It took us 42 hours door-to-door to get home from Cape Town, one of the longer journeys home we've had after a vacation. We flew CPT-JNB-LHR-YYZ with a bit of a layover in both JNB and LHR.
Overall it was quite a diverse trip, which we enjoy. The landscape changed with every place we stayed. The highlight for me was Sossusvlei, and Deadvlei in particular. It's hard to pick a favourite lodge because they were all really good, however Hoodia and Mowani did stand out. Namibia is one of the most photogenic countries in the world (Myanmar is still tops), everywhere we looked was so scenic. It's so photogenic, some of our pics look like fake AI-generated pics!
One surprise for me was that we never used mosquito repellant at all over the entire trip. Most of the trip was in very dry conditions across the Namib and Kalahari deserts (where the humidity was 15%). I thought we might have sand flies in the desert, but there was nothing. Around Etosha, we had swarms of big moths, but no mosquitoes. We already had our malaria tablets so just took them anyways. I suppose it must be a seasonal thing, because it is a malarial area.
There were some gadgets that we were glad we packed: the Peak Design car phone mount, the Casetify phone wrist strap, and Solbari UPF driving gloves. All worked really well. The wrist straps came in handy bouncing around in open safari vehicles, as we didn't have to worry about dropping our phone.
We didn't have much down time, especially in the first half of the trip. The excursions took up most of the day, and I could barely keep up with editing pics and posting to our travel blog. When we got home, I realized that some of my Namibia pics were out-of-focus -- I've since replaced with pics that are actually in focus :) We really enjoyed Cape Town at the end of the trip, it was sort of a vacation after the safari.
There were a couple bonus sites along our Namibia route that were pretty cool. Seeing the Hoba Meteorite, the largest meteorite in the world, was really impressive. I can't believe it's just sitting there in a field. The Zeila Shipwreck just outside Swakopmund was cool too.
We were pretty impressed with how easy it is to transfer through JNB nowadays. Ten years ago, there were officials looking for bribes at every opportunity, and long line-ups everywhere. This has all been cleaned up. Immigration is now fully automated, and fairly quick. Unlilke Pearson, which remains one of the worst airports we have flown through. It took us over 90 minutes from landing at Pearson to exiting the airport. Pearson is the only airport that relies on staff yelling out directions to herd passengers through immigration and customs, as opposed to just having clear signage like everywhere else in the world.
We drove over 2,600km in Namibia, further than we traveled in the South Island of NZ, most of it over gravel and sand roads. It really felt like an adventure, in particular the rural areas around Damaraland. Gas stations were fairly common throughout our route, we were able to fill up no problems before we dropped below half a tank (Toyota Fortuners get over 700km per tank). Marissa had a SIM card and got a signal about 80% of the time; offline Google Maps worked for me. There was hardly any traffc on the roads, we passed just a handful of vehicles each direction most days. This matches up with Namibia being the 2nd lowest country in the world by population density (Mongolia is lowest), and being low season for travel.
We were super lucky with lack of rain (Namibia's rainy season goes from November to March). We only got rained on once, and we were just relaxing in our cabin anyways. It didn't rain at all while I was driving, and it didn't rain during any of our excurions. With climate change, we're finding that rainy season doesn't seem to reflect actual rainfall any more, and really just means less tourists.
Next up, Iceland in February!
Friday, January 10, 2025
Friday, January 03, 2025
Cape Town, South Africa
Heather and I wrapped up our vacation with a visit to Zeitz MOCAA (Museum of Contemporary Art Africa). Marissa joined a separate excursion to Robben’s Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned.
The Zeitz MOCAA is built out of former grain silos on the waterfront. It took a couple years to carve away the thick concrete to create the interior space. It’s a stunning building inside.
There’s exhibits across three floors, all curated from their extensive collection of African art. We thought it was really well done.
Walked around the V&A waterfront after. It’s a nice waterfront, with lots of restaurants and boutique shops, filled with tourists. We browsed a bit and then headed over to the Loop St area that we walked through on Jan 1. Things were back to normal hours today. In fact it was a weekday, and so there were office workers in the CBD!
We had lunch at a random sushi place that rated highly on Google, it wasn’t too bad. Then browsed through some of the art galleries, we really liked the art at Eclectica Contemporary.
We got back to the hotel around 4pm, exactly when Marissa returned from her excursion. Relaxed, had some excellent chocolate cake (the hotel has freshly baked goodies every day at 4pm), and then started packing up for our return home.
