We arrived at the Lion Sands Tinga Lodge a few minutes after noon and were greeted by a herd of elephants walking along the river just below the main lodge. This was very exciting, as it was the largest group of elephants we had seen yet on this trip. And it echoed Sally’s and my experience from our first trip to Africa, when we arrived at the Singita Boulders Lodge and were greeted with a herd of elephants walking along the river just below the main lodge (1). There were also buffalo wading in the river. Needless to say, this distracted us for a while and we just stood there watching from the deck where all of our meals would take place.

After lunch, we settled into our cabins for a bit and then met our ranger (2) and tracker for the next three days, Hugh and Rix.

Lion Sands follows roughly the same schedule as Phinda did, although their morning drive starts at 6:30 rather than 7:00, and the afternoon drive at 3:30 rather than 4:00. While no one liked getting up earlier, this put the beginning of the morning drive closer to sunrise, and then end of the afternoon drive closer to sunset.

The rangers always ask us what animals we’re interested in seeing; my guess is that 90%++ of the guests answer the large animals: lions, leopards, elephants, giraffe. I suppose a few say they’re interested in exotic birds, but not us. And the rangers usually respond with something to the effect of “then let’s go find some”. And while the rangers and trackers at each camp work as teams connected by two-way radio, the animals gonna do what they want, which is not always to be available for viewing. And then sometimes, you just get lucky and stumble across something unexpected.

Hugh told us that he had a surprise for us, and started driving across the reserve. Before long, we came across a group of giraffes. I have to say, giraffes are extraordinary animals. Despite being so tall (the males average 15-20’), they generally move at a deliberate pace and they are very graceful. Like the other largest animals in the bush, giraffes are strictly vegetarian (3). And also like the other largest animals, they can be dangerous – dangerous enough that lions would generally not try and attack a group of healthy adults. In addition to their height, they can weigh over 4,000 lbs and can run over 35 mph for short distances.

About 30 minutes later we came across another large group of elephants (4). Like the giraffes, adult elephants don’t face much risk from the predators. They are big and strong, and could easily trample even a lion, to say nothing of the smaller leopards or cheetah. Male African elephants can hit up to 14,000 lbs. and stand 13’ tall. The babies are 200-300 lbs at birth, but are still cute.

We crossed the river on a bridge which was sturdier than it appeared at first glance. And found ourselves winding our way through the bush while the Land Cruiser at times was at a very steep angle, steep enough that we had to hold on and I had to also grab my cameras to keep them from falling out (5). All the while Hugh and Rix navigated and at the same time were looking for something. They didn’t tell us what they were looking for.

By this time it was about 45 minutes before sunset, so whenever we passed an animal with a spot of sunlight on it, the color was great. This antelope is called a bongo (I think).

Around 5:00 we saw another safari vehicle stopped alongside a very large bush, so we knew that we had arrived at the target. After a few minutes, that vehicle moved on, apparently having had their fill of whatever it was they were watching, and now it was our turn.

It’s hard to see; I’ve enhanced the picture and added a big, red circle to help you see the leopard that had dragged an impala it caught into the bush and was eating. We could see the leg of the impala to the left of the leopard.

After watching for a few minutes, the leopard decided to come out of the bush and lie down in the grass. As we’ve observed any number of times, these predators seem completely oblivious to our presence. It was tired from the chase, had a full stomach, and needed to rest. But there’s no way it was going to leave the impala alone; there was another meal to be had.

The sun had set by this point, so we headed home, back across the rickety bridge, for our meal.

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(1) Singita Boulders is about 30 miles up the Sand River from Lion Sands Tinga. It’s about an hour drive.

(2) “Ranger” is apparently the official term, as they go for formal training and are licensed by the government. The ranger drives and talks to the guests, while the tracker sits on a small seat mounted on the front bumper of the vehicle and, well, tracks the animals. The ranger also tracks, and the better trackers also talk to us.

(3) Elephants, buffalo, rhino and hippos are all vegetarian as well. And yet they are dangerous.

(4) This could have been the same group we saw at the lodge when we arrived, but I couldn’t tell you one way or the other.

