Monday, March 13th
Today was the first day that I drove Penny (A VW Polo) for an extended amount of time. Driving from the Hotel Nicol to the EastGate Mall is a straight shot which sounds easy right? Try driving there on the left side of the road! Also, half of the stop lights do not work on the way to the mall and stop signs are not exactly followed. Drivers sometimes stop, sometimes drivers yield though stop signs or sometimes drivers disregard them all together. The key is to drive defensively and hug the right side of your lane. If you are American, you will want to hug the left side of the lane, don’t do that or you will be eating curb.
I spent about 2.5 hours walking around the mall. I was searching for some binoculars for our Safari trips. I found some Brunnels which are pretty good. I purchased the Brunnels at Cape Union Mart which is like a South Africa REI. I purchased a set that was10X42 setting meaning 10 times closer and 42 for the size of the lens.
After coming home from the mall, I took a short nap. After about an hour, Melissa came home and we decided to go out to Melivlle and eat at Six Bar. Melivlle, is like WickerPark of the 90’s which was kinda comforting and nostalgic. The food was decent, it was typical bar food with a South African twist. The drinks were pretty cheap and were two drinks for the price of one. The one thing I like about US bars is that no one smokes inside the bar. After sitting at the bar eating our diner for an hour, we smelled like an ashtray =(
I woke up today and went back to the EastGate Mall. I went back because when I opened up the box, the wrong binoculars were in there! Cape Union Mart was very accommodating of exchanging the wrong binoculars with the right one. After returning from the store, I met with Father Vincent Mkhabela. He was nice to drive all the way to BedfordView to pick me up to at the Nicol. Father Vincent took me to a Catholic Store to replenish supplies for his church and introduced me to several Filipino nuns. To my surprise, his command of the Filipino Language is very superb. This man really understood Filipino culture and spoke with the nuns in Tagalog! Father Vincent then took me through a driving tour of Johannesburg. He took me to Little Italy, Asia town and ChinaTown. We had great chat at lunch and I am happy that this man is part of the Catholic Church that I grew up to believe in. This man has done so much for people in general and is a really good soul. After lunch Melissa and I went and had a fancy ten course dinner at Cube. WOW! I’m not really into fancy dinners but I was highly impressed!
Wednesday, March 15th
Melissa and I went to work later today at Simba. Her co-workers had a braai. A braai is a South Afrian bbq. They cooked all sorts of meat and I got to meet Melissa's co-workers who were all very nice. After work, we headed toward Kruegar. It took us about five hours to get to Kruegar. The highway was pretty good till we left the Johannesburg area. After the Johannesburg area, driving gets really weird. Here are some things that annoying things about driving outside of the Johannesburg area:
People run across the highway and tons of hitchhikers.
Baboons and Vervet monkey also run across the highway.
No one follows the speed limit.
In some areas there are no highway dividers so you have to pass people by going into oncoming traffic at 140km.
There is very little warning for any change in the road (exits, merging, speed modification)
There doesn't seem to be a minimum speed limit
We got to HazyView Holiday Town around 7:45pm. We phoned ahead to let our B&B folks, Blue Jay Lodge, know that we were going to be late. They happily accommodated us. Once we got our keys we went to a local chain called Spur. The weird thing about Spur is that they use a Native American Sioux chief as their logo and then each restaurant uses an ‘Americana’ word as part of their local title like ‘Alaska’ or ‘Kansas,’ you’ll get the idea.
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| Wood trucks slow everything down |
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| Not a double rainbow |
Thursday, March 16th
We got up at the crack of dawn for our 10hr safari! We had to get up at 4:30am but let me say. Safari’s are fucking awesome. If you ever get a chance to go on a safari, take the opportunity. I highly recommend it. It is so neat to to see animals in their natural environment interacting with each other, hunting each other and just seeing them the way they were meant to be.
We got up at the crack of dawn for our 10hr safari! We had to get up at 4:30am but let me say. Safari’s are fucking awesome. If you ever get a chance to go on a safari, take the opportunity. I highly recommend it. It is so neat to to see animals in their natural environment interacting with each other, hunting each other and just seeing them the way they were meant to be.
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| Tasty |
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| Where is santa? |
Friday, March 17th
Today we did the Panorama route. We contracted with Viator.com, which hooked us up with a Mbombela Experience Tours and Transfers and we got hooked up with a guy by the name of Netto. Netto was the first Black South African I was able to actually talk to besides Melissa's Co-Workers. He was around our age and I felt a sense of honesty from him. The whole way though the Panorama route, we talked about politics, race relations, Mandela, apartheid and a host of things. The Panorama route is a site seeing tour of some of the cool locations around Kruegar. After the Panorama route we wanted to do another safari but were told that the gate to the park was in a dangerous area and that a TownShip is really close and they thought that leaving the park at 8pm would not be safe. If you are wondering what a TownShip is, please see the following movies:
District9
Chappie
Because we couldn't go to Kreuegar again, we instead went to the HazyView Lodge and watched Hippopotamus in the river. After that, we went to the local bar and watched men rugby.
Today we did the Panorama route. We contracted with Viator.com, which hooked us up with a Mbombela Experience Tours and Transfers and we got hooked up with a guy by the name of Netto. Netto was the first Black South African I was able to actually talk to besides Melissa's Co-Workers. He was around our age and I felt a sense of honesty from him. The whole way though the Panorama route, we talked about politics, race relations, Mandela, apartheid and a host of things. The Panorama route is a site seeing tour of some of the cool locations around Kruegar. After the Panorama route we wanted to do another safari but were told that the gate to the park was in a dangerous area and that a TownShip is really close and they thought that leaving the park at 8pm would not be safe. If you are wondering what a TownShip is, please see the following movies:
District9
Chappie
Because we couldn't go to Kreuegar again, we instead went to the HazyView Lodge and watched Hippopotamus in the river. After that, we went to the local bar and watched men rugby.
Saturday, March18th
Today we left Hazyview =( I want to come back. One the way back we stooped at the Sudwala Caves. We did a lot of hiking at the cave. After Sudwala Cave we came back home to Hotel Nicol to prepare for the Garden Route....
Next Week..... The Garden Route!!!
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