Cape Town Finale - Beauty and Poverty

Our African adventure ended in Cape Town with fine dining, live music and great people. Cape Town was lovely, with table mountain, good restaurants and lots of wandering potential.

On the darker side, 2\3 of the population (black and colored) still live in "townships". We took a tour of one of these commmunities to see for ourselves. The trip was eye opening! The scars from aparteid still show full force here. Sixteen people in a shack, buckets for toilets, no running water, immense poverty! Things are changing and the old shanties are being replaced but the standards are still very low... Current trends are positive but the reality of the past is appalling! Sanctions actually worked in this case to force political change...

We did love this city anyway and will return when we can to support the South African people. World Cup construction is underway and the government will have made some big changes to put on a good face for the worldwide attention. Sport can improve the world!

Great White Shark Diving

In Cape Town I went Great White cage diving. Gaansbai, RSA is the white shark capital of the world with National Geographic "shark alley" just off shore.

Swam next to three good size (3m), hungry great whites for about half an hour watching them demolish giant fish head and thrash the water. I was protected in a metal cage tied to the size of the dive boat. Way cool except that there were 15 foot swells and the boat was bobbing like a cork in a kids bathtub! Ending up puking my guts out for the first time ever on a boat for a full two hours. Gotta pay to play I guess!

South Africa - Wine and Ocean

South Africa, with a devalued Rand, is by far the best valued country on our entire trip! We toured around "the Cape" wine and whale districts and spent some great days in Cape Town itself. We ate at a five star restaurant, went to several spas where Anna spoiled herself rotten, and stayed in four and five star accommodation all for relatively cheap!

Highlights were shark diving (see separate blog), hiking table mountain, eating game (warthog, springbok and kudu) and an sweet apartment with a real front loader washing machine (first in 2 months).

Our favorite town is Franshoek. We stayed in a converted barn (now five star apartment) that was bigger than our condo in Toronto, and nicer appointments. We also ate at a five star French restaurant and shopped for Zimbabwean springstone art. Wonderful and recommended to anyone off-season, as it was SO cheap.

Southern Namibia - Dunes and Desert

South from Swakopmund we drove through the Namibian desert-dunes. Amazaing micro-wildlife with lizards, chameleons and beetles living in the most harsh environment. Hiked through many beautiful landscapes including Soussessvlei (largest sand dunes in the world).

Namibian people (mostly Germanic or indiginous) were very friendly. In the middle of the desert we got a flat and found the patch from our previous flat had also failed! It was near dusk and there are NO cars on these roads. We were facing a night in the desert! Luckily had a weak rented cell phone signal and Johan Frank Schultz (I love this guys name) from a nearby guest farm came out to rescue us. We stayed at his place and had wonderful stay.

Wildlife is "farmed" in Namibia so after viewing there was eating... Springbok, Oryx, Ostrich, Kudu, Warthog and Gemsbok were all consumed in steaks or amazing Billtong (African beef jerky). See and eat, just like the lobster tank!

Northern Namibia

Anna and I simply loved Namibia. In the north we spent a day self-safariing in the world famous Etosha game reserve. We saw amazing things driving from waterhole to watering hole. That night we went to Outjo and enjoyed the best meal of the trip, dining on Oryz steak and Springbok carpaccio. Hmmm.

Windhoek, the capital was vibrant, safe and we saw Pirates of the Caribbean for a taste of home. We then moved on to the German town of Swakopmund on the coast where we stayed at a great guest house. With a German colonial past, the area is well organized with great food and infrstructure. During our stay we took a Living Desert tour to see the small animals of the mighty Namibian sand dunes. Chameleons, spiders, lizards and beetles all form a robust, but fragile, ecosystem in what seems to many as an empty land.

7000km African Driving Tour

In a rented VW we drive from J'Burg to Gaborone and Maub, Botswana and on to Etosha, Windhoek, Swakopmund and southern Namibia. We finished the driving tour in style in South Africa. Infrastructure was great in the whole region. Despite great roads in Namibia, many were dirt/gravel and our car had old tires (my fault for not checking). Well we got two flats and were saved by a great german farmer Johan Frank Schultz on the second or would have slept in the bush.

Additionally, we got stuck in the sand in Okavango and got a speeding ticket in Botswana. Any way it was a great trip and recommend the drive to anyone with wander lust about Africa.

Okavango Delta Safari

Having flown to J'Burg and driven 1500 km across the endless Kalahari to Maun, Botswana we embarked on a flying and makoro safari in the famed Okavango delta.

The Okavango a "pan" or depression that floods annually and supports abundant wildife in the middle of the Kalahari desert. The delta is fed by monsoon rains in Angola and was in full flood. During this time dust turns to marsh and life springs from the dusty, parched plains. The plains obsorb the entire river and it eventually dries up and never reaches the sea.

Enough geography. We took a bush plane into Gunns Camp in the central delta. From here we spent three amazing (and expensive!) days doing walking and makoro safaris into the game reserve. A makoro is a wooden dugout canoe that is poled through the shallows ny local gudes. The boats travel in 3 to 20 inches of water to avoid the large number of resident hippos!!

After poling to an island in the delta, we went on several walking safaris. It was one thing to see elephants from a Land Rover but another all together to be in the line of stampede of these incredible beasts. Other highlights included warthogs nesting under our tent platform and a hippo grazing ten feet from our tent for several nail biting hours. Hippos are the most feared and hated animals in the area for their aggressiveness...

After three days we flew out again over this magnificent wilderness. Wild!

Zanzibar the Spice Island

For five days after all our safari-ing we went to the warm coastal island of Zanzibar. As a former Sultanate, it is muslim and very beautiful.

Despite the crowds there to attend the Dhow Country Film Festival (a dhow is a wooden sailing vessel that used to dominate Indian Ocean trading) we had a wonderful time wandering the streets of Stone Town. We saw an inspiring and somewhat disturbing film on female circumcision in West Africa. Superstition and poverty are driving mutiliation of millions of girls for no reason... Had many good African beers afterward to lighten the mood.

We then spent four days "Thai" style at a thatched roof bungalow on the beach reading, eating fresh fish sushi and swimming with dolphins. Life is good!