Am I dreaming or is it really South Africa? A long journal of our trip.

Thursday, July 10 Day 1
Flight Chicago to Dulles
Dulles to Dakar
Dakar to Johannesburg
Huge aircraft from Dulles. It was an AirBus that carries about 500 people. We met Chris and Lita DeLa Cruz at Dulles, who were on our trip to Slovenia and Croatia last February. What a nice coincidence!

Friday July 11 Day 2
LONG Flights…and we land in the evening and are walked over cobblestones quite a distance to the bus that will be our friend for the next couple of days. Deirdre Venter is our guide, a native South African. Her family came here in 1698
Check in to the Sunnyside Park Hotel
The hotel is an old one, 1895; very very English in tone. Beautiful old wood and the rooms are very nice. The duvet and pillows were to die for…and we were TIRED! Johannesburg is not very impressive, at least at night.
Sunnyside Park Hotel
Saturday July 12 Day 3
It’s WINTER here! People are bundled up in down jackets and heavy fleeces…and Jerry and I are wearing short sleeves! It’s that Wisconsin hardiness, I think. It’s damp, dreary outside and 1800 m. above sea level. I can feel it. Hard for me to breathe. There is a waterfall outside the front door of the hotel and lots of plantings.
We stopped at Kruger Square for a very brief photo op. Deirdre doesn’t seem too taken with Johannesburg. We quickly passed his house and ended up in the Government Square. It looks like a European square, minus the cathedral! They are changing all the old street names due to their connection with apartheid.
We saw an English Bowling Club, and had our bus driver move the bus because the ‘car watchers’ (kids who will ‘watch’ your car for a small fee,) said we were in their main place of business. We stopped at a small shopping center in Hatfield to find two flashlites, a converter (for us), and 10 packages of pens for the kids in Zimbabwe that we are going to visit.
We had a bus tour of Pretoria, stopped at the Union Buildings and took pictures of the gardens and the city overlook.
We toured Soweto, the site of a protest on June 16, 1976. A young man not involved in the protest was killed. This memorial is to him and the others who were protesting the lack of English in their schools. It was the real beginning of the downfall of apartheid.
Sunnyside Park Hotel

Sunday, July 13 Day 4
Fly Zimbabwe- Up at 4:45am. A nice flight. We wait to get our passports stamped and finally we are “in Africa!” The sun is shining brightly on the golden fields and we are at 72 F. We had a small sandwich on the plane that sufficed for lunch.
The Victoria Falls Hotel is of Pfister vintage – 1895 or so. Lovely, but no ‘lifts’. We asked for a room on the first floor and pro that she is, Deirdre found one immediately. The room overlooks a garden and the entrance to the Hotel. White wings spreading out, lots of french doors, overlooking gardens. The view from the ‘back door’ of the hotel is the mist rising over the bush…and a perfect picture of the Victoria Falls Bridge.



Off we go to Victoria Falls! We walked the length of the Falls – 1708 meters wide! and the spray can be up to 500 meters high. We were drenched with the mist from the falls. We got soaking wet, but it’s so nice outside that we dried off almost immediately. I saw a BIG hornbill in the tree. . Rainbows everywhere… It really is one of the wonders of the natural world. We watched a bungee jumper and saw lovely flowers along the way.
We had a welcome cocktail party tonight and went to the Palms restaurant for dinner. I had Warthog and it was delicious. We saw warthogs in front of the hotel today!! The situation here is still somewhat tense. We had a security guard accompany us the 1/3-1/2 mile home. How romantic (and maybe necessary) Our beds are draped with mosquito netting. The weather is so nice…I doubt that we will need the netting, but when in Rome…
Victoria Falls Hotel


Monday, July 14 Day 5
It’s the kind of morning that you read and dream about. Breakfast outside; a buffet staged under a thatched roof. The sky was startlingly blue overhead. The Falls roar behind us and the sun warmed our shoulders as we ate eggs, sausage, etc. The restaurant is situated so that you can view the Falls as you eat.
Yesterday baboons frolicked on the front lawn of the gracious old lady of a hotel. The trees are great dark guardians, overseeing the white porticos of the extended wings. What a murder mystery setting! We’ve seen warthogs and a small antelope in the wild. A great set of birds, crested hornbills? (Where’s Susie when I need her?)

