Stellenbosch to Capetown

From Stellenbosch to Capetown is only about an hour, and we stayed several nights just outside of Stellenbosch! This is wine country! Our favorite wine, Penny Black, comes from the Stellenbosch area! Stellenbosch, as does the entire Capetown area, has a very European feel to it.  Lots of German people here.

Downtown Stellenbosch. Notice the thatched roof

They whitewash some buildings here with limestone, so some buildings look very white.

The restaurant in the garden at the Morgenhof winery!!!

Lunch with a glass of wine...under a canopy of grape wines, hot weather and great friends!!!

Grapes are just starting to grow, as it's spring here.

The view from our guest house, just outside of Stellenbosch!

Breaky on our front stoop.  A glorious day!! A gluten free flax muffin, with fresh fruit salad and yogurt!!! And coffee, of course!

Post House!  A barrel of Penny Black! Our favorite!!!

I promise you! This shipment is leaving for Winnipeg today!  Of Penny Black!

Driving into Capetown!  Another township.  This one has power!

Addo to Stellenbosch

Leaving Addo National Elephant Park behind, it was long day drive to Knyzna, along the garden route! We passed through many townships, usually located on the outskirts of the town. Often they were across a street from the very big and wealthy suburbs, as this is where they are employed!

Millions of people live in townships like this. 

Many have no power and running water. 

Lots of road work happening, but if there is a long wait, there is always refreshments to be bought!

           Coffee break on the beach!!!

Stopped to admire a lot of these in a field along the highway!

                   Handsome, eh?

Biltong...an air dried, plain or flavoured with spices piece of beef! A snack found all over South Africa!  Moister than our beef jerky. 

King protea....South Africa's national flower. It can get to be 12 inches across. This one was only about 8 or 9 inches. Growing wild along our morning hike in Stellenbosch. 

Addo Elephant National Park

The drive from Port St Johns to Addo was beautiful! Reminded me of the rolling hills in Montana or Wyoming!  Just bigger! A long day of driving, so some driving shots!

A Xhosa village. One of many we drove past. 

Each grouping of houses represents a family in the village. 

          Driving through a small town. 

                   Another town!

And, of course, we stop for many a coffee....cappochino or a filter coffee!!!

The next day.....Addo national elephant park!

      We saw huge herds of these guys

                A pregnant lioness

And a weaver bird and her nest, at our guest house. The hole for the nest is at the bottom!

Port St Johns

Capetown! This is the first place, where we have had wifi at our accomodation! We have seen a LOT of South Africa! It's a beautiful country! Diversity in the landscape, in the peoples and how they live and even in the temperature.

Before we left on our tiki tour around South Africa, we visited a zulu village, where life on a traditional village was explained to us. We passed by many Zulu villages on our drive through this country. 

We left Pietermaritzburg on November 5, and our first stop was at a guest house right on the Indian Ocean outside a town called Port St Johns! Driving through this town, we came upon a riot! Police with guns, rocks being thrown and the smouldering remains of burning road blocks! We were given a police escort through the town, so got to our guest house safely!!!

On the beach in front of our guest house

                   Whale watching! 

        

Toto, our hired guide on a hike through a jungle forest! 

Wild!  Keep your windows closed. They will come in and steal!

Giraffes and zebras and......OH MY!

Well, our internal clock is still somewhere between home and here! We were wide awake at 5 AM again!!! So no trouble being ready for the 6:45 leaving time for market! Bought vegies, meat, bread and a milk tart, which we had for dessert in the evening! A typical Afrikans dessert. Very tasty!

The ladies were invited to Sally's house for breakfast. About ten ladies were there...all from James' and Joan's church. After the breaky,  we went to 'Deluxe Fabric', where we bought shweshwe fabric. It is a stiff hundred percent cotton fabric.  Apparently when the missionaries came to South Africa and saw the bare chested black women, they did not know where to leave their eyes!!! So they introduced this fabric to the king, and the ladies loved it. It is now a traditional dress!

       My stash! Aren't the colors lovely?

Just outside Pietermaritzburg is a nature reserve. We went for a hike through it with James late afternoon, to see what we could find.

We got within 100 feet of this big guy!!

And I always thought zebras were black and white!

I got a picture of this monkey, while sitting in Alty's courtyard. He was running along the prison wall, apparently coming to raid Alty's strawberries!

And we hear the Bombers were defeated again!

Pietermaritzburg

We are in AFRICA!  WE are in Africa! I have to keep pinching myself so I know this is for real!  

Our friends, the Alty's, work for MCC, and live in an old jail! So now we are sleeping in a jail!

It is spring here!  The jacaranda trees are in full bloom throughout the entire city!!!  Purple petals are covering the roads!!

As I sit here in Alty's courtyard, the fragrance of the jasmine vine is surrounding me!  

We walked the downtown area yesterday, and saw the statue of Gandhi. Pietermaritzburg is the town where Gandhi got kicked off the train as a young man, because a white gentleman was offended that there was an Indian sitting in the car he wanted to sit in. Even though Gandhi had a legitimate ticket. 

We are here!

This is the longest flight I have ever made! It's even longer than flying to visit our kids in NZ!  But the flights were very smooth. Snow and COLD in Calgary! Sunny and plus 8 C in London! 16 C and sunny in Johannesburg! We figured we were in transit somewhere around 40 hours!

For some reason, I can't seem to upload pictures, so I will try again tomorrow! Now it's bedtime!!!

Fish and chips on London airport. Pricey!!

Next.....South Africa

In less than a week, we leave for South Africa!!!  We are planning to spend one month travelling while visiting with longtime family friends. The six of us have rented a van, and planned a tiki tour around South Africa!  The weather looks promising, highs of 26 C or there abouts. The agenda is amazing....giraffes and elephants, gardens and vineyards, culture and beaches.... but best of all.... friends!!!

So, before we go....there is lots to be done!!!

garden produce to process

yard work

eaves and windows!!!

And, of course, time with our kids and our grandkids!!!! How to fit it all in????

GRAND CANYON!!!

                    At the top! South Rim!

We made it!!! It was awesome, hard, amazing, hot, spectacular, challenging, jaw dropping, breath taking!!! And we did it together!! It is one of the seven natural wonders of the world, and we not only saw it from the top, but we actually went down into it, passed through the bottom, and then climbed out to the top on the other side!  Before we headed down, we asked a young girl who had just come through it to the North Rim, how it had been for her. She said 'Amazing! But I won't lie! It was HARD'. And that is exactly how it was for us!

                Showing part of trail

                Notice the switchbacks

Soaking in Bright Angel Creek at the bottom of

the Canyon.  We just sat - 45 minutes!

                The 5 men on the trail

We headed down into the canyon Saturday morning about 8 AM, and came out yesterday, Tuesday at about 10:30 AM.  Carrying 30 lbs in my pack, plus 3 to 4 liters of water is heavy! Though by the end of the tramp it was starting to feel like it was a part of me. We couldn't believe how hungry we were on the last day out, as we were climbing up about 3000 feet in just under 5 hours!