We had dinner at Miller’s Thumb, an happening seafood place on Kloof Nek Rd. Chatted about the trip highlights (there were many), and got home early-ish (9pm) cause we had an early start tomorrow. Cape Town was a nice little vacation after the safari.
The Zeitz MOCAA is built out of former grain silos on the waterfront. It took a couple years to carve away the thick concrete to create the interior space. It’s a stunning building inside.
There’s exhibits across three floors, all curated from their extensive collection of African art. We thought it was really well done.
Walked around the V&A waterfront after. It’s a nice waterfront, with lots of restaurants and boutique shops, filled with tourists. We browsed a bit and then headed over to the Loop St area that we walked through on Jan 1. Things were back to normal hours today. In fact it was a weekday, and so there were office workers in the CBD!
We had lunch at a random sushi place that rated highly on Google, it wasn’t too bad. Then browsed through some of the art galleries, we really liked the art at Eclectica Contemporary.
We got back to the hotel around 4pm, exactly when Marissa returned from her excursion. Relaxed, had some excellent chocolate cake (the hotel has freshly baked goodies every day at 4pm), and then started packing up for our return home.
We had dinner at Miller’s Thumb, an happening seafood place on Kloof Nek Rd. Chatted about the trip highlights (there were many), and got home early-ish (9pm) cause we had an early start tomorrow. Cape Town was a nice little vacation after the safari.
Thursday, January 02, 2025
Cape Town, South Africa
We arranged through the hotel for a car and driver to take us around the highlights of the Cape Peninsula. It was about the same cost as the three of us booking an excursion with a tour company, but this way we’d have full flexibility.
Our driver, Roger, suggested an early start at 8:15 to beat the crowds. It’s about an hour drive to the park gates, where we paid our entrance fees and continued on towards Cape Point.
Everyone stops at Cape Point to walk up to the lighthouse (there’s also a funicular but it was out of service today). Due to early hour, we had it mostly to ourselves. There’s nice views of the ocean and Cape of Good Hope. We could also see the boardwalk from Cape Point to Cape of Good Hope, which was our next activity.
It takes about 45 minutes to walk one way. Roger drove to the other side to pick us up. We saw some elands along the way. The boardwalk is in rough shape - some boards were broken in half, and most felt like a heavy step could snap them. But we survived.
We had lunch reservations at Two Oceans, which overlooks False Bay. Supposedly it’s where you can see the Atlantic Ocean and Southern Ocean meet, but in reality it’s just all blue water. (We had the same experience in Dominica trying to see where the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic meet). The lunch was pretty good, given that you’re really here for the views.
Next on the itinerary was Boulders Beach, home of a colony of African penguins. Unfortunately access was blocked because of overcrowding (too many tourists today!), so we had to skip it.
We cut across the peninsula back to the west side to drive along Chapman’ s Peak, a spectacular drive.
Roger then tried to find something else to fill the time (as we’d missed the penguins). We stopped for a coffee, and then drove through the popular beach communities around Camps Bay and Clifton. It was jam-packed today, and we crawled in traffic for about 90 minutes. I would have preferred to have skipped all of it and just got home early but oh well.
We pushed out our dinner reservations to 8pm cause we were still full from lunch . We ate at Manna Epicure, a French restaurant with snobby waitstaff and good food. Walked back home along the hip and busy Kloof St.
Our driver, Roger, suggested an early start at 8:15 to beat the crowds. It’s about an hour drive to the park gates, where we paid our entrance fees and continued on towards Cape Point.
Everyone stops at Cape Point to walk up to the lighthouse (there’s also a funicular but it was out of service today). Due to early hour, we had it mostly to ourselves. There’s nice views of the ocean and Cape of Good Hope. We could also see the boardwalk from Cape Point to Cape of Good Hope, which was our next activity.
It takes about 45 minutes to walk one way. Roger drove to the other side to pick us up. We saw some elands along the way. The boardwalk is in rough shape - some boards were broken in half, and most felt like a heavy step could snap them. But we survived.
We had lunch reservations at Two Oceans, which overlooks False Bay. Supposedly it’s where you can see the Atlantic Ocean and Southern Ocean meet, but in reality it’s just all blue water. (We had the same experience in Dominica trying to see where the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic meet). The lunch was pretty good, given that you’re really here for the views.
Next on the itinerary was Boulders Beach, home of a colony of African penguins. Unfortunately access was blocked because of overcrowding (too many tourists today!), so we had to skip it.
