Capetown

It does rain in Capetown! Yesterday was a wet cool day so we hopped on the bus and went to Groot Constantia Winery. I’m on to you wine drinkers now. One glass of wine is about 3 beers. You all are getting ripped on wine!

We had the opportunity to get 5 taste samples and got totally buzzed on the samples. Giggle Juice! The wind is blowing like crazy, we’re laughing and walking getting blown away. Then because the bus only goes one way we had to ride all the way around the cape which ruined our buzz. I do like the wine!

Amy wrapping up our souvenir wine glasses

Enjoying some kind of white wine

Paintings I really liked but to expensive for my blood. So I take pics!

I love this painting

Our next stop was the VA Waterfront. It was too rainy and cold to enjoy it so we sat in a fancy hotel lobby and warmed up by their fireplace. We met a coworker of Amy’s (he’s here for work) and had dinner in the area. Nothing to write home about.

Big storm came through

We haven’t been staying out real late because we’re tired. We get out around 10:30 and back around 7:30. Today we got up early and went around the corner to Truth Coffee (best coffee in SA we’ve been told) for breakfast. Yummy! Best breakfast of our trip. Glad not to be eating buffets anymore.

Enjoying coffee. Sort of a Mad Max decor.

Our next stop was The Slave Lodge for a bit of history and then Bo-Kaap. This area has brightly painted buildings and is one of the oldest districts first settled in 1768. In the 50’s the government kicked out everyone except the Muslim’s who live there today.

Bright colors

We did a lot of walking today. We browsed all the shops selling “treasures”. I like to take pictures of the stuff vs. buying it all. This little girl was watching me. Isn’t she adorable!

Beautiful eyes.

How do you like my dress?

We finally made it up to Table Mountain! What amazing views of the city and harbor.

The problem we had is once we took the bus up it goes all the way around the cape again! We definitely didn’t want to do that so I talked the driver into letting us off the bus and we walked down. We were on a sidewalk and it was very steep. Finally made it back down and are now taking a break before heading out tonight for a little bit. Tomorrow we have to get up early for an all day tour to the Cape of Good Hope. Then we are meeting up with a couple of people we met on the tour for a 14 course African dinner with drummers. Should be fun it’s a touristy thing to do.

Anyone up for McDonalds? This is a rare sight but KFC’s are everywhere!

And finally I will leave you with another picture from the balcony of our penthouse.

Amy has the open loft bedroom and the bed looks directly out to this view.

We could take a cable car to top of mountain and see the sunset. I bet it’s amazing but we probably will take a pass on this. Next time!

Peace in Namibia

I can’t say enough about the beauty of Namibia! I already know I’m coming back to Africa again – northern Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe (p.s. Sandy you should go with me).

I had some alone time on Monday as others went off on some afternoon activities. I stayed at the villa to enjoy the scenery, took a walk along the dusty road, watched the sunset and enjoyed absolute peace and quiet. Only the sound of the wind! Ahhhhh the sound of silence!!! All my roomies are gone and I’m at peace.

Its been fairly stressful for me being part of a tour group. It’s hard to remember 29 names and faces, their stories, which story goes with what person, etc. it’s tiring! I used to get energized being around people, now I feel exhausted.

Here are some pictures from our stay.

Marlice Van Vuuren – Founder of Naankuse Lodge. She does amazing work to conserve the animals.

Our Group – Wonderful People!!!

I wanted to include some more pictures of The San Bushman. They are one of the oldest cultures in the world, as part of the Khoisan group, and were discovered to be one of the 14 groups of people from which all modern humans have descended. These tribes are very poor. For this group they are actually employed by the lodge to help teach us the history of their culture. They spend six months at the lodge and then go to their home in northern Namibia. Go to Nannkuse Lodge website to read more about the wonderful work they re doing!

This portion of the tour was no only fun, it was a great educational experience!!!

Little girl playing with her brother

Portion of the tribe

Showing us how to hunt with poison arrows. We needed a translator because the language uses clicking noises likes in The Gods Must Be Crazy

Cute kids

Namibian Adventure

It’s been quite the adventure so far. I’m loving Namibia 🇳🇦 ! The landscape is beautiful so dry! Here are some pics to share.

