Day 10 - The long journey home

Last day in Cape Town was rainy and windy. We were very lucky with the weather overall -- only 2 days that were not sunny and warm (at least for winter time in the southern hemisphere).

We spent the morning with 2 of our tripmates doing some last minute shopping at the Victoria and Albert Mall (which is HUGE).

Then packing - we had to buy another suitcase to carry all the stuff we bought :-)

Then home on Emirates Air via Dubai. It was a long, long, long trip home... 10 hours to Dubai, 3 hour lay over (they have the best lounge in world though) then 14 hours to Seattle and another hour 40 minutes to SF. The Seattle part was a surprise... with head winds we needed a refueling stop. It took us about 36 hours to get home, door to door.

Can't say enough about what a great trip this was. Our hosts were awesome, lots of fun trip mates, one of the most beautiful cities in the World and phenomenal activities!

Day 9 - Cape of Good Hope

Our final full day in Cape Town and Lori and I headed with our driver/security dude Chris south towards the Cape of Good Hope.

Along the way we stopped at a road side craft 'mall'... with African wares from Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa and who knows.

We stopped in Hout Bay for a stroll -- and saw some local fishermen playing with a seal. Thats a Snoek in his hand (a local fish -- had one for lunch one day -- lots of bones).





The drive down was beautiful. We had perfect weather and the views were spectacular.







We got our de rigeur picture at the Cape of Good Hope.








Then on to Cape Point, the Southern most point. Check out the signpost below!





















Stopped at Simons Town on the way back -- home to Boulders Beach where the penguins live. It's pretty funny -- they are everywhere and not afraid of people. As we entered the beach area one walked right up to Lori for an inspection.









Grabbed a little late lunch seaside... Our restaurant served a variety of seafood plus some exotic game. Dinner back in Cape Town with our remaining trip mates at a wild local joint called Panama Jack's.

Day 8 Table Mountain (and recovery)

Another recovery day after an early arrival from Johannesburg.

After sleeping in we went up to Table Mountain, which overlooks Cape Town. We lucked out with the weather... Table Mountain is often covered in fog (called 'the tablecloth')


Up top we saw a hydrax, known locally as a 'Dassie'. Apparently they are most closely related to elephants. Could have fooled me.






Needless to say the views were spectacular. Cape Town is beautiful from every view.

















On the way back from Table Mountain we drove through Camps Bay and Clifton -- Both very nice beachfront communities. We stopped for a languid drink seaside.

Our final dinner was at the hotel -- very good Indian food and we said goodbye to half our trip mates.

Day 7 - The final in Johannesburg!

Another long but really fun day! Took the 'Giraffe', our private jet, to Johannesburg and fought the traffic to the Calabash. A quick stop at hospitality to refuel and then into the stadium!

The opening show was great -- Shakira singing Waka Waka, the World Cup anthem, a really cool laser show, some fake elephants everyone thought were real -- very entertaining.

























The game itself was a little ragged. The Dutch team were reminiscent of the old Paul Newman movie, Slapshot (or Leeds United under Don Revie). Well into the second overtime period it looked like penalty kicks for certain until Andres Iniesta hit the game winner. The Spanish were jubilant and the Dutch despondent.


After the game we headed back to hospitality for a while and then flew back to Cape Town. Thank goodness it was more orderly than Durban. Even so, we got back to our Hotel around 5am. What a great atmosphere in Jo'burg!

Day 6 Safari At Aquila Game Reserve

Day 6 was an early start -- on the buses at 6am to head about 2 hours from Cape Town to the Aquila Game Reserve. It was by far the coldest day and the only rainy one so far. Fortunately we beat the rain and saw 4 of the "Big Five" (Lion, Rhino, Elephant, Cape Buffalo, missed the Leopard).































Had a very nice breakfast, fun game drive. They had some rehabilitating animals and unfortunately Lori tripped and fell hard. She dinged her knee and twisted her opposite ankle. Fortunately they had a very good doctor, Dr Hartnick who patched her up well. Lori's been limping but as usual she's a trooper!

Cape Town is a beautiful place

This trip has been such a whirlwind -- lots of late nights and early starts which is why I'm way behind posting.

That said, I'd be remiss without pointing out how beautiful South Africa is and especially Cape Town. Highly, highly underrated as a place to visit in my opinion.




So while I work on catching up on my blog, getting some more pictures uploaded etc, enjoy some of the scenery of Cape Town and Table Mountain.

Day 5 Wine Tasting in Stellenbosch

Today was an easy day -- wine tasting in Stellenbosch. I have some pictures somewhere... I'll get them posted eventually. *** update - finally uploaded some pics ***

We had a fun time with our bus mates... haven't laughed like that in a while. Overall a very pleasant day tasting wines at Ernie Els Winery and Rust en Vrede. The wines were good in both places but Rust en Vrede's were better. Stellenbosch is the South African equivalent to Napa Valley (but less commercial). Very good, somewhat underrated wines. I'm growing fond of Pinotage, which is a grape unique to South Africa.














Dinner was at the Opal Lounge. A funky,
quirky building and interesting food bordering on strange (e.g. pumpkin soup with coconut ice cream in the center). We have an early start in the morning to go on safari so we crashed early-ish.

Day 4 Robben Island

Today starts the first of several off days. We visited Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 of his 27 years in jail. The island is off the Cape Town coast, about a 20 min boat ride away. It's a little reminiscent of Alcatraz, but much bigger.


If you've seen Invictus (with Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman), then you've seen Robben Island. The tour was conducted by a former prisoner which made the tour that much more impactful.




The tour was amazing... very moving and hard to describe in words. It really made the apartheid movement come to life. Highly, highly recommended if you come to Cape Town.

We had dinner by the waterfront at the Cape Grace Hotel. A very pretty location and a very good dinner, followed by drinks at the Bascule Wine Bar. ESPN announcers John Harkes and Ian Darke joined us which was fun. 'Harkesy' was on our Robben Island tour as well. We had done a telepresence press conference a month ago so we'd met.

Another late night, but not quite as late as last night/morning! More soon... we have a little down time so I can catch up on posting!