In the afternoon, Jerry did Sudoku while I braved the Zimbabwe market. The shopping was intense. These guys are desperate and were aggressive, but nothing I couldn’t handle. A smile and a NO! didn’t suffice. I bought a tablecloth with birds of SA featured and a lovely primitive hand carved nativity set and a great hornbill stone carving. I liked the area, especially the women’s building. I walked home via The Palm, where Mary and Joyce, fellow traveler and I had lunch.
We visited a local school, Chinotimbo, where the kids danced and sang for us. We reciprocated by singing BINGO! They loved it and joined in. It costs $30 a quarter to attend school, and 30% of the kids in the area do NOT attend, because they can’t afford it. We will make arrangements to send some money to this school through a local Rotary group that Deirdre has suggested.

We had dinner at a native place called BOMA. We were dressed in a South African cloth and had kind of a Mongolian BBQ. We ate ostrich and warthog. There were some dancers at the end of the meal, but actually, the kids at the Chinotimbo School were better!
Victoria Falls Hotel






Tuesday, July 15 Day 6
Up at 5:30 a.m. to Walk With The Lions and Ride The Elephants!
What an experience this morning! We jolted along on a teeth-chattering road in the dark. We arrived at the Lion and Elephant experience just as dawn was breaking. A thatched roof covered an area with a stove and grill. Breakfast was served on a deck overlooking the Zambezi River branch. We sat at a table covered with a zebra striped cloth and were served welcome cups of hot coffee or tea. Eggs, sausage, toast, potatoes and grilled tomatoes made up the Bush Breakfast.
Lilac breasted rollers swooped overhead. They are really beautiful birds. On the way, we saw wide browed sparrows and their hanging nests with the escape hatch!
Then…careful instructions about walking with the lions. DON’T RUN! Don’t
Scream! Don’t lag behind or you will be perceived as weak prey by the lions. Follow the trainer’s orders. We were given long bamboo sticks to intimidate the lions if necessary. Then, accompanied by a rifle toting guard, we walked into the Bush and there they were. Three cubs…1 female and 2 male are right in our path. Each of us was carefully guided to kneel down and pet the lions and take pictures. We walked a block or so with the lion cubs stopping at their whim. Unforgettable.
In the little bus and off to the Elephants. Innocence was the name of our handler and the elephant’s name was Dmamba! We hoisted ourselves up into a saddle with a rope handle and widely spaced stirrups (It IS an elephant, you know!) and rode a good hour up and down and through the bush with Innocent giving us a running commentary on these elephants and their habits. I loved it! and so did Jerry.

Back to the hotel and we were ready to move out. Two mini busses and trailers for the luggage took our group past Katumba National Park and to the Zimbabwe Botswana border. Lots of monkeys and no cameras due to the border regulations.

We arrive at Chobe Safari Lodge and are met with cold towels and a refreshing juice. (I have come down with a slight case of ‘African revenge’. Our room is beautiful, overlooking the Chobe river. The hotel is a safari lodge – very nice. Our front yard is the river! We settled in and I took some Cipro. Jerry went to lunch and then we boarded a jungle boat and off we went on a wildlife cruise.



It was outstanding. I’ll list some of what we saw. We took many pictures. Back home to the lodge for dinner and unfortunately, both of our meals contain meat that was inedible! Quickly grilled impala, kudu and warthog was a terrible contrast to the food we had in Zim. Here comes the list:
Elephants by the dozen, Cate Buffalo, Kudu, Crocodiles, A Sable Antelope, Darters, Jocamas, Fish Eagles, Spur wing Geese, Great White Egret, White Face Duck, Blacksmith Plover, Red Wing Priteteos and Black Wing Stilts.
Water Monitors, Hippos frolicking in the water, Sego Antelope, Yellow Billed Stork, Sacred Ibis, Egyptian Geese, Pied Kingfisher, BeeEater, African Skimmers, Spoonbills. Susie will have to see if I have the right names for these birds. It was an unbelievable day! Pictures can only hope to tell the story.





