Essenhout Primary School
We visited Essenhout Primary School in Delft Township of Cape Town. Earlier this year, the boys and I volunteered with the Committee for South African Solidarity (COSAS) in Berkeley to prepare books and care packages for schools in South Africa. Essenhout is one of the schools that participates in t...
Neighbourgoods Market
In Woodstock, which is a somewhat gritty hub for Cape Town's creative scene, the Old Biscuit Mill, a former cookie factory, hosts a market with food stalls, food artisans, book sellers, clothing and other stalls owned by local designers. We were impressed by the diversity of food available and picke...
Canal Walk Shopping Centre
We had hoped to visit Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town, where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison. But it was closed to prepare for the G20 Summit and it was raining, so we spent the afternoon indoors at Cape Town's largest shopping mall. The boys spent some time at the trampol...
Trip up to Table Mountain
Brian decided to pass on the ride up on the gondola to the top of Table Mountain so it was just the three of us. We hiked around on the top of Table Mountain for about 1-2 hrs from one side to the other and got some amazing views.
MOCAA and the Silo
At the base of the Table Mountain gondola, Brian realized that he had had enough of seeing things from extreme heights (e.g., helicopters and bush planes), and opted to visit the Museum of Contemporary African Art at the waterfront in a newly redeveloped area on his own. The museum building was cons...
Oranjezicht Farmers Market
The Oranjezicht was a food highlight of our visit to Cape Town. There were well over 100 vendors that included farmers with fresh produce, food to eat in the picnic area, prepared food, flowers and locally crafted goods. It was full of local and tourist visitors.
Lunch at Makers Landing
Makers Landing is a space carved out of the working waterfront; it hosts small restaurants, an incubation and teaching space for food start ups, and a shared kitchen. We met for lunch there after Scott and the boys visited Table Mountain and Brian had visited MOCAA.
!Khwa ttu Heritage Centre
On the Western Cape, there is a large nature preserve that houses a San heritage center. The San people were the First People of southern Africa. We had lunch in their restaurant and then went on a nature tour with a San guide who taught us about tracking animals.
West Coast Fossil Park
The West Coast Fossil Park is a fossil park in the Western Cape about 93 miles north of Cape Town. The fossil sites of Langebaanweg have remains of fossil fauna that date to over 5.2 million years ago. In this period, sea levels were higher and many now extinct animals lived in the riverine forest...
Penguins!
There is a colony of endangered African penguins on Boulders Beach in Simon's Town, where the penguins go in and out of the town. We watched Secrets of the Penguins on PBS to learn about this colony. Netflix has Penguin Town.
On the way to Maun
You don't know your itinerary until you board the plane. We made three stops on the way from our camp back to Maun Airport, to drop off and pick up people along the way.
Bush plane to Maun
Departing guests have a role to play when the bush plane comes to pick you up. You position yourself midway down the airstrip and watch for elephants and giraffes who may be crossing. At Xakanaxa, it is usually groups of elephants. The passengers who were on the plane when we boarded said they had t...
Flight to Okuti
After four nights at the Pangolin lodge just outside of Kasane, we went to Camp Okuti. While there were some jets at the airport, we got loaded into this very small prop plane. Everyone had to put their carry-on luggage in a bin are at the back of the plane.
Daily Schedule
The schedule for the safari was pretty intense. They would ring the bell for breakfast at 5:30am, which means you need to be up by about 5am. By 6am they are loading in the van (for the river) or a jeep for the game drive. Then you get back to the lodge about 11am-11:30am, at which point there is lu...
Spectacular Water Falls
In the morning Scott and the boys did a guided tour within the park of multiple viewing points of the falls. The falls generate a lot of spray and if the winds shift then you can get drenched, hence the recommendation for everyone to wear a poncho. In the afternoon we all did a helicopter tour. Juli...
Zambezi River Cruise at Victoria Falls
We had a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River, in the area above the falls. It was a good introduction to game viewing, as we encountered animals and birds along the river banks and hidden in the vegetation along the river. You could see the mist of the falls off in the distance and the sunset was gor...
Learning about South African History
Our second (and last) day in Johannesburg we themed South African History day. We learned a lot about the history of apartheid in South Africa and the reconciliation and liberation that has taken place since it ended in 1990. To help us prepare for this back at home, we watched Mandela: The Long Wal...
Spelunking - not wheelchair accessible!
We spent about an hour or so getting a tour of one of the caves that is open to the public. In preparation for the visit we all watched a documentary ( Unknown: Cave of Bones ) which is about Homo naledi, a closely related hominin species. There is also an excellent (albeit 2 hour) episode on Nature...
Afternoon back in Jo'burg
We visited the Origins Centre at the University of the Witwatersrand in the Braamfontein neighborhood of Johannesburg. On the way back, we stopped at the 44 Stanley shopping center, which was a redeveloped warehouse area in a tony part of town. Wits University oversees quite a bit of the archeologic...
Arriving in Johannesburg
We arrived in Johannesburg as night fell. Our hotel was in Sandton, a suburb, and was attached to a mall. We ate at Hombaze, an African restaurant that was also having stand up comedy in the next room over.
Newark
We flew through Newark to save a day on routing, which was a bit sketchy given the scheduling issues with Newark Airport. Our flight was changed, canceled, and changed again. In the end, we had a six hour layover in Newark, so we got good use of the lounge benefit of Brian's new United credit card.