In April we finally made the trip to South Africa. Jan had wanted to go on safari & I wanted to catch up with the SA relatives that I had never met, but had corresponded with. The last time one of the Ceylon Siedle's had visited SA was my Grandfather around 1904 on his way back to Ceylon from UK, so it was high time to renew the acquaintance. We duly caught up with a number of cousins in Durban and also in Howick past Pietermaritzberg. We visited the statue of Perla Siedle Gibson, The Lady in White, who use to sing for troop ships arriving in Durban during the war. The sculptor of the statue was one of my cousins, Barbara, who is an accomplished artist too.
Next, we went to stay in the tented camp at Thula Thula game lodge for a few days during which we went on several game drives. The lodge was set up by the Elephant Whisperer, Lawrence Anthony, who also authored a book of that name, which is well worth a read. We saw plenty of the elephants as well as a variety of other game, like rhino, giraffe etc, thoroughly enjoyed it & had a couple of interesting conversations at dinner with Lawrence as well.
After that, we went up to St Lucia to meet another cousin, Janine & her children, & go on a lake cruise during which we sighted more animals including hippo, mongooses & duiker. That was followed the next day by another game drive at Umfolozi, which was more open than Thula but we were lucky enough to get a close sighting of a leopard, unusual during the day.
Before leaving Thula, we paid a visit to the Sangoma, or witch doctor, who told us what he thought we wanted to hear, although the effect was somewhat lessened when he paused to answer his mobile!
We then departed for Cape Town where we did some sight seeing, but the city left us generally underwhelmed. However we did manage to get up to Table Mountain on one fine day which was superb, as were the Botanic Gardens at Kirstenbosch.
A day trip out to Cape Point was worth it, as was one to Stellenbosch & Franschoek, through the vinyards & when we go back we'll spend a bit more time there. We visited a Cheetah rehab centre on the way out there too, which we thoroughly enjoyed, especially as there were a variety of other animals there too, like Serval, Caracal, Meercats & Bat-eared Foxes.
Impressions of S Africa – I had no preconceived ideas of the country, but was somewhat apprehensive about driving whilst in Durban after our experiences in Thailand & India. I need not have worried as generally driving was easy & quite well signposted with good roads by & large. The only things to watch for were the taxi minibuses whose drivers were pretty awful.
Durban had a climate similar to Brisbane & Cape Town probably like Melbourne in its changeability. One thing we noticed was the security required in residential areas & we heard some scary home invasion/burglary stories from Barbara & others. However, we did not feel insecure wandering about either city during the day & did not try it at night, sticking close to where we were staying at Holiday Inn Express in Cape Town for meals. Both cities were quite clean, water could be drunk from the tap & food was good & cheaper than at home.
Natives were polite & not pushy about us buying in markets & shops. We did not get accosted too often by beggars when we went out & the few that did were not persistent. The quality of souvenirs was not bad, although lots of the same sort of stuff was being sold wherever we went & not much appealed.
The country was preparing for elections a couple of days after we left & stories we heard indicated that politicians were similar to ours, corrupt, stupid or incompetent, but all looking after themselves first & the electorate later! It seems that the black/white divide still exists although lessening in feeling & that it will take some time for voters to change from the devils they know.
The country is quite varied & vast, so we only scratched the surface on this trip & from what we heard talking to other people another trip taking in the west of the country & up to Victoria Falls would be interesting, so another trip is planned at some stage.
