2024 - FIP Cape Town and Zimbabwe Safari: September 2024

Day 27: Sun 15 Sep - Brisbane to Home, 280km (4hrs)

11-26 deg C

Walk: 6km

Had a bit of a restless sleep and started coughing about 1am, and about 3am I noticed that Greg was awake as well, so we got up, dressed and were on the road by 3:30am. We stopped for breakfast at Gympie Maccas, topped up the fuel, and were home by 7:30am. There was next to no traffic on the road all morning which made for a stress-free drive.

After unpacking the car, we both went back to bed for an hour. I then started the unpacking process, and while the clothes were washing, I unpacked all the other stuff. Three loads of washing were hung out and taken in when dry, and all other stuff has been put back where it belongs, in readiness for our next adventure - cycling from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, Vietnam in Nov.

Greg has done a lot of work cleaning up the garden since I've been away. It looks like it did when we left for WA back in Feb this year. The house was also nice and clean.

After lunch, I was back on the bed and slept for 1.5hr.

The Congress is in Copenhagen, Denmark 1-4 Sep 2025. I may or may not be attending. It maybe in Canada in 2026, and possibly Dubai in 2027. No-one knows for certain, so planning cannot be done.

Day 26: Sat 14 Sep - Sydney to Brisbane, 4h30m

15 (SYD - 13 (BNE) deg C

Walk: 4km

We arrived at Sydney five minutes later than scheduled, so made up 15 minutes. Got my Immigration ticket from the machine and was through to baggage collection soon after. Got my bags, declared my medicines and that I had been in Africa, but told the lady I had scrubbed my shoes of all dust, mud and anything else that may have been on them, and I was free to go. Took my bags to the domestic check-in area on the international side, then had to wait about 15 minutes for the transfer bus to take us to domestic.

By the time I got to the lounge, I had 2.5 hours to kill before the last flight for this trip to Brisbane. Flight was on an A330, so the Business seats were the same as those on an A380 and 787 Dreamliner. Started watching The Fall Guy as my TV series was not available on the domestic leg. I knew I would not get to see the end of the movie though. Dinner was Chicken Teriyaki, and it was surprisingly nice. Dessert was a not so nice cheesecake.

Landed on time, but luggage took forever to appear. Greg was waiting patiently in the disabled area of the pick-up area, and after loading all the bags into the CX-8 we were at the hotel about 15 minutes later.

Teeth, shower and bed.

Take-off from Sydney

Sunset coming into Brisbane

Day 25: 13 Sep - Cape Town to Johannesburg to Sydney, 22h45m

9 (CPT) - 24 (JNB) - 17 (SYD deg C

Walk: 7km

Slept until about 1:30am, then tossed and turned after that. At 5am, I decided to get up and have a coffee and started my final pack. Checked out of the hotel just before 7am and was collected by my pre-booked driver at 7:15am. Sylvain was there to say goodbye. It was sad saying goodbye to my MEPS colleagues, who have become firm friends over the years, especially as I don't know when next I will see them. The Congress is in Copenhagen next year, and although it is a lovely city, it is expensive. Will have to try and convince Greg that we both need a holiday and that it should be in Denmark and Sweden, and perhaps a longer visit to Helsinki.

I got to the airport about 7:30am, and by the time I got to the front of the Business Class queue, it was almost 8am, just in time to check-in. Through security check and into the SAA Lounge just after 8am and first order of the day was coffee. This is a nice lounge with lots of variety of food however, SAA is not a One World member so I don't get FF points for this flight.

The flight was on time, and once disembarked, the fun started. The signs for international transfers were few to non existent. And, of course when you want to ask someone, there are very few people who can give you an honest answer. Finally asked a SAA lady and she pointed me in the right direction. Even though I had almost five hours in transit, I still became a bit flustered, but once in the queue at passport control, I settled down. Finally found the Aspire Lounge which is a QANTAS shared lounge. Since leaving the hotel this morning, I have walked almost 6km!

Found a quiet corner of the lounge and set up the laptop and did some MEPS work, then more blog updating. Had a G&T and a few nibbles knowing I will be well fed on the plane. On the CPT-JNB flight I had a chicken and cheese focaccia sandwich.

We boarded, hence departed, 20 mins late. The flight was a bit bumpy in some places, so bumpy at one stage, the captain ordered everyone back to their seats. Fortunately, my wind glass was a third full, but even that threated to overflow due to the bumps. Dinner service was good, even though it was served about three hours after takeoff. I had a beetroot and fetta salad for entrée, beef dish for main, and chocolate ice cream for dessert. I watched four episodes of a TV series before my eyelids became too heavy and had a little sleep. For some reason, I could not get comfortable, so got only two hours of interrupted sleep. Watched the remainder of the episodes, then had another nap.

