safrica + europe = swellendam

We awoke this morning to a warm breeze and bright sunshine. One final meal of eggs, yoghurt, breakfast meats and freshly squeezed oj, and we were off to the new King Shaka airport. Our innkeeper John made fun of us no less than seven times during breakfast for leaving the wonderful warmth of Durban for the frigid snowy Cape Town. Yes, snowy.

King Shaka airport, like much of Durban, is brand new and seems to have been built because of the WC. They were laying sod on the road leading to the airport from the interstate, and installing hardware in the ladies room (so I'm told). Woolworths was under construction, and I'd bet anything it's not open before the WC begins, maybe before it ends. Despite the construction, it was super nice and clean. And, as with everywhere else, the people were very nice and accommodating. We were sad to leave the beautiful weather, but happy to begin the adventure part of the trip...

Our flight on Kulula, the Southwest of Safrica ("please make sure the seat belt is tight on those lovely hips of yours"), was great. We were told the front-most seats available were over the wing in the exit row. Turns out they apparently don't seat people in the first 10 rows or so, but after the flight takes off you can move wherever you want. So we did. Not many did. Jen and I each had our own rows - she sat on the mountain side, and I sat on what I thought would be the ocean side. All I saw were smaller mountains, no ocean. But still great to have our own seats - it was probably as close as we'll ever come to having a plane all to our own.

Upon arrival in CPT, all we heard about was how cold it was. It really wasn't that cold. I had on khakis, a t-shirt and sneakers and I was fine. People had winter hats and gloves and coats on - very much like going to Florida in January - locals think it's arctic. Anyway, CPT was busier than JNB or DUR, which was good to see. Still not the crush we expected, but definitely busier.

We got our car and missed a turn, nothing crazy, about a 15 min detour, and then headed to Swellendam. It was about a 2 hour drive from CPT. The first hour was ridiculous - intermittent rain on a crazy winding road that cut through and went over mountains. I think it was the first time Jen was actually afraid since I've been driving. It was fun though - video game developers need to tap safrica for driving games - it's super fun.

Sidebar: Our tourguide in Durban was dumbfounded that we drove from JNB to Durban. And I quote: "You DROVE from Joburg?!??! Through the pass?!?!?!?!!!!!" Apparently that maybe wasn't the best idea. We didn't think it was that bad, but I'm glad I didn't consult her before choosing to do it - she scared the hell out of me.

Sidebar 2: Our VW in Durban was basically like an American car, except the wheel was on the wrong side. We got a Toyota in CPT, and it seemed like a regular Toyota. Until I went to turn left and hit what should be the turn signal and the wipers came on. Stoopid Toyota. That's taken more getting used to than driving on the wrong side of the road. Luckily, I needed wipers quite a bit, so it didn't seem *so* ridiculous to be turning them on. Though I doubt they gave the cars behind me sufficient notice I was moving in front of them. Hehe.

We finally arrived in Swellendam, our stop for the night. Our host at Rothman Manor, Andreas, happily informed us we were upgraded to a suite, presumably because there is only one other car in the parking lot. It's ridiculously nice - animal carcass rug when you walk in the door (springbok?), heated bathroom floors, satellite tv, their own herds of zebra and springbok in the backyard, etc. Nuts. Unlike Durban, Swellendam is apparently safe enough to walk around, so Andreas suggested we walk across the street to this little restaurant he described as hearty and with good crispy chips (fries). Come to find out he loves this place because he's German and the owner/chef/host of this restaurant is from Belgium. As with everything else today, we were the only people in the joint, so we got a chance to talk with the owner quite a bit. She found it sad and funny how European countries have been running a smear campaign against safrica saying how dangerous it was when, in fact, it's no more dangerous than any other country in the world. As she said, when she went to Chicago a number of years ago, she was warned she shouldn't go and how dangerous it was. I noted that there were 27 people shot the weekend before we left, and she laughed. Like anywhere else in the world, if you're dumb or go to the bad neighborhoods, yes, it's dangerous. But both she and Andreas noted how CPT isn't really that dangerous, despite what you hear. Anyway, our dinner was fantastic - prawns in a garlic cream sauce, ostrich steak and beef filet, and a nice bottle of wine, all for about the price of our burgers in Heathrow. Ridiculous.

Tomorrow we planned to drive to Cape Agulhas, the official Southernmost point of Africa, but Andreas suggested we not waste our time. We'll see. In any event, we'll end up in Plettenberg Bay, and then Addo the next day. I'm hoping weather is ok (ie - no rain). "Cold" we can handle, wet is annoying.

MO