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Greetings from South Africa - a short trip report

Greetings from South Africa - a short trip report

Old Mar 31, 2008, 12:57 am
  #1  
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Stavanger, Norway
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Smile Greetings from South Africa - a short trip report

Hi

Here is a short travel "teaser" from South Africa. My wife and I are here in Johannesburg to visit family but we have also had some time for some tourist activities as well

We had a few days in Cape Town and I can really recommend that. It is a beautiful city and it reminds me a bit of Norway with the mountains, ocean and beaches. In the Cape Town area we rented a car for a day to drive around on the Cape pennisual, we took a tour of the wine lands (Stellenbosch, Paarl etc) and we got to taste some wine along the route, we took a trip up to Table mountain, we took a walking tour in the downtown area where we followed in the foot steps of VOC .

In Johannesburg we have also had some time to play tourists. Yesterday we took a trip down in the Cullinan diamond mine. This mine is still in full production and this is where the worlds largest diamond of 3106 ct was found It was very cool to be in a mine that is still in producation and we met people working there and we got to check out the lowest level of 763 meters below the ground.

South Africans are big on beer and we went downtown to get a tour at
SAB (South African Breweries). Their tour is called World of beer and you get info about tradtion, making of beer...and you get a couple of beers at the end of the tour of course. SAB also owns and makes Miller beer if I'm not mistaken.

Outside Joburg you can find the Sterkfontein caves. Here they have found fossile and remians that shows that humans have been around for a long time in South Africa. They have also created a new center called Maropeng where they try to give you an overview about the origin of life and it was pretty well laid out.

When on vacation you should also relax. So the other day we took a trip to a spa in the middle of town. The place is called Mangwanani (see www.mangwanani.co.za) and we got a full day spa from 9 am to 5 pm and we were rubbed, scrubbed, massaged etc...with some breaks to get some drinks and snacks of course. The price was 950 Rand per person...120 USD. For a Norwegian this is extremly cheap.

The price level here in South Africa is great for a Norwegian. The South African Rand has gotten weaker to the Norwegian Krone which is good for us as visitors. The other day we went to a restaurant called Linger Longer and it is on the topp 10 list of restaurants in SOuth Africa. The meal cost of 120 USD and that was including a bottle of good wine. Even at very nice restaurants you can find a bottle of wine starting at 15 USD

Well, I hope that this have give a little impression of our stay in South Africa. If you are going to Johannesburg I would like to recommend that you rent a car as it makes it so much easier to get around. I brought a GPS this time and it made it a lot easier to find stuff. Yes, they do drive on the "wrong" side of the road and their driving culture is different but it is not a problem to adapt

Johannesburg is often refered to as the most dangerous city in the world. We have not had any problems but we keep hearing about break ins, smash and grab from cars etc. So if you come here...use common sense and follow the recommendations and hopefully you will not experience anything bad.

I will post more info with pictures and links on my homepage.

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures
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Old Mar 31, 2008, 8:18 pm
  #2  
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Orange County and oftentimes London
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Sounds like a fabulous trip! I have always wanted to visit South Africa. I had a look at your other trip reports and enjoyed them very much as well as all your pictures. ^
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Old Apr 28, 2013, 10:48 am
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My wife and I spent 10 days in South Africa last month and we agree, it is a very interesting and beautiful country. In our opinion, Capetown, the Peninsula and the Wine Country are really special. J'burg/Pretoria have some interesting places, especially if you are interested in the history of SA and Apartheid. I agree with the advice to be careful. While walking in Capetown we were approached by a very aggressive panhandler and if we hadn't walked quickly to where other people were, I'm sure he would have stolen my backpack. We also, the same day, witnessed a fight in the train station when a policemen struck and knocked down a lady who was insisting on using the men's room. In J'burg we stayed in Sandton which is extremely safe although very sterile. All in all though, I would return to SA to see more.
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