Author: Lynn

I’m staying at the Fairway Hotel Golf Resort and Spa just north of Johannesburg or Joburg as the locals call it. It’s a beautiful hotel and the staff is wonderful. I know you’ll all dying to hear if I made it to the gym this morning, and, yes, I did. I rode the bike for 15 minutes and started on the treadmill but after 5 minutes I accidently hit the emergency stop button. After that I couldn’t get it started again so I took it as a sign that I was done. But some is better than none and none is what I’ve been doing up to now, so I’ll take 20 minutes.

Both South Africa and Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) were part of the British Empire, and it shows, especially in their food. They’ve adopted the “full English breakfast” that the Brits love…. eggs, sausage, bacon (our Canadian bacon), grilled tomatoes, mushrooms and baked beans. That’s way too much food for me so I cut out the baked beans and sausage. The bacon is very salty, so I eat very little of that as well.

Like everything else, the restaurant is lovely. What I like is that there are ramps everywhere, so I don’t have to climb stairs if I don’t want. The exception is the two short flights getting down to the gym.

After breakfast I went to the Pro Shop to check out the process for my afternoon round. They don’t have lady’s clubs and the ones they have for me are a little long. I’ll have to choke up a bit, but they should be fine. I picked up a few things (shirt, balls, visor) to ship back from Doha. The stuff was so inexpensive it’s worth dragging them on one flight to ship them home.

From what I can see, the course is beautiful. Since I normally play in a desert, I’m not used to seeing this much green. The fairways are wide, and since I usually hit fairly straight, I should be okay.

I guess that’s all for now. I’m just hanging out on the patio while housekeeping is straightening up the room. It’s only 1000 so I have a few hours before I have to head back down to the Pro Shop. I’m looking forward to playing here. I’ll let you know how it goes.

It’s now just after 5pm and I’m back in my room after golf and a late lunch/early dinner.

While I didn’t play that well (but not my worst round), I still had a lot of fun. It was a little more challenging than playing at home due to the topography; way more hills than I’m used to. There was a lot of water on the course, but I only lost 2 balls, so I guess I did okay.

The back 9 was painfully slow as there was a major traffic jam. I didn’t have anyone behind me but a twosome in front of me and a foursome in front of them. The young guys in front of me hit their tee shots a mile but never straight. I played behind them for 9 holes and never saw them hit their tee shot into the fairway, at least not ours. They were in the adjacent ones a couple of time, though. I may not hit them far, but I usually hit them fairly straight.

After my round I headed back to the hotel where I had lunch/dinner on the patio. It was already 4pm and I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so I was hungry and didn’t want to wait until 6:30 when dinner starts. This is better anyway as it gives more time to digest food before bed.

As was the burger and chips.

Now I’m back in my room relaxing. I had hoped to watch either the Charles Schwab golf tournament or the Cubs, but the golf is on Paramount+ and the Cubs are playing later in the day, which is middle of the night here. I get Paramount+ but not the international version. So, I guess I’ll watch something on my computer. I get Netflix and Peacock so I’m sure I’ll find something to watch. Maybe the new season of Bridgerton.

Tomorrow is more of the same. Breakfast and more golf at noon, so don’t be too surprised if you don’t hear from me.

Love to all.

This will be quick as there’s not much to say other than I could really learn to love South Africa. It’s a beautiful country and the people are very friendly. The best part, though, is how inexpensive it is. Unlike Botswana, which is expensive due to using the USD as their currency, the exchange rate here is ridiculous. One Rand equals just over a nickel. So basically, take the price and divide by twenty.

I had delicious penne chicken ($6.50) and a bottle of wine ($10.00). I only had one glass of the wine. The bottle is in my fridge, and I’ll take it down again tomorrow. Even with an absurdly low tip ($3.75) my entire meal cost $20.25. At home just the wine would have cost more than that and I’ll drink this bottle for the next 2 nights.

My room is lovely and overlooks the golf course.

I have a nice patio which I may use tomorrow before my 1230 tee time. They also have a fitness center which I should use. I have all morning with nothing to do so there are no excuses. Yep, that’s what I’m going to do before breakfast. I’m really going to do it…..maybe.

Good night everyone.

After a wonderful 8 hours of sleep last night, it was an early morning with the driver picking me up at 7:30. After a few more pickups, we were off for the 45-minute drive to the border of Zimbabwe and Botswana. On the way we ran into the Ground Hornbill. He and his buddy were hanging out on the side of the road. He’s a scavenger and was looking for roadkill for breakfast….eew.

