MAY 2006
Above is a map of Africa so you can reference the countries that we visited. My interest in South Africa began when my Dad recommended a series of excellent books called the Courtney Novels by Wilbur Smith. The books are fiction, but present a form of history for South Africa while telling the story of the Courtney family. If you have the time, I recommend reading these books as they are very good!
We have received a lot more questions about our Africa trip than we did about many of our past vacations. Because of this, we decided to do this web site a little differently. We did it in more of a journal fashion than just a display of photos. For those of you with questions or who like to read, this should appeal to you, since this site provides a description of our daily activities. For those of you like myself who just like to look at photos and read captions, I tried to include a lot of photos.
In May 2006, we took a Globus tour through lower Africa. We picked Globus because we used them in Europe and were very happy with that trip. South Africa was another great trip, and we recommend using Globus. We traveled for almost two and a half weeks (13-31 May 2006). We had help arranging the trip from Barbara at Monarch Travel and Cruises, who has helped us arrange other trips in the past. This trip was unique in that Lisa's parents Dick and Marlene joined us. This made the trip fun and they were great travel companions.
Above is the cover of the brochure where we found the trip and a map of the Globus tour route. The countries included in this journey are South Africa, Swaziland, and Zambia. We also transited through Sal Island which is part of the Cape Verde island chain off the North West coast of Africa. We also ventured into Zimbabwe and Botswana, plus came very close to Mozambique and Namibia, but more on that later.
Our vacation started with one heck of a long plane flight. We first flew to Atlanta where we hooked up with Lisa's parents. Then we all flew from Atlanta to Johannesburg, South Africa. This flight is an 18-19 hour flight. From Jo'burg, we flew to Cape Town. We left home for a 6 am flight on a Saturday and did not reach our final destination until approximately 3 pm on Sunday (6 hr time change). Our long flight was on South African Airlines, which was decent. By the way, if you don't have noise reduction earphones, you have to get them. We bought a pair for $50 and they work GREAT for long flights!
Our South African tour guide Ron McGregor was very knowledgeable and an excellent guide who really made the trip both educational and interesting. Ron said he is going to write a book about all his knowledge of South Africa. The history of South Africa includes the native history (of the well-known Zulu and other tribes), plus the influence from the British and the Dutch Boers. Lisa was looking online and found two other websites describing similar itineraries where Ron was the tour guide. This one is almost identical to ours, while this one is a little different and describes the author's mugging in Cape Town.
Ron recommended a few books on South Africa. He recommended Jock of the Bushveld by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick. This is kind of a kid's book. I bought and read it on the trip. It is a light read, but good. He also recommended The Covenant by James Michener and The Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela. I have not read either of these yet.
Ron spent a lot of time discussing different aspects of apartheid and how it impacted the country. We drove by an area of Cape Town called District 6. We had never heard of it, but I guess it was the site of a major event. The apartheid government plowed down a big shantytown in Cape Town. The government then tried to get businesses to locate there. However, everyone took a stance against the government and would not build on this site. To this day, the land is mostly empty except for churches which the bulldozers would not plow down. I would relay more of the discussion on apartheid, but it would take too much time for this site. If you have any interest on the topic, Lisa found this web site that has more information.
South Africa is a beautiful country. It is a shame that the place is so dangerous. Ron was telling us that the crime rate has created a mass exodus from South Africa. He said most of his own family has packed up and moved to Australia. Even with an ADT alarm system and bars on the windows, home break-ins are pretty common. We found everyone very friendly, so I can imagine being lulled into a false sense of security. However, we primarily stayed in the tourist areas and just went out during the day, so we never really felt any less safe than we would in a U.S. city like New York or Chicago.
We had a bunch of really cool people in our tour group (above photo). We were lucky in that our group was small (only 22 people). Join us as we journey across lower Africa. We spent a lot of time with a new Canadian friend Susan, AKA "the Crazy Canadian." This group photo was taken at the Cape of Good Hope.
Our group was entirely from mainland USA with the exception of one from Canada, two from Gibraltar, two from Hawaii, and two from New Jersey :-) I never met anyone from Gibraltar before so this was cool. They were both very nice!
Click on this link to get started in South Africa
Technical notes - this web page will describe our trip by days. We accidentally had the wrong date on our camera so all dates imprinted on the photos are one day early of actuality. Also, I am going to load these pages up with photos and text. I assume everyone has high speed Internet by now, but if not, these pages might be slow loading.
Click here to jump ahead to Swaziland
Click here to return to South Africa at Kruger Park
Click here to jump ahead to Zambia
Click here jump ahead to Botswana
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This page was updated on Sunday, June 4, 2006.