Straggled and bedraggled, we made it! Comfortable flight w/amazing seats/beds and good food...pain started when we arrived in J'burg and inch wormed our way through customs and bag collecting, then on to Capetown and more luggage lifting.
Weather is cloudy and windy with a mist over table mountain...beautiful hotel, friendly service and awesome computer room!

Marilyn and Joe just left for golf so Judy and I are tap-tap tapping away on the computers. Some of our buds are coming in this afternoon...can't wait to finally meet and greet everyone.

Slept like the dead last night. Had dinner in the hotel and crashed. Talked to Ray and Penny...just love them to death...what a guy!

Miss you guys...wish you could all be here. I have to keep reminding myself it's not a dream. I stand on my balcony and say over and over " I'm in Africa!!"
10-4 More later

We're here too! Hearing Suzie's pain about going through J'burg makes me glad we took the long layover in London to fly directly in CPT.

Good flight from BOS to LHR. Enjoyed our time at the Heathrow Hilton. A little breakfast, a few hours of sleep and we were on our way again.

The flight from LHR to CPT didn't seem as bad as I thought it would - although since I upgraded us to Club it helped a lot! Met Leslie and Mary Ellen and spouses at the airport while waiting to board the plane.

Woke up this morning with a horrible migraine and am still fighting it. Time for sleep!

Suzie...I'm sure I'll see you soon!

Howzit:
Oh my goodness, we're here but after all that sitting on the plane, my caboose was dead on arrival.

Met Suzie and Marilyn in Atlanta and true to their word, they had a pear, strawberries and an orange to ward off scurvy during the long trip. There were also a couple of frosted peanut butter bunnies. We indeed, gobble it down. Thanks, gals! By the way, they are a real "hoot" and we're looking forward to hangin with them during the next several weeks.

At the J'burg airport, we were befriended by an airline employee who wisked us thru immigration, took us to booth to get a South African simms card for my international phone and then transported our luggage across the airport. What a nice young man.

Bishop's Court, a BedNBreakfast place is superb. They have an inclusive bar which we promptly invaded and drank several bottles of lovely wine and phoned for a pizza delivery. I know, I know, pizza in SA? But it was luxurious with shrimp, smoked mozzarella on 1/2 and avacado, feta cheese and spinach, etc. on the other half. Best pizza we have had in a long time.

Bishop's Court's accommodations are just lovely. A 5-star BnB with the neat people. The owner is going to take us on a personal tour of places we won't be going on with Ngaire and they are going to prepare a special dinner for us tonight. I've tried phoning Suzie to see if she would like to join us but no answer in her room. The owner of the BnB said she would be most welcome on the tour.

For breakfast Penny had a full English breakfast and I had scrambled eggs with salmon. It was delicious. Just love this place and all the lovely vegetation.
Tonight Andrea and Doug will be here around 10PM and we're looking forward to seeing them again.

We're all checked in - 5 minutes through immigration/luggage claim and we were on our way to Cape Grace. We are now heading out to explore the waterfront - then hit the spa. We will be in the bar around 7:15 or so to meet any early arrivers who would like to join us at one.waterfront, the restaurant in the hotel, for an 8 pm dinner.

Boy, am I jealous reading everyone's arrival stories. Olivia, her daughter JoAnna, and I will be on the same flight from Jo'Burg to Capetown. Only about 24 hours and we, too, shall be part of the game. I feel like one of the contestants on the AR who screwed up and got the last flight out of town... :rolleyes:

Thanks to all for checking in and updating us.

Have a fabulous time! The ROAR group will soon be together!

O.K. guys, we're like ships in the night...Our room # is 404..give us a ring-a ding. Just finished shopping with Judy "the machine" shopper. My poor feet are screaming, room is being cleaned so I'm going to the lobby to catch any LCT'ers roaming around. Marilyn and Joe still on the course. I see Maryellen checked in, I'll try and find Andrea.

Hurry up Suzette!!

