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Day 34 – 2/11/07 – Madrid

The only way to get from South Africa to South America on an American Airlines reward ticket was to connect through Madrid on Iberia Airlines or London on British Airways. Since we visited London a couple years ago, we thought that it would nice to see Madrid.

We arrived in Madrid in the morning. The very helpful tourist desk attendant advised us to take the public bus into a transit center in town and then a taxi to our hotel. We stayed at Hotel Casadillas which was on a cobble stone street off of Gran Via, and it turned out to be a great location.

We were exhausted and literally slept until 3pm that day. It was very hard for Julee to sleep knowing that things were happening in Spain outside, but exhaustion even got the best of her FOMS (fear of missing something).

That afternoon, we just started walking. We wandered to Playa del Sol and then Plaza Mayor. (Lou remembered visiting that square with his brother 15 years ago). It was Sunday and nearly everything was closed, but it was still fun to wander the streets.

Lou was craving a movie and we literally stumbled onto a movie theater showing “Diamante de Sangre” (Blood Diamond) in English, but we missed it by 20 minutes. So we had another 2.5 hours to kill. We tried, we really tried. We went to the Chocolateria by the theater and ordered Churros and Chocolate. There, a crazy drunk man yelled at us in slurred Spanish for 20 minutes. Then he moved onto the next table.

Even after dessert, we still had 45 minutes until the movie. Defeated by exhaustion, we hailed a taxi and headed home. Waking up at 4:30 am for 3 days in a row and beaten us down.

(Churros Y Chocolate was the name of my high school Spanish book.) (Lou)

Day 35 – 2/12/07 – Madrid

To start the day’s adventures, we walked about 20 minutes to the Reina Sophia Museum. It’s the home of the Surrealist movement – Miro, Picasso, Dali. It’s most famous for Picasso’s Guernica – a tribute to the Basque town of the same named that was carpet bombed on Franco’s orders. It is one of Picasso’s masterpieces, and according to the article my mother had sent us, Picasso refused to give it to Spain until Franco was dead. Until a few years ago, it was in The Met in NYC. Now, this painting has its own gallery in the Reina Sophia and is absolutely worth seeing.

In addition to viewing Geurnica, we rented the headset guides to help navigate the enormous museum and learn more about surrealtists. After two hours and 15 galleries, we were full, so we headed to lunch at a nearby Cafeteria and ordered Paella. Having nothing to compare it to – it was delicious. Looking back, it may have been more a Bennigan’s or Rice Roni Ready made quality, but at that moment, it was authentic, filling and yummy.
Having found another 4 movies theaters close to the hotel, we headed back to catch a movie during “Siesta” time. We got there just in time, but none of the theaters had English versions. So, we cabbed back to the movie theater from the night before and just missed the showing AGAIN. Fortunately, everything was open on Monday night so we walked about and shopped. The
biggest accomplishment of the night was that I got Lou to buy his first pair of Euro jeans.

Madrid has a tapas bar on every corner, and if you don’t use a guidebook’s recommendations, it’s really all about which is the cutest one because the menu’s all look the same. So, finding a old tavern, we popped in for Pate, Chorizo con Pan (cured ham on warm bread) and a Empanada de Carne. We had never seen it before, but the bar also had a whole pig’s leg mounted on some device that allowed the bartender to carve off fresh pieces of Serrano ham. Lou thought this was pretty cool, Julee almost barfed.

Smug that we had actually made it past 9pm, we headed over to the movie theater and caught the 9:45 Blood Diamond with English voices and Spanish subtitles. Interestingly, the movie tickets had assigned seats.

Having just left Africa, watching Blood Diamond was even more powerful experience, than if we had watched before our travels.
Day 36 – 2/13/07 – Madrid

We had planned to use our stopover in Madrid to recharge and catch up. So Julee worked for a couple of hours and then turned the computer over to Lou and went shopping. Before we left, Lou had discovered the LUXE guides, which are hilarious, British tour guides of 12 cities around the world. They are incredibly “cheeky” and really focus on the upscale accommodations, restaurants and shopping. In fact, they lay out Shopping Days for you . For each of their cities, they have 1/2 day walking tour instructions that read “Start Store A and buy this, exit and turn right, skip this store-o-crap and head straight for that Store B. Stop for a Martini across the street..” For those with bottomless bank accounts, they have “Advanced Shopping” routes. I (Julee) followed the basic shopping directions for our neighborhood and found the guide was right on. Fortunately, the color du jour is “green” and the style is “Empire Waist” – neither of which looks good on me – so I saved a bundle.

Midafternoon, Lou and I walked to the Royal Palace, both the historic and current residence of the royal family. The tour granted amazing access to this opulent palace: the sitting rooms, throne room, poolroom, study, pharmacy, and armory, seemingly everything but the current apartments. We ran out of superlatives and hyperbole trying to describe the ornate décor, textiles, marble, carved furniture, sterling silver, and ceiling frescoes – it was too much! The photos can’t do it justice. You simply have to visit to fully appreciate the decadence and palatial wealth.

We took about 2 hours to tour the palace (with our audio guides), and then strolled over to Café Oriente for a beer. There was cute old man playing an accordion – everything from Tea for Two to Flight of the Bumble Bee. And there was some rock star next to me talking about “tour buses” “being in the studio” “blah” but we had no idea who he was.

