Cape Town, Oct 19 to 21, 2012

Both of us had a good sleep in Norma's condo, although John was up early to try and contact South African Air to get our luggage. Finally after several attempts he contact someone who said our luggage had been located and we would get it within the next two hours. So we waited and waited and it finally arrived at 12:30 - the joys of traveling! But of course it could have been worse and they might not have found our luggage!! Norma and her dog Pip came and explained about the condo and then decided to show us around the Parklands area of Cape Town. It was raining by this time but ended up having a nice breakfast/lunch at a little cafe by the ocean. Norma is a wonderful women who is so full of life! We then settled into the condo after going to the grocery store(Checkers) and stocking up on provisions. John finally got to cook a dinner and Shirley finally got to do our laundry! Oh the joys of having your own place!!
The next two days were filled with being tourists in Cape Town. Of course driving on the wrong side of the road with a standard gear shift that you change with your left hand takes some getting used to! Shirley has more problems with it than John although she is only the passenger! We drove to down town Cape Town which is about 25 minutes from the condo and went straight to the Victoria and Albert Wharf area. Walked around a bit and found the Ferryman's Pub and had some beers, then bought tickets for the "hop on - hop off" bus, which we have always found is the best way in a big city to get your barrings straight. It was a great 2 1/2 hour tour that included Table Top Mountain, Camp Bay, all of the down town sites. Table Top Mountain cable car was closed because of the high winds. We stayed on the bus for an extra half ride to take us to the craft market and Long Street where we wondered around, finally stopping for appies and beers. Shirley bought a lovely bunch of flowers at the flower market and then we took a cab back to our car and went "home" for a vegetarian dinner made by john.
Next day we drove along the coast through Camp's Bay and unto Hout Bay. Where we lucked into a Sunday craft market right close to Snoekies Fish & Chips. A place we had been told we had to go to for snoek & chips, by Steve Botha and others. We had the combination plate of snoek and hake and both enjoyed the hake more!! We then drove over Chapman Peak, what a fantastic drive all the way down to Cape Point and the Cape of good Hope. The weather was cool and rainy but we did get to the tip where we saw ostriches that walked unto the road right in front of our car! We then drove on to Simons town and had a coffee at an ocean side restaurant and then went out on the beach and played with the penguins. These are African penguins and are as cute as anything we have seen. From here we drove on a road suggested by Steve Botha called "Boyes Drive" and it is a wonderful scenic drive that would have been easy to miss if we hadn't been told about it.Although the day was cloudy and damp we had a wonderful day exploring and again to come "home" to our own place was great. A little side note so that you can get an idea of how great Norma is - we had gone to Checkers to get some wine and cheese when we got home here and we discovered they closed early on Sunday. When we got to the condo Shirley discovered that Norma had sent us an email so she responded with an email and noted that we missed getting any wine or cheese because the stores close early. Next thing we know Norma has brought over cheese and two bottles of wine and left them for us!!!

