Day 21 June 28, 2020 Cape Town to Johannesburg to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Can we say 3 AM is a very early pick up to go to the airport?!? Our flight was at 6:05 and we appreciated our tour people wanting to make sure we got there in a timely manner. But 3 AM! We had everything mostly packed the night before and just ran downstairs and checked out  to hop on our transport to the airport. Our hotel people packed us a very substantial breakfast to take along with us to the airport.

Everything went fine at the airport. We arrived at 3:20 am and it was nearly empty. We had a chance to hang out for an hour snacking on our breakfast and then we were able to check in our suitcases, and head into the security lines and the passport checks.

A couple hours later, we were back at the Johannesburg airport for a short stop. Then on to our next plane going to Victoria Falls.

Victoria Falls was a much smaller airport, and we quickly got our suitcases, purchased visas which would allow us in and out of Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Botswana over the next several days. Then our tour had somebody waiting for us with a sign and quickly whisk us to our hotel. As we went along, he told us some things about the area, including Victoria Falls having about 40,000 people. Compared to the many millions of people in Cape Town and Johannesburg, it is a much smaller more manageable size.

We were also sad to hear that Zimbabwe, similar to South Africa, has a 65% unemployment rate which means so many people are desperately living in poverty and depending on tourists buying their crafts or giving them money for things like dancing. We both are glad to be contributing, but also have sort of queasy feelings in our stomach of traveling in luxury, while other people are barely living. This is complex and we will continue to ponder these things, even as we’re home.

Our hotel is on the outskirts of the town in a very peaceful area. We were graciously welcomed and checked in while sitting in comfortable chairs in like a sitting room. They brought us a drink and gave us the rundown how things worked at this resort that was working hard to be ecologically sound. That was solar heating and air-conditioning, as well as them working hard to conserve water and not use single use water bottles.

Having been up since 2 o’clock in the morning, we were very grateful to be able to have a little nap once we were settled into our lovely home for the next several days.

Then, we were up and collected to go on a sunset tour on a boat on the Zambezi river. This was in a national park that was right above Victoria Falls. The number of the people in our tour group were also on this boat. They were picked up from other hotels and we gathered about 25 of us on this medium-sized boat. There we spent the next couple of hours going along and showing this wide wide river that is on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia.

We were greeted when we arrived by a group of costumed dancers and singers who put on quite a show for us as we were entering the boat. They also greeted us when we came back at the end of the evening. They put a lot of enthusiasm into their work and we were glad to be able to give them a tip.

The highlight of the time was seeing many many hippos. Sometimes you would just see the eyes pop up, but in many cases as we got closer, we would see the hippos open their mouth very large. Our guide told us these are warning signs: do not come closer. We gave them respectful room, but we were delighted at being able to watch hippos in their natural environment. 

We also saw several crocodiles and especially with our binoculars, were able to get a close enough look to see individual scales. We all agreed we would prefer not to be swimming in this river with the wild animals. But it was delightful to be on a boat observing them.

As we went along on this cruise, we sampled local wines and beer, and they also served us some hardy hors d’oeuvres of various types. So we were drinking and snacking our way along the river.

An unexpected highlight was seeing the mist rising from Victoria Falls, downriver from where we were cruising. Then as the sun became lower we could see a rainbow against that mist. Strange but beautiful!

All eyes were glued to the sun as it moved down to the horizon. We were all working at getting dramatic and romantic photos. Also just soaking in the fact here we were watching a sunset while we were sailing on the Zambezi  river in Zimbabwe, Africa. Wow!

We planned to have a fancy dinner once we were returned, but we had seriously snacked our way across southern Africa with packed lunch and food at the airport and we also grabbed some sandwiches and tea and biscuits this afternoon and hors d’oeuvres on the boat. It just didn’t seem like we needed any more food. This is not a trip where we are going to lose much weight.

So we were back in our room and asleep before 9 PM. One of the funniest things when we return to our room the housekeeping staff, had come and pulled the mosquito netting curtain around our beds. We both had seen this in movies, but we’d never actually experienced it in person nor slept surrounded by floor to ceiling mosquito netting. The irony was, there were almost no mosquitoes around here. We can imagine in the summer and the rainy season. There’s probably swarms of mosquitoes and that netting was probably really practical. For us it felt a little more like sleeping inside a tent with a very, very high 10 foot ceiling. But we were so grateful NOT to have to wake up at 2 o’clock to head on off for another adventure. 

Tomorrow would be a quieter day. We’re ready for it.

Day 20: June 27, 2026 Cape Town, South Africa

Today’s event was a tour to the Peninsula south of Cape Town to the Cape of Good Hope, and especially an opportunity to view African penguins and ostriches in the wild. We spent much of the day with the tour guide, Charlton, who explained so much of the history, the culture, and the wildlife of the area. 

Of course the highlight was being able to see those super cute penguins. We had seen them at the San Diego Zoo, but to see them in real life was so much fun. We were on boardwalks, but we were able to get quite close to the penguins. It was the season where there were baby penguins, who now were about as tall as their parents and covered with grey down, and some of the penguins were molting and feathers were coming off. Some hung out by themselves and waddled so cutely. Others lined up as though they were in a yoga class all facing the same direction. These fascinating creatures used to have a much broader range where they lived. We heard sadly that between them being killed, and the fishing trawlers taking away so much of the fish that the Penguins would normally eat. And, of course, change in climate. Our guide shared it may be within five years that there are no more wild penguins in southern Africa. In all of our wild animal sightings, it was very poignant that so many of these magnificent creatures are now endangered.

We appreciate that people with conservation mindedness have worked to save these penguins. In 1982 there were just two breeding pears who were alive in this area, now there are 3000. And they’ve created a penguin sanctuary, and money from the visitors goes to help take care of injured penguins. Bravo to those who stand for the animals.

In the same area as the penguins were Rock Hyrax. These animals look like rodents but are actually related to the Elephant. We saw a number of them including one who seemed to pose for us.

And then there were ostriches just wandering around alongside the road. Again, we’ve seen ostriches in zoos and actually in farms but never in the wild. Around mini corners, we saw ostriches poking their heads up and then crossing in front of our vehicle. The animal experiences in Africa have been super juicy.

There were also several other stops at shops and places with beautiful photographic views. Everything is gorgeous around here so we took a lot of good photos. We continued to travel with some of the same people who are on our hybrid Toor. Everyone was pleasant to be around and it was fun to continue to share beautiful things together.

The at Cape Point National Park was magnificent. This was the south-western Africa’s farthest point, also known as Cape of Good Hope. We had to of course get our requisite photo with the sign sharing this. The actual southern most point of Africa is about 100 miles to the east.

Then we also took a funicular, sort of a sideways railcar, up closer to the top. The views were so beautiful. And then another big chunk of steps took us up to the lighthouse. This one was no longer in use and so little rundown. But we always take advantage of an opportunity to see a lighthouse. The area offshore was known as being treacherous and many ships were lost as they were trying to go from Europe and West Africa to India.

The trip finally brought us back to our hotel late afternoon and we were tired! We grabbed as many photos of the beautiful area as we could. We drove through part of the wine country, which we didn’t have a chance to go visit. We felt being from Southern California that we had many more opportunities to do wine tasting back at home, and wanted to use our time doing unique things in South Africa. 

We poked around a little bit, got some dinner. But we were aware we were going to need to get up and be picked up at our hotel at 3 AM. So to bed at about 8:30. Our Cape Town time was coming to an end.