Elephants, Poike Pot, and Christmas By The Pool

After returning from Cape Town, we went the next day to the Elephant Sanctuary near Pretoria. We had tried to go previously, but didn't quite make it in time for the tour (see the previous post re: monkeys.) This time we made it with almost an hour to spare!


Upon arriving, we saw two little meerkats running around in the parking lot. I mention this because these are my favorite animals from Africa. We checked in at reception and went out to wait for the tour to start.


The reserve was set up to save elephants that are "problem" elephants, prior performing elephants and elephants that may have been nearly exported illegally. They currently have five elephants - two young males just entering sexual maturity, two females, one of which is 17 years old (the matriarch of the herd), and one bull elephant that is just being introduced to the herd.


The experience is designed to be very interactive with the elephants, as well as informative. Participants get to start by observing the elephants, then feeding them, then are presented with an informational program and tour of the facility. Everyone then goes out to the forest to really get in touch with these beautiful animals.




When I say "get in touch," I mean it. The guides take you to an elephant and you touch and observe almost every part of the animal. Participants are then treated to an "elephant kiss" as you can see by the photos of Kimber and Sidney.


Finally, everyone gets to go back and "walk" the elephants. The elephant latches onto your fingertips with the "finger" on the end of their trunk and follows you around the track. Some people ride the elephants, but that seemed just a little too cheesy.


One issue that was brought up is the difficulty in reintroducing the elephants into the wild. Populations have exploded, and each individual elephant requires a substantial amount of land to graze. Even the largest reserve in South Africa, Kruger Animal Reserve, is currently at almost double its capacity for elephants. Another issue is that elephants, being very intelligent animals, may not want to stay where they are taken and have been known to return to the place they came from within a few weeks.


We relaxed a bit the next day and did a little shopping in preparation for Christmas. Bill invited some friends over for an impromptu Christmas Eve party, and we prepared a poike pot by the fire. Poike pots are small cast iron cauldrons in which meat, veggies, wine, and almost anything else can be dumped in and set by an open fire for stew. Bill chose to add about 20 Thai chilies, so the stew was a little spicy, but very tasty. Sidney and Keti were playing in the pool, and as they got cold, they would go over and warm themselves by the fire.

We did the stuff everyone does for the kids on Christmas Eve after the kids went to bed, and Bill started smoking a pork shoulder roast for Christmas dinner. It smoked all night and part of the next morning, but more on that in a minute.


The kids got up around 7 a.m. and started in on presents. Regina was very good to help us out in making sure Sidney was well represented with the other two kids. Sidney had a great time, as did Rielly and Keti and the adults, and the gifts were all well received. After filling themselves with junk food and breakfast, the kids went to play with their toys.


After much preparation by Regina and Bill, Christmas dinner was served on the patio. The weather was beautiful (as it was for our entire trip), the food was excellent, and the girls ate in their bathing suits! South Africa is definitely not the place to go if you want snow for Christmas!





Kimber and I spent the later part of the afternoon packing. The next morning, Bill and I took it easy with the kids while Kimber and Regina went for pedicures. Oh, yes - Sidney also had her first motorcycle ride! Bill took her for a ride around the block. The helmet was almost too heavy for her and she sort of just laid down on the gas tank for most of the ride, but she enjoyed it! In the afternoon, we finished the last minute preparations for our departure and headed to the airport.


It was very sad for us to leave our friends, and Sidney said she especially would miss Keti.

Our flight took off into a thunderstorm, and the lightning was very cool to see as we rose through the clouds. We flew all night to Frankfurt, where we spent our five hour layover in the business lounge eating and resting, then flew into Stavanger.


Imagine our surprise when we landed to this white landscape! It apparently snowed all day on the 23rd and part of the day on the 24th. It hasn't been warm enough to melt much, and the forecast doesn't have temperatures above freezing for the next week. I can feel my tan disappearing by the second!

Thanks to Bill, Regina, Rielly and Keti for their warm hospitality and friendship during our visit. We love you guys!

Penguins, Baboons and the Cape of Good Hope

We decided to add a trip to Cape Town to our itinerary after several South Africans we know recommended it. We stayed three days and two nights and packed as much into the time as possible (as is our style.) We still, however, had lots of time to relax and enjoy ourselves.

We started by heading to Table Mountain straight from the airport. Actually, let me back up a bit here. We had a very pleasant flight on South African Airlines from Johannesburg. It was about two hours, and the staff was very friendly and accommodating.