Thank you ~ thank you, Guys, for your reports!!
Your enthusiasm is contagious!
You can be sure, I will camped-out on these ROAR threads ~ I am lovin' it!!! Can't wait for more!!

Betty

Howzit:
The above is kind of a standard greeting in South Africa.

Suzie: Sorry we missed you. we tried a second time but obviously you were shopping with Judy. As info., Paul, the owner of the BnB was more than willing to have taken you and Judy on the tour with us. We were unable to give you advance info as we met Paul only this a.m. as he lives away from the BnB.

However, the tour wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea and we were so warned by Paul but it was something Penny and I wanted to do. We spent considerable time driving around and stopping to visit in the Khayelitsha area of Cape Town. (a colored area) The area is lined with homes that can only be described as shacks. However, the people are proud and the inside of their homes are quite tidy. One very interesting stop was to visit a chemist. His shop was dimly lit and he had all kinds of roots on his shop floor that he mixed with various animals skins, reptile skins, etc. that hung from the ceiling. There was a couple there with a young child and one of them had an ailment that was described to the chemist and he was busy making a powder form of his "medicine" to cure the problem. It was like visiting a voo doo shop. Simply amazing. Later we visited Vicky's bed and breakfast. She invited us into her shack and we sat and talked with her while she modestly breast fed her two month old. We felt very comfortable there and she talked to us about the pride of the community and of her home. She encouraged picture taking which I promptly did. When Paul got out of his vehicle he never bothered to lock it even tho poverty was everywhere.

We later drove down the Indian Ocean Coast and watched people kite surf. The wind was so strong it lifts the kiters out of the water and away they go. At times they hit hard into the water. You have to be strong and hearty to do this and be ready to get hurt as well. Saw the new American Embassy which was close to the Jail where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned after he was moved from Robben Island. By the way Mr. Mandella's home is just a few blocks away from the BnB.

Bishop's Court is a very, very exclusive suburb of Cape Town where a number of Ambassadors live
and the profuse vegetation is something else and Bishop's Court BnB is located here. We have a wonderful view of Table Mountain from the back of the BnB when it is not shrouded in clouds.

Paul, the owner is a very enthusiastic historian who was an enormous help to us to understand the culture and history of this area.

Tonight Paul and his wife, Bernadette, are preparing prawn and lamb for us at our request. What lovely, accommodating people here. We feel very much at home and are so glad that we will have spent a couple of days with them.

Tomorrow we will join up with the others at Cape Grace.

Cheers! Ray & Penny

I am loving all these reports, too! I can't wait to hear the reports after the all the gang has hooked up!

I found Leslie! We meet in the underground bar tonite...Mark and Pam still haven't arrived....called Ray and Andrea. Poor baby, she's still sick. Ray had an interesting tour today, sorry I missed it. Starting to feel the jet lag but I discovered SHERRY! There's an unlimited supply in Waterford decanters just outside our room...zoom-m-m-m. Marilyn has returned from golfing...24 holes! Joe won :( :( I love it here! Tomorrow is explore time, Marilyn hasn't been to the waterfront mall and I want to do a boat excursion around the Cape. Tomorrow I finally meet our leader, Ngaire. I promise to behave ;)

Oh Suzie,
Don't threaten something as awful as THAT! Ngaire fully expects for you (and everyone else) to misbehave to some extent!!!!
:pass: :woh:

Greetings From Oudtshoorn!!!

After a wonderful trip on Virgin Atlantic including making use of their wonderful Clubhouses, we made it to Jo'burg yesterday morning. A great porter led us to the domestic terminal for our short flight to Port Elizabeth.

Easy drive to Plettenberg Bay where our B&B room had a terrace overlooking the bay. This morning, we drove through the rain along the Garden Route until we turned off to cross the mountains to Oudtshoorn.

This afternoon, we went to Cango Wildlife Ranch followed by a trip to an Ostrich Farm. Arlene got in with the wild cheetahs....we have the pictures to prove it. I, went into the pens with the Ostriches.

