Out and Around the Cape

We have hired a car and Geoff is doing a great job driving in and around Cape Town, with a bit of help from Jane, our GPS. I am sooo getting a GPS when I get home, how did I ever live without one? Yesterday we drove south out of Cape Town down to the Cape of Good Hope, which I always thought was the southern most tip of Africa, but no, it’s the most south westerly point of Africa, Cape Aguilas is apparently the most southerly (remember that for Master Mind). Today we have headed east and are staying overnight in an old town called Swellendam. The restaurant where we ate dinner was in a building built in 1749.

Highlights:

1.       Seeing the African penguin rookery at Boulders Beach on our way south down the cape. A great boardwalk gets you really close to the penguins, and it only costs $6. Phillip Island could learn a lot from this.

2.       The fabulous coastal landscape in the Cape of Good Hope National Park. Sort of like Wilsons Prom but bigger, and no trees. (but ostriches!)

3.       The views driving across the Overberg (mountains) from Cape Town to Swellendam.

4.       Bontebok National Park, fascinating mountain valley heathland with wild proteas, heaths, leucodendrons etc, as well as the rare antelope, the bontebok, saved from extinction by the creation of this park in 1931. A lovely picnic by the Breede River. It’s cold today! The first day of drizzly rain since we came to Africa.

Obervations:

1.       Baboons really like antipasto mix in olive oil. Yesterday on the Cape, everywhere there are signs warning not to feed the baboons, because they are wild animals which can be dangerous. We had been warned about them the previous day by our tour guide. However we found a nice sunny spot by a cliff for a picnic. Geoff was finished eating, but I wasn’t, when a huge alpha male bounded along the road and raced over to the picnic table, screeching at us and baring his enormous fangs. He jumped on the table , followed by one of his harem , and finished my lunch in 2 seconds, including the last mouthful of my wine. Geoff and I just jumped in the car and closed the doors and windows. He was wearing a collar. Apparently they are a real problem in this area, so the alpha males are collared and tracked by satellite. A ranger has the full time job of following this male around and chasing him back into the hills. He arrived within 3 minutes of the animal’s arrival, and forced him away with a zapper. Big Bobby wasn’t at all impressed. He was really aggressive. The ranger had to get out the gun and brandish it before the animal finally scarpered. Then we jumped out and collected our plate and cutlery, covered with baboon slobber. They also nearly chewed the top off the bottle of water, would have done if they’d had a minute or two longer.  Now we have a baboon phobia, and a fear of picnics.

My ex lunch

African penguins with chicks

Penguin Beach, south of Cape Town

Near the cape of Good Hope

Bontebok

Wild proteas, lucodendrons and heath in Bontebok National Park

Cape Town

We are staying at Scalabrini Guest House, which is part of a Catholic Mission in Cape Town, dealing largely with migrants and refugees. There is a soup kitchen downstairs. We have not yet seen any of the clientele. The Guest House is, as Lonely Planet says, “spotlessly clean” and comfortable, with our own en suite and a shared kitchen where we make our breakfast. It has taken us a while to get our bearings in Cape Town, but we are getting there. It certainly has a cool, funky night scene – totally wasted on us oldies who try to be in bed by 9.00.

Highlights:

1.       Climbing Lion Head to get a 360 degree view of Cape Town, Table Mountain and ocean. Lots of rock scrambling towards the top, thank goodness for all those years of training in the Grampians.

2.       Totally unexpectedly, discovering a collection of Dutch old masters paintings in an art gallery in a beautiful old Dutch building in the city centre – of course, all that Boer heritage, it makes sense now.

3.       Today’s wine tour through the Stellenbosch region. Beautiful mountains and scenery, delicious and cheap wine. We bought a few (surprise!) but can only bring back three bottles each. Will have to polish off the others over the next few days. What a chore!

Observations:

1.       I have now adopted the Afrikaaner’s “Yaar”, for “yes”.

2.       Lots of armed security guards on the streets, though all the locals keep assuring us that it is a safe city, because of all the security.

3.       Some locals living under a tarpaulin in the middle of the city ):

View of Cape Town and Table Mountain from Lion Head. Unfortunately, the famous cable car up to Table Mountain was closed for annual maintenance. Did you hear Geoff breathe a sigh of relief?

