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Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Cape Town March 26th 2013

Geo: -33.916, 18.4222Our next day was again bright and sunny, with temperatures in the 70's. We set out fairly early to make the drive down the peninsula south of Cape Town, leading to the Cape of Good Hope. While Cape Town is on the west, Atlantic Ocean side of the continent, we drove around Table Mountain and over to the Indian Ocean side of the peninsula, along which a coastal highway leads all the way down to Cape Point at the southernmost point. Our first stop of the day was Boulders Beach, just south of the small village of Simonstown, which abuts a very large African Penguin breeding area. The waves and tides along the point, on both the Atlantic and Indian Ocean sides are very rough, but Boulder Beach is completely sheltered by -- you ... read more

Mother City -- Cape Town

Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Cape Town March 25th 2013

Our hotel -- the Mandela Rhodes

NellieVA

Geo: -33.916, 18.4222Our hotel was called Mandela Rhodes Place, and was located on St. George Square in the heart of old Cape Town; alongside the pedestrian mall and a block from the "Company Gardens" of the Dutch East India Company, dating from the mid-1600's. We had a large apartment, which was nice as we ended up spending six nights here, with a living room, kitchen, two bedrooms and bathrooms, and a beautiful view up to Table Mountain over the roof of St. George's Cathedral.Our friends checked in to the hotel mid-morning, and we finalized our plans for the day/week. Katherine, Anna, myself, and our friend's daughter Charlotte all headed off on a "hop-on, hop-off" tour of the city. Charlotte had visited South African numerous times in the past, but never really done a formal tour of ... read more

A Tale of Two Cities

Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Cape Town March 24th 2013

Sunrise during the morning safari

NellieVA

Geo: -33.916, 18.4222At 5:00am, Kjell knocked at our cottage door and announced we had 30 minutes until we left for a sunrise game drive. The sky was again cloudless and it was already quite warm, even before the sun rose. We spent much of this morning drive tracking Cape Buffalo, but were unsuccessful. We did see a huge variety, however, of gazelle and antelopes and tons of zebra. Though we had a short stop for coffee and snacks shortly after sunrise, we still had a full breakfast waiting for us at the lodge after the three-and-a-half-hour game drive.Shortly before noon we were loaded up and driven back to the Olifants Gate to meet our shuttle back to Johannesburg. The return drive seemed much longer, and that was probably due to the fact that we knew we ... read more

Just after sunrise on the morning safari

Our guide (Kjell), Anna, and tracker (Prim)

Like in the movies...

Africa » South Africa March 23rd 2013

Our shuttle to the game reserve

NellieVA

Geo: -24.1066, 31.2479The combination of our late-afternoon arrival and huge barbecue dinner combined to help us all sleep through the night. That said, when the alarm went off at 5:30am it still seemed like a very short night. We were being picked up for transit to our game lodge at 6:30am, so we had time for quick showers and a very rushed breakfast, as the driver showed up exactly on time. We rode in a van shuttle between Johannesburg and the city of Hoedspruit, about 275 miles to the northeast. There were three other riders in the car, all headed to different places, and the trip took about 4 and a half hours, with a couple of stops along the way. We were headed to the Balule Private Game Reserve, which abuts the famous Kruger National ... read more

Our first Braai

Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Johannesburg March 22nd 2013

Sunrock Guest House

NellieVA

Geo: -26.1951, 28.0339Our friends had not been to South Africa since last year's World Cup, and they quickly commented on all of the improvements to the Johannesburg airport. It's a beautifully modern facility, and we cleared immigration and customs in record time, and soon met our driver, who was to take us to our "guest house" for the night. Our friends were continuing on to Cape Town, where our friend Barbara's parents still live. Their flight was not until the following morning, whereas we had booked a two-day safari trip, which was also departing in the morning. We booked a lodge close to the airport and it proved the perfect respite from the long plane trip. We were pleasantly surprised when we walked outside of the airport, as the sun was setting and it was clearly ... read more

Drinks to celebrate our arrival, before the braai

Man, It's Dark Out There

Africa » Senegal » Cape Verde Peninsula » Dakar March 22nd 2013

NellieVA

Geo: 14.7247, -17.4734Our flight landed in Dakar, Senegal around 1:00am local time, and it meant an abrupt interruption to those of us who had been sleeping. The city had very few lights, and the airport looked to be a ghost town, save for the crew of folks fueling the aircraft. If it hadn't been for the dimly lit sign in French, welcoming us to Senegal, we could have been on any tarmac at any airport in the world. A surprising large contingent disembarked in Dakar, but their seats were quickly filled with new passengers headed to Johannesburg. I'm told they served us breakfast shortly after taking off, but thanks to an Ambien, I have no memory of that and thankfully didn't wake until they were serving us lunch ahead of our landing in Johannesburg around 4:00pm ... read more

Hadn't Really Expected To Visit...

North America » United States » Virginia » Ashburn March 21st 2013

Somewhere over the Atlantic...

NellieVA

Geo: 39.0516, -77.4831The planning for this Spring Break trip had been in the works for nearly a year. I had visited South Africa for work soon after Anna was born, thought it was beautiful, and thought how it would be nice to visit again with the family. A good friend of ours is native South African, and met her husband while he was getting his Masters at the University of Cape Town. They have a daughter exactly Anna's age, and we'd often talked about traveling together. I can't specifically recall how the topic first arose of a joint visit to South Africa, but by spring of 2012 we had already decided to all go together and plans were put into place. Given how far we were going and the diversity of things we wanted to see, ... read more