3 Weeks in South Africa - part 2

A car is a must in South Africa, not so much in Cape Town, where we took public transport but certainly for visits outside the city.

South African wine region. After hearing so much Afrikaans, it was kind of strange to read the names of the estates: they are all in French.

A landhouse on the estate, no sign of poverty here, neither now, nor in the past.

Back to the past, a Stellenbosch museum has some houses, which are open to the public. Living conditions of the rich are shown here.  

Quite comfortble.

Being Dutch, this picture I like a lot. Never knew these exist!

Not much to see, but extremely important: the Lion Sanctuary near Stellenbosch houses abandoned and tortured lions from around the world. It is a long story. See the interview on:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF4wCaAGiYs   (interview starts at minute 8.10)

Driving through the country, we saw quite some townships and individual 'houses'. In comparison with 5 years ago, when we last visited South Africa, it seems the extremely bad constructions are slowly decreasing and slightly better 'homes' are appearing.   

A lot of people around the world live in such circumstances.

Around 1880 the ostrich boom started in Oudtshoorn.

The ostrich business was a very lucrative business. Lots of money was made and beautiful houses were built on huge properties. Every part of the animal can be used. The meat, the huge eggs, the feathers...  and EVERY other part of the animal. 

Today, feathers is all colors are the nr 1 tourist souvenir. Interesting to know is that the Brazilian Carnival and the Moulin Rouge in Paris are still big customers of the farmers in Oudtshoorn. 

 

Running up the dunes at the beach.  

Victory :-)

Driving from Oudtshoorn to Johannesburg brought us through all kinds of landscapes, dry, flat land,

hills, but still dry, as the winter is coming up.

And the mountains.

We visited a large aviarium.

And they had the Meerkat at another animal 'zoo'.

Checking out the souvenirs :-)

In Johannesburg we visited Matthew's friend Tiffany and her family, which was a lot of fun.  

Bye South Africa!!

On this years visit to South Africa we spent time with the locals, with young explorers, with activists and visited sights here and there. We haven't been in national parks, as we did that 5 years ago on our South Africa - Namibia - Botswana trip. It was way more about history but also filming and experiencing the country a bit more from another side. It was fun and interesting.

We are leaving South Africa for a totally new adventure now!
During the coming 5 weeks we will be in La Réunion, France, but in the Indian Ocean.

Blogs and pictures will follow (soon) !