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

Aug 21, 2019 - Day 6. Monday. 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 7. Tuesday. 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 21, 2019 - Day 8. Wednesday. 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 18, 2019 - Day 5. 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. 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 - (Johannesburg to) Cape Town

Day 3. 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 as well we...

Aug 15, 2019 - Day 2 - Perth to Johannesburg to Cape Town

Day 2. Perth to Johannesburg to Cape Town Yesterday was a long day. We flew out of Perth at 5 past 12am (2.05am Bne time). This is a long flight, and we both had a couple of 4 hour sleeps, so that’s not too bad. Just after take-off, we went through rough weather and the plane was rattling, going up and down and sideways, the captain announced no hot drinks to be served. It’s morning now and people are waking up and breakfast should be with us soon. Johannesburg is the quickest airport we’ve ever passed through. Picked up our bags, through...

Aug 12, 2019 - Lambert's Bay to Noordoewer

Another long driving day, the highlight being the border crossing into Namibia - and being questioned about the kangaroo &emu on the cover of my passport and being asked if we eat them. The closer we got to Namibia, the harsher the environment bcame. And then the surprise of vineyards. We stayed for the night just across the border on the banks of the Orange River = a little oasis

Aug 11, 2019 - Cape Town to Lambert's Bay

Left Cape Town in the morning and drove 4 hours to Lambert's Bay, Stopped for an outdoor seafood BBQ on the Atlantic coast - unfortunately it was freezing and then it started raining, so unfortunately was pretty miserable. In the afternoon we were supposed to see the gannets on Bird Island, but the island was closed due to bad weather, so just went for a walk around the village

Aug 10, 2019 - Cape Town

Had a full day in Cape Town and as Table Mountain is closed at present, I booked a full day tour of Cape Point. This included Camps Bay, Hout Bay, Chapmans Peak Drive, the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Point, Boulders Beach penguin colony and Kirstenbosch Gardens. Cape Town certainly has a spectacular coastline and it was a perfect winters day

Aug 9, 2019 - Antananarivo to Cape Town

Had most of the morning free before needing to leave for the airport, so a few of us went on a 1 hour walking tour of the city. Not particularly exciting, but at least I feel that I have seen some of the capital. Then a flight to Cape Town via Johannesburg, arriving late evening