Search Results for: Africa

You might think we had to go on another safari into a game reserve to find this adorable baby vervet monkey and its mother, sitting in a tree.  Actually, no.  We drove about 10 minutes from Jim and Linda’s home … Continue reading →

After our tour yesterday of the Jwaneng diamond mine I find myself doubly baffled by this week’s effort by a worldwide tribal-rights group to organize a boycott of Botswana diamonds. First of all, we learned on the tour that it … Continue reading →

We’re settling in to the rhythms of Botswana, thanks to our gracious hosts, Jim and Linda.  They live in  Phakalane, a suburb of the capital city, Gaborone.  Jim does project management consulting for mines in the area, and they’ve been … Continue reading →

[We’re in Botswana, settling in at the home of our friends Jim and Linda. Before I begin my Bostwana blog, I want to finish up a post I began several days ago, about our last day in Cape Town.] On … Continue reading →

This one is for fellow train nerds. The photo at left shows the covering between the cars on the Blue Train, which makes it possible for there to be no breaks in the hallways of the train inside. It’s a … Continue reading →

3:52 p.m., aboard the Blue Train near Geelbek, South Africa I noticed something odd the first time I left Suite 22 to explore the train. When I looked down the hallway, it seemed to go forever.  I realized this is … Continue reading →

My long-anticipated trip on the Blue Train has begun. We pulled out of the Cape Town station at 8:52 a.m., bound for an arrival tomorrow at 12:50 p.m. in Pretoria. I am in Suite 22, a room which precisely matches … Continue reading →

Robben Island turns out to have much more to it than a single famous prison cell.  We found this out yesterday afternoon, when Darlene and I took a ferry carrying about 300 visitors to the island, where we were met … Continue reading →

An ordinary tour leader would have taken a straight shot on the N2 from St. Lucia Estuary to Durban’s King Shaka International Airport for our two-hour flight last night to Cape Town. But thanks to Gate1, we are in the … Continue reading →