It has long been a dream of mine to visit South Africa but it took the persistence of the GF to actually get us there. In November 2010 we set off for 2 weeks of Safari, Falls, Vineyards and Coast. South Africa is truly one of the most exciting countries in the world.
The vacation was really divided into three parts. The first week was spent in the north of the country just outside Kruger National Park. The idea was to see as many animals as possible.
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| We found her tucked away under a tree as protection from the hot sun after she had just fed. Fortunately, busy digesting, she wasn't too fussed with us getting quite close. |
We were fortunate enough to rent the house of a work colleague which meant we were essentially living like the locals for the week. This included trips to the local grocery store, butcher and beer store, outdoor BBQs, swimming in our private infinity pool overlooking the savanna and cleaning up the filth after the place was ransacked by a gang of thieving baboons!
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| For all my waterbuffalo brothers out there. This guy is the real deal. It's no wonder we never lost at Winter Carnival! |
Apart from seeing the big five, the highlight was being awakened by the howls of a pack of wild dogs (endangered) who just happened to trotting through the front yard and a hike to see "God's Window". Simply breath taking!
For the second part, we travelled north to Zimbabwe to visit Victoria Falls. Now, this trip was quite routine with one exception. Zimbabwe will only allow you into the country if you pay for the visa in American dollars of which we had none. Fortunately, after throwing Euros, Swiss Francs, South African Rand and Canadian Dollars at the customs officer he finally let us through. As the expression goes, "When faced with a problem, simply throw money (currencies) at it!" The Victoria falls were everything they promised to be even though we hit them during low season.
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| At this time of the year, the falls are at low volume. The positive to this is that you can see and take pictures without being covered in mist. The Negative is that there is only approximately one tenth of the high volume water |
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| Certainly not the best picture but the secret is to look closely in the middle. There you will see people swimming in Devil's hole right on the edge of the falls. It wasn't possible for us to join because of a shortage of space in our passports. Crossing into Zambia would have required another page that I simply didn't have. |
We also took in a sunset cruise up the Zambezi river where we saw our first (and only) elephants of the trip. Befriending a South African from Jo berg really paid off as he happened to work for the Radisson Blu and was able to hook us up with a "friend and family" rate at the Radisson Blu in Capetown for the end of our trip.
And finally, the third part of the trip was a car drive along the Garden Route from Port Elizabeth in SA to Capetown. This trip had it all. Locked keys in the car, the best cheese cake ever, whale watching from shore, swimming with the Great White Sharks, caving, wineries, hiking, great food and exquisite WINE! We spent a few days in Capetown visiting Table Mountain, the Cape, Robben Island (a must visit) and the V&A harbour.
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| One of a billion photos on the SA coastline. This was taken on the way back to Capetown from the Cape. |
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| The Cape is littered with hiking trails. Really disappointed that we didn't have time to take some of them in. Imagine hiking around this landscape! |
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| One of the infamous sunsets from Table Mountain. It really is an incredible thing to watch the sun set into the Atlantic Ocean. You can either walk or take a cable car to the top. Wait until after 6 pm and the cable car price drops significantly |
It's amazing to reflect back on this trip and think of all of the things we were able to do, see and accomplish in such a short period of time. The trip to South Africa and Zimbabwe really was an expat adventure from Switzerland worth sharing. Based on this first introduction to sub-Saharan Africa I have no doubt that many following trips to the continent will be captured on this blog.
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