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I visited South Africa in January and February of 2007. I was there to ride a motorcycle from Johannesburg to Cape Town with Edelweiss Bike Travel. I wrote a blog during the ride and have consolidated it here. As it is rather long I am breaking it up into days, each of which is linked here. I hope you enjoy reading about this adventure as much as I enjoyed having it.

Final Report from South Africa:

Well I am leaving South Africa for Sydney now but I wanted to do one final post with my impressions for the country and a quick update on what I was up to the last few days.

After Saturday night’s final dinner we were all a bit tired. A bunch of people were flying out Sunday afternoon so we decided to do a city bus tour on a big red double decker open bus. We left at 10:00 AM and rode around for about 2 1/2 hours seeing the sights and listening to the commentary. We could have gotten off in a number of locations but we stayed on the bus so that we could finish by the time people had to leave. When the ride was over Tom, Franco and I went to a fish restaurant and got lunch which they quickly ate and then took off for the hotel shuttle while I took care of the bill. I checked into my new hotel and I believe they were the friendliest people I had ever met at a hotel. Everyone at the new place was great and the room was really nice. It was the best bed I had had in Africa. I relaxed during the afternoon then met Thor, Jerry, Dieter and Marina for dinner that evening. We went to a nice Italian place on the waterfront and Thor insisted on paying. After that we had a quick night cap while I down loaded everyone’s pictures then I headed back to the hotel and some much needed sleep.

The following morning I had an early tour of Robbin Island. This Island is a nature preserve but also houses the prison that Nelson Mandela and a large number of other political prisoners were held for years. The nature part of the tour was interesting, there is a huge penguin colony on the island and lots of other African animals. The prison tour is given by former political prisoners so you can hear what it was like for them. It was all very interesting. On the ferry ride back I sat up top and there was a men’s choir that sang, they were quite good. I did a bit of shopping and relaxed most of the day then joined Claus, Marcus, Dieter, Marina and some of the people from the next ride on a sunset cruise. This was the cruise our group decided not to do. The weather was much better and we saw a beautiful sunset. It was very nice.

The next morning I was booked on a tour of the Cape. I realized that I had already done this on bike on Saturday so I tried to get out of it but they would not give me a refund so I went. It was pretty much the same thing I did Saturday, same roads, same sights. Different restaurant for lunch and this included the botanical gardens but that was about it. That night I needed to go to an ATM so I asked the manager in the hotel. He was a bit surprised I was going to go out to one at night but I wanted to have the money for shopping in the morning. He gave me a warning about being careful and told me where to find one. When I got there it was locked behind a steel gate and would not open until the next morning. I looked for another but ended up getting a cab and having him take me to one. Perfectly safe and no problems. After that I got a couple beers and headed back to the hotel.

Today I fly out so I need to go to the market and shop for some gifts. I get an early start and head out after breakfast. The market is in the process of getting set up so I grab a coffee and wait. I did a little shopping and got Christmas gifts (no details as people reading this may be the recipients). Got back to the hotel around 10:00 and off to the airport for some long flights and waits.

My impressions of Africa: Zimbabwe is really messed up and really poor. It is a beautiful country and I hope that they get rid of Mugabe soon and are able to recover from everything.

South Africa is a great country. Everyone told me to be careful because it is a dangerous place. It is, at least according to the news accounts of tourists getting mugged at knife point all the time. I was careful and I felt safe but I also avoided areas that I thought my be a problem and was usually with a big group so that helped. It is a country that has extreme poverty and lots of wealth, I think it has a small middle class, at least in comparison to the USA. I was told by a lot of people out in the country that big problems were coming. The extremes in wealth were causing an imbalance and people were afraid it would become another Zimbabwe. I also detected a fair amount of racism from the whites in the smaller towns but not so much in the bigger cities. I guess that is normal. The infrastructure in the rural areas need work, especially up in the TransKie which is a very poor area. Overall I definitely recommend South Africa as a place to visit and don't miss Kruger National Park, but we very save and go out with large groups when you can.

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