many hours