Safaris and many more adventures in South Africa

[Mattg]

I’ve recently arrived in South Africa, where I’ll be travelling for a little over two weeks. This is my first time in South Africa and I’m really looking forward to this trip!

Among other things I’ll be visiting Cape Town, Kruger National Park, the Drakensberg Mountains and Victoria Falls (on the Zambian side). I’m hoping to see some zebras, elephants and rhinos, as well as cheetahs and plenty of other cool cats!

Speaking of cool cats, I’ll be travelling with another AFFer, our very own Cool Cat Phil! We’ve been planning this trip together for over six months so it should be a great one.

We flew over here on Qantas, and internally will be flying around mostly on British Airways/Comair, with a couple of sectors on South African Airways. Most of the flights will be in economy. We’ll also be hiring a couple of cars, and doing a few road trips along the way.

 

[Mattg]

The trip began first thing on Monday morning. After Phil and I met at Sydney Airport, we just had enough time for a short visit to the Qantas First lounge. We only ended up having enough time for a quick breakfast as, despite hoping the flight might be delayed a little bit, it wasn’t. Nevertheless the F Lounge was a great way to start the trip. I tried the much-raved-about eggs benedict, which was pretty good.







We took advantage of a very good Qantas early bird sale last year which offered the lowest price I’ve seen to Johannesburg (that wasn't a mistake fare) in recent memory, plus double points. Unfortunately this meant we were on non-upgradable economy tickets, but despite being quite literally at the back of the plane, I quite enjoyed the flight over.

Flight 1: QF63 Sydney – Johannesburg
Boeing 747-400 | VH-OJM
Departure time: 09:50
Arrival time: 16:10

The plane operating our flight was one of the two remaining non-refurbished 747s, VH-OJM.




The seats were fairly comfortable and the interior didn't look as dated as I was expecting. But the main thing I noticed was the in-flight entertainment system. The screens were small, there wasn't as much content and the system was really quite old. It even needed to be re-booted shortly after take-off as it wasn't working properly.

 

[casanovawa]

Hope you have fun, I would've liked to do a self drive safari out to Kruger NP but when i arrived in Joburg back in 2011 i'd lost my wallet and driving licence earlier in the RTW trip so a bit hard to rent any vehicle... I did fly up to Livingstone in Zambia and Vic Falls for a bit and did a 2 day/1 night short safari over the border into Chob NP in Botswana which was good also... But yeah having now also gone and done a safari through Tanzania and the Serengeti the animals can be amazing to view...

I would also have liked to go diving with the white sharks off of Cape Town but there had been a big storm through South Africa just before arriving and so the water conditions weren't the best, but that is another on the to do list to have another crack at along with Kruger NP...

 

[boomy]

Sounds like a good trip, looking forward to the photos.
I've done very similar route myself a few years ago and recently booked this trip for my parents to go there in September so maybe they can get some good tips from your TR

 

[Mattg]

We specifically chose seats at the back of the plane where there are only two seats by the window. We both chose window seats and were lucky to each have a shadow beside us (especially as the flight would have been at least 80% full). I was in 71A which I thought was a great seat as there was a bit of space between the seat and the window, as well as a bit of extra legroom where the was no seat in front.



We took off over a beautiful day in Sydney and made some turns so that we were tracking towards Tasmania.



Lunch was served about an hour after take-off. I tried the Osso Bucco, which was delicious:



Phil had a chicken salad, which he also said was pretty good:


We'd chosen window seats on the left for a good reason - we were hoping to see some icebergs! After lunch the cabin became quite subdued for several hours. After tracking to the south of Tasmania the ocean was covered in a thick layer of cloud, meaning there was not much to see. About 5 hours into the flight we were getting quite close to Antarctica. All that needed to happen now was for the clouds to clear. I asked the lovely CSS Veronique if she knew whether we'd be able to see any icebergs. She actually called the captain, then came back to tell me that we'd see some in about two minutes. At that point, the cabin became instantly abuzz with activity. The cabin literally came to life, with just about all of the excited passengers taking to their feet to try and get a glimpse of the amazing scenery out the window. And those views were nothing short of spectacular!

