Dreams Come True in Oudtshoorn!

Saturday broke as the day Thomas hd been waiting for since we booked the trip in January—ostrich day! We headed up the N12 from Wilderness to Oudtshoorn, home of a full 97% of the world’s ostriches. Our destination was Highgate Ostrich Farm. We had a great tour of the farm, including the incubator where more than 1000 eggs could be held. We also got to feed ostriches by hand—they have no teeth so their nibble didn’t hurt as they grabbed corn from our hands. Because they have no teeth, they also cannot chew their food, and so swallow stones to grind food in their gullet. We also got to stand on a group of ostrich eggs—they are incredibly strong and can support up to 220 kilos (whatever that means!).

Then we moved on the to real highlight—riding the ostriches. It took the ostrich “wranglers” a few minutes to round up a recalcitrant ostrich, and then Thomas mounted up. You have to hold their wings where they meet the body as your “reins” and you place your legs under the wings as your stirrups. It is not all that comfortable! The ostrich then took off, running around the pen—they move fast. I managed to stay on for the entire ride (unlike a German guy who ended up on his butt a few minutes later).

Sarah, like her mother, has a deathly fear of birds. It was therefore with some trepidation that she climbed aboard an ostrich for her own ride. I wish I could upload the video (another slow connection, I’m afraid), because her squeals of fun/delight/abject fear were really too much to put into words. Sarah dismounted somewhat gracefully and even reported afterwards that she really enjoyed it! All in all, it was my favorite day in South Africa so far—I had been talking about riding an ostrich for months and finally got to do it!


Sarah mounts up.



Thomas gets going.

The Whale Whisperer (or the Vomit Comet?)

We spent an amazing 24 hours in and around Hermanus, the self-proclaimed whale watching capital of the world. This place lived up to the hype! After we arrived, we went down to the waterfront where we saw about a half dozen whales right off the shore, some no farther than 30 yards away! We saw a mother and calf swimming together and then the mother breaching at least three or four times. We also saw four full-sized whales swimming together, flipping their tails and rolling on their bellies. It was amazing to see these magnificent creatures at such close range right off the town pier!

This morning we rose early (Sarah woke up at 4 and couldn't get back to sleep because she was so excited) to drive to Gans Baai to board the "Whale Whisperer" for a whale spotting cruise. Unfortunately, although the weather was clear, the winds were incredible--30 miles an hour or so. The skipper informed us before we boarded that the winds would create very choppy conditions on the ocean--and he wasn't lying. While we were in sheltered waters, we spotted a young whale, who enjoyed "sailing" (i.e. putting only his tail above water and cruising along on the high winds). He was curious and came right up to and under the boat. We also spotted two Great White Sharks swimming just below the surface. Our guide reminded us that our boat was rubber and asked if anyone wanted to go for a swim.

Unfortunately the water became increasingly rough from that point on. Several German ladies in particular were looking a bit green, and Thomas wasn't feeling too hot himself. The Germans and others (not Thomas) availed themselves of "seasickness bags" on the lower deck. At a particularly grim moment, as about a half dozen green passengers were vomiting profusely, a huge "rogue wave" smashed over the boat and soaked all the seasick passengers from head to toe. Unfortunately, the wave also got the bags wet, leaving no dry bags on board. Use your imagination for the horrific consequences. Needless to say, we quickly headed for shore, not even slowing down when we spotted a beautiful mother and calf maybe 100 yards away. Sarah showed little sympathy for the gastro-intestinally-gutted Germans (or Thomas). Snickers were heard from her direction.

After a VERY light lunch, we made the four hour drive to Wilderness, near the beginning of South Africa's famed Garden Route. While Thomas' left-hand driving is becoming more and more natural, Sarah still felt compelled to deploy her passenger-side "air brake" more than once. More on the Garden Route tomorrow, but a final comment on tourism here: the clerk at our hotel told us that he had seen 3-4 Americans at this hotel--in the past YEAR. This has been a common theme on our trip thus far--we have probably spotted in total about a dozen Americans in some of South Africa's hottest tourism destinations. Both of us have really been struck by the lack of Americans, especially compared to many of our other travels. We're still in serach of a good computer for picture uploads--high speed internet is not quite up to speed here yet (har har).

All Hail the King Protea!

