Living The Dream Tours

01/01/10 – Happy New Year everyone. Today is a long travel day. We fly from Cape Town to Johannesburg, change airlines, fly to Atlanta, change airlines, and finally fly to Denver. It is worth it though. South Africa has been a good experience. We’ve seen a lot, learned a lot, and have many many stories to bring home with us. Goodbye Africa.

12/31/09 -New Year’s Eve. Our last day in South Africa. Today we try surfing at Muizenburg. Same joins us for the fun. We drive to Muizenburg beach, find a store to rent wetsuits and boards, and head for the sea – well the kids do anyway – the parents take a cooler to the beach and tackle some serious tanning. The water is great, the waves are awesome. Sander gets up and rides his very first wave all the way to shore. Gunnar and Emma have to work very much harder to gain their surf-legs. While surfing a siren sounds and everyone gets out of the water. A 10 ft. Great White has been spotted a few hundred yards offshore, swimming along the back line of waves. The shark flag goes up, and we decide to use the opportunity to have lunch. We find a great little place on the beach called Knead that bakes its own bread, so we stop for sandwiches. Just when we’re considering going back into the water another shark siren sounds. This time its a 14 ft. Great White. We decide to call it a day from a surfing perspective and head for home. Sam’s grandad has kindly prepaid for a table at Salt restaurant in the Ambassador Hotel (Bantry Bay) and given it to the Sveen family as a gift. We go back to the hotel, get dressed and go out for New Year’s Eve dinner. The restaurant is VERY upscale. We have a great evening, and drive home just before midnight. We wish each other Happy New Year and go to bed. Tomorrow will be a loooong travel day.

Emma and Sam

Emma and Sander heading out to catch waves

Gunnar and Sander with shark flag

New Year's Eve at Salt Restaurant

12/30/09 – Our SA history day. We start slow, sleeping in and meeting for breakfast after 10:00 a.m.. After breakfast we drive to the Waterfront where we’ll catch the ferry to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for 18 of his 27 years in prison. The ferry is a huge, fast boat, and in no time we arrive on Robben Island, 13 km (8 miles) from shore. The entire island is now a museum. The tour includes a drive around the perimeter of the island, plus a walk through the prison iteself. We discover that all the guides on the island are ex-inmatesm so they have an intimate knowledge of the goings-on back in the day. Our guide’s name is Derek Basson, and he spent 5.5 years on the island for sabotage. Derek takes us to a “general cell” where a number of inmates shared the space, and gives us a lecture on life on the island. He walks us through daily routine, diets (different diets for blacks and other colors etc), sleeping arrangements (inmates slept on grass mats on the concrete floor with 4 blankets to keep them warm winter and summer. We visit the cells (including Nelson Mandela’s cell), and then take a bus tour around the island, where they tell us about it being a leper colony before becoming a prison etc. After our tour we head back to the mainland on a “slow boat”. Our fast ride comes flying by us halfway across the bay. Paul states that our tug-boat has more character… yeah right….   

Sander and a new friend on the way to Robben Island

Derek's lecture (sleeping mat on floor)

Nelson Mandela's cell on Robben Island

12/29/09 – Today is Emma’s birthday. We start the day with an early breakfast at the Cape Sun and then Brian drives us to our meeting point for the township visit. Emma is part of an organization in the USA that is trying to facilitate opportunities for orphans from the Cape Town townships, and this visit is really important to her. We meet Emma’s friend, Sam, at the gathering point, and leave in the township vehicle with Helen, a legend in these parts. We have a fantastic morning, visiting Gugaletu and Khyaletsha, going into folks’ homes and handing out fruit and candy to the poor kids. It’s an eye-opening experience. We realize just how fortunate people are in the USA. We return to Cape Town, where Brian and Debbie ferry us to the Lamperts’ house in Bantry Bay for lunch. They have a home on the rocks in Bantry Bay, and a beach home on the rocks at Clifton 3rd beach. After lunch we go swimming at 3rd beach. Later on in the afternoon Brian and Debbie collect us, and we go to Cafe Orca in Melkbosstrand for Emma’s birthday dinner. This is one of our guides’ favorite restaurants in all of Cape Town. Small and unassuming. Located right on the beach. Offering wonderful seafood. We order a seafood platter for 3 and some other dishes, such as kingklip and calamari steaks. The food is great – the portions are huge. We can’t finish all the food. Emma opens her birthday gifts and is over-the-moon. The owners of Cafe Orca come over and chat with us for a while. At about 11:00 p.m. we head back to Cape Town, tired and satisfied after a very full day.