(5) At home, we won’t drive down the driveway without putting on our safety belts. Here, we ride around for hours in vehicles with no doors, no tops, and no seat belts on rough roads and steep inclines. Go figure.

Today we had our last game drive in Phinda, and our first drive at Lion Sands Mountain Lodge. Where Phinda was located on a private reserve a long way from anything else, Lion Sands is technically inside the Kruger National Park, the largest park in South Africa. It operates a private concession on a part of the park, and is next to the privately owned Sabi Sands area. The latter is where we stayed on our last trip to South Africa.

The morning started as always with some coffee and snacks before we took off with Darren and Mandla for the drive. As usual, the monkeys were around, looking for an opportunity to join us for muffins, cookies, apples, etc.

Back when I used to do a lot of landscape photography we would often wake before dawn (1) to capture the beautiful, warm morning light. Since we’re out just after sunrise every morning, I look for opportunities to capture images that show off the glow.

An hour after sunrise, the glow is gone. It doesn’t mean you can’t get great images, but it does mean they won’t look the same.

We drove for a while, looking for interesting animals, but we needed to end the drive early; our flight was at 11:00, so we needed to be back for breakfast by 9:00. We opted to take advantage of a 45 minute “bush walk”, where we left the vehicle with our guide and walked amongst the animals. The walk wasn’t really through the bush; we stopped about a mile from the lodge and walked the rest of the way on the same dirt roads we had been driving on.

Darren accompanied us with his rifle and his radio, while Mandla took the vehicle back to camp. Before we started out, Darren gave us our safety briefing. The two most important items: when he says stop, freeze immediately; and never run from an animal – it convinces them you must be tasty. And you can’t outrun any of them, anyway.

We didn’t see any of the big or exotic animals on our 45 minute walk. But it was cool to be on the road when some nyala (2) and warthogs ambled by.

Unlike our trip from Cape Town to Phinda – which involved a scheduled flight from CPT to Durban, followed by a four hour drive to the camp – this was a much easier trip. We drove 15 minutes from the lodge to the Phinda airstrip, which is a piece of tarmac in the middle of the bush. No terminal building, no security, no control tower. There we boarded a seven passenger plane we chartered (plus two pilots/cabin attendants/luggage handlers) for a 45 minute flight to Skukuza Ariport in Kruger, which is a piece of tarmac in the middle of the bush. But it had a terminal building, a control tower, security, etc. All of the trappings of modern air travel. From there, it is a five minute drive to Lion Sands Tinga Lodge.

That’s all for the morning, and that completes our stay at the Phinda Mountain Lodge. The next post will continue in the afternoon at Lion Sands.

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(1) Dawn in August in the Sierra Nevada is around 6:00; if you’re an hour drive plus a 30 minute hike to your targeted location, that’s a 3:30 am wake-up.

(2) Not a misprint.

The Big Five refer to the five predators traditionally thought of as the most dangerous to hunt. We’re not hunters (except to see and photograph), but this terminology has remained to this day. The Big Five are:

• Lion
• Leopard
• Buffalo
• Elephant
• Rhinoceros

We briefly saw lions the other day, but you can never get enough. So we started the day by heading for a reported lion sighting. Of course, the animals will be exactly where they’re meant to be, and we came across some giraffe doing their thing early in the morning. This is the best time for pictures in the bush; the golden light makes them all look even more majestic.

Around 7:15, Darren got a report that there had been a fight amongst several female lions. So we changed direction and headed towards that location. When we got there, we found two large males and several females lying in the grass and on the road.

One of the females, an older one, slowly got up and limped down the road away from the others. All you can see in the photo above are a few wounds on her face, but she was moving very slowly and was obviously injured. She apparently got the worst of the battle, which was with two younger adult females. The males will fight each other to protect their territory and their harem, while the females will fight each other to protect their young. We were told it’s rare for males and females to fight each other.

The four remaining lions moved down the road a short way and lay down in the shade. When they’re not hunting, lions seem to spend all of their time lying down and sleeping. The female with her head raised was the winner of the battle, but her victory was not free.