We're now working backwards in time a bit but figured you all (i.e. our parents and Kaly) would appreciate a thorough blog! Last Saturday, we spent our morning in the lovely Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens at the foot of Table Mountain. We joined the guided tour at 10 AM, on which the average age was about 65. We were the youngest by a good 20 years, but enjoyed the full TWO AND HALF hour tour with various Garden Club types. The highlight was undoubtedly seeing the huge collection of native fynbos, including the "King Protea," the flower of which measures a good 7 inches across. (You can tell we were listening closely!). We spent the afternoon driving in the intermittent rain to the Rhodes Memorial, Camp's Bay, and Clifton Beach, finishing our day on Signal Hill. (We found out today that a hiker was stung by bees 300 times on Signal Hill yesterday--glad we missed that!). That night we had our best dinner of the trip thus far at the Miller's Thumb, a cute neighborhood seafood bistro. It reminded us of Cape Town's version of Continental Divide in CVille--busy, loud, friendly, and full of locals.

Sunday morning we rose early and visited the extensive market at Green Point, where we perused the various stalls. Amazingly, EVERYONE was willing to give us a special deal! We were amazed by the hospitality. We then set the Nissan Tiida's sites on West Coast National Park, supposedly in the peak of wildflower season. Unfortunately, although we were charged peak non-native prices, the park was not at its peak. It was still lovely, though, and we spotted many ostrich and springbok. We spent that night in Langebaan, a seaside resort town.

PS: The Internet connection we're using now is a bit slow--we will upload pictures for all these stories when we get to a faster one!

I detect a subtle hint of....grapes?

Back to blogging after a long hiatus! We've spent the last three days in the idyllic Cape Winelands, which surround the little towns of Stellenbosch and Franschoek. On Monday, we drove down from Langebaan (on the West Coast) to Stellenbosch and made our first stop at Spier Vineyard. Spier has been described as the Disneyland of the winelands, and we soon learned why--several places to eat, a cheetah enclosure where you could pay extra to pet the baby cheetahs, two different wine tasting sites, an eagle encounter, pony rides, a hotel, the works!

Here we had our first wine tasting and were encouraged to smell and describe our thoughts to the group before tasting. After each of the five different wines, Sarah would close her eyes, ponder the aroma, and exclaim, "Smells to me like grapes!" Quite insightful. We didn't pretend to know nearly as much as the other group at the tasting...some Americans who proudly volunteered that they were a successful couple from Match.com.

Tuesday morning we rose bright and early to start a full day of wine tasting. We hit five "wine gardens" due to our start at 10:30 a.m. We saw a wide array of vineyards from the new and modern to the old and dingy. We had lunch at Tokara where our table was situated overlooking the grapes. Afterward, Thomas insisted we visit the only vineyard that was also a functioning dairy farm. Unfortunately he learned that the cows spoke Afrikaans, so it was difficult to communicate. Our final stop of the long and beautiful day was at Waterford Vineyards. At Waterford we tasted seven wines, the final three of which were paired with fine chocolates! Sarah was in heaven, but was constantly distracted by planning a wedding on the breathtaking grounds. Renewal of vows...look for your save the date soon!

Day three in the Cape Winelands started early again, but this time on horseback! With a friend we met at a B&B, we headed out on Roshina, Amy, and Jack through some amazing sights. We were all riding English (a new experience for us both), but by the end we were posting like pros as we trotted through the vineyards. We sampled wines at two lovely wineries and then had a late lunch in town at Franschoek.

Today we head for Le Petite Ferme (one of the finest lunch restaurants in all of South Africa) and then on to Hermanus for the whales! Although we faked it for three days, we've discovered that while we like drinking wine, we can barely distinguish red and white wines, much less the '06 Chardonnay versus the '05 Chenin Blanc!

Baboons, Jackasses, and Just Nuisance

Today we headed down the Cape of Good Hope, just south of Cape Town, for a series of fun adventures. We stopped first at St. James, and then headed to Kalk Bay. At Kalk Bay, we spotted a whale maybe 30 yards off shore, and a friendly seal sampling fish scraps from the gathered spectators. We then headed to Simon's Town, the main base for the South African Navy. We visited the town museum and were particularly taken with the story of Able Seaman Just Nuisance, a WWII-era Great Dane who became the pet of Royal Navy sailors based there and was awarded a rank in the navy and full military honors upon his death.

We then stopped at Boulder Beach, a wonderful spot full of African, or jackass, penguins. We walked on a boardwalk over the beach and could stand just a few feet from the cute little critters. We heard one of the males braying and understood why they used to be called jackass penguins!

