Christmas in South Africa |
Chapman’s Peak Drive, one of the most scenic roads in the world.
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In March 2019, we made all of the arrangements to go to South Africa for Christmas and New Years. As detailed below, after some initial travel difficulties, we had a wonderful vacation. Little did we know, it would be our last family vacation for a very long time due to COVID-19. All subsequent travel has been canceled, but we are all in good health and enjoying our unexpected time together.
Spiro returned to the U.S. directly from South Africa to resume school at Indiana University in early January. After a few weeks in Hong Kong, Stella, Joe and Peter returned to the U.S. for a one-week vacation for Chinese New Years in late January. We figured we would have plenty of time to finish the South Africa blog when we returned to Hong Kong at the end of that week.
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| The four of us finally reunited (with all our stuff) in our new winter home in Arizona. |
By the end of that week, the virus was spreading in Hong Kong and Peter’s school went online. Only Joe returned to Hong Kong. A couple months later Joe came back to the U.S. and we bought a house in Arizona. By that time, the virus was starting to get under control in Hong Kong, but spreading in the U.S. Indiana University went online and Spiro joined Stella and Peter in Arizona. After closing on the house, Joe returned to Hong Kong again and, after spending 14 days in quarantine, moved our stuff back to the U.S. We were finally all reunited (together with our stuff) in June.
The world has certainly changed a lot since our South Africa trip. Our long-delayed story of the trip is now a pleasant reminder of how traveling in a COVID 19-free world once was and, with the help of many smart scientists around the world, will someday be again.
Our plan had been to meet in Johannesburg on December 23. Stella, Joe and Peter were flying direct from Hong Kong on South African Airways and then doing a tour of Johannesburg. Spiro was flying direct from the U.S. on Delta.
In December, our travel arrangements went horribly awry. Spiro was the first to suffer, as his flight was redirected through Amsterdam, Netherlands and became a 30+ hour journey. Then South African Airways went bankrupt. Stella’s flight from Hong Kong to Johannesburg was canceled and she was rebooked on a direct flight on Cathay Pacific (the Hong Kong airline). Weeks later, the rest of our flights to and from South Africa were canceled. Stella managed to get a direct flight home on Cathay Pacific, but Joe and Peter had to fly on Qatar Airways, with 8 hour layovers in Doha, extending their journeys from 14 hours to 24+ hours each way.
Leaving on December 22, Stella left last and arrived first in Johannesburg in the morning of December 23, going on a tour by herself. Peter and Joe arrived in the late afternoon of December 23. Spiro left first, but didn’t arrive in South Africa until late night December 23. His golf clubs ended their journey in Amsterdam.
Stella’s tour of Johannesburg was eye-opening. Most buildings have been abandoned, garbage lines the streets and groups of young men are wandering everywhere. She learned that the unemployment rate in South Africa is 33%, with unemployment of those under 30 over 50%. The city is so dangerous that Stella’s tour consisted of driving around all day in a car with blacked out windows. She could rarely get out of the car, so photos were impossible. Stella’s tour guide explained that Johannesburg was a lovely place to live until the 1980s, when it quickly fell into poverty and crime.
Once we were all together in Johannesburg, early in the morning of Christmas Eve, we flew to Cape Town. Unlike Johannesburg, Cape Town is a beautiful, well-kept city. Cape Town has its own crime problem, but it seems no worse than a typical US big city.
In Cape Town, we rented a really nice house on the side of a mountain with a spectacular view of the city and ocean. We spent Christmas Eve, Christmas and Boxing Day (December 26) mostly just hanging around the house and enjoying the view. For Stella and Joe, the house was one of the highlights of the trip.
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| Joe and Spiro sporting their Christmas shirts while enjoying a Christmas beer. |
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| The boys chilling on Boxing day. |
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| Stella taking an afternoon Christmas nap. |
On Christmas day, we drove to the colorful Bo Kaap neighborhood and purchased a statue. According to Salihou, the shopkeeper, the statue is 150 years old. The statue was a sceptre held by Mfon Nsangou, the King of the Bamum tribe from 1865 through 1889 in modern day Cameroon. Nsangou was said to be 7’10” tall and his feet were so big that a chicken could run under the arch of his foot. According to Salihou, Nsangou held the sceptre as a symbol of the power and unity of the Bamum tribe during the annual Nguon festival, held since 1394, celebrating the harvest. Shortly after we purchased the sceptre, a gentleman arrived at our door with Spiro’s golf clubs, which had traveled on their own from Amsterdam to Johannesburg to Cape Town and, finally, to our door. A Christmas miracle or the power of the sceptre? You be the judge.
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| Interior of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art. |
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| The stairwell at the Zeitz Museum. |
On Boxing Day, it rained like crazy. Our planned tour to Robben Island was postponed due to weather, so we went to the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art. The museum is built out of an old grain silo, so is architecturally very cool. The main exhibit was also surprisingly good. Afterwards, we went to central Cape Town and had drinks and late lunch at a pub called Tiger’s Milk. We returned home, played some ping pong and cards and fell asleep early.