There were fresh wounds on her face and leg that were still bleeding. There were also wounds on her rump that looked nasty. Nonetheless, she was apparently the winner. She was also exhausted from the battle, breathing heavily to try and cool down. Like dogs and cats, lions don’t sweat and can only cool off by panting.

Life in the bush is hard.

We stayed at the scene for almost an hour, then the four lions moved off into the bush and out of our sight. So we headed off. I’m not sure what our destination was, but we came to a causeway that ran alongside of some water. Walking along the causeway was a herd of wildebeest. At first they stopped as we approached the causeway, since they would be boxed in if we entered it and blocked their path. After a few moments of confusion, one of the wildebeest bolted and ran towards us, veering off and up the hill at the last moment. The rest of the herd followed his example and escaped the threat we imposed.

As we continued on our meandering path back to the lodge for breakfast we saw a small group of animals walking along side the road. It turned out to be the mother cheetah and her three cubs from yesterday. Apparently they had finished feasting on their impala dinner and were headed off to their next adventure.

I wrote earlier that a typical safari day was a morning drive, followed by breakfast, then some downtime until lunch, followed by the afternoon drive. But today we booked an excursion to a local village after lunch. On our last safari, Sally and I visited a “village” that was occupied by people who lived there for a few weeks, then rotated out for another group of “villagers”. So a reproduction, but not a real village. This time we went to a real village.

The first stop was a healer’s hut, where we watched three people engage in a series of chants and drum rhythms. Healers are not just for curing medical problems, but can help you with relationships, business disputes and other aspects of life. I don’t personally think what they were doing would have any impact on my life or problems, but they certainly did and so do their normal customers.

The second stop was an elderly woman’s home, where she explained a bit about her life and how she and her family live. Actually, she said, say, ten words, and then our guide spoke for three minutes. So I’m not sure who was telling what story. But she led us into a hut and she (or the guide) told us some more stories, and got several of us to dress in traditional costumes.

After lunch we went out again to try and find some hippos. We were unsuccessful with the hippos, but we did see zebra, giraffe, one sleeping hyena, and a couple of groups of rhinos. The most interesting encounter of the day was the first group of rhinos, who were apparently startled by our appearance and ran out of the bush and thundered down the road. The pictures can’t capture the sight of 5,000 lb. rhinos thumping down the road at a surprising speed. Their size and speed is why they make the Big Five.

The day ended with Darren and Mandla organizing a more formal sundowner, complete with white tablecloth, for our last evening at Phinda. It was a busy day, which partially explains why I fell so far behind in writing these posts 🤨.

After yesterday‘s excitement with the cheetah, we decided that lions would be the target for today. We started the day, as usual with our 6:00 am wake up call from Darren, our Ranger. Then trying to wake up, get dressed, put together the stuff we need for the morning drive, and walking to the main building for an early snack. The snack is coffee or your beverage of choice, with some muffins, cookies or fruit. While Phinda has a dining room that’s mostly closed to the elements, they leave it open whenever the weather permits. In this case, that means temperatures in the 50s with guests dressed to go on a game drive.

Unfortunately, having the folding windows open is viewed by the monkeys as an invitation to enjoy the snack buffet. They particularly like the muffins, but are also partial to bananas and apples. This morning, they emptied out the muffin bowl and all of the apples.

Darren and Mandla had information about the area where some lions were seen the night before, so we headed in that direction (1). After driving around for a while to no avail, they decided that a foot search was required and they left us alone in the car, with strict instructions to stay put. Much like the cheetah mom told her cubs yesterday. Then Mandla and another tracker went off into the bush. They both came back, and we took off to drive around to where the lions were resting.

We found the lions sitting in the grass. There were maybe six or eight; it was hard to tell as they were all cud (2) cuddling with each other. Then they all heard something, got up and walked into the bush.

