South Africa 🇿🇦

After spending our final day in Cape Town yesterday, we got up very early and took a taxi to Cape Town International Airport for our flight SA 302 to Johannesburg at 6:00 AM. We had breakfast at the SAA Domestic Premium Class Lounge before the flight. Onboard there was a choice of breakfast or fresh fruit. The expected time of arrival was 7:55 AM, so we wouldn’t be able to make it to Pilanesberg by 9:30 AM for the open vehicle safari drive. So the only option we had was the closed vehicle safari. I had booked it with MoAfrika Tours, including pickup and drop off at the airport, about a month before we travelled. ...

This was part of This Time for Africa - Day 5 🇿🇦 🔗. We joined the Bo Kaap Walking Tour at 4:00 PM and headed out from Green Market Square. Our first stop was the oldest Mosque, Auwal Masjeed. We learnt about the history of the place and its people. Seeing the different coloured houses across the streets was a nice sight. We saw the Biesmiellah Cape Malay Restaurant and then Chiappini Street with the backdrop of Table Mountain. ...

This was part of This Time for Africa - Day 5 🇿🇦 🔗. We joined the District Six Walking Tour at 2:00 PM and headed out from Green Market Square. District Six is a former inner-city residential area in Cape Town. It was made up largely of coloured residents who were forcibly removed during the 1970s by the apartheid regime. We learnt about the history of the place and its people, as well as the socio-economic and racial divide. We saw the street art and heard the stories behind it. We saw the Muir Street Mosque and the Al Azhar Mosque. On the way back we passed by the District Six Museum. ...

This was part of This Time for Africa - Day 5 🇿🇦 🔗. We joined the Historic City Tour at 11:00 AM and headed out from Green Market Square. We passed by St George’s Cathedral on the way to the Company’s Garden, the oldest garden in South Africa. We saw the Company’s Garden Sundial and the Cecil John Rhodes Statue. Next, we headed to see the infamous High Court Civil Annex where all non-whites had to go to be racially classified under the Apartheid regime. Then we next walked to Church Square to see the remembrance columns and the Statue of Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr. Our last stop was Grand Parade, the main public square next to the Cape Town City Hall. ...

After visiting the Cape Peninsula yesterday, we were going to spend the day in Cape Town today. We enjoyed a relaxed morning, had breakfast, and got ready. We walked to the City Sightseeing Cape Town office to find out about the walking tours in the city. We walked to Green Market Square to join the Historic City Tour 🔗 at 11:00 AM, and we had lunch at Shwarma Cafe on the way back to Green Market Square. ...

After Shark Cage Diving and visiting Table Mountain yesterday, we had decided to take the 1 day Cape Peninsula Tour by Baz Bus today. We got up early and walked to the Baz Bus office which was close to our hotel. We joined the group there, boarded our bus and began our trip for the day. We drove along Atlantic Seaboard crossing Camps Bay etc. and headed to our first stop, Hout Bay harbour. ...

After arriving in Cape Town, we got up early and got ready for the day we had planned. I had booked Shark Cage Diving in Gansbaai with Shark Zone about a week before. The Shark Zone team’s transport service picked us up from our hotel and we made a few other stops in Cape Town to collect other passengers. We drove east and made our way up the Houwhoek Pass and across to the meeting point in Van Dyks Bay. ...

Our flight MS 851 from Cairo to Addis Ababa landed around 3:15 AM. The airport was quiet and there weren’t too many passengers around. We were able to access the Star Alliance Gold Lounge thanks to my United MileagePlus Gold. There was also a different Ethiopian Airlines Cloud Nine Lounge, which was only for business class passengers on Ethiopian Airlines. It was still the middle of the night so we found some comfortable chairs and tried to get some sleep. Around 7:00 AM, we had some breakfast. Our flight ET 847 to Cape Town was at 8:30 AM. ...

Both of us had been collecting miles on United MileagePlus from quite some time. With the miles we had collected so far, I was scouting for destinations which we wanted to visit and where we could maximize our miles. Africa was on top of our list and I was trying to figure out how we could do the most with that. We had enough miles between the two of us for 3 one-way tickets from India (Central Asia region) to South Africa (Africa region) which would mean that we would need to purchase 1 one-way for one of us. ...