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South Africa Highights- December 1997 My 5 week trip to South Africa, December 1997, following Gloss implementations at Merrill Lynch in Paris and Milan. I flew into Johannesberg, spent a night in Pretoria, then got on the first train out of there - a 27 hour journey straight to Cape Town. Cape Town is another 'World City', set in a truely great location, directly below Table Mountain. This was the view from the youth hostel.
On the top of Table Mountain.
The Twelve Apostles at sunset, taken from Table Mountain.
Oudshorn After a week in Cape Town, I headed east to Oudshorn. Close to the deserts, the hostel ran a minibus to the top of a pass 20 miles away, dropped you off, and let you cycled all the way back (mostly downhill)
Wilderness - Fairy Knowe Leaving Oudshorm, took a local minibus to George, then caught the Steam Train for a lovely ride along the coast.
Coming into Fairy Knowe station - the hostel's own private train stop. Fairy Knowe was a lovely hostel too, set on a small hill, Gertrude the Hen strutting around. Just a great place to relax, read a book, go for a walk.
From Fairy Knowe there was a boardwalk along the Lagoon, to take you to the beach.
Kurland Backpackers Farm, by Natures Valley Spent 5 days here. A beautiful old farm house, recently opened as a hostel, with a massive library and grand rooms with real fires. This was my favourite place of the entire trip, going hiking twice into Natures Valley, relaxing with the other backpackers, reading books, listening to CDs.
Natures Valley - a twisty path leading down to a lagoon and beach.
Durban Spent Christmas in Durban, eating a great Christmas meal provided by the hostel and generally partying. The day previous, went on a tour to see a zulu village in the Valley of a Thousand Hills, 30 miles north of Durban. A true case of subsistence living, it makes you appreciate how priviliged you are.
On Safari in Kruger National Park From Durban, returned to Johannesburg, and joined a 4 day safari into Kruger National Park. This started poor, but got better and better, as we headed north into more savanna plains, seeing giraffes, elephants, impala. We saw a few lions, not many, you need a lot of wildlife to support the predators. We spent New Years Eve in a professional campground around the traditional campfire, with people jumping into the swimming pool on New Years.
The Safari Lorry.
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