Jo-Burg Oct 16, 17, & 18, 2012

Last day on the train and we are in a train station just outside Johannesburg (Germiston Station) everyone saying their good byes! We have met some really great people on this adventure and hopefully will run into them again. Franz and Hannie are talking about exchanging their house in Amsterdam with us for a month next September. And Carol & Ron will be in Cape Town at the same time we will be there.
Discovered that we had made a mistake on our flight out of Jo-Burg and we have two nights to spend here. We need the rest anyway from all the sight seeing we have been doing from the train. Some difficulty in getting a room - finally got one called the "Road Lodge". Not much for $75 a night plus have to buy breakfast. Had great dinner in Greek Restaurant and to bed early. John went online and got us into the Emperor's Palace for tomorrow night. It is a huge complex and has a casino! John has finally caught Shirley's cold and is just hanging in there.
On Oct 17th took taxi to Emperor's Palace before noon and they booked us right in to the Piermont Metcourt Hotel. Nice big room with a wonderful idea for the toilet and shower. Only one door that swings back and forth. Also the big bath tub sits right in the middle of the floor.
We walked around the complex. Besides a huge casino they have dozens of restaurants - it is just like
Las Vegas! So of course we had to get a "Winners Card". Shirley was lucky on a spin and won 100 Rand. Then she was able to play with that for quite some time before we went back to the room to check our emails. (Which are too few in coming!)
Went to a Portuguese restaurant for dinner and had a great meal. John had Espenellas (sp) which is like a kabob on a wire hanger over your plate, while Shirley had lamb shank. All was excellent with a bottle of wine for $45. Couldn't even buy a bottle of wine this good at home for this!
Went back to casino and Shirley decided to try her luck at the black jack table. Well she was about even with her winnings and decided to quit. She had to take the chips to the counter to cash in. While doing so some guy all dressed up and a girl in the Las Vegas costume started calling her name. Some how they draw new players names at random and Shirley's name was drawn and she was given 2000 Rand of chips. They had to be played at the tables. So with help from some locals Shirley started  playing the 25 Rand table of black jack and I would pocket the winnings. We left with about $250 Canadian!! This paid for our hotel and dinner! Lucky Girl - that Lucy!!
Up next day to a huge breakfast included in our room costs!! Went to airport and boarded plane to Bloemfontien and waited there for our next flight to Cape Town. Got into Cape Town about 18:25 but no luggage.What a pain. Made our claim and then got our car. It is a VW Polo, but no GPS had to go to Hertz and rent a GPS for almost $100! What a rip off.
After some misadventures in getting to Norma's condo we finally got there about 20:00 and Norma was waiting for us. What a woman she is!

 Shirley last morning on the train!

 Shirley's winnings!

Sorry to say with John's cold there was very little thinking about pictures for the past few days.

Marching to Pretoria and Soweto, Oct 15, 2012

Last night was the mustache contest. We all were to have a mustache but other than the three original contestants, only John & Shirley showed up with mustaches.
Well today we were not lucky enough to get on Steve's bus - we have Lutendo, who is a King's son from up in Zimbabwe, but as a bus driver he merely drives as fast as he can and points out the highlights. You are always the first back to the train when you are with Lutendo! But we saw a great deal today anyway. It might be because Cherel went to Lutendo and asked him specifically why we weren't going to see some of the main sights - he got upset and tried to put "a woman" in her place and then obvious realized what he was doing in front of a bus load of paying guess. Anyway we did fly past the sights but we did see them.
After a not so good sleep on the train we left with Lutendo and drove to Pretoria and around the Union Building (Parliament Buildings) for six months the government sits here and six months in Cape Town.We saw, from our bus windows, beautiful gardens, embassies, statue of Paul Kruger, and his home, went to Church Square and  saw statue of Pretoria and his father. Also saw the changes in the street signage. One of the main planks in the NCA campaign under Mandella was to have all the cities, streets and other important places renamed to the original names and not the Boer or English names. Obviously makes for confusion!
We then went to the Voortrekker monument - which is quite inspirational. Think in terms of the Oregon trail and the wagons heading west in USA or the Red River Carts in Canada's west. Shirley and I were the only ones from our group to walk to the top of the monument and see back into the city from this height! Also got what I think is a great picture of the stone walls at the top.
Left here and went into Soweto. This is actually a suburb of Joannesburg - Jo-burg has 3 and half million people, while Soweto has 4 and half!! We saw well to do homes and also tin or wooden shacks all in the same township!  Drove along Vilakazi Street where two Nobel Peace Prize winners once lived. Bishop Tutu and Nelson Mandella. Also Winnie Mandella still lives in this neighbourhood. We went to the Hector Pieterson Square and museum which shows in very realistic terms the young student uprising of 1976 and documents the death of Hector Pieterson a black student. This museum reminded us both of the Martin Luther museum in Memphis and the power one person's death can have on a whole race or in that matter a whole nation!!
Like always with Lutendo we were first back to train, but this gave us time to have a drink and as it turned out john got a free Scotch from the man (Leon) who owns Shongololo. John was able to give him some ideas we had talked about as a group on how they could improve it and how the guides should all be like Steve. Leon said he would like to email John and get some more details, so John has been keeping a list.

Although we could have spent some more time at specific places we did see and learn a great deal today.