Blog Entry #6:
Now as most people know, I’m not a traditional early riser, but I got up early for once to watch as the ship pulled into Cape Town. Simply beautiful! We pulled in as the world famous table mountain loomed directly over the city. 
Cape Town has grown up quite a bit since I last visited 16 years ago. It is very westernized. We docked right at a waterfront mall with all of the latest shops and restaurants. The students were very excited about that. The first evening, we went out and saw a small theatre production. On the very next day, we headed to the airport to fly to Johannesburg (Jo-Berg) for a safari about 2 hours north of Jo-Berg and Pretoria. After arriving at our swank hotel and settling in, we went on our first of 4 game drives. Although I was not at all interested in going on a game drive to see animals (many people who know me understand that seeing animals is not at the top of my list of things to do), I must admit that seeing many of these animals roaming free in their natural habitat was breathtaking. We were in an open-air jeep and encountered zebra, lions, hippos, crocs, rhinos, giraffes, elephants, baboons and many different types of hoofed creatures. We even had a very aged and rather gargantuan sized elephant approach our jeep and brush up against our vehicle. I couldn’t believe that I was looking eye to eye with the largest land creature in the world. During meals back at the lodge, there was a watering hole, and elephants and other animals came right up to it to drink as we ate our meals. Just splendid! The last couple of days in Cape Town I spent shopping and visiting with a couple of my very old dear friends in South Africa. Frank toured Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was held prisoner for over 30 years and he went to the top of Table Mountain. If I could move any place outside of the USA, it would be to Cape Town. I love this place…signing off for now.