Since most restaurants don’t open until 7:30 – 9:00pm, we walked and walked and walked around Madrid. The narrow streets wind through old neighborhoods and the stores and bars are tiny. It feels like quintessential Europe. We actually walked ourselves right back to Plaza Mayor and finally to our restaurant, Paella Real. It was “old world” restaurant that specialized in Paella. We had the mixed (Chicken, Vegetables and Seafood) and Lou said it was much better than the day’s before. I (Julee) was too focused on the Langoustine’s eyeballs staring back at me to notice.

On the walk home, we stopped to listen to the various street musicians. These guys were talented instrumentalists – a chamber group and a young guy playing what looked like a harpsichord. It was such mild and clear night, it was hard for me to turn in. I would have stood in the street for hours, but……

It was at the restaurant that Lou figured out that I had our departure time completely wrong. I thought we left at Midnight, but it was actually NOON the next day. My head had officially exploded – I had read too many itineraries and had too may dates/times in my head. I had the whole next day planned and had to scrap everything and try not to morn the things I was really excited about but wouldn’t get to do. Ah well – lesson hard learned. Check departure itinerary upon arrival – just to be sure!

We headed back to the hotel to hmmmmm PACK. The real bummer was that laundry was on the to do list for the next day as we were both down to the bare minimum. So we packed up our dirty laundry and made the best of it. Surely, we were far more disgusting when we backpacked after college….right?!?!??!

All Lion Sands Photos

Day 30 – 2/7/07 – Transfer to Lion Sands
Benny and Audrey kindly drove us to the airport this morning. We flew to Capetown to Johannesburg and then hopped on a charter flight back to the Kruger Park area for our second safari at Lion Sands.

Unlike Tinga, Lions Sands was not a concession, but one of many privately owned game reserves, which border Kruger. There are no fences, so all the animals are free to roam between this private reserve and the immense Kruger Park. However, due to some differences in the landscape, Lions Sands in known for its concentration of leopards, the last of the Big 5 which we hadn’t seen.

We really had no idea what was involved in our charter flight and we were a little surprised when we learned the charter would make 3 stops. We actually stopped at Singita and Londolozzi before landing at Skukusza (the airport for Lion Sands). At first we were a little annoyed at the thought of having to make so many stops, but we soon realized that all those stops meant we got to fly over the bush at very low attitudes as the flight time between landings was 10 minutes, 3 minutes and 3 minutes. Being the seasoned trackers that we were, we could easily spot elephants, rhinos and giraffes from the air.

Lion Sands sent a Land Cruiser to pick us up at the airstrip and to bring us to the camp. Right away we noticed that the jeep was not in as pristine condition as the Tinga vehicles.

The main lodge was very lovely and had an amazing bar overlooking the Sabi River, we were however slightly disappointed with our accommodations. In comparison to Tinga, these rooms were ¼ of the size, had bugs everywhere, and were even more costly.

But we didn’t have much time to think about it, because we had only 10 minutes to prepare for our first game drive. At tea, we met our new ranger Cameron and our tracker Samson. Cameron was very young but was encyclopedia of knowledge. For example, Cameron told us that that ticks like to congregate around the anus of animals because that’s where the skin is the softest. Also, male elephants in must (heat) often suffer from Green Penis Syndrome (GPS). This is where the penis actually grows algae on it because it is constantly wet with urine. And on a more olfactory note, Cameron showed us that when you burn dried elephant dung it actually smells very good due to all the herbs and grasses the elephants consume and barely digest. And Julee will add, Cameron was hot!

The highlight of one of our drives was coming across a herd of elephants and a fully-grown male elephant in must, one the most unpredictable and dangerous mammals in the bush. We were convinced our guide was a little cocky, because it felt like we were dangerously close. The elephants dropped his head, snorted and came towards us quickly. Cameron then showed us why he always has an escape route – and we took it.

It was a very exciting drive, even though we didn’t see a leopard. And we weren’t that concerned, we had five more drives to go and Cameron bet us his car we would see leopards!

At Lion Sands, you always have dinner with you jeep mates and your guide. It’s actually a great custom, because you immediately get to know at least 4-5 other people at the camp.

Our Lion Sands buddies were:
A lovely couple from South Africa who actually owned a small game reserve themselves.
A couple our age from New York
And another very sweet couple from England.

Day 31 – 2/8/07 – Safari
Lou was a total trooper during our stay at the camp. He caught a nasty bug on our last night in Capetown and completely lost his voice. He took another course of Arythromycin but nothing seemed to help. He was really uncomfortable. To try to recuperate, Lou slept in during the morning drive.

Julee went out with the rest of the jeep and the highlight of the morning drive were two rhinos that came within 10 feet of the group during their breakfast break (when they were all outside of the jeep!). But still, no leopards.

(After the morning drive I grabbed Julee’s camera. Expecting to see animals that I missed while sleeping in, all I found was pictures of Cameron’s ass.) (Lou)
We did have a few issues with the overall service and facilities at Lion Sands.  It was not what we expected for this price range.  We have spoken to the management who assures us these were isolated instances and they have corrected the problems we had.  The saving grace of the lodge was the food. It was truly gourmet cuisine. The soups were original and flavorful. The lunches were enormous, and the dinners had a variety of meats, from crocodile to kudu, impala to fresh fish. We truly found the food (and Cameron’s butt) the greatest attribute of the camp.

