South Africa 2011

 

Holiday in South Africa in 2011

Albertien and I have fulfilled a long cherished wish: we have been to South Africa. Albertien for the second time, my first introduction to this great country. Desired, not only because of the beautiful and very impressive landscape, but also because distant relatives of me live over there. My great-aunt Gerarda Wegenwijs emigrated in the late 19th century with her husband Hendrik van Putten to South Africa (consult Stamreeks Wege(n)wijs). We also have a good friend who lives in White River, near Nelspruit. And last but not least, two good friends of Albertien are living in Lesotho. So plenty of reasons to extensively explore both countries. Below you can find a brief travel report plus many, hopefully nice, pictures. First I put links to all the places we have visited which enables you to navigate through the report. Hopefully it makes the reading somewhat easier!

In this report I put several links to interesting sites. Here they are at one glance:
a. The site of my grand-niece and miracle cook Elmi le Roux, Cook-sister
b. The site of the excellent lodge of the le Roux family in Magaliesburg Matlapa Lodge
c. The table books, published by my grand-cousin Stephan le Roux African salad

Sunday, January 2, 2011

After a nice flight to Johannesburg, we arrive on schedule at 22.20 hours. Unfortunately, our pre-ordered transfer to the backpackers lodge we booked in Pretoria does not show up. Someone from the information desk helps us out and brings us to the hotel for 500 ZAR  (approx. 55 euros). We arrive in pouring rain.  After drinking part of the whiskey we scored on Schiphol (Amsterdam airport), we go to sleep around 1.30 in our self contained appartment.