 | Gulliver's Travels I left on March 27th, flying from O'Hare to Madrid, Spain. I had a long layover, so I spent a whole day walking in downtown Old Madrid. Then I flew to Johannesburg, stopping three hours before flying to Cape Town. |
In Cape Town I rented a car. Strange, as the steering wheel was on the right side of the car. Even stranger, everybody was driving directly at me whenever I drove on the right. I finally decided to drive on the left, and everything got a lot better. Except for the two times I looked for oncoming traffic in the wrong place and very nearly was T-boned. I loved driving in South Africa because one gets places so much faster. In the US, if a road sign says "Denver 350," it takes about five hours to drive. In SA, if a sign says "Johannesburg 350" it only takes three hours.
Perhaps of interest to car buffs, I learned two new words. I asked someone for directions. He said to go straight for two blocks, then "turn at the rowboat." I thought that strange, but I turned after two blocks at a stop-and-go light, and I found what I was looking for. Two days later another person told me to turn at a "rowboat." Now, they don't pronounce words very well in South Africa, and this time it sounded a bit like "robot." It turns out they call traffic lights "robots." Who knew?
Upon returning the car, I told Budget Rental that a stone hit the windscreen (windshield in American) and that it might have to be replaced. He agreed, saying I would be receiving a bill in a few weeks, for the glass plus the "panel beater." What? It took me three questions to find out that a "panel beater" is a body shop (get it, beating the dented quarter panels, etc.?). I asked him if he ever heard of a "body shop." He said no.
The first day I toured the wine country east of Cape Town. The next two days I toured around Cape Town. Then I headed north to the semi-desert areas, going to the border of Namibia. Then I turned east, going through Kimberly, famous for diamonds. Then I went to the northeast part of the country, touring the huge Kruger Reserve, filled with vast numbers of animals. Finally I headed back to Johannesburg, spending two days touring the area.
Upon returning the car, I told Budget Rental that a stone hit the windscreen (windshield in American) and that it might have to be replaced. He agreed, saying I would be receiving a bill in a few weeks, for the glass plus the "panel beater." What? It took me three questions to find out that a "panel beater" is a body shop (get it, beating the dented quarter panels, etc.?). I asked him if he ever heard of a "body shop." He said no.
The first day I toured the wine country east of Cape Town. The next two days I toured around Cape Town. Then I headed north to the semi-desert areas, going to the border of Namibia. Then I turned east, going through Kimberly, famous for diamonds. Then I went to the northeast part of the country, touring the huge Kruger Reserve, filled with vast numbers of animals. Finally I headed back to Johannesburg, spending two days touring the area.
Cape Town and Environs
Cape Town is the second largest city in South Africa, but it is more beautiful and cosmopolitan than Johannesburg, the largest. It extends along the Atlantic Ocean, and Table Mountain is its most famous landmark, nearly 2000 feet high. Navigating is extremely easy, with lots of freeways. I spent two days touring the city and nearby.
 Slave Lodge was a warehouse for slaves as well as the location for slave auctions.  This Atlantic Ocean beach is at Llandudno, about 20 miles south of Cape Town. The enormous rocks are called the Sunset Rocks. |  Victoria Wharf is a huge collection of restaurants, bars, stores, and entertainment venues built in the 1990s.  The "music" these kids danced to was made primarily by the jingling soda can tops tied to their ankles. |
 This is the National Museum of South Africa with Table Mountain in the background. |  Castle of Good Hope was a fort constructed by the Dutch in 1665, mainly for protection of the ships and stores of the Dutch East India Company. |
Cape Town is a highly segregated city, mostly the result of the apartheid policies of the 20th century. The great majority of what we would call blacks are officially termed "colored." They look much like blacks in the US, with Caucasian backgrounds in their lineage. Perhaps a fourth of non-whites are termed "blacks," with no Caucasian backgrounds. In the heavily populated northeast of the country, I saw very few "colored," and the farther north I went, the fewer whites I saw.
Wine Country
Starting about 30 miles east of Cape Town, there are dozens of wineries in quite pretty countryside. The country has a few other spots with wineries, some in desert regions I would have never expected, especially being so far from heavily populated areas.
