Lesotho: Maseru and Thaba-Bosiu

We left South Africa for the first time to cross into Lesotho - the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho (the entire country is above 1000m - the country with the highest, lowest point as we were told...). The capital Maseru is tiny and everything else much smaller... . Nice, hilly countryside and wonderful people. They were very curious about us. Where ever we went the were waving at us and starting discussions. It was a wonderul experience.

Lesotho - Maseru and Thaba-Bosiu

Train from Port Elizabeth to Bloemfontain

After dropping the car in PE we swapped to the train. Scheduled was departure 13.00 and arrival 02.30. We thought quite a bit about this nasty arrival time but finally decided to taking it anyways joking that it would be nice for once to have a delay... . You won't believe it but the train broke down and we arrived 2 hours late - just perfect to sleep well after enjoying a good curry with Mealie Pap. The bus to Lesotho left at 0600, perfect timing between the two.

Train PE to Bloemfontain

Wine area, Route 62 & Garden Route

After leaving the cape area we moved eastwards (mostly driving on the left side...) towards Stellenbosch and the wine area. This is a wonderful area and the wine is great as well. We continued through the hills on route 62 and enjoyed the magnificant views, passes and valleys before reaching Oudtshoorn with it's many beautiful spots (thanks Petra & Joerg for the hint - a wonderful place). Obviously we tried ostrich meat! Goes down very well together with a cold Black Label! Later on we continued south to the coast and followed the nice garden route all the way to Port Elizabeth.

Wine area, Route 62 & Garden Route

Tiger babies

We had the wonderful opportunity to visit and be with two 7 weeks old Tiger babies in Oudtshoorn, ZA. They were very cute!

Tiger babies

Cape Town 2 & Cape of Good Hope

We spent some more time in this wonderful area discovering Robben Island, the Cape of Good Hope with the famous Baboons (hungry monkeys) as well as the Penguin colonies on the cape. Robben Island is a small island a couple kilometers off Cape Town where political prisonners such as Nelson Mandela were kept from 1960 to the nineties.

Robben Island & Cape of Good Hope

Driving in South Africa...

The Dutch had a huge impact on South Africa but in one point they really failed! How come they didn't make it to drive on the right side? As the Dutch didn't succeed we didn't try changing this rule and tried to follow which wasn't easy! Mainly if there is no traffic the instict always guides toward the right entry at crossings...! Luckily this only happened without traffic...

Diving with Great White Sharks

WOW - probably the best summary of an awesome experience! Off the southern coast of South Africa we went to dive with great white sharks, which was impressive! We drove out on a small boat, put some large chunks of Tuna in to the water as visual targets for the sharks. We then waited for them on the boat or in a cage under water (12 degrees - pretty fresh). Impressive animals - nothing else to add. Besides the animals we also had our fight with the naughty waves... . Despite having taken some medicine half of the people on bord felt pretty bad.

Diving with White Sharks

Cape Town

We traveled well and had a great start in Cape Town! Beautiful city, nice & warm weather, good food - what else do you want? Enclosed some first impressions.

Cape town

Count down started - 10 days to go

In 10 days - on Tuesday 12.2. - we'll take off.

Travel route updated - Welcome India!

Meanwhile we planed a bit further and updated the travel route. There were several reasons for updating our plan.

First of all Aravind's decision to get married in India at the end of March. We are excited to interrupt our Africa journey and travel to Bengaluru for this special event!

Secondly the fact that we won't get a visa for Malawi from here and officially can't apply locally. Last but not least the current situation in Kenya. We hope that the situation improves and we can visit both Malawi and Kenya.