Children we met yesterday. I gave them a couple of granola bars and goldfish crackers. Whole tribe shared them and they were so happy! Photo taken by group leader.

I’ve been honing my dancing 💃 skills with the natives.

Feeding something?

Busy morning! First up was hanging out the orphaned Baboons. We were told to leave everything on the bus because the Baboons can be naughty. Well sure enough we were walking down the path when I was as attacked from behind. The Baboon jumped on my back and grabbed the cord holding my glasses … it happened in an instant … off he ran. It was hilarious. Later after we were done – same thing only this time one of them pulled my red hair tie out of my hair and ran around with it in his mouth!

Baboon prints

Momma with a little bitty baby 18 days old jumped in my lap.

Checking for fleas. He or she then licked my neck.

The animals are great. We’ve been able to get up close and personal. This is a nature preserve to help keep the animals from being killed by neighboring farmers. The animals roam wild so Naankuse works with the farmers 👨‍🌾 so both can coexist together. We were given a presentation to help us learn. The owner was onsite today and gave us a personal behind the scenes which is very rare so quite a treat. I’ve saw so many animals I no longer even know the names. I will have to look up the pictures when I get home. The safaris and animal interaction has been phenomenal!

This is a Caracal. Aren’t the ears great 😀. Tomorrow we are going on a walk with her.

internet is very sporadic so I will publish this now and clean up the layout later. Hopefully I can show off some of the cool pictures. I hummed I lost a whole day of pics when on South Africa safari but people are sharing their pics so hopefully I can get a few more.

I’m gonna try to get some sunset pics today. Amy is up before more so she has some beautiful sunrise pictures. Most of the group has split up this afternoon and went on a safari drive or horseback riding through the Bush. That was what I wanted to do but it filled quickly – only 6 spots.it was nice to have some downtime. Absolute silence. I also thought we were going to do a group sunset safari but for some reason we aren’t.

I have met some very nice people. More to come of the tour experience.

I will leave you with this parting shot

I Wonder?

Hazy morning bus ride back to the airport. Many Afrikaans walking from their shacks along the grassy paths. I wonder where are you going, did you eat breakfast, do you have a lunch, where do you work, are you paid enough to feed your family? Walkers walkers everywhere all going in different directions. I’m only an outsider driving by, catching a glimpse of you walking along the path with your head down, you didn’t know I saw you but I did. And I wonder how you live, what you do, will you ever be able to raise yourself out of poverty, are you happy, do your employers treat you well? I will never know so I can only wonder.

At the rest stop I was so happy to see your smile as I handed you my lunch box. I was glad it didn’t go to waste. Again I watched you from the bus as others handed over their lunches and saw your happy little skip. So very thankful.

Ok enough of this early morning contemplation. This is what happens when I’m up at 4:30 and no coffee.

We are now driving on the east side of Pretoria where it’s a totally different lifestyle. Here there are middle class homes made out of red brick, nice lawns, and security fences. It’s the legislative capital of S. Africa.

So far the trip has been fairly uneventful in terms of mishaps and mayhem….and I’m really missing it!!

If Amy and I were on our own I’m sure I would have many funny stories to tell.

Pretty bird, don’t remember the name.

Amy wearing her anti snoring device. It doesn’t work!!!

Wimpy Burgers!

Hey folks let me know your out there!

Please comment!!!

Diarrhea Diarrhea Cha Cha Cha

Upset stomach, indigestion, diarrhea, diarrhea Cha Cha Cha. Well folks I’ve been a bit sick with a bout of travel sickness. Not sure what I ate or drank because I try to be so very careful. Something certainly didn’t agree with me. AND to top it off our room was invaded with thousands and thousands of Baboon fleas. So between trips to the bathroom and riddled by flea bites I was not a happy camper. I had a pile of fleas next to me when I got up in the morning. I pulled the sheet over my head but they got under the covers. Trust me at that point in time i was wishing I was in my flea free camper in the middle of the mountains in Colorado. This is a 5 star luxury resort! We think a baboon must have gotten into our room or they flew in when we had our patio door open BECAUSE we ran out to watch all the baboons running around the yard. Lesson Learned! Btw we did switch rooms.

