More of my bits and pieces

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We've got camping garbage cans in California parks that mostly frustrate raccoons and even bears - South Africa has baboons and they are tough Dudes!

Driving in SA is "interesting". Right hand drive is not an issue ("stay left" is my constant mantra) but sharing the road uses imagination. It's plenty wide for 3 cars on a 2-lane highway, especially when the slower traffic moves way over onto the shoulder. We did have 1 thrilling adventure on the way to Krueger when we were just learning the process and thought all oncoming traffic would also move over to allow the pass. We don't know if THAT guy either didn't see us earlier or was just a hard case but he didn't move over and it was a last minute squeeze and we didn't try that maneuver again. Nobody had to stop and change their jockey shorts but it was a short moment of "uncertainty". 

The Apple juice factory - enormous Apple processing plant is part of the bike race with scaffolding ramps leading to it as well as a fantastic array inside the huge stack of apple harvest boxes. 

This stack of boxes is over a hundred yards long and 50 yards wide. And then I ordered a "savanna dark" cider from this facility for lunch that day and gave it 3 thumbs up - awesome!

I've been here, too!

Since all of my Krueger animal pictures are safely contained in my big SD card - and will stay that way until I get home - my blog is going to start when we arrived in Somerset West, a Capetown suburb next to SA wine Disneyland in Stellenbosch. It looks like this

And the real reason we're in SA is a long timed planned but never consummated reunion of Sea Otter friends. For the uninitiated, Sea Otter is a great big bicycle festival (what else...!) held in Monterey each April. I worked there for more than 10 years and we have been hosts to a gang of South Africans who have been a critical part of the Operationions Team. They travel 30 hours or more each way to get here and Becky and I figured we could do it, too - once. 

These guys work on their own races the rest of the year - all mountain bike events - and they are phenomenally elaborate. The event they're preparing this week is "Wine to Whales", a 3-day event with camping (and Glamping for those who will pay) and it contains a number of temporary bridges to cross a variety of course features - like ravines or Apple production facilities, like these

OK, more tomorrow

Two of my favorite things

Food and scouts!

We started the day visiting the community garden. The homeless can work in the garden and earn tokens to be redeemed at the local shelter for food, toiletries or even a bed for the night. 

They grow a vast array of food that is available to be purchased. We bought a lot - carrots, Swiss chard, lettuce, grapefruit marmalade, radishes, turnips and cabbage.

 We even bought artichokes which we had to go out into the field to harvest.

Then we went to the super duper Woolworth's food store and went down every aisle. Lots of things were familiar, some not so much. They had a paella mix of seafood looked very appealing. Unfortunately out host is allergic to fish. 

We bought the ingredients for bobotie, a South African cassarole I have been wanting to make. It's Cape Malay fare served with yellow rice, coconut, bananas and chutney. Yum.

While we were waiting for dinner, I went off to a guide meeting with Stepanie, the resident guide. They made up skits demonstrating the the guide laws while taking turns at the sewing machine.

They are making halter tops from bandana to sell along with various other things in support of cheetah rescue, this year's charity. I got to help with the sewing, I was right at home.

Cape Town and Environs

We started off with a tour of Cape Town's waterfront. A real working Docklands with a touch of Fishermen's Wharf. 

A combo of the original clock tower, 

Working boats and dry docks

And Ripleys believe it or not and tourist shops.

Then it was off to fish and chips in a seaside fishing town complete with seals

And fresh fish

Finishing off with PENGUINS!

Lots of driving, beautiful scenery and fun.

What we saw

Lions, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, zebras, water buffaloes, warthogs, deer like creatures of many sizes and colors, leopard tortoise, brightly colored birds, vultures, baboons, monkeys, crocodiles, hippopotamus, hyenas 

All starting in the early morning 

And ending at dusk

South Africa here we come.

We had to trade our car in on a much larger one, we could not fit the massive quantity of luggage.

We drove and drove until we finally made to our hut in Krugger, there was a little sitting area, bedroom with a/c and bathroom. Tom is took a nap right while I was Ghana out of my clothes in the campground laundromat. They were threatening to grow mold.

The safari organizers have a camping area close by and a really good chef who let me take a photo of the kitchen. Something to aspire to when we get Rancho Pilarcitos our family compound in the woods.

We had hot drinks and little something before the morning game drive, full breakfast after, a snack in the afternoon before the afternoon drive. Back again at 7 for dinner with wine. The food was great and we felt well cared for.

This band of monkeys really wanted to join us for afternoon snacks but the cook chased them off with a slingshot. He didn't really shoot them, just warned them off. The chalets had warning signs in them about leaving food around.

This is my favorite sign outside the visitors center.

Fashion Show

Boy am I sorry I didn't have clothing made when we first arrived.

Here is the fashion show.

Vera

Ellyn 

Vivian

Danae

Spring 

I think I can make this!

Cooking Class Ghana Style

We had a cooking class organize by a non profit working to empower women called Global Mama's. Here's our chef Essie and all the ingredients.

My fellow students Mia and Roz waiting patiently for their turn to chop.

We washed everything in salted water including our her hands, in separate containers of course.

We all took turns cutting and chopping,  using very few labor saving devices. All cooked traditional style on a charcoal stove. African yams are really different than the ones we get. They are hard and don't have much flavor.

We made red red which is a serving of both fried plantains and beans stew. It's not called red red unless you have both.

We also made pavlava gravy which is includes onions, garlic and ginger with ground pumpkin seed, spinach and tomatoes. Not really gravy consistency we ate this with the boiled yams.

This is the way you eat it Ghanaian style. Right hand only please.

Ladies who went to head wrapping came in and tried our meal and thought it was fabulous. We did too. I'm going to have to YouTube that head wrapping thing, I want to do it with my Girl Scouts.