Having now seen lions, albeit not a very active sighting, we went off after lunch to look for hippos and elephants. Hippos are difficult to see, as they spend their time submerged in the water. Often only their eyes are visible. Apparently, the main reason (3) they spend their time submerged during the day is that they sunburn easily. Sun sensitivity seems to me to be a really bad adaptation to living in this climate. They don’t do any of their daily activities in the water; they eat, mate, and sleep on dry land once the sun goes down. And since they look like large boulders, it would be very hard to see them at night.

So the elephants were still on the list. They had been sighted quite a long way from us across the preserve, so we set off to drive over. Along the way we had an unexpected encounter (4). The first was a group of rhinos grazing along side the road. Three of them graciously posed for us.

After a long ride, we found the elephants, but it was pretty disappointing, as there were only two or three, and they were very far away from us up on a ridge. And it was almost 5:00, about 35 minutes before sunset. I’ve lightened the picture to make it easier to see, but daylight was already starting to fade.

On our way back to the lodge we had our second unexpected encounter for the day: a large herd of buffalo was on both sides of, and on, the road. It’s hard to take a picture of the entire herd that gives you a sense of how big and impressive these animals are. The top picture is just a sample of all the buffalo we saw there.

We ended the day as we often do, with a sundowner (5).

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(1) The rangers and trackers all cooperate with each other to find elusive animals, like lions, leopards and leopards. So there were other vehicles in the area that were on other roads looking for signs of the lions. This preserve never has more than three vehicles actually converging on a group of animals so as not to annoy them.

(2) I’m writing this while sitting on the deck at our next lodge, several days later. I was interrupted mid-word by a herd of seven or eight giraffe just across the Sand River, a few hundred yards away. So I had to take some more pictures.

(3) I want to know who asked the hippos why they stayed submerged. Maybe they just like swimming.

(4) Animal sightings are what happens while you are busy looking for other animals.

(5) “Sundowner” is a delightful safari tradition of drinks and snacks taken while you watch the sunset.

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Editor’s note:

Sorry for the lag in posting. We had two consecutive days with no downtime, and therefore no time to write this post. I’m finishing this at 6:00am on Thursday, and we’re at our last stop now. But that’s another (couple of) stories.

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I mentioned yesterday that the typical safari day consists of a morning and afternoon drive, separated and bracketed by meals. The outline of a day at Phinda is:

• 6:00 am: wake up call
• 6:30 am: gather in the main lodge for coffee and a snack
• 7:00 am: board your vehicle (in this case, a Toyota Land Cruiser)

• 7:00 – 10:00 am: morning drive (you’re never back by 10:00)
• 10:30 am: breakfast
• 11:30 am – 1:30 pm: rest, shower, other activities, edit photos and write blog
• 1:30 pm: lunch
• 3:00 – 6:00 pm: afternoon drive (you’re never back by 6:00)
• 7:00 pm: dinner
• 8:30 pm: drinks in the bar, or back in your room; shower, get ready for tomorrow, edit photos and write blog

And then the next day it starts again. It seems like a grind, and indeed it is very different than sitting on the beach on St. Maarten. But I enjoy it, and apparently so do many other people.

Our guide Darren asked what we wanted to see today, and the consensus was that we would go look for the cheetahs we tried to find yesterday but couldn’t. But a few minutes after leaving the lodge, we came across a group of zebra, all bathed in the warm early light. So of course we stopped to watch for a bit. A couple of the females looked very pregnant, which you can see in the bottom picture above.

But we were in search of the elusive cheetah. There were at least two females that had been spotted in the area – one with a single cub, and one with three. So Mondla, our tracker took off through a field to see if he could find any trace of the cheetah. His report was that there was no sign of them, although one of the groups might have been through that field earlier. So we continued on. The only things we saw were a couple of monkeys in a tree and a group of warthogs in the grass by the road.

By this time we were half way through the morning drive, so Darren suggested we try seeking out some other animals. The kids liked giraffes, so we went towards the area where some had been spotted.

The thing about wild animals is that you can’t actually plan what they are going to do. So while we were looking for cheetah (and not finding them), other animals kept appearing. Which we had to stop and look at.

We saw zebra.

We saw giraffes (and more zebra).

We saw rhino and warthog.