Wednesday July 16 Day 7
Jerry’s off to capture another country. He is taking the tour to Namibia, while I have chosen to go on an optional morning game drive.
Just some musings…When I get home each night, I’m so tired that I can’t seem to put all the emotions and feelings into my memories. Yesterday was really, really memorable. I hope I never forget the feeling of standing at dawn in a Bush Camp; of seeing too many elephants to count; of seeing a wide grassy wetlands and having to hurry to write the bird names as I see them identified by our guide. Flashing blue and green…and who knew we’d see a spoonbill? The Chobe river is no further than Fairfield court from my room. It looks deceivingly like the Fox river in Wisconsin until you see the expanse of savannah? beyond. We are way out in the middle of nowhere.

It’s winter here and lots of the foliage is yellow and brown, matching the manes of the lions we were able to pet and stroke yesterday. And not to forget these lovely people. They are so soft spoken and friendly. Sad… in the marketplace the men dogged my steps trying to sell me with their soft “Please, mama, buy just one thing. – my children are hungry. Please mama, take a look, take a look.” The carvings are beautiful. I was so sorry for the couple in our group who came back and reported that they were ‘attacked’ by the sellers in the market. I’d use that word advisedly. A firm “no” would have done and the sellers would have backed off. I went into woman-centered building and although they too were persistent, they were kind and seemed so proud of the crocheted tablecloths and cottons that they sold. Oh well, I better get some breakfast and be off on the game drive. Jerry left earlier this morning for Namibia.

Namibia…Jerry says he scrambled up a river bank and saw the customs house. They saw a 2000 year old baobab tree. They call it the ‘upside down’ tree. Its base measured 81 feet in circumference. HUGE! Lots of kids and people.






Out on the game drive: Here’s goes my list again: red billed hornbill, kudus again, white backed vulture, cape turtle dove, little bee-eaters, and NUTS…my batteries went out and the ones I have with me don’t work. Banded mongoose, Sable antelope herd of several hundred, A LION in the bush! and then on the road, crossing right in front of our jeep! What a thrill! A red billed franklin? on the bush; A BIG herd of elephants as we go along the beach tracking the lioness that crossed our path a few minutes ago. A hammerkup?; 20-30 giraffes that are looking warily at the lioness. Boy, am I glad I came along on this game drive!
We ate lunch near the hotel pool and watched the goofy monkeys try to steal food.

Jerry joins me and off we go again…in the open jeep that carries about 8-9 people and the guide/driver. Here are some of the finds of the afternoon drive: Giraffes, Whistling ducks, Puku Antelope (4 of them), slender mongoose, baboons on the road, hippos in a big pod, crocodiles sunning themselves on the banks of the river, Wahoo…a black backed jackal runs through the bush! These jottings are from the sightings we made in an incredible safari journey!
Think about being in a kind and gentle Jurassic park! Every animal that ;you might think of in a zoo…the sighting of ONE lion was thrill enough! As we started out of the park, three of them crossed the road and lay down next to our jeep. My camera began to malfunction. RATS! Don’t know what’s wrong with it. I just bought new $20 batteries for it. Anyhow…all’s well that ends well…I finally got my camera to work and was able to catch the lions and baboons and the Puku and a black backed cougar. What a day! We fell into bed about 9:00 p.m.!
Chobe Safari Lodge

Thursday July 17 Day 8
This has been a long travel day – no pictures, no batteries!!
We drove to the Botswana a border, had our passports stamped and drove to the Zimbabwe border, had our re-entries stamped, drove to the Victoria Falls airport and boarded SAA for Johannesburg. What a trek through the airport. After we got our luggage, cleared customs, went up about four ramps, got our boarding passes and watched our luggage load, it was down two ramps to a waiting area at the gate. We boarded another SAA aircraft and are on our way to Cape Town. I had a great time shopping in the Johannesburg airport shops. Into the middle of town, and we are staying at the Cullinan hotel. Spectacular! It’s a high-rise hotel, with a stunning marble and columned interior. The room is very nice but the duvet is REALLY heavy. We ended up taking it off and storing it in the closet so that the maid wouldn’t keep remaking the bed with it. Sheesh! It’s 70 degrees and sunny here – not the Arctic circle! The lens fell out of my glasses. Good thing I packed a spare.
Cullinan Hotel

Friday July 18 Day 9
The City tour was next. What a contrast to Joburg. This city is full of flowers and very bright and beautiful. Up to Signal Hill where we got a wonderful view of Table Mountain looming over the city. We had to skip the tram, because there had been an accident the day before and it was closed. I met an artist (Isram Botha) who was very proud of having painted Nelson Mandela when Mandela was quite young. (His artwork was pricey but nice.)