We are staying at the most fantastic B&B we have ever seen. Beautiful room and restaurant (but we are not taking advantage of the spa).

We have a 450km drive tomorrow but plan on meeting all of you at the Cape Grace by 1300. If we don't arrive, send out the search parties because it means we got lost driving into town.

Glad everyone is arriving safely!! Thanks so much for posting! You know you're killing us back here, we're sooooooo envious we're turning :D

Keep posting and enjoy EVERY MOMENT!! Where's Andi and Doug?

Well, I'm almost feeling human again. Still some headache cobwebs, but I think I'll survive. I wasn't sure earlier when Suzie called to make sure I was alive!

We just slept a lot today - Jerel refers to at "coma bed syndrome". Really glad we came in a day early. Hopefully we'll be able to get out and explore tomorrow. Had to cancel my spa appointment and dinner tonight, but I can tell you room service at the Cape Grace is wonderful.

In fact, everything is just as Ngaire had said - service is over the top, the room is huge - we have a great view out over the harbor from our french doors. Wonderful enclosed shower with plenty of hot water and pressure.

I expect to see Pam at the spa tomorrow morning, and can tell you about the "African Way" treatment.

Howzit to all of you!

We have a friend from SA who always greets us with Howzit! Anyone speaking Africaans yet - it's a combination of English and Dutch?

Love the reports so far. Olviia and Suzanne must still be on the road. Keep'em coming. Marc, you and Arlene drive careful!

Great reports, enjoying all of your adventures as I turn green with envy :rolleyes: I can't wait to check my ROAR reports first thing every morning with my capuchino. Your excitment comes right through in your reports :banana: Thanks so much

Doris

We're here and pinching ourselves to ensure that we aren't dreaming. We should be in bed dreaming, but are having too much fun already.


It's midnight and we've been at Bishop's Court for about 2 hours. Ray and Penny greeted us with hugs at the door and they had already made new friends.

Some folks, from our flight ( they are from Scotland), soon joined us and we all settled down to chatting up like we have known everyone for years.

Bishop's Court is a 5 BR b&b and the liquor flows freely. A lovely man, Sam, made us some delicious pumpkin soup and GG, another lovely man brought out the wine and port. Our room is lovely and large. The bathroom is marble with a huge clawfoot tub and a giant shower. There is a great view of table mountain, visible in the moonlight.

We have spent the past few nights in Amsterdam at the Amstel Intercontinental. Yes, Denise, it is lovely. We arrived Sat am on 4 hours sleep and freshioned up in the health club and was given breakfast. Spent the day museum hopping and saw the Rembrandts, Rembrandt / Carvaggio exhibit and 300 Van Gogh's. We were greated upon our return with champagne and a lovely chocolate mousse cake. Later, a butler came by with hors d'hoevres and apperitifs. We had a great meal at a restaurant called the Zuid Zeeland. THe sorbets were to die for...orange pepper and buttermilk . We were given a huge suite overlooking the river and all was wonderful. Sunday was a beautiful day..we started off the day with a coffee and cake at a local coffee shop (no, not that type of coffee shop), took a canal tour, walked the city, and then went to Anne Frank's house. Then, dinner and the red light district. If I don't get one of those jobs in California, I know what I can do!! Everything was open on Easter Sunday and there just wasn't enough time to do it all. (Denise, we ate at a recommended Indonesian restaurant for lunch per your suggestion). Last night, I ate rack of lamb in Ngaire's honor.

Some things we found out ... buy all your tickets in advance. You can just walk into the sites this way. Otherwise, the lines are looong. You round up the tips in restaurants unless the restaurant is not ethical. Our restaurant last night charged us $2 for tap water and tried to charge us for tip even though tip and tax are included by law. Taxis are expensive..about $200 round trip to the airport (about a 20-30 minute ride). The city is walkable and the folks are warm.

