South Africa, days one & two

Sat 9th Oct:
Zurich - Johannesburg. Lunch at JBG airport during layover: Tomato
chakalaka (spicy sauce), Boerewors sausage, etc. Waiter at Mugg & Bean
was really friendly, sweet, humble, smily. And he was a very
regular-looking and -acting man named Linda.

A note on airport security at JBG: you can keep shoes on, take a water
bottle through, keep sweater on/around waist, no need to take liquids
taken out of carry-ons! Refreshingly easy. Still needed to take
laptops out, but since this is an intentionally laptop-free trip for
us, not an issue! (I'm typing on my phone...)

Took the cable car up Table Mountain... stunning, view of Robben
Island (where Nelson Mandela was in prison all those years), Cape
Town, Table Bay and the Atlantic AND Indian oceans!!! (I think)
Beautiful weather.

Dinner in Cape Town: South African "Karibu" @ Victoria & Alfred
Waterfront (yes, Alfred - Victoria's second son, who constructed the
harbor in 1860 & named the two basins after his mother & himself -
queen & prince). Delicious! 10 male acappella singers in traditional
dress, singing Ladysmith Black Mambazo songs! Awesome. I had Bobotie
(ground beef, rice, raisins, egg-based topping, yogurt with fresh
bananas, chutney - it tastes ten times better than it sounds), Emily
had braaied chicken... Desserts: milktart (cinnamon custard cake),
hertzoggies (coconut, apricot jam), souskluitjies (dumplings in
cinnamon sauce), death by chocolate. We ate up to a quarter of the
dish, then passed the plates to the right, four times... The milktart
won, hands down. We laughed a lot, trying to remember and pronounce
the names of the dishes!!!

Sunday 10th October
Drive down the Cape. Walking on the beach & rocks; I rescued Jason's
aerobie from the cold ocean after rolling up my jeans & removing shoes
& socks. At the Boulders, saw penguins & dassies (rock hyraxes) up
close in natural habitat on coast.

Lunch at Seaforth in Simon's Town on False Bay, on the Cape... Stamnos
fish, Kingklip fish, seafood curry in a hot pot...Sparkling White
grape juice (It said "100% grape juice," but the ingredients were:
hanepoot grape juice, White grape juice, and "nature-identical
flavourant" - yummy, anyway)
Fresh pineapple juice - wow! Tasted like a fresh pineapple in a glass.
No relation to the bottled/canned stuff! The lovely waitress was
named "Pretty" (remember the guy named Linda? I believe that means
pretty in Spanish!).

Cape of Good Hope - wonderful cliffs, beaches, violent ocean, DOWNPOUR
& violent wind...we got totally soaked on a hike (except for our top
half, with raincoats). Took hours for our jeans to dry.

Dinner at Jewel of India back at V&A Waterfront...cultural
whiplash...but tasty...

Would write so many more details, but must go to airport to fly north
to Safari in Sabi Sands area...probably no Internet there!

Talk to you on the other side of the wild animals!

Posted via email from K's Café