South Africa

I realise it has now been about three months since I have been able to write anything more than a few lines, so I am sure you have probably all stopped looking by now, but hopefully one or two of you are still hanging around or, more likely, bored enough at work to still check in from time to time.

After seven weeks on the ship it was great to see Fran’s friendly face waiting for me as we were dismissed from duty. Not that my fellow crew were not friendly, far from it, but there’s nothing like seeing a good friend that you have known for years. And there is no better place to meet than in Cape Town.

For the first few days it was quite a challenge to get used to being able to walk further than 50 metres and to have to make decisions about what to do, where to do it and when.  We spent about half our time sightseeing and the other half eating and drinking with my pals from the boat. We visted Robben Island, climbed from Table Mountain to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, had ‘sundowners’ in Camps Bay, drove along the peninsular to Cape Point and gorged on sushi and fresh fish.

After Cape Town we drove to Stellenbosch and had a great time visiting many of the wine farms (the best ones being Maison, Graham Beck and Topiary) and ate at Cape Town Fish Market and at the golfer Ernie Els’ fabulous restaurant.

After the wine route we took a quick flight and a long drive to Kruger National Park which, for me, is always the highlight of any trip to South Africa. As the pics below show we were very lucky. After warning Fran that it had taken me five years to see the ‘Big Five’ we managed to see them all on our first full day of driving in the park!

Now depending on who you ask we were either very lucky or very unlucky to see so many elephants. On one occasion we had parked up to watch a herd of elephants on the other side of a river. I don’t know whether they had seen us or not but they decided to cross the river right in front of our car. What a treat! As they came closer though we decided to reverse out and give them some space.

The next day we came across a herd walking down the street towards us. This time we decided to switch off the engine and sit still and them them pass right by. They came withing two feet of the car and the big one raised his trunk and had a good sniff at us. When I looked round to see them pass by us I saw Fran had left her front seat and was cowering in the middle of the back seat trying to pretend it all wasn’t happening. 🙂

After a long drive back to Joburg and a very plush nights stay in the Hilton (thanks Fran!), I am now chilling out for a couple of days before heading to Mozambique.

I love being back in Africa. I first came here about seven years ago and have been coming back every year since. It was the first continent I thought of when I decided to go travelling.

p.s I have only managed to read one book since being back on dry land. The excellent and very funny Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I mention it because I was surprised to see it mention Johannesburg, where I am know, on page 62 and Southend on Sea, my home town, on pages 65 and 66. I thought that was quite an improbable event.