We stopped at Kirkenbosch Gardens, the largest in SA. Now I know it’s hard to believe, but I went to the gift shop and Jerry toured the gardens. He says it was quite beautiful and he took pictures of protea, the national flower. The gardens are compared to Kew Gardens which we spent a day in, outside of London. These precious seeds are duplicated and sent to Kew for safekeeping.
We had lunch at an Italian restaurant on the waterfront, entertained by some singers as we sat on a deck overlooking the water. There was a big demonstration for Mandela…it’s his 90th birthday. We will get a couple of the 5-Rand coins commemorating his birthday.
We walked around a bit before we met the group and boarded the ferry to Robben Island. Today is Mandela’s 90th birthday and we saw a happy demonstration at the waterfront for him. The island is stark and the barracks quite plain. The Island is compared to Alcatraz. A ferry ride out Robben Island showed us the areas that Mandela was imprisoned for over 25 years. Interesting guide. We were almost late back to the ferry because he was so articulate about Mandela. We walked back at twilight to our bus, admiring the shops and restaurants at the Waterfront.
Cullinan Hotel

Saturday, July 19 Day 10
Now today is a day out and about in the countryside surrounding Cape Town. First stop…Silvermine Nature Preserve where we see fields of protea, the national flower. I saw a black and white kestrel and an African Oyster Catcher. We passed an ostrich farm and then saw ostrich in the wild. Boy, they are BIG birds! Simontown was the stop for lunch. We ate at a little café and I had the recommended fish…King Klimt. Ho hum. We walked the little town’s streets and I bought a nice beaded necklace.
We went to the Cave Point Nature Reserve. What fun to ride a funicular to the observation deck where Jerry climbed 128 steps (!) to the lighthouse. The views are spectacular of both the Indian and the Atlantic oceans.
The Cape of Good Hope finished our explorations of famous ‘capes’. The picture of Jerry at the sign tells it all. Then, on to the Boulder Beach Penguin Reserve where we walked a couple of blocks behind a subdivision and came upon the reserve. It was ok. I have seen many of the penguin species…
Cullinan Hotel


Sunday, July 20 Day 11
Stellenbosch
Cecil John Rhodes started the wine industry in SA. Boschendal Winery is situated in front of beautiful mountains. We were able to sit under the elms and have a very gracious wine tasting. Our favorite was Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc.
Stellenbosch is a thriving university town. We met a family on our trip to Robben Island who introduced us to their daughter who will attend school here in the fall. It is the second oldest town in SA. Cape Dutch architecture lines the streets. We visited homes that displayed different generations in Stellenbosch. Beautiful restorations. The shops along the street were interesting…kind of a SA Door County experience. We visited Franckenbosch and had lunch at a little outside café. I had an excellent salad sparked by chickpeas and pepper dew (a small sweet red pepper that was delicious!)


Our evening was spent at the Gold Museum. The guide was very difficult to understand and there was a tremendous amount of written material to digest. We saw some of the amazing gold artifacts that were taken from SA by various peoples over the years, and some maps and time lines that would have been interesting to peruse if we had had time. The waitresses who guided us to dinner were dressed in gorgeous silk dresses. We were treated to a glass of wine with gold flecks floating in it. For Dinner…more wine, slivers of sweet potato and wonderful peanut, /coconut sauce, chicken gumbo, ostrich meatballs served with a yogurt sauce, spinach tapioca, butternut squash, and (UGH) lamb stew that Jerry said was hot! but good. Little apple turnovers and sweet fritters for dessert with a glass of muscatel. Dinner was very nice…we had a dance performance after dinner. Our day in wine country was well worth it. Beautiful scenery and a Dutch community that dated back to the 16th century. All in all, a great day. Sad news… a fire in the shack community killed two and left 800 homeless. These shack cities are universally found in the big cities here, as a result of poverty and mass immigration from the north of Africa.
Cullinan Hotel

Monday July 21 Day 12
Can you believe another travel day… and this one a long one.
Fly Cape town, Joburg, and Durban. The airports are pretty easy to navigate with Deirdre as our guide. I sent e-mail to Tom this morning (to the tune of $25 at the hotel) hoping that he will forward it.
So many things to remember and savor and it’s only Day 12!

