Day 17 Flying Home by Simi

Sad times. Last morning.. last day in fact ! We had a long day ahead of us. A 1.5 hour drive to George Airport, return the car rental, then an internal 2 hour flight to Jo’Berg, 3 hours transfer before we fly to Zurich and a rather alarmingly short 40 min transfer there to then catch the last flight to to Heathrow . Let’s see if we make that!!

We had hoped to head to the beach first thing for a swim but the weather was pretty grim… rainy and grey… which at this point rather matched our moods.

Suppressing our post holiday blues we had a hearty breakfast again… opting for everything going! Well it was the last day of the holidays- we didn’t want to be rude!😂

We had a bit of time to spare so wandered over to the shops where we purchased biltong for Millen and then started to make the very long journey home.

It’s been a wonderful holiday where this stunning country has given us so much to ogle at. For four of us the favourite part was the safari.. one of us .. the bungee. Any guesses who that was?

What are our main takeaways??

South Africa is like a treasure chest overflowing with adventure, culture, and jaw-dropping views! Whether you’re drawn to the colourful streets of Capetown , playing hide-and-seek with wildlife in Klaseri Reserve or sipping fine wine in Franchhoek this country has it all on offer . From thought provoking
museums to adrenaline filled activities South Africa is the ultimate playground for every type of traveller and all at a reasonable rate due to the favourable exchange rate! Meals for the 5 of us with wine averaged around £10 per head for dinner and lunch was about half of that. Even the adrenaline activities were reasonably priced . The bungee jump was £60… the highest one in China ( only 20 m higher but about 5 times the cost more at a whopping 400 USD) so seemed a good price point . Travelling in their winter has been incredibly quiet. We very rarely had to book any restaurant / activity . It was almost a little too quiet for me personally but also at the same time we hear in their summer both tourists and locals descend in droves and it’s totally rammed ; prices skyrocket, reservations are hard to come by, parks are packed, and queues are long as well as more of the rural areas being prone to more bugs. So actually their wintertime still works well for visits from people like us.

I also loved that it’s such a cosmopolitan country with lots of African heritage mixed with Europe and even South Asian. However having said how wonderful this country is. I personally can’t say I totally loved it.

Why.. because you have to be blind to not see the race divide still.
South Africans happily talk about someone being “coloured," "black," or "white" The inequality made me feel uncomfortable. I felt very depressed driving next to the informal townships' corrugated metal shacks on our way to spending our tourist pound on fancy food, wine tastings, and pictures of penguins- yes I did freely spend too .. so I now sound hypocritical. … it is a wonderful country with beautiful people of all races … but the race divide does not sit comfortably with me. Everyone we met of higher stature jobs were white. All the tourists were white or Asian. It shouldn’t be like that.

Anyway wanting to end on a positive note.. thank you South Africa .. you really are a beautiful country with stunning scenery and gorgeous people!Read more