My Recent Trip to South Africa

Anne Habermehl

May, 2011

South Africa Flag

Downtown Cape Town

Musicians entertain on Cape Town waterfront

Another musical group on the Cape Town waterfront.

The famous Table Mountain of Cape Town

African penguins at Boulder Bay, on the cape.

This one came over and posed for me. They were surprisingly tame!

(left) This group of schoolchildren, on seeing my camera, came running over and posed for me. They were fun.

Cheetahs at a breeding park.

Down in the Sterkfontein caves. Famous fossils have been found down in these caves.

This ostrich family couldn't get enough of staring at us (they never saw people before?).

(left) Lionesses drinking after a feed at the preserve. We saw quite a few other animals, but they were too far away to show up in the photos. There were whole herds of zebras, wildebeest, hartebeest, springbok, and some giraffes.

Look who came to dinner! At this restaurant, run by an astronomy enthusiast, there was  a telescope and observatory next to the dining room. This zebra, obviously tame, came right in and looked around.

Security is a prime concern in South Africa. All homeowners have high walls around their properties, with iron gates opened only by an opener from their cars. The walls have either heavy barbed wire or 220-volt electric wires on top. This photo shows a couple of homes that have thatched roofs; these roofs are somewhat unusual, but they are seen here and there.

On the other side of the coin, all homeowners have "help," which is what they call their housekeeping ladies; and they also have property maintenance men who do all lawn mowing and gardening. This kind of help is very affordable there.

All in all, a very interesting trip. But one thing is sure: you have to actually go there to see how far away it is. My return flights were Johannesburg to Atlanta/ Atlanta to Syracuse. We were a total of 18 hours on board for that first flight to Atlanta, 16 or more of them in the air.