Safari here we come!! We are going on a safari in Botswana but our first stop is in Cape Town, South Africa. We flew from Norfolk to DC Dulles then from there to Cape Town, a 14-hour plus flight.
Rob always takes the aisle seat anticipating multiple trips to the bathroom with me beside him in the middle. There is always a friendly stranger at the window seat.
Our seatmate was gathering a group in Gabarone, Botswana, from many European and African countries to address illegal hunting. Once he sat down, he sanitized EVERYTHING from the tray table to the armrests to the windows. During the long flight, he had three beers, two glasses of wine, orange juice and water. Ironically, he NEVER used the bathroom. He must have had a bladder of steel (or was wearing Depends!). Rob was envious. We couldn’t really settle down to sleep anticipating him asking us to let him out to relieve himself.
I never did sleep. I could not get comfortable, especially my neck, so I played LOTS of trivia and watched a few movies. I wanted to watch Captain Underpants, but it didn’t have closed captions which is a must for me. (I don’t like using microphones in my ears as I am trying to preserve as much hearing as I can.) I saw The Land of Sinners and Saints and The Place Beyond the Pines which were good enough to hold my attention.
José picked us at the airport and gave us a quick overview of Capetown.
Sister cities of Cape Town are Vancouver, Canada and San Francisco, California. This seems logical since it is cold and rainy in all those places. (Rob said that it was going to be hot and dry, but I packed my winter gear and raincoat anyway.)
Cape Town is halfway between Europe and India so ships would stop here for rest and restocking of supplies when the sea was the best way of trading goods. It was referred to as The Tavern of the Sea.
Cape Town is the site of the first heart transplant by Christiaan Barnard at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town. I remember when that happened as it was BIG news. The man lived 18 days and died of pneumonia due to the taking of anti-rejection medicines which lowered his immunity. Today heart transplants occur every day in many places throughout the world.
We are staying in a colorful boutique hotel with friendly hostesses. The receptionist’s name is Patience. (Later when we went to have dinner two blocks from our hotel, our waitress’s name was Patience. What are the odds! I asked if Patience was a common name in South Africa and they said no!)
I spoke with one woman who is excited about traveling to Denver in a few weeks. I told her that there is a great wildlife preserve outside Denver that features African animals. Then I realized that she sees those all the time and might be more interested in moose, bear, and raccoons!! Haha!
Leave a Reply