Emma's new purse

Seafood platter

Dad and his girl

12/28/09 – Today is a sightseeing day. We start with breakfast at the Cape Sun, and then all pile into the minivan, headed for Cape Point. Our first stop is Simons Town. This is the main base of the South African navy, but also has a unique beach nearby. Boulders Beach is world renowned for its penguin colony. The African penguin (formerly known as the Jackass penguin) is found only on the Southern African coast. We stop and look at the penguins in their nests. The eggs should be hatching soon. From Boulders we drive to Cape Point, the Southwestern tip of Africa. The view is awesome from here. It feels as though you’re standing on the edge of the world. We climb a gazillion steps to get up to the lighthouse, where we take some pics. On returning from the lighthouse we have lunch at the Cape Point lighthouse, and then head for Hout Bay. In order to get to Hout Bay one has to drive through Chapman’s Peak, another section of the Cape with spectacular views. We admire Long Beach as we pass. This must be one of the longest and widest beaches anywhere. When we get to Hout Bay harbor Debbie purchases tickets for the boat ride to Seal Island. We’re in a small boat and the swells are pretty big, so the boat rocks a lot. The African fur seal colony is an interesting, if smelly, excursion.  The boat gets right against the rocks where the seals are sunning themselves. After Hout Bay we decide to stop at Camps Bay for some beach time. Camps Bay beach is very pretty, and very popular. While the kids swim in the chilly Atlantic Ocean the adults have a cocktail at a trendy restaurant/bar called the Pepper Club right across the street from the beach. Its been a long day, so Lauren picks up take-out pizza for the kids, and we head back to the hotel for pizza and movies.

Penguins on Boulders Beach, Simons Town

Cape Point

African fur seals on seal island

Camps Bay beach

12/27/09 – We wake to a beautiful day in Hermanus. Since it was planned to be a slow day anyway, we choose to hang out in the town for a while. At around 10:00 a.m. Lauren wonders, why not dive with Great Whites? Debbie weaves her magic, and by 11:00 we’re on our way to Gansbaai to try shark-cage diving. We get to Gansbaai with 5 minutes to spare before the pre-dive briefing begins. Emma is a little skittish, but goes along anyway. We jump on the boat and head for shark waters. We have a wonderful time, and see 8 Great Whites up-close and personal, 2 of which are in excess of 10 feet in length. When we were done diving we headed for Cape Town via the beautful Hangklip route. It is spectacular to say the least. We eat dinner at “Jimmy’s Killer Prawns” in Somerset West, and only get back to the hotel after 10:00 p.m. We’re tuckered, but before we can hit the sack we’re faced with the challenge of out-of-commission elevators. All’s well that end well, and we head for bed, tired to the bone.

Leaving Gansbaai, looking for sharks

Lion of the ocean

The view on the way back to Cape Town

12/26/09 – Today is going to be a long road trip. We leave after an early breakfast, heading for Mossel Bay. We cross the Outeniqua pass into George, and from there to Mossel Bay. We stop at the Dias Maritime Museum, dedicated to the earliest discoverers of the Cape, namely Bartolemeu Dias and Vasco De Gama. They even have a complete Caravel (Portuguese ship circa 1480) in the museum. It is a replica, but is built from original plans. The ship even sailed from Lisbon to Mossel Bay exactly 500 years after the first Portuguese landings. We visit the “mail shoe”. Sailors sent mail to and from Portugal by placing it in a seaman’s boot under a milkwood tree. This practice started in 1501. Today you can still send mail in the shoe under the tree. From Mossel Bay we drive to Cape Aghulas, the Southernmost tip of Africa. It is windy, and after some photos we head back to the vehicle to continue our trip. We drive through the little town of Napier where Brian and Deb stop to say hello to friends who own a pub called “Gunner’s Lodge”. From there we drive to our final destination for the day, Hermanus. Hermanus is renowned for its Southern Right Whales that come into the harbor to mate and to give birth. Unfortunately the whales are already on their way to Antartica for the summer, so we don’t see any. The kids are sorely in need of some exercise, so Paul takes Gunnar and Emma for a run, and Lauren takes Sander. Later that evening we have a fish dinner at a restaurant called “Lemon Butta”. The seafood is pretty good. We’re checked into Hermanus’ oldest surviving hotel, the Windsor Hotel. Paul and Lauren have a room that literally overlooks the sea, with only a street separating the room and the ocean. We sleep like the dead after a long day in the minivan.

