South African Splendor

  Day 4 Cape of Good Hope This was our all-day tour down the long peninsula known as the Cape of Good Hope. The day started cloudy and cool, and Elise was a little under the weather, so to speak. Our tour guide, Adeil (pronounced "a deal") was patient and kind waiting for us to decide whether Elise was up to the tour or not. After a little while, Elise acknowledged that she felt good enough to ‘tough it out,’ and so we were off on our guided tour. We went winding out of Cape Town along the rocky coastal mountains while passing several very nice beaches (e.g., the famous Camp Beach). There is good and bad news here – the bad news is that it was overcast with a low cloud ceiling; the good news is that there was enough visibility to capture the grandeur of the scenery. Our guide did an excellent job of narrating history and facts about the country and surroundings. [Side note: we learned that the ostrich originated in South Africa and was exported to Australia, not the oth...

  Day 3 Rough Start – Strong Finish As we are adjusting to time zones and lots of moving around Cape Town (note: two words), at least one person in our group is adjusting to sleep patterns. It was one solid, uninterrupted night’s sleep when my alarm went off early this AM. What was surprising to me was that my room was pitch black – I mean like deep in a cave. I was surprised because I usually leave a bathroom light on (or something) and there is usually light from a crack in the curtains. But alas, it is winter here and sunrise is not until 7:52am, and the hotel is being unsuccessful in its “load sharing.” Load Sharing is a way of life in South Africa. The country’s growing need for power is outstripping its ability to generate electricity and upgrade its electrical grid. So, 2/3rds of the time the electricity is on and 1/3 rd of the time it is not. The load sharing is a rolling black-out across the city and country so that certain sections of the city/country have the powe...

  Day 2 We’ve Been to the Mountain Top First, I must correct myself. In previous blogs I have been using the appellation Capetown when in fact it should be Cape Town. So, henceforth, it’s Cape Town as the locals and everyone else in the world seems to know except me … until now. Our first adventure was to travel to the top of Table Mountain, which overlooks the city of Cape Town (remember: two words). But first was a lovely breakfast from which we could see the Mountain from our table.  Skies had cleared completely, and we had a full, breath-taking view from our breakfast table. Our breakfast was excellent and the service impeccable. Two-for-two (dinner last night and breakfast this morning). We Ubered (yes, it is now a verb; and yes it is something someone named R UBER G must do) to the cable car station and stood in line for about an hour to get into the cable car to ascend the mountain. Now the cable car was maximum cool; it was circular and rotated as we went on t...

  Day 1 The Travel Day Travelling to South Africa is no small feat of modern engineering and technology. To go 7894 miles from Washington DC to Capetown, SA, one needs either a very long time (it used to take weeks by boat) or a very powerful, sophisticated machine. We opted for the latter. Two GE jet engines (very high tech) put out 64,000 lb of thrust each, which allows a 500,000 lb chunk of metal to float in the air, carrying 381 passengers. Simply amazing. But as some wise guy once said: “Human problems are 20% technical and 80% social.” How true as we learned on our trip. The flight from Indianapolis to DC was delayed due to some bad weather on the east coast, and our plane could not get to Indy from NY in a timely fashion. No big deal. We had a 2.5 hours layover in DC. Out of Indy, we were delayed 15 minutes – no, wait … 30 minutes – no, wait again … 45 minutes … OK finally after an hour, we were off and flying. Still no sweat for our connection in DC. Everything was sm...

 Day -1 June 25, 2023 OK - here is the context for this blog. I am going on vacation to South Africa and nearby places (Zimbabwe, Botswana) with the Browning family - Adam, Maria (my daughter), Elise (12) and Connor (almost 11). It has been over a year in the making (with the help of Audley Travel - SIDE NOTE: they give me a commission on referrals so please do not hesitate to contact me!!), and it is hard to believe it is actually here. So, what follows is really a personal diary so that we can all remember the great fun that we had, and we hope you will enjoy living vicariously through us on this trip. This journey (as opposed to this trip) actually started a few months ago with vaccinations and medical consultations to help us remain healthy before and after our travels. Now this blog might be a bit dry for some since it will not detail any exciting adventures of us fighting lions in the bush, swimming up the Zambezi River to Victoria Falls or free-climbing Table Mountain in Cap...