Comments | lobosolo: South African holiday

lobosolo

South African holiday

Mar 05, 2006 17:39

There's a photo-blog of our month in South Africa on the family web site, at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/thelances/ (nine pages, with over 100 pictures; don't feel obliged to wade through all of them).

As a sample, here's a photo taken from the window of our rental car, showing the sort of traffic you encounter in a National Park:

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Comments 6

a_trick_mind March 5 2006, 19:17:34 UTC

Welcome home. I look forward to paging through your photos. Great photo of you and Mary. I hope you weren't driving far after all that wine. lol Great photo of the elephant too. I suppose they cut the tusks so people won't shoot them.

lobosolo March 6 2006, 12:43:23 UTC

Don't ask questions about drinking and driving! In fact, the wine tasting was in the morning, and we stayed at the winery for lunch and a walk round the grounds before driving the 15km or so back to Franschhoek, where we were staying. So I hope I wasn't a danger to anyone on the road.

As for the elephant, I don't know why the tusks were removed. Maybe the animal had an uncertain temper and might have been a danger to tourists or other elephants. More likely, as you suggest, it was for the animal's own protection, to stop it being a target for ivory poachers.

shofarot March 5 2006, 20:59:36 UTC

Ah Boschendal, a fine choice. I s'pose you did the Stellenbosch wine route - the pride of the Cape. Did you make it to Stellenbosch University or further out to Paarl and the Klein Karoo?

Amazing how times flies, since it seems as though it was just a few weekes ago that we exchanges comments about your upcoming retirement and trip to South Africa.

lobosolo March 6 2006, 12:49:09 UTC

In fact Boschendal was the only winery we visited, and we were very impressed by it. We stayed in Franschhoek for a couple of days and loved it. My ancestors, way way back, were Huguenots, so I found the Huguenot museum there very fascinating. We didn't go to Paarl, but we spent the last day of our trip in Stellenbosch before going to Cape Town airport for the overnight flight home.

a_trick_mind March 5 2006, 23:28:55 UTC

I just finished going through your photo section. I almost feel like I have been there after seeing your great photos. Talk about a great vacation. I would have loved staying at your oceanette and hearing the surf breaking on shore. It's one of my favorite sounds. How many km did you drive? Did you keep track? One of my favorite things is the world is just getting in the car and driving. We hope to be able to take a week or two one of these times soon and just drive around Europe, wherever the roads lead us. So far we have only managed to drive around Brussels in an attempt to get familiar with the city. Now we need to stretch out some more.

You have not been retired long but it must agree with you. You are looking great! :)

lobosolo March 6 2006, 13:02:45 UTC

The surf at Storms River Mouth was quite a sight, even on a calm day. In a real storm it must be awesome.

I forgot to note the exact mileage. We must have covered nearly 3500km in the month. Like you, I love that sort of travel. I first got a taste for it in the summer of 1965 when I drove round North America with my friend Clive in his little VW Beetle. We travelled 12000 miles in six weeks, for a cost of 1¢/mile. (The Beetle did 30 miles per gallon, and gasoline then was 30¢/gallon. Those were the days!)

You should certainly try to see something of Belgium when you can. The Ardennes area is well worth exploring.