South Africa 2014 in Pictures

What an amazing trip!  South Africa is now one of my favorite places on earth.  It's beautiful and has a fantastic mix of outdoor activities combined with the best of "refined living" including some of the best white wines I've ever had and delicious food.  My only criteria I had before we went was that I wanted to see elephants and penguins, stay in boutique hotels and see the wine country.  I'm happy to say my requests were fulfilled!

Before I get into the pictures, here are a few South Africa facts to introduce you to this beautiful and evolving country:

• Apartheid, an Afrikaans word meaning "apartness" and the term for the separation of blacks and whites in South Africa, officially began in 1948 but was in effect for decades before that.
• Apartheid ended in 1994 though the socioeconomic effects are still reverberating with the majority of blacks still living below the "breadline" (what we call the poverty line in the US).
• The population is 51.7 million, with 79.2% African, 8.9% white, 8.9% coloured ("coloured" is a term used for people of mixed lineage descended from slaves brought to the country from east and central Africa, the indigenous Khoisan who lived in the Cape at the time, indigenous Africans and whites), 2.5% Indian/Asian and 0.5% other. 
• There are 11 official languages.  Most of the people we encountered in the Western Cape spoke multiple languages, including English.
• The unemployment rate hovers around 25%.  

Sources:

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/south-africa/unemployment-rate

http://www.southafrica.info/about/people/population.htm#.UzlxVa1dV5k

That concludes the South Africa history lesson. Now on to the trip!  But first let me publicly say thank you to my amazing husband who supported me going on this trip and took care of the kids while I played.  Thanks, HC!

Niki and I departed for South Africa on Thursday, March 13th at 4:10pm.  Our 8-hour flight went from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, where we had a three hour layover and then from Amsterdam to Cape Town (11 hour flight).  We arrived in Cape Town at 11pm on Friday. It's a 7 hour time difference from Minneapolis to Cape Town.   

Check out our beautiful eye masks.  Our strategy to adjust our bodies to the Cape Town time was to sleep when it was night time there.  During the other times, we watched movies.  In total, I watched 7 movies!  It was awesome.  

We spent the night in Cape Town and took a flight to Port Elizabeth the next morning to see Maria!  A little backstory: When I was 19 and in college, I was Niki's nanny.  Maria, her oldest, was just 1-1/2 years old.  Niki and Tom, her late husband, went on to have two more children, Thomas and Joey, and I've stayed friends with the family since.  Tom passed away7 years ago after battling a rare form of lung cancer (no, he never smoked).   Maria is now 21 years old and is studying abroad in Port Elizabeth.  Niki was originally going to go with her mom who ended up needing knee surgery, so she asked me to join her!  

Port Elizabeth Beach view one.

Port Elizabeth beach view two.

Port Elizabeth beach view three.

Maria and her boyfriend, Nick. They go to the Colleges of St. Benedict and St. John's.  They were excellent tour guides and have learned so much about that country they're visiting.  

Here's where the 30 students in the study abroad program live (plus one supervising nun) - the Langory.  The beach is across the street.

The view from Maria's apartment, which overlooks the Indian Ocean.  Off in the distance you can see the metal "giraffes."  Those are cranes in the port that lift containers on and off ships.   Port Elizabeth is definitely a working port.   There are a couple of car manufacturing facilities in the area. 

Inside view of Maria's apartment.  There are five women living in the two bedroom apartment.
 They have a steady stream of people visiting as they have an amazing view of the beach. 

Drinks come in teapots!  And they're very inexpensive.

The lobby of our hotel, the Windermere, in Port Elizabeth. 

The outdoor living room at the Windermere. 

We had a happy hour for the kids.  Many of them were curious to see the Windermere which was across the street from their hotel.  Our happy hour was missing some of the "happy" as we didn't know we couldn't buy alcohol on Sundays.  The kids graciously drank juice and ate popcorn.  What a great group! 

Niki and Maria shopping for some wares along the beachfront in Port Elizabeth.

Port Elizabeth market.  Animal carvings. 

Maria and I LOVE these giraffes that are at the park along the beach. 

Downtown Port Elizabeth. Love God's Time Car Wash:-).

Here's all 30 St. Ben's/St. John's kids + the supervising nun.  They're waiting for their bus to go to their various service projects.  Some kids help establish community gardens, some work in the schools and some in clinics.  When we asked them what their favorite part of their study abroad was, they all universally said the service work.  Very impressive.

Here's where Maria and some friends work.  This is a home for orphaned children and a safe place for kids with AIDS, which is still a problem in Africa.  The orphans live 6-8 kids per house with a "house mom" who cares for them.  During the day, they go to preschool or school.  There are also kids from the community who join them in their classes.

A sweet little boy who lives at The House of Resurrection.

Preschool kids singing and having fun with the St. Ben's volunteers before they eat their breakfast porridge.  

A picture of the laundry because it's outside!  It was this way in Peru, too.  

Monday, March 17th. Niki and I headed to Gorah Elephant Camp in the Addo Elephant National Park for two days for safari.  It was an hour drive from Port Elizabeth.  We stayed in some luxurious tents.

A view of our tent.

What an ingenious way to do the beds.  They can be bought together to make a king-size bed or made up separately into twin beds.  It was this way at every place we stayed.  

