On holiday

Hello from Namibia today. We started our holiday in South Africa in Cape Town. It's quite a contrast to Malawi. Very multicultural. Of course we concentrated on the tourist areas, so it's not necessarily like that for the ordinary people.

We went on a bus tour around Cape Town, a "hop on, hop off" bus. We did a tour of the botanical gardens. Really lovely--like a very beautiful park. Then we went to a bird sanctuary and saw a whole bunch of exotic birds. We even saw some Canada geese! Took me a bit aback. But in this context, no doubt they are exotic.

We started our G Adventures tour the other day. We have been travelling pretty steadily. The bus is very comfortable, even air conditioned. We are enjoying the group. One other Canadian, from Montreal, but originally from France. Others are from Great Britain, Germany, Australia, and Austria. An interesting group. We aren't the oldest, but a lot of them are quite a bit younger than us. A nice mix.

We learned about "load shedding" in South Africa. What we would call rolling blackouts to deal with an electricity shortage. We also learned firsthand about water shortage today. We stopped for using toilets, but they were closed because the village was out of water. Quite sobering. We thus learned what "bushy-bushy" means. We stopped the bus beside the road and found some likely looking bushes. Certainly preferable to doing our business in a snowbank, for sure! Anyway, it's all part of the adventure.

The weather is spectacular. Perfect, hot summer weather. Eat your heart out, Winnipeg!

Well, it's my bedtime. More next week if I can.

Last night's accommodation

Steve by the ocean

Roadside scenery South Africa