December 27 was wine country day. Stella and Joe started the day with a short hike and then we all piled in the car and headed to Franschhoek, about an hour away from Cape Town. Our first stop was a gun range. We fired shotguns (Spiro was the best shot) and AR-15 Assault Rifles (we were all good with those). Peter also got to fire a 50 caliber long gun and missed a target 500 meters away by just a few inches. Peter said shooting the long gun was the highlight of his trip. Our second stop was Elephant and Barrel, an excellent pub, for some lunch. Peter said the chicken sandwich was the best he had ever had. Our third stop was a car museum, which had an amazing collection of cars, including some even Spiro had never seen. Finally, at the end of the day, we managed to have a wine tasting at Babylonstoren, an outstanding vineyard. We drove back to Cape Town, went to Butcher Man for a steak and finished the evening with a ping pong and cards challenge, with Stella and Spiro doing most of the winning.
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| Peter after firing the 50 caliber long gun. |
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| Our first stop in Franschhoek was a gun range. |
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| Peter firing the 50 caliber long gun. |
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| Babylonstoren winery. |
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| Robben Island. |
December 29 was golf day. Peter hit the gym, while Stella, Joe and Spiro played a round at Clovelly Golf Club, which is about 40 minutes from central Cape Town. The course is in a valley between towering mountains. It is beautiful and well kept. There were many pheasants, ducks and peacocks wandering the fairways. After golf, we met up with Peter and drove down to Boulders Beach, home of the African Penguins. South Africa is the only place on earth that these penguins call home. From there, we cruised up to Chapman’s Peak Drive, one of the most scenic roads in the world. It curves along the side of a mountain overlooking the ocean. We ended the day with a relaxing wine tasting at Constantia Glen Winery.
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| View of Chapman’s Peak Drive as it curves along the side of a mountain overlooking the ocean. |
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| Chapman’s Peak Drive. |
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| Boulders Beach, home of the African Penguins. |
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| Stella and Spiro at the the oldest vineyard in South Africa, Groot Constantia. |
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| Joe and Peter finally arrived! |
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| Guess who didn't drink wine. |
On December 31, the Cape Town portion of our trip concluded and we embarked upon the safari portion of our trip. We flew from Cape Town to Hoedspruit and then were driven through numerous villages to the Simbambili lodge in the bush. They fed us immediately upon our arrival and then we headed out on safari. We spent New Years’ Eve dining outside with other lodge guests on antelope, chicken, lamb and roast beef. Then we hung out and had drinks, including the local liqueur, Amarula, which is made from a fruit that falls from trees in the bush and is gathered by hand by local villagers.
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| Private dinner in the bush. |
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| Simbambili lodge. |
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| Enjoying the local liqueur, Amarula, during the dawn safari break. |
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| Stella cutting her birthday cake...a couple weeks early😉 |
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For the next couple days we did a safari at dawn and a safari at dusk. We saw elephants, nyalas, warthogs, wildebeest, hippos, leopards, lions, baboons, giraffes, zebras, kudu, African buffalo, wild African dogs, hyaenas, water buck, crocodile and lots of impala. According to our guide, the most dangerous animal is the buffalo and the best hunters are the wild African dogs (with an 80% kill rate versus 40% for a lion). Peter loved that the lions fear nothing, can sleep all day in the road and then hunt and kill whatever they want at night. Even the leopards sleep up in trees with one eye open in case a lion comes along. Half way through each excursion in the bush, we stopped for a picnic of snacks with coffee in the mornings and drinks in the evening. Luckily, nothing ate us.
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| Peter waiting for his lunch at the Simbambili lodge. |
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| Our safari tracker quickly learned Stella preferred champagne with her morning OJ in the bush. |
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| Dawn safari break with our trackers. |
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| Spiro and Peter enjoying the sunset during a dusk safari. |
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| Peter and Joe at dinner the last evening at the Simbambili lodge. |
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| Spiro and Stella enjoying themselves at dinner the last evening at the Simbambili lodge. |
At the conclusion of the safari portion of our trip, we embarked on the golf portion of our trip. We took a long bumpy four hour drive on bad roads through beautiful countryside to another lodge near Nelspruit on the Crocodile River. We were there to play Leopard Creek, one of golf digest’s top 100 courses in the world. The course was immaculately maintained and we had a brilliant round despite the heat and poor play on our part. We were warned that under no circumstances were we to go into the bush looking for any lost balls due the various wild animals lurking there, but the only animal we saw was an impala (which we nearly ran into with our golf cart). While the rest of us golfed, Peter lounged at the lodge and was visited by a small herd of elephants. After golf we all hung out at the lodge and had lovely evening chatting and looking out over the river.
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| Lost City resort in Sun City. |
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| Spiro at the Lost City Resort. |
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| The eve of a 17 day holiday. |