The things you have to do for a view these days. Yes, it's my bottom again.

Near the top. The other side of the hill, Camp's Bay and the way to the cape of Good Hope.

Souvenir shopping.

Our lunch venue today, Stark-Conde winery, near Stellenbosch.

Kruger National Park

Back in South Africa, which I am really enjoying. I wish we had more time here .We flew back from Vic Falls, then got another flight straight out to Kruger, Geoff is desperate to avoid Jo’burg. We only have two nights at Kruger, so no time to rest. We hired a car online, and when we collected it, it’s an 8-seater van! Good for game viewing, you are up high to see over the long grass in Kruger. I am sitting on the porch of our bungalow typing while impala wander around in front of me. There are also lots of vervet monkeys, baboons and guinea fowl about the camp. We are allowed to drive ourselves around Kruger, as long as we don’t get out of the car. I don’t know what happens if we get a flat tyre.

Highlights:

1.       Last night at dusk, a cheetah crossed the road right in front of our car, peed on the tree just outside my door, and walked alongside the car. We were lucky, there are not that many cheetahs in the park. We also saw lots of hippos, and a family of lions through the grass.

2.       Up before dawn tracking rhino on foot with the rangers. We had a close encounter, white rhino only about  10 metres from us. As we were all crouched being silent as mice, I had to remind myself that they have very poor vision, but excellent hearing and sense of smell. We were so close, I did not dare to take a photo, for fear of the noise. The ranger decided he was getting too close , so he threw a rock into the bush to distract him. You’ll be glad to know the rangers are armed, but have never had to fire more than a warning shot. Then we saw another rhino with a 12 month old calf, but not so close.

3.   Late in the afternoon, we came upon a herd of elephants swimming, playing, fighting and mating in the dam. I guess it makes sense to mate in the water when you are the size of an elephant.

Observations:

1.       I can now tell the difference between black rhino poo and white rhino poo. White rhinos only eat grass, and black rhino poo is full of twigs and leaves. I can also tell which way an elephant was heading from its tracks.

2.    Never leave the car window down in a National Park. Some guys were pitching their tent at dusk, and I had to go over to them and say, "Excuse me, is that your car? It's full of monkeys and they're stealing stuff." It was only the lollies they got away with.

Africa's second most dangerous animal. (The most dangerous is the mosquito, we think. Luckily it's the dry season and we've hadly seen any, but taking the malaria meds anyway)

Sunset at Kruger

Tracking rhino at dawn

Play-fighting, it seems

Kruger landscape

Johannesburg to Victoria Falls - More stuff

Forgot to mention a couple of good things in the last post.

Highlights:

1.       The view from the plane on the way to Victoria Falls. I saw what I thought was a vast lake, then realised it was dry coz it had hills. A desert or a dry salt lake maybe? It was the Kalahari Desert.

2.       A game of golf. Yes, golf. I didn’t play, but walked around the course with Geoff as he played, photographing all the wildlife. Talk about a cheap, great walking safari! I saw herds of impala, dozens of warthogs, troops of baboons and vervet monkeys, got close to quite a few waterbuck, and saw a pair of bushbuck and a herd of kudu. All in nine holes at dusk!

3.       Margaritas on the terrace of the hotel.

Observations:

1.       Flying over South Africa – they have circular fields, all with coloured stripes. It looks a bit like an alien invasion. Is this a dutch tradition?

2.       Johannesburg – we stayed one night between flights  in a safe middle class suburb, in a gated community. Even then, all the properties had electric fences and signs promising “Armed Response”. Our Bed and Breakfast  also had electronic gates and night guards. There was no one on the streets in our leafy suburb, and we neither saw nor heard children. However, the lady happily sent us off to walk to the shops, where we had a lovely meal and wine for a very good price. The $A is very good against the Rand at the moment.

3.       South African airports are the only airports where I’ve seen an area for “Firearms Check In”. All those horrid game hunters, I guess. South Africa is also the only place I’ve seen with ads for taxidermy (those trophies for hunters) and for thatchers, (traditional roofs, mostly for tourist venues, including the Kruger airport).

