The planes for Saudia were acceptable, but it was like we were all children again. There was obviously no alcohol and every single program on the entertainment system was censored. Any skin below a woman's neck was fuzzed out and and skin above the knee was similarly blurred. Any words relating to sex, alcohol, pork, etc. were all bleeped. They couldn't say 'bar', or 'sex' even though they had some crappy American laugh-track comedy in which the main character was talking about a sex tape the whole time. The Jeddah airport is embarrassing. For such a seemingly rich country, Saudi really dropped the ball with Jeddah. Layovers seemed to all be between 4 and 12 hours (ours were 6 and 12 hours respectively) and they decided to have all flights arrive around the same time so that there was no seating available anywhere. We sat on a marble floor by security for a few hours just so we didn't have to stand. The bathrooms were wet from people preparing to pray and the only food options were 2 cafes with no bottled water and stale food. I hope I never have to fly through that place or on Saudia again.
Back to the trip... We arrived in Johannesburg tired and sore from sleeping on marble, but soldiered on to find a sim card and a car. Unfortunately the overwhelmed genius that we put in charge of renting the car booked one for almost twice what I found on my phone while standing guard over our bags. We ended up canceling the super expensive car and going with the much more economical one found online. Piling into the car, nobody really wanted to drive, so we put the person in charge of car reservations in the driver's seat on the way to our first destination: the Drakensberg Mountains. The ride was was beautiful but terrifying at the same time. Our driver seemed to aim for every pothole and tailgate any vehicle like we were both magnetized. It was like being in a crazy Egyptian taxi for 6 hours at a time. We stayed in a 6 bed - room in a hostel near Dragons Peak in the Drakensbergs. The room was fine, and we found a little restaurant with cricket playing to have dinner and a beer. The date was December 23rd I believe so people were in the 'Christmas spirit', with a boys choir singing songs down the road. We skipped the choir and instead went and had a few bottles of wine while a thunderstorm rolled over the mountains. Hiking in the Drakensbergs was amazing. The scenery was beautiful and the only down side was that we got rained on during the hike. It was definitely a place to spend more than a night or two as you could day over night hikes and see cave art and explore remote areas. The place was so pristine, we drank straight out of the local streams.
After two nights in the Drakensbergs we headed to the beach where we would spend Christmas eve and day. Another grueling ride with beautiful scenery led us to Wild Lubanzi. This place was so remote that we had to park our cars at a villager's house and go by 4-wheel drive the rest of the way. The guest house was right on a cliff amongst Xhosa villagers overlooking the sea. It was a stunning view with tons of stars glittering all night. Wild Lubanzi seemed like a free-love, anything goes type place with a lot of very interesting travelers and a cool group of volunteers who prepared all the meals. We spend 2 days here swimming in the ocean, admiring the scenery and just unwinding from busy Cairo life.
From Wild Lubanzi we headed to Orange Elephant Park and another hostel with a private room. The park was a pretty cool stop, and mostly so the boys could do a safari. On the drive in we spotted a giraffe, some lemurs and various other wildlife. That night we had some great pizza and the semi-attached bar/pizza place and retired shortly after. The next day we went on a safari which included a brai (bbq) in the park. It was a pretty cool safari as we had elephants pass us on the road so close that we could reach out the windows and touch them. We were even lucky enough to come upon a lioness relaxing in the shade of a tree.
From the park we went to a half-way point in Oudtshoorn which is in the little karoo (outback) and is famous for ostriches. We stayed in a really cool home stay that had large comfortable accommodations, a pool and friendly hosts. We dined on ostrich burgers and the next day went to a local wildlife park where we saw alligators being fed and numerous big cats. Our last stop was an ostrich farm were we saw the whole process of raising the birds from eggs all the way up. For the skinnier/younger crowd, ostrich rides were even available. It was pretty funny to see the kids trying to ride them and was an interesting stop if not too commercial.
From Oudtshoorn we headed to Montagu for a little taste of the wine country. Montagu was a tiny town in a valley surrounded by mountains and vineyards. We stayed in a really cool b&b type place above a restaurant/microbrewery that ended up running out of their own beer... Our main goal was to do some wine tasting, and did we ever succeed. We hired a young local guy that was starting a wine tour business to take us around for the whole day. All-in-all we probably stopped at 6 or so vineyards and tasted some amazing wines. The Pinotage we had from Van Loveren is probably my favorite wine I have ever tasted. Really hope I can find some back in the States as the 3 bottles I s̶m̶u̶g̶g̶l̶e̶d̶ brought back home will be gone before long. At the Excelsior winery we even got to blend, bottle, cork and label our own wine. It was a long, delicious, inebriating day and included a few hour nap at our place before dinner. We all woke up a little too late to do much besides go get a meal and a drink at the local (only) bar where they were nice enough to give us a shot of moonshine to kill anything in our intestines and remove the enamel from our teeth.
Montagu was our last stop on the way to Cape Town where we would stay for the next 4 days and spend New Years as well. Our apartment here was tiny, but comfortable minus the lack of AC and fact that we had no windows looking outside. Either way it was downtown and affordable. We were just a short walk from a lot of restaurants, bars and parks with Table Mountain just in the background. New Years was packed with tons of people on the streets and big parades. It was almost like Mardi Gras in New Orleans. While in Cape Town we booked a shark diving expedition that was easily one of the highlights of the trip. After an hour drive north, a 20 minute boat ride and some briefing we put on wet suits and jumped in the cage as a fishhead on a rope was thrown in front of us. Up until this point we'd only since shadows of the creatures well below the surface, but once in the cage they would follow the fish heads right up to the side of the cage so we could almost touch the 17ft long beast. Despite being inside the cage, we all could not help but jump back from the front as the Great White gnawed on the fish right in front of our eyes. Cape Town was nice for a variety of food and drink and I finally got my buffalo wings (although the only place we could find them was at Hooters) and a sampler platter of beers.
From Cape Town we split up the 13 hour drive with a stop in the middle of nowhere in a place called Phillipolis. This place was like an American Southwest ghost town. 2 streets, a handful of houses, some sheep farming, a church and 2 'restaurants'. Pretty much everybody spoke Afrikaans but Brad and I still wandered out looking for a bite. In rounding out the interesting nature of our trip, we ended up in the wine cellar/basement of the house/restaurant. There was a table and chairs set up, so it's not like we were the first ones, but it was still a dirt floor and we could hear all the chairs moving around above us causing dust to filter through the dim light. We ordered a bottle of wine and some delicious lamb chops and savored how unique the entire experience was. The last day we hit the road and drove straight to the airport and on to our horrible air journey.
South Africa was a really amazing trip. Obviously I wish I'd had more time to see it as we drove several thousand miles in 2 weeks just to try and squeeze in a much as possible. If it's ever on your radar, definitely try and spend some time down there and don't miss the mountains.