Kruger National Park, South Africa Feb 23, 2010

Now we begin our final leg of our African adventure.  We stared by driving our selves through Kruger National Park and viewing whatever game we could see from the paved road on our way to the private game reserve where we would stay for our safari.  We spent about 1.5 hrs driving through the park.  We planned on spending 4 hrs driving in one gate, heading north and exiting another gate next to our safari location.  Well, without road names and road signs, we discovered that we had made a huge circle and ended back up at the same gate an hour and a half later!  So, we exited the park and drove to the safari outside of Kruger National Park.  We were there for a short time but saw many animals.  Here are a few:

We came around the corner from the park entrance and immediately spotted a herd of female impala.  They were feeding in the shade of a group of trees.

Not too far away we spotted this male impala with his impressive curved horns.

Within the first 3 minutes of driving, after seeing the impala, we spotted this amazing elephant.  Remember, we are driving on a paved road in a National Park that is over 7,300 square miles (about 19,000 square kilometers).  It is bordered by large private game reserves that also provide photo safaris.  There are no fences between the national park and the private game reserves, so the animals move freely over this entire area.

Did you know that both male and female African elephants have tusks?  They are used for digging and for protection.  Tusks are an elephants eye teeth...

We weren't the only ones to spot these 2 female elephants with a VERY young baby elephant protected between them.  This baby can't be more than a week or two old, based on it's size, but it already has learned to grasp the tail of the adult in front with it's trunk.  I wish our kids learned how to hold Mommy's hand so easily!

More warthogs resting under some trees.  It was around noon when we drove through, so many of the animals were just hanging out in the shade.  It was about 85 degrees out.

Male baboon that we initially spotted coming towards us through the grass, so we stopped to take pictures.  He just walked out onto the road and continued up the road, totally ignoring us.

As we were driving across a bridge over a river, we noticed some zebra feeding on the grass near the water's edge.  Eagle-eyed Gabriel spotted this crocodile doing his best imitation of a log just a little ways away, waiting for an unsuspecting zebra to come his way!  None of us could believe that Gabriel figured out that this was a crocodile!!  From a moving car, no less!

Now it is on to our safari....

Durban, South Africa Feb 18-21, 2010 aka Memory Lane part 2

Old home week included visits with old friends.  Jonathan enjoyed catching up with Michael Friedman. 

Masha (Ma) Hack was only aware we were coming for a visit 3 days before we arrived.  Of course, she managed to put on a lovely Sabbath dinner on Friday night for all of us.

And have us over again for Sunday breakfast before we flew out.  Sandy and Stuart (Sandy's boyfriend) joined us for both meals and we all had a lovely visit.

Sarah, Marci, Ma, Gabriel, Sandy and Jonathan.  It was so nice to finally see the rest of the Hack family!

Durban, South Africa Feb 18-21, 2010 aka Memory Lane

So, this part of the trip was just for Jonathan... Durban is where he grew up and he had a strong desire to go back and check out how things had changed.  Everyone locally is gearing up for FIFA 2010 with the World Cup of Soccer being officially hosted by Durban.  The final game will be played here and they have build a really cool new stadium.  Games will be played throughout South Africa, but Durban is officially the host city.

Our first stop was at the Durban Jewish Center where Jonathan had many great stories to share.

At the Durban Jewish Center, they have a very moving Holocaust Center with amazing parallels between Nazi Germany and Apartheid South Africa.  It was so important that the kids see this and understand that if the world is not aware, this will repeat over and over.  At the end of the museum, there was a very moving section dedicated to Darfur and the tragedies going on there.  We left on a somber note, but I think it was worth it for us to all be reminded of our social responsibilities.

Nothing fixes a down mood quite as fast as some time on the beach!  Sarah, Alex and Gabriel loved the warm water of the Indian Ocean.  It was really nice to be staying at a place right on the ocean.

While we were there, a vet on a fishing vacation caught both a large stingray and this sand shark.  This shark was tagged, so he wrote the tag number down and then back it went into the ocean, to join the stingray he had previously released.

After driving all over Durban, seeing Jonathan's old schools, old houses, his father's commercial laundry and more, we stopped by Mitchell Park so Jonathan could finally get tea and scones.  This was our fourth attempt to get scones since arriving in South Africa and we were finally successful!!

Big excitement!  This is the Sea Rescue base that Jonathan arranged to visit.  The director was very nice and we had a great tour.  Jonathan and Gabriel had already bought Sea Rescue shirts and beanies!

One of the highlights of our trip to Durban was a visit to Jonathan's home where he grew up in Cowies Hill.  The family that now lives there was so gracious and allowed us to all tromp through their house totally unannounced and peer into the rooms while Jonathan told us more growing-up stories. 

The famous garage wall that Kerry once drove through.

I don't know if the Davies family realized how much it meant to Jonathan to go inside his old home, but from this experience I learned to be gracious and allow total strangers to walk through your house just because they once belonged there.  You can see how happy Jonathan is.  Memory Lane was a fun drive to take with him...

Weednesday, Feb 17, 2010 Kynsna, South Africa

After several long days of packing lots of things in, we decided to take it easy today.  We are staying in a lovely place called Pezula, which is on a large golf course overlooking the Indian Ocean.  The resort has been named the best spa destination in Africa.  Our place was very nice and relaxing with a plunge pool just outside our back door.  Unfortunately, it wasn't heated and it was too cold to use it.  We used the fireplace instead!

Sarah relaxing on our porch overlooking the golf course and the Indian Ocean.

Yes, those are baboons on the golf course!  Just one more hazard when you golf in Africa...

Gabriel and Sarah exploring and rock climbing at the Knysna Heads, the entrance to the bay.

