South Africa - February 2017

South Africa with temperatures in the 70’s and 80’s (20-30 degrees C) was a fabulous place to be for a month of our winter. My friend, Kitty Emerson, and I flew from Atlanta to Johannesburg in 15 very long hours. Perhaps the most exciting part was the safari when we spent five days on a private reserve, Moditlo, in the northeast of the country close to Kruger National Park. We stayed at Vuyani Lodge and saw 25 different animals, including hare and tortoise. The most exciting were the white rhinos, lions, elephants, cheetahs, and giraffes. There were lots of impalas, wildebeest, kudus, monkeys, and baboons. Every day in the early morning and in the late afternoon we went out for several hours in an open land rover with two to four others. Our guide, Togara from Zimbabwe, was excellent; he was very knowledgeable about the animals and made sure we saw as many as possible and as close up as we could get. He drove off road and into the bush, knocking over bushes and trees, and down and up steep embankments; it was very exciting, but very bumpy. The elephants were perhaps the most fascinating, and Kitty communicated with several of them. One day, there was a group of 16, male and female, young and old. We observed some of them in a riverbed where they were digging down into the sand with their trunks to get water. One little one was tipped upside down with his butt in the air. We saw rare African wild dogs and followed them on a hunt. We observed a pride of five lions on two occasions. At one point they all came out of the bushes and lounged by a water hole. We observed them rubbing together in a male bonding ritual. Two sweet cheetah brothers lounged together on several occasions. I’m very fond of giraffes and enjoyed watching them strut about.

 From the town of Hoedspruit near the park we flew to Cape Town, a beautiful city, and were picked up by friends of my daughter, Anne, that she had met in Iceland; Lida is South African and Mia is Icelandic. They live part time in Iceland and part time in South Africa. We stayed several nights with them at a beach town, Bloubergstrand, where we walked on the beach and observed kite surfing. The waves were big and the water of the Atlantic was cold; the backdrop was majestic Table Mountain. One day we drove to a beach restaurant and ate fish and seafood all afternoon, a sampling of different kinds of fish, and delicious mussels and lobster. The next day we rented a car and I was again driving on the left just as in Ireland, but on very busy roads in Cape Town. One day we drove south to Simon’s town and observed penguins. Another day we drove to Franschloek to visit a vineyard where the French had settled in the 1600’s; since it was very much like southern France, they planted grapes and started producing wine; most of the vineyards have French names. We spent a relaxed afternoon under a huge oak tree in the garden of Grande Provence Vineyard and sampled some very nice wines. Dry brown mountains were in the distance and green grape vines throughout the valley extended up the slopes. Later I visited a vineyard in a different area with Lida and Mia, again very green grape vines grew up the mountainsides.

I took a tour of bleak Robben Island where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners were detained in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. He was there for 18 of the 27 years that he was imprisoned. The tour was excellent, but very sobering, especially when a former political prisoner spoke to us and gave fascinating tidbits of information that made it all very personal. We also saw Mandela’s tiny cell. The former prisoner said he dreamed of one South Africa as Mandela had, and hoped he would see it in his lifetime. The apartheid laws ended in 1991; Mandela was freed in 1990 and became president in 1994.

Kitty returned home to Colorado after two weeks and I met up with Lida and Mia again and stayed in their cozy home in Swellendam, a charming small inland town with green mountains nearby and flowers everywhere.  In the surrounding area are rolling hills with canola fields, brown at this time of year, but a brilliant yellow in October. There was also green wheat beginning to grow, and sheep and cattle in some fields. Nearby are peach, apricot, and nectarine orchards, olive groves, and vineyards. We explored several small towns nearby. One day we drove to the southernmost tip of Africa, Cape Agulhas, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. We walked on an endless beach and swam in the warmish water of the Indian Ocean. 

