Monday, February 27, 2017

Green Monday in Cyprus










On a lovely, sunny Spring day the new village council of Pissouri organised a celebration of Green Monday, the beginning of Lent and a time of fasting of certain foods.

The gathering took place in the Panorama residences area of Pissouri. With music, dance, food, drink and flying kites meant the residents of our village enjoyed a wonderful day.





Sunday, February 26, 2017

Day 26 - Leaving South Africa

On a beautiful Summer's morning we took a stroll around Company gardens in Cape Town, it has a lovely cafe in the heart of the gardens and we enjoyed coffee and cake before watching a local  couple get married.

We h0pped in a cab and took the twenty minute drive to the airport in light traffic. At the airport we were surprised how quiet it was, no other passengers at check in or security, so it was a breeze to go through. We decided on one last treat before our Emirates flight so we checked into the Bidvest Premier Lounge.

The combined travelling time to get home to Cyprus was over 20 hours we arrived to blue skies, tired but happy.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Day 25 - Table mountain and a whole lot more

On our final day in Cape Town we woke up to an overcast day, which was a real bummer because we had planned to go up to the top of Table mountain, so we made our way downtown to the local outdoor Friday markets.




 








After an hour’s browsing we decided to do the Hop on-Hop off bus tour, the tour was passing the Table Mountain cable station at the foot of the mountain so we hoped the cloud would clear.

As we approached the iconic mountain we could still see cloud on top, we were indecisive about whether to go up or wait. At the last moment we said “lets go for it”, after a smooth cable car ride up to the top we found out that our luck was in and we had those dramatic views from Table mountain overlooking the City of Cape Town. On the Eastern side of the mountain the 12 Apostles were shrouded in cloud giving them a ghostly look.



















We continued the bus tour until we reached the V&A waterfront, among all the tourist development there still stands a working dry dock, I was fascinated by this, as they say, “You can take the boy out of the shipyard, but”.....Well you know the rest.











We had a very good lunch in the shadow of Table mountain and then did the harbour cruise which was very informative about the history of Cape Town's port and we got to see plenty of seals.













 We finished of our day with a tour around the infamous “District 6” and the the civic center, where the old town hall overlooks the Grand parade, this is where Nelson Mandela gave a speech to over 200,000 people setting out his vision for a new South Africa.












So that was the final full day of our 27 day adventure, it’s been an absolute blast, we have met so many warm and friendly people along the way, seen some wonderful sights, eat and drank too much, had a thousand laughs and we both know how fortunate we have been to make this trip.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Day 23 - A Game drive and Dinner on The Mighty Zambezi River

Another early morning start as we took an early morning game drive in the Zambezi National park, we were joined by our guide “Eddie” and we had the Jeep to ourselves. This drive was never going to live up to our drives in Kruger but we did manage to see plenty of game including Giraffe, Zebra, Wilderbeast, Warthog, Baboons, Impala and mongoose.


























We then popped into the town of Victoria Falls to have a mooch around, there was not a great deal to see and with the hot African sun we soon made our way back to the lodge.

In the evening we made our way down to the Zambezi river for a dinner cruise, we boarded a beautiful three tiered boat, The Zambezi Explorer. We set sail at 4.30 and cruised within one kilometer of the Falls, once again there was plenty of wildlife to be see including crocodiles and Hippos.




 













We were joined by four people from New York city who turned out to be delightful company. We docked at around 6.45 and stayed on board  for a delicious dinner at sunset.



Day 24 Cape Town and a Wine Tour

Saying goodbye to Vic falls we hopped on the BA flight to Johannesburg which turned out to be quite bumpy 90 minute flight. At Joberg Airport we found a really good micro brewery bar that had a great selection of of Ales that were good value.

After a 2 hour wait at Joberg we boarded another BA flight to Cape Town which took around an hour and a half. We checked into the Long street boutique hotel and checked out the somewhat lively bar street.




















The next morning we joined the “Wine Flies” wine tour, we headed out of the City and headed towards the town of Stellenbosch, we visited 5 wine farms that were at in some wonderful country side and tasted over 25 wines. We stopped off at one of the farms for a lovely lunch cooked on the open fire. Our guide for the day was "Legend" pronouced Lejohn and he proved to be very knowledgable and entertaining.





















Our final stop was at a farm that specialises in sparkling wines, our guide then split us into teams for a quiz about our tour, with the help of two Dutch guys we managed to win and our prize was a nice bottle of wine.

Day 22 --The Victoria Falls

We made an early start and made our way down to Victoria falls National park, from the entrance you walk down a tree lined path towards the Falls, you actually hear the thunder of the water before you can see them and then you come into a clearing a see this almighty sight of this deluge of water falling nearly 100 meters to the bottom. 


The awesome power of this wall of water is a sight to behold, words are not enough, it’s truly breathtaking and it continues for nearly a mile as you follow it along the path that runs parallel to the falls. Yes, we got completely soaked, but you do not even think about it, you just want to take it all in. We spent just over an hour and half at the falls, which was plenty of time to take in this natural Wonder. 

To dry off we took a walk over the famous railway bridge that separates Zimbabwe from Zambia, the views from the bridge are so impressive and there are lots of colourful characters crossing the border. 














From the bridge we walked about 400 meters to the Outlook cafe which is perched on the walls of the gorge down river from the falls, here we stopped for lunch and a couple of drinks. 









From the cafe it was a 10 minute walk to the impressive Victoria Falls river hotel, Mandy had visited the hotel some 40 years ago and it was an emotional return. 




We sat on the hotel's terrace and enjoyed a cocktail and the superb views across the manicured lawns Before exploring the interior of the hotel with its old colonial decor. I was impressed how welcoming the staff were to us as we were only  day visitors. 




In the evening we drove over to the Victoria Falls Safari lodge hotel, a beautiful place with a fine restaurant , before dinner we sat on the deck of the “Buffalo bar” that overlooks a water hole in the bush, we saw a number of animals around the water. 










One of the most impressive sights was the huge sky line, beautiful sunset and cloud formations in the distance, its true, Africa does have huge skies. We had a delicious meal and a front row table overlooking the bush. Rob plumped for the roast Warthog, it was excellent.