Aug 29, 2019 - Cape Town

All day wine-tasting tour in the Winelands of Cape Town - Stellenbosch, Franschhoek & Paarl. All Americans on the tour apart from myself. I judged only 3 of us interested in wine Out for dinner in the evening with a friend from Cape Town and three of his friends

Aug 29, 2019 - Day 16. Thursday. 29/8/19. Chobe Water Villas to Johannesburg...in air

Day 16. Thursday. 29/8/19 Kasane to Johannesburg....in air` Up early for 6.30 breakfast so that we could say goodbye to the 7 who left at 7.30 to go back to Victoria Falls to get a 1.45pm flight to Johannesburg and onward and one couple going to Zambia. We left at 11am to get a 2pm flight from Kasane to J’berg! Normal ritual - stamp out of Namibia- fortunately the boat driver took our passports and ran up the sand dunes, then the shoe cleansing ‘foot and mouth’ dip and stamp into Botswana - also had to open ports and take shoes out to be...

Aug 26, 2019 - Kruger NP to Johannesburg

An early morning bushwalk around the lodge, before leaving Kruger to drive back to Johannesburg. Stopped at viewpoint for Blyde River Canyon - 3rd largest canyon in the world. Arrived Johannesburg about 3pm - finally time to relax. Could have made that flight I wanted to Cape Town

Aug 25, 2019 - Kruger NP

An exciting all day game drive in Kruger. Departed the lodge at 0530hrs (another early start!) and at first it didn't seem as if there was much to see. Then we saw a cheetah which proceeded to cross the road in front of us and the sit patiently on the other side of the road. It was watching a kudu in the distance, before deciding to give chase in a flurry of dust. We didn't see what happened, but we don't think the cheetah caught the kudu. My guide felt thought there was another cheetah on the first side o fthe road, so we decided to wait...

Aug 24, 2019 - Johannesburg to Kruger NP

Departed KOhannesburg at 0545hrs for transfer to Kruger National park. Took just over 6 hrs (good traffic because of the weekend) so arrived in time for a late lunch. Went out mid-afternoon for a late afternoon/evening game drive in a private game reserve in the Greater Kruger area. A bit disappointing as I had hoped to see more wildlife

Aug 23, 2019 - Windhoek to Johannesburg

Goodbye Namibia!! Purely a travel day today. There is no point going into Windhoek's centre this morning as there is nothing to see, so I'm taking the time to get this journal up to date. Transfer to the airport in the early afternoon, then a flight to Johannesburg Very stressful travel day

Aug 21, 2019 - Day 6. Monday. 19/8/19. Cape Town - Rovos Rail

Day 6. 19/8/2019 Monday. Cape Town to Matjiesfontein We relaxed in total luxury at the Rovos Rail waiting room, offered Champagne, wine or orange juice and beautiful sandwiches and fresh fruit. Rohan Vos, owner of Rovos Rail, gave a welcoming talk. Due to running on South African time, we were 1+ hour late leaving. The train is less than 50% full, and not only have we been upgraded, we have a whole carriage to ourselves! We chatted with a Danish couple who are on their second trip. Departing Cape Town we went through the normal big city...

Aug 21, 2019 - Day 8. Wednesday. 21/8/19. Pretoria

Day 7. Wednesday. Pretoria Another stop-start night.....what we didn’t know was that travelling by train in South Africa can be very slow. People walk on the rail track, some get knocked over - big holdup. Copper wire gets pinched, signals get damaged - big holdup. We are about 5 hours behind schedule, so looks like we’ll have lunch on the train before arriving at Pretoria sometime late afternoon. Doesn’t bother us, and a couple on the train who had flight schedule was bussed to Johannesburg. We passed a lot of slum area and one spot there...

Aug 21, 2019 - Day 7. Tuesday. 20/8/19. Matjiesfontein to Klderksdorp

Day 7. Tuesday. Matjiesfontein to Klerksdorp Although there is an electric blanket on the bed we didn’t use it, just piled on the doonas, but it was freezing this morning. Passed through De Aar at 8am. We’re travelling through countryside which could be inland Australia - wide, open, flat, low shrubs, few trees, few dirt roads, few houses, some sheep and cattle. Not many villages, the occasional cluster of small abandoned brick houses, then an irrigated area with sprinklers and beautiful green crop. Silos and hundreds of yellow plastic...

Aug 18, 2019 - Day 5. Sunday. 18/8/19 Cape Town

Day 5. Cape Town Drove past some beautiful coastal scenery as we headed towards Cape of Good Hope, something that we all remember from school days. Was reminded of Innes National Park in South Australia. Because our guide believes in early starts to beat the crowds, we had the place to ourselves, took some photos, and as we headed out saw queues of buses and cars coming in. Cape Point via the funicular provided amazing scenery minus the fog which was rolling in. We passed a male and female ostrich and a baboon on the side of the road, but I...

Aug 17, 2019 - Day 4. Saturday. 17/8/19. Cape Town

Day 4. Cape Town We went to the top of Table Mountain by Cablecar which was a bonus for a few reasons - it was closed for maintenance for 6 weeks, due to reopen on 19th August, but the work was completed early and it was up and running on Monday 12th. It was closed yesterday afternoon due to strong winds. We had gale force winds during the night, and we both felt there was no way it would be operating - but about 4am the winds died down and we woke to a beautiful, still day. Yeah! We had an early start to beat the crowds, and just as well...

Aug 16, 2019 - Day 3 - Friday. 16/8/19. (Johannesburg to) Cape Town

Day 3. Friday 16/8/19. Cape Town After a good nights sleep, I woke at 7.30am to a beautiful sunrise. Ian slept on. Enjoyable breakfast at 9, then back to our room and I did some catch up diary and Ian slept till after 2pm. Had a lazy day.....think age is telling with the jet lag business! We walked through Company’s Gardens opposite our hotel, where we saw squirrels, Government buildings, slave bell and statues of Cecil Rhodes and Jan Smuts. We had a bite to eat and thanks Heather for giving me the thumbs up about Africans and time.....just...