We left Cincinnati, Ohio on January 16th and arrived 20 hours later in Johannesburg, South Africa. While in Jo'Burg, we toured Johannesburg, viewed some of the Big 5 at Pilanesburg Reserve and spent a day with distant German relatives.
On January 21st, we left for Cape Town a huge contrast from Johannesburg and took several guided tours along the cape peninsula. The Cape is absolutely beautiful and we could have spent 10 days there and not been bored. We had an amazing tour guide, Hanny Smuts, all to ourselves.
We had a fantastic time in South Africa and recommend this journey to anyone who has interest. The flight home to Ohio, from Cape Town was brutal, but if my 82 year old Grandfather can survive it, anyone can.
The pictures in this blog are only a small representation. I believe there are more than 600 pictures in all. I'm sure Blogger would not appreciate them all being uploaded here. Jennifer is working on a photo album, so if you want to see more of our pictures, let her know.
Many great memories were made on this trip and lots of funny conversations. Other than the SA scenery and tours, there are also some very funny memories shared between my grandfather and me. Oh yeah and lots of bets were made...if you know my Grandpa, you know he likes to bet. Here are some of my favorite moments:
Trying to discover where Dubai is located. Jennifer was convinced it's in India, Grandpa was convinced it's not, but couldn't say where. A bet was made, I believe it was 100 Rand. In order to resolve this bet, the concierge was called looking for a map and after that wasn't successful, we called a cousin in Florida, who wasn't home and eventually my brother in Ohio, who said he "thought" it was in the United Arab Emirates. We HAD to know! Actually the calls from South Africa to the US were cheap.
I discovered that Grandpa cannot hear. He said he'd rather read lips than have a hearing aid. HA! BUT, he agreed to get one if he could buy it from Wal-Mart. Ha ha
Grandpa was convinced there just had to be a Wal-Mart in South Africa...there isn't, but he asked everyone if there was one. The look on people's faces was priceless, they had no idea what a Wal-Mart is.
On our Safari vehicle, Grandpa didn't use all the steps to get down and he lost his footing. There was a very professional stunt roll done by Grandpa in order to save the camera. You'll be seeing him in an upcoming Mission Impossible film.
Woolworth's...yes, there's a Woolworth's in SA. We flew all the way to SA to buy washcloths from Woolworth's.
Jennifer's camera battery died on the second day...she brought a back-up battery for a camera she doesn't even own anymore. An extra battery would have cost $70, so Grandpa had to be the photographer for the rest of the trip.
Johannesburg airport...let's just say Grandpa got feisty with an airline rep. when they had not seated a man in a wheelchair before everyone else. I pretended not to know Grandpa until we were safely through security, but we had good laughs about it during the 20++ hour flight home.
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3 comments:
Jip, Dubai's in the UAE...one of the hottest most humid places I've ever been to (apparently it was that time of year). Did you fly via New York to Johannesburg?
No, we flew via Atlanta.
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