On the golf course at Victoria Falls - Impala

A little bit of what we came for

A margarita at Ilala Lodge

Mid-morning on the Zambezi

A waterbuck I met on the golf course

Victoria Falls

Victoria Falls is amazing. It goes for kilometres – it’s the worlds’s largest waterfall, going on volume of water. I think Niagara may be longer, and Angel Falls is higher. You can see the spray for kilometres, we saw it from the plane, rising up about 100 metres above the falls. Helicopters overhead with joy flights all day, it sounds like “Apocalyspe Now”. Livingstone called it "The smoke that thunders", it sounds like constant loud traffic.

Highlights:

1.       Viewing the falls from both the Zimbabwe side and the Zambia side, and walking down into the gorge through the jungle. A border crossing on foot was interesting.

2.       Canoeing on the Zambezi and seeing hippos and crocs – from a respectful distance. Also, shared our picnic spot with a black mamba!

More later - out of time now!

Dar es Salaam

One day in Dar es Salaam, which is the biggest city in Tanzania, though not the capital. It’s not really a tourist destination but interesting enough for a day recovering from the rough ferry trip from Zanzibar and the stress of contacting people to let them know we are OK after hearing about the ferry disaster. Lots of local colour today, and it was all free.

Highlights:

1.       The Kivukoni Fish Market – fisherman bringing up their catch and selling it, huge blocks of ice chipped and sold to fish buyers, cooking, selling the fish. We chickens didn’t eat. Then over the road – fish being smoked, more cooking, some illicit (in Australia) goods for sale, like shark fins, jaws, dried puffer fish, shells.

2.       Seeing the original fossil skulls found by David Leakey at Olduvai gorge in the National Museum, especially the fine Zinjanthropus skull.

Observations:

1.       From watching on the ferry and at the port, I have learned how to tie a baby on my back, if I ever need to.

2.       At the port, a woman balancing a suitcase on her head, with a baby strapped to her back, bending to tend to her two small children, without the case wobbling at all – impressive.

Local colour at the fish market

The catch - put out on benches for buyers to come and choose from

Proud of his catch

 Smoking and cooking the catch

Local brew

Zanzibar - Stone Town

We are in Stone Town, which is the historic quarter of Zanzibar Town. It’s an old Arab-Indian town, from the days when the Arabs controlled the spice and slave trades up the east coast of Africa. 95% of the people are Muslim. I was woken by the call to prayer at about 4.00am. It’s hot and muggy. I was roasting last night with the windows closed and the air con and the fan on, must set it cooler tonight. Annoyingly, there are lots of touts. Yesterday a man tried to show me photos of “very nice baby’, I think it was for sale. Geoff says it’s a compliment, and they must think I’m Madonna or Angelina Jolie (Right!).

Highlights:

1.       The food. Best Inidan restaurant outside of India. Best octopus – char grilled, sometimes on skewers, with big tentacles. I think I will be growing tentacles.

2.       The winding narrow lanes, with tantalising glimpses into homes , full of children playing and adults socialising.

Observations:

1.       The men wear the long white smock and conical muslim hat, I saw one with board shorts underneath. The women wear the hijab, or, less frequently,  the burka.

2.       Many Tanzanian women are very beautiful. You could have staged the Miss Tanzania quest amongst the wait staff at our favourite restaurant

What I Learned:

1.       When stuffing one’s pillow or mattress with kapok, NEVER include any kapok seeds unless you wish to share your bed with a rat. Apparently they find them irresistible.

Our shower

Creative electricity supply

Zanzibar street

Street view from the hotel balcony

More streets

Zanzibar - the beach

We have had three days at Nungwi Beach in Zanzibar, a resort type beach area. Catching up on some sleep, reading, snorkelling. The water here is absolutely beautiful, crystal clear and warm. Yesterday we went for a sunset cruise and snorkel on a traditional boat, the dhow. Today we went out with a boat full of divers to Mnendi Island. We seniors settled for snorkelling while everyone else dived. It was interesting snorkelling, because although the coral reef was not in good condition, bleaching tragically seems to be occurring everywhere, we got to swim along the edge of the shelf of the reef and look down on the divers, and diver territory - great schools of fish wheeled up from the depths. Lots of beautiful fish to watch. And dolphins!

