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Writer's pictureChris Fesko

The Beauty of South Africa

The iconic landmark in Capetown South Africa is Table Mountain. The city of Capetown is covered in fog most mornings, so we got a good morning view from another mountain.

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To get to the top of Table Mountain, you must take a rotating Tram, or you can hike/climb up... not kidding . the day we went there was a race from bottom to top and back.

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If you want to find out if you are compatible, just travel to a place far enough away, that you can't go home. hehe This is Tyler Wainwright. Thank you honey. A new memory made.

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Looking North and alittle east from Table Mountain. At the very top is Robbins Island, the Prison Home of Nelson Mandela for so many years. The circle to the right of the Signal Mountain is the stadium built for an Olymics and not used now.

The view west over the Atlantic Ocean from atop Table Mountain. Only the rich live here.

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Awesome views traveling south to Cape of Good Hope

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The Harbor is bussling with activity. We saw a 4 masted schooner that just arrived from Argentina. 4 months at sea!!

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This is the satellite view of how the hemisphere looked in April when we went .. South Africa was entering their Autumn.

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Finally we arrive at Cape of Good hope. This is Richard Furlow . He and his wife Sarah were kind enough to ask us to come along. Thank you. The water here is mighty cold and is still the Atlantic Ocean.

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This is Sarah Furlow, Richards wife. Good Friends from Skaneateles. Everyone took pictures and covered for each other. It was a delight to travel together.

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These cute little penguins will bite.. the Adults are ony 6-8 inches tall. Beaches are covered with them.

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Along the coast there are of course a few light houses that help sailors stay away from the brutal coastline of East Africa. This ia Tyler.

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After 4 days in Capetown, we travel by plane to Johannesburg and then a 2 hour bus ride to the bush to a reserve called Mabula, a private reserve: cameras only. This was our own lodge. Make sure you lock the door, the baboons know how to break in amd trash the place.

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The Toyota vehicle that was used to to take us on Safari for three days,, Morning and night safaris.

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Our guide on Safari was Lo. He was very good and though Zulu, he spoke English very well. We had breakfast coffee in the Bush and at night we would have wine or beer and snacks. It was lovely. Your guide can really add value to your trip. He knew how to track animals and taught us many things.

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This was a monkey that was on the compound. He would steal food from an unattended table .

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We drove in this vehicle around the 55,000 acres.. on sandy roads until we would find game. The driver put the vehice in reverse when we came upon this elephant "He is not a friendly one"

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Lions were in prides.. this the father had a lioness and a baby that he kept hidden.. pretty well .

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Look real careful.. all three are there.

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A zebra will always thrill me as it is so unique in its markings.

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WIldebeast look rather ugly to me, but they taste pretty good.. The neighboring Reserves were shooting reserves and hunters can not export the meat from their trophies, so they sell the meat to Mabula, our preserve. The spices in South africa are very good and not well known in this country.

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Hippos are very dangerous. they are contained in a fenced area as are lions in a different area. This wonderful picture was taken by Sarah.

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Tyler took this beauty. It still blows my mind that you come around a corner to "Wow"

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There is some disagreement as to what this is a picture of. I took the picture. I saw a water buffalo type of animal.. with the big forehead of horn and tapered back horns.. It is jsut a really nicely lighted picture I think. Water Buffalo are one of the "Big Five".

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These are a type of Dingo dog..

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To give you an idea of how big this reserve is.. the hills in the background are part of it.

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Oops time for coffee. Lo always made sure we were in a safe area.

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Lions.. I think this was a momma and her last year babies.. The lions are also kept in a fenced off area. They are allowed to control hunt and kill their own food.

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I loved this as we came upon two frisky giraffes that were courting.. well playing around anyway.. So I narrated to the 12 people in our vehiocle what I thought was going on !!

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Our friends Sarah and Richard Furlow went on for another couple days to see the VIctorian Falls.. They had much to say about that part of the tour.. Poverty was beyond belief.. They wish they knew, they would have given the people teeshirts, flip flops, anything, as they had nothing.

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This is the first falls off the Zambezi River.. Might be spelled incorrectly. The watershed to this falls is huge.

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another beautiful picture. There was a mile long walk way parallell to the falls.. this falls is twice as wide as Niagra and 1.5 times as high..

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The water from this mile wide falls .. goes into a channel (called the boiling pot) and it all flows together into a break in the wall and then is a torrent river. The bedrock in this area is extremely hard. Whereas Niagra erodes 15-18 nches a year (limestone), this falls only erodes maybe 1/2 inch a year.

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There are more stars in the southern Hemisphere.. I still don't understand the Southern Cross and how you would navigate by it.. I'll take the big dipper any day. The clouds there are very different if there are any.. I think these are called Lenticular clouds,, looking like flying saucers .. similar to the clouds you would see around a tall mountain in the State of Washington..

So there you have a photo post of our trip to South Africa. I was very happy we took a guided tour. The Political situation in South Africa is not stable: they miss this man;

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Nelson Mandela. I took a picture with Everett's Flat Stanley as Everett was trying to get Stanley to as many continents as possible. We found this trip on Travelzoo.com and booked with Gate1 Travel.. It was a steal.

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