We loved out trip to South Africa so much last January,
we decided to go back! While living in Botswana we really miss a lot of
things about home. Of course we really miss our family and friends but we also
really miss other things that we realize we took for granted such as bodies of
water, soil, trees without thorns, trees that are taller than houses, customer
service. South Africa
has all of these essentials and more.
Last time in South Africa
we drove from Botswana and
stayed in St. Lucia, Durban and Drakensberg.
You can read about that adventure in a previous
post. This time we decided to do things a little different.
Back in May, Amanda received a wonderful birthday gift from
our family, a week at a time-share of her choosing. After weeks of careful
deliberation, we decided that a week in Durban
would be fantastic. We joined forces with two other volunteers Lucie and Sunny and with our powers combined… we could afford to go on a two and a
half week vacation!
When doing our pre-trip planning we discovered that there is
no cheap way to rent a car or fly from the capital of Botswana to South Africa. Being the nerd I am I
created an extensive Excel book of all the different travel methods (bus,
train, car, plane) in various combinations, accounting for taxes, tolls and
fuel costs. We came to the conclusion that taking the bus from Botswana to Johannesburg
then flying to Durban, driving to Cape Town, flying back to JoBurg and bussing back to Gaborone was our best bet.
So, the first step was to take the lovely Intercape bus. The bus leaves Botswana real early and gets into Johannesburg in the afternoon,
7 hours later. The bus is a very comfortable ride but unfortunately it drops
you off in a super sketch part of a sketch city in the moderately sketch
country so we took a taxi right away to the airport to catch our flight to Durban. Once in Durban we collected our
rental car and headed to our condo.
Durban
We love Durban.
I think it feels somewhat like San
Diego, if I had to compare it to a city in the States.
Long, split avenues with palm trees in the middle going all the way down
endless public beaches with super high-end neighborhoods at each end. The condo
we stayed at the whole week sits right on the waterfront in the south beach
area. We shared a parking lot with uShaka Marine World, which is owned by Sea
World and Wet n’ Wild. We spent most of the week enjoying the city and beach.
The uShaka complex has some really great shops covering everything we would
miss from a mall back home. But of course since this was a trip with three
women and one man we would have to go to two other malls throughout the week.
One of which I believe is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. We heard that
claim a lot, is there no other big city in the Southern Hemisphere? Where you
at Rio? Sydney?
I have to be honest though, I enjoyed the big malls too.
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| View from the condo of the Durban beach |
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| one of the Victoria/Indian street market alley |
We spent a whole day enjoying the Victoria Street
Market/Indian Market. Durban is home to more
people of Indian descent than any other place in the world outside of India.
The market area of Durban has many sections
including: spices, seafood, herbs, restaurants, clothing, beads and the typical
tourist type shops selling goods from all over Africa.
They must get them all from the same catalog though because when you go from
one to the next you feel like you are in the exact same shop.
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| View from the car on the drive to Addo |
One day in Durban Amanda and I went to uShaka while Sunny
and Lucie got tattoos and enjoyed the beach. We were pleasantly surprised at
how large and complete the aquarium and water park were. I scored us half-price
tickets online beforehand to it made the day even more enjoyable. The aquarium
(largest in S.Hemisphere) and water park (largest in S.Hemisphere, ok I will
stop) were great!
Addo
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| B+B/backpackers we stayed at in Addo |
The drive from Durban
to Addo was fairly long and uneventful until we had a miscommunication near our
destination and were forced to take a very very long side trip (17 hours
total!). The B&B/Backpacers we stayed at in Addo was Amazing! It is a
beautiful family run citrus orchard. They had just harvested the Oranges but we were
allowed to go and take some leftovers, so we filled a few bags of oranges with
a few grapefruit and lemons. Sunny, Lucie and I went on a self drive through
the local elephant park were we saw a good amount of animals. It was a lot
different than Botswana’s
parks, much less “wild.” Even the obligatory elephants were tiny and lacked
tusks for the most part. (This is due to generations of poaching the largest
animals with the largest tusks causing genetic selection.) However we did see a
small family of lions in the distance, which is always impressive.
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| Elephants drinking at Addo |
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| we alighted carefully |
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| Zerba, Kudu, warthog and ...I forgot the other |
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| they really are this comfortable with people |
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| these little moving rocks were all over the place, he was the smallest. |
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| Lucie and I enjoying wine at the citrus farm |
Winelands
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| view from a winery in Franschhoek |
After another long drive (with no missed turns this time)
along the beautiful coast we found ourselves, slightly inland, on switchbacks
climbing a mountain and eventually descending a small mountain pass into the
lovely little French Huguenot town of Franschhoek.
Franschhoek is basically everything you thought you would never see in Africa;
endless wineries, chocolatiers, cheeseries, charcuterie and fine dining (dubbed
the “culinary capitol” of south
Africa). We spent time in this idyllic
little European-style village tasting wine, eating at nice restaurants and just
overall enjoying the transplanted French culture, at a fraction of the price it
would be in Europe!
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| Wine cellar in Franschhoek |
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| entrance to a winery in Franschhoek |
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| Amanda and I tasting |
Our next stop in the winelands was in a college town/wine
area (I know, bad combinations huh?) called Stellenbosch. Stellenbosh’s unique
combinations of old wine estates and youthful student population make it a fun
area. We visited more wineries in this area as well. On the second day we
visited a brandy distillery which has won the coveted best brandy in the world
award. The distillery had a very “boys club” feel with dark wood and dark
leather furnishings. The second stop was at a champagne winery, which was the
exact opposite in feel from the distillery, think Barbie Palace with crystal
sparkling, lots of pink and lots of shinny things…the girls loved it.
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| Brandy tasting (its a whole different game) |
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| Lucie and Sunny at the distillery |
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| The only manly thing about the champagne winery |
Cape Town
Ahh Cape Town, the cosmopolitan “mother city” of South Africa.
We all really enjoyed Cape Town
for its variety and feel. In Cape Town
we stayed at a great backpackers near the point and the World Cup stadium.
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| Cape of Good Hope |
One day in Cape Town we made
the climb up one of the newly appointed “new7wonders of nature”,
Table Top Mountain.
It’s a tough climb. Most people choose to pay the money and ride the gondola.
Once on top the view was amazing! Unfortunately it was short lived and we soon
found ourselves among the clouds.
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| penguins |
We also drove to the Cape of Good Hope and visited the only penguin
colony in Africa.
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| Table Top Mountain from V&A Waterfront in Cape Town |
Overall South
Africa was a tour of all many of the
things we miss from home mixed with things that are uniquely South African. We
ate amazing food. We drank some amazing wine. We came back completely refreshed
(and fat) and, after having been reminded of the comforts of the developed
world, are now ready to come home.
We HIGHLY recommend South Africa-
a tour of the winelands in specific- for your next vacation! The people are
friendly, the views are magnificent, the food and wine are splendid and there
is so much variety in culture, scenery and entertainment that you are sure to
enjoy it no matter what your interests. (Let us know if you need some planning
tips). We will definitely return again.
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| View from top of Table Top Mountain of Cape Town |
---Todd