The afternoon drive was peaceful but we had the chance to hike into the bush to get “too close” to another bull elephant. It was a prickly walk through the bush with Cameron in front with the rifle and Samson, the tracker, behind us keeping the group together. After seeing the elephant we stopped for our last sundowner – whiskey on the rocks of course.

Day 32 – 2/9/07 – Safari

The morning drive was quiet but still breathtaking.

A new couple, Shelly and Wally joined our jeep in the afternoon. They were a hilarious couple from Johannesburg celebrating Wally’s 50th birthday. Besides being wonderful companions, they brought us fabulous luck.

During the evening drive everybody including Cameron was getting very nervous that we weren’t going to get to see our leopard. We finally we got a call on the radio that another Jeep had spotted a leopard not to far from where we where. We drove as fast as we could to find it when all of the sudden we heard Cameron let out a sigh of relief and said “Yes! We got one”. We all turned to see the gorgeous male leopard. A sense of calm came over the whole jeep as we sat and watched this magnificent cat sit, yawn and drink from the pond.

Towards the end of our stay, we were ready to live in a bug-free zone and here’s the topper. Just before bed, Julee decided to take a shower. All of a sudden, there was a “Psycho” scream from the bathroom and Julee came tearing of out the shower, wearing only flip-flops. Naked and crying, she was in the middle of the room screaming “Call the ranger, call the ranger” as there was an 8″ tarantula (baboon spider) that was on her towel and she nearly grabbed for it. Lou immediately named it “Charlotte” and then killed it with 8 or 9 whacks of a magazine.
Day 33 – 2/10/07 – Last day on Safari
Our last drive in South Africa was chalked full of incredible sightings.

The rhinos lying in the puddles blowing bubbles.

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The pack of buffalo.

And, another leopard.

Knowing it was the NY couple’s anniversary, Julee asked the lodge manager if they would arrange champagne at breakfast.They took it another step and arranged for a special “bush breakfast”. It was a fantastic surprise for our friends, and the breakfast was wonderful, complete with two bottles of champagne.

Before departing, Lou braved the elements and jumped in the outdoor shower. Julee tried it once, but the circling moths and lizards were too much for her.

We packed and loaded up the jeep to head to the airport. On the way back, they radioed to say that our flight was delayed. So we took our time and turned the transfer into a game drive. Our drive, Orange, was a tracker and we a great drive to the airport. Once there, they radioed again to say that our flight was delayed several hours. (Luckily, we had a 7-hour connection window back in J-burg). So we loaded up the jeep again and had a much faster ride back to the camp. Back at Lion Sands, they invited us to have lunch during the delay. We jumped in the jeep once again and this FLEW to the airport. It was a two hands holding on the safety bar kind of ride. YEE-HAW!

We finally boarded the flight, which didn’t have air-conditioning until we took off. Lou immediately burst into sweat. The only we could do was laugh how we had sweat through our clothes and starting praying there were showers in the business class lounge in J-Berg.

We had been warned several times regarding the luggage theft at the airports. Knowing we were checking our bags hours before our flight departed, we opted to have the bags wrapped. Despite the warnings, the J-Berg airport may be our favorite airport in the world – it’s really a fabulous mall with gates. The lounge was lovely, the showers were clean and the wi-fi was fast. We boarded around 10pm at departed on Iberia for our flight to Madrid.

Written by Julee – and this should be no reflection on my competent English teachers at both Liggett and Michigan.

Once we decided to visit South Africa, we called everyone who knew who grew up, lived in or visited South Africa. Bohj was a huge help with the safaris, Mara gave us a list of her favorite places and foods and Ray said, “You’ll stay with my folks”.

Ray Thompson has sold my dad two boats, and over the years has survived my father’s “requests and suggestions” and actually become part of our family. Adored by my parents, I’m pretty sure if we were at my parents’ house at the same time, Ray would get my room and I’d be sent to the basement. Learning that we were going to Capetown, Ray (who Lou and I have never actually met), arranged for us to stay with his parents and later his brother’s family. Thrilled with the thought of having a home base in a strange city, Lou and I quickly emailed with his mom. After just a few emails, these poor people had committed to hosting us, complete strangers, for nearly a week.
Audrey and Benny La Rue met us at the gates, with a sign with our names on it. The first thing Audrey’s says is “My, you look like your mom”.

We shot out of the airport and straight to their house in Fish Hoek Bay, which is a gorgeous town on the ocean. Audrey and Benny live in a fantastic home tucked into the mountainside, and the view from all of their balconies is amazing.

As soon as we walked in the house, Lou’s jaw dropped at their incredible bar. Benny is a scotch fanatic and built a shrine to his collection of spirits. Benny actually had tears in his eyes remembering some of the 30 year olds he has tasted. “The nectar” only added to the instant bond we had with our hosts. We settled in for biltong (beef jerky)*, cheese, biscuits and salmon spread and chatted up a storm, starting to get to know each other. It was an incredibly warm welcome to Capetown.

We did notice the iron gates that surrounded Audrey and Benny’s home. It’s not that they lived in a bad area, quite the contrary. Crime is a real problem in South Africa and it affects everybody. We would learn more and more in the days to come about some of the social and economic problems that plague this beautiful place.

*Note – Biltong is what we Americans would call Beef Jerky. It is a South African delicacy and is served everywhere as a snack. It can be made from beef, ostrich, kudu, and springbok just to name a few.