We cut across the peninsula back to the west side to drive along Chapman’ s Peak, a spectacular drive.
Roger then tried to find something else to fill the time (as we’d missed the penguins). We stopped for a coffee, and then drove through the popular beach communities around Camps Bay and Clifton. It was jam-packed today, and we crawled in traffic for about 90 minutes. I would have preferred to have skipped all of it and just got home early but oh well.
We pushed out our dinner reservations to 8pm cause we were still full from lunch . We ate at Manna Epicure, a French restaurant with snobby waitstaff and good food. Walked back home along the hip and busy Kloof St.
Wednesday, January 01, 2025
Cape Town, South Africa
Happy New Year! As is our tradition, we booked something for Jan 1 morning that is otherwise very busy. This year it was the cableway up to the top of Table Mountain.
It took a while to get an Uber from the hotel, I guess most drivers were working late last night. We had pre-booked FastTrack tickets for the 10am-10:30 window. We managed to get on the next cable car after arriving (capacity is about 65 people). According to the internet, usually there’s a 2-3 car backlog, about 30 minutes, even for the FastTrack. Our Jan 1 morning strategy paid off again!
We had perfect weather: low wind, about 22C, and not a cloud in the sky. We did a little circuit around the top, about half on the boardwalk and half on the rocky path. There’s pretty orange flowers growing alongside the path, which Marissa initially mistook for flags marking the trail, lol.
We spent about 90 minutes at the top, including lots of stops for pictures, and stopping in at the gift shop.
We caught the next car going down as well. It’s a four minute ride, and the car spins about a one full revolution along the way, so everyone gets a view out the front.
We took another Uber to Bo-Kaap, near the waterfront. (All the Uber rides here are about 8 CAD, it’s a compact city). Bo-Kaap is known for its brightly painted houses & cobblestone streets. It’s a multicultural neighbourhood, about half Muslim. It’s very picturesque.
Had a tasty döner at one of the few places open (Jan 1 is a public holiday). Dropped into an art gallery for photo inspiration, walked around and took more pics.
We then made our way to the boutique shops and cafes along Bree St / Loop St / Long St. Unfortunately almost everything was closed here too. Jan 1 is a tricky day on vacations, but at least we saw Table Mountain and the street scenes in Bo-Kaap.
We walked the rest of the way back to the hotel, about 30 minutes. It’s way more pedestrian-friendly in Cape Town vs Johannesburg, and as safe as any big city in the central areas of town.
We relaxed back at the hotel, still full from our döners at lunch. We had dinner reservations at Carne on Kloof at 7pm, which was okay. I think most restaurants had trouble staffing Jan 1.
It took a while to get an Uber from the hotel, I guess most drivers were working late last night. We had pre-booked FastTrack tickets for the 10am-10:30 window. We managed to get on the next cable car after arriving (capacity is about 65 people). According to the internet, usually there’s a 2-3 car backlog, about 30 minutes, even for the FastTrack. Our Jan 1 morning strategy paid off again!
We had perfect weather: low wind, about 22C, and not a cloud in the sky. We did a little circuit around the top, about half on the boardwalk and half on the rocky path. There’s pretty orange flowers growing alongside the path, which Marissa initially mistook for flags marking the trail, lol.
We spent about 90 minutes at the top, including lots of stops for pictures, and stopping in at the gift shop.
We caught the next car going down as well. It’s a four minute ride, and the car spins about a one full revolution along the way, so everyone gets a view out the front.
We took another Uber to Bo-Kaap, near the waterfront. (All the Uber rides here are about 8 CAD, it’s a compact city). Bo-Kaap is known for its brightly painted houses & cobblestone streets. It’s a multicultural neighbourhood, about half Muslim. It’s very picturesque.
Had a tasty döner at one of the few places open (Jan 1 is a public holiday). Dropped into an art gallery for photo inspiration, walked around and took more pics.
We then made our way to the boutique shops and cafes along Bree St / Loop St / Long St. Unfortunately almost everything was closed here too. Jan 1 is a tricky day on vacations, but at least we saw Table Mountain and the street scenes in Bo-Kaap.
We walked the rest of the way back to the hotel, about 30 minutes. It’s way more pedestrian-friendly in Cape Town vs Johannesburg, and as safe as any big city in the central areas of town.
We relaxed back at the hotel, still full from our döners at lunch. We had dinner reservations at Carne on Kloof at 7pm, which was okay. I think most restaurants had trouble staffing Jan 1.
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