Today was a long day..we left for the airport at 8am and boarded our direct flight to Capetown. 12 hours and 5 movies later, we arrived in Capetown to 60 degree weather. We made it through passport control, baggage claim and customs very quickly. Our driver was waiting for us and whisked us away in a new Mercedes. In less than one hour from landing, we were with our friends and beginning our South African adventure. The wine continues to flow and the stories with the other guests continue....Here's a drink to all of you who are enjoying ROAR vicariously.


I have plenty of migraine medicine for the other Andrea if she needs it again.

We are planning a leisurely day tomorrow...we understand there is a lovely breakfast spread and we leave for Cape Grace at 1:30pm. I haven't been this excited since I believed in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.

Hi Andi!!! So good hearing from you. Glad to hear all went well and you loved Amstel InterCon. We'd love to go back.

Hopefully you get that CA job. Otherwise, we'll visit you in Amsterdam!

Hugs to you and Doug! Enjoy!

Just a quick note to all who know the Sheik and his clan....George is very ill....I don't tell you this to bring you down, he wouldn't want that...but please, while you are sipping your favorite drinks, raise one to our sweet friend George! If only to have a sense of humor like him! Hugs to his wife Gretchen too...she needs it!

Hope you are all having a fantastic time!! :)

(I only singled out this particular thread, because I knew several of you would want to know)

I cannot remember if I posted to any Roar sites lately- have 3 pre teens for a week and I am dragging and it is only Monday!!!! Loving all reports - what a great group - color me green too - can't wait till you all are "in camp" - I keep reporting to Tony as he is the one who put the "stop" on Roar - eventually I will print all glorious reports for maybe another year as enticement - have a ball!!!!

Yes George is one of a kind terrific man - and Gretchen is so special - makes us very sad - so glad they stopped in about 6-7 months ago -

Love your "enticement", Joanna. I'm doing the same thing here in Tucson. Although, I have to pick my times. Returning from a trip to a basket full of bills makes Alan grouchy! For now, I'll have to live vicariously through the ROAR group and keep it to myself!

George, must be a very special man. Sorry to hear that he is ill.

Ray and Andi here..Doug and Penny are talking away in the living room but are within sight. The day is clear, warm and beautiful and we are waiting for a lift to table mountain. We are so happy and content. Sorry to hear about George...

We'll be at Cape Grace with the rest of the crowd this pm.

We are here! Barely, though. I didn't run into Andrea in the Spa but the African Way massage is incredible. (I also posted in the Sea Mail forum).

Back later!

Andi, have a wonderful time. I know how much you've been looking forward to this. And, you lucky girl to be spending time with Ray and Penny!

Pam, glad you arrived safely. Can't wait to hear about the African Way massage.

As the day was glorious weatherwise, we made a point of grabbing this opportunity to go to Table mountain. Evidently, the winds were so bad yesterday, that the mountain was closed.

When we arrived, we were faced with a VERY long line, but it moved quickly and efficiently and soon we were ushered onto a rotating cable car. It was great except during the trip down the woman behind me felt she had to hold on to the rail at my neck level. Now, the floor moves, so as the cable car rotated, slowly choked the life from me, before I extricated myself. I asked her to not hold on and got a dirty look, and she continued to try to hold on and strangle me. It was so packed, I couldn't move. However, it was all worth the pain, even though this vacation almost came to a quick end. There are lovely scenic walking paths and you can see for miles. It was a delightful couple of hours.

Ray, Penny, Doug and I took a cab (70 rand) from the mountain directly to Cape Grace. Our bags were transported from Bishop's Gate. We were met in the lobby by the LCT greeting committee. Soon, at first there were 17 of us and we went down to lunch together. We were joined by Al and Betty and Olivia and Joanna, so the numbers increased slightly.

After much laughter and sun, we all dispersed about 5. Ngaire is expected shortly and Arlene wants a group of us to greet her (as the last arrival) and tell her she is eliminated. Another idea is to tell her this is a non-elimination round and she has to give us all of her bags and money. We'll see if we can round up a crowd.

