South Africa

 

Day 1:  

Grandma Pikus dropped Dad, Jayden and Mom off at the airport for their long awaited trip to South Africa. They had a LONG flight ahead of them. Their first stop was LAX with a 5 hour layover where they grabbed lunch, pizza of course and had the me yo talk with Skyler for a while. Then it was a 14 hour flight to Istanbul. 

Day2: There was a 7 hour layover in Istanbul so mom wanted to get out and see the city and go to dinner. Unfortunately once they arrived they were told they needed to get a Visa. After asking 3 different people if we could get a temporary Visa they said we had to get it online. After looking more into it, mom knew they would have a Visa kiosk in the airport and started looking around. She finally found it and paid $30 each for a Visa, but it wasted 45 minutes of their precious time. Once out of the airport they found a taxi driver that would show them the town. It was a party van with loud music and disco lights, it was the best. They walked around the Pier where they found a Turkish restaurant to eat dinner. They over ordered and gave the leftovers to kids on the street that continuously came up begging for money. They were ecstatic to get the food. They toured around city, took pictures at the Blue Mosque and a basilica museum. It was then back to airport for 10 hour flight.

Day 3: They  flew into Johannesburg and took a taxi to hotel. They didn’t want to waste any time so after checking in they took a taxi into the city where they went to the Apartheid Museum. It had information about how South Africa became known as the country it is today. It talked about Black Freedom and how Nelson Mandela played a huge role in becoming separate from Great Britain. They headed back to the hotel where they ate dinner and watched World Cup Soccer. 

Day4: Mom, Dad and Jayden took a Bus ride to Kreuger with a tour group which was a first for them. They stopped for a 30 minute lunch, when it was time to board the bus and leave an elderly Asian gentlemen, Johanas, in the group got lost. They were informed he had brain surgery 3 weeks earlier, he was asleep on the bus when we stopped and the wife went to go get food for him. He was gone when she got back. After searching for over an hour they had to leave them behind. The police found him 30 minutes later down an alleyway and the tour group had to wait for them to join us. It was a long ride, but they were glad he was okay. They were able to stop at 3 Rondavs canyon during one of their breaks on the way to Kreuger National Park. They arrived at Nkembi Camp in Kreuger ate a large Dinner Buffet, watched more World Cup Soccer and headed to bed early.

Day 5: 

Mom, Dad and Jayden Woke up at 5am (which was already light outside) ate a breakfast buffet and loaded into Jeeps. It was a packed day trying to find any and all animals. They saw Kudu, water buck, hippos, rhinos, crocodiles, giraffes, zebras, wildabeasts, hyenas, vultures, eagles, elephants, monkeys, baboons, impalas, turtles, Lions, wild dogs (they are very rare, the guide only sees them about 3 times a year) wart hogs, and Cape buffalo. The older Asian couple who got lost at the stop the day before was in the same jeep. She asked the funniest questions with each animal that we would see;”Are they vegetarian, is it nice, can you milk it, do they cross the road, do they smell?” They definitely kept everyone laughing the entire trip. They headed back to camp for naps, buffet dinner and watched a World Cup soccer games, playing cards in between. 

Day 6: It was a second Safari day for the three of them and they were lucky enough to have Gareth as their guide again. They saw many of the same animals, but many up closer to the jeeps than the day before. They saw many more lions the second day. They were also lucky to have the Asian couple in their group again. They kept everyone laughing the entire time.  They loved seeing all of the baby animals that were recently born since it is Africa’s spring time. Jayden mentioned it felt like we were in Jurassic Park. They headed back for naps, and mom started getting sick (Jayden was just getting over a cold at the start of the trip and he graciously passed it along to her) They ate dinner, played games and of course watched more World Cup soccer. 