We met some soccer fans in the airport on our way to Durban. I asked the girls what the blue horns were for and they giggled and showed me how to blast away on one. That sent them into gales of laughter as they tried to tell me that they were “Manchester Fans.” Then one of the chaperones came over and had the girls pose with me, and gave me a horn!
We arrived in Durban and Deirdre tried to get the not-so-smart bus driver to find the Indian Market. Durban has been settled by East Indians. At last! and what a bazaar. It was huge, filled with bead merchants, textiles, and crafts. I bargained a bit. I’m disappointed in the textiles. Expensive for what they are, and not too many hand done.
When we finally arrived in Mpumlanga Rocks at the gorgeous Beverly Hills hotel, there was security everywhere. The team Manchester is staying with us at the hotel. I guess you had to show your room key to get back in the hotel grounds later that night. There was a guard on our floor and one down at the beach too. Our room overlooks the pool and the Indian Ocean. We have al lovely balcony. Jerry took a dip in the ocean…I got my feet wet! We swam in the pool, which was chilly to say the least! Had dinner in a very posh all white hotel restaurants. An elegant fish fry!!!
Beverly Hills Hotel

Tuesday ,July 21 Day 13
We took the tour to Kwa Zulu Natal (Zululand). Cross-country we saw lots of sugar cane, fields, and fields of it swaying in the breeze. The geometry of the cane fields reminded me of the corn in Iowa.
Along the way…Long crested Eagle; African Flame tree(orange); Euphorbia trees; A Mandela Cross in the hills; groves of ruby red grapefruit hanging on the trees and piled near the highway; Australian pines used as a wind break.
We walked into the Disney like atmosphere of Zululand. It’s well done, but could have been in Florida for all we knew. It actually is a hotel with the grounds surrounding it made into a film background for the movie Shaka. We were given an overview of a living complex and then invited to visit various buildings. (Kind of like an African Old World Wisconsin!!) We were entertained by dancers (some of whom looked really bored) and tasted Zulu beer (don’t worry Milwaukee…your industry is safe!) It was interesting, and I’m glad we went, rather than spending the day in a beachfront hotel. Of course, the gift shop was interesting…not because I was buying, but because I am fascinated with what is being sold. Full size shields…4 feet tall! Put that one in your suitcase along with the ubiquitous 6 foot carved giraffes we see everywhere!!

We walked over a couple of blocks to the to King Prawn restaurant and had dinner. The ‘groupies’ were outside the hotel, waiting for team Manchester to board their buses for the game. They won! We came home and sat on our balcony and enjoyed champagne. Nice hotel, and in spite of all, a very nice day.
Beverly Hills Hotel

Wednesday, July 22 Day 14
Fly Joburg to Kruger Nat’l Park, Nelspruit airport
Mpumlanga, drive to Kruger
Through Joburg again! Jerry says we will have had 14 take off and landings! I believe it. I’m actually tired of this airport.
The lodge is just outside the Kruger Gate. Very rustic looking and quite luxurious. Dark and mysterious at night. We had a great buffet dinner by firelight. Our room is gorgeous. The decorating is just right for this atmosphere. I’d love to be able to buy the fabric of the drapes and the decorative runner on our bed. French doors look out into the bush. Monkeys and bushbucks outside our room, roaming the grounds. We went to the observation deck, sat in a ‘tree house’, and spied an elephant off in the distance! Pinch me! I’m back in Africa!
Protea Kruger Gate Hotel




