Cape Town's Welcome Back

I've passed the one week mark... and it's been amazing. Peter and Theresa arrived last Friday night (a couple hours after my luggage, thank you) and they have been keeping me busy. Not sure how they'd feel with the jet lag Saturday, I made no plans. To hint at how the week has been since they arrived, we started up Platteklip Gorge (you can see the path up the gorge we went up on this first picture) on Table Mountain Saturday morning at 9am. Six hours later, we were back at the car after summiting, walking to the far edge of the mountain (MaClear’s Beacon, the highest point on the mountain at 3,563 feet), and ready for a break from the 95 degree heat. After grocery shopping, a quick ocean dip and showers, we invited the rest of the team (Mike, Tom, and Lynne) over and grilled ostrich steaks on the grill on my patio; it was quite the perfect day.

Sunday was another Table Mountain summit and we went up Devil’s Peak. It was a shorter hike and different from Platteklip because we actually had a nice breeze and didn’t feel as we were hiking up the racks of an oven… Then we cleaned up and headed out to Stellenbosch and visited 2 vineyards for winetasting. After two fantastic days, you could say that I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of the approaching work week.

The fun activities continued through the week complementing my work . With Peter and Theresa as extra motivation, we’ve fit in some beach runs, a morning hike up Lion’s Head, and another Table Mountain attempt (we ended up halfway up the mountain, missed the ravine and instead had a scenic traverse walk on the ocean side of the mountain). The week has flown by and I’m excited for the weekend. The agenda will hopefully include plenty of rock climbing as well as some fishing on False Bay. Peter and Theresa’s vacation here is spoiling me – but it’s definitely a positive!

Back to Cape Town - luggage would be nice...

I have just arrived back in Cape Town for the last phase of work here. After 2 months at home and only having 2 trips by plane, the 41 hour door-to-door commute took a little gearing up for - and knowing that my old apartment on the beach was still going to be the door on the Cape Town end certainly helped!

I had 11 hours to spare in London so I left Heathrow and took the tube to watch the sunrise while standing over the Thames River on the Tower Bridge. Still quite early, I walked up river to cross the London Bridge and returned back down and over the Tower Bridge again. By that point, the Tower of London (previous fortress, royal palace, and prison - all in one!) was open and ready for me. Being a weekday and early, there was no line to see the Crown Jewels and I gawked at the largest diamond in the world (530 carats) until I'd had my fill - wow. Then I moved on to the second largest diamond in the world...

After the Tower of London, I explored a bit by foot before the wall hit me and I realized how tired I was. I made it back to a tube stop and battled to stay awake on the ride. I lost the battle but luckily Heathrow was the last stop. After a quick shower and snack in the British Airways lounge, I made my way to the guantlet (also known as the jet bridge) for my 12 hour flight.

All and all the trip wasn't so bad - including 3 good movies (Into the Wild is the winner) and a big chunk in my book - until the baggage claim conveyor stopped without my luggage on it. Unfortunately, British Airways had no record of my luggage but I felt pretty confident that it made it through JFK and to London. The took all the details (brand, color - both black, and type) and told me that they'd call me with an update. By that point, my ride had left (knowing that all other passengers from the flight had long since left) and it appeared it couldn't get worse... I should know better. While out shopping for clothes (yoga pants not being appropriate for work), they delivered one bag. Sadly, the blue bag they delivered wasn't mine. I tried to laugh at the fact that they could have just checked that my name was not Victoria like the tag on the blue bag stated... but yes, my address is Victoria Road. Easy mistake or cruel joke?

I've since traded bags and have one... wonder what adventures tomorrow will bring!

Catch up on Zambia and Botswana

My last week in Africa in 2007 was spent in Zambia and Botswana with my dad and my friend, Ted. After wrapping up work on November 16th, we left Cape Town and flew to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia.

The Zambian part of our adventure came from a connection from my dad. My dad has trucked farm equipment from Minnesota to the port on its way to a farmer in Zambia. The farmer's cousin, Gladstone, has worked with my dad and happened to be in Zambia at the same time to attend a family wedding. Gladstone had invited us to both the wedding and then to spend 4 days at Costain's (his cousin, the farmer who is pictured above with his wife, Ted, and me - Costain is also a likely candidate to become the next Zambian president!) 25,000 acre farm. (This picture is of workers separating the soybeans from the husks and then churning them in the barrel to coat the seeds with fertilizer - yep, both Ted and I took our turns).

The wedding was similar to weddings I've been to in the States (white bridal dress, cutting the cake, toasts, etc) but the most interesting part was all the choreographed dancing of the bridesmaids and groomsmen - dancing I wouldn't be comfortable performing in front of family!

The following day, we drove about 2.5 hours to the farm. Gladstone took us around showing us the different irrigation pumps they have and the different fields (including the bananas)and we saw some of the farm equipment my dad has hauled out in the fields - small world!

This picture is of the burning in Costain's fields in preparation for the next crop - led to an interesting discussion about freedoms: Freedom to do as you wish on/to your land without requiring a permit versus the freedom to speak out against one's goverment.

Oh, and the first picture on this post is of a group of female employees walking back to their homes - each with a large bundle on their head AND a baby tied around them in a wrap.

We left the farm with Desi (pictured in the RWS hat), another cousin of Gladstone, who was going to drive us to Livingstone to see Victoria Falls, supposedly 5 or so hours away. Things were going smoothly until the fan went out on the car and we pushed it to 'Dallas Ranch' and hitched a ride (luggage and all) 30 minutes down the road where Desi had a friend and we could get another vehicle. Hitchhiking in Zambia - check.

Victoria Falls was amazing; the water was flowing substantially less than normal (so we were told) but it was nice because we were only misted while taking pictures instead of being drenched by the spray.

We stayed just outside Livingston along the river in a little hut with mosquito nets. Almost as scary as the hitchhiking incident was seeing the snake crawl up the outside of our screen - they are not my favorite creature.

But the Falls made up for the snake scare! We also hiked down to the 'Boiling Point' and watched people bungee jump from the bridge connecting Zambia and Zimbabwe. Such a beautiful place.

From there, we went to Botswana for a safari and stayed in a beautiful lodge on the Chobe River (bordering Namibia) and saw plenty of animals including the season's newborns: a baby crocodile, baby warthog, kid elephant, and an impala being born. There's something about watching the animals on safari that captivates you; no matter how many lions you see, you can't stop staring...

After Botswana, we made our way back to Livingstone and flew to Johannesburg and then back to the States (all on different flights...) and I made it back just in time to have a glass of champagne with Jack to celebrate his birthday...