Day 25 – 2/2/07 – Loads of Penguins, Two Oceans and Some Ostriches

For our first full day, Benny and Audrey gave us a whirlwind tour of Capetown! They were superb guides on our marathon of sight seeing. Here’s some of what we accomplished on the first day.

Scratch Patch
Precious stones are a hot commodity in South Africa, and they have stores called “Scratch Patches”. In addition to ready-made jewelry, you can “harvest” your own precious stones from big gardens or treasure chests. It’s the perfect place for a beading enthusiast.

Boulders
Boulders is a spectacular small beach, with sand, rock alcoves and 1000s of penguins. Since, Lou and I are both fascinated and amused by animals, so we seek out any type of animal encounter. This was an exceptional”city” experience since we were visiting the penguins in their truly natural habitat.

Cape of Good Hope
We then drove into The Cape of Good Hope nature reserve. We had a tasty lunch at a restaurant over looking the mountains, and then Lou and I headed up to the Light House. It was a 15-minute walk up a path and a few steep stairs. The view was spectacular with the waves crashing against the rocks. The Cape of Good Hope is famous because it is where two oceans meet; To the west is the cold and rough Atlantic, to east, the much warmer Indian Ocean.

Cape Point is also famous for it’s baboons. And they didn’t let us down. There were baboons hopping along the tops of cars, stealing sandwiches and raising havoc in the ladies restroom.

Ostrich Farm
Close to Capetown is a small Ostrich Farm, and these awkward birds are hilarious. Even more entertaining was our guide. In every way possible, he pointed out just how dumb the birds really are. He had us in stitches. As a side bar, ostrich farms are very lucrative because these birds are prolific egg layers, have a very short gestation period, provide meat that is lean and healthy, their feathers make great boas and their hides create the second toughest leather on earth.

Long Beach
We hit long beach around 6pm, just in time for the after-work rush to the waves. There were huge breakers, 100s of surfers and it seemed like an equal number of dogs. It was awesome; exactly what you’d picture in a surfing movie.

On the way back home Benny felt is was important for us to see what one of the “Townships” looked like. Under Apartheid, these cordoned off sections of town are where non-whites were forced to live. The Townships still exist today. A drive through the settlement was quite an eye opener. The houses were shanties constructed of corrugated metal and plywood. You simply could not believe that people, families, live there. Benny felt comfortable driving through one of the townships during daylight, and so we drove through the front section closest to the main road. We were in awe, sad and overwhelmed by the realities of this destitute side of South Africa. Back home around 8pm, Benny and Audrey grilled up some tenderloin with a black pepper sauce. It was a feast!

Day 26 – 2/3/07 – Capetown

The next morning Benny and Audrey drove us over to Sean (Audrey’s son) and Michelle’s. We were immediately struck by their hospitality and they took us in for the next two days. Sean and Michelle have two wonderful boys, Joshua (9) and Matthew (6). Wherever we went, it was a full carload.

Waterfront – Two Oceans Aquarium
The Waterfront is a tourist mecca of shops and street performers. (And for the boaters – it has the oldest working dry dock in the world.) We stopped for burgers and chips (fries), and then headed off to the Aquarium for a couple hours. The salt-water fish are so much more exotic than the fresh water fish. We thought we’d seen it all at the Singapore Aquarium, but Capetown had new fish, sharks, sea horses and giant lobsters to observe. Before our travels, Lou and I didn’t even know we liked aquariums!

While the kids were catching the puppet show at the aquarium, Sean, Lou and I headed over to Mitchell’s Microbrewery for an afternoon beer and a visit to the Red Shed. There, a number of local craftsman and local companies who sell their works at the waterfront. I bought a small painting on canvas.

Malay Quarter – Bo Kaap
Our friend Mara told me that as a child, she used to go to Bo Kaap to a small place that had the “best simosas”. Sean and Michelle hadn’t been to that area, so we took a scenic drive through this colorful Malay neighboorhood. We found the restaurant, Biesmiellah, and ate the simosas on the corner, just like Mara told me to.
Rhodes Memorial
After leaving the Waterfront, we drove to Rhodes Memorial built to honor Cecil Rhodes who became prime minister of the Cape in 1890. He was the consummate British Imperialist whose dream was to see a Cape-to-Cairo railway line so that the “sun would never set on the British Empire”. The memorial is up on the mountainside and has a great view of the Cape Flats and the Capetown University grounds. Michelle even pointed out her college dorm.

Cape Town Fish Market
For dinner, we went to the Cape Town Fish Market (which is a chain) for some excellent sushi.

We were stunned by how much there is to do in Capetown and we kept thanking Sean and Michelle for taking us to what we were certain were tourist places they’d been to a thousand times. But like any native, they rarely hit the tourist attractions in the city and appreciated the excuse to visit the sites. Therefore, the motto for the entire South African marathon became, “It takes a tourist!”
Day 27 – 2/4/07 – Betty’s Bay

The next morning, we drove about an hour to Betty’s Bay, a seaside holiday village. Betty’s Bay had another colony of jack-ass penguins which kept us entertained for a half hour. Once we got to Michelle’s parents’ holiday-now-permanent home, we went for a swim in the Indian Ocean (65-70 degrees). There was kelp everywhere. It adds a pungent aroma to the beach, but we quickly got used to it.