The cabin:

 

[Mattg]

Our flight path:



And the amazing view of the Antarctic ice sheets:





The flight from Sydney to Johannesburg can be great for views of Antarctica due to it’s southerly flight path and also the fact that it’s an entirely day-time flight. But we were also quite lucky, as the plane doesn’t always fly far enough south.

If you ever fly on QF63, I can highly recommend a window seat on the left!

 

[Mattg]

The second meal was served about 5 hours out of Johannesburg. The CSS came to Phil and me to take our orders and serve us before the rest of the cabin. This wasn't the first time this had happened – as Phil has Platinum Qantas status, the crew looked after us very well throughout the flight, offering things like noise-cancelling headphones etc. The service from everyone on board was excellent and the CSS was great. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting Veronique (who is actually a CSM), you may remember her for her red hair, French accent and good sense of humour.

For dinner I had the lamb moussaka, which was okay.

Phil had the chicken with vegetables, which he thought was very good:


About an hour before landing a snack was served – two miniature hot dogs. Can’t say I was a huge fan, but I was a little hungry again by this point was ate them anyway.



About an hour out of Johannesburg we crossed the Africa coastline quite close to Durban and shortly after began our descent. There wasn't a whole lot to see though as the landscape appeared to be quite barren.



Overall I thought the flight was pretty good for economy and the service was particularly good despite getting the old aircraft configuration.

We landed pretty much on time into Johannesburg, but after disembarking waited about an hour to clear immigration. It possibly didn’t help that a flight from Abu Dhabi landed just before us and that there were only 2 immigration officers handling our queue.

Although it was only 5pm by the time we left the airport, it was 1am in Australia and after an early start as well, we were pretty exhausted.

We were only going to spend one night in Johannesburg before returning to the airport the next morning and flying to Cape Town. We overnighted at a hotel near the airport called the Aviator. They had a free half-hourly shuttle to/from the airport which was quite convenient. We paid about $80 for a room for the night, so it was reasonably good value at about half what we would have paid by staying at the airport.

 

[love_the_life]

I'm lapping this TR up - we will be flying out on 27 August SYD - JNB. We have been to South Africa before and also had that amazing view of Antarctica. We've chosen left hand side of the plane again this time and have fingers crossed! Was looking at the photos this week to check what the weather would be like as we were there at the same time of year last time.
Also having a few days at Vic Falls (Zambian side) then back to a couple of lodges near Kruger, so really looking forward to reading about your trip.

 

[Milboo]

Very jealous! This time last year I did a trip taking in Vic Falls (Zimbabwe side), private reserve in Kruger, Cape Town, Franschhoek, Plettenberg and Jozi and loved everything.

Highlight was catching a small plane back from our lodge to Nelspruit rather than a 3 hour drive - very last minute plan but was spectacular - highly recommend this.

We went in via Singapore so missed that Antarctic scenery.

Looking forward to reading this TR.

 

[vetrade]

The flight from Sydney to Johannesburg can be great for views of Antarctica due to it’s southerly flight path and also the fact that it’s an entirely day-time flight. But we were also quite lucky, as the plane doesn’t always fly far enough south.

Took that flight in April and did see a few scattered icebergs but they were insignificant against your views so now I'm a bit envious, Matt. We were told we wouldn't be flying as far south as they sometimes did but never did find out why it varied. Do you know the answer?

 

[craven morehead]

Was over there in March - April just gone. What a beautiful country !! Sadly the infrastructure is not well maintained. :mrgreen: I am certain you two will enjoy your trip. Look forward to some more pics.

 

[Mattg]

Took that flight in April and did see a few scattered icebergs but they were insignificant against your views so now I'm a bit envious, Matt. We were told we wouldn't be flying as far south as they sometimes did but never did find out why it varied. Do you know the answer?

