nebbit
05-09-04, 08:31 AM
Ok Pictures didn't come out have added them in next post sorry
At last I have put something together about my holiday in South africa. I am hoping others will post about there holidays or weekends away. As I am not a writer you will excuse the grammar etc.
My Husband Robert and myself left Australia on the 29th of march, we changed planes in Johannesburg and landed in Cape Town about 10 at night, it was freezing, of course I was dressed for summer, doh, our lift picked up the wrong person so after a few phone calls we finally ended up in bed, at a beautiful serviced apartment at the waterfront.
Each morning for the first week we stated the day with breakfast at the waterfront (harbour). This is me at one of the many restaurants we tried.
?
Robben Island is where Nelson Mandela spent his time in jail. Robben is Dutch for Seals, Robben Island= Seals Island. On the 1st of April we decided to go for a tour, it is now a museum. Robben Island is 7klm's off the coast of Cape Town. Its a long way to swim in shark infested waters. The tour took 3 hours, we visited several places on the island in a bus that looked as if it had been there when Nelson was there, it was great, I loved it, I like seeing the ground through the floor, LOL. It was very interesting and sad also, we saw the lime stone quarry where prisoners like Nelson worked day after day, using only the smallest of tools, in this quarry they started a university to educate other prisoners, not the kind we all know, they wrote things in the dirt with sticks, Nelson and other political prisoners were educated men not manual workers so the work was hard and tedious. they were separated most of the time from the other prisoners they were kept in single cells with only a few possessions, below is a picture of Nelson's cell, in it is his bed which doesn't look very comfortable at all.
?
At home Robert is our resident sloth, get him on holidays and he drags me off up the sides of mountains, down caves, looking for shell middens and long walks into the bush, on one of these walks I saw a Turtle on the track, it was very cute. the scenery was just beautiful with lots of wild flowers. Our fist week went very fast, what with hiking and visiting relatives and friends of Robert's.
2nd week we drove across the Karoo to a place called Kimberly, we saw a family of baboons on the road and a few of them mooned us as we went by, OMG, we drove through a hail storm, the hire car was quite damaged, very scary and great fun. Robert presented a paper at an archeology conference while we were there. Kimberly is a place after my own heart, it has the biggest man made hole in the world, this is where De Beers mined their diamonds, it now has water in it, the big hole below.
?
The Conference was great, very interesting, we had a field trip where we saw rock engravings, hundreds of years old. The people at the conference were very friendly especially at the social diners etc. The conference dinner was a the 'Kimberly Club', it is a mens club where all the Diamond mine owners, drank, talked, smoked an played dominoes at night, it was steeped in history, quite an experience.
We hired a guide to take us to the Diamond mines and the Boer War battle fields. It was a great day, while at one diamond mine the guy found a diamond, WOW, it was great to see a diamond in the raw. The owner of the mine saw me and started to flirt with me, he thought I was pretty, he seems to like all ladies, he is an 89 year old miner, he was there with one of his 7 sons for the day, oh by the way he gave me a small Ruby he found, very nice.
The Boer War battlefields were enlightening, the guide was very knowledgeable, Robert is a devourer of history books so they got on really well. To be at the battlefields was a moving experience, we went in to one of the Boer wars gun turrets, with only room to place the gun barrel it is a wonder that they ever shot anyone. On the way back from the battlefields we met some children who had a Meerkat for a pet and I ran over the head of a Puff Adder they are quite deadly, it was an accident, really.
After Kimberly we went a very historic Village called Graff-Reinet, it has beautiful old buildings, wonderful mountains, bush walks, of which we did, and a small game park. the place where we stayed was an old grand Dutch design home converted into a bed, breakfast and evening meal guest house. Each night the guests dressed up, met in the library or the garden for pre dinner drinks, the chef came around to speak to you about the menu and take your orders, the tables in the dining room were set beautifully, the food was stunning. One night Robert had black Wildebeest which he said was very nice. We had a wonderful 3 nights and 4 days there.
Back to Cape Town, again hiking, caves and of course shopping. Below is a picture of a cave Robert dragged me to.
?
While back in Cape Town, we celebrated Robert's Birthday and our wedding anniversary. We went to a Portuguese Restaurant and drank Mateaus Rose' which we hadn't had since we were very young, we had a great night. it was actually quite romantic, Robert said told me that I was the best thing that has ever happened to him, ok I know, mushy, but it was sweet, and I think he is right, LOL.
On my last day I went on a Township tour, firstly it started at a museum about how the apartheid government threw the blacks from there homes, creating segregation and classification of people by their skin tone. From there we went to the housing estates of very run down hostel accommodation where about 10 t0 16 families live, using the same kitchen and one room per family, the new government is in the process of renovating them but it is a big job. We visited the local witchdoctor, the things he had to heal illnesses were varied, bones, skins, dried animal organs, horns, roots etc below is a picture of a few things hanging up in his store.
?
Then on to a children's kindergarten where the children were so friendly, it used to be a tin shed with a dirt floor, 10% of the tour fee has built them a permanent building. Shops in the area were mostly shipping containers, they must get hot in summer. We also visited an illegal liquor house and drank this very tasting beer, supposedly, the pub is somewhere in the town pictured below, it was raining and the water was pouring in the roof, buckets were everywhere on the dirt floor.
?
It was a great day, one to make you think about the true meaning of poverty.
My last night in Cape Town was a family night, Robert's family came to our apartment for coffee and cake, I enclose a picture of me and my mother in law, this is a special picture for Marky Mark.
?