Seat 2C CPT-JNB

QF Dreamliner at JNB

JNB-SYD

Day 24: Thu 12 Sep - Cape Town

8-16 deg C, cloudy for most of the day, with occasional glimpses of the sun

Walk: 5km

After breakfast I had planned on doing Table Mountain today, however as I was not feeling 100% yet, and there was low cloud covering the mountain, I spent the morning doing a load of washing, sorting and packing, and loading photos to the blog in between. Had lunch with Nita, Marianne, Ulf and Sylvain, farewelled Nita and Marianne, then back upstairs for more blogging and packing.

Pre-dinner drinks with Ulf and Sylvain before dining at the hotel with them. Had a bit of a chat, then farewelled Ulf before heading off to my room for a check of the rooms to make sure I had packed everything.

No photos.

Day 23: Wed 11 Sep - Victoria Falls to Cape Town

18-31 (VFA) - 15 (CPT)

Walk: 3km

Had a little sleep-in then a leisurely breakfast before checking-out at 10am. Our transport was not booked until 10:30am so we sat around the pool, chatted and caught up on social media. Check-in at VFA was quick and painless, and we were in the lounge about 11:30am.

Our flight was on time and we were checking into the Protea Hotel (room #509) about 5pm. I raced around to unpack the two cases I had left at the hotel to find clothes that needed washing and together with the Zim clothes, I did a load before leaving at 6:30pm to walk to the Harbour House restaurant for dinner with the crew and the Germans. The restaurant was a seafood one, with a choice of steak or steak for me, and at exorbitant prices. As there were 10 of us, trying to work out the bill at the end of the night became an issue. Anyway, we were all fed and watered, but it made for a late night, and was in bed after 11pm.

Embraer 190, VFA-CPT

Happy travellers

Aerial views of South Africa's mountain ranges

Coming into Cape Town

Ulf, Nita, Marianne, Wendy, Sylvain, Richard (hiding), Arne, Silke, Claudia, Bernd

Day 22: Tue 10 Sep - Robins Camp to Victoria Falls, 100km (3.5 hrs)

15-34 deg C

Walk: 9km

Up at 5:15am for a 6pm departure to the main road to change vehicles to go back to Vic Falls. Subsequently, our normal three hour game drive was reduced to one hour. We just missed seeing a leopard, but got to see the spoor. The Robins Camp kitchen had made us a packed breakfast of egg and bacon toasties, that were cold when we got to eat them.

We got to Bayete Lodge (room #14), our home for the night, about 10:30am and of course our rooms were not yet ready. We sat around the pool and had some drinks and our rooms were ready just before midday. After unpacking, some of us had lunch, then Sylvain and I decided we wanted to walk into town to see what there was to see. We made it about three quarters of the way there, and decided that it was a bit warm to be out so returned to the hotel; 3.5km later.

Back in my room, I did some pers admin before getting ready to go on the Zambezi River Sunset and Dinner Cruise. The sunset was amazing and the food was plentiful. Started with a welcome drink and nibbles on the bottom deck, then upstairs we had more nibbles, entrée (kudu carpaccio), main (beef fillet) and dessert (tiramisu). Fat as fools we waddled off the boat, onto the bus and back to the hotel.

Stuff seen today:

Marshall Eagle

Kudu

Elephant

Impala

Chubby chickens

Zebra

Red breasted something?

Buffalo

Fox

Giraffe

Yellow billed kite

Robins Camp map and info

Sunrise

Kudu

there are four giraffe in the top pic

Richard (Austria), Sylvain (Canada), Simon (our guide), Nita (USA), Marianne (USA) and Ulf (Sweden)

VFA

Bayete Lodge bar, dining room and pool

Room #14

Dinner and sunset cruise on the Zambezi river

Pre-dinner

Sunset on the Zambezi

Dinner

Day 21: Mon 9 Sep - Robins Camp

13-33 deg C, a beautiful sunny day

Walk: 6km

Another early morning game drive, just the six of us, followed by breakfast. It was then time to catch up on the blog and sort photos which took until lunch time. Had a rest after lunch, then did the afternoon game drive. We did a route that we had not done before to Deteema Springs camp.

Pre-dinner drinks were had before dinner, mains being a perfectly cooked beef fillet. After dinner, we retired to our rooms to prepare for an early morning departure.

Animals, birds and other things we saw today:

Pale spotted owl

Lilac breasted roller

Reed buck

Ostrich

Steenbok

Elephant

Impala

Kudu at salt pan

Kori bustard

Egyptian geese

Black smith plover