Blonde and Brunette went to South Africa the year we had been semi-planning to go to Egypt. Our sound reasoning was that, allegedly, wine in Egypt is barely drinkable and South African wine is excellent. Pyramids, schmeramids, we have our priorities straight.
Once again our Starwood (SPG) points were instrumental in our planning. We stayed at the Westin in Cape Town for the first several nights of our trip. We visited wine country, a park on the Western Cape and Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for many years. We then rented a car and drove the Garden Route to Hermanus. Driving, though on the left, was not a problem as most of the route was on a highway – sometimes a two lane one, but still.
Prior to our departure we read a variety of cautionary tales advising travelers to never pull off to the side of the road, show a map or do anything else that would be an indication of being tourists. Therefore, on the way to Hermanus we got lost, pulled off to a big slab of dusty land along a remote road and spread our map out all over the dashboard. We also (lost again and this is a pathetically simple route) found ourselves stuck in traffic in one of the notorious “townships” with men selling large wire fish decorative objects and electronics of dubious origins. It wasn’t at all clear that we were two women alone and clueless. The way it isn’t clear that Donald Trump’s hair is not attractively arranged.
However, we either never had a reason to feel fear or were just too stupid, but in either case we dubbed South Africa “the land of no attitude”. Blonde in particular hadn’t expected to be well-regarded in a country still trying to recover from apartheid, a policy that, based on appearance, caused Blonde to expect to be about as popular as she might be at a convention of her former lovers.
Amazingly, Nelson Mandela truly taught Black South Africans that the Whites who advocated apartheid had simply been taught faulty beliefs and should not be hated. Where we were concerned about encountering ‘tude we did not. There were some people who wanted to touch Blonde’s hair and have photo opportunities to prove that people that pasty looking do indeed exist but we were always treated very well. We got a good snicker out of the fact that the only person who was rude to us in South Africa was someone from Air France. Quelle surprise!
After our thoroughly enjoyable time on the Garden Route, including observing whales and sea lions in Plettenburg Bay, we flew to Kirkman’s Kamp in Sabi Sand Game Reserve for the obligatory safari portion of our trip. (Note: The whales were in mating season and quite amorously active but it seems unlikely that whale porn is ever going to be a profitable enterprise. Why would someone pay to observe loud thrashing and grunting when we already have the NFL?)
Kirkman’s Kamp was wonderful – the people, the food, the trackers, the guides and the obliging animals. There are many blog posts worth of material based on our experiences there (Example: Brunette calling for the guard with a gun because of the size of a spider in our bathroom) but this endless rambling is only intended to be a prelude to a selection of photos from the trip. And here are some of the photos: (to see them as a slideshow click on one picture and then you will have the slideshow option). Captions can be purchased for $500 each using checks mailed to a P.O. Box in Nigeria. Enjoy!