After some immodeum, pepto bismol, 5 bottles of water and some goldfish crackers I was feeling ok again and made the afternoon game drive. You certainly don’t want to get caught with your pants down on safari cuz there is absolutely no where to go. We get one stop in 4 hours.

I did miss one of our early morning drives but that’s Ok because we have two a day (5 total). This morning our group got in 20,000 steps between 5:30 – 9:00 just from all the bouncing around we do in the safari truck.

The animals are amazing and our guide has been wonderful! It’s a huge huge national reserve and they radio each other where the animals are, in some cases we can get really close.

We’ve seen so many animals. The photos from a couple of days ago was a small private reserve. Now we are on true safaris and we’ve seen a pride of Lions, a memory of elephants, a sounder of warthogs, a herd of wildebeest, a journey of giraffes, a dazzle of zebras, a crash of rhinos, plus many more!

Tomorrow morning we are off to Namibia. I can say I’m really not liking these early mornings – up at 4:30. But this is what I signed up for so I will sleep when I get home.

I’ve met some really fun nice people. It’s a good group and we’ve had some good laughs. My introvert friend Amy has been the life of the party (she turns into a vacation extrovert) – nonstop talking. Me … normally an extrovert … withdraws to more quiet one on one conversations. Someone analyze that!

Amy and I skipped this afternoon game drive and went into Sun City a resort town. I was able to show off my nifty Elaine moves today with a group of native Afrikaners. I did have a whole crowd of people laughing and video taping me. Let me just say I don’t quite have the moves down.

I lost a whole day of pictures when I tried to upload to my phone. Darn I hope I can recover them. Until then hope you all are enjoying the pics.

Photos Only

Too tired to share much today. Except for these awesome animal pics!

Photobombed by a giraffe

Mmmmm – is she my dinner?

The Lion sleeps tonight

Aren’t we cute!

So Where To

Soweto tour today. During apartheid the South African government moved blacks to the south western township, hence the name Soweto or so where to?

First we did a three hour history tour of the Apartheid Museum which was as very informative. It did get a bit long towards the end. Our guide Charles lived through it as a child and his mom was one of many to be killed during raids on Soweto.

We stopped and were guided through the shacks by a local who lives here. We also were able to visit a shack of the local school teacher. There was a double bed, two burner cooktop, an empty shelf no food, and a small chair, plus a man and a baby. We were able to donate a little money for the school. Because they want tourist to see Soweto it’s safer than the city.

It’s a bit windy in August

Sunday Laundry Day

Poorest of the poor

Some have illegally tapped into a street light for electricity

The 6 ft drop, so our guide says. These are for the whole community.

I’m glad I’ve read books about apartheid and how life was and still is … it’s only been 20 years since the laws were changed.

We are finding out there isn’t much to do here in Johannesburg. Population is 14 million with a 42% unemployment rate. Squatters have taken over the inner city buildings. Most we’ve been told are those from other countries seeking a better life. But no jobs are available. Some still try their luck at pan mining. Joburg is a mining town.

The tower to right used to house whites and now is full of squatters because people moved out of city

We’re Still Here

OMG! I’ve been flying forever! We are getting close now, flying over Namibia. All we see are mountains of sand hills. Pretty darn cool.

I think I slept a couple of hours using all my blowup travel toys. The best investment was the swinging foot rest. I was able to adjust it up when watching a movie … kinda like putting my feet up on a coffee table. Then when stretched out I would lower it towards the floors so I could cross my feet. Highly recommend this product for long flights.

The face pillow was okay, I couldn’t I couldn’t get very comfortable and I lost my seat cushion early on so didn’t use that much. Ah ha!! I just found it a couple of aisles down.

There is free messaging on this flight so I’ve been IM’ing my friend Julie before she went to bed on/off to keep me occupied.

Time travel is so weird. We are finally landing in Johannesburg just as the sun is setting. The thing is I haven’t really seen daylight in 20 hours except for the time Amy opened her shade so I could get a picture of the desert. Weird!

First glimpse of our final destination.

It will be time to go to bed once we get to our hotel (Sun Rock). We are getting in a day earlier before the other tour travelers. A few are coming on this same flight tomorrow, which means they are probably starting their journeys.

