2019 South Africa and Victoria Falls Trip

We joined a Gate1 tour to visit South Africa and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. As a part of the itinerary, we also visited Kruger National Park in S. Africa and Chobe National Park in Botswana.  It was a 40 people group for the South Africa tour, 25 of us visited Vicoria Falls and only 21 of us visited Chobe National Park. The tour map of this trip was as follows:

The detailed itinerary was as the following:

• Wednesday, April 17, 2019 - Traveled from US to South Africa
• Thursday, April 18, 2019 - Arrived Cape Town of South Africa
• Friday, April 19, 2019 - Visited Cape Peninsula including Cape Point, Hout Bay, Cape of Good Hope, Boulders Beach for penguins, and Kistenbcsch National Botanical Gardens. Welcome dinner at hotel.  
• Saturday, April 20, 2019 - Rode cable car to the top of Table Mountain, then visited Shimansky Jewelers & Museum in V&A Waterfront. Drove thru Cape Town to see City Hall, Malay Quarter and Company Garden.
• Sunday, April 21, 2019 - At leisure.
• Monday, April 22, 2019 - Flew to Durban, Game viewing cruise on the St. Lucia Estuary.
• Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - Game drive in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve.  Then traveled to eSwatini. Stopped by handicraft market for shopping.
• Wednesday, April 24, 2019 - Visited Ngwenya glass factory, Matsamo Cultural Village to learn about Swati traditions and customs.
• Thursday, April 25, 2019 - Game drive in Kruger National Park.
• Friday, April 26, 2019 - Drove to Johannesburg and visited God’s Window, Bourke’s Luck Potholes.
• Saturday, April 27, 2019 - Soweto Tour to visit Nelson Mandela’s house and the Apartheid Museum. Farewell dinner with tour members who flew back to US on the next day.
• Sunday, April 28, 2019 - Flew to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Sublime sundowner cruise on the Zambezi River.
• Monday, April 29, 2019 - Guided walking tour of the Victoria Falls.  Optional tours in the afternoon.
• Tuesday, April 30, 2019 - Traveled to Chobe, Botswana.  Sunset cruise on Chobe River.
• Wednesday, May 1, 2019 - Game drives in the morning and afternoon in Chobe National Park.
• Thursday, May 2, 2019 - Game drive in the morning in Chobe National Park. Then departed from Botswana to Johannesburg for flight back to the US.
• Friday, May 3, 2019 - Traveled back to the US.

Wednesday, April 17, 2019 - Travel to South Africa

When we booked this tour, we asked Gate1 to book a flight from Houston to Cape Town.  For whatever the reason, they booked our 1st leg from Houston to Amsterdam and then our 2nd leg was from Amsterdam to Cape Town. Since a lot of the tour members flew from different places to Amsterdam for the Cape Town flight, it looked like they had a deal with KLM from Amsterdam to Cape Town.  However, it made our journey to Cape Town much longer. But, we have to say, KLM’s airplane meals is much better than most of US airlines.

Thursday, April 18, 2019 - Arrived at Cape Town

Due to long flights, it was after 9PM whem we arrived at Cape Town.  

Gate1 had a local representative picked us up at the airport and led us to the shuttle bus then to the hotel.  When we got to the hotel, there was no tour manager greeting us.  We had to check in ourselves.  It took a while for us to figure out the next day’s itinerary.

Friday, April 19, 2019 - Visited Cape Peninsula

Per our tour manager Jason’s direction, we had an early briefing at the hotel to go over general rules and to do self introduction of ourselves.  

After breakfast, we traveled to Cape Peninsula.  The 1st stop was Clifton, Cape Town which is an affluent suburb of Cape Town. It is an exclusive residential area and is home to the most expensive real estate in South Africa, with dwellings nestled on cliffs that have sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean.  Then we drove along Atlantic Ocean coast to Hout Bay.  It is named after the wood from its once lush forest. Hout Bay is a popular tourist attraction that also happens to be a residential suburb, a mere 20 kilometers from Cape Town’s central business district. It boasts a beautiful white-sand beach, a bustling marina, art galleries, restaurants, and a working harbor that serves its thriving tuna, snook and crayfish industry.  We just had a short photo stop.  The whole scenery at Hout Bay is breathtaking. 

Then we went to Cape of Good Hope in Table Mountain National Park.  The 1st stop is Cape Point.  

Most of people think Cape Point is the most southern point of Africa.  However, it is not true, the southern most point of Africa is about 100km south of the Cape Point. There is a light house on the top of the hill of Cape Point.  Our guide gave us 1 hour to climb up and enjoy the view.  Fei and I climbed up to the light house.  The view up there is even better.  On the way to the top, we saw a lot of baboons,  One of the baboon even jumped on one of our tour members' head (who has red hair) and pulling her hair.  It was an interesting encounter for her.  

