Well, as we sit in the Jo'burg airport waiting for the overnight Amsterdam flight, and connecting on to Finland, I think I can add some more to the earlier posts of our African journey. Wow...what a place...and what wonderful people.
The rest of the game experience was as exciting as the first days were -- we had a long time to watch a leopard -- the hardest of the big five to find...he was tracking some impalas -- but apparently not terribly hungry as he seemed quite relaxed. Hyenas in two places, at the watering hole, and another one protecting his part of a kill. Hippos in the water -- our guide, Wiehan (Pronounced "Vion") said that they killed more people than the other big fives combined. So we were further away from them than the others. Cheetahs, rhinos, and lion babies learning to be cheetahs, rhinos and lion adults -- more elephants than we realized, giraffes, etc.
I was so impressed with the knowledge and skills of the tracker and the ranger/driver. Vion and Palance kept on the trail until they got something -- then maneuvered around so we got all sides of the animal in our viewfinders. For some, we were REALLY close -- for others we were further away. But, all in all, we got close to the animals in their native habitat, and that was our intent. May that area always be protected, may the rhino poachers (and elephant poachers, and shark fin poachers) all rot in Hell for what they do, and may we catch each and every one of them and make them pay. Rhinos are expected to be extinct in the wild very quickly -- last year there were 330 poached, this year they expect more than one a day...I think they said at that rate, we will clearly be rhino free relatively soon.
Departing from the lodge was sad...we had been with Vion and Palance all day -- basically for 8 hrs. in the land rover and around the lodge -- Michelle, Vion's wife, Ryan, and Louise were all there, helping to serve any desire we might have. I told Vion when we left that I knew they met lets of folks like us, but we did not meet many like them. I am grateful for their devotion to the land and the animals.
Flying on to Cape Town, we arrived late, and were just wiped out, so we slept until almost nine Saturday morning (after getting up at 5:30 for the past three mornings). Our driver, Yolanda Hull, who had met us at the airport the night before, picked us up, and off we headed for the Robben Island -- where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison. It took all day -- it was a great tour, with a political prisoner who had served time there as a guide. He wanted the youth on the tour to understand what it meant to spend 7 years of your life there so they might have some advantages he did not have. Like all young people, it fell on relatively deaf ears...you might have been talking about the 1900's...it was 40 years ago when Mandela and he were incarcerated, and that was ancient history to them...so like the young woman sitting next to me, they texted on their cell phones...another universal element we have found...
Returning we saw Table Mountain -- with its wispy clouds drifting over the edges like a fine linen tablecloth, we dined out with Yolanda and her daughter Bianca, at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. What a fun place that was....music playing, all sorts of folks enjoying life...our seafood dinner was nothing short of great, and relatively moderately priced.
Sunday morning we met with the parents of one of the guides from IDASA. They manage a HUGE olive estate, with over 46,000 trees. We got a wonderful tasting lesson in olives, and olive oil, with a touch of wine tasting added it. They are located in a beautiful valley surrounded by these gorgeous mountains -- a vision to remember. And Elizabeth and John were wonderful hosts to us.
Elizabeth works with many people with AIDS and cancer, and her group focuses on palliative care for adults and children...they have a relatively large facility. Their group suffers, like all non-profits, from lack of financial support, and yet they are ahead of Yolanda's organization. She is a former nurse, and is so committed to working with these people, you have to respect her. John manages the estate, but serves on boards of volunteer agencies doing good works.
The beauty of the place is indescribable (haven't I used that word a lot on this trip...yet I keep trying to describe it...what's the deal?) John took us up the mountain for a vista -- and his pride and love of place, combined with that of his wife, and Yolanda is wonderful to see. They all agreed they simply love their place.
Leaving there, we wanted to go to the Cape of Good Hope -- and see the oceans mixed. Well, they actually mixed a bit further south, but you can see the azure blue of the Indian Ocean in the waves...I have lived near the Atlantic, and I never saw it anything but green...
On the way up to the Cape, a baboon sauntered across the road, stopping traffic, and not caring...but they warn you REPEATEDLY that they are wild animals and you cannot interact with them...I have found all the monkeys we have seen on this trip just as cute as can be, but we have also been warned everywhere...so we don't do anything but take pictures through the windows...
We hiked up almost to the top of the viewing place, but the mists were covering the mountains so much we could not get a clear picture of the land's end...but it was something to realize that we almost at the southernmost end of the African continent...where the sailors of old enjoyed the harbor at the Cape of Good Hope. And tomorrow we head for Finland, almost at the other end of the globe -- can you believe it?
Our anniversary dinner was prawns and African lobster at a seaside resort town that offered "winter prices" -- though the weather was quite nice. Everyone had warned us that CT weather in winter could be dastardly, but ours was wonderful -- you will see when I post the pictures. Not even very cold...we got the best!
Today we rose to finish the packing, check out, and accompany Yolanda to her organization -- also non-profit, and volunteer, but working with daycare for children who have been orphaned, whether by AIDS or any other situation; seniors who need a "home" to be close to the church; and free health care provided via a camper that John Pascoe, the minister donated. They are doing the same volunteer work from the heart, and are connected to many churches in the US -- including one in Tupelo. They are such committed folks, from the retired nurses, who bring home health care to residents of the poverty-laden areas, or day care for some of the cutest kids I have seen, to providing a good meal for those who have no one to care for them. Drugs are an enormous problem here, as they are all over. The old traditions of respecting and caring for one's parents and grandparents have died out, and the elderly are often left without anyone to care for them. It is so sad.
I got my hair cut at a local salon -- she did a great job, and her name is Sandy...how about that?
After a great "home-cooked" meal at the center, we departed for the airport...where we are now.
The South African experience has been one of stark contrasts from the first day to the last...from extreme wealth to extreme poverty, the likes of which we do not even approach in the US. The incredible density of population in these townships...living in thrown together shacks as compared with the rural nature of the game preserve and the beauty of the oceanside. The caring and concerns of people like Ivor Jenkins and Yolanda Hull, working to better the lives of so many folks, and Vion and Palance who want to save their wild environment.
What an enigmatic place this is...and how grateful I am to have been here.
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