Hermanus – South Africa – September 2019

Tags

Birkenhead House, cliff walking, Hermanus, South Africa, sunset over the sea, whale watching

A beautiful seaside town definitely worth visiting!

Three weeks ago I arrived in South Africa and have been travelling around a bit with a visit to Kruger National Park in the mix.  My friends who live here in Pretoria recommended I visit Hermanus, a seaside town south east of Cape Town.  My travel agent booked me into Birkenhead House, a gorgeous cliff top hotel overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.I was driven from Cape Town to Hermanus which took about an hour and a half and upon arrival at Birkenhead House, I was offered lunch as my room was not quite ready.  I decided to sit outside and was brought a complimentary cocktail followed by a glass of wine and freshly baked bread.I had advised the hotel of my dietary requirements and the chef made me a delicious salad and a warm new potato dish.  Both so good! It was then time to go to my room but first decided to take a look around the hotel.  It is beautifully decorated, so stylish with huge sofas to sit in to read a book or just take in the fabulous vista.

There are two pools, one inside the building complex and the other an infinity edge pool overlooking the ocean. Bit too chilly to swim but could imagine relaxing in the pool with ocean views.Then to top it off my room also had its own pool along with a nice outdoor area and a really lovely bathroom.The staff had left me a small bottle of champagne as a welcome gift which was very kind and I was told the mini bar contents were complimentary as I had paid for an inclusive food and beverage package.I decided to go out and explore the area so walked along the cliff tops for about an hour to reach the township.  It was rather windy but the views were spectacular so I made up my mind that every morning I would take a long walk along the cliff tops where I was greeted by many friendly people out walking or jogging.The town of Hermanus is quite small but has some lovely quaint paved small streets and great bookshops.Before I arrived in Hermanus I found out it was Whale watching season so booked a tour as they are very popular and book out quickly.  We were given a ten minute talk on the history of the Southern Right Whale after which we went out in the bay for about two hours.  We were very lucky and followed a mum Southern Right Whale and her baby near the shore (not great photos though).Most afternoons I would sit on a day bed reading my book and enjoying uninterrupted views of the ocean and on one occasions saw a whale breaching. Now that was a magnificent sight.All meals at Birkenhead House were delicious and made with fresh local vegetables and on my last evening I had my dinner inside with an American couple then stepped outside to watch the magnificent sunset.And so after four days it was time to move on…taking with me my beautifully presented clean laundry!

 

 

 

 

Soweto – Pretoria – South Africa – December 2017

Tags

Apartheid Museum, Desmond Tutu, Hector Pieterson, Nelson Mandella, Pretoria, South Africa, Soweto, Soweto Uprising, zebra

Arriving in Pretoria then a day tour to Soweto

After a fabulous time seeing lots of animals in Africa, I arrived in South Africa to stay a few days with two Aussie friends who are living in Pretoria.  My friends organised a private driver to collect me at the railway station (after my trip on Rovos Rail).  It was a pretty confronting part of town and even though I was in a car I still didn’t feel all that safe.  My friends told me later that is why they don’t come into that part of town ie it’s unsafe and nor do a lot of taxi drivers hence the private driver.

On my day of arrival, my friends drove me a couple of kilometres to the top of the local mountain to see fabulous views across Pretoria.  And they were…But before we reached the top, we were so lucky to see a couple of zebra and some other animals – photos not so good as took them from a moving car.It was amazing to see the zebra with a backdrop of the city just standing there next to the road…Geoff who was driving pulled up very close to the zebra and as we were quiet they didn’t move for quite some time.  This allowed me to take some photos close up; it makes you realise how stunning [and unique] these animals really are.That evening we went out to dinner at a local restaurant – a fun night where we enjoyed pizza and some great South African white wine.  Geoff told me that he and his wife Sue regularly go out early for dinner but he is very careful on the roads especially when stopped at traffic lights – the chance of carjacking is very high both during the day and evening!

Home invasions are a possibility too.  My friend’s home as I previously mentioned in another post, is enclosed by a five-metre brick fence with razor wire at the top and an armed guard response.  The bedrooms are located at one end of their home and at night we locked ourselves in with a steel security door.  People call them escape or panic rooms, a concept made famous by the movie of the same name with Jodie Foster as the lead.  But it’s a good solution to the growing threat of crime and associated violence in South Africa. My friends told me that all the homes around their area have these safe areas within.