Replica of Dias Caravel c1480

Windsor hotel - Hermanus

12/25/09 – Merry Christmas !! We skip the morning drive today, and get a slower start. We amble up to the restaurant for breakfast that includes ostrich egg and kudu ground-meat. Debbie has a Christmas stocking (containing several little gifts) laid out on the table for everyone. We head for the pool after breakfast, and chill for a while. Before lunch we go out to feed the elephants that  live at Buffelsdrift. These are 3 orphaned elephants that are being raised to be released back into the bush. We have a great deal of fun feeding them, arm wrestling with them and getting hugs from their muddy trunks. After the elephants we clean up and go to lunch. The lunch is HUGE. Buffelsdrift has really laid it on. We only start our lunch at 2:30, and eat for an hour or more. The Christmas game drive is our last for this Africa trip. We have the game vehicle to ourselves, and our ranger, Enslin, takes us to places we haven’t been before. We still miss the buffalo and leopards, but we have a fantastic game drive. The evening meal is very light – we’ve eaten as much or more than we generally do at Thanksgiving, so we’re in SLOW mode. We hit the sack early – ready for tomorrow’s adventures.

Breakfast table with gift stockings

Champagne at breakfast - cheers

Paul gets a hug from an elephant

Merry Christmas USA - from sunny South Africa

12/24/09 – Our early morning game drive at Buffelsdrift yields giraffe at close quarters. They put on a real show for us. We even get to see some of the youngsters that are a mere month old. We also get to see rhino, eland, mountain zebra (only 4,000 left in the world), nyala, waterbuck, wildebeest, hippos and springbok. After breakfast we go to the Cango Caves. We select the adventure tour and end up crawling through some amazingly small places. The Cango Caves are spectacular. A “must do” in South Africa. From the Cango Caves we go to the Cango Ostrich farm. We learn about ostriches; how they are born, how they are farmed as well as likes and dislikes. We get to ride ostriches (well Emma, Sander and Gunnar do, dad and mom sit on the birds for a photo-op), and Paul and Brian have the dubious privilege of having an ostrich peck a piece of food out of their mouths. Lauren has a couple of ostriches massage her neck. Much fun is had by all. We visit the curio store and Brian buys his wife a purse as a Christmas gift. The evening game drive yields the same animals as before. We’re still looking for Cape Buffalo and leopard. Another sumptuous buffet dinner follows, eating ostrich steaks, kudu and other venison. It is Christmas-eve, and we’re all enjoying the festive feel in the air. The Malva pudding with custard is a winner. We head for bed, ready for Christmas…

