Memory Lane: Our first trip to South Africa

Our first trip to southern Africa began December 6, 2000. That trip can be summarized as 3 countries, 6 plane flights, 4 boat rides, 2 trains, 1 helicopter, 1 hot air balloon, 4 waterfalls, 2 caves, 2 universities, 2 oceans, 5 beaches, 15 wineries, the Big Five, and a herd of buffalo in 32 days. Please check out the photo album of this trip.

A lot of people have asked why we chose to go to Africa. We had always wanted to go there, since Jim has had relatives there for most of his life and Barry's grandmother was friends with Marlin Perkins. The real question is why more Americans don't travel to South Africa. It is a diverse and beautiful vacation destination.

I can't do justice to a 32 day trip in a single blog post, but I'll touch on some highlights. We began with nearly a week in and around Cape Town, where we saw the city, toured wineries, visited Robben Island, went to the beach, and saw the penguin colony at Simonstown. We spent a few days driving along the Garden Route on our way to Bathurst. En route, we visited Cape Aghulas and Cango caves, Jim was thrown from an ostrich, we took a dolphin cruise, and we participated in a rescue at sea.

In Bathurst, we stayed at the home of Sarah Wright Fisher, who had been an exchange student in Jim's high school. There we visited the beach and toured the pineapple museum, although the museum was not good and we got our money back. We took a train overnight from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg, where we stayed with Jim's aunt and uncle, Marty Klinzman and Peter Brooks. A couple days later they took us to Kruger National Park, where we spent about 5 days, including Christmas. On Christmas day we took a guided walking tour and came upon a rhino which, thankfully, ran the other way. We saw all the wild game and birds we could hope to see in Kruger Park, including a leopard in a tree.

After returning to Johannesburg we celebrated New Year's Eve at Marty and Peter's before leaving on January 1st for Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. There we saw the falls, went whitewater rafting, and took an amazing sunset/dinner cruise. We next took an overnight trip to Dete where we spent some time in Hwange National Park.

We returned to South Africa and ended our trip by taking the world-famous Blue Train from Pretoria to Cape Town - a lifelong dream come true. On our last day in Cape Town we took a helicopter tour over Table Mountain and the city. It was a magnificent way to end the trip, and we definitely did not want to come home. We are thrilled to be returning in less than four weeks!