Final Reflections

We're home now.  All unpacked.  Little to no jet lag.  Back into the swing of things.  Here are our final thoughts.

We learned a lot, saw a lot, ate a lot

We learned

How to pronounce Mbane, Hluhluhe, Knysna.  We learned about apartheid from museums and from individuals who shared their personal stories with us.  We learned that the difference between a white rhino and a black rhino is the shape of their head and what they they eat.  We learned that the Jews of South Africa mostly came from Lithuania.  We learned that Cape Town really IS one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  We learned that giraffes look graceful when walking through their natural environment.  We learned to tolerate some of our fellow travelers and grew fond of others. Now we understand that the ocean temperature in Cape Town is warmer in the winter than in the summer because of the direction of the prevailing winds.   We know it's worth it to pack long underwear, even if you only wear it one day.  We learned that in South Africa "now now" means right now and "just now" means in about a half hour or maybe never.  We were amused when reminded to "mind your head" and" mind your step".  We learned that In South Africa proteas are beautiful flowers and restaurant entrees come with rice or chips or rice AND chips. We learned that the king of Swaziland has 14 wives.  We saw that South Africa is a first world country.  We saw that South Africa is also a third world country.  

We ate

Ostrich, hake, baboetie, prawns, malva cake with custard (Adele's was the best and I tried every version that was served), pap, boerwors, Wimpys, and rice and chips and more rice and chips.  

We saw

Bustling cities, extreme poverty, skyscrapers, stadiums, townships, magnificent scenery,  women carrying bundles on their head and/or babies wrapped in blankets on their back and people riding on ostriches.  We felt privileged to see elephants, zebras, rhinos, giraffes, warthogs, kudu, baboons and penguins in their natural habitat.  We experienced fields, forests, veldts, scrub, rivers, lagoons, channels, estuaries, oceans, beaches, rolling hills and mountains.

Our travel in South Africa was fascinating, educational, emotional, tiring, thrilling, frustrating and personally satisfying.  We saw a corner of the world very far away from where we live.  We are grateful for the opportunity to expand our experiences and interact with a different part of the world.

Last adventure

So, I'm writing this from Brussels, Belgium.

On the way from Joberg to Addis Ababa, the pilot announced that we were diverting to the airport in Rwanda to pick up 35 passengers that were stranded there when their plane had a bird strike their engine.  Of course, this caused us to miss our connection to Washington DC.

To our surprise and delight, Ethiopean Airlines has personnel available to rebook us and expedite boarding a flight that took us to Brussels (after stopping in Paris) and we are now waiting for a flight directly to Chicago.  We should arrive only a few hours later than originally scheduled, but with one fewer transfer.  If our one checked bag show up in Chicago with us, it will be perfect.

We never thought we would find ourselves in Rwanda, but we are "counting" this as one of the countries we've been in.

Almost home!

Day 18 and 19 and possibly 20

We are starting our 27 hour flight(s) home in about an hour, with a scheduled arrival in Chicago on Thursday at mid day.  We are flying from Johannesburg to Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia.  From Addis we fly to Washington Dulles.  Then we have a connection to Chicago.

I am visualizing a pleasant and restful journey, with good food, comfortable seats and plenty of time to make our connections.  Please visualize along with me.....

I've been working on a final post that will be my reflections on this long adventure.  I plan to post it after we return.  Thanks for following along with us.  I'll see you or talk to you in person soon.

Day 17 of tour - journey home starting with Johannesburg

We are comfortably waiting for out flight to Johannesburg from the lounge at the airport in Cape Town.  We will spend the night at a hotel at the airport and begin the rest of the journey tomorrow.

Day 16 of tour - third day on Cape Town

We had a wonderful day on our own in Cape Town today.  The tour went to Stellenbosch for wine tasting.  We got on the "hop on, hop off" bus to visit the beautiful Victoria and Albert waterfront shopping area, zip through the Deboers Diamond  museum, and spend the afternoon at the South African Jewish Museum.

It was a beautiful day, and seeing the city from the top of the sightseeing bus was delightful.  We had wonderful views of the ocean and of Table Mountain, as well as the bustling city.  We found beautiful shops to browse in the shopping area and while I did not make many purchases, it was a welcome change from the run of the mill "stuff" we had seen everywhere else.  The narration on the bus was well done and informative.

