South Africa Trip, May 2005
Mostly we only hear horror stories out of Africa, many of them so ghastly that they defy rational thought. But as a tourist destination, South Africa is top drawer. It helps that it’s the most prosperous country in Africa, and it survived the end of apartheid, when civil war seemed possible, to become a multi-ethnic society that largely works. It also has a delightful temperate zone climate, falling in comparable latitudes to the southern half of the U.S.
We had a GREAT trip! Using our frequent flyer miles to go business class was worth every penny. Champagne to amuse you while waiting for the plane to take off. (I don’t actually like champagne, but I like the idea of champagne.) Power seats that move ten ways (including flat and bed-like), give you a massage, and have a built-in screen where you can watch recent movies for free. A menu with multiple choices for appetizers, entrees, and desserts, not to mention lovely South African wines. It really, really ruins a person for traveling economy in the future! Given that it’s 18 hours from Atlanta to Johannesburg (with a fueling stop in the Cape Verde Islands), comfort and amusements really help.
Our South African hostess, Tess, is actually an e-mail buddy of mine. We’d never met in person, so we discussed the possibility that we’d meet and hate each other, but in fact, we got on just fine. <g> South Africa is very English in terms of infrastructure: driving on the left, Wimpy burger fast food restaurants, electrical outlets that need to be switched on and off—and no washcloths. <g> If you ever visit the country, take your own washcloth, as the savvy traveler does when visiting England!
We met Tess in Cape Town, a city I’ve wanted to visit since I read a Phyllis Whitney novel set there. (This was several decades ago.) Cape Town turned out to be as beautiful as I’ve always heard. Like San Francisco and Vancouver, it benefits from being sandwiched between sea and mountains, and the views are stunning.
The city has a very European/cosmopolitan feel to it, with Dutch colonial architecture and lots of green space. The first night, we ate at a marvelous seaside restaurant with surf crashing below the dining room. Like many of the restaurants we ate in, there was a fireplace in the middle of the dining room—a legacy of the “boma,” the traditional fire pit where people gathered for meals. (And still do.)
In some ways I was reminded of Australia, but of course South Africa has much greater racial diversity. There are something like 11 official languages with the white population a minority of 11 or 12 percent. It’s very much a credit to all concerned that the nation weathered the end of apartheid to become a stable multi-ethnic culture. (Though not without serious problems, of course—something like 70% of the black population is HIV positive.)
We spent three nights in Cape Town, doing lovely tourist things like taking the cable car to the top of the famous Table Mountain. The views were stunning (BTW, we had perfect weather the whole trip—warm sunny days and pleasantly cool nights, since it was mid-autumn there.) When we took the coast road around part of the cape, the scenery reminded me of California in the Carmel/Santa Cruz area, with sharp green hills sliding down to crashing surf. Magnificent.
We also went out to the wine country, having lunch on the terrace of a wine estate, Lanzerac, that would have been at home in France. (I think—I’ve never actually been to a French wine estate. <g> But this one had a nice black cat who turned his nose up at anchovies.)
After Cape Town, we flew north to Tess’s family farm, which was in beautiful rolling hill farm country. Having been raised on a farm in Upstate New York, I felt very much at home.
From there we drove three hours north to Kruger National Park, which is one of the great East African game parks that I’ve always yearned to visit. The size of Wales, KNP gives a sense of the vast, tawny spaces that most of us imagine when we hear the word Africa.
Visitors drive through the park in closed vehicles at low speeds, forbidden to get out except in clearly marked areas. At night, visitors stay in fenced campgrounds to keep people and animals safe from each other. We rented a two bedroom cottage in one of the campgrounds, and it was very modern and comfortable, with restaurants and a gift shop and other facilities.
We were lucky that within a few minutes of driving into KNP, we saw three different species right together by the road: a giraffe gracefully nibbling at a tree top, some warthogs (John yelled, “Bush pigs!”) and a group of impala antelopes. I’d always assumed that impalas were large, probably because of the Chevrolet sedan named after them, but in fact they are quite small and graceful—smaller than the Eastern white-tailed deer that sometimes amble through my backyard.
Impala are also dead common in the park, so much so that after the first half hour, probably no one stops their car to look at them. But they’re still very pretty. <G>
We traveled in a very sizable motor home, a vehicle much rarer in South Africa than in the U. S. People always stared, but it was a nice for animal watching since there was room to move around and change position. Part of the fun was knowing that at any minute, one could see something wonderful.
