See us at the aquarium

The aquarium has this free picture taking thing....look and find us :)

http://www.aquarium.co.za/
and look for the BeenThere.tv link at the bottom, then find us....it was around 10:45. 

Around Cape Town

And around and around! :) Today we took the "red bus", a hop on and off tour bus. Goes all over, all the places we wanted to go. For just 15 each, all day we could get on and off at 18 different stops. First stop for us, the Two Oceans Aquarium...so called cause this is where the Indian and Atlantic meet. Very cool aquarium. Right in the world-famous V & A Waterfront (Victoria & Alfred). Awesome place. I wish we had more time. Ok, and I wish the weather was better so we could get to Robben Island

Got back on and went to basically town center. Had a fabulous sushi lunch then walked it off looking for a couple other things before getting back on the bus to go to the Castle of Good Hope. Got off there and looked around. Awesome lime trees and lavender bushes. The bus then went up Signal Hill. Amazing views of the city all around. Incredible wind too! Could see Robben Island, all the neighborhoods....well, everything. The back bay areas are obviously the richest - Camps End, Bantry Bay. Incredible houses and these apartments built right against the hill BELOW the road. The roofs of the buildings, which are at street level, are the parking lots. So in this case, the penthouse/top apartment is NOT the one you want! :)

So tomorrow we head out of Cape Town. East along the coast to the Tsitsikamma National Park (which was evidently part of the inspiration for Tolkein's landscapes in Lord of the Rings. We stay there overnight then continue on. Not sure how long the drive will be, but I'm hoping we get to stop at stuff along the way. Uploaded more pics, check out the blog link below. :)

Boulder Beach and the Cape

Was a fabulous day! I was exhausted last night, couldn't blog. We headed out after a leisurely breakfast to explore the Cape. First, figuring out all the. Left sided driving! :) Dad did great...but truly, SA drivers are CRAZY!!! It's 40 km and they're going 100! It's kinda insanity!

Started off at Boulder Beach penguin colony. They were mostly offshore so rally only saw about 10 of them, but still worth it. It's so beautiful. The rocks are this great smooth rounded, and despite the weather out in the open, here it was calm in places and crystal clear!

Then we headed down the Cape, via the....lets see if I can remember...the M6. Through Simon's Town and other cute-as-a-button ocean towns on the east side of the Cape. Arrived at the Cape park...I cannot describe adequately how beautiful it is! And OMG the wind! Craziness. Take Hood River and multiply the wind times...well, a lot! :) On our way back we returned to Cape Town on the west side of the Cape. Went over Chapman's Pass with insanely narrow lanes, huge drop off and jaw-dropping views.

Loaded some pictures on Flickr...still can't figure out how to get them on here on my stupid iPad. Doesn't give me the correct options. :) Ocean is still too rough to for Robben Island or sharks, so I'll have to satisfy myself with the Two Oceans Aquarium and maybe the Slave Lodge Museum. Well, I'm off to breakfast! :)

Awwww!

So all my planning is for naught! :( I think I will be sorely disappointing both myself and my favorite niece Mia. The weather is not good here, swells are too big, both the ferry to Robben island, and more importantly, the shark diving operations are cancelled!!!! :( Very sad. Oh well. Today we're off to drive down the Cape of Good Hope, see the penguin colonies etc. Tomorrow....well, we'll see how the weather is, but most likely the sea will still be too rough, so we'll content ourselves with the aquarium (which I'm actually really excited about!) and some other "inside" stuff. Sigh.... It'll still be great...but I was SO looking forward to Robben Island and the sharks....

Hello from Cape Town!!!

I'm so excited to be here!!! Can't believe it's already the 12th!!! Craziness. It was quit an eventful trip...and long. The flight from JFK to Johannesburg was 15 hours! I mean, watch 2 movies, eat dinner, take a nice sleep, watch a sitcom or two, then ask the flight attendant how much long...5 hours!!!! OMG. :) The place were in here in Cape Town is fabulous! Olaf's Guesthouse, highly recommend it.

Anywho, just wanted to say hi and let y'all know I'm here safely. For the next day or so I have good Internet access while we're staying here. Added a couple pictures to my Flickr site. My ipad will not copy the photo urls correctly....I'll have to work on that! :) But for now go here:  Gallery for this trip

Grounded in Medford....

So we had to make an emergency diversion to Medford to fix a mechanical. Good thing I have an 8 hour layover in San Francisco! :) I'd rather it takes longer than be flying in a plane with issues! Auspicious start? What do you think? :)

Here I go....

Huh, that was odd. For the past couple days I couldn't write a post! Anyway, managed to get it to work. Well...I'm off! :) Here at the Redmond airport. I fly from here to San Francisco, wait 8 hours, then fly to JFK then on to Johannesburg. From there just a quick flight to Cape Town and the flying is all done for a couple weeks! :) I arrive in Cape Town late afternoon of the 12th! They're 9 hours ahead of us here on the west coast. I'm so excited!!!!

Headed back to Africa

I don't know why it took me so long to get to Africa! I wish I'd been going there for years! It's truly amazing. Taking another trip there...flying out of Bend on my birthday. Not so happy about turning 40, so my gift to myself is to fly away to another continent. Hee hee.

This summer we're going to fly to Cape Town, spend a couple days there and then drive through the Garden Route and the Wild Coast to Durban. We will be picked up in Durban to head inland to Thanda Game Reserve where we will be spending three weeks on an elephant and rhino research project. I'm SOOOO excited!

While we're in Cape Town I want to go visit Robben Island, Table Mountain, the Cape of Good Hope and if we have time (ha ha) visit the penguin sanctuary I read about in The Great Penguin Rescue by Dyan DeNapoli. Fascinating read if you're looking for a good book! :) More later...

Videos of Namibia

I've been uploading videos to you tube.You can see them here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/chandravane/videos?flow=grid&view=0

Soon I'll be writing about my adventures. Just trying to get settled first..... :)

Home again, home again

I've arrived home. Only 41 hours of travel this time, unlike going there! :) I'm in the process of creating my Namibia gallery on Flickr. Then I'll start telling you all about the trip.