The tent bathroom.

Toiletries. 

View from our tent.

On safari.  We arrived at noon on Monday and went on our first Safari that evening at 4:30pm.  

Cape Buffalo.  One of the African "Big Five" animals, which include lion, elephant, rhino, leopard and buffalo.  We saw all of them on safari, except for the leopard.

A herd of Addo elephants approaching us on the road at sunset!

The herd passed within 10 feet of our Land Cruiser.  This is a big male.

The elephants at the park are protected and fortunately they've been able to ward off poaching for many years.  

Elephants at sunset.

The safari rides last about 3 hours and happen in the morning at 6:30am and again at 4:30pm.   There's a break in the ride for coffee or cocktails, depending on the time of day.  This was cocktail hour.   Niki is standing by our dreamy and ever-so-knowledgeable guide, Mike. I later found out that Mike was just 25 years old, which broke the spell:-).

The Addo Elephant Camp tents at sunrise.

Morning gathering at the main house before safari. 

African sunrise from the main house.

Some buffalo hanging out near the house. 

The monkeys were tenacious and were constantly trying to sneak up on us to grab some food.  This was on the porch of the main house where we'd eat breakfast after our morning safari.

A morning rainbow with some zebras.

Traveling along the outskirts of the park.

Zebras.  Pronounced zeb-ruh, according to our guide. I could tell that hearing us pronounce it zee-bruh was like nails on a chalk board for our guide.  

Ostrich. 

A beautiful male elephant checking us out.  

Day two evening cocktail stop.

Yup, those are elephants in the background, sharing in our happy hour.

We met some friends on the trip, including Rachel and Claire from the UK who got engaged on safari.  To their right is a couple, Nathan and Frank from Australia.  Mike, our guide, is at the head of the table.  To his right is Jim, a travel photographer from Cape Town.  

Two lionesses approaching our vehicle on our second morning safari!  It's not a guarantee that you'll see them, or any animals for that matter, while on safari.  We were really luck. 

They're getting closer.  And no, I wasn't even the least bit nervous. 

Maybe I wasn't nervous because they were on Niki's side of the car and they'd eat her first.:-).

The lionesses made their way to the watering hold which was right in front of the main house where we were staying.  We circled back to observe them for a bit while they took a rest.

Wow.  So beautiful and powerful.

Check out these muscles. 

Mike holding a dung beetle, an endangered species.  Female dung beetles roll up elephant dung into balls a little taller then themselves.  Then they roll the balls, bury them and deposit an egg.  The larvae eat the dung when they hatch.  

A mama elephant with her baby and teenage elephant crossing the road. 

Mama and baby.

A cheeky baby giving us a wave.

Our group from left to right on our last day: newly betrothed, Rachel and Claire, Jim the travel photographer, Frank from Australia (Nathan was packing), Mike our guide, Niki and me.

Wednesday, March 19, saying goodbye to sweet little Maria in Port Elizabeth.  So happy to see her and her world in South Africa.

Maria and Niki.

Thursday, March 20th.  Niki and I left Maria and friends in Port Elizabeth and flew back to Cape Town, the largest city on the South African coast.  Table Mountain is a backdrop to the city.  People climb (or ride the cable car) to the top for breathtaking views of Cape Town.  Niki and I hiked up it.  Here we are at the top with the Apostle Mountains in the back. 

Silhouette on top of Table Mountain.

Gathering area at the top of Table Mountain.

Taking the cable car down table mountain.

Friday, March 21st.  In the wine country 30-minutes outside of Cape Town.   I didn't meet a wine I didn't like in South Africa!  Truly, their white wines were the best I've ever had.  I would have bought a bunch but it was so expensive to ship them back home.  Darn it.

At a vineyard.  The name escapes me. 

A view from the front door of the same vineyard that I can't remember the name of.  It was a posh place that had mediocre wines.  Okay, so I did meet a few glasses that I didn't like.  

Here's how the grapes come in.

This is at RSW, the biggest wine cooperative and exporter in South Africa.  This is called the Cathedral Room.

Check out how big these barrels are! 

White wine production at RSW.

Yummy lunch at the Black Sheep in the garden district of Cape Town.  Our hotel, the Welgelegen Guest House, was just two blocks from a bunch of great restaurants.

Saturday, March 22.  Cape of Good Hope Tour.  We stopped for lunch in Simon's town where I purchased this AWESOME elephant mask.  It took the artist who's holding the mast 2-days to make it. 

A view on our tour of the Cape of Good Hope. 

Cape Point.  Where they Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet. 

Climbing to the top of Cape Point.

Pausing for a picture. 

The penguins of Simon's town at Boulder's Beach. These African penguins started the colony in 1982 and have flourished.  They're so darn cute!  

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, Cape Town. I LOVE seeing what grows in the different places I visit.  We only had an hour here.  We needed a day! 

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden.

Guineafowl at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden.

Sunday, March 23.  Cape Town in the shadow of Lion's Head mountain.  Niki and I climbed it sunset on our last day.  We got back to our hotel just in time pack and take our transfer to the airport for our 12:35am flight.

Sunset from Lion's Head.  

Friends:-).  Sunset at Lion's Head. 

Here's what greeted us when we got back to Minneapolis at 6:30pm on Monday, March 24th: snow.  How fitting.