Well, I will make this my last blog entry.  32 days away from home was a long time, but went by quite fast for us.  I now have to think of my top and bottom five.  The top five are harder than then bottom five so I will start there.

1.  The molly worm.  I think that is what it was.  Kirsten and Chris seemed to think that this staple food was something we "Just had to try".  Wrong.  Still get nauseated thinking/writing about it.

2.  Second of two 11 hour flights coming home.  Crying children for 8 of the 11 hours.  Natural selection would argue that humans should be extinct after the number of children I flushed down the toilet on the airplane.  Sorry a dream interjected there....

3.  The general disrespect for the Nile River in Egypt by the people that live on it.

4.  100 degrees Fahrenheit.  I don't care where it is.  It sucks!  Especially with high humidity.

5.  unpaved roads.  Especially if your sphincter is trying to hold back 200 P.S.I. of liquid.

Top five.  

1.  Victoria falls with high water.  This is something that is difficult to describe, and so I won't try.  Truly a magnificent place on earth that was worth seeing.

2.  The great pyramid.  It isn't much other than a big pile of rocks, but when you get next to it and climb on it, it is out of this world.  Just trying to imagine how even one of the blocks was placed is a task in of itself.  I feel sorry for those who placed them.

3.  Animal diversity in close proximity.  A lot of freakishly odd animals living with each other in balance is hard to fathom, but right there to see....  I agree with others, that the elephant was my favorite of those I got to see.

4.  The sights and views of Cape Town.  South Cape Point, Table Mountain and others.  If you can put aside the poverty and left over disparities from apartheid (think of the U.S. 40 years ago..... not that we don't have a long way to go ourselves), this is an amazing place on this earth, and a great place to visit.

5.  Spending 32 days with my daughter Kelly and not killing her!

Anyhooo, hope you all have enjoyed the adventure with us!  It has been a lot of fun, and I will look forward to the next one.  However, back to work in the morning : (

coming home tomorrow!

Coming home tomorrow is not entirely accurate since we leave here on the 8th and arrive in Portland the 9th twenty six hours later. Ugh.
Yesterday we went with Kirsten, Chris and family for a day of surfing and sight seeing. Pretty fun, though I hadn't really had that on my agenda for this trip. Definietly a good surf place to surf, allthough the water requires a short wet suit. I could have been out a half hour to an hour without one I suppose but it did have a bit of chill to it.
We only stayed an hour. I spent the first half hour helping Kelly and Sarha do some lessons, and then went out for about 20 minutes into the crowded line up and caught a couple of nice shoulder high waves taking the last one to the beach. It was only one hour because just as I was about to go back out and loud siren went off, and everyone scrambled for the beach! It was a shark sighting. Appartently they have people dedicated to watching for them, and they sound the alarm and raise a white flag with a black shark on it. I guess it is quite an uncommon occurance as a guy I was talking to said it was only the 3rd time in 15 years that he had been called out. Another said it was the third time this week. I don't know where the truth lies there. Anyway, we were in a place called False Bay, and another fellow told me that this is where most of the video/photos of Sharks getting seals comes from. There is a Boil in the ocean a few miles out that the locals call the sharks snack bar. The only injury I got was when Sarha fell of the surf board sitting squarely on my head with all of her weight. I could hear the grisle in my vertebral discs as the flattened momentarily. A little stiff today with a skid mark on my head.
Adding to the blis (it really was fun) was the fact that it was another 100 degree day. Leaving surfing, we went from the beach to large garden called KirstenBosch. It had an enormous nnumber of plants and trees, and undoubtedly a nice place when it is under 90 degrees, but we were melting and didn't stay long.
Mercifuly, the temperature dropped into the 80's today and was more tolerable. We just wondered around looking for last minute souveniers finding a few. We have a final dinner with our compadres tonight, and may watch a bike race in the morning with them.
There is apparently a large bike race with over 30,000 entrants. We will see. Anyway, be seeing you all soon.... JK
Still no luck getting photos from here sent. We will try to flood you from the airport if that becomes an option...