Okay, back to Table Mountain. It is a sandstone and quartz plateau that dominates the landscape of Cape Town. It is over 1000 meters high and is pretty flat on top, hence the name “Table Mountain.” There is a cable car running up the side of it, and this was how we got to the top. The cable car is rather advanced. The floor rotates and the bottom of the car can be filled with water to provide ballast on windy days and transfer water to the top of the mountain. Each car can hold several thousand liters and 65 people.



The ride up was quite nice with wonderful views from the car, but the views from the top were spectacular, especially since the weather was crystal clear. The ecosystem on top is unique, and there was an abundance of flora and fauna to view. There are several hikes on top, as well as hikes to the top and rock climbing, but we did not have appropriate shoes to do a lot. We still spent over an hour on top looking around. By the way, the cable car and Table Mountain are featured in the Sky News Sports commercials for the World Cup.

After Table Mountain, we drove down the Eastern coast of the Cape Peninsula to Simon’s Town. The drive was nice, with several old vacation homes and beach views along the way. There were also several towns with nice little boutiques and shops.


We arrived in Simon’s Town and checked in to our hotel, the Simon’s Town Quayside Hotel, and were very pleased with our room and the service. We were met with a glass of sherry upon our arrival, and a personalized letter and chocolates, as well as a French press for coffee were in our room. The hotel is pricier than many, but is quite reasonable compared to Norwegian standards. The hotel is also the home to Felix the Cat. Felix hangs out in the lobby area, but has no problems visiting your room to assure everything is up to his standards. He will go as far as climbing in through your window, if it is open, and joining you in bed.


Outside the hotel is a statue of a Great Dane named “Just Nuisance.” According to the local history provided, he was a dog that would greet sailors returning from sea during World War II. Many sailors considered him to be lucky, and others just fell in love with him. He became the town mascot, and the statue is erected in his honor. His grave is even a marked historical site. Each April 1st (his birthday), there is a dog parade in Simon’s Town in celebration and memory of Just Nuisance.

We relaxed a bit our first night and planned the remainder of our trip as we watched the sunset and sailboats from our balcony. Oh yes, and Sidney likes oysters on the half-shell. I let her try one of the half dozen I ordered at dinner, and she ended up eating half of my order!


On Monday, we had a full day, starting with a visit to the penguin colony at Boulder Beach. Yes, you read right – penguins in Africa. These little guys actually live here naturally and do quite well. We walked along a boardwalk and saw many nesting areas, then went onto Boulder Beach to “swim” with the penguins. We did more wading than swimming as the waters were a little cool since the South Atlantic current mixes with the Antarctic current here.


The penguins are extremely tolerant of human presence and will walk or swim right past you as you hang out on the beach. This was Sidney’s favorite part of the day, mostly because she loves the beach, but also because she liked looking at the penguins. She also gathered “treasures” of shells and such to take home with us.

After swimming, we came back into Simon’s Town for lunch at “Spill the Beans” Coffee Shop. I highly recommend this place to anyone coming to or through Simon’s Town. The menu was diverse, the food was excellent, the service was great, and the atmosphere was relaxing. The staff are almost obsessive with their attention to detail with everything, all the way down to presenting the bill in an antique hand-carved tea caddy. The prices could not be beat, with our lunch of a pastrami sandwich with fries, a Thai chicken wrap, fruit salad, two iced coffees (delicious!) and a dessert coming to 118 Rand (about $16 US.) They are located two doors down from the British Hotel on the main street through town. Their email address is spillthebeans@gmail.com.




We left Simon’s Town and headed south to Cape of Good Hope National Park. Along the way we saw this sign, warning us to look put for baboons in the road. We didn’t quite believe it until we saw this one. Once we arrived in the park, we saw several more.



We visited the lighthouses at Cape Point first, taking the Lighthouse Keeper’s Stroll out to the end of the peninsula. Again, the weather was perfect and the views were spectacular. Watching the waves crash against the rocks gives you an idea why there were so many shipwrecks here. We then went over to the Cape of Good Hope, which is not the furthest southern point of Africa, as many believe, but is a very famous maritime landmark.



We drove around the rest of the park, taking side routes as often as possible. This strategy paid off for us, as we saw more baboons, Springbok, ostriches, a hawk, and even a couple of tortoises along the way. Again, the unique location and weather give rise to a diversity of flora and fauna.

