Oct 1

We woke bright and early for today was the day our tour left.  But before that we had to go to Langa to drop of our school supplies and toys to a school of young kids in need. So Judy and I packed our bags and left the room at 630am in a taxi for the township by the airport.  The taxi driver got us there in about 10 mins but once arriving in Langa we had to stop at the police station to get an escort to the area in which we wanted to go.  Thembeka the principal of Nolukhanyiso meet us there.  When we got there at 645 there were four children there already.  A baby sleeping on couch.  A little girl and 2 young boys.  The little girl wanted me to read her a book. So I started to read her a book.  It had lions and tigers in it.  And even though she didn't speak English.  She started saying lion to me and pointing to the lion.  The lion was playing soccer and I said I have a soccer ball.  Her eyes light up.  I went and blew up the soccer balls and more children started to arrive.  We went out to the court yard and played with the soccer balls, sidewalk chalk and some other toys.  They were so cute and all full of smiles.  Only one girl made shy.  The rest were so eager to play and communicate.  One little girl started dancing, so one of the teaches started singing and a couple more kids joined in.   They speak Afrikaans.  The teachers did not speak English nor any of the children.  A few of the children knew a few words because they had a volunteer from Vancouver just spent 3 weeks with them.  Our visit was way to short but it was the best that we could do.  The taxi driver took us back and we arrived just as our tour bus was ready to pull out.  They were waiting for us.   We were a few minutes late, but they knew where we had gone so they waited.  

 

These children live in dire conditions. 

Thanks Breanne, Christine, Bev, Marilyn and Charlotte for your donations. The  Children really appreciated them.   When I went to wave goodbye they all ran up and gave me high fives.   I hated to leave.  I will be visited another school in Namibia and will be shopping for books to take to them.  Can't wait.  

We left on tour and found out rather quickly that our vehicle is not very comfortable.  

It does have big viewing windows, is high up and has a pop up roof so the game drives should be good. It has fridge inside but no washroom.  So we have had to use the bushee bushee a few times already.  

After leaving  Cape Town we stopped at Sunset beach on the Atlantic Ocean to get one last picture of table mountain across the bay before heading off to cedarberg mountains.

  

We stopped for a wine tasting and tour at a local vineyard,  Org De Rac.

  On route we saw ostriches and baboons. There is this yellow tree that is brought in from Australia that they were having trouble keeping alive due to moisture lose.  In order to keep the moisture they had to import a butterfly from Australia that lays its eggs in this tree and helps to stop moisture loss.  I don't know the whole story and will have to read up on this at a later date, but it sounded interesting. 

We stopped in Malmesbury for shopping. It is a wheat town.  This part of the country is mostly farmland with lots of wild flowers and birds.  We saw sheep, cows, donkeys, magpie bird and citrus orchards. 

We arrived shortly after lunch at our first night which was a farm called the old village.  Judy and I had a cottage to ourselves, with 2 bedroom 2 bathroom, Kitchen and and living room.  We enjoyed a farm cooked meal.  

oct 4

LToday left Felix around 8 am and our first stop was at a small village Aussenkehr where families lived in small huts.  They came from all over the country to work in the vineyard here.  There was no plumbing or sewage and they used bushee bushee to go to the bathroom. We stopped there to go to the market to get supplies for the day.  

We then drove through the Ai-Ais national park.  Where we spotted Oryx 

Springbok

And ostrich. 

We stopped at the Ai-Ais hot springs and spa. 

 There Judy and I went for a swim in the hot springs.  It was very nice.  The rest of the bus saw baboons.  We then had lunch there among the gorgeous scenery.  On our drive out of spa we stopped and went for a walk along the side of the road.  Oh by the way the roads are now all dirt roads and pretty rough and dusty.  We counted a grand total of 3 vehicles that we met on that road.  This allows for stopping the vehicle anywhere to look at animals or to go for a walk and look at bushes, trees and animal dung as we did.  We saw a very poisonous shrub called the Damara Euphobia   

    Malvern told us a story of a family that made a fire with the dead branches of this bush.  All of them died due to the toxic fumes it gave off.  Very poisonous to humans yet animals can eat it and survive.  We also saw a tree called Quiver tree which the San people use the tree branches hallowed out to store their poisonous arrows as they go hunting.  These tree branches are fibrous in The centre which can easily be dug out to transform into storage tubes which are covered on both ends with animal skins.  Below you can see the group around the Quiver tree. 