We found a pair of rhinos wallowing in what Tess dubbed a “cuddle puddle” right by the road. She’d never seen rhino so close. Or we might find a tree full of monkeys who were obviously hamming it up for the tourists. Or a half-grown elephant chomping on its lunch. Or a troop of baboons might decide that asphalt was warmer than the bare ground, so they take over the road—and in KNP, animals always have the right of way. Delightful!
The next day, we went to the Sabi Sand private game preserve directly adjacent to KNP, and with no fences to separate so animals can move through both areas. Sabi Sand contains a number of lodges of different sizes and degrees of luxury. This was quite a different experience from KNP since the Nkorho Bush Lodge where we stayed has only six thatch-roofed cottages with space for about a dozen people.
The lodge was very comfortable, and with great service. Not cheap, but not outrageously expensive, especially since the cost included all meals, two game drives a day, and a bush walk. Guests stay “at your own risk”—and don’t leave your cottage after bedtime since there are no fences to keep the critters out (except for a head high wire to discourage elephants from strolling through.)
The game drives are way cool! We rode in a bush vehicle with stepped seats and room for 10 or 12 people. A well-trained young ranger named Peter drove and a tracker perched on a high seat in the front. (Think of him as bait…) The tracker was adept at spotting wildlife of all kinds, and in this preserve, animals have been carefully acclimated to the trucks so they ignored us even when we got quite close. You are warned not to stand or lean out since changing the truck outline can make the animals nervous—and just in case, the ranger carried a very large caliber rifle.
The ranger asked if anyone had any special requests, and Tess and I immediately said, “Cats!!!” We’d seen plenty of prey in KNP, but no predators, and as a cat lover I wanted to see the big furry felines. Peter delivered, too—he took us to see Seshwana, a very small lady leopard who’d lost her mother at 10 months. She should have died, but was wily enough to survive, though she was small because of early food deprivation.
Sitting in regal splendor on top of a mound, ignoring three trucks of tourists, Seshwana was petite, lithe, and very leopard-like—a hyena came sneaking up and she exploded into action, driving him off in a burst of speed and movement that reminded me of my little Lacey cat. (There might have been a certain amount of play in this—the hyena ran a lot further than it needed to!)
The next morning, we saw a whole family of leopards—mom and twin daughters 14 months old. Amazingly, the father hung out with the family and was very patient of the younglings—none of the rangers had ever seen this before. Usually if a father trails a mother and cubs, it’s to steal food the mother kills. (Papa Leopard might not have been so tolerant if the cubs had been male.) It was fascinating to watch—we were only about 20 feet away. Of course, cats are very good at ignoring humans when they want to. <g>
Last of all, after the morning game drive, we were just sitting down to breakfast when Peter rushed in and said “Want to try to see some lions?” Naturally all the guests roared out to the truck—and so did the cook, a young Belgian gentleman who saw no reason to stay in his kitchen when no one wanted any food. <G>
After much exploration in the bush (which included driving straight over small thorn trees and up sharp banks) while the tracker listened to bird calls and the sounds of other animals, we found two lionesses and two cubs lolling in a thicket. As Peter said, they were doing what cats do best—cat napping. <g>
Again, we were able to get very close and watch the cubs play and the mothers rolling on their backs with paws in the air. (I didn’t get very good pictures, though—the lions’ coloring is perfectly adapted to their environment.)
Anyone who doesn’t enjoy seeing these wonderful creatures needs a heart transplant. If I could make one change to our itinerary, it would be to have spent another night or two at Nkorho.
But we did have a grand send off the last night, where we stayed at the Cleopatra Mountain Farmhouse, a mountain B&B run by a 5 star chef. Hidden in the lovely Drakenberg Mountains, the Cleopatra is over a mile high and very English in appearance. Besides being very comfortable, it features a fabulous six course dinner. The owner/chef, who looks much like Santa Claus except not dressed in red, lovingly explained every course we’ll be fed.
About the time he started to describe the lichee and lemon grass granita course, John was starting to mutter, “Less talk, more food!” It was an amazing meal, with the portions sized and timed so well that one didn’t feel over fed at all. Lovely! And because a group of eight travel agents were spending the night, I’m quite sure that the Cleopatra was at the absolute top of its game.
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