Our last day

Checkout time was 11:00am but we extended it until 11:30 as we were being picked up at 12:00 for the drive back to Johannesburg Airport. We arrived at the airport at 2:00pm and just lazed around waiting for our flight which turned out to be 2 hours delayed.

We arrived in Perth at 2:00pm the next day to be greeted by Kay, Alistair & Rhys. We went up to Yanchep to Trevor & Peta’s place. Peta had organised a fabulous afternoon tea for us. It was nice to sit & relax before going to dinner on the way back to the airport for the final leg of the journey home.

Mankwe Game Excursion

Our last day at Sun City. We didn’t do a lot this morning apart from catch the shuttle for a more in-depth exploration of the facilities. We got off at the Palace Hotel. It is definitely very upmarket. The furnishings & grounds are amazing.

 

 

Next stop on the shuttle was to the Valley of the Waves. It is a man-made wave pool in a lovely relaxing setting. The temperatures were in the mid 30Cs again.

 

We went and got a cold drink before walking back to the hotel. We had some lunch then rested up before going on the Mankwe Game Excursion at 4:30pm.

 

 

We boarded the high jeep truck at the Reception Centre and headed off to Pilanesberg National Park. We encountered elephants, giraffes, zebras, lions and finally got to see some Wildebeest. After sunset we saw some rhinos and an elephant.

 

We were dropped back to the hotel at 7:30 where we had a late dinner at the Mug & Bean. We went up to the room and flopped into bed after packing most of our bags ready for departure the next day.

Sun City

Today was a rest day with nothing planned except for exploring the resort area. We slept until 7:00am & then had a lazy breakfast about 8:30. At 10:00am we caught the shuttle bus for a bit of a look around. The temperature was in the mid 30C’s. There were lots of school kids at the wave pool for their end of term break-up. Lunch was at the Mug & Bean in the complex. We had a quiet afternoon & caught up on some sleep. Just had a light dinner at the Mug & Bean also.

Final day on Rovos Rail

September 28

The last day on the train. Our journey was to end at 12:00noon. During the night we were to stop at 1:00am for our overnight stop until 5:00am. Due to a very large thunder storm the train came to an unscheduled stop when a tree came down and took out the electric wires and damaged the track. We were stuck there until 9:15am when we started to move with our ETA now 4:30pm. However more power problems had us waiting another 2 hours when the signal system went down. We finally arrived at the Rovos station at 7:15pm – 71/2 hours late with a 2 hour drive ahead of us to Sun City our accommodation for the next 3 days. We arrived extremely tired & my asthma had flared up for the first time this trip.

Kimberley

It was a bit of a rough ride over night & I didn’t sleep very well. We made a stop around 11:00pm to refill the water tanks on the train and then again about 3:30am for the driver to have a break until 6:30am. We continued on for an hour before we stopped once again to change drivers.

Breakfast was from 7:00 – 10:00am. We went down about 7:30. There was cereal, fresh fruit, fruit salad as well as hot meals from the menu. Very nice indeed.

We continued having another 4 course lunch before we slighted the train at Kimberley where we viewed the Big Hole from the Kimberley Diamond mine. This hole was entirely hand dug by the workers with no machinery involved. We had a 2 hour guided tour which was really too long. I didn’t go down the mine as I thought it would be a bit claustrophobic.

We were back on the bus at 4:15pm to return to the train to continue our journey. We passed the wetlands where there are usually thousands of Flamingo but because it is dry there were none there. During the wet season the water reaches the rail tracks.

 

The skies came over very cloudy which made for a beautiful sunset.

 

Dinner was at 7:30pm – yet another 4 course meal. I was extremely tired so went to bed early.

Rovos Rail

A bit later start today as we were being collected at 9:30 to be taken to the Rovos Rail Train Station for our trip on the Pride of Africa up to Pretoria. We were taken to a meet & greet where we had drinks and nibbles before being boarded onto the train to start our journey at 11:00am. Once we were settled into our suite 8041 Beaufort Room we sat in the lounge & watched the view. The lunch gong was sounded at 1:00pm and we had our first five star dining experience on board – a 4 course meal which ended at 3:00pm.

We went back to the cabin for a bit of R’n’R before sitting in the lounge until 5:00pm when we arrived in Matjiesfontein. We disembarked and had an hour or so to explore the Victorian village. There was a transport museum as well as another little museum.

Once we started off again it was time to shower & dress formally for dinner at 7:30pm. Once again a huge 4 course meal. I decided not to have the dessert as I was still full from lunch.

Cape Town Tour

We awoke to a beautiful blue sky today after yesterday’s miserable weather. We were up early for breakfast as we were leaving at 7:45 for our trip up Table Mountain. We purchased our tickets at the hotel before venturing out to cut the waiting time at the mountain. We caught the cable car to the top. The views were absolutely spectacular. We spent an hour at the top before descending on the cable car again.

 

Our next stop was Signal Hill where a cannon is fired every day at Noon except Sunday & Public Holidays. We had more spectacular views.

 

Next we headed into Cape Town to the Boo-Kaap area where the Dutch housed their Malay slaves. Many of the families still live in this area. The houses are painted in beautiful bright colours.

Our last stop for this part of our tour was to Green Square markets. We were still unable to find our wooden hippo to complete our set.

 

 

 

At 1:15 Belle & Henry came to pick us up. They took us to Blouberg Bay for fish & chips for lunch. We had a spectacular view of Table Mountain across the beach area. After lunch we had an ice cream & a walk along the beach. They took us back to the hotel about 4:30.

We jumped on the 5:00pm shuttle and went down to V&A for a look around in the hope of getting the hippo. We caught the 6:15 shuttle back. We had pizza from the local corner pizza shop Debonairs, for diner. A lovely day all up.