Our stop for the night was at a beautiful location called canyon village.  It was the nicest setting so far.  Right in the middle of no where among large rock formations.

. We had a few hrs to relax by the pool and then about 4 pm we drove out to fish Fish River Canyon where we walked the rim and watched the sunset across the canyon. this is known as the seconded largest canyon In the world next to the Grand Canyon.  

Did I tell you it is unbareable hot!

Sept 28

Today is the day Judy arrives but I wiil go up Table mountain before she arrives.  First I will buy a 2 day ticket for the hop on hop off bus.  I can get on right outside my room in sea point.  Our stop is the last  the hop on hop off tour so I will ride it around the whole way to get to table mt. The city is beautiful with table mountain as the back drop to the whole city.   The city is wrapped around the coast line with a lot of the communities built on the beach fronts.  Beautiful sandy beaches and high rock cliffs.  The day starts out with some sunshine so hopefully there will be some visibility from the top of table mt as the weather changes very quickly around here.  They say you can have all four seasons in one day and am witness to that.  

We tour the city to V & A waterfront which is the number one tourist destination of South Africa. We pass the stadium which was built for the 2010 FIFA cup.  It is oval shape and like table mountain is very distinct and visible from many points of the city.  

The drive up table mt is spectacular and I know the scenery from up top will be stunning as long as the clouds hold off.  

Finally we are boarding the oval cable cars and when we get inside they tell us to not hold on around the outside as the car rotates.  It is very cool. This allows everyone to get a great view.  Once up top it did not disappoint. You could see the ocean, the stadium and the whole city.   From the back side you could see the ocean and coast line.   I spent about an hr walking around taking pictures before making my descent.  I did have to wait for one rain cloud to pass but it did quickly and it went from zero visibility to about 100 percent visibility in about 10 mins.  It was extremely cold and windy up top but well worth braving the elements.  

I returned to the hop in hop off and went back to the room to see if Judy arrived.  The front desk lady said she was waiting for me at bus stop, so I knew I missed her.  So I quickly went back and jumped on again and went downtown to market as I had left a note saying I would go there about 4 but it was now 5 and I know the market was closed.  But off I went in search of Judy.  I arrived at market and no sign Of Judy, I wandered for about 30 mins and it was getting pretty seedy down there and I was getting uncomfortable so decided to leave just as Judy texted me saying she was on hop on hop off bus at V & A waterfront heading to see the sunset on too off devils peak or lions head.  So I looked at my watch and it was 5:55 and it left at six.  I texted her back and said hold the bus I'm on my way.  I jumped In a taxi and flew.  Felt like I was on amazing race.  I got there and ran for a bus which was pulling out but was the wrong bus, fearing I had missed it I turned around and there was Judy. She had jumped off the bus and was going to just wait for me as the driver wouldn't wait but he hadn't left so we jumped back on and were off.  We had found each other finally.  Thank god for texting even though will cost us all other means of meeting up failed.  

Sunset on top of lions head was very nice.  There was lots of guinea fowl up top and again  fabulous views of the city now all lit up. 

We finished our day with dinner at the V & A Waterfront.  

