South Africa In the Time of CoronaVirus March 9-25, 2020
OK, guys, this one is not a home exchange, and, yes, AlteCocker will be traveling in the time of coronavirus.
AlteCocker was taking a tour with Go Touch Down. The tour was 16 days, including a week of game experiences starting in Johannesburg, transfer to Cape Town, and then a 1 week tour in Cape Town. After the tour, AlteCocker was have a one week home hospitality stay in Cape Town. She was also supposed to host the Cape Town people in the fall. Looking at the dates above, you can imagine the chaos that was to ensue.
AlteCocker had given some thought to rescheduling, but, with advancing serious old age, and a new flare up of back problems, she had to face the reality that her health is not going to get better. So, she decided to go and make the best of it with hopes of not getting sick; she did not, but she was also forced to come home early. Lots of extra meds are in her bag just in case. What good they would have done, no idea.
AlteCocker was taking a tour with Go Touch Down. The tour was 16 days, including a week of game experiences starting in Johannesburg, transfer to Cape Town, and then a 1 week tour in Cape Town. After the tour, AlteCocker was have a one week home hospitality stay in Cape Town. She was also supposed to host the Cape Town people in the fall. Looking at the dates above, you can imagine the chaos that was to ensue.
AlteCocker had given some thought to rescheduling, but, with advancing serious old age, and a new flare up of back problems, she had to face the reality that her health is not going to get better. So, she decided to go and make the best of it with hopes of not getting sick; she did not, but she was also forced to come home early. Lots of extra meds are in her bag just in case. What good they would have done, no idea.
March 9-10, 2020: Getting There is No Fun
AlteCocker was using frequent flyer miles. Her itinerary to Johnanesburg is on KLM with Delta miles. What that means is that you do not go direct. You go via Amsterdam. Not as wonderful as flying direct, but, then AlteCocker has a freebies--of course in coach.
Arriving in Amsterdam, AlteCocker set out to find her connecting flight. There was a long layover. After locating the gate, she crashed on some conveniently located cushions adjacent and napped. It was not an immediate connection. You don't want to hear the story of how AlteCocker returned from South Africa. That will come up later. Obviously, when AlteCocker left the US, the coronavirus was not in full swing. That would come. Just look at the dates and you get an idea.
An all day flight to Johannesburg ensued. Not fun, but AlteCocker napped fitfully on the plane. Getting there is always a drag. She arrived on March 10 in the teeth of the oncoming crisis. Little did she know. She would find out. The best thing: The driver from Go Touch Down would meet her at the airport and take her to the first hotel where the group was assembled. She understood why the supplemental charge for that service late in the evening once she realized how far it was. She tipped the driver generously.
Arriving in Amsterdam, AlteCocker set out to find her connecting flight. There was a long layover. After locating the gate, she crashed on some conveniently located cushions adjacent and napped. It was not an immediate connection. You don't want to hear the story of how AlteCocker returned from South Africa. That will come up later. Obviously, when AlteCocker left the US, the coronavirus was not in full swing. That would come. Just look at the dates and you get an idea.
An all day flight to Johannesburg ensued. Not fun, but AlteCocker napped fitfully on the plane. Getting there is always a drag. She arrived on March 10 in the teeth of the oncoming crisis. Little did she know. She would find out. The best thing: The driver from Go Touch Down would meet her at the airport and take her to the first hotel where the group was assembled. She understood why the supplemental charge for that service late in the evening once she realized how far it was. She tipped the driver generously.
March 11, 2020-March 23, 2020
The tour AlteCocker took was organized by Go Touch Down. She took the 8 day safrai tour that included everything listed on the website. It included multiple game viewing opportunities. The most interesting of which occurred at Pilanesburg Game Reserve. AlteCocker saw plenty of elephants, rhinos (including a white rhino and baby, lions, Afrucan buffalo, kudus, wild dogs, and many plant eaters (impala, dik diks, giraffes, wildebeast, zebra, kudus. After awhile there were so many plant eaters that AlteCocker had her "seen enough of them" moments. The only animals not seen were hyenas, leopards and hippos. The hippos usually hang at water holes but AlteCocker's tour had no luck with them. Leopards are tremendously difficult to spot and chances of seeing them are not good.
At Pilanesburg, AlteCocker paid extra for the park tour run by a park safari guide and recommends that you do likewise should you have the good fortune to every be there. The people who did not take the park tour and relied on the tour company guide did not, in AlteCocker's opinion, have an equivalent experience. It was, by the way, the only time she paid extra for anything on the tour (aside from transportation from Johannesburg airport to the our assembly point when she arrived too late for the group shuttles).