Back at the house, we ate the fresh crayfish (rock lobster) that Michelle’s parents had caught that morning. And those were just the appetizers, as they grilled up a huge Braai (BBQ) for us. After lamb ribs, lamb chops, sausage and boerewors (spicy sausage), we were stuffed. But of course, we made room for melktert (similar to a custard pie). We were thoroughly amazed how once again complete strangers welcomed us into their homes. It was a fantastic South African Sunday.

That night, Sean drove us back to Audrey and Benny’s. After some Scotch, we crashed out once again.

Day 28 – 2/5/07 – Beach, Breakfast and Wine Country

Audrey and Benny made sure we got to enjoy their beach. So we all popped out of bed at 7:30 to head down to Fish Hoek Beach for a morning stroll and seaside breakfast.

After a quick shower, it was off to wine country. It was a bout an hour’s drive to Stellenbosch, which is the oldest wine route in South Africa with more and 100 estates and farms. For Americans, it is very similar to Napa. We went to e of Audrey and Benny’s favorite estate called Hartenberg. After a wine tasting, we ate a delicious picnic lunch in the garden. What amazed us most were the prices of the wine. You could purchase excellent bottles for $10/US. Very good bottles were $US 6-8. Everything being relative, wine is not quite the same bargain to those who live on the Rand, but wine is not the extravagance that it is in the states. It’s very affordable.

We drove back to Fish Hoek that evening and had dinner at a Harbor Front restaurant. We all had delicious seafood dishes of either Kop or Cape Salmon (which is a white fish, not a pink fish like in the US). We returned home for an early night as we had to wake at 6am wake up.

Day 29 – 2/6/07 – Mountains, Prisons and Monkeys

In another act of selfless hospitality, Sean took the morning off work to hike with us. He came to get us at 6am for our ascent up Table Mountain. The plan was to hike up to the top in about 2 hours and then take the cable back down. However, the winds were blowing so forcefully and the clouds were so thick, the cable car wasn’t running. After 90 minutes and reaching what we think was 2/3 of the way up, we decided to turn back and head to the bottom. (In addition, I was getting blown off my footing. Every time a gust came, I had to really dig in a lower my center of gravity. I even had to give Lou the backpack because it was acting like a sail). We made it down safely and but I was bummed we didn’t get to “summit”. From what we hear, there’s an extraordinary view from above. It’s really one of the top attractions in Capetown and we didn’t get to the see the Dussies – which are giant hamster like animals that are closely related to the elephant. I know – I can’t picture it either! So climbing Table Mountain is just one of the plethora of reasons for returing to South Africa in the near future.
After the hike, we had a few hours to kill so Sean suggested we head to “World of Birds”. Apparently it’s one the largest bird parks in the world. It was all very impressive, and our favorite was the “Birds of Prey” exhibit. In this exhibit ,you walk inside the cages are face to face to with some serious predatory birds. Their enclosures are very large, but there are no fences between you and the animals. Most of them kept their distance on their perches, but others definitely flew around or had something to say. I have to admit it’s a little frightening to be so close to eagles, hawks, and vultures. The most captivating animals were were the owls. They watched us so intently with their huge eyes.

In addition to birds exhibits they also had an “interactive” squirrel monkey exhibit. There were literally hundreds of squirrel monkeys that would jump on you while you walk around. They are very clever little guys and they would reach into your pockets and steal whatever was in there. (In a previous visit to the park, one monkey popped into Benny’s pocket and stole and then destroyed his ID.) They jumped on my backpack and tried to undo the lock and one even tried to pull the ponytail holder out of my hair. Lou finally managed to get me (with my feet dragging) out the monkey cage.

On our list of things to do was “fish and chips”, so we headed back to the Waterfront for lunch. The fish and chips we had are a little different then we are used to. Rather than breading and frying small fillets, they bread and fry the entire fish (head excluded or I wouldn’t go near it).

An insert from Lou
Having traveled for almost 5 weeks now I was in serious need of a haircut. I found this really cool “old school” barbershop at the waterfront. The barber worked like “Edward Scissorhands”. Hair was flying all over the place as he quickly circled around and rapidly snapped the scissors in no distinguishable pattern. All I could here was steal grinding, and I was convinced I was going to come out of that chair with giant patches of hair missing. He finally finished and stepped away to what turned out to be a pretty decent haircut.
From the Waterfront we took a ferry out to Robben Island, the former political prison during the 1960 – 80s. Robben Island is just off the shore of Cape Town, and you must take a 30-minute ferry ride to get there. The Island was once a leper colony and then military base, but it’s most notorious the location where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned there for nearly 20 years.

Once our boat arrived at the harbor, they piled us into buses for a 30-minute island tour. There is a small village where the employees of Robben Island live. The village is mostly comprised of the former officers’ facilities.

Once were arrived at the prison, a former political prisoner greeted our group. For an hour, he took us through the mess hall, group cells, exercise field, described their daily meals, listed the rules and gave us general insight into the agony of being a prisoner. The tour culminates in a viewing of Mandela’s cell.