Our first task at the border was to walk through a pan of I don’t know what, but it disinfected our shoes to protect the animals in the park against hoof and mouth disease. Then it was off to see the Health Inspector who checked our passports to see if we’d been anyplace that require vaccinations for entry into Botswana. For example, Botswana has circulating polio, so in order for me to get into Qatar on Monday, I needed to get a polio booster. A couple in front of me had been to Kenya for a few days. In 2022, Kenya had a yellow fever outbreak so now Botswana requires a yellow fever vaccination for anyone who has been to Kenya. This couple didn’t have one. They stood to the side while the rest of us went through the line, but I saw them later. Apparently, if the Health Inspector gets a little gratuity, it doesn’t matter if you’ve had your yellow fever vaccination. I’m not sure I’d get that lucky in Qatar so I’m glad I got my polio booster.

After getting our passports stamped at immigrations, it was back into a van for the 30-minute ride to the Chobe Marina Resort where we boarded our boat for the 2-hour river cruise. And this is where I saw the Africa I expected to see. Sabi Sands was incredible but it’s fairly densely wooded and with the exception of the elephants, we rarely saw more than 2-4 animals together. But today, we saw more-wide open spaces and larger groups of animals.

We cruised the Chobe River which is actually also the Zambezi River; it just changes names from one country to the other.

Because we were in the marshy area, we saw a ton of birds, crocs, hippos and buffalo. Here are just a few.

And finally….

Enough of the birds.

Here are a few familiar faces.

We saw several large groups of them further into the marsh. Our guide said that each group only has one male. If there is ever a single male hippo, that means he’s a “loser”. In other words, he couldn’t attract any females. Ouch!

Chobe has over 50,000 elephants which is the highest elephant concentration in Africa. So, if you want to see elephants come to Chobe. If you want to see leopards as well as elephants, go to Sabi Sand. I was the only person in our jeep who’d seen a leopard.

You might think you know who this is, but you’d be wrong.

I got thisclose to yet another country I didn’t get to visit…. Namibia. The entire one side of the river is in Namibia. Here’s a short video.

After about 2 hours we headed back to the marina for lunch. There were several large groups who were all there at the same time, so it was a bit hectic. I sat with a couple of women who, while there together, often travel solo. I told them about the Antarctic cruise I have booked for Dec 2025, and one of them said that was exactly what she was looking for. I gave her the contact info of the agent who booked my cruise and she said she’d reach out when she got home. How cool would it be to have a familiar face on that trip. We’ll see.

After lunch, we headed to the jeeps for the game drive portion of the day. Again, we didn’t see anything new but because of the more open spaces we saw larger groups of animals.

Did you know that giraffes are the only animals who walk by moving both legs on a side at the same time. That’s so they don’t trip themselves up while they walk. I should try that.

And of course, the ever-present impalas.

I was also the only one in our jeep who had seen lions. Our guide, Kay, said she had seen some earlier and headed in that direction but couldn’t find them. So, she got on the radio and was told that they had moved. When we got there, they were both dozing, but soon the male got up and was a little frisky. It didn’t turn out too well for him.

Since it took about 15 minutes to catch up with the lions we had to hurry to get out of the park and back to the border, but we did stop long enough to get a picture of the beautiful park.

I got back to the lodge at 6pm so it was a very long, but wonderful day. Dinner was ravioli, soup and a piece of chocolate lava cake.

You may not hear me tomorrow as it’s another travel day. I have a driver picking me up at 11:30 for my 2pm flight to Johannesburg where I’ll be picked up by another driver and taken to Randpark Golf Resort. As much as I’ve enjoyed bonding with the wildlife of Africa, I’m ready to do something different. I think resting at the resort and playing a few rounds of golf is just what the doctor ordered.

Have a great night everyone.

The day started out with a lovely breakfast.

All of it was delicious.

At just after 8:00 my driver picked me up for the tour of the falls. Jonty told me that he had arranged private tours, but this was a small group of 7 people. I don’t mind at all and, in fact, after speaking with one of the couples I have now added Perth Australia to my ever-growing list of travel destinations. I think I’ll take it on before Southeast Asia in fall 2026.

Anyway, Victoria Falls were absolutely amazing! Given the width and amount of water, it is the largest falls in the world.