Game ranger Enslin and junior game ranger Sander

On safari at Buffelsdrift

Waterbuck

Air-conditioned tent at Buffelsdrift

12/22/09 – Today is a big day. We’re going WINE TASTING. After a good breakfast at the Cape Sun we head for Stellenbosch, one of the premier wine regions in South Africa. Stellenbosch has over 60 active estates and 5 wine routes. We start at the Meerlust Estate, which was established in the mid-1600’s. Meerlust is known to produce one of South Africa’s best red wines, the Meerlust Rubicon. We taste 6 wines, and purchase 2 bottles of Rubicon. Each bottle is packed in its own wooden case. From Meerlust we head to the Spier Estate. Spier produces wonderful wines, though not in the class of Meerlust. After tasting the wines we go to the Moyo restaurant on the Spier premises. Moyo is a buffet restaurant with an African theme. One can choose from a number of types of venison along with other South African favorites. While we eat a group of singers and dancers move around the restaurant. A group of face painters are also circulating, so we all decide to get a face design (free of course). We eat  way too much, and when we leave Moyo we head across to the cheetah and Eagle rescue missions, also located on the Spier estate. It is really interesting seeing how the cheetahs and birds of prey are rehabilitated. Leaving Spier we drive to the Neetlingshof wine estate. This estate is well known for its white wines. We each taste 2 wines because the afternoon is waning and we need to get to our final stop. From Neetlingshof we drive a few miles to Zevenwacht, our final stop for the day. Zevenwacht is a fully operational wine estate that also has chalets and hotel rooms. We taste the Zevenwacht wines while the guides check us into our chalet. After the tasting we’re driven to the chalet, situated on the highest point of the wine estate. We can see for miles from here. The chalet has 4 bedrooms, so Gunnar doesn’t have to wrestle with Sander for a bed tonight. Once we’ve unpacked our guides collect us and drive us back to the manor house for dinner. The dinner is a fine dining experience, but we’re pretty tired after a long day of wine tasting. After dinner we’re taken back to the chalet for a much deserved night’s rest.

Wine tasting at the Spier Estate

Painted faces at Moyo restaurant

The manor house at Zevenwacht wine estate

Paul on top of Table Mountain

Looking down from the cable car

Racing alongside another yacht

12/20/09 – Today we head for Cape Town, but not before we do one final game drive at Mabalingwe. Today we get to see wild lions feeding. What a great way to end this part of the trip. We drive to Johannesburg airport, and fly to Cape Town. The weather in Cape Town is beautiful. We drive to our hotel, The Cape Sun, and check in. We’ve had a few early starts recently so we decide to have a quiet evening. We take a shuttle-bus to the Cape Town Waterfront, and have dinner at Quay Four restaurant. Seafood again (of course). Lauren tries crayfish for the first time, and votes with a thumbs-up. We catch the hotel shuttle back to our rooms, and hit the sack. Its been a long day.

King of the jungle

View from our hotel room in Cape Town

12/19/09 – We’re up bright and early for our 6:00 a.m. game drive. One doesn’t see as many animals in the morning, nonetheless we see a fair amount of game as we drive around. We head for the swimming pool after the drive, and catch some sun, Coleman cooler near at hand. In the afternoon we go to Zabula where we get to play with lion cubs and tiger cubs (no, tigers don’t live in Africa – these are rescued cubs), and the kids have pictures taken with cheetahs. Sander is the youngest person ever to enter the cheetah enclosure at this lodge. We look at a huge African python and even get to see crocodiles being fed. The evening game drive is far more fruitful. We see the elephants again, and the rhinos are grazing in the clearing where our sundowner drinks have been laid out. We have to wait on the vehicles for quite a while before they leave and we can get to our sundowners. By then our drinks are warm but who cares? We’re on safari in Africa.

The Sveen family - Living the Dream

Sander with a 12 foot long Reticulated Python

12/18/09 – Our first safari starts today. After breakfast we leave Shanguni Lodge, headed for Mabalingwe Game Lodge near the town of Bela Bela in the Limpopo province. The drive is uneventful, although there is a lot of construction taking place in preparation for the 2010 soccer world cup in June of next year. We arrive at Mabalingwe, and check into our chalet. Its pretty hot here, so we get dressed in t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops. At 5:00 p.m. we go on our first game drive in Africa. Our ranger’s name is Ingrid, and she has a nose for finding animals. We get to see elephant, rhino, impala, warthogs, kudu, zebra, nyala and a number of other animals on our first time out. After dinner at the Lodge restaurant we retire, ready for an early morning game drive tomorrow.

Elephant family

White Rhino

12/17/09 – The Sveen crew arrive in Johannesburg, South Africa at 5:00 p.m. local time after a long flight from Atlanta. Althoughwe’re somewhat tired we have been taking their jet-lag tablets, so we’re not ready for bed yet. We check into the Shanguni Lodge in Johannesburg, and get ready for dinner. Most of us order fish from the menu. Lauren enjoys her Kingklip, and Emma tries the Butterfish. After a delicious dinner at a local restaurant we’re ready for bed, looking forward to the South African tour.

Dining room in Shanguni Lodge

Shanguni Lodge