Continuing our travel journey, I went to South Africa this christmas and new year. I must say that I'm really impressed by Cape Town and Kruger National Park. So far, this experience has to be the most amazing; surpassing the Great Barrier Reef - Cairns that I did six months back.
The Safari
We took a flight from Singapore to Johannesburg (via Dubai) and booked our safari at Naledi Enkoveni in Balule Private Nature Reserve. We chose Balule as it has Olifants river passing by and Naledi is ranked 1 in that area. And Naledi did a fantastic job as well. We planned for 4 safaris (2 each day) which we regret because we both just loved the safaris and believed that we should have spend an extra day. We were able to view Lions, Hippos, Rhinos, Elephants, Impalas, Giraffes, Buffaloes, Zebras, Kudus, Dears, Wildebeest, warthogs and many others. The joy of finding them in a humongous jungle and then spending one hour watching them and listening to ranger's amazing stories about animals is unbelievable. We went pretty close to these animals and trust me there is no need for Binoculars. Yeah, of course you see animals pretty close in zoos, but then the animal has been trained to sit in the cage or the limited open area. In jungle, the excitement is there all the time. You need to find the animal, chase them and finally spent time watching them. We spent at least 45 mins watching each of the big four and trust me never felt that 45 mins were so long. The safari has left both of us with special memories and believe that we will be doing another later in our life. Some of the pictures below.
Cape Town
We then returned from Kruger to Johannesburg and took a flight to Cape Town. Cape Town is a very beautiful city and offered lots of areas/places to go. We had 6-7 days and we spent every day doing only one activity. I guess we are changing as in our previous travels, we were focusing on our checklist - that is how many things have we seen. In this process, you get see many things, but surely one does not spend too much time about extracting pleasure out of seeing that unique place or thing.
We rented a car, which was a good thing because we came to know later that during the christmas and new year time, there were just no cars to be rented in any of the well known car rental companies. So, book your car well in advance.
We visited following places and all of them are beautiful.
1. Table Mountain - Gosh, what a beautiful place it is. Pleateau on the top of a mountain. We spent 5 hours on the top and experienced amazing weather change from clear to windy to cloudy to clear. Amazing views. Watched one of the best sunset ever.
2. Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens - Again a fantastic place. Amazing weather, beautiful scenery all around.
3. Stellenbosch and Franschoek - Lots of wine yards in these two areas. Was so much impressed by the overall scenery that decided to go twice to this place. You should do wine tasting (at least couple of times). Wines are very cheap as well. So make sure you get couple of them when you return back.
4. Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope - Place where Atlantic meets Indian Ocean. The entire drive to Cape Point is absolutely amazing. One should drive from the Indian Ocean side and return back from the Atlantic. This way you can see amazing sunset while coming back as well as take a sundown drink at Camps Bay (Happening place). While going to the Cape Point, you should definitely stop at Boulders Beach to say hello to Penguins. Yes, Penguins .. can you believe it? Also, we were lucky to see a group of Ostriches while going from Cape point to Cape of Good Hope. You turn your car and you see Ostriches on the road. This is amazing and thats why South Africa made me surprised so much.
We missed Robben Island because tickets were all sold out due to so much tourist traffic. But I have been to Alcatraz before so it was ok for me.
Overall, this was a well spent christmas and new year. Hope to visit safari soon. But now next summer I believe is a time for some architectural visit. Lets see where journey takes me in June.
The Safari
We took a flight from Singapore to Johannesburg (via Dubai) and booked our safari at Naledi Enkoveni in Balule Private Nature Reserve. We chose Balule as it has Olifants river passing by and Naledi is ranked 1 in that area. And Naledi did a fantastic job as well. We planned for 4 safaris (2 each day) which we regret because we both just loved the safaris and believed that we should have spend an extra day. We were able to view Lions, Hippos, Rhinos, Elephants, Impalas, Giraffes, Buffaloes, Zebras, Kudus, Dears, Wildebeest, warthogs and many others. The joy of finding them in a humongous jungle and then spending one hour watching them and listening to ranger's amazing stories about animals is unbelievable. We went pretty close to these animals and trust me there is no need for Binoculars. Yeah, of course you see animals pretty close in zoos, but then the animal has been trained to sit in the cage or the limited open area. In jungle, the excitement is there all the time. You need to find the animal, chase them and finally spent time watching them. We spent at least 45 mins watching each of the big four and trust me never felt that 45 mins were so long. The safari has left both of us with special memories and believe that we will be doing another later in our life. Some of the pictures below.
Cape Town
We then returned from Kruger to Johannesburg and took a flight to Cape Town. Cape Town is a very beautiful city and offered lots of areas/places to go. We had 6-7 days and we spent every day doing only one activity. I guess we are changing as in our previous travels, we were focusing on our checklist - that is how many things have we seen. In this process, you get see many things, but surely one does not spend too much time about extracting pleasure out of seeing that unique place or thing.
We rented a car, which was a good thing because we came to know later that during the christmas and new year time, there were just no cars to be rented in any of the well known car rental companies. So, book your car well in advance.
We visited following places and all of them are beautiful.
1. Table Mountain - Gosh, what a beautiful place it is. Pleateau on the top of a mountain. We spent 5 hours on the top and experienced amazing weather change from clear to windy to cloudy to clear. Amazing views. Watched one of the best sunset ever.
2. Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens - Again a fantastic place. Amazing weather, beautiful scenery all around.
3. Stellenbosch and Franschoek - Lots of wine yards in these two areas. Was so much impressed by the overall scenery that decided to go twice to this place. You should do wine tasting (at least couple of times). Wines are very cheap as well. So make sure you get couple of them when you return back.
4. Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope - Place where Atlantic meets Indian Ocean. The entire drive to Cape Point is absolutely amazing. One should drive from the Indian Ocean side and return back from the Atlantic. This way you can see amazing sunset while coming back as well as take a sundown drink at Camps Bay (Happening place). While going to the Cape Point, you should definitely stop at Boulders Beach to say hello to Penguins. Yes, Penguins .. can you believe it? Also, we were lucky to see a group of Ostriches while going from Cape point to Cape of Good Hope. You turn your car and you see Ostriches on the road. This is amazing and thats why South Africa made me surprised so much.
We missed Robben Island because tickets were all sold out due to so much tourist traffic. But I have been to Alcatraz before so it was ok for me.
Overall, this was a well spent christmas and new year. Hope to visit safari soon. But now next summer I believe is a time for some architectural visit. Lets see where journey takes me in June.