Jo, the tour operator, gave us raincoats but the spray was very heavy, and I ended up pretty wet.

We caught a beautiful rainbow on one of the smaller sections.

Here’s a video of the wide middle section of the falls. The border between Zimbabwe and Zambia is in the middle.

Near the 1st overlook is the statue of Dr. David Livington. He spent years in Africa and while his body is buried in Westminster Abbey, his heart is buried in Africa.

When I was arranging this trip, I asked Jonty what I could do with the 3rd day in Vic Falls. His suggestion was Devil’s Pool. I took one look at a YouTube video and give it a hard pass. Here’s a video of Angel’s Pool in Zambia. Devil’s Pool is the exact same concept just in Zimbabwe.

Would you do this? I don’t think so.

They’ve never lost a tourist, but a guide died about 7 years ago. Apparently, a tourist lost his balance, fell into the water and started to drift towards the falls. The guide jumped in grabbed him, shoved him to safety, but continued down the falls himself. How horrible!?! I’m sure my day trip to Chobe in Botswana will be excitement enough.

Here’s a pic of me and my new friend from Perth, Lakshmi.

At the end of the path, we came to Falls Bridge, the connection between Zambezi and Zambia. We could have walked over the bridge, been given a pass to the Zambia side then come right back. I thought about it (that would have given me country #60) but decided against it. First, I had already walked over 7000 steps. And second, I didn’t want to figure out how to get home as I would have been on my own.

On the way back to the van, we found a couple of baboons hanging out by the trees.

These guys were entertaining the crowd when we made it back to the buses.

I came back to the hotel for lunch then texted Stanley to pick me up for the market. His colleague, Sydney, came and drove about 10 minutes to the Elephant Walk market. It included about 50 small shops all selling pretty much the same things. But I got some very cool items for less than $50. A few handwoven baskets, some teak wood bowls and a salt/pepper shaker set made of olive tree wood and cow bone. Don’t ask me what I’m going to do with all this stuff but don’t be surprised if some of you get something in your Christmas stocking because I have no use for all of it.

After resting for a little while it was time to head out for my sunset cruise on the Zambezi River which is the 4th longest river in Africa after the Nile, Congo and the Niger rivers. Lakshmi and Soumya were also on the cruise, so we hung out together. It was a beautiful evening and there was an open bar with heavy appetizers to munch on. I had a local Zimbabwe beer which was quite good.

Here’s another video that wouldn’t embed so just click the link if you want to watch. https://youtu.be/Bt1xzXSyhf8

There were at least a dozen boats on the river and, just like on land, you could always tell when there was something interesting to look at because that’s where all the boats were congregated.

In addition to the elephants, we saw about 9 hippos, one was actually almost fully out of the water.

We sat and watched these guys for quite a while. It was quite fun.

There were a couple of monkeys hanging out. I’ve seen more today than I did in 3 days at Sabi Sands.

That was about it for animals. We saw a warthog in the parking lot, but it was dark and he was running away from the headlights, so I didn’t get a pic.

Since it was a sunset cruise, we hung out to watch the incredible sunset. I have seen some serious beautiful sunsets since I’ve been here, and this one was no exception.

Once back at the hotel, I had a small bowl of soup and a virgin daiquiri for dinner. The soup was amazing, but the drink would have been better if had run.

It’s 9pm and I’ve been up since 3:30am (hate it when I do that) so I’ll close for now. Hopefully I’ll sleep all night tonight. That would be a nice switch.

Before I get to my new country, I FINALLY have a great internet connection so here are some videos from my safari experience. Sabi Sands Nature Preserve is on the western border of Kruger National Park and is made up of several private game reserves. The one I stayed at is Notten’s Bush Camp, one of the few privately owned camps left.

One advantage of being on the private reserve rather than the national park, is that the drivers can go virtually any place that’s accessible to the jeep. We followed many animals into the bush as opposed to in the national park where the drivers must stay on the “roads” such as they are.

Here’s a video of my cabin at the camp. For some reason the video wouldn’t embed so you just have to click on the link, and it will open a YouTube window.

https://youtu.be/9v9ihoROo5I

This video is of one of the leopards we saw on the first game drive. She’s different from the mom with the babies. I think it was the only time we saw her.

Here’s a white rhino having a bit of breakfast.