Some folks are going up to unpack and relax, others are going to visit Table mountain and others are still chatting. Doug and I are on the internet.

We're all meeting in the restaurant, Watership One at the Conservatory. Not sure if Colonel Mustard or Miss Peacock will join or not....

Hi y'all! Gary decided he'd just need to "lean into discomfort" as he was snapping pictures of me hosting glasses of champagne to Denise's birthday in Newark, Frankfurt and on our flights. The guy next to us taking photos on the Continental flight ALSO has a girlfriend with an April 15th birthday. Really. Would he lie to us??? I'll have to post them when time allows ..

We had a good adventure in Frankfurt finding our day room hotel at the Sheraton in the midst of on and off rainstorms. Language lesson for the day? "zug fallt aus" means "there is no train coming anytime in the the foreseeable future:.

SAA lounge in Frankfurt is fully decorated with (taa daah!) chocolate covered matzo for Denise's birthday. Also .. a few Lindt chocolate bunnies and brightly colored Easter eggs. Arrived 5 am and crashed until noon at Bishops Court. Cloudy, cool and windy. Overcast skies.

Enjoyed a lovely dinner with Ray and Penny. In honor of Ngaire (South African Minister for Lamb Population Control), we consumed large servings of melt-in-your-mouth lamb shank. Meanwhile, Ray was a quick study when it comes to Korean drinking customs and red wine.

We fell back into bed around 11 and rousted ourselves at 9. Our host Paul took us on an amazing township tour. The pre-school was in full session. The children (ages 3 to 6) were delightful. They gathered together to sing us songs (one in English and one in the Xhosa language) (to the tune of "alouette") We are special.. we are special .. so are YOU! .. so are YOU! It was wonderful. A very small 3 year old in a bright orange "Star*Girl" fleece jacket approached me tentatively to carefully touch my skin. She's not used to white skin on people and was checking it out. Very special, indeed.

We joined up at Cape Grace. Marc and Arlene were the welcoming committee; Suzanne arrived moments before us. We gathered as a group for a late lunch and a nightmare for the waitress to figure out our checks.

Ngaire and Ken are reported to have arrived; we have finally begun this magical trip.

Wishing you were all here, CHEERS! Anne

Reading all this makes me so happy for all of you and sooooooo jealous.
Roar on kiddos..

Last night I had the African Way treatment - a sand scrub, mud wrap, mini-facial and massage that did wonders for curing jet lag. Then we met the early arrivals in the bar and had a lovely dinner at one waterfront.

We did some city exploring today - the hotel's chauffeur (complementary) will take you wherever you want to go. We had him drop us at the Gold of Africa Museum, then went to the Koopmens de Wet house, an 18th/19th century period house/museum, strolled through Greenmarket Square, visited the Groot Kerk (Dutch Reformed church) walked past Parliament and through the Company Gardens to the South Africa National Gallery which currently has a show on Picasso and the influences of African art on his work. We caught a one hour interesting docent led tour and then met the chauffeur to be whisked back to Cape Grace where all the arriving ROAR memebrs were meeting and greeting in the lobby, followed by lunch on the terrace.

Cape Town is very European - the city center is compact and you could probably walk to the majority of the central attractions & museums. Tomorrow morning we have a city tour so we didn't visit the places on the itinerary for tomorrow, but saw quite a few of them as we did our walk.

Just poppped downstairs to fix my aol password, which Brad somehow managed to change - he can't get his biz e-mail when away due to firewalls, so he gets mail to my account. I emerged from the elevator (with my evening sherry in hand - still some available since Suzie and Marilyn went to Table Mountain...) and saw an LCT gathering in the lobby - Ngaire, Ken, Linda, Ron, Michele and Don had all arrived. I missed the Amazing Race mat/elimintation/non-elimination event so don't know if that happened or not.

Hi Leslie and Brad!