The safari portion of the trip was the best bit of AlteCocker's South African experience--which was really the best trip she had ever taken in her life. Given her age (AlteCocker was born in 1946) and the pandemic, South Africa may be her last ultra long distance trip. When she flew out, AlteCocker knew that the trip was risky due to the looming pandemic. It hung like doom over the entire tour. There was one woman who loudly insisted it was a "hoax" and was a devoted supporter of You-Know-Who. One unfortunate problem with tours is that you don't like everyone. After one interaction, where AlteCocker told her off in no uncertain terms, she shut up for the rest of the trip. Fortunately. Mrs. Disagreeable was not in AlteCocker's van. Everyone in AlteCocker's van got along.
The people AlteCocker met in South Africa were wonderful. We saw dancers from Swaziland that do this high kick dance. AlteCocker wishes there had been one of those African choirs; she was going to seek it out (and some African jazz) after the tour was over but the pandemic killed that. She did bring home a couple of CDs for that. She also bought a professional photograph and some art work at the large art market in Cape Town. That is the place for really quality souvenirs. If you want junk, the is plenty of it all over, but the art market takes it up a notch.
The food on the tour was spectacular. Wine was extra (and steeply priced), so AlteCocker passed on it. The one complaint was that there was too much food. You don't need to eat 4 times a day (Don't forget tea time). Once AlteCocker got to Cape Town, she talked to the guide about all the food. We settled for breakfast at a place that had excellent muffins and dinner whenever we got done for the day.
Internet throughout the experience was atrocious. AlteCocker could check email, but the thought of doing the blog or uploading photos, well, that would have been impossible. We were warned about that.
After the safari leg of the tour, AlteCocker was supposed to go to Cape Town with 4 Australians from the safari leg of the tour. Since the Australians flew home at their government's insistence, AlteCocker had a private tour in Cape Town (also with Go Touch Down). Much of what was promised was closed and she never got to the wine country or the tour of one of the homelands because she flew home early to end the worry of not being able to get a flight at all. Her flighs home on Qatar were supposed to be 28 hours door to door. Yeah, right. The first plane had electrical problems and had to land in Salalah, Oman. AlteCocker was there for 5 hours. End result: connection to Washington Dulles was missed and AlteCocker could not fly home until the following day--via London as there were no direct flights. While Cape Town and Doha were packed, by the time AlteCocker arrived in London (4 hours layover), Terminal 5 was a ghost town. Somewhere along the way, a woman asked AlteCocker if she wanted a mask and she took it. That mask ended her prepandemic life. It was nice while it lasted. Arriving at Dulles, AlteCocker was told that her luggage was in London. Not a nice welcome home after 60 hours in transit. The luggage arrived 4-5 days later on the next flight. Dulles was a ghost town (unlike the mob scenes you all viewed on TV a few days earlier. Someone handed AlteCocker a sheet asking her to stay home for a period of time. There was no enforcement. AlteCocker made a quick grocery run and then pretty much stayed home (where would you go at that point anyway?).
AlteCocker was supposed to be in South Africa until April 8th visiting with friends in Cape Town (a home exchange connection having been made). She ended up meeting them for dinner--and realizing how cheap good meals could be in Cape Town if you had US dollars. Each of us brought small gifts for the others because great minds think alike. Since South Africa was closing down hours after AlteCocker boarded her flight to Doha, she essentially was forced to leave. There was some discussion about AlteCocker parasailing the day she flew out (from a spot adjacent to Table Mountain), but, of course, that did not happen. It would have been a tandem deal because AlteCocker is a big chicken when it comes to stuff like that, but it did not happen because AlteCocker changed her reservation for the second time. Alas, she had to pay for her flight home because air miles were not going to cut it in the circumstances.
The tour company was just spectacular and, when tours start up again in a couple of years, anyone thinking of a tour to South Africa should consider Go Touch Down. They were really spectacular and insisted that the tour guide wait at the airport with AlteCocker until she went through security. AlteCocker kept trying to send him home. Because she ended up on what was a private tour of Cape Town and its surrounds, she tipped the guide what she thought he would have received times 2. AlteCocker, mindful of the fact that tourism was dead after she flew home, did not ask Go Touch Down for a refund for the 2-3 days she missed. In the circumstances, she felt that was the right thing to do.
AlteCocker's one great regret is that she waited far too long to go to Africa. Please, guys, once the pandemic is really over, don't wait. It's fabulous.