I wanted to upload videos of all the big 5 animals, but I guess I didn’t take one of the buffalo….sorry. They didn’t really do much but sit and stare at us so you aren’t really missing anything.

I think we’re finally all caught up with the safari. The entire 3 days was an unforgettable experience. To see these animals up close and personal is just incredible. On the other hand, it was sad to be here without Peter as he wanted so badly to come. I thought about him a lot while I was there and I’m sure my angel was smiling down on me the entire time.

On to Zimbabwe. This morning (Tuesday), my driver, Gladys, picked me for the 2-hour drive to the Kruger International Airport. On the way out of Sabi Sands, we saw a different pride of lions.

We only stopped for a few minutes, just long enough for both of us to grab pictures.

After an uneventful 1:35 flight, we landed in Zimbabwe which is my 59th country. Three planes landed at the same time, so I waited about 20 minutes to get through immigrations. Even though the research I did said I didn’t need a visa, I actually did. I had to get a double entry visa as I need to get back into the country after my day trip to Botswana, so it cost $45. I was shocked to discover that the US dollar is the accepted currency here. They have their own currency, but no one uses it. I thought I had plenty of money for driver tips, but I had to pay for the visa so my remaining $40 wasn’t going to be enough. I asked the desk clerk how to get more money and she said the only currency I can get from the ATM is USD, so it was an easy fix. Who knew??

I’m staying at the Shongwe Lookout Lodge just outside of Victoria Falls. It’s a beautiful little place with independent cottages.

I decided to go to the Victoria Falls Hotel about 5 minutes from here for afternoon high tea. My driver in Cape Town mentioned it so I thought it would be a great way to have dinner.

The hotel called a taxi and Stanley, the taxi man, is my newest best friend. He took me to the ATM and then the hotel. He also gave me his WhatsApp number, so I had a ride back when I was done.

The hotel was built in 1908 and while it doesn’t overlook the falls, you can see the spray from the falls.

The food was delicious and incredibly inexpensive, only $15 per person. Compare that to the $75 per person Peter and I paid at Highclere Castle when we were in England. The sparkling wine doubled the cost, but it was still a bargain at twice the price.

After chatting with a lovely couple from Sydney, I WhatsApped Stanley and he had me home in no time.

Tomorrow, I have a morning guided tour of the falls and a late afternoon sunset cruise on the Zambesi River. I should have enough time between to call Stanley to take me to the markets. I’d love to see some of the local handicrafts. I still have a little room in my suitcase. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Well, it took until day 3 (Monday) and my 4th game drive, but I finally saw the last of the big 5….the African buffalo. BTW….you may be wondering why the lion, rhino, African buffalo, leopard and elephant are called the big 5. Well….back in the days of the big game hunters, these were the 5 animals that were the hardest to track on foot. The moniker stuck.

There is also a Magnificent 7 which includes all of the 5 plus the cheetah and African dog, both of which are endangered. Unfortunately, we didn’t see either of those on our drives.

On the other side of the coin, there is an Ugly 5…warthog, hyena, maribou stork, vulture and the wildebeest. We saw 3 of them.

Jeffrey promised that we’d see the buffalo today as it was the only animal we were all missing. We saw not just one, but a herd of over 100!!

I would have thought that the buffalo would have been one of the Ugly 5, but nope.

We caught up the lions we saw on our first drive. This time only one of them was asleep. We found one of the brothers as he was walking back to the others. He passed not 2 feet from the side of our jeep but apparently, he doesn’t see us as a threat (as long as we keep quiet and don’t stand up). Also, in spite of what we see in the movies, lions don’t eat people. They will only attack if they feel threatened.

Also saw some hippos. They have very sensitive skin (kind of like me), and their skin gets pink and cracked if they’re in the sun (also like me). So, they only come out of the water at night.

We found another rhino and her baby. These are white rhinos but they’re actually grey. The black rhino is endangered, but we didn’t see any of them.

Here’s another type of antelope.

After a restful few hours at the camp which included both breakfast and lunch (they feed us a lot here) we went back out for my last game drive. One of the first things we saw were the leopard trio again. They hang out close to the property so they’re easy to find. Yesterday, mom killed an impala which was food for several days for her and her two 1-year old female cubs.

Today what was left of the impala was up in a tree to protect it from other predators, especially the hyena. Mom was eating again when we got there but quickly finished and hung out in the brush with the kids.

