My “vague plan” to spend the winter months travelling somewhere warmer than an English winter has started today, 21 October, when I arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa and took an Uber from the airport to the Curiocity Hostel. Many airports make it difficult to use Uber rather than the rip-off airport taxi rank, so it took some time to find the pickup point. As soon as I arrived at the hostel I saw a tour of Soweto advertised. I remember the Soweto Riots in the Summer of ‘76 and was really interested to visit the Hector Pieterson Museum and Mandela House…I wasn’t disappointed!
For the next five months I plan to travel overland from Cape Town to Cairo. Sudan may prove too dangerous as there’s a civil war being fought, but that’s 2026!
The only reason I stopped in Johannesburg was for a reunion of three guys who met while working in Brazil in the early 1990’s. All three of us are English but David has since settled in the USA with his wife, Lyndsey and Nigel has settled in South Africa with his wife, Anouka. Amazingly, David & Lyndsey were travelling Southern Africa and planned to stay with Nigel, which gave us just one day to have lunch together. We met in Hard Rock Cafe, Johannesburg in Mandela Memorial Square, Sandton to reminisce about our lives in Brazil and to catch up on the past thirty years. It was short but very sweet. David & Lyndsey then headed back home to the USA and I flew to Cape Town. Below, is our own memorial photograph.
I’m staying in the Ashanti Lodge hostel in Cape Town, which has a fabulous view of Table Mountain from one of the hostel toilets! I have already booked a visit to Robben Island and a shore dive for this coming week and I want to book a walk up to Table Mountain for a sunset. In the meantime, I have visited the Oranjezicht City Farm Market and the V&A Waterfront and walked along Sea Point.
Above is Table Mountain taken from the infamous Ashanti Lodge hostel toilet.
The trip to Robben Island was cancelled because of the weather, but I was able to reschedule for the following day. It was an unforgettable tour of the prison that held political prisoners, including the most famous inmate, Nelson Mandela. One of our tour guides was former inmate, Terrence Phiri, who entered Robben Island aged just 16 years, on a charge of sabotage. Terrence admitted his crime of petrol-bombing a government facility to our tour group. During his time in prison Terrence was formally known as 6879…. the 68th prisoner in 1979.
The following day I was due to do a shore dive with Into The Blue dive centre, but it was also cancelled because there was a strong offshore wind. A shore dive, which I’ve never done, is when you walk into the sea from the beach. A strong offshore wind would make it difficult, if not dangerous, to return to the beach after the dive. Anyway, I was able to complete my “Refresher Course” which I had to do because it had been more than six months since my last dive. Again, I was able to reschedule a boat dive for Saturday.
On Thursday, old sailing friends, Robyn & Tony, were my tour guides for the day. They sold their catamaran a couple of years ago and have resettled in Cape Town as opposed to their original hometown, Durban. During a day of fabulous weather we visited Signal Hill, Chapman’s Peak Drive, Hout Bay, Noordhoek, Kalky’s for a fish & chip lunch and Muizenburg in False Bay before heading back to Ashanti Lodge well satisfied with a day of catching on our news and visiting some fabulously photogenic places. Below are photographs of Noordhoek Beach and the surf at Muisenberg.
I look forward to meeting Robyn & Tony again for another gossip, and it may well be on the canals of England.
On the following day, Friday, I was picked up at 3:25am for a hike up Lion’s Head mountain from Signal Hill. Our group of eight, and our tour leader, Idrees, set off in the dark with headlights shining bright on what turned out to be a tough hike to arrive at the summit ten minutes before sunrise. However, we had to wait for a while for cloud and mist to break to witness a fabulous sunrise. We then headed back downhill and I finally arrived back at Ashanti Lodge at 7:30am with a happy heart and weary legs!
The photograph above is Devil’s Peak taken from the summit of Lion’s Head.
Yesterday, 1st November, I went to False Bay with Into the Blue PADI dive school to dive the corals at Lighthouse and then to a nearby kelp forest. Both dives were fabulous, and especially the kelp forest which was a new experience for me. But the local water temperature is far from the Caribbean temperature I am used to, and I find the 7mm full wetsuit, boots, hood and gloves cumbersome, and I had some difficulties maintaining good buoyancy. It was a great day and I needed a good rest in the evening!
Today, Sunday, is the day I check out of Ashanti Lodge hostel…in the photograph above, and walk to the Holiday Inn to meet Intrepid and the rest of the group I’ll be travelling with to Namibia & beyond!
There are nineteen travellers in our group, but only four of us are going all the way to Nairobi. Our first official night of the trip was spent in the Holiday Inn, and soon after breakfast we boarded our truck to head out of Cape Town to drive most of the day to Highlanders campsite. Today was a day for understanding how we would live together on the truck and in the campsites, including erecting and dismantling our tents, and working a rota for washing the dishes after each meal.
The next day was a long day of driving and clearing the immigration systems of South Africa and finally, enter into Namibia. Our first campsite, Felix Unite, was just a few minutes drive from the border and alongside the Orange River, which separates Namibia and South Africa.
The photograph above is the sunrise on our second day in Namibia, and taken from the campsite swimming pool. We had a free morning to do as we please and included an option to canoe on the Orange River. I chose to do a long session of yoga beside the pool and update my social media…as the days fly by it will be easy to lose track of events. After lunch we drove to our next destination…..
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