Thursday, July 23 Day 15
Up early and the Thompson group jeeps are ready for us. I’m just going to list what we saw today. I discovered that (duh!) the batteries I bought had to be charged! That’s done and we are ready to go.
Full Day Game Drive
A fork tailed ground go??; lots of kudu, a tiny grey antelope; bushbuck; Marabou Stork, Red bill ox pickers; warthogs; monkeys; baboons on the side of the road, eating Elephant dung!; Burchell Zebras…a dazzle of about 50 of them raced across our path! Elephants in the bush, everywhere and in big herds; community spiders; white rhinos; beige, yellow, mostly black long tailed?; brown snake eagle, many glossy starlings as we eat lunch on a deck overlooking the Lower Sabe river.
Off again to see Burchell starling; lilac roller; swallows; grey loerie; water monitors , giraffes and elephants along the Sabe; white backed vultures; fish eagle; sand grouse; Nile crocodile; grey heron; Goliath heron; (Herons all flew away when the eagles came!) 22 hippos!; open bill stork; yellow bill heron; Buffalo; red billed aqua white black??; brown hooded kingfisher; natal spokebill (Franklin?) lead wood trees and waterbucks.
A kudu bull. LEOPARD on the Sabe riverbank. A journey of giraffes; 30-40 elephant mom and kids cross the road and we see the last two old females link trunks and then cross…as if to say” good, we got them across safely!” Banded mongoose; Nyala bull.
Protea Kruger Gate Hotel

Friday, July 24 Day 16
AM game drive and PM game drive
We’re off for a second day in Kruger. How it can beat yesterday, I don’t know. We caught a glimpse of a lion with vultures overhead. Apparently, the lion had taken a buffalo down and the whole pride was feasting. I just caught a glimpse of a mane moving. No pictures! We saw giraffes up close and personal, several strings of elephants, pods of hippos and those wonderful zebra. Today, we are better equipped with charged batteries, etc. Wood Hoopoes, a big wildebeest, Egyptian geese, more red-billed hornbills. We went up to Manzanilla, an overlook for the whole park. It is enormous. Saw the usual guinea fowl, ubiquitous impalas and kudus, a picture of a Nyala (apparently a rare sight) a masked weaver, and finally THREE lionesses. We saw a southern grand hornbill a Walberg egret and of all wonderful sightings…a leopard going down to the water for a drink. Gerald is our driver/guide and he is wonderful. We miss the first sighting of a leopard and (kidding him) we said…”Well, Gerald will just have to find us our OWN leopard!” and darned if he didn’t, within the hour. I think it’s the best picture of the whole trip. We followed the leopard thought he woods and finally down to the river. What a thrill!

At the end of the day, I walked out with Vicki, my new friend, to see what the ladies who had set up shop at the gate were selling. I finally settled on buying a beautifully carved wall hanging of the ‘big 5.’

It’s hard to explain how wondrous the two days of game drives were with Gerald. seeing a ‘dazzle’ of zebra and a ‘journey’ of giraffes was great, but when we spotted the leopard at the riverside – WOW! And the next day, darned if he didn’t find another one and three lionesses to boot! The list of the birds and mammals only begins to tell of the magic of this trip. I will never enter a zoo with the same feeling again.
The farewell dinner ended with a performance of a local high school choir and some fond farewells. What a jumble of experiences this has been…and (out of order)…
• holding on for dear life on the elephant ride, but experiencing the early am bush in the dark, shivering around a fire.
• Having a lion cross the road in front of us; seeing 30+ giraffes silhouetted against a twilight wetlands horizon.
• Those birds! Too many to count and so many new ones to add to my ‘life list’.
• The market in Zimbabwe with the soft-spoken men crowding around me showing me their carvings.
• The ladies in the market – I hope the picture turns out.
• The wonderful perfumed gift shop at Kirkenbosch Gardens. I could have bought the whole place. But then, I loved walking through little hole-in-the-wall shops too.
• The shacks! I haven’t gotten a good picture of them.
• sitting in the sun in Franckenbosch eating a chicken, chickpea, and pepper dew salad with sparkling cabernet for a chaser, and watching the world go by.
• The beautiful winery at Boschendal. White filigree tables topped with dozens of crystal glasses of wine, colors ranging from citrine to rosy peony red. We sat under a spreading elm tree as our darling guide led us through the tasting.
We’ve made some great acquaintances on this trip, seen wondrous sights, had great experiences…but you have to COME to Africa!
Protea Kruger Gate Hotel

Saturday, July 25 Day 17
Fly Nelspruit to Joburg
Joburg to Dakar(where they fumigated the plane while we were on it!)
Dakar to Dulles
Dulles to Chicago
Dan Schley picks us up, both pretty tired, coughing up a storm and very happy. This was indeed a trip of a lifetime!