I presume it's to do with the winds on the day. I would think the plane will fly whatever route is quickest, and if that means flying more to the south or to the north to get the best tailwinds then they will probably do that. The fact that SYD-JNB takes almost 2 hours longer on average than JNB-SYD would say to me that head/tailwinds are a significant contributing factor. FWIW our flight had a particularly fast flight time of 13 hours having taken a southerly route.

Having said that, I'm not a pilot so perhaps this would be a good question for JB747.

 

[craven morehead]

Breakfast or Dinner didn't matter we had these guests in our backyard ( Marloth Park ) bordering Kruger NP. We then just went into Kruger for day trips.

 

[Mattg]

I woke up at about 2am on that first night on Johannesburg and could not fall back asleep. I'm not usually this affected by jetlag but on this trip you change 8 time zones in one day so I guess something had to give...

At 5am we checked out of the hotel and returned to the airport for our BA flight to Cape Town. We were able to make use of the Slow lounge in the domestic terminal before the flight, which was very nice for a domestic lounge.



Flight 2: BA6401 Johannesburg - Cape Town
Boeing 737-800
Departure time: 07:00
Arrival time: 09:10



This was a pleasant short Comair/British Airways flight. The plane was a bit dated and there was no in-flight entertainment but one thing I did particularly enjoy was the hot breakfast. I got a hot mushroom crepe with bacon, which was surprisingly delicious.



It was quite hazy out the window for much of the flight but we did get some good views after take-off and on approach into Cape Town.

 

[Mattg]

It was a clear day when we arrived in Cape Town so we thought we'd try to head up to the top of Table Mountain. It didn't quite work out as the cable car ended up being closed due to strong winds, but we did at least get a pretty good view from the bottom of the mountain.





This was followed by a bit of sightseeing around town...

V&A Waterfront:



Camps Bay:

 

[Mattg]

In the afternoon we did an interesting walking tour of the Bo-Kaap district, where the Cape Malay community lives. This part of town is also known as the place with the colourful houses.

 

[Mattg]

Yesterday we did a tour out to some of the "informal settlements" around Cape Town with the same company that runs the city sightseeing bus.

In a nutshell, these townships were set up outside the city during the Apartheid as a place to relocate "non-white" people to. Of course, people nowadays are free to live wherever they want but high unemployment and poverty means that many still live in these townships. The contrast between the townships and the rest of the city was astonishing. While new housing is being built, many families were still living in shaks or a single room.

The two townships we visited were Langa and Gugulethu. Our guide lived in the Langa township. He said that he'd been working as a guide for just a month, and that this was the first real job he'd ever had. Before, he used to make a living selling things outside a train station so he was pretty happy just to have a proper job.

The tour included a visit to the Township Heritage Museum, which also used to be the Dom Pass office. During the Apartheid, "non-whites" were required to carry this pass and renew it each month.

It was very interesting but also a little confronting to see how these people live. While progress certainly seems to have been made, there still seems to be a fair way to go.

I felt the tour was very worthwhile.

Some pictures of the Langa township:

 

[Mattg]

Today I did a full day tour of the Cape Peninsula. The main thing I wanted to see was the Cape of Good Hope, but the tour included a bunch of other interesting stops along the way.

First stop was the beautiful Haut Bay, where we left for a short cruise out to an island inhabited by seals.









From Haut Bay we made our way along the coastline to the Cape of Good Hope. The Cape of Good Hope's claim to fame is that it's the most South-Western point of Africa. It's actually neither the southernmost nor westernmost point on the continent, but I guess it's important because it is a point that all ships travelling between Europe and Asia via the southern route would have needed to pass.

 

[Mattg]

This was shortly followed by a walk up to the lighthouse at Cape Point.





And the view from the lighthouse:



We also visited Simon's Town:



And saw some penguins:

 

[Major]

Great photos and it looks very cold