Cape Town's Minstrel Parade

The Minstrel Parade in Cape Town is an annual celebration that is almost 200 years old. It typically takes place on January 2nd, but they now change it to the next Saturday after January 2nd. So this year's festival was yesterday!

So, why January 2nd? Well, dating back to the early 19th century, it was the only day that the slaves were allowed a day off because their white owners were typically sleeping off their own New Year's festivities.

On our own in Cape Town

Yesterday, we decided to take the train into downtown on our own. Mark had shown us the route to the station which is only about 10 minutes away on foot.

So we went through the procedure of locking the house up and turning on the "armed response" alarm system. Don't know if you've heard or not, but the larger cities of South Africa have a bit of a crime problem.

First Impressions of Cape Town

When we got off the bus yesterday at around 2:00pm, our couchsurfing host Mark was there to greet us. He had said that his house wasn't that far from the downtown terminal and he's on holiday so it wasn't a problem to come and pick us up.

Drove us back to his place, and we got settled. We're in a suburb called Rosebank. Nice, older, middle class neighborhood.

Arrived in Cape Town, South Africa!

Well, I bet there's not many of you who have already been in two countries this year!

Just a short note to say we've arrive in Cape Town, safe and sound.

December Expenses

We had a fairly subdued New Year's Eve just hanging out at the backpacker place that we're staying at. Six other people here, and we had a little dinner party and a couple of drinks and rang in the new year at midnight, then off to bed shortly after that.

We've got a long travel day to Cape Town today, so we're not sure when you'll hear from us again!

When we posted our November expenses, we asked if you'd like us to continue to post our expenses and the answer was mostly "yes". So here you are...

We are ready for South Africa!

Here we are, the last day of the year 2013 and we are right now in Namibia's capital City of Windhoek.

We have spent the last two months touring Namibia. And we drove a lot of miles.

Kalahari Anib Lodge

This is our last review of the Gondwana Collection of Namibia lodges. We'll do one more post at some point over the next little while detailing our "best of" those lodges! But for now, let's have a look at the Kalahari Anib Lodge.

This lodge is the closest one to the capital City of Windhoek, and so it's a common location for people either beginning or ending their Namibia adventure.

Hiking with the Oryx!

We went for a 7 km (4.5 mile) hike yesterday morning. We were a little late leaving and it gets hot fairly early in the day. We could have turned around early, but we decided we could do the whole route.

Besides, when you're hiking with the oryx, the wildebeest, the ostriches, and the springbok it's pretty interesting!

The Desert Horse Inn

We recently spent two nights at Gondwana Collection's Klein-Aus Vista Desert Horse Inn. This lodge is the closest Gondwana property to Luderitz and the Kolmanskop ghost town. And of course to the wild horses of the Namib Desert.

But you don't even need to leave the property for something to do. Especially if you're into hiking or mountain biking!

We can see the sea!

On Friday, we took a drive to the seaside town of Luderitz, Namibia. It was about 115 kms (71 miles) along a stretch of very boring road. But we had a fun day when we got there.

It really makes you wonder what attracted the Germans to the area in the first place. Of course it was the diamonds that were found at nearby Kolmanskop, and the fact that there was an actual bay to dock a boat in. But, the town lies on one of the least hospitable coasts in Africa.

The fantastic Canyon Lodge!

We showed you some preview pictures of Gondwana Collection's amazing Canyon Lodge and the response was that you want to see more. We don't blame you. What a great place, and anyone coming to Namibia's Fish River Canyon owes themselves a stay at Canyon Lodge.

Here you go...and you even get a video of our very cool room!

The diamond mining ghost town of Kolmanskop, Namibia

In 1908, a large diamond field was found near the southeast coast of Namibia. The area was so rich in diamonds that they say that the first miners to the area were able to scoop them out of the sand!

A town grew around the mining area. Soon, the German government at the time built a hospital and the town thrived with a power station, a school, a ballroom and activity center and other amenities.

Canyon Roadhouse

We stayed two nights at the Gondwana Canyon Roadhouse . It's a fun place, decorated like an old "Route 66" style garage. Where they come up with this number of artifacts, I have no idea. It's almost like an old museum.

And it's located only 14 kms from the Fish River Canyon.

Well that was a different Christmas.

We haven't really updated you about our activities since we arrived at The Canyon Roadhouse on the 23rd. And then, we took a blog holiday yesterday! We figured that none of you were going to be on the internet anyhow (yeah, right!) being that it was Christmas Day and all...so we took a break too.

So we'll kind of squeeze two days worth of activities in this one post!

Kalahari Farmhouse

We recently spent two nights at the Gondwana Collection's Kalahari Farmhouse near Stampriet, Namibia. This place is a little different because the lodge and chalet rooms are situated on an actual working farm.

And you can even have a tour of the farm.