They enjoyed climbing around on the rocks!

Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2010 Cango Caves and Oudtshoorn, South Africa

We drove north from Knysna into the beautiful mountains to visit Cango Caves.

Cango Caves are limestone caverns with amazing dripstone formations.  They include completed stalagmite/stalagtite completed columns and huge rooms where they used to hold concerts.  The entire place was amazing and only one-fourth of it is even open to tour.

We learned about how dripstone formations are made and viewed very large, thick completed columns.

The rooms were spectacular and the nice cool temperature and darkness was a nice break in our day.

Next we went to Oudtshoorn, which is known for it's ostrich farms.  We stopped at one and had a very interesting time.  First we learned about how big and hard their egg shells are.

The shells are so hard, you can even stand on them without damaging the shell.  Sarah volunteered to try it.

We got to see baby ostriches breaking out of their hard, thick shell.  These babies are in an incubator and will be placed with a "foster mom" ostrich in about a week

This little guy is 1-2 days old!  They are cute, but not as soft as other baby birds.

We then learned that males have the black body feathers with the white tail and wings, while the females are all brown.  After that we were given the opportunity to try to ride an ostrich.

Gabriel decided to try riding one and did a great job!  Craig and Alex Ross also rode.  I found it a bit sad because the beautiful feathers of the ostrich become broken and torn out from riding them and the bird just looks really scared... this wasn't my favorite part, but Gabriel was thrilled that he got to ride an ostrich!

Monday Feb 15, 2010, Knysna, South Africa

We spent Valentine's Day driving from Cape Town to Knysna along the Garden Route, so named because of it's beauty and garden-like look.
The Westin Hotel in Cape Town was lovely and we had such a great view from the top floor where we enjoyed breakfast each morning.  We were sad to leave such luxury.

Gabriel and Sarah at the top of the Westin hotel in Cape Town.  We had a lovely view of Table Mountain while we ate breakfast during our stay there.

On our way to Knysna, we stopped for a lovely lunch at The Milestone Restaurant in Swellendam.  The tables were all set up in the front yard of a 100 year old home and the food was delicious! 

The restaurant was just lovely and was a nice place for Valentine's Day lunch.

Sarah, Gabriel and Alex enjoying their favorite soda... Cream Soda.  Yes, it is bright green!

The next day we set out for our first full day of adventures.  We started by doing a tree-top canopy tour along 10 different zip-lines through the Tzitzicama Forrest.  It was amazing!  Being afraid of heights where I have to stand up, it was quite a challenge at first, but the beauty of the forrest quickly won me over.  Some of the lines were very long and others VERY high.  We were tethered in at 3 different places and felt very safe the whole time.  The group was very professional and their equipment was first class!  I would highly recommend this for the fun and excitement!  We had a great time!

Gabriel, Alex, Sarah and Marci listening to last minute instructions.

Gabriel zip-lining like he was made for it... actually, he was!

Some of the lines were really HIGH!  This is Alex heading across.

After zip-lining, we went to an elephant sanctuary where they take in rescued elephants that had been trapped illegally.  We learned lots about elephants and then we each got to "take an elephant for a walk".

Sarah "walking" her elephant.  The elephant puts his trunk in your open hand and off you walk together.  In the end, you have a handful of elephant snot.  I'm not kidding!

The trainers took us in groups of 2-3 people to walk around the elephant while teaching us more about elephants.  Alex and Gabriel are learning that the tusks are actually teeth and are used to dig.  Both male and female African elephants have tusks.

After walking with everyone, the elephants get fruit and veggies as a treat.  We all had a chance to feed them.  You may notice that there are no fences in view.  The sanctuary is very large and we never saw the edge of the property.  The elephants have lots of space to roam around and they seemed very well cared for.

Cape Town, Sat. Feb 13, 2010

Today we went to Robben Island.  It is a small island off the coast of Cape Town.  Robben means "seal" in Dutch.  This island has had many uses over the years.  It was a leper colony, an insane asylum, a military defense base in WW II, and most famously, as a prison for criminal and political prisoners.

We took a bus tour around the island to learn the history, then we were dropped off at the site of the prison where we were lead on a tour by an ex-polital prisoner.

The stories he told were very interesting and moving about how the highly educated political prisoners began teaching the guards and even the criminal prisoners about their ideas of equality and what their vision of the world was.  The guards had to be changed out from the island frequently because the easily became sympathetic to the positions of the political prisoners.

Conditions were as terrible or worse than in any other prison in the 1960-1970s.  Unfortunately, these conditions continued into the 1990s, when the last political prisoners were released and the criminal prisoners were transferred out.  The island was declared an historical site and is now open daily for tours to learn from and not forget what went on here.

The island's most famous prisoner was Nelson Mandela.  This was his cell where he spent 18 years of his 27 years in prison.  For more interesting facts on Nelson Mandela, visit Wikipedia and consider reading the book Invictus.

The view of Table Mountain from Robben Island.

We then visited the Company Gardens, founded by the East India Company.  It is a very large and lovely garden walk area with many museums and government buildings that front the park area.  We are standing in front of South Africa's oldest synagogue, founded in the 1800s.

Across the street from the Company Gardens was the High Court building.  We noticed these benches in front of the court entrance.  Note they still say "Whites only" and "Non-whites only".  The benches have been left as a reminder of Apartheid times.

Sarah sitting with a local man.  She was worried that she would get into trouble for sitting on this bench. He assured her it was fine now.

Interesting information at the court building on "race classification".  Based on characteristics and skin color, you were classified as a certain race.  This meant that siblings that looked different could actually be a different race.  It was yet another sad reminder and smacked so much of Nazi Germany... other than the killing part, of course.  Well, at least officially...