A few minutes later Jeffrey spotted something on the other side of the tree and when we got there, we found another leopard. This one is the older sister and oldest offspring of the family. There is also a brother between this one and the kids. The females go off on their own at about 18 months while the males hang with mom until they’re about 2 years old. So, this female has been on her own about 1 1/2 years.

Well….she smelled the impala and knew mom was on the other side of the tree, but mom couldn’t smell her because of the wind direction. It was fascinating to watch the leopard creep up to the tree, constantly looking across at mom and glancing up at the kill in the tree, just waiting for the right minute. When she thought the time was right, she quickly leapt onto the tree and climbed up to the impala where she started dining.

Jeffrey said that if mom had known the oldest offspring was there, she would have protected the kill but now that the other leopard was in the tree, there was nothing she could do. She would have fought her on the ground but not in the tree. The kill was supposed to last the 3 of them another day, but after the older sister finished feeding, there would be no meat left.

Maybe I’ve seen too many Disney movies where the animals talk, but all I could think about was mom saying to the kids (in Meryl Streep’s voice): “Sorry girls, there’ll be no dinner tonight as your big sister ate it all.”

That was about all that happened on the afternoon drive. We saw more animals, but nothing new except for a couple types of mongooses, the dwarf mongoose and the white-tailed mongoose. The latter only comes out after dark so I couldn’t get a picture of it, but here’s the dwarf mongoose.

My phone is working again. Dale told me that his guy found a tiny rock wedged in the charging port which was keeping the cord from attaching. He got it out and all is well again. Yeah!!

So, here’s a bit of catchup from Sunday with pictures from my phone that I couldn’t download.

Once back at camp, dinner was outside. It was set up beautifully with a campfire, gas lanterns and candles. Dinner was delicious as well. Sorry foodies that I haven’t been better with meal pictures. I was always so involved in conversation that I kept forgetting to take pictures. I’ll be better once I get to Vic Falls, I promise.

The sunset yesterday was absolutely gorgeous, so I’ll close with that. I’ll post today’s (Tuesday) action after dinner. See you soon.

Sunday was a mostly cloudy day, but we were still out on our morning game drive at 6:30. This is the first thing we saw as we drove off the property.

We caught up mom a few minutes later not too far away.

We saw her and the kids later on. Mom was feeding on a female impala she had killed the day before. Jeffrey told us that mom will always eat first as if she brings the kids over, they will fight her for the food. After she was done eating, she kicked dirt on the impala to hide the smell from other animals. Then she come out from under the tree where she had been eating and called the kids. One came over right away, but we didn’t see the second one.

As we were roaming around, we found a few new animals.

Here is only 1 of 2 giraffes I’ve seen. This one had a limp when she walked. Jeffrey said it was probably a thorn or rock in her hoof. Someone asked if the game wardens would tend to her, and he said that they don’t interfere and let nature take its course.

This is the only monkey I’ve seen in 3 days. I thought they’d be hanging from every tree.

There are tons of different kinds of birds but they’re hard to catch on film as they tend to fly away when they hear the jeep.

We found this group of 5 rhinos resting. The horns are removed by park staff to protect the rhinos from poachers. Africa loses 600 rhino a year. The horns may grow back but when they get long enough to attract poachers, they’re cut off again.

This Mom and baby elephant were part of a good size herd; maybe 15 elephants.

The sunset yesterday was beautiful.

Our afternoon drinks were different yesterday. Instead of a bar set up on the jeep, all three groups gathered for a small BBQ, bar and a campfire. Unfortunately, those pictures are on my phone which I am having trouble with. I can’t get the charging cord to connect to the phone so I can neither charge the phone nor connect it to the computer to get the photos. The pictures didn’t have time to upload to google photos, so for now, they are trapped on my phone. Dale, the camp’s owner, has the phone. He’s going to ask one of the guys to see if there’s any dirt in the place where I hook the cord. If not, he’s going into “town” today so he said he’d see if he could find a wireless charger for me. I have 2 at home but never travel with them as they are bulky. Worse case, I should be able to get something in Victoria Falls.

So, that’s all for now. Take care everyone and I’ll post again from Vic Falls.

I wasn’t sure if I’d have a good enough internet connection to post but I’m good as long as I stay in the main areas of the camp. The connection in my lodge is too slow so now I’m in the library. The photo upload is slow, but it works.

The flight was uneventful, but after having 2 Polaris class seats, sitting in a regional jet felt terribly cramped. I’ve gotten spoiled already!

