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Getting there
First, I’ll quickly answer the question “Why South Africa?” Our good friend Theo, whom I met in Boston while working for PwC, is a native of Potchefstroom, South Africa. We bugged him for years about going, but we never made it there. Then, at our wedding, Theo met his future wife, Ana Maria (AM), who happened to be a good friend of mine. Theo’s family was not able to make it to the wedding, so Theo & AM informed us that they would be taking a trip to South Africa in Nov. 2005 to meet the family and that we were invited to join them! AM’s best friend from college, Kristine, and her husband, Mark, also decided to join us.
This was definitely the longest it has ever taken us to get somewhere. We left Denver at midnight on Friday morning headed for JFK airport in NY. Once in NY we had a measly 12 hour layover before our flight to Johannesburg left. After meeting up with Theo & AM, we left NY at 6:00 pm on Friday and arrived in Johannesburg at 7:00 pm on Saturday. Actually, we almost weren’t allowed to land because of thunderstorms in the area, but with a plane full of passengers who had been sitting in small seats for 18 hours, I think they may have been fearful of a riot if we didn’t land at our planned destination. So, all in all, including flights and layovers, we traveled for 34 hours (luckily, we slept quite well on both flights)
1st night
Theo’s lovely friends Reon & Corlette offered to let us stay with them our first night in South Africa (they live in Rustenburg). After two nights of sleeping on a plane, you can’t imagine how wonderful it was to have a comfy, warm bed and a hot shower. They were incredibly hospitable, feeding us and even giving us a gift upon our arrival.
1st day/2nd night – Hunting Lodge
The next morning, Theo, Kyle & Reon woke up way too early (around 5:00) so that they could leave by 6:00 to go hunting (the plan was to hunt springbok & impala, which are like deer). Although they got a flat tire in a not so nice part of town, they made it to the hunting lodge safely. AM and I both slept in and then spent the day with Corlette and Zananka (daughter) shopping and having lunch at the local mall in Rustenburg. Then we were off to join the men at the hunting lodge. Shortly after our arrival, the men returned with an impala. Kyle had the lucky shot – it turns out, Kyle and Yappie (guide) had been walking all morning looking for a kill with no luck. When they heard the ladies had arrived, they started heading back to the hunting lodge and wouldn’t you know it, on the way, a poor little impala was spotted and Kyle got him from the truck! It was an excellent shot – the impala dropped immediately, so I’m hoping he didn’t feel too much pain. After Kyle got his kill, it was Theo’s turn, but unfortunately, it was not meant to be. The day ended with only one casualty; they did see a lot of other game while hunting – zebras, monkeys, wildebeest, eland, jackal and warthogs. After a nice barbecue with the hunting farm’s owners and their family, we retired to the hunting lodge where we drank quite a bit to try and forget the enormous spiders sharing the room with us. I have NEVER seen bugs like I saw at this place – beetles that spit poison, flying termites, spiders as big as my hand – I could have done without all of them. Luckily, the farm owner’s Jack Russell Terriers (they had 3 of them) had a certain taste for flying termites - we were quite entertained by the pups jumping and eating the flying termites out of the air – those dogs can jump!
2nd-5th day – GwalaGwala Game Lodge
We awoke on Monday morning, a bit earlier than we’re used to – the sun rose just before 5:00 am to our chagrin. We were out drinking coffee by 6:00 am to our disbelief – were we really on vacation? We left the hunting lodge that morning, driving east towards the game lodge. It took us a full day to drive there, and we saw many baboons along the way which was pretty cool. What awaited us would be the highlight of our trip – GwalaGwala. First, I should mention that this is where we met up with Kristine and Mark, as they flew in one day later than we did. (I was very impressed that they arrived without incident since they were driving a stick shift, which is harder when the driver’s seat is on the RIGHT side of the car). GwalaGwala is an amazing place; it’s so hard to describe all of its charms. First, the accommodations were just beautiful – each couple had their own tree house tent. (There are only 5 tents at GwalaGwala – a maximum of 10 guests at any one time. Our group occupied 3 of the 5 tents). One of the other tents was occupied by Gus & Rachel, who live in London, who we soon learned shared our liking for Savannah Dry and the American TV show Lost. Anyways, the tents were nicer than most hotels – check out our pictures, as they speak louder than words. The folks who worked here were so friendly – Jon and Jackie especially. Jon was the local game expert and Jackie was the chef. Her food was, by far, the best food we had during our entire trip (the sushi in Cape Town was a close second, but second nonetheless). Every part of GwalaGwala was charming, although I must say that the dinners in the open air hut were the best, where we shared many good meals, conversations and wine (South Africa has amazing wine, which I’ll get to later). Of course, the reason you go to places like GwalaGwala are for the Big 5 game drives (the Big 5 are the 5 most dangerous animals to hunt – elephant, rhino, leopard, buffalo & lion). On our first full day there (Tuesday), we went on two Big 5 game drives and we saw all of the Big 5 that day, which is really hard to do! We had the BEST guides – they could find anything in the bush, we were quite impressed. Please check out all of our photos of the wildlife we saw during our three Big 5 game drives.
