Is a luxury train trip a good addition to a South African experience? My current group and my previous group three weeks ago both took the three-day/two-night Rovos Rail trip from Cape Town to Pretoria, my 8th trip on Rovos and 10th luxury rail trip in South Africa.
So what do I think, now? Read more
I have an absolutely wonderful group of people on safari at the moment. Kind, extremely articulate, incredibly enthusiastic. No tour guide – indeed, no individual could be more honored to be the organizer of such a group.
But I’m going to abandon them tomorrow afternoon on the very first game drive. This is not an easy decision. I’m the guide. But I’m going to watch the Senate Judiciary hearings with Dr. Ford.
We have only one life to live and there’s no Tivo prism through which it plays out. There will be many opportunities to watch the hearings in full later on. But recordings are not live events. Sharing the human experience is what makes us human.
One man watching a far-away event can hardly impact history’s course. But thousands and millions can, because our single most critical danger today is the loss of truth. The #MeToo movement notwithstanding, the suppression of women notwithstanding, the power of the Supreme Court notwithstanding, if I can imbibe events as they happen and trigger my human awareness of reality – truth – at the same time that millions others do, it could be among the most important tiny moments by which I contribute to a better world.
We wrapped up our touring in The Cape with a day trip down to the Cape of Good Hope and then a day in and around Stellenbosch.
The weather was beautiful! At The Cape almost all the tour group took the 2-mile beach walk that starts with a rather strenuous ascent. Piece of cake for Jeff and Heather Ettinger who the afternoon before walked up Table Mountain!
So I’ve been in Cape Town since last Saturday, and it’s rained every day. Every day it’s been so cloudy, cold and overcast that going up Table Mountain was out of the question.
So Wednesday was when my tour officially began, and it offically was to begin with Table Mountain! I woke early and threw open my room curtains and there it was: in a luminous pastel predawn blue sky without a cloud in the heavens!
Sadness comes in many forms. It lingers much longer than happiness. The new ZEITZ MOCAA museum in Cape Town displays Africa’s sadness so profoundly, I’m absolutely sure it will soon be recognized as one of the greatest art museums on earth.
Conceding that the museum is “likely to become the dominant arts institution on the continent,” the New York Times in a patently jealous critique worried that so much money ($38 million) had been spent on a single museum in an impoverished society.
What was MOMA’s budget last year? How many free tickets did MOMA give to Appalachians?
We wrapped up our 15-day trip to South Africa at the St. Lucia, iSimangaliso National Park. This was the first Unesco Heritage Site in the country and one of the most important wetlands in the world.
We just completed two nights at a lovely Drakensberg resort carved into a macadamia and lychee plantation that also grows and markets roses! The aromas – particularly now in spring – were fabulous!
Andre & Ilse van Heerden’s 100-acre farm rolls down from the lower hills of the Drakensberg into a small river. Their 12 raised canvas guest cabins all overlook the river. It was an extremely comfortable interlude, but the most interesting time was when Andre explained to me at dinner how Trump tariffs were destroying his macadamia business. And he exports most of his nuts to China!
Monday we spent touring what many South Africans consider the most beautiful part of their country, the “Panoramic Route.”
The route covers a part of the northern Drakensberg Mountain Range in the eastern part of the country. These are very small mountains by North American standards. The highest point, Thabana Ntlenyana, is just under 11,500′ on the border with Lesotho.
Rather than go directly from one private reserve to another, the standard MO of most upmarket safaris in South Africa, I took my group Sunday into Kruger National Park.
You mean many Americans on safari don’t visit Kruger National Park? One of the best managed wildernesses on earth and the oldest? That’s right. Here’s why.
I remember when I was a young guide in Kenya, in particular about forty years ago when showing Purdue alums the Maasai Mara. After the first game drive I took the driver aside and yelled at him because he hadn’t found us a rhino.
We’d seen two prides of lions, one with cubs, about 100 ele, maybe thousands of various kinds of antelope, and a cheetah… all in about 4 hours. But no rhino. I remember those days shamefully now, but as I once was myself, so are the majority of first-timers on safari today.
For the last two days and nights we’ve been traveling on South Africa’s luxury 1920’s thematic train, Rovos Rail. It’s a pleasant way to get from The Cape northwards, in our case as we prepare for a week of game viewing in the east of the country.
The water crisis in Cape Town is over … at least for now. Dam reservoir levels are at 62%, twice what they have been at this time for the last two years, and well above the average for the last decade.
Even so water use restriction remains in force and it’s both irksome (because of the current positive conditions) and understandable (because of climate change). It’s ironic that while being nearly rained out of several of our planned attractions, our hotel continues to forbid the use of the bathtub.
As I continue my journey through Cape’s paradise of Springtime, it becomes increasingly difficult to write instead of just show you pictures!
And I’m no photographer. Nothing but my old Android phone that’s now my “African phone.” Poorly focused, no sensitivity to settings, I just click away, endlessly.
The beauty is exceptional. This is The Cape’s Spring Flower Show, probably the greatest on earth, even better than western Australia. I’m in Piketberg, about 150 miles north of Cape Town near Citrusdal and the Cederberg Mountains. Very poor internet. Will do my best. Stay tuned!
Yellowstone, Kruger, Ngorongoro Crater, the Mara – four of the most precious ecosystems on earth – are becoming as crowded as Disneyland. Is this right? Is it necessary?
I never intended to visit an American national park in the high season, but I completely forgot about the Memorial Day weekend. It was an eye-opener. Yellowstone is a beautiful, healthy, diverse wilderness. We saw good game and the explosion of spring wild flowers is astounding. But there were so many people I had a very difficult time.