There were three vehicles from Phinda all cooperating in the search – radioing back and forth with fleeting sightings, looking for footprints or scat along the road. Finally we got a glimpse of a mother and cub resting in the grass.

It’s very hard to see them; the grass is high, and once they walk into the brush – as this pair did shortly – they disappear. Darren, our ranger, tried to keep them in sight but it was impossible. And while we’re able to go off the roads into the brush, it was way too thick to follow this pair.

We believed that there was another mother with three cubs around, so the coordinated search continued.

About 30 minutes later, we found the second group. Again, they were sitting in the grass in the middle of a fairly large field. But the mother was sitting up, so we had a good view of her and stopped to watch. Then Darren moved the vehicle so we had a better view of her from the front, sunlit side. It was obvious that she was looking for something.

We were surprised when a group of zebra and a larger group of impala moved up from behind us. It’s hard to convey how amazing this scene was. The impala and zebra kept moving closer and closer to the cheetah; we (and two other vehicles) were sitting perhaps 20 yards from the cheetah while the other animals were a bit further away.

The prey were clearly unaware of the cheetah, while she was intensely aware of, and focused on, the impala. She quietly moved a few feet away from her cubs and looked like a coiled spring, ready to attack at any moment.

And then she did. The picture above is the best (only?) shot I got of her in action – it was impossible to even follow her with your eyes, and I was just pointing the camera and hoping to get something. She ran down the hill into the crowd of impala, who scattered, but wasn’t able to grab any. The zebra moved away as well, at a more measured pace. The impala were scattered, but were confused about where the cheetah had gone, so didn’t move very far. Then she came running back up, and chased an impala away from us, out of our sight.

Meanwhile, the cubs were sitting and waiting quietly where Mom left them, just like all of our children do, We couldn’t see it at the time, but the cheetah had caught the impala and the guides heard the mother calling the cubs. They trotted off in her direction and we followed. Two of the cubs got confused by a fence they couldn’t find a way through, but eventually the family was reunited and dined on fresh impala.

This episode took about an hour, and we were all emotionally exhausted from watching this example of life play out in real time. So we started working our way back towards the camp, and stopped along the way for some sundowner snacks. Dinner at the camp was an outdoor barbecue, which we all enjoyed.

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We have three cabins at Phinda – one for each couple, and one for the three girls. They’re all similar, and are designed to evoke a thatch-roofed cabin in the bush.

They’re also all pretty luxurious, with decks, small plunge pools, marble bathrooms and very nice furnishings in the bedroom.

Bedroom and desk/dressing area, August 2025

We had a great time in our 2-1/2 days in Cape Town, but this morning it was time to to leave. Nic, our guide from yesterday, picked us up at 8:30 for the short ride to Cape Town airport, where we caught our two hour flight to Durban, the third largest city in South Africa after Cape Town and Johannesburg. At the airport we were met by our driver, who would take us on the three hour drive to the &Beyond Phinda Mountain Lodge, our destination for the next four days.

One of the things I enjoy most about travel is seeing and learning new things. Our travel agent kept saying that getting to Phinda was “difficult”, and I assumed that the drive would be on poor roads at relatively low speeds. Instead, we traveled about 150 miles, first on a four lane highway and then on a two lane limited access road. The last 20 minutes were on dirt roads, mostly from the entrance to the Preserve to our lodge.

We had to stop for lunch, which killed some time and we ate in the van to not kill more time. With all of that, we got to Phinda just after 4:00pm. The general practice at these safari lodges is to have a morning and an afternoon game drive: the morning drive at ~6:30, the afternoon at ~3:00. In mid-August – which is middle of winter here – this means you’re leaving right around sunrise, and returning just after sunset. Since we were late for the afternoon drive, the lodge manager rushed us through the checkin process and we headed out on an abbreviated afternoon drive.

Our Ranger (guide, driver, etc.) is Darren, and we also have a Tracker named Manga.

Within minutes we saw our first animals: a pair of rhinos, one a juvenile and probably the other its mother. This was quickly followed by a kudu, some zebra, wildebeest, and impala. The light was pretty dim by this time, as it was just minutes before sunset and there are hills all around which block the setting sun.