The Dutch started almost all of the earliest wineries, many hundreds of years old.
 No, this is not Napa Valley, but the countryside is similar. |  These mountains are along a sparsely traveled highway, so traffic did not spoil the experience. |
 I was surprised to see such beautiful mountains so close to Cape Town |  There are a lot of quaint old Dutch-style buildings in the area. |
Desert Country
Much of South Africa is desert or semi-desert, especially the northwest part of the country. That makes for a very sparsely populated countryside. At times it took an average of five minutes before I encountered another car and 15 miles before I saw a building. But I loved driving through it. One time I talked to myself, saying, "You really are loving this, aren't you?" Self answered, "Yeah, I do!" Ah, nothing like the open road (for me, at least). My wife always said I was part Gypsy.
This is a 200+-year-old house I stayed in, which was built by Dutch settlers in the city of Clanwilliam.
 South Africa has over 20 species of the genus Haemanthus, many of them completely red. This species commonly pops up after a fire, and I found it along a rough road in the Cederberg Conservancy. |  This is a nest of the bird called the sociable weaver, about the size of a wren. Up to a hundred of them build this communal nest, which is entered from the bottom. They live here in the Kalahari Desert, which extends north to the countries of Namibia and Botswana. |
This is Protea cynaroides, commonly called King Protea. It is the national flower, and it gets to 10 inches across. It is sometimes used in the US for wedding bouquets.
The Northeast
The farther northeast I went, the greener the countryside became. I eventually reached the sub-tropics near the border with Zimbabwe. East of Johannesburg, I was surprised to see vast farms several square miles in size, often with no buildings seen for five miles. They grew corn, soybeans, hay, and some sunflowers. In the far north, I encountered many banana plantations, one which I got to visit for an hour or so. Bordering Zimbabwe on the north and Mozambique on the east is Kruger Reserve, a huge (75,000 square miles) game reserve which I drove my car through. Wild animals everywhere.
Having fun while overloading a truck.
This billboard gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, "I can get it for you wholesale." I haven't the slightest idea what it meant.
 In Kruger Reserve, I saw I saw about 60 elephants in a single day, some as close as 20 feet from my car. |  This was a very unusual bird, which I could not identify. |
On this banana plantation, women get to do the heavy work, carrying banana bunches of 120-150 pounds in hot, humid conditions for nine hours a day, earning the equivalent of $3 an hour.
This is an abandoned termite mound (perhaps a house used to be next to it, so they left after eating it).
This was the famous diamond mine in Kimberly, which was originally dug by hand to a depth of 700 feet in the late 1800s before shafts were bored much farther down.
 I always heard about the famous "Ring Ass donuts," so I had to travel all the way to South Africa to buy them. Yum, yum! |  This reminded me of the movie "Young Frankenstein," where Igor collects the brain from "Abnormal." This is what "Wide Load" means in South Africa. |
Epilogue
Well, that's one more of my "must-see" foreign trips out of the way, getting me a little closer to my lifelong travel goal.
Now that my gardening has begun, I have no more foreign trips planned until November, when I go to New Zealand. I have tentative plans for Ethiopia and Djibouti in December/January, the Yucatan in January, Jamaica/Virgin Islands/Trinidad-Tobago in February, East Africa in March, and Poland/Russia in April. Then I rest up in my gardens again.
I will likely go to Wyoming sometime this summer, and I will be attending a convention at the North American Japanese Garden Association in Portland, Oregon in late September, after which I will drive up to Vancouver, British Columbia. I will be visiting Seattle for a bit, where two of my cousins live.
Now that my gardening has begun, I have no more foreign trips planned until November, when I go to New Zealand. I have tentative plans for Ethiopia and Djibouti in December/January, the Yucatan in January, Jamaica/Virgin Islands/Trinidad-Tobago in February, East Africa in March, and Poland/Russia in April. Then I rest up in my gardens again.
I will likely go to Wyoming sometime this summer, and I will be attending a convention at the North American Japanese Garden Association in Portland, Oregon in late September, after which I will drive up to Vancouver, British Columbia. I will be visiting Seattle for a bit, where two of my cousins live.
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