Then we went to the Cape of Good Hope.  There is a sign indicating that it is the most south-western point of African continent.  We all took the opportunity of taking photos there.

The we went to Simon’s Town for lunch at Boulders Beach’s restaurant.  After lunch, Jason took us to visit penguins on this famous beach.  There were a lot of South Africa penguins on this beach.  Penguin is one of the animals everybody likes.  We took many pictures there.

Then we visited the Kirstenbosch National Botanic Gardens. It is situated on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain. Kirstenbosch is internationally acclaimed as one of the seven most magnificent botanical gardens in the world. This 528-hectare Kirstenbosch Estate (which includes the Garden) falls under the Cape Floristic Region, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It includes a cultivated garden and a nature reserve. The developed garden displays collections of southern African plants including many rare and endangered species. There are also visitor facilities in the garden including restaurants, a nursery, a gift shop, and a bookshop.  

Then, we had a welcome dinner at Cape Town.

Saturday, April 20, 2019 - Rode Cable Car to the Top of Table Mountain

Today's first stop was riding the cable car to the top of Table Mountain to view Cape Town.  Table Mountain is the most iconic landmark of South Africa. It is the scenic photography background of Cape Town, and it is also a place where you can take breathtaking photos of Cape Town.  The only problem we had was that it was raining in the morning.  The cable car was operational, so our guide took us to ride it to the top and hoping the sky will be cleared up soon.  Unfortunately, it never did.  Therefore, we did not see anything when we were up there.

After the Table Mountain, our tour bus went through Cape Town to visit City Hall, Malay Quarter and Company Garden. Then, we stopped at V&A Waterfront to visit the Shimansky Jewelers & Museum  South Africa is famous with their diamond discovery. Some of our tour members bought diamonds there.  Then we had leisure time for the afternoon.

We checked with our tour guide earlier in regarding to climbing up Table Mountain the next day (at leisure day).  Due to forecast of strong wind, our tour guide suggested us to do it in the afternoon instead of the next day.  We followed his advice and took a taxi to the trail head of Table Mountain.  We were pretty lucky that the sky cleared up in the earlier afternoon.  We chose the Platteklip Gorge Trail for our hike.  Normally it takes about 2 hours for people to climb up to the top, however, it took us 3 hours to do it.  On the way to climb up there, the scenery was just breathtaking.  We stopped many times to take pictures of the trail and Cape Town.  

During the climb, Fei was effortless, however Tony was huffing and puffing.  We thought the 2 cameras Tony was carry might have something to do with it. We had the whole afternoon to do this, therefore we just took easy to enjoy the scenery and the climbing.  

Right before we got close to the top, we ran into a young couple coming down the mountain.  The girl hurt her leg and was trying to sit and move slowly down at each step.  Judging the time and the difficulty of climbing down, we suggested to them to get back to the top (much shorter climb) and ride the cable car down.  To our surprise that they left their wallets in the car parked in the parking lot, and do not have cash to buy cable car tickets fo get down the mountain.  After we learned that, Fei immediately fetched enough money and gave it to them.  It was an additional episode of our Table Mountain climb.

The very last part of the climb, we have to use chains helping us to get to the top.  After we got to the top, the view was totally different from what we saw this morning.  The eastern side of the mountain has a beautiful coast line and township.  At the western side, we can see Lion’s Head, Robben Island and beautiful Cape Town.  We spent about an hour on the top to view the breathtaking views from all angles repeatedly.  Then we took the cable car down.  It was a worthy afternoon for achieving one of our goals of this trip.

Sunday, April 21, 2019 - At Leisure

It was at leisure day, therefore we took easy with a nice long breakfast.  Then we did a self touring to visit the Parliament of South Africa National nearby the Company Gardens.  We did not find the entrance to see the parliament, we just look it from the outside.  However, we did spent a lot of time walking and enjoying the Company Gardens.  

From Company Garden, we took some nice pictures with Table Mountain and Lion’s Head as background.  

Then, we walked to Cape Town’s City Hall to see the famous spot where Nelson Mandela gave his famous speech.  After that we just went back to hotel for lunch. 

In the afternoon, we took the hotel shuttle to V&A Waterfront to walk around and do some shopping.  It is the most popular spot in Cape Town for both tourists and locals to hang out.  There were a lot of people and we just enjoyed the people watching and photographing.

BTW, due to the strong wind, the optional Robben Islands tour had been cancelled.