A Lion, Plus On The Road To Cape Town

I promised my Peeps a lion, and here he is. Isn't he magnificent? And very dangerous. More about animals later.

Now we are coming into Cape Town, which may be the most beautiful city on earth.



We are coming down the side of a mountain, snapping shots as we go.






The water was just so calm and so blue.



If you enlarge the previous photo, you can see part of the city at the base of those hills.



I know I'm obsessing, but it is just so pretty.



Okay, enough water pictures for today. More stuff tomorrow!

Traveling the Coast of South Africa

We did not get to spend much time at this beautiful locale. When we go back, I want to spend a few days here.



Such a beautiful view!



Mr. Wonderful.



The name of this resort sound like "Tiki-Karma" to me, but my husband says my pronunciation isn't even close.





Are you tired of the ocean? Maybe tomorrow I'll show you a lion or something.

Love ya!

More Trivia and Photos From the Road

Random shots and info. We drove 3500 miles in the three weeks we were there.

I didn't want to miss a thing. I saw the Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and where they meet in Cape Town.

The pure beauty and vastness of the land...there are just no words to describe.

I have always heard that the water goes down the drain the opposite direction below the Equator. That was the first thing I checked. It's true. Also, there are hot and cold handles on the sinks and they are opposite of where we have it. That is, hot is on the right and cold on the left.

They call restrooms, toilets. Sometimes you have to pay. I didn't. Ugh.

Everything is Metric.

We were there in March and it was the end of Summer-beginning Fall.


This was my favorite road-side stop.


This is a typical "One Stop" in a rural area.


Yay! The Coke truck arrived just in time.


In my part of the world, most towns of any size have a Sonic. In South Africa it is Kentucy Fried Chicken. For some reason this was so funny to me.


I had no idea what this roadsign says. Still don't. It is such a good thing I was not driving...I might have ended up in Botswana.

There are 11 official languages in South Africa. Afrikaans, English and Zulu being the most prominent. The others may or may not change day to day depending on the way the wind blows.



I was a little scared taking this photo. That vendor does not look friendly. Mr. Wonderful stopped on the roadside to get fresh fruit.




That's all for today, Peeps. Thanks for reading and your comments and questions.
I have to stop now. My brain is full.

Some Answers To Your Question (s)

Someone or two actually asked me a question!!! I am so excited.

So, I'm going to stick some general information about our trip in this post.

First, this is a typical African Cow. I put this in for Queen B and The Princess since they love cows now. The cows just graze on the side of the road because people have stolen the fencing materials that keep them confined. That material is usually sold to someone else, or used on someone's house. I'm not judging. Just reporting.

On the Devil Monkey. I did not provoke it. I smiled at it and did not have beer to offer the little sot. I do not produce good monkey karma.

About the food. There are some wonderful grocery stores that are similar to Publix in many towns. Smaller towns have small town grocery stores. Tiny places have a general store/post office/gas pump.

There are many great restaurants with every kind of food you can imagine (except Mexican). We were "camping" so much we chose to do our own food because Mr. Wonderful wanted to do it (he grew up that way) and there is a grill at most every
place we stayed.

We went to the grocery store everyday because they make fresh bread all through the day EVERYDAY and the fresh fruit is abundant. The potatoes are similar to the gold
buttery tasting ones you can get here, but they are a different variety and so clean and good. The meat...lets just say I ate lots of things and they always had chicken.

This is the typical taxi service that runs to the communities that have no transportation. You never ever ever want to ride in one of these. Find a yellow taxi. I kid you not, we saw 23 people unload from one of these. They had little kids stuffed under the rows of bench seats and people in laps of other people. No air conditioning in these. They never signal. They pull off or on the road on a whim. Gotta watch carefully!

My photos are refusing to upload so I'll stop for now. More later!

Thanks for reading.

The First Roadtrip

Mr. Wonderful had planned a first little "getaway" to a favorite childhood resort called Die Oog. In English that is something like The Wook, which means hot springs or something.


Just thought I would stick a picture of our car here.
The driver is on the right and you drive on the left. Anyway, I would NEVER attempt this myself. Notice the Coke can. No Pepsi at all in South Africa!!



These little huts are called Rondovals, which I suppose means little round house. This roof is straw or thatch and this is the view from the inside.

This is the kitchen. This is a microwave/hotplate combo. To turn on electricity, you have to flip a switch above the plug-in place, which is a pretty good energy saving idea.

This is the bathtub and yes, Peeps, that is a LIZARD.
My first encounter with a South African animal.



At the end of the day we have the usual braai with friends. I loved the South African food!

This resort had a ginormous spring fed hot water pool that was fabulous. I didn't think you needed to see Beachy Mimi in a bathing suit.

You would thank me. Trust me.

On the road again tomorrow.

The First Few Days

The first few days of South Africa were HOT. So many people. Everywhere. People coming up and wanting to sell you things and bumping into you, going through immigration, whew. That was a shocker for a little country girl.

The airport was beautiful (preparing for the World Cup that was coming in June) and everything was very clean.

We stayed with friends for a night at their home in Pretoria.

Their yard is so beautiful.



This was the room where we slept. Very comfortable.




This is part of the family that lives in the house. Most Afrikaners spend as much time as possible outside. The temperature is really nice (in the shade) so they eat, visit, braai (grill outside) ALL the time. Twelve months a year. This room is called the Stoop. Jackye is feeding her precious grandson a little snack.



Just another view of the stoop. Notice the burgler bars? That is a fact of life for everyone. They have gates going into the yard, on all the windows and doors, and even the back stoop. I wouldn't call it scary but just "aware of your surroundings" kind of lifestyle.



Last house picture. Notice the bars on the bedroom door? They have all learned to live with the precautions. I slept with my pointy tweezers. Believe me, they can do alot of damage.

More later. Our first road trip!!

African Adventures

Don't let the face of this sweet little animal fool you.

Loves everyone and is so nice

Crawls on everyone and wants to cuddle.