I had a great holiday, did lots more but couldn't tell you everything, hope I didn't bore you all to much.......................nebbs
At last I have put something together about my holiday in South africa. I am hoping others will post about there holidays or weekends away. As I am not a writer you will excuse the grammar etc.
My Husband Robert and myself left Australia on the 29th of march, we changed planes in Johannesburg and landed in Cape Town about 10 at night, it was freezing, of course I was dressed for summer, doh, our lift picked up the wrong person so after a few phone calls we finally ended up in bed, at a beautiful serviced apartment at the waterfront.
Each morning for the first week we stated the day with breakfast at the waterfront (harbour). This is me at one of the many restaurants we tried.
?
Robben Island is where Nelson Mandela spent his time in jail. Robben is Dutch for Seals, Robben Island= Seals Island. On the 1st of April we decided to go for a tour, it is now a museum. Robben Island is 7klm's off the coast of Cape Town. Its a long way to swim in shark infested waters. The tour took 3 hours, we visited several places on the island in a bus that looked as if it had been there when Nelson was there, it was great, I loved it, I like seeing the ground through the floor, LOL. It was very interesting and sad also, we saw the lime stone quarry where prisoners like Nelson worked day after day, using only the smallest of tools, in this quarry they started a university to educate other prisoners, not the kind we all know, they wrote things in the dirt with sticks, Nelson and other political prisoners were educated men not manual workers so the work was hard and tedious. they were separated most of the time from the other prisoners they were kept in single cells with only a few possessions, below is a picture of Nelson's cell, in it is his bed which doesn't look very comfortable at all.
?
At home Robert is our resident sloth, get him on holidays and he drags me off up the sides of mountains, down caves, looking for shell middens and long walks into the bush, on one of these walks I saw a Turtle on the track, it was very cute. the scenery was just beautiful with lots of wild flowers. Our fist week went very fast, what with hiking and visiting relatives and friends of Robert's.
2nd week we drove across the Karoo to a place called Kimberly, we saw a family of baboons on the road and a few of them mooned us as we went by, OMG, we drove through a hail storm, the hire car was quite damaged, very scary and great fun. Robert presented a paper at an archeology conference while we were there. Kimberly is a place after my own heart, it has the biggest man made hole in the world, this is where De Beers mined their diamonds, it now has water in it, the big hole below.
?
The Conference was great, very interesting, we had a field trip where we saw rock engravings, hundreds of years old. The people at the conference were very friendly especially at the social diners etc. The conference dinner was a the 'Kimberly Club', it is a mens club where all the Diamond mine owners, drank, talked, smoked an played dominoes at night, it was steeped in history, quite an experience.
We hired a guide to take us to the Diamond mines and the Boer War battle fields. It was a great day, while at one diamond mine the guy found a diamond, WOW, it was great to see a diamond in the raw. The owner of the mine saw me and started to flirt with me, he thought I was pretty, he seems to like all ladies, he is an 89 year old miner, he was there with one of his 7 sons for the day, oh by the way he gave me a small Ruby he found, very nice.
The Boer War battlefields were enlightening, the guide was very knowledgeable, Robert is a devourer of history books so they got on really well. To be at the battlefields was a moving experience, we went in to one of the Boer wars gun turrets, with only room to place the gun barrel it is a wonder that they ever shot anyone. On the way back from the battlefields we met some children who had a Meerkat for a pet and I ran over the head of a Puff Adder they are quite deadly, it was an accident, really.
After Kimberly we went a very historic Village called Graff-Reinet, it has beautiful old buildings, wonderful mountains, bush walks, of which we did, and a small game park. the place where we stayed was an old grand Dutch design home converted into a bed, breakfast and evening meal guest house. Each night the guests dressed up, met in the library or the garden for pre dinner drinks, the chef came around to speak to you about the menu and take your orders, the tables in the dining room were set beautifully, the food was stunning. One night Robert had black Wildebeest which he said was very nice. We had a wonderful 3 nights and 4 days there.
Back to Cape Town, again hiking, caves and of course shopping. Below is a picture of a cave Robert dragged me to.
?
While back in Cape Town, we celebrated Robert's Birthday and our wedding anniversary. We went to a Portuguese Restaurant and drank Mateaus Rose' which we hadn't had since we were very young, we had a great night. it was actually quite romantic, Robert said told me that I was the best thing that has ever happened to him, ok I know, mushy, but it was sweet, and I think he is right, LOL.
On my last day I went on a Township tour, firstly it started at a museum about how the apartheid government threw the blacks from there homes, creating segregation and classification of people by their skin tone. From there we went to the housing estates of very run down hostel accommodation where about 10 t0 16 families live, using the same kitchen and one room per family, the new government is in the process of renovating them but it is a big job. We visited the local witchdoctor, the things he had to heal illnesses were varied, bones, skins, dried animal organs, horns, roots etc below is a picture of a few things hanging up in his store.
?
Then on to a children's kindergarten where the children were so friendly, it used to be a tin shed with a dirt floor, 10% of the tour fee has built them a permanent building. Shops in the area were mostly shipping containers, they must get hot in summer. We also visited an illegal liquor house and drank this very tasting beer, supposedly, the pub is somewhere in the town pictured below, it was raining and the water was pouring in the roof, buckets were everywhere on the dirt floor.
?
It was a great day, one to make you think about the true meaning of poverty.
My last night in Cape Town was a family night, Robert's family came to our apartment for coffee and cake, I enclose a picture of me and my mother in law, this is a special picture for Marky Mark.
?
I had a great holiday, did lots more but couldn't tell you everything, hope I didn't bore you all to much.......................nebbs