Day 7: It was pouring rain the next morning and time to board the bus to head back to Johannesburg for a flight to Cape Town. They ate breakfast, loaded buses and headed out. They stopped for lunch and made sure Johanas was in sight at all times. Once they arrived at the airport it started down pouring again. They said goodbye to Steve their tour guide and started heading into the airport. Their flight was later than most of the group so they weren’t in any hurry. Dad forgot that he left his shoes at the airport in Johannesburg so mom took a shuttle to the hotel yo get them while dad tried to track down Johanas and his wife since they left a piece a luggage behind in the rain that no one was claiming. He found them at the check in, the wife was reprimanding the husband for losing their luggage. Dad was there to save the day and they were so grateful. They may need to travel with a chaperone in the future. It was time for a light dinner and more World Cup while they waited for their flights. 

DAY 8: We took the first day in Cape Town to explore. We rode the Hop on Hop off bus where we learned about the city and the history of South Africa. We stopped at Hout Bay where there were several beaches that we were able to walk around. We saw that there was a nearby soccer stadium, Green Point Stadium. We thought we would be able to get in some how to just look inside the stadium but we were not successful and Jayden was a bit bummed. We thought bribing with money would even work, but they took their jobs seriously and did a good job by not allowing us in. It was a very warm day so we stopped for ice-cream  and headed to the waterfront where we found an amazing seafood restaurant for lunch. After we ate, Jayden was given the opportunity to play the xylophone with African Street performers. Luckily his musical background paid off. We then took a gondola to the top of table mountain where we hiked around for a bit. We were able to find a little hidden restaurant at the top of a roof near our hotel. They had little airstream trailers that were hotel rooms and the restaurant in the middle of the trailers. We were exhausted after a long day but had enough energy to watch more world cup soccer at the end of the day.

DAY 9: We woke up early for a shuttle to take us 2 1/2 hours to a coast where we were able to go shark cage diving. They chummed for the sharks in a certain area in the bay and had a piece of meat at the end of the rope that would lure the sharks near the cage. It was amazing. We would have loved to see a Great white but they weren't in the area at the time we were there. We were able to see about 15-20 eight to ten foot sharks which were quite active while we were in the water. We ate lunch and headed back for the 2 1/2 hour shuttle ride back to our hotel, cleaned up and took a nap. We found an amazing Chinese Restaurant near our Hotel before heading back to watch the USA play in a World Cup Game.

DAY 10: We wanted to make the most of our last full day on vacation. Originally we were going to charter a Deep Sea Fishing Boat, but the captain called the night before and said that he didn't feel like it would be worth us going out since fishing had been so slow for the past few days and for the price we would be paying he would hate for us not to catch anything. So we started the day off at the Castle of Good Hope that was built in the 1600's. Then we grabbed lunch and took a taxi to Boulder Beach where penguins live naturally. It was amazing they live in such warm weather. We then took another taxi to Muizenberg Beach where we were able rent a skim board and bodyboards. The weather was perfect and the water was a bit warmer on the West side of Cape Town than the East side. We relaxed and grabbed some ice-cream of course. We took a taxi back to the Waterfront for more shopping, an amazing seafood dinner with some extra large oysters, a large ice-cream dessert and of course we couldn't pass up an exciting world cup game being shown on a large amphitheater stage in the middle of the shops. Although it was our last full day on vacation, we looked forward to our paragliding the next morning.

DAY 11: We woke up early and took a taxi to the mountain where we would parasail. We were a little nervous that it wouldn't happen since they had to cancel the last 4 days of flights due to low cloud level and limited visibility. It started off not looking too great, the low level clouds were coming in, but it was a miracle that the sun was able to pop through which aloud the clouds to separate giving us a chance to take off. Shortly after our paragliding experiences, they had to stop for a bit due to the clouds accumulating once again. It was amazing! Near the end of gliding they were able to do a few twirls in the air before safely landing. Definitely worth the experience. We then headed back to the hotel to pack up and check our luggage with our Concierge before heading out for a little more souvenir shopping and lunch. Dad and Mom decided to share a sandwich. It was so large we could barely eat a third of it between both of us. We were able to find a couple of homeless people to share our food with before returning to our hotel to grab our bags and head to the airport for our 30 hour flights home. 10 hours to Istanbul, 14 hours to Los Angeles, a 5 hour layover and then a 2 hour flight to Salt Lake City. The trip was AMAZING! We just wish it wasn't such a long travel experience to get there.