The Diamond "museum" was a private "showing" by a local diamond jeweler, but the guide was delightful, the presentation was informative, and the sales pitch non existent.

We spent the whole afternoon at the Jewish museum, a hidden gem that Bruce found on TripAdvisor.  The museum was dedicated by Nelson Mandela and there was 25 minute movie that highlighted his relationships to the Jews of South Africa during his lifetime - how they had partnered with him personally as well as in his work to overturn apartheid.  We did not know when and how the Jewish community began in South Africa, but learned that it was based on Jews from Lithuania who fled the pogroms around the turn of the century.  The development of the community - synagogues, cemeteries, schools and businesses closely parallel what occurred in the US.  We also enjoyed the cafe and the gift shop.  It was a wonderful, worthwhile break from the tour.

We finished the day with our farewell dinner with the whole group.  

Day 15 of tour - second day in Cape Town

The stunning visual beauty continued this morning as we drove along the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Point, the  "Cape of Good Hope" where we were all taught that the Indian Ocean and Atlantic oceans meet.  The true meeting of the oceans occurs at Cape Agulhas, 200 miles east.  The Cape Point Nature Reserve offers breath taking views of the crashing surf, blue water, the unique fynbos (an Afrikaner word that means "fine bush") landscapes of small shrubs and wild flowers, and vicious baboons, wild ostriches, and small antelopes.

Lunch at a seafood restaurant was a treat.  The ubiquitous hake is the fish served in every restaurant and this time it was served as large chunks wrapped with bacon and grilled on long skewers.

Returning to Cape Town, we stopped at Boulders Beach to see the African penguins. These small penguins are unique to South Africa and were once called the "jack-ass penguin" because it's call sounds like a donkey braying. It's one of the things "to do", but we were a bit disappointed - not many penguins, they were not very active, and the place was swarming with tourists.  I guess we would have thought we were missing something if we hadn't gone there.

Our last stop today was an open air market.  All the souvenir markets that we have seen sell the same junky statues, jewelry, and trinkets.  Our guide told us that it's all made in Zimbabwe, so it is made in Africa, but very poor quality and the same whereever you look.

We plan to skip tomorrow's drive to a winery in Stellenbosch and tour Cape Town on our own.  There are a few museums that should be interesting, including the Jewish Museum of South Africa, and we will check out the new waterfront development in hopes of finding a few more upscale shops.  Tomorrow night is the farewell dinner and Tuesday we fly to Johannesburg to begin our journey home.  We will leave Johannesburg on Wednesday, change planes in Ethiopia, fly to Washington DC, and then on to Chicago.  I'll update the blog as time and wifi availability allow.

Day 14 of tour - first day in Cape Town

The visual beauty of the scenery in Cape Town is awesome.  It's stunning.  It's almost unbelievable.  I'm not sure our photos will do it justice, but I'm so grateful to have had this experience.

We took a cable car to the top of Table Mountain, over 3,500 feet above sea level.  The wind was whipping ferociously but the clear blue sky, shades of deep blue water, white waves and stunning mountains surrounding the water was one of the most beautiful scenes we've ever seen.

In the afternoon we took an optional walking tour of the Langa township, the largest township in Cape Town.  Our tour guide was a resident of the township, a man who had a degree in horticulture from the university.  He was newly certified as a tour director.  He was working on getting a drivers license.  He was studying to be a traditional healer.  He was honest and realistic about all of the cultural, economic, and social problems faced by the people who still live in the township, but he was also positive and hopeful about the future. The residents of this township, all black, were forcibly removed from District 6 in Cape Town, a vibrant multicultural neighborhood in Cape Town proper to this much more distant location by the Aparthied regime in the 1960's. The colored residents of District 6 were also forcibly removed to more distant locations and separated from their black neighbors. 

In the evening we attended a home hosted dinner in a suburb of CapeTown.  Our hosts are colored people, not blacks, and they frequently host travelers from Grand Circle.  They served a wonderful dinner, discussed their lives and their family, answered our questions about life during and after apartheid, and carefully fielded questions about politics.  Our driver for the night was also talkative and comfortable giving us his opinion on life in South Africa.  We learned a lot about current South Africa today, through the eyes of people who live here.