Throughout the tour, our guide revealed a little of his story. As a young man, he joined a guerrilla terrorist group focused on ending the apartheid regime. He received specialized training in East Germany. He returned to Africa via Angola and was smuggled through several countries back into South Africa. After several missions, he was picked up in J-burg. He served 20 years in the prison and was then released. I asked if it was difficult to come back as a tour guide. His response was that although there have been great strides for Black South Africans; there are still very limited employment opportunities. It was his only chance for a job. In addition, since there are very few political prisoners who survived or are still alive, he felt “Someone has to do it”.

Audrey and Benny picked us up the waterfront and took us home. Audrey had cooked up a delicious homemade baboutie, a Malay-South African classic. Baboutie can best be described as a spicy curried meatloaf. Benny pulled out some special wine and champagne, and we all enjoyed our last night in Cape Town.

All Kruger Park Photos click here

Day 21 – 1/29/07 – Johannesburg – Kruger Park – Tinga Private Game Reserve

Cathay Pacific 747 – Flight time 12 hours

We boarded our plane in Hong Kong around Midnight and 1 snack and 1 Ambien later; we were two hours outside of Jo-burg. So rather than being jetlagged, we actually got a full night’s rest. Lou was particularly excited about this flight, as it was the first time we got to sit in the upstairs section of the 747. Lou always imagined the upstairs being some sort of smoky nightclub lounge with a bar and piano act. He was sadly disappointed when we headed up the stairs and Michelle Pfeiffer was not slinked out over a piano. Turns our there was just extra rows of business class seats and the cockpit.

At J-burg’s airport, we transferred to Airlink, a small regional airline. As a first observation, we noticed that we were no longer on Asia’s “Exact Time.” It had much more of a “fluid” feel about it. Onboard, we thoroughly enjoyed the in-flight magazine, Skyways. It was fully of interesting articles, buzz clips, recipes, historic facts – it was so interesting that Lou took it! Later that afternoon, we were raving about the magazine on our first game drive. The South African woman we were with, turned around and said, “Really, you really like it? I’m the editor!” And by editor, she meant that she wrote the articles, took many of the photos and chose the fun facts that we found so educational. Mandi was absolutely delightful and we became fast friends. As it turned out, Mandi was reviewing the lodge for the magazine – more on her later.

It was about an hour’s drive from the airport through the countryside to the Kruger Park gate. Once inside the park, it was another 30 minutes to Tinga Lodge. On the way to the lodge, we saw impala, crocs, zebra, waterbucks and warthogs. To us, our transfer seemed like a game drive.

Once at the lodge, they took us to our spectacular bungalow. It is the most incredible accommodation we’ve ever experienced. It had a living room, private plunge pool, and the shower ROOM looked out into the bush and the Sabi River. They warned us right away to keep our porch door closed, since there is only a low electric fence separating us from whatever else is out there. The hostess who took us to our room said, “If the animals want to get in, they get in”.

Seemingly on cue, we weren’t in the room 5 minutes before a family of monkeys “hopped” the fence by swinging through the trees. Julee ran outside to see them and was chased back inside. They explored our porch, drank from the plunge pool, and peered into the shower through the window. It was quite the welcome to South Africa.

Just two hours later, we met for high tea at the main lodge and we were off on our first official game drive. In addition to our tracker, Johann, and our ranger/driver, Derek, we had Mandi in our 4×4. She was such a wealth of knowledge. Having seen most of the animals before, she knew their calls, their mating habits, the birds, the trees….it was awesome. It was like having three guides to ourselves.

Some background information on our location:
Kruger Park is giant national park occupying the northeastern corner of South Africa. It is approximately the same size as the state of Rhode Island. The park is open to public and has paved roads which are fairly easy to navigate, and there are several safety rules you must obey. When you are in the Kruger Park, you must remain inside an enclosed vehicle at all times and you must stay on the roads.

Kruger Parks also leases large plots of land called concessions to private lodges. When inside a private concession, you can drive an open vehicle, you can may take the vehicles off road and even leave the vehicle. We stayed at Tinga Private Game Reserve, which was one of these concessions. It has about 5000 hectares which only the guides and guests of Tinga are allowed to travel. In addition to all of their knowledge of the plant, animal and bird life, the rangers have the ability to navigate the jeeps along the seemingly invisible trails. Our game drives consisted of a combination of the rugged terrain of the concession and the paved public roads.

At Tinga, the safari vehicles were Land Rovers outfitted with three rows of seats. A nice feature of these jeeps was that they didn’t have sides, so it we had unobstructed views, but they were covered, so we were shielded from the direct sun. The seats were really comfortable (well padded – thank god). There were also blankets for the cold morning drives and ponchos if it rained.

(As I write this, some animal is shaking the crap out of a tree about 30 feet in front of me. Scared? Mmmm hmmm.) (Julee)

That first afternoon drive started about 4:30. We saw an amazing number of animals. This was one of our favorite sightings of a pride of lions, and all of the animals photos are posted on flickr. Just click on the link at the top of the page.

About 2 hours into the drive, we stopped on a rock plateau by the river for a “Sundowner”. They unpacked the trunk, and took out a table and tablecloth and set up a full bar of wine, mixed drinks, beer, macadamia nuts, dried mangos, biltong (beef jerky) and walnuts. Our preferred drink was whiskey (Scotch) on the rocks.Sundowners were a great break from sitting and a fun opportunity to talk with guides. Derek and Johann both spoke wonderful English, in addition to their native “mother tongues”. They were very personable and they would answer any question you posed.

