Trip Review - Part 4 - Cape Town and Post Tour Thoughts
Cape Town:
From Ngala we were bussed to Hoedspruit airport. It is a small, nice airport , complete with pretty outdoor garden where we all ate our bag lunches prepared by Ngala.
In Cape Town we all had to gather our own luggage and walk as a group to the bus for the ride to the Mount Nelson. Unlike the Cape Grace and the One and Only which are by the V and A waterfront, the Mount Nelson is a lovely historic hotel which is in a more downtown location. The “Nellie” is a fabulous, luxury hotel with incomparable service, grounds and food. Everyone was very happy with the accommodations, even if the showers were a bit small. 
The next day we opted for the wine tasting and lunch tour in the Franschhoeck wine district. The tastings were excellent and the lunch was an epicurean delight. We were all raving about the food and the venue. Our local tour guide, Bjorn, was a sommelier and gave us an excellent discussion of how the region was settled and the different grapes that are grown there. On our final day we had a helicopter tour of the city and the surrounding area. It was a fabulous way to experience Cape Town and the natural beauty of the mountains and the coastline. After the helicopter ride, most of us walked around at the V and A waterfront for the last gasp of shopping. Part of the complex is a co op of local artisans and craftsmen showing their wares in a structure called “ The Watershed”. This is worth the extra bit of walking to see the offerings.
I am a pretty avid reader of the forums, and I have read about Tauck cutting corners on some of the tours or with included meals and alcohol. For this tour, it was luxury all the way every day. In addition, NO ONE on our trip got sick from the food or water.
We stayed an extra day after the tour ended and hired a driver through the concierge ( done ahead of time.) It was definitely worthwhile. The driver / guide, took us all around the coast , to the Cape of Good Hope, the local beach towns and beautiful vistas, and lastly took us to the Kirstenbosch Gardens. That is definitely worth going to see and taking a walk through the grounds. They also have a great gift shop.
Summary:
This was a beautiful, luxurious tour. We are both glad we did it, but neither one of us is hooked on the safari experience. For my husband it was the extent of the travel to actually go to and from Africa. For me it was a fear factor that never went away. It was a visceral and a neural response that I really had no control over. Having shots of brandy helped in the evening. I just didn’t go on all of the game drives. One day, for example, they went looking on the morning drive for the local pride of 28 lions. This was absolutely not something I wanted to participate in. I had seen enough lions, so I didn’t go. I still had a great time. It was a singular experience. Make no mistake …..This tour is all about the animals. In the count of game drives that they give in the comparative safari chart, They did not include all of the water safari’s on the Chobe, which we had one of every day. Extra land drives were also worked into each location that were not specifically described in the itinerary.
I loved coming to Africa. I loved seeing the culture, and the way the people live. The native dancers that gave a lunch performance at the Chobe Lodge moved me to tears. Of course we only saw a tiny bit of that. I am very glad that we took Ethiopian Airlines and got a taste of an African airline company, as well as a large hub of travelers predominantly from Africa. This was a huge learning experience, and I am a well-traveled person.
The extreme poverty here can be overwhelming. The people we met take tremendous pride in their culture. They work so hard to take care of themselves and their families . The hardships they endure are overwhelming to my American brain. It made me embarrassed to have so much and to fret over the things that I fret about. When a bartender at one of the resorts told us that his salary was $300 a month to take care of his wife and his children, and that for each child to go to school was $30 per semester totaling $90 per year per child, it became very clear to me that even people who appeared to have good jobs struggle greatly. His car, which he owned, broke down. He calmly said he should have enough money saved to pay to fix the car in two months, in the meantime, he was staying with a friend in town so that he could be close to work and see his family on the weekends. He said it very matter-of-factly. When we visited a village and saw the structures that they live in with everyone in the village barefoot and living on a subsistence farm and the children, also all barefoot, I knew in my heart of hearts and from conversations with other people, that there was certainly no money to send these children to the local school. The village head said there was no medical care. The kitchen doubled as the birthing room. The floors of the hut were made out of dried cow dung. At the local school, some of the children had uniforms that were old and almost tattered. The children were happy and the classrooms were cheerful yet crowded. Clearly the resources were minimal. It was very hard to see this and not be moved. In addition, there was absolutely no mention of any local charities to donate to. There was no one with their hand out looking for a donation. These people struggle, but they are proud.
Comments
Great review. Thank you.
Mother of Poodles: Your review was excellent beyond words. You described everything so eloquently as if I were there.
I’m not sure about Southern Africa, but in East Africa the average wage earner has to support 11 family members and relatives. We support a hospital In Tanzania and visited it again this past July with our children. We also visited a school on the tour and both our kids sent money to support a student each.
There are 54 countries in Africa, Botswana is doing well. South Africa has very rich and very poor.
I found the poverty in India to be a lot worse than South Africa. It is just very sad.
Thank you for your excellent review. I appreciated your honesty and willingness to get out of your comfort zone. I'm also nervous about the animals, so we signed up for the K and T classic safari, as it seemed like a better "starter" trip for us. I enjoyed reading your comments about human resilience. I have always been humbled by people that I meet who seem to be so joyous, gracious and sharing despite hardship. I am looking forward to meeting people as much as seeing animals (from a comfortable distance!) on our trip.
On our recent family trip to Tanzania, our children were overwhelmed by how wonderful the people were. I’ve always thought that the animals were a bonus. Without the people you interact with there, the trip would be far less special.