The next day, Sue organised me a day tour to Soweto and I was picked up outside their home around 8am. There were six of us on the tour including the tour guide/bus driver.  We drove to Soweto which is located in the city of Johannesburg and stopped just outside the township to take photos of the welcome sign…Driving from Pretoria I saw many shanty towns along the way and our driver explained that some are connected to electricity and water but many others do not have any electricity or running water and I dread to think how hot these homes are in summer as the majority are made from corrugated metal and sheets of plastic and others are made from plywood and cardboard boxes.(photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

We then visited two museums. The first was the Apartheid Museum which I found very sad to learn more of the history of apartheid but at the same time incredibly interesting.  So much I didn’t know!  There are twenty-two individual exhibitions in the museum including the several about the life of Nelson Mandela; his original car and replicas of his cell (wow so small).  And a great photo display at the entry of Mandela’s face throughout his life.The second was the Hector Pieterson Museum.  Hector was a student at a local high school in 1976 who was marching with 10,000 other students from his high school to the Orlando Stadium.  This was a result of what is known as the Soweto Uprising.  Mass protests erupted over the government’s policy to enforce education in Afrikaans rather than their native language.

 

 

Police opened fire in Orlando West on the 10,000 students and rioting ensued.  Twenty-three people died on the first day in Soweto, twenty one were black, including Hector and two were white people including a lifelong humanitarian.  Again it was dreadfully sad to read the accounts from people who were there and relatives of the deceased including the sister of Hector.

Our next stop was the street in Soweto where both Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu lived; actually Desmond Tutu still visits his home and our guide told us his daughter still lived there.  Mandela’s home is located at 8115 Vilikazi Street, Orlando West and is now a museum as it was donated to the Soweto Museum Trust by Mandela in 1997. Once there we were able to go inside and see Mandela’s bedroom, study, lounge and tiny kitchenette all with many photos and posters on the walls.  It was so incredibly small and this is where Mandela was held under house arrest for all those years.
We were also shown the bullet hole in the wall above a red framed window and told this came from one of the many attacks on Mandela and his family by the Apartheid Police…And an interesting fact from our tour guide…the name Soweto comes from South West Townships of which Orlando is part of…a huge day of learning for me.

This is definitely a tour to take if you are either in Johannesburg or Pretoria.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve – Pretoria – South Africa – December 2017

Tags

Cheetah, giraffe, Lions, Pretoria, Rhino, Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve, South Africa, White lions, Wild Dogs

Visiting friends in Pretoria

After disembarking from Rovos Rail at Capital Park Station in Pretoria, I was picked up by a private driver who took me to my friends’ Sue and Geoff’s home in a beautiful Jacaranda lined street.  Security is pretty tight along this street with my friends having seventeen-foot concrete fences with razor wire along the top surrounding their home and an armed guard response.

Driving along this street and others in Pretoria was actually beautiful and then seeing the huge homes…oh my goodness but again you have to be very careful driving as you may be carjacked if stopped at lights or at an intersection.My first day in Pretoria I took a bus trip to Soweto which was really interesting to see the Apartheid Museum and learn about the history  [I will write on that separately]. On day two my friends took me to the Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve which is a privately owned game reserve covering about 1200 hectares which opened to the public in 1990.   I am always a bit worried about these private owned parks as I always hope the animals are not caged but allowed to roam free.  In the main this one was very good.

As we were about to enter the park, I saw a pride of lions and lionesses.  I was so excited and absolutely amazed at how magnificent these animals are.  Just relaxing on the grass fenced off from the road but within a large area to roam.  Geoff kindly stopped the car for me to hop out and take some photos through the fence.Our next stop was to the cafe just outside the park where there is a giraffe that comes up close to the landing as knows we will all have food for her which can be purchased from the cafe.  I stroked her and she was so beautiful.