Happy hour was about a half hour, and then we popped in the jeep for the last half of the game drive.. Towards the end of the evening it was completely black. Sitting in the front of the jeep, the tracker would sweep a spotlight across the roads and up in to the trees to try catch a reflection from any animal’s eyes. Once they spotted an animal, they turned off the light so that they would not give unfair advantage to either predator or prey.

We were thoroughly amazed but our guides’ ability to spot animals. For instance, that night, we were cruising at 40 kmph and they spotted a chameleon, CHAMLEON, on a tree, at night.

Our first dinner was in the Burna, an outdoor area with a huge campfire in the middle and white tablecloth service. On our first night, we all (12 people) dined together – all the guests, the general manager husband and wife team, and the rangers. There were 5 salads and South African BBQ – chicken, beef tenderloin, kudu sausage and braised impala. It was such an elegantly catered evening. The dress however was very casual. The dinner was right after the drive, and they gave you the option to go right to dinner or go back and change. So some guests were in the typical safari wear of clean white shirt and khaki pants and other guests were literally in their bathing suits and shorts.

(OK – now there is a big lizard on the roof above me).

Day 22 – 1/30/07 – Tinga – First full day

For the morning drives, you got a pleasant wake up call at 4:30 AM. At 5am there was coffee and snacks for about 15 minutes and then everyone leaves at 5:15 A.M. for the morning drive.

Each day had the exact same schedule. The only variance was where you had dinner. Everyone at the lodge followed the same schedule:

4:30 – Wake up Call
5:00 – Tea/Coffee
5:30 – 9:00 – Morning Game Drive
9:30 – Breakfast
10:30 – 1:30 – Sleep, Swim or Massage
1:30 – 3 course lunch
2:30 – 4:00 – Sleep or Swim
4:00 – High Tea
4:00 – 7:30pm – Afternoon Game Drive with Sundowner
8:00 – Dinner and Drinks
Repeat!

By the second day was had figured that being on Safari was a lot like being an animal in the bush. We got up, ate, looked at other animals, napped, ate, looked at animals, ate, slept.

Amongst the highlights of the day, we saw a herd of elephants crossing a river. Check out the hippos getting out of their way.

Another amazing part of the drives are your proximity to the animals. Since nearly all of the animals grew up in the parks, they are habituated to the jeeps. To them, we basically look like rocks, so long as everyone is seated. Once someone stands up or makes a sudden movement, all bets are off.
We made several friends at the lodge:
Dan and Anne – travel writers from Philly
A super cute Italian couple – the husband gave everyone Italian names and for the rest of our stay, Lou was “Gigi”.
Derek and Laura – a couple from Manchester, England on their honeymoon. We spent hours sharing stories and drinking with them and suffered some serious separation anxiety. We’ve been texting them every since.

Day 23 – 1/31/07 – Tinga – Second Full Day

In our conversations with the ranger and tracker, we learned about the true definition of the “The Big 5”. The Big 5 doesn’t refer to the largest animals or even the hardest to find but refers to the 5 most dangerous animals to hunt. In other words, if you shoot one of these animals you better have killed it or you are in trouble. The term “The Big 5” has since become a marketing term used by the game reserves to create an attraction that brings people in. The Big 5 are the elephant, lion, leopard, rhino, buffalo. The most elusive of the 5 are the lion and leopard. Game drives take skilled guides and a bit of luck. It is possible to go on safari, even several drives, and still not see all 5. Interestingly the extremely dangerous hippo is not one of the “Big 5” as it was not an animal that was hunted for sport.

Here’s more of what we today :

Since there were so few people guests at the lodge, they wanted to do something “special” and arranged for a private dinner for each couple. Ours was on our balcony. It turned out to be a comedic disaster. Rather than relaxing and enjoying a romantic evening, Julee was game driving on the porch – lizard, monkey, moth, beetle, and lizard! We ate pretty quickly, packed up the table and moved it inside and head up to the lodge to meet up with the Italian couple and Derek and Laura.

That night a huge storm rolled into Tinga very quickly. It was a massive downpour which we waited out up at the lodge with Derek and Laura. So instead of going to bed at a reasonable hour (which on Safari is about 10pm), we were up til midnight drinking whiskey.

Day 24 – 2/1/07 – Tinga – Morning drive/Afternoon departure

There was a little excitement this morning because there was a huge male elephant in the camp. The only thing they could do was watch him. He was just feeding in the bush at the far end of the camp. After an hour he was gone. But it was an amazing experience to stand in front of one of the rooms and smell and see a full-grown African Elephant.

Although we had still had so much ahead of us, we were sad to leave Tinga. Derek even got a little teary eyed as we left. Since we were such a gregarious group, we bonded with the staff and each other. I had a pit in my stomach that the second safari wouldn’t compare. (Foreshadowing!)

It was a fantastic first safari experience. We did get to see 4 out of the 5 “Big 5″. The only animal that eluded us was the leopard. But we were going on another safari 6 days later, and the rangers told us we had a better chance of seeing the leopards on that reserve.
After a few beers at the airport bar, Derek and Laura flew off to Mauritius and Lou and I flew to J-burg and connected to Capetown. There, we would meet our new South African family.

Hong Kong Photos..click here

Day 18 – 1/26/07 – Hong Kong

Hong Kong wasn’t originally on our list of places to visit. However, the only direct flight to South Africa we could get was through Hong Kong, so we decided to spend 2 days there and at least get a taste of it. We both agree now thought that we would have liked more time there. Julee keeps saying, “I am not done with Hong Kong”.