But the fun wasn’t over. We continued driving around and came across two lions lying together in the grass.

You probably can’t see the second lion in the picture, but they were cuddling. Two big males with big manes.

After waiting for quite a while in hopes that they would move or do something interesting, it was basically too dark to see anymore so we headed back to the lodge for dinner. Along the way Manga used a flashlight to try and find any animals in the brush, but we didn’t see anything.

Every touristy place has a set of “must see” sights and activities. For Cape Town, Table Mountain is one of these – and we covered that yesterday. Another is a tour of the Cape, which is the peninsula that extends south 35 miles from Cape Town itself to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. The vast majority of the Cape is included in Table Mountain National Park.

We took this tour with a guide eight years ago during our first trip. Abs and Trey, who visited Cape Town for a wedding before they were even married, did the tour on their own in a rental car. But now we did it with their three children along.

The first stop was a Maiden’s Cove, a bay ringed by some rock formations which the kids had some fun with. We took a bunch of pictures and then moved on.

Nic, our driver, was doing a great job both explaining what we were looking at and entertaining everyone. He looked like someone I knew, and I struggled to place him. Then it hit me and I looked back at some old pictures.

Nic was the same guide that took Sally and me on the Cape Tour during our first trip to South Africa in 2017! This is the kind of coincidence that’s hard to imagine. We used different travel agents, who booked through different local outfitters, and we wound up with the same guy! When I showed him the 2017 picture, he was flabbergasted as well.

The next stop was one that the kids, and the adults, were especially looking forward to. Near Simon’s Town on the east side of the peninsula there is a colony of African penguins. African penguins mostly live on islands off the southern coast of Africa, with this colony near Simon’s Town being the only mainland example. The penguins put on a show for visitors, waddling around, jumping in the ocean, nesting and caring for their young. There is a boardwalk with a viewing area that you are restricted to.

From there we headed to the furthest point south we would reach, Cape Point. The Cape of Good Hope, which is a mile or so west of Cape Point, is often thought of at the dividing line between the Indian and Atlantic Oceans and is slightly south of Cape Point (1). But Cape Point is the tourist stop, due to the dramatic ridge that towers over the ocean, and the funicular that one can take to the top. You can also walk, which everyone but Sally and I did – we opted to ride.

Our last stop (after from a tasty lunch) was at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. Nic lead us on a tour and explained what we were looking at; that’s much more useful than us just wandering around and wondering what everything was.

Dinner was at a wonderful steak house called Bovine. The food was excellent. Tomorrow we leave at 8:30 to catch a flight up north towards our first safari day.

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(1) Neither is the southern-most point of Africa; that is Cape Agulhas, located about 93 miles east of the others.

We’re staying at the Cape Grace for three nights. Today is the first full day, and we made some plans to fill the day. But before that, let me give you the obligatory review of our accommodations.

We booked three rooms: one for Sally and Me, one for Abs & Trey, and one for the three youngins. All are equal (1), but our room is more equal than the others.

Our room consists of the following areas:

• A large bathroom/closet/vanity area
• A large bedroom with two club chairs
• A large living room with a couch and dining table with four chairs
• A small bar area off the living room

So, a large suite. This was an upgrade; I don’t know how Sally manages to get us upgraded perhaps 50% of the time.

The other two rooms didn’t have the bar area and were smaller, but still plush with separate bed and living rooms. And also upgrades.

The rough plan for the day was Table Mountain in the morning, and wandering around the V&A Harbor area in the afternoon. Interspersed with appropriate meals and snacks.

Table Mountain is a must-see Cape Town sight, written up in all of the guidebooks. There are three ways to enjoy Table Mountain:

1. Just look at it from the city. It’s really big, and visible everywhere. You can guess from the picture above from whence it got its name – the flat top or table.
2. You can take a cable car ride up, and enjoy the views from the ride, from the summit, and can also take some short hikes on the summit. Four of us: Abs, Squeakers, Sally and I chose this option.
3. You can hike up on one of five different trails. The hikes are only 2-3 miles long, but climb a bit over 2,000 ft. The remaining three – Trey, Munchie and Bassgirl – took this option.

