Just a couple more days and we’ll be headed back to Cleveland, with the girls in tow.
The trip to Kruger and the Eastern Cape was amazing and exhausting. This is a big country! We drove 1800 km to Kruger in one day, the Combi (minibus) broke down the next day; I guess that long trip was its last gasp. Because of the Combi breakdown, we didn’t get to see as much in Kruger as we wanted, but I’ve got video of lions, springbok, zebra, rhino, hippo, and a bunch of others.
We then went to the Eastern Cape to Dordrecht and the Birch farm where Nonswakazi lived until she ran away. Lots of stories to tell around that. We also visited Boy’s family in Sado. Even more stories. You can’t escape skin color, money, religion, family, and politics in this country. There are so many divisions and so much distrust across those divisions. It’s a part of life everywhere.
On our trip back to Cape Town we stopped in Addo National Elephant park and saw too many elephants to count! We also watched a couple of baby worthogs scamper and play while their mother waited for time at the watering hole. More video!
We’ve been back a couple of days now and Boy gave us a wonderful tour of the local townships. The communities are so much richer and more complex than you might think from the way American media portrays these empoverished locales. More stories!
Today, we would have gone to Cape Point and Robben Island but its been raining cats and dogs, and we’re tired, so we went to the acquarium and visited the South African Breweries site here that is converting over to RSBatch for running its automation systems. Beautiful brewery and great people. Thanks for the tour and the discussion! (Paul, I’ve got some specific requests from them, of course… <grin>).
I’ll try to write again in the next couple days to share more of my reaction to the trip. When we get back, I’ll be posting pictures and lots more information about the Sgwentu family, South Africa , and the Cape.