We arrived into Hong Kong around 9pm. At the airport, they tried to sell us the $70 charter to our hotel, but being the savvy travelers we are, we opted for the $2 public bus. It stopped only 3 times and dropped us a block from our hotel.

We stayed at the Langham Place Hotel. It was the most hi tech hotel we’ve experienced, as it had WiFi, IP phones, Plasma TV and even the room safe was equipped with a laptop charger. It was a great room, but the hotel itself was IN A MALL. We had to pass 3 Gaps and a Starbucks to get outside.

The first night we were hungry and went downstairs to explore the neighborhood. We were in Mong Kok which is definitely a very local part of town (and a bit of a red light district as well). It is such a local area, that the concierge couldn’t even recommend a restaurant in the area he thought we would like. We braved it anyway and went down to the street. Contrary to all of our other travels in Asia, there was almost no printed English on signs or menus. We were so tired and intimated by the bright lights, people and pig heads in the windows, that even gastronomically adventurous Lou voted to head back up to the hotel bar. We ended up ordering martini’s and hamburgers and there was an excellent jazz combo performing that night. I (Julee) had to send my hamburger back 3 times just to approximate “cooked” and they still served the beef pretty much raw. So we just the fries and listened to some great music.

Day 19 – 1/27/07 – Stanley Market

Not exactly sure of what to do, we headed down to the wharf for a short ferry (7 min) to Hong Kong Island. So after those 7 minues, we still weren’t sure what to do so we stood around holding our map trying to get some ideas. A college student came up and asked if we were trying to find a location. He gave us the suggestion to head to Stanley market and walked us ½ mile to the bus stop and made sure we got on the correct bus.

The bus ride to the other side of the island was incredible: 45-minutes of winding roads, cliffs on the left and drops to the right. And we’re in an enormous bus inches from the sheer cliff. The view was breathtaking. Ironically, one of the prettiest beaches is Repulse Bay. Don’t let the name fool ya – it’s gorgeous.

Although there are were some legitimate stores at Stanley market, most of it was crap mass-produced in China, which I guess technically makes them local crafts. Our guidebook actually had a shopping guide of the area, so we were able to hit a linen store to get some linen pants for Julee (who was dying in her jeans). For lunch we found a nice restaurant called The Boathouse, it was delicious.

That evening we met up with Julee’s friend, Christine Tse. They knew each other from Swing Dancing. Julee met her in NYC, but Christine now lives in HK and was our personal tour guide for the evening. We met up at “The Peak”, a mall on top of the mountain. The view of mainland Hong Kong was amazing but the wind that night was fierce. Picture, Picture….back inside.  Hong Kong has the most stunning skyline we have even seen.  Beats both New York and Chicago.

As a surprise, Christine is actually friends with our friend Mugsy who’s wedding Lou will be standing up at in a couple months. We were both pretty surprised as Mugsy is cool, but not, “known in Hong Kong” cool.

Christine took us around the “night life” part of Kowloon. It’s a square area of bars and clubs teeming with locals and expats. Since it’s a fairly confined area, you can drink in the streets. After sighing that we were too old for “boom boom bars”, Christine took us to a great martini bar closer to where she lives. Lou had a fabulous new martini – take note – pepper vodka and grilled pineapple.

Christine also said that they call the local dollar a “honkies”. So of course, we needed to giggle and repeat that 10 times.

Kowloon has a huge escalator that runs right through the city and up the mountain called the Travelator. This is how Christine commutes to work, so of course, we asked her to take us on it. She literally jumps on this moving sidewalk and “travelates” to work. We called it a night around Midnight and hopped on the underground back to the hotel.

Day 20 – 1/28/07 – Playin the Ponies

We read that Hong Kong-onians were wild about the ponies, so to get the local experience, we hopped on the train and headed for the track. It was awesome! They have a special deal for foreigners – show them your passport, pay $100 honkies, and you got access to the “Members only” area. This allowed for seating on the finish line and no-crowd betting. It took us awhile to get the hang of it, as there are about 75 different bets you can place. Our favorite was placing a bet that two horses would come in some version of 1,2,3. Lou actually won about $50 US. Julee won about $2.50. Julee had a very interesting strategy for betting; it was based completely on the name of the horse. For example in one race, Julee bet on “Happy Jockee” because it was spelled like her name with 2 e’s. The other horse she bet on was “Hello Pretty” because she liked the way it sounded when she said it out loud. Lou had a much more scientific approach based on wind speed, track humidity and helmet color.

We sat right in front of the finish line and there were a couple of photo finishes. We were also nearly in front of the winner’s circle as well. I think we were both amazed at how feisty the horses are. It takes a big effort to get them into the starting gate and the winner’s circle. The horse’s area always escorted by several handlers.

At 5pm we trained back into town and had dinner at a restaurant on the 50th floor of a hi rise overlooking Hong Kong Island. The view was stunning. The menu was distuging (to me). I (Julee) am not making this up – Shark’s Lips and Pigs Throat were entrees. Needless to say, that night I (Julee) ordered vegetarian.

We visited the local market in Monkok after dinner then we headed out to the airport around 9pm for our midnight flight. These were our last couple hours in an eastern country. Tomorrow morning we would wake up in South Africa.