Skukuza (pronounced as it’s spelled) is unlike any airport I’ve ever been in. I almost couldn’t see it from the air as it blends into the environment, which I suppose, is the point.

The road (if you can call it that) to the airport is a one lane dirt track. We took that for about 40 minutes until we reached the lodge.

On the way I saw the first of my big 5 animals…a family of elephants. I didn’t even think to have my camera ready, and it was buried in the bottom of my backpack, so this was the best I could do with my phone.

After getting settled into my lodge (I took a video but there’s no way I have a good enough connection to upload a video so it will have to wait) I had a “light lunch”.

Then it was off on my first of 5 game drives. There are two drives every day, one from 6:30-9:30am and then again from 3:30-6:30pm. The biggest challenge on the drives is getting in and out of the big jeeps as I have to climb over the side. Getting out is trickier than getting in.

My driver for all my drives is Jeffrey and our tracker yesterday was AB (his first name was unpronounceable). AB was only with us yesterday as the staff works 20 days (live onsite) and are off for 10 days. Saturday was AB’s 20th day, so we said goodbye to him after the drive.

The first “animal” we saw was a crocodile hanging out by the pond.

Just a short distance away we found these guys taking an afternoon nap.

A short distance away we found a couple of females.

So far this is the only giraffe I’ve seen.

But we’ve seen tons of wildebeests, hedgehogs and impala. We don’t even slow down for them anymore, unless of course they’re in the middle of the track.

We had driven quite a way and had just spotted some rhinos when Jeffrey quickly turned around and went the other way. He’d heard over the radio that a leopard had been spotted and, since they’re harder to find than rhino, he made a beeline back to where we had seen the lions.

After leaving the leopard, we roamed around a little more without seeing anything new. At about 5:30 we stopped to stretch our legs and have a little snack.

By the time we headed for home, the sun was starting to set.

AB’s job on the way back was to scan the surrounding area with his searchlight. Just outside the grounds of our camp, he found the 2 cubs of the leopard we had seen earlier. Apparently, they were born outside the door of lodge #2 (I’m in #3) so they like to hang out there.

After watching these guys for a few minutes, we headed into the camp where the staff was waiting with big torches. The walkways are lit by lanterns so there’s not much light. One of the staff walked me back to my lodge as I wasn’t familiar enough yet with the layout to find it on my own in the dark.

Then it was back to the main building for dinner. There were 4 courses, but I only remembered to take a picture of the main course. Sorry foodies, I’ll do better tonight. The food has been delicious.

Then it was off to bed as I had an early call this morning.

I wanted to tell you about this morning’s drive but I can’t upload pictures anymore so I’ll close for now and catch up later. Thanks everyone and I’ll try again tomorrow.

Before I get into today’s adventure, here’s my biggest purchase from Wednesday.

Today was another early day with an 8am pickup for my day trip to the Cape of Good Hope. This group was even smaller than yesterday with only 6 of us: Chong from Malaysia; Janet and Joseph from San Francisco; Jordan and Sara from New York City. Everyone was very friendly, but we didn’t bond like the group yesterday, so I don’t have a photo.

Weather was once again cloudy and foggy. There was actually a bit of a misty rain when they picked me up from the hotel. Our first stop was the neighborhood of Bo-Kaap with its colorful houses. In 1760, a wealthy Dutchman bought this block of homes that he rented to his slaves. At the time the houses were painted white but when the slaves received their freedom, they painted their houses colors representative of their home countries from which they had been captured. The current homeowners can paint their houses whatever color they want as long as there are no adjacent homes with the same color.

Bantry Bay and Camps Bay beaches were our next stops but because of the fog we skipped them. During Apartheid, Bantry Bay was for blacks and Camps Bay was for whites. Of course, now everyone can go to whatever beach they want. I visited Camps Bay on Tuesday so look at that post if you want to see some pics. It was a beautiful day.

Next was a very choppy, cold boat ride from Hout Bay to Duiker Island to see the Seal Colony. I’ve actually seen more seals in San Francisco or the Monterey Peninsula, so this was a bit underwhelming but at least the ride was only 25 minutes round trip.

Within a few minutes of leaving Hout Bay, we arrived at Chapman’s Peak. While we didn’t have the view we would have had if it was clear, the low-lying fog was quite beautiful.

Here’s a short video at Chapman’s Peak.