Then it was time to drive into the park, there is a small cost per person (goes to the running of the park) and after paying this, off we went on our adventure. We first saw some cute little warthogs and Impala and various other animals…all roaming free.Zebra was next for our viewing pleasure…We also saw several large horned animals – in photo order I think from memory they are Sable Antelope [what a beautiful animal], Wildebeest and either Waterbuck or perhaps Springbuck.We drove a little way towards the predator enclosure [I was happy that it is huge and took us ages to drive around] and first saw some wild dogs relaxing under a tree…As we were driving along the road one of us pointed out (think it was Geoff as he spotted most of the animals) this incredible lion…what a sight – I think I took sixty or so photos of the same thing as the lion didn’t really move but did change the position of his head a couple of times.A short distance away was the lioness – beautiful animal too.I could not of been happier at this stage and we reluctantly left to find the rhino; which I also could not wait to see!  We drove around for some time and Geoff told me he had purchased tickets for the animal creche so we could pat the lion cubs and cheetah.  How lovely! Again money goes towards the reserve and the upkeep of the animals.

When we went into this enclosure there were other beautiful animals – black leopard, black jaguar and clouded leopard but they were in smaller enclosures; made me very [very] sad. I know that we don’t want these animals to become extinct but I would love them to be able to run around rather than just walk around the sides of their grassed enclosures. I could see they are well cared for and had a good area to rest, but still it made me wish they could be free or in huge enclosures.I did pat the white lion cubs; there were two of them and they were awfully sweet.  The public is allowed to interact with the cubs and cheetah for five minutes at a time which allows us to pat and take photos whilst being monitored by the keeper.The cheetah was very beautiful too; another magnificent animal. As were the white tigers especially the ‘teenagers’ who were playing and one jumped into a waterless well and looked like she was loving it.And in the next enclosure was the cutest Pygmy hippopotamus; quite a bit of room to roam around which was good.We left this area and drove around again trying to find the rhino; but to no avail – very disappointing but Geoff said he had seen them the week before but they didn’t want to be found on this day.

 

We drove past another very large reserve where the white tigers live, who on this day were relaxing near the entrance gates so we could not drive in as we were told they might try and leave and go into the reserve where the non carnivorous animals are (and guess that would mean extinction in this park for those animals!!).On our drive throughout the reserve, we also saw some lovely birds including baby Ostrich [how cute] and then it was time to leave; fantastic to see these amazing animals in this enormous reserve…maybe next time for the Rhino!Really glad I went and really grateful for my lovely friends taking me there!!

 

 

 

Rovos Rail – Zimbabwe, Africa to Pretoria, South Africa – December 2017

Tags

Africa, Animal safari, Hwange National Park, Pretoria, Rovos Rail, South Africa, Tropic of Capricorn, Zimbabwe

Three nights’ on a private train in Africa

After spending just over a week in Zimbabwe and Botswana, my friend Jenny and I took the Rovos Rail, a private railway company that operates out of Capital Park Station in Pretoria, from Zimbabwe to Pretoria over three nights.

source: www.trainsafaris.com/rovos-rail-victoria-falls.html

We began our adventure on Christmas Eve morning by meeting the train at Victoria Falls private railway station which is opposite the Victoria Falls Hotel.  We were checked in by the Rovos staff and our bags were taken by porters onto the train.  This afforded us the opportunity to walk around the hotel’s gardens.  The hotel is Edwardian style and was built in 1904 and the grounds are pretty spectacular [not that you can tell that from my photos].Inside is pretty stunning too…The grounds also have a stunning view of the spray from Victoria Falls and the bridge that marks the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia.After a complimentary glass of champagne and a briefing on our impending travel, we boarded our train and within minutes had departed.

My friend and I each chose a Pullman Suite which has a very comfortable sofa during the day which then converts to a double bed for the evening [every evening once the bed is made by the wonderful staff, there would be a lovely little surprise; a small box of chocolates, a small bottle of champagne or a Christmas gift – I loved this!!].    There is also a small bar fridge filled with your beverages of choice.     The suite also has an en-suite bathroom with shower.  Before we departed the chef and his team came and spoke to me about my dietary requirements – a lovely personal touch.

There’s an accent on fresh local ingredients, and traditional dishes such as game are a speciality; of course not for me. Every morning there’s a full breakfast as well as dishes cooked to order. A selection of cold meats, croissants, pastries, fresh fruit, yogurts, cereals and preserves make up the breakfast buffet.

For lunch and dinner there is a starter then a choice of fish, meat or a vegetarian dish, followed by a dessert and these are complemented by a selection of really good South African wines.  Dress code for the train is smart casual during the day and evening attire is more formal – for the men a jacket and tie is a minimum requirement while for us ladies a cocktail/evening dress or suit is required.

