Pumba Private Game Reserve & Township Tour

Friday October 21 –

Day 12 Pumba Private Game Reserve & Township Tour 

Spent two nights in Port Elizabeth at the Protea Marine hotel, which is across from Nelson Mandela Bay and a few blocks from a casino and Ginger, the restaurant where we had a fabulous dinner. Choices included pork, chicken and fish, roasted vegetables and sweet potatoes and more delicious South African wine, topped off by crème brulee or fresh fruit and ice cream. After dinner, several of us walked back to the hotel, but I’m sure everyone went to bed with a very full stomach. For you foodies out there, I apologize for not photographing our meals, but here’s the link to the menu at Gingers: http://www.ginger-restaurant.co.za/menu/

Food, Accommodations and Internet in S. Africa

Food, Accommodations and Internet in S. Africa

Thought it might be fun to talk about food, accommodations, and internet.

I assumed since we were in Africa, that we would be eating African food, but that hasn’t always been the case. The hotel in Zambia had a few traditional choices – yams, sweet potato, pumpkin, and greens, but the Protea hotels seem to cater more to the American palate with buffet-style meals  – chicken, fish, lamb and beef, an array of pastas, breads , an assortment of desserts – mousse, pies, salads and a limited supply of cooked vegetables.

Nespruit ATM Mishap

Tommie -- before the fall

Day 8: Nespruit ATM Mishap

October 17 was a really strange day.  The plan was to travel by bus from Hazyview to  Swaziland – about an eight hour bus trip. We left our hotel at 8:00 and stopped for lunch around noon. Tommie, who I’ve known since we moved to Nevada City in 1990,  and I left the bus and headed to the ATM when Tommie tripped on the sidewalk and fell, skinning her shoulder and cheek, and breaking the little finger on her right hand.

Kruger National Park

Day 5 was a travel day–back to Johannesburg  to meet up with people who didn’t go on the Pre-extension to Zambia

Day 6: Kruger National Park

Hi here’s what we saw Sunday10/16

Safari Vehicle at Kruger Park

Kruger Natl Park up at 4:00 am, and  on the road by 5 am –taken from Tommie’s iphone….Cryptic, but you get the idea. We saw a lot of birds and mammals. It was AMAZING!!  I’m posting some of my favorite photos.

This was the first time I’d ever seen animals in the wild.  Thank you to Tommie for keeping track of everything we saw. Pictured from left:  Joan, me (Jan) and Tommie in the middle seat.

Victoria Falls & Floating Down the Zambezi

Day 4: Victoria Falls & Touring the Zambezi

Thursday morning we hopped on a bus and drove a short distance to the entrance of Victoria Falls—the largest waterfall in the world. From pictures I’d seen, I was expected to be blown away. During the winter the falls can be heard from 30 miles away and visitors can expect to be soaked by the thundering spray.  I thought I’d be able to hear the falls from the parking lot, but the only sound was some chirping birds. 

Greetings From Zambia

Days 1 – 3 Greetings From Zambia

This is the first opportunity I’ve had to post since leaving on the 10^th. To catch up…

So, how was the flight to Johannesburg?  One word describes the entire experience: grueling. Eighteen hours in an unbelievably cramped space was almost unbearable—especially for those of us who didn’t have the benefit of Ambian or some other sleep aid. On the plus side, South African Air did serve us 3 meals and also supplied on-demand movies. Although there were people who did manage to snooze, our Nevada City group was sleep deprived upon arrival. That did not stop us from going out to sample some of the South African wines and enjoy a nice dinner.

Our hotel room at the Zambezi Sun

By the time I went to bed on Tuesday night, I’d been awake for 35 hours!

Time and Money

South Africa is 9 hours ahead of us. If  it’s Friday  6:00 p.m. in California, it’s Saturday 3:00 a.m. in South Africa.

The rand is the currency of South Africa. One dollar US is worth 7.94 Rand. The question is, what will a dollar or 7.94 Rand buy in South Africa? Stay tuned…I’m sure we’ll figure this out as soon as we arrive.

Here’s a link to a currency converter:

http://currency-converter-calculator.com/

What to Pack

We had our final pre-trip meeting today and Janinean brought a list of what she was taking. Here it is, with a few additions:

(Note: the last item on the list is particularly important!)

Our Guide

Guiding us on our South Africa Discovery will be Chris Wilke. Here’s some info about Chris from his email to me….Needless to say, I think we’ll be in good hands!

I am 41 years old, born in South Africa to a South African Mother and a German Father which lead to me being brought up speaking several languages all at once, my mother tongue is indeed English with my second language being a tussle between Afrikaans and German – I do speak a few others to a greater or lesser ability.

White Lions of Timbavati

Knowing I’m going to S. Africa, my friend Raven loaned me the book, Mystery of the White Lions, Children of the Sun God by Linda Tucker–“a first hand account of tucker’s firsthand account of her journey into the mysteries of the most sacred animal on the African continent: the legendary White Lion. ” Tucker is the founder of the Global White Lion Protection Trust and works to save these sacred animals. Her website: http://www.whitelions.org.  It turns out, Timbivati is right next to Kruger National Park–one of the reserves we will be seeing. We might see one of these magnificent creatures.