Sept 30

Great white shark cage diving day begins.  We get picked up at 6:15 am from our hotel.  We travel 2 hrs by mini bus to Gansbaai then the fun begins. We are given breakfast on arrival and shown a DVD of what adventure awaits us.  I begin to get very nervous with the do's and don't and what can happen if you do this and that. We sign the waiver and off to the boat we go.  We travel about 15 mins to a place called shark alley.  They put out chum and tell us to wait.  And wait we did.  I thought maybe we weren't going to see any today but after about an hr our first shark arrived and boy was it exciting.  After about 15 mins it was apparent he was staying around so the first eight people got suited up and climbed into the cage and the excitement began.  They used gladys ( a seal cut out) to attract the sharks even closer to the boat.  As well they used bait which for the most part was right in front of me, which was good and bad.  It brought the sharks close but also was in front of me and probably in the way for most of my go pro shots.  The sharks were huge and from the boat we could see them coming from quite far away.  The crew would yell "down" and you would pull yourself under the water to see the shark.  We had wet suits on and weight belts.  It was important to lock your feet under the bar to hold you down.  I was having a hard time getting down there and was worried my feet were floating outside the cage.  The guy next to me kept telling me when they were.  I soon figured it out.   They came very close and some viewers even got a shark hitting their cage.  Underwater you can only see about 2 metres as the water is very murky from the last three days of storms.  But the experience was amazing.  We saw 11 sharks in all that day and the largest was 4 metres.  We also saw a few whales and a couple seals and lots of sea gulls of course. 

We returned back to Cape Town to meet up with our tour for our 6pm meet up.  

Sept 26

Got up early for my flight.  Dubai airport is very interesting.  Security very tight.  Full body scans for all.  Seemed like we had security check point after security check point.  When we finally started boarded we were all boarded onto a bus where we drove for miles and miles past emirate plane after emirate plane.  My friend Tess is an air traffic controller at Dubai airport and she said that there are over 1000 planes on the ground at any one time and over 3000 in the air.  When we finally drove past all 1000 planes it seemed, we came to a plane parked and they let us off and boarded the plane by walking on the Tarmac.     Looking back at all the boarding stations and you see everyone is being boarded by bus.  The buses are stopping at intersections to let the planes go by.  Interesting concept, you take the people to the plane and therefore don't need so many loading docks.  Another interesting fact.  Everyone who works for emirates must live in Dubai.  That is a lot of people with some very long commutes!  10 hr flight. Another smooth flight sitting with a gentleman in his 70,s from the states.  He was a retired dentist and was very interesting to talk to.  He was at the window seat and got a very nice picture of the palm island as we took off.  He said he would email it to me.  He was meeting his son in Cape Town.  They were going to climb table mountain and were also going shark diving.  Yes I said climb table mountain! He had done the desert safari and also went up the Burj Khalfa to view the city.  Both adventures he said were well worth it.  Missed both those!  Guess I have to go back.  

Arrived in cape town, South Africa at 4:30pm.  Hailed a taxi and shared it with a few other people and off to the room we went.  I was the last to be dropped off.  We did a lot of driving around.  So didn't get to the room till about 6pm.  

My room was a lovely small place one block from the beach.  The nicest staff, where you felt like you were the only ones staying there.  They had free Internet, free bottled water, did my laundry and. The lady there bought my tickets online for me to save me money. 

It was late when I arrived and after a 10 hr flight and another 14 hr travel day I was ready for bed, but had to find a place eat.  So walked to the beach to a lovely restaurant where I had salmon for 140 rand. Or approx 14 dollars. The temperature here in Cape Town was a shock.  It was about 10 degrees and windy and cloudy.  After dinner it was to bed so I could be up by 730 to meet Peter for my private photographic tour of the cape.  

Drink I tried in Dubai.  It was a juice.  Will have to get the name of it.  Was very refreshing.  The green color was the lime.  It was a lime aid of some kind. 

Sept 25

Today was my second day in Dubai.  The jet lag has caught up with me and had a hard time getting up this am.  But when I finally did Tess and I drove out of town to see the sand dunes.  They are very red in color and its was extremely hot. You can actually just drive off the side of the road and go four wheel driving over the sand dunes.  We were going to do it until we got there and saw a truck hung up on one of the dunes and decided not to.  I guess what they do is let some air out of their tires to allow the tires to grab easier to the loose sand.  The dunes were huge and endless.  It was the heat that was unbelievable.  They offer desert safaris where they take you out on a 4x4 over the dunes.  Then you have camel rides and dinner in camps set up for such an event.  Evening entertainment is included in Such a package.  I didn't do it and regret it.  Should have!  