Also, I forgot to tell you about our contact in Tanzania - for months I have been corresponding with Achmed in Arusha, who organised our safari and our Zanzibar layover. Boy were we surprised when he turned up at our hotel to meet us. He is, in fact, an eccentric, beer guzzling, chain smoking, Maasai blanket wearing Englishman with a big handlebar moustache. He married a local and had to convert to Islam, and changed his name from Phil to Achmed! He plied us with beer and lots of Tanzania tips and amusing conversation. I recommend his company, Basecamp Tanzania, to anyone considering a safari in Tanzania or a Mt Kilimanjaro climb.

Highlights:

1. Chilling at the cafe hanging over the sea.
2. Sleeping by the pool.
3. Snorkelling - boat rides, with ginger tea (these are spice islands) and fish watching.
4. Swimming with a pod of eight dolphins!!
5. Grilled Octopus - had it for four meals.

Ngorongoro Crater

Ngorongoro Crater is a volcanic crater about 20 kilometres in diameter. It’s packed with wildlife, they can’t escape. It’s also home to 26 critically endangered black rhino, and we saw two of them. They were about 100 metres away, in long grass, behind a bush, but thank goodness for the binoculars and the good zoom on the camera. We also, finally, saw flamingos, about a million live on the lake in the crater at this time of year. We also saw a pair of lions gorging themselves on a zebra and guarding their kill from a pack of hyena. They will guard the meat for about three days, until it starts to go smelly , then abandon it to the hyenas. This was our first sighting of hyenas, usually nocturnal, but this variety is also active by day.

I forgot to tell you about Achmed. I had been corresponding with him over the last few months. We organised the safari and the Zanzibar layover through his company, Basecamp Tanzania. They also do Kilimanjaro climbs. Imagine our surprise when he turned up to greet us at our hotel. He is a rather eccentric, beer guzzling, chain smoking, maasai blanket wearing Englishman with a big handlebar moustache. He’s an adventurer who married a local and converted to Islam for her, though he doesn’t believe. He gave us lots of tips, entertainment and beer.

Highlights:

1.       Rhino sighting.

2.       Lake of flamingos.

3.       The view from the hotel, though it was misty and the photos didn’t turn out very well.

Observations:

1.       When we saw the rhinos, the ranger was there with his rifle. They are empowered to shoot poachers, who have killed many rangers.

2.       Germans smoke too much (again)

3.       Language – when on safari and talking about animals, the singular seems to also denote the plural – hyena, elephant, waterbuck, hyrax can all be one or 300.

A few of the million

With our guide, Chris,and the cool pop top safari vehicle

Rare animal

Meet the Maasai

Had an amazing visit to a maasai village. The maasai can be seen herding their cattle along the side of the road. They will walk to market, then walk all night to return to their village with their new stock. They performed a welcome dance for the two of us, which was mightily impressive. Then we got to see inside a house -  In the dark inside I noticed a tiny baby asleep on the rammed earth floor. I had to buy some jewellery from the mother after she was good enough to let us visit. We also visited the kindergarten - dirt, dust, a blckboard on an easel and a stick to point with.

The women's chorus

Kindergarten

Safari - Serengeti National Park
The Serengeti is vast and flat. We have seen loads of predators - multiple close encounters with lions, a cheetah family. The famous mass migration of the herds is over, but plenty still going on around here. There are animals all around the lodge, we can see zebras and warthogs from our window - and the hotel overlooks a waterhole full of hippo. The lodge is built into the rocks, which are swarming with little rock hyrax. Up and out at dawn to catch the action.

Highlights:

1. Five metres from a lounging cheetah with her five almost grown cubs.
2. Four metres from a pair of lions, who decided to mate, unconcerned about the 30 safari trucks watching.
3. Finding a creek bed with two lionesses with 10 cubs - busy mamas.

Observations:

1. The animals seem unconcerned by the presence of multiple safari vehicles. Guides say that the animals do not perceive the vehicles as a threat in national parks, they do not equate them with humans, but perhaps as a weird species. Their eyes can't make out the humans inside, or rather they don't rcognise them as humans. In the game parks, where hunting is allowed, this is quite different and they are very wary.
2. Germans smoke a lot, and think nothing of inflicting the smoke on everyone else.
3. Our guide, Chris, can spot an owl in the top of a tree 50 metres away!

Our cheetah family

Busy mother

Hippo Kiss

Close to the King

Sunset over the Serengeti

Roll over, National Geographic