Safari Saga Starts
Thursday, May 9, 2024
Friday, May 10, 2024
Port Elizabeth, South Africa
We’re off! After enduring doing the cha cha and sashaying for days at sea, dodging various threats, and pouring over itineraries and weather prognostications, we finally arrived at the southern point of our trip around Africa. Our eagerly awaited arrival in Port Elizabeth, South Africa was marked with a little confusion as the ship’s berth in the port was in a decidedly industrial area, as opposed to the cruise ship berths we would have preferred. The Onward was not staying in port any longer than necessary to be refueled and only those passengers with pre-arranged excursions were allowed to disembark. Those of us who have elected to go ashore and explore, were up early to get through the immigration procedure, procure our passports stamps and set out.
Armed with dreams of getting the perfect shot, a plethora of electronic paraphernalia, binoculars, a sheaf of bureaucratic papers for entering and exiting each country, and malaria meds. We have shopped for proper neutral safari attire — black and dark blue attracts tsi flies EEK! I don’t think beige, tan, taupe and sand fits in my most becoming color pallet! Snugly packed in our new soft-sided duffle bags of the prescribed size and weighing no more than 33 lbs, we strode off the Onward with our devoted cabin attendants Koko, and Allan carrying our bags.
First challenge — hailing a ride to Chief David Stuurman international airport. Onward was assigned to a berth in a remote industrial area and the razor -wire topped fence was evidence that no taxis or Ubers are allowed in this area! Many of our remaining shipmates departed on shuttle buses, luckily one of the local tour company reps volunteered to drive us to catch our flight to Johannesburg, known as JoBurg to seasoned travelers. We quickly adjust our vernacular and once again marveled at our good luck and the pretty cloudless sky a propitious omen.
JoBurg is a bustling city of 4 million-plus with the requisite traffic. Jerry is excited to see signs to Pretoria. Anybody remember the song? There will be a quiz!
The Sandton Sun Hotel was spectacular and a great place to unwind and get oriented! Pretty dramatic and a nice patio to start sampling the South African wines and admire another sunset. It’s attached to a luxury mall filled with every possible high brand — must be catering to the wealthier tourists! Sandton is the nicest suburb and is safe unlike downtown JoBurg according to our driver who taxied us to and from Tambo International Airport.