Unfortunately, the picture above is the mountain as seen yesterday; today, the weather was not quite as cooperative. It’s hard to tell, but (a) these two pictures are approximately the same view, and (b) Table mountain really is in the second picture behind that thick cloud.

Anyway, when you’re on vacation, why let a little cloud interrupt your plans? So the three hikers left around 8:30, and the softees planned to arrive at the summit via cable car around 11:00 to meet them.

By the time we reached the summit we realized that our stay would be pretty short. Waiting for our cable car, we saw it appear out of the cloud. When we disembarked at the summit, the weather was dreadful. Cold, windy, mist blowing in our faces. You could see maybe a hundred feet or so.

Suffice it say, we waited for the three musketeers to reach us and then we all went back down on the next cable car. In fairness, the hikers did say that the weather was fine for most of their hike. It was just near the top that it got really nasty.

We made a quick stop at the hotel to regroup and change clothes if needed, and then headed back to the V&A waterfront for lunch and to do some shopping. There’s always lots going on there: musicians, singers, We also bought some stuff. Sally bought some small bowls to match ones that we got last time we were here; Sally and Abs both bought winter coats to wear on the safari drives later this week and next.

I should mention the food here. We’re generally enjoying it. Like everywhere, some is better and some is not so great, but overall it’s been very pleasing. The hotel has a nice buffet breakfast. In advance of the trip, we had our travel agent make reservations in three restaurants, one for each of our Cape Town evenings. Wednesday night was a “casual” place in the V&A waterfront, which meant jeans (2) are acceptable. Last night we ate in The Black Sheep. We were all a bit skeptical, as the menu was unusual and it was supposedly upscale. However, we were very impressed – we had several dishes and they were all good. Despite the billing, we found that jeans are acceptable.

Also, the food here is very inexpensive. Draft beers are $2-3, local wines are $18-25 for a bottle in the restaurants. We had dinner for 7, with drinks appetizers and deserts, for $209 !

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(1) see Animal Farm (G. Orwell)

(2) Due to our severe packing constraints, jeans form a major part of everyone’s wardrobe. I have two pair of pants, one of them jeans.

We spent a long 26 hours from leaving our home in the US until we arrived at our first stop, the Cape Grace Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa. The trip was uneventful. We got to JFK on time, our first flight to London left and arrived on time. We spent an hour and a half in the lounge at Heathrow, before boarding our flight to Cape Town. Enough time to use the bathrooms, eat a light meal, and stretch our legs.

Then back on the next flight. This was a much longer flight; about 11 hours overnight. At least, this gave some of us time for a good night’s sleep, unlike the quick, seven hour, NYC-London flight.

At the airport we were met by two handlers who did little more than escort us to the passport control sign, and then wait with us on the long-ish line. Sally likes this kind of extra service; I would have been happy to find our way there on our own. I must admit that they did save us a little time by getting an official to allow us to cut about 20% of the line, and they did wheel five of our seven carry-on bags from the passport line to the terminal exit, where we were met by our driver.

At the hotel we checked out our rooms, then had lunch at the hotel. We all realized that we would fall asleep if we went to the rooms, so we walked over the the V&A (1) harbor area and looked around at the shops and activities. The V&A is a very secure area in a not-so secure country. Then back to the Cape Grace Hotel to relax and clean up before dinner.

Let me introduce you to our crew for this trip. Starting, of course, with Sally and Me. We’ve been on a lot of trips together.

Joining us is Abs, our daughter, and her family.

Husband Trey, and her youngest daughter, Squeaks.

And their two other daughters, Bassgirl and Munchie.

This entire crew showered, in some cases put on makeup, and then went for a fun dinner back at the V&A.

We ended the day right after dinner, as we were all pretty exhausted. Tomorrow will be our first full day in CT (1), and we already have some morning activities planned.

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(1) Cape Town , not Connecticut.