Sorry that you are not getting photos. The server has prevented any from getting on there for some reason the past two days. Today was 25 degrees above normal at over 100 making for a dreary day. There is also a lot of smoke in stagnant air apparently due to a large inland fire, and very little wind. "Africa hot" applies here...

Yesterday was my first day of driving on the wrong side of the road. Not all went well, but nobody died which is good. I am driving a stick shift with my left hand and have ground reverse while going from 2nd to 3rd enough times to assure the next driver that the teeth on the gears are just little nubs by now. The oil must be jet black with metal filings, and will come out like toothpaste on the next oil change.


That aside, so long as there are visual cues to remind me to be on the WRONG side of the road it has been fine. Only once have I found myself driving in the wrong lane perplexed by the blaring horn of the oncoming car in MY lane. I guess it wasn't my lane.... I didn't catch the expletives that the other driver was shouting as he went by, but they continued as he disappeared in my rearview mirror.


The only real mishap was hitting the curb on my left side in my first few kilometers or so (going about 35 mph at the time) destroying one of my hubcaps, and a few dings to the rim (no flat fortunately). I wonder what that will cost me.... Of note driving a used car (2000 golf VW?) is cheap though. $15/day, and only $10 to have them drop it off at my door step.


Regarding the mishap, I should have realized that that would happen when the guy who dropped the car off ran away as quickly as he could once he handed me the keys. Oops. I can tell you now that you really need to consciously be hugging the center line on your side from the get go as it is easy to crowd the shoulder.


Anyway, yesterday, we drove to the Cape of Good Hope. A beautiful but also desolate place. The ground cover (hardy green shrubs mostly) waves like an ocean in the high winds. I guess, it is quite windy 100 days of the year, and that was the case on our visit. If you leaned over the wall looking down cliffs hundreds of feet high, the wind had to be a steady 50 mph racing up the cliffs at times. Gusts could almost knock you off of your feet on flat ground as well. The visit was a good hike, and yet another highlight for us. It is not the southern most point of Africa, but close enough for us as the drive to the southern most point would take most of a day. On the way there, we stopped by a penguin colony which was fun as well.


Last night, we rejoined the Steketee/Morscheck crew for dinner as they have arrived to Cape Town. It was a good reunion, and we will be joining them today for a downtown visit. Having a great time, and must say that South Africa has a lot to offer as a destination. JK

A few more photos for you..... If the connection will make it happen.....

More photos!

As we have the access, we will post more photos. These are a couple of super heros in their own minds that will be fun to photoshop later. Old Cape Town, and more of table mountain views..... enjoy; as I can assure you we did. Very nice trip so far, and has gone of without much of a hitch so far, and we are closing on the finish. JK

We had terrific trouble renting a car, but if all goes well, I will be driving a used manual VW Golf tomorrow on the wrong side of the road (never done this before). The good news that is for three days it is only $80, and the dollar appears to be strong against the Rand here in South Africa.

It could be that they are using up my credit card as I speak from this third tier company. Apparently there is a bicycle race here this weekend, and there are NO cars available from anyone I have ever heard of. Imagine how it will be when the world cup for soccer is held here next year!

Anyway, we will try our hand at driving tomorrow and venture out from the city. Today we did a 4 hour tour, and took a cable car up to the top of table mountain. Very nice views, and a nice area to hike around for an hour. We then got shown the major highlights which will help us decide what we want to do this next few days. One stop included the firing of the noon cannon in a fort built by the Dutch in the 1600's. It was the little cannon that could as it was REALLY loud, and nearly knocked me of my perch for the video. The fort was quite fun to tour going back to a era long past. This city/country certainly has its share of history good and bad. I got my photos from the video loaded finally, and so will send a few along to catch you up on things. The mystery photo won't be such a mystery it you have read the other posts! More to come if we survive my driving! JK