And to celebrate Christmas, the train was decked out with Christmas decorations in each of the common areas and dining cart…a lovely touch! One afternoon I walked up to the one of the two lounge cars; this one being near the rear of the train.  It was 4pm and afternoon tea was being served.  Fruit, biscuits, petit fours and small sandwiches are on offer along with whatever beverages you wish.

I had just finished two books lent to me by a friend so I borrowed one of the train’s to enjoy during the rest of my journey. It wasn’t that good but gave me something to read.I managed to take some photos of African homes and the countryside.Positioned at the rear of the train past the lounge car is the observation car which can seat thirty-two passengers. It’s a lovely area to sit and watch where the train is travelling and of course see that lovely countryside.  Permission was sought and granted by South African Railways to place the observation cars at the back of the trains, which allowed windows to be enlarged and an open air type balcony to be built. During the trip we passed along the edge of Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe’s largest wildlife reserve travelling south-east to Kennedy Siding for an overnight stop.

On Christmas morning we woke very early and disembarked for a game drive at The Hide. As we disembarked the locals were waiting for us selling their wares.We saw zebra, giraffe, elephant and many unusual and beautiful birds…

After the safari we stopped off at a small campsite where the staff had set up a wonderful hot and cold morning tea – so enjoyable and as I didn’t get up for 5am breakfast, I tucked into some lovely food and a cup of tea.

Then when we arrived back at the train, our wonderful staff had again set up tables but this time with champagne and orange juice to celebrate Christmas day – lovely!We then head for Bulawayo whilst Jenny and I exchanged Christmas presents – nice to do this on a train!  We then crossed the Botswana border at Plumtree during the evening and in the morning we travelled south through Francistown and on towards Gaborone, the capital of Botswana.  A short time later we crossed the South African border and lunch is served as the train passes through the farmlands of the Marico Valley.

We then head over the Magaliesberg Mountain Range, whilst we enjoyed dinner after which we pulled into Krugersdorp for our overnight stop – no rocking to get to sleep on our last night…but a lovely sunset from my suite’s window.Finally [and sadly] we arrive in Pretoria on the day after Boxing Day around mid-morning.  A lovely surprise to see Mr Rovos himself waiting to welcome all the passengers.  I still had my train legs (bit wobbly) for some time after disembarking the train.

What a worthwhile experience; one I shall not forget!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Johannesburg – South Africa and Zimbabwe – Africa (1) – December 2017

Tags

champagne, Friends, Qantas Airlines, South Africa, South African Airways, Zimbabwe

Arriving in Johannesburg…

Ever since I was a little girl, I have dreamt about coming to Africa to see the animals in their natural habitat…so this month that dream finally came true.

My friend Jenny, who lives in Papua New Guinea and I met at Sydney Airport and boarded our Qantas flight to Johannesburg; a long fourteen hours but with a few movies, a chat and a flat bed, it was pretty good.

We arrived to some lovely locals singing at the airport; what a great way to start this fabulous holiday.We decided to stopover in Johannesburg, staying one evening at the Airport Intercontinental Hotel as we arrived late and were out early the next morning and after fourteen hours we felt we needed a little break and as it turns out was a great idea as we were definitely tired and had another hour and half flight the next day to Zimbabwe.  Of course I was jet lagged after a few hours sleep, so was up at 2.30am using the gym with nice views of the city.I must say the pool area within the gym is pretty spectacular at night.After a leisurely breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast and mint tea, I met up with my friend and we walked to the airport to take our South African Airways flight to Zimbabwe where our adventure was about to start.  I was very happy with this airline, comfy seats, excellent friendly service and the most amount of leg room I have ever seen.  A bottle of champagne was opened for me and I started off my flight with a glass of South African bubbles; how can it get any better (be assured it did)…

We arrived in Zimbabwe and were met at the airport and taken to our accommodation at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge – what a great choice of accommodation by my friend Jenny.And wonderful views of the local watering hole where a herd of elephants arrived one evening…but more on that later!!So finally my African safari has commenced and I am now sitting here in Botswana overlooking the Chobe Plains from [again more on that later]…thanks for stopping by!!