We drove back to town afterwards and again enjoyed a relaxing evening with beautiful views from the balcony.


On our last day, we had a nice breakfast and did a little shopping downtown, purchasing some uniquely “African” gifts made of soda cans, a tribal mask from a reputable dealer (the ones on the street are usually reproductions or not of any collectible significance), and a couple of Christmas ornaments to add to our tree. We then took a beautiful drive over to the Atlantic side of the Cape Peninsula and up the coast toward Cape Town. We crossed Chapman’s Peak (well worth the small toll) and witnessed the clouds rolling over the tops of the mountains.

We ate lunch at a place called The Oven Door in Hout Bay and had tremendous portions, friendly service, reasonable prices and some of the best prawns I have ever tasted in my life! They were seriously as sweet as lobster! Sidney took the opportunity to play on a little playground next to the restaurant while waiting on our food, adding Africa as a continent where she has tested the playground equipment.

The Cape Peninsula was well worth the trip and we would recommend it to anyone coming to South Africa. Next posting – elephants!

A Warm Christmas Season

We are spending Christmas in South Africa with friends Bill, Regina and their kids and it is quite an amazing experience. We left Norway last Monday evening for a two hour flight from Stavanger to Frankfurt. We then flew for 10 ½ hours to Johannesburg, where we were met at the airport by Regina and Bill. We drove to their home in Pretoria and settled in nicely, though we were a bit tired from the journey (slight understatement here.) We relaxed a bit the first evening, letting Sidney play with Keti and Reilly and had a wonderful dinner of grilled meats and corn.


On Wednesday we drove out to a wild animal reserve and had a taste of the Africa many people envision. We saw several types of bucks, impalas, lions, cheetahs, wild dogs, ostriches, zebras, warthogs, crocodile, meerkats, buffalo, hippo, and tigers (though they aren’t African.) Sidney got to “play” with some lion cubs that were about two months old. Two of them were white lions, which are quite rare. They were very soft and pretty gentle with her.


We also saw a guy doing a little weed-eating. I must say, they couldn’t pay me enough to do this job. I am sure the lion appreciates it (as he licks his chops!)


On Thursday we visited another reserve very close to Regina and Bill’s house. There we saw more deer, bucks, etc., and got to see giraffes. There were some very cute baby zebras, which I will mention in a minute again. We also got to do some four-wheeling, though Regina didn’t want to push it too hard with the kids and us in the truck.

One note on the game reserves – the animals roam a natural area freely. The reserves that have predators generally keep them separated from the other animals. In the first reserve we visited, all the animals receive some feeding but in the second reserve, they forage naturally. The reserves act as a way to protect the animals from human encroachment and the humans from being eaten in their backyards.

We were going to visit an elephant rehabilitation center on Friday but didn’t quite make it in time. Instead we visited the monkey rehabilitation center next door. There were several species from Africa and South America, as well as lemurs from Madagascar. The center has only been open about six months, and it is very nice. The animals are starting to socialize in groups and act like they would in a natural habitat, though some are a bit “friendlier” than others.

After the monkey center, we went for a spectacular lunch at a restaurant called Carnivore. We’ll give you one guess here as to what is served. We had chicken, pork, beef and lamb, as well as exotic meats like crocodile, kudu, and zebra. The zebra was probably the most surprising, being very tender, moist and flavorful. It made me think back to the baby zebras we’d seen the day before and view them in a little different light.

We went home and had a nice little swim, then decided to go to a drive-in movie. A mall near the house has a drive-in on the upper deck of the parking garage, and there was a double feature of “Old Dogs” and “2012.” I must say, it was a little surreal to think about watching movies at a drive-in under an African sky.

Saturday was more of a “relaxation” day. We visited a mall that would rival almost any “outdoor” style mall in the U.S. and had a very nice Italian lunch. On a side note here - Kimber and I are almost overwhelmed here by a) the prices and b) the “normalcy” of the shopping (according to our perceptions.) There are a lot of brands we find in the U.S., and it is refreshing after eight months in Norway to see them again.

After shopping, we came home and packed for Cape Town (our next blog post) and spent the evening in the pool. We played a little water volleyball, though our longest volley was only about six exchanges. It was fun, though, and it worked well to cool us off and wear the kids out. The evening ended with a relaxing thunderstorm as we went to sleep.

Next blog post – Cape Town!