Well finally arrived but haven’t seen anything except the inside of the airport and our hotel room. Stopped to get a pile of money. I like the animals on the bills. This stack equates to $460.

Also bought a SIM card Vodacom so now I can make calls and have internet 4G access – Yeah. Cost was $45. A good investment as far as I’m concerned.

We have a full day tour of Johannesburg and Soweto scheduled for early tomorrow morning. I need to 😴 💤 🛏! It’s 8:00 pm local time. Nightly Night!!

Well not quite goodnight. We our having an African beer by the Harley Davidson fireplace. Meeting people already because we told them this is where we are from!

Excited and Nervous

Well in less than 12 hours I head off to this year’s adventure. I’m excited and nervous in a good way. Wish it didn’t take so long to get there – ughh.

Schedule is leave house Friday 9:30 am to catch bus to O’Hare. Fly to Atlanta. Leave for Johannesburg @8:00 pm. Arrive at 6:00 pm Saturday. I think it’s like a 30 hour trip

It’s winter in the Southern Hemisphere so it’s about 72-65 during the days and in the 30’s at night. It’s going to be chilly on the early morning safaris.

Suitcase is packed and ready to go:

3 pants

2 shorts

5 short sleeve shirts

1 tank top

1 hoodie

1 capital brewery fleece

1 long-sleeve shirt

1 Fleece pullover

1 Down packable jacket

1 waterproof wind proof jacket

Tennis shoes and slip on shoes

Hat and gloves, rain hat

Socks, underwear, toiletries

Camera, phones, cords

My guess is ~ 42 lbs including suitcase

Everything is easy to wash so I’m good to go for 18 days!

Now my carryover is a whole different story …. I so hate to fly and it’s so uncomfortable. I have been trying out (buying) various gadgets on the internet to make myself more comfortable. In my bag I have:

• Blow up neck pillow
• Blow up sleep pillow
• Blow up seat pillow
• Back of seat hanging footrest
• Eye mask and earplugs
• Masks – I took from the doctors office – cuz I get others circulated germs and usually get sick for weeks after or during vacation😷
• Plus travel docs and other miscellaneous odds and ends
• Oh and my go to travel snacks of goldfish crackers, kind bars and peanut M&M’s

I should be covered!! 😏

j

Goodnight Peeps!

Ready for Adventure

In 10 days I will be traveling to my 5th continent – Africa.  I signed up for my very first tour Adventures’s for Solos’. This tour will take us on two safaris – Kwa Martine Bush Lodge near Johannesburg. The lodge is located in Pilanesberg National Park, on the slopes of a 2-billion-year-old volcano and is home to Africa’s big five.  We will stay here for 3 nights and go on early morning and evening safaris. It seems like there will to be downtime during the day so I sure hope there are other adventures. I do not want to waste my time reading a book or talking to people. Although safari camps seem like they are suppose to be a relaxing type of vacation? I guess I will find out soon enough.

Next we fly to Namibia and staying at Nankuske Lodge.   This is a wildlife foundation that is supported in part by Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie in honor of their Namibian born daughter Shiloh.  The highlights for this portion of the trip is a Canivore Feeding tour where we will visit baboons, caracals, lions, cheetahs, African wild dogs and leopards.  We also have the options to spend a night out with the Bushman to hear their stories and tradition, take a walk with the Bushman, horseback riding, and nature tour.

Our last night of the official tour will be spent in Windhoek.  This is the capital of Namibia which was settled by the Germans.  The plan is to do a bit of craft shopping and spending the evening in some breweries. This is the official end of the tour –  total of 10 days.

After the tour ends, I am flying back to South Africa to spend a week in Capetown with my friend Amy.  She is also going on the tour and we will be rooming together.

Our plan is to buy a city pass which will get us on the hop on/off busses, boat ride in the harbor at VA Waterfront, and a couple of all day tours to the wine country and Cape of Good Hope.  Funny how I remember learning about the Cape of Good Hope in seventh grade geography class – where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet.

Adding these two countries brings my total to 38.  I’m looking forward to hitting the half century mark by 2020/21.

Still a long ways to go before I can join the Century Club.  This is my goal along with traveling to all seven continents.