On our way to the next stop, we stopped for some animal sightings. First, we saw an eland, a type of African antelope. While I could see it, I wasn’t close enough to get a good picture. I didn’t even think to bring my telephoto lens or binoculars…rats. But here’s a picture I found on google.

Next to the eland we saw another type of antelope…a bontebok.

The next sighting was very exciting, even for our guide and driver.

The guide said that there are only 4 zebras in this area (how does she know this?? Got nothing!) and they haven’t seen one if 4 months, so they were very excited. We also saw a couple of ostriches just off the road, but we moved past them too quickly to get a picture. So, the animal count was 4 in just about 15 minutes.

Our next stop was the Cape of Good Hope which is the southwestern most point of Africa. It is not, though, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. That happens at a different point about 200 km east of there.

After the Cape we headed into town for lunch. I took a walk on the wild side and had an ostrich burger.

Janet and Joseph tried a trio platter of zebra, ostrich and impala (another type of antelope). They said the zebra was very sweet and the impala tasted like steak. I may have a chance to try those at the bush camp.

After lunch our guide came running in to tell us that there were a few baboons across the street. Apparently, they have no fear and hang out in the trees and on the streets. We could see them in the trees, but I couldn’t see them clearly enough through the camera. But once back in the van I saw this one on the wall.

Baboons are very aggressive, and we were warned not to have any open cans of soda or bags of chips where they can see them. They will attack to get the food. But they don’t like water so you’re good with a water bottle.

After lunch we headed to the Old Cape Point Lighthouse. According to the guide it was only a 15-minute walk up the hill, or we could take the funicular. As far as I’m concerned, any hill that has a funicular is too high and/or steep for me to walk. But the line to buy tickets was very long and I figured by the time I got up there it would be time to turn around and come back. So, I walked just a short distance up the hill until I could get a relatively clear shot and then just browsed the gift shop until the rest of the group came back down. I don’t feel like I missed anything, so I was okay with it.

Our next to the last stop was the Boulders Beach Penguin Colony. The colony started in 1982 with just 2 breeding pairs. There are now around 3,000 of them in the colony. The African Penguin is endangered so tourists are no longer able to mingle among them as they did in the past. Now we are restricted to a boardwalk, but we still had good views of the guys. They are adorable!

Our final stop was St. James beach with its colorful beach huts. In the olden days, before bathing suits, the rich guys wanted to go swimming, but they swam in the nude. They used the huts to get undressed, then their servants carried them into the water. While the huts are still used as dressing rooms, there is no nude swimming allowed.

About 45 minutes later, I was dropped off at the hotel. While a long day, it was only 5pm so I had a little more time tonight than yesterday. I ran out for a quick bite before coming back to repack for my 1025 flight tomorrow for Kruger National Park. That’s where I’m hoping to see the Big 5. I can’t even imagine what this adventure will be like. It seems unreal. I’m not sure how good of an internet connection I’ll have so please don’t be concerned if you don’t hear from me for a few days. But rest assured, I’ll post pictures as soon as I can. I’m exhausted and it’s 10pm so good night for now.

This is going to be quick because it’s already 8:30pm and I’m tired after a 10-hour day trip. It was a great time, though, and I met some amazing people.

We went to two different wine farms. The first one was a large-scale production house, and the 2nd was a small boutique house.

The tour included lunch. I had a delicious sirloin steak but forgot to take a picture. Sorry foodies. But, hey, it’s the first time.

Then we went to the pretty little town of Franschhoek where we had a little time to wander the streets.

The wine farm in Franschhoek was LaBria, one of the oldest wine farms in South Africa established in 1694. This was much smaller with an output of 70,000 bottles of wine per harvest.

Then we went back to Stellenbosch where we had a little free time to wander the streets. Carlos, Karina, Maureen, Bill, Diane, Brian and I headed straight to a bar…cuz we hadn’t had enough to drink already. They had beer while I had a sickening sweet strawberry daiquiri which was delicious.

Finally, it was back in the van for the 45-minute drive back to Cape Town. It was 7:45 before I made it back to the hotel, so it was a very long day. But I had a great time.

Tomorrow is another long day beginning at 7:50, two hours earlier than today. This time I’m heading down the peninsula to visit the Cape of Good Hope and the penguin colony. I’m really looking forward to it.

For now, I’ve got to get ready for bed; I’m exhausted. Talk with you tomorrow.