6th day - Travel
On Thanksgiving Day, we had to leave GwalaGwala L and head back to Johannesburg airport to catch our flight to Cape Town. We spent most of the day traveling, as it was a 5-hour drive from GwalaGwala to the airport and a 2-hour flight to Cape Town. We eventually arrived at our Bed & Breakfast (Sonskyn) on Blaaubergstrand, which was right on the water. Weary from traveling, we found a nearby pizza place and gorged on pizza and beer (we are Americans after all).
7th day – 13th day – Cape Town
We were lucky enough to spend a whole week in Capetown and its surrounding towns. Our first full day there (Friday), Kristine, Mark, Kyle and I gave ourselves a self-guided tour of downtown Cape Town and I managed to find an excellent barrista to make me a vanilla latte.
On Saturday, the six of us drove down to the Cape of Good Hope, which is the most southwestern point of Africa, and is where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans collide (actually, the exact point where the two oceans meet is a little further east, but this point is much more accessible and very beautiful to visit!). We even saw some ostrich there.
On Sunday, we took a tour of Robben Island, which was the primary prison for political prisoners during apartheid. This is where Nelson Mandela was held for the majority of his confinement, along with other high profile political activists. Robben Island is about 6 miles from Cape Town – and there’s nothing but ocean between them. The tour is given by men who were political prisoners on Robben Island during Apartheid. That afternoon, we started our tour of the Stellenbosch vineyards, of which there are too many to visit. We spent the afternoon at Blauwklippen, which had excellent wine (the Red Landau is delicious and affordable if you get a chance to try it) and the staff there was very friendly and knowledgeable about wine.
On Monday, we hit the beach at Camps Bay, which is only about a 10 minute drive, if that, from downtown Cape Town. Although it was really hot out that day, the water was COLD. Cape Town is on the Atlantic side of Africa, and the water comes up from Antarctica, so it is frigid. Kristine, Mark & I all went in for a quick dip, but didn’t stay in very long. Unfortunately, Kristine & Mark had a rough day – Kristine lost her sunglasses in the water and Mark lost his wedding ring on the beach. Despite the losses, they remained in good spirits, and we bought them a few spirits to try to make them feel better.
On Tuesday we went back to the Stellenbosch area to hit up the vineyards again – the first two that we visited were a bit of a bust (bad wine & bad ambience), but the third was a winner. It was a smaller operation compared to the three we had already visited (no restaurant, no curio shops (thank goodness) and thankfully, no sewage smell (that was at Spier). Overgauww was a truly lovely place - family owned and operated. The granddaughter of the founder served us lots of wine and shared lots of stories and history with us. We rewarded her by buying LOTS of wine and jam. She also had two great dogs – a Staffordshire bull terrier (which we think might be one of Bronco’s ancestors) and a Ridgeback.
Wednesday was our “day off” – Theo, AM, Kyle & I slept in late and walked the beach for awhile trying to work off all the good meals we’d had. Now’s a good time to mention the food in SA – it was delicious and cheap, a very good combination. As you can probably imagine, the fish is delicious, and the sushi is fantastic. We had many good meals and good wine to go with it (and, as AM & Kristine can attest, they really pour a nice full glass in SA!)
Thursday, our last full day in SA, Kyle, Theo and I spent the morning hiking Table Mountain while Kristine, Mark & AM went to the beach. We finished our hike earlier than we expected, so with the afternoon open, we headed (where else) back to the vineyards! This time, we went to the vineyards outside of Franschhoek, which is where we also ate our last dinner together (I had sushi AND fish since it would be my last chance to eat fish that fresh in a long time).
On Friday, we slept in, packed and headed back to Cape Town airport for our long journey home. Kristine, Mark, Kyle & I were headed all the way home, but Theo & AM went back to Johannesburg to spend some time with Theo’s family. We made it home safely, but we didn’t sleep much thanks to the 1-year old with chicken pox in front of us whose parents obviously had not heard of the miracle drug called Benadryl. We landed in a cold & snowy Colorado, but we were thrilled to see the kids again – I could tell they really missed us. Many thanks to our dog sitter Jaime-Lynn, who takes wonderful care of our pups while we’re gone.
It was a wonderful trip that’s we’ll always remember – we hope you’ve enjoyed reading this and looking at our pictures. Bye!
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