South Africa

When my friends invited me to come with them to South Africa in October 2002, I leapt at the chance. Unfortunately my abiding memory of the trip to Johannesburg has to be spending 12 hours behind Louis and Victoria and their parents. Louis and Victoria managed to scream for the entire duration of the flight while their mother tried to calm them and their father ignored them. I was seated directly behind their father, who was determined to leave his seat down even during take-off and landing, which the flight attendant explained to him posed a risk to me; he replied that that wasn't his problem and besides, it was too uncomfortable in any other position. Needless to say, I didn't arrive in the best of moods.

We recovered from the flight in Alberton, then went up to Sun City Resort for a few days. We got up bright and early to go on a safari, but somehow the elephants evaded our eyes, although this young giraffe (right) was quite close to us and we saw some white rhinos. I went riding in the Pilanesburg National Park, where another rhino stepped out and startled my horse: what a way to learn how to gallop in an English saddle!

We spent the second week in Cape Town and although we didn't go up Table Mountain, we did see it from a helicopter ride around the Cape and out over the ocean. Our pilot spotted a pod of Right Whales coming near False Bay and went down for a closer look (right). I really enjoyed seeing Cape Town. It was also a good central location for some driving trips, one down to the Cape of Good Hope, where I climbed the cliff in a pair of high-heeled sandals (below right) -- I had been expecting to go wine-tasting that afternoon -- and another to Cape L'Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet.

On the way to Cape L'Agulhas I stopped to see the little penguin colonies which had developed after an oil spill: those penguins rescued decided they liked the area and remained. There were some fluffy chicks and some curious parents. Remembering my experience at the zoo in Hamburg, I jangled my car keys for them and this one (right) came out of its nest to see what I had.

South Africa is a stunning country and hosted some magnificent thunderstorms. The number of things I missed doing, however, means that I will have to return one day.