We went out to the dunes to see camels and didn't see any.  Well we saw one on other side of a divided highway but after getting turned around and coming back it had disappeared 

Tess and I went for lunch and then picked the kids up from school.  We drove back to the house and went for a nice refreshing swim.  After it cooled Down a tad we went back to the Madinat Jumeirah city had dinner by the waterfront. It was now 8pm and at 33 degrees we were able to sit outside and shopped in the stores for a few souvenirs.   We had an early night.  Tomorrow off to AFRICA

Sept 27

Today was my photographic tour of the cape.  It started out a miserable day.  Raining and cold.  Peter my guide showed up and said we could postpone if I liked, but worried about not fitting it in decided it go ahead with it. 

Our first stop was on Muizenberg beach with the colourful beach huts.  Here we stopped for some photographic tips and I took a few shots in between down pours.  The next stop was Kalk bay harbour which was a fishing wharf.  You could buy some fresh catch here. 

The scenery on this drive was breathtaking.  The blue sky came out in between rain showers and although cold and windy was a gorgeous day all round.  I couldn't have asked for a better tour guide.  Peter was very knowledgable on the area plus very knowledge about photography.  He stopped wherever I wanted to get some good shots.  I asked him to pull over at a railway line to get some shots of Fishhoek beach. 

One of the highlights for me was Simon town with the penguins.  We arrived there and it was pouring rain but a few minutes later it passed and we were able to walk down to see these delightful creatures.  They are now called the African penguins but were called the jack-ass penguin because the sound they make is exactly like a donkey.  I could have stayed there all day watching them waddle into the 

surf. 

As we continued our drive I saw signs saying baboons are dangerous and beware.  I asked Peter if would see any and no sooner did I say that and we took a corner and 2 baboons were coming down the roadway.  We pulled over at a lookout and there was a car already there.  This was at Smitswinkel.  Peter was concerned because this troupe of baboons are known for going into cars.  They actually listen for the beep of you locking   the cars and if you don't they will go and open the doors.  These baboons are very clever.  We warned the tourists to shut there doors and lock them.  They informed Peter their keys were in the  ignition.  By this time the alpha male baboon was on the hood of his car.  Peter quickly reached in and grabbed the keys and locked the doors.  The alpa male jumped down and literally went and tried the door handle.  Amazing!  This male had a GPS around its neck and no sooner did I get the great pictures but the baboon patrol arrived to scare them off with paintball guns. Peter told me that another alpha male and young male baboon had to be out down because they became so aggressive, so it is important no to feed these animals.  

Peter entertained me with great stories of baboons.  He says they are afraid of snakes so he keeps a rubber snake in his car.  He would use this to through into a vehicle to get the baboon to retreat. 

We then entered the cape of good hope nature reserve. We spotted some ostrich here as well as a oryx I believe it was.  Or maybe it was a kudu.  Didnt get a good look at it before it ran. 

Once arriving at the Cape Point we had a lovely lunch at the Two Oceans Restaurant. 

Before we walked down to the newer lighthouse and then way way up to the older lighthouse.  Spectacular views from the top and it was extremely windy.  I also took lots of pictures of the waves crashing against the rocks here.  Upon our decent it started to rain so we ducked into the tram station store to get out of the rain and wait it out.  

From here we drove to the cape of good hope which was once called the cape storm but was renamed as no one wanted to go to cape storm or more importantly sail around cape storm. 

Here is also where the story of the Flying Dutchman came from.  There was a sailor who tried and tried to get around the cape but kept getting blown back so decided to tie himself to the mast. He died trying and to this day people still say they see the Flying Dutchman out at sea.  

We drove. back to sea point via chapmans peak drive again the most spectacular scenery.  Table mountin and the 7 apostles is one of my favourite rock formations.  Camps bay was a beautiful beach area where some condos are said to go for 13 million.  They film a lot of movies there and were filming the day we drove by. Apparently the summer can get very busy.  This is were the rich and famous have their holiday homes.