At Pilanesburg, AlteCocker paid extra for the park tour run by a park safari guide and recommends that you do likewise should you have the good fortune to every be there. The people who did not take the park tour and relied on the tour company guide did not, in AlteCocker's opinion, have an equivalent experience. It was, by the way, the only time she paid extra for anything on the tour (aside from transportation from Johannesburg airport to the our assembly point when she arrived too late for the group shuttles).
The safari portion of the trip was the best bit of AlteCocker's South African experience--which was really the best trip she had ever taken in her life. Given her age (AlteCocker was born in 1946) and the pandemic, South Africa may be her last ultra long distance trip. When she flew out, AlteCocker knew that the trip was risky due to the looming pandemic. It hung like doom over the entire tour. There was one woman who loudly insisted it was a "hoax" and was a devoted supporter of You-Know-Who. One unfortunate problem with tours is that you don't like everyone. After one interaction, where AlteCocker told her off in no uncertain terms, she shut up for the rest of the trip. Fortunately. Mrs. Disagreeable was not in AlteCocker's van. Everyone in AlteCocker's van got along.
The people AlteCocker met in South Africa were wonderful. We saw dancers from Swaziland that do this high kick dance. AlteCocker wishes there had been one of those African choirs; she was going to seek it out (and some African jazz) after the tour was over but the pandemic killed that. She did bring home a couple of CDs for that. She also bought a professional photograph and some art work at the large art market in Cape Town. That is the place for really quality souvenirs. If you want junk, the is plenty of it all over, but the art market takes it up a notch.
The food on the tour was spectacular. Wine was extra (and steeply priced), so AlteCocker passed on it. The one complaint was that there was too much food. You don't need to eat 4 times a day (Don't forget tea time). Once AlteCocker got to Cape Town, she talked to the guide about all the food. We settled for breakfast at a place that had excellent muffins and dinner whenever we got done for the day.
Internet throughout the experience was atrocious. AlteCocker could check email, but the thought of doing the blog or uploading photos, well, that would have been impossible. We were warned about that.
After the safari leg of the tour, AlteCocker was supposed to go to Cape Town with 4 Australians from the safari leg of the tour. Since the Australians flew home at their government's insistence, AlteCocker had a private tour in Cape Town (also with Go Touch Down). Much of what was promised was closed and she never got to the wine country or the tour of one of the homelands because she flew home early to end the worry of not being able to get a flight at all. Her flighs home on Qatar were supposed to be 28 hours door to door. Yeah, right. The first plane had electrical problems and had to land in Salalah, Oman. AlteCocker was there for 5 hours. End result: connection to Washington Dulles was missed and AlteCocker could not fly home until the following day--via London as there were no direct flights. While Cape Town and Doha were packed, by the time AlteCocker arrived in London (4 hours layover), Terminal 5 was a ghost town. Somewhere along the way, a woman asked AlteCocker if she wanted a mask and she took it. That mask ended her prepandemic life. It was nice while it lasted. Arriving at Dulles, AlteCocker was told that her luggage was in London. Not a nice welcome home after 60 hours in transit. The luggage arrived 4-5 days later on the next flight. Dulles was a ghost town (unlike the mob scenes you all viewed on TV a few days earlier. Someone handed AlteCocker a sheet asking her to stay home for a period of time. There was no enforcement. AlteCocker made a quick grocery run and then pretty much stayed home (where would you go at that point anyway?).
AlteCocker was supposed to be in South Africa until April 8th visiting with friends in Cape Town (a home exchange connection having been made). She ended up meeting them for dinner--and realizing how cheap good meals could be in Cape Town if you had US dollars. Each of us brought small gifts for the others because great minds think alike. Since South Africa was closing down hours after AlteCocker boarded her flight to Doha, she essentially was forced to leave. There was some discussion about AlteCocker parasailing the day she flew out (from a spot adjacent to Table Mountain), but, of course, that did not happen. It would have been a tandem deal because AlteCocker is a big chicken when it comes to stuff like that, but it did not happen because AlteCocker changed her reservation for the second time. Alas, she had to pay for her flight home because air miles were not going to cut it in the circumstances.
The tour company was just spectacular and, when tours start up again in a couple of years, anyone thinking of a tour to South Africa should consider Go Touch Down. They were really spectacular and insisted that the tour guide wait at the airport with AlteCocker until she went through security. AlteCocker kept trying to send him home. Because she ended up on what was a private tour of Cape Town and its surrounds, she tipped the guide what she thought he would have received times 2. AlteCocker, mindful of the fact that tourism was dead after she flew home, did not ask Go Touch Down for a refund for the 2-3 days she missed. In the circumstances, she felt that was the right thing to do.
AlteCocker's one great regret is that she waited far too long to go to Africa. Please, guys, once the pandemic is really over, don't wait. It's fabulous.