Sounds like a whole lot of pampering and fun! Your touring sounds incredible! We're with you guys in spirit! Please continue to post the daily happenings!

I am enjoying these RoarMails so much...
Andi wrote Now I'm more then green...envious isn't a strong enough word!

Arlene,

Amsterdam is fantastic! The museums are incredible! The Amstel InterCon is outstanding! If you've not been to Amsterdam, I suggest adding this wonderful city to your wish list!

Checking in from the first half-day tour, it's turned off hot and bright today. Table Mountain was incredible, I felt very sorry for two women on the gondola with us who seemed to be afraid of heights. Not the place to be for them!

Our tour guide was an activist in "The Way Forward" (I think it's called) from age 17, so he took us through District 6 and the museum there. If we hadn't already walked ourselves to death in the fort, it would have been far easier to absorb.

Last night there was an impromptu gathering in The Library that kept growing and growing, and then suddenly disbanded when some peoples' dinner reservation time happened.

Dinner together tonight, right now everybody is kind of scattered, resting up. Tomorrow is full day winelands tour.

Sounds like another great day! Thanks, Pam!

Tomorrow's winelands tour will be great! Cheers!

Thanks for the update, Pam. We just figured that everyone was sleeping off their jet lag. Now we know they're off catching up with one another in person!

I am loving the updates! I keep checking for more :)

Thanks ROARers for remembering your left behind family!

About half of us ate dinner together in the hotel restaurant last night. We met around 8 and cleared out 10ish. We were divided among 3 tables and everyone was making new friendships or renewing them. A few of us went back to Arlene's and Marc's room for a nightcap and chatted away until midnight.

THis am we all had breakfast in the hotel (included). It was quite a spread!! Anything you wanted, you could get. At 9am we left for our tours, breaking into several groups. A couple of groups went to Table mountain and one group (ours) skipped it since we were there yesterday. I would like to say our guide was good..we were treated to a couple of places where cannons were shot off. We understand that the other groups actually saw the botanical garden and the dungeons and prison at the castle. Sadly, we just saw the teenist cannon ever shoot. We arrived back to the hotel at around 1 and tried to get on a Robbons Island tour, which we hear was fascinating, but there was no room. So, we gathered a group of ten and went to the waterfront for lunch and wandered around. The waterfront is very American. It could be the waterfront mall in San Francisco. What was interesting was the District 3 museum in which the story of the razing of colored's and blacks' homes were demolished to make way for a sole white neighborhood. Folks had to be identified as black or colored and the way many were treated was akin to the Nazi treatment of the Jews prior to the concentration camps. It was certainly an eye opener.

Folks have purchased souvenirs ranging from jewelry to ostrich eggs to ostrich hair jewelry to wooden masks. I finally bought myself a cute hat.

The weather is wonderful. Clear, blue skies and a perfect temperature, probably somewhere in the 70's. We have 7pm dinner reservations at a restaurant on the waterfront called Baia and will meet up with everyone there.

Tomorrow is an early morning as we leave for our wine country tour at 8:30am. Ta ta for now.

Hi from Cape Town.

Lovely to see everyone it is like a homecoming. Fun to meet the few people I had not met in person yet. Lots of hugs and catching up. Had dinner at Cape Grace and enjoyed the company of the group.

However, I am officially tired of food now. Just too much food. I swear it has been worse than a cruise ship ---- but tonight we go to Baia restaurant where they have wonderful food so I bet I can handle one more meal!

Today was a glorious day, sun shine and bright. I did a little bit of touring of hotels this morning while the group went on tour.
Then had lunch, a burger and the best fries at the waterfront and then we went up to Table Top mountain. A gorgeous day for that experience.

Hope our weather lasts - tomorrow it is off to the wine country. They moved up the start time by 25 minutes as we have a wine tasting at 9.15am --- early to start drinking wine, hope we all last through the day!

I want to thank all the Roarer's for their wonderful posts. Have a great time!

Nancy