Our final stop of the day was the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. We walked to Cape Point and took in the breathtaking views. We spotted several wild ostrich in the reserve, and then headed down to the Cape of Good Hope, where we spotted one beleaguered ostrich being chased by a Japanese tourist with camera in hand! Our final excitement of the day was spotting a whole troop of baboons by the side of the road, including several infants. They were adorable.

No tickets until September 30th!?!

One of South Africa's premier tourist attractions is Robben Island, 10 KM into the South Atlantic from Cape Town, where many of the anti-apartheid leaders were imprisoned. Tickets are tough to come by, so I emailed Robben Island at the beginning of September. I even sent them my credit card information but never heard back. Inevitably, they had no record of my reservation. We asked at our hotel--no tickets until the 29th, we were told. We asked at the Tourist Information Center and were told the same.

Finally, we got up early this morning and headed down to the dock. The depressed-looking Irish woman ahead of us was there for the second day in a row and was again turned away. We pleaded our case with the unsmiling ticket woman. "We tried to make a reservation!" we said."No tickets until September 30," she replied. "But we leave on Sunday!" "No tickets available." "None at all?!?" "Well, how about 9:00 this morning!" (It was about 8:45 at the time). WHAT!?! We were surprised to say the least! We moved quickly toward the boat in case our luck ran out!

The tour, led by two ex-political prisoners, was excellent. We learned a lot about the history of the prison and saw a lot of wildlife (dolphins, seals, turtles, jackass penguins, rabbits, various other birds). We saw where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years, and where the prisoners were forced to break rocks into gravel into a pointless, exhausting daily routine. We returned the the lovely Victoria and Albert Waterfront, a redeveloped zone of shops, restaurants, and attractions, for a late lunch and some shopping.

Our final adventure of the day was renting our car for the next two weeks. Of course, the reservation was somehow fouled up, but fortunately everything turned out fine and we are the proud renters of some four-door Nissan car. It is automatic so that is all I needed! We finally checked in at An Africa Villa, our home for the next three nights. Another great day in Cape Town!

Robben Island Web Site

Day 1 in Cape Town

We had a great first day in Cape Town! We woke up and headed to the Castle of Good Hope. It was only appropriate to start there after our overnight stop in Amsterdam, because the Castle is the oldest building in Cape Town and was originally constructed by the Dutch East Indian Company in the late 17th century. We had a lovely guided tour and watched the ceremony of the keys (unfortunately a poor relation to the one at the Tower of London).

We then took a long hike up Table Mountain, which looms over Cape Town and the surrounding areas. Our hike took us up the the Platteklip Gorge, a strenuous but quite short way to the top. Once on top, we took in the spectacular scenery, had a bite to eat, and then rode the remarkable cable car down. After we claimed a prime position in the front of the car, Sarah was surprised when the floor began to rotate and the windows opened. She got off at the bottom feeling a bit queasy! The beginning of the sunset was spectacular--we can't wait to take in the full show over the South Atlantic in the next few nights! We finished a great night off with tapas and South African wine at a restaurant right next to our hotel.

Table Mountain Pictures

Castle of Good Hope Web Site
Table Mountain Cableway Web Site

So YOU'RE the Halls...

That is what we heard from the Delta agent as we came off our plane in Amsterdam. After being delayed for almost three hours in Atlanta with mechanical problems, we had finally made it across the Atlantic to Amsterdam--and missed our flight by about twenty minutes! The agent informed us that there were no other flights that day to Cape Town, so it was a day in Amsterdam for us, with a flight out Tuesday morning.

Since Sarah lived in the Hague, she donned her wooden clogs and began speaking Dutch to everyone. Who are we kidding? All the Dutch speak English better than the average American high school student and couldn't be more welcoming. We stayed in Haarlem but took the train to Amsterdam Centraal Station. We spent the day walking around the canals, sipping hot drinks in a cafe surrounded by young Dutch, visiting the lovely Van Gogh Museum, and having a light dinner.

Tuesday, we, let's see here, spent on the plane. Almost 12 hours from Amsterdam to Cape Town! It was exhausting. Lots of movies, video games, and books passed the time. We finally got here, and we're now at the Cape Heritage Hotel, which is lovely. We are thankful to be here and can't wait to start our African adventure properly tomorrow!

PS: To add insult to injury, KLM left my bag on the tarmac in Amsterdam and got all my underwear soaked. Thanks, KLM!


Cape Heritage Hotel Web Site

Our Tanzania itinerary

Click below for our itinerary for Tanzania. Click on any of the blue pins to see more about that destination. The red lines are flights, while the blue lines are ground transportation.

Link to map