South Africa: A Safari

 

Two Days in Port Elizabeth was a fantastic adventure.  On the first day, we went on a safari.  The Safari is obviously in the top 5 of our 55-day cruise experiences.  It was good to get out into the South African countryside to see the nature that this country has to offer.   

Our Safari was on the Kwantu Game Reserve, a 15,000-acre game reserve adjacent to Addo Elephant National Park.  All the animals are indigenous and live in their natural state.  They run what's called the Big 5 natural area, where predators and prey live together.

Kwantu Private Game Reserve is a huge all-inclusive resort.  We were fed an authentic African buffet lunch.  After lunch, tribal dancers provided original African entertainment.  It seemed like a dream in many ways.  It was hard to believe that we were standing in this spot at this moment.  It was hot, but that didn't seem to matter.  We were, after all, in Africa, and it was supposed to be hot.

After lunch and entertainment, we loaded onto four-wheel-drive trucks for the much-anticipated bush drive.  We first drove out onto a large African plain, where we saw several species of antelope: springbok, Waterbok, Bushbok, and Kudu.  As our trip progressed, we saw the Giraffes, Elephants,  Rhinoceros, and Zebra.  The trip's highlight was the pride of the Lions, who seemed to be enjoying their king of the jungle status. 

As we were enjoying a male Lion from a distance,  The Lion got up and started walking towards our truck.   Everyone in the vehicle got excited, but the Lion turned and walked in front of the truck and into the bush.  I wasn't worried; there were a few meals in the truck before he got to us.

Kwantu also operates a lion rehabilitation center.  They have Leopards and Lions from all over the world.  The goal is to return them to the wild, but some will live the remainder of their lives at the center for one reason or another.  They also have some white lions that they will release soon, but they must be monitored.  They have a recessive gene, and they don't do very well unless they can be integrated with normal pride. 

After driving around the bush for a few hours, we could see a thunderstorm approaching.  It was moving to the north of us.  Although it was off in the distance, the lightning provided a surreal backdrop to the African Plain and Bush.   We were starting to lose the light of the day.  As the sunset, it was time to return to the ship.  On the ride home, watching the sunset, it felt good to be alive. 

Durban, South Africa: Howick Falls and Ardmore Design Art House

Today, we travel to Howick Falls and Ardmore Ceramics. What has been lost to me until now is how big South Africa is. It’s about twice the size of Texas.  From Durban, it’s a 17-hour drive to Cape Town. Durban is Africa's largest container and the world's #10 container port.  Like many places in the world, this place is like no other, yet it can be the same. 

Our guide to Howick Falls is a member of the Zulu tribe. She lives in a township south of Durban and has given us great insight into life in South Africa from the black perspective.  Although apartheid has ended, there are still two South Africa’s, one white and one black.  Things are improving, however, slowly.  Most of the black populations still live in townships that lack basic necessities like running water and modern sanitation.  They also suffer a 30% unemployment rate.  Places like Durban, Capetown, and Port Elizabeth are modern cities with great infrastructure.   It is a country of competing contrasts. 

Howick Falls is an hour or so outside of Durban in the interior of South Africa.  It is much different here than in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.  Lush Vegetation with tall trees set upon rolling hills.  It is much more in line with what I had pictured Africa in my mind.  

I find Durban a modern city with suburbs full of middle-class houses and shopping centers.  We also pass Apartheid-era townships that reflect the racial disparities that still exist in South Africa. On our way to the falls, we climb into the mountains, the terrain becoming more rugged.

Howick Falls is a magnificent setting in the town of Harwick, which could be any small American town. Even now, the evidence of apartheid is still visible, with a black township right on the outskirts of town. The falls flowing over the escarpment scream Africa. After visiting the lookout area and the adjacent shops, we head to lunch. 

Great Lunch at Granny Mouse, a short drive into the countryside.  This area looks much like Tennessee, and they say the climate is about the same.  It feels like Tennessee during the first week of August, although in South Africa, it's January.  A thundershower came through during lunch that cooled things off, just like in Tennessee.  It was a very adorable restaurant set in a country resort with a wedding chapel. 

I was apprehensive about visiting Ardmore Design after the Falls and lunch. Going to a ceramic factory? What could this be all about? Sure, the wine at the table during lunch was to prepare us for the big high-pressure sales pitch.  Luckily, this was all in my mind. 

Admore is set on a country estate with a gallery and artist workshop.  It is an amazing, eclectic place. Although it started as a ceramic school, it has now become a Designer Art House, much like Gucci or Ralph Lauren. It started as a simple rural ceramic shop, but now, its art has inspired the design of clothing, furniture, fabric, wallpaper, jewelry, and handbags. Ardmore is a collaboration of artists.

So, after a couple of hours wandering the ground and the Galleries, we head back to the ship. South Africa is a marvelous, diverse country full of beauty and irony. On this trip, our five days ashore only scratched the surface of all the possibilities here.  We have all come so far to be here in this moment. The world is our oyster on this ship, the Queen Mary 2.

New York: The Tenement Museum

On our second full day in New York, we visited the New York Tenement Museum. It was a short walk from our hotel in Chinatown. On the way there, we stopped to get a couple of slices of Pizza. After that, we were ready to go. 

It was very interesting, and we had basically a private tour.  The Lower East Side tenement was originally built in 1888; it’s what’s called a prewar walk-up.  You see these tenements all the time in the movies and on television; it was fun to actually go inside and see them personally. 

The tour included profiles of two different families that lived here.  In this one Apartment: a Jewish Polish Holocaust survivor family and a Puerto Rican family who eventually moved in after them.  They both came to America for the promise of opportunity and Freedom.  It was an immigration story and a story of an ever-changing neighborhood.  

The first couple met in a refugee camp, married, then immigrated from eastern Germany.  They were the only surviving members of their entire families who were killed in the Holocaust.  They were from the same area of Prussia as my great-grandfather Skrofronic was from.  This area is now Poland.  It is such a small world.  In New York, they lived near their sponsor in the European Jewish Lower East Side building. 

This area of the Lower East Side eventually became a Spanish district. The inhabitants, mostly from Puerto Rico, worked in the garment industry. They worked in small, little factories that sewed together clothes. It was a hard, scrabble life. They raised families and chased the American dream. The children and Grandchildren of these two families now support the Museum.

The museum guide was very knowledgeable.  She described a lot of intimate details about the families,   We started the tour in the first-floor bookshop, then went outside to the tenement entrance and walked the stairs up to the Apartments.  At one time, the apartments did not have their own bathrooms. The four apartments on the floor shared a common bathroom. Eventually, by the time the Spanish family moved in, the apartments were renovated to include a bathroom. 

It was refreshing to hear the story of immigration. The struggles in life that make life worth living. The streets of New York were   the community thrived.  The Museum provide a picture of the American dream being played out. It reminds us how lucky we all have it in America.