Lida and Mia

After several days in Swellendam, I took a bus to the coastal resort town of Knysna (nice-na); it is built on an estuary so one hardly feels like one is on the coast. I took a guided tour to Featherbed Nature Reserve, which included a ferry trip to the mouth of the estuary, we were then taken high up on a cliff and were able to walk down to the water’s edge. There were terrific views of cliffs, caves, huge waves crashing against rocks, and beautiful homes. We walked by green vegetation called fynbos meaning small-branched and leaved which in the spring is abundant with flowers. 

 

Another day, I went on a tour of a black township – a poor residential area adjacent to a town - with a lovely Swiss woman, Rosemary, who I had met at the hotel. This township was on top of a hillside with splendid views. Our black guide, Jonas, lived there and obviously had great affection for it. Kitty had commented on the lack of stray dogs in Johannesburg. Here in the township there were not only stray dogs in abundance, but stray pigs and even a few cows wandering about. Unfortunately the animals get into the trash so garbage is scattered about. The main roads are paved, but dirt paths wind up and down hills to the houses that would be very muddy after a rain. The government builds cinderblock houses free of charge for the people living there. People who live in makeshift shacks are moved into temporary wooden structures; their shacks are demolished and then the real houses are built close to each other. Each house is very small, but has a kitchen, bathroom, two bedrooms, and a living room, definitely an improvement over the shacks. People can also build their own larger homes. Our guide explained that all races live there; about 35,000 people in this particular township. We saw a clinic, schools, and small shops; finally we ended up at a bar for cold drinks. Our guide took great pride in the township, he admitted to many problems with drugs, alcohol, and unemployment, but he was happy living there and he wanted us to learn about and appreciate his township.

 I took a bus to Mossel Bay for a three-day hike on the Oystercatcher Trail with three others, a Danish couple that I surprised by speaking Danish, and an American woman. We started on a cliff high above Mossel Bay where an abundance of primitive stone tools were scattered on the ground. There was more fynbos vegetation, bushes often with tiny delicate flowers in red, yellow, purple, and white. It was bight and sunny and the waves crashed against the dark rocks. I was reminded of the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland, but less scary. We saw a small rodent scurrying on the rocks called a dassie or hyrax. We saw seals, but no dolphins and no whales since it wasn’t whale season, and no sharks either. We took a tour of several Middle Stone Age caves, on Pinnacle Point Beach. The site is called the Point of Human origins from 75,000 to 160,000 years ago. The caves had large openings, but were not very deep; discarded shells and bones were in the backs of the caves and one could see where fires had been built at the front of the caves to keep predators away. The second day we woke up to fog and rain, but by the time we got started the rain had stopped. The brown sand of the beach went on and on and since it was low tide, walking was easy; huge sand dunes were on one side. We saw plenty of oystercatchers, black waders with red legs and beaks. There were lots of blue bottles, small jellyfish with very long tentacles, washed up on shore; we were warned not to step on them because they sting. Piles of snails were consuming them. We climbed up a dune next to a midden, a huge pile of discarded shells, hundreds of years old. The third day we walked on paths on dunes, over rocks, and on another beach. It was a fun and interesting hike, walking seven to nine miles (11-14 km) a day with our very knowledgeable guide, Chris. At night each of us returned to our own cottage in a small resort village after eating dinner together.

Mossel Bay

Dassie/Hyrax

 South Africa is a beautiful and fascinating country with helpful and friendly people, but sometimes understanding their English was a challenge. Unemployment is a huge problem; I heard many different opinions about what the rate was, but everyone agreed that it was about 50% among the youth. The shantytowns in Cape Town and Johannesburg along the highways are deplorable. People come from the country seeking work and that is where they live. In the restaurants, at least the ones I visited, almost all the customers were white while the wait staff was black. The food was delicious; especially the seafood, mussels, shrimp, calamari, and fish and chips are served everywhere. I got to try ostrich since ostrich farms are plentiful, and I certainly enjoyed the wine, which was cheap and good. I had a great time with Lida and Mia who were so very hospitable.