Tournon-sur-Rhone, France, April 18th-19th, 2009

Heather and Russell recently planned a long road trip around western Europe. Aside from a start and finish at the Munich airport, not much else was planned for the two weeks in between. You will have to ask them for details of their visits to Switzerland, Italy, Monte Carlo, France, Spain, back to France, Belgium, and back to Germany.

Erin and I were only able to join them for a weekend so we flew to the very tiny, sparse Grenoble airport (GNB) from Gatwick on the EasyJet. We obtained our mini Chevy wind-up car from the Hertz kiosk in the middle of the parking lot and started off into the French country side. With 12 weeks of French classes under her belt, Erin’s ability to decipher and read-out the road signs had increased tenfold since our trip to Le Touquet last spring.

Activity: Read the following aloud to someone else and have them write down what you’ve said: “At the 2nd roundabout, take the 3rd right onto Route d'Hilbert heading to Etaples/Le Touquet/Sainte-Cécile/Stella-Plage/Merlimont. At the next traffic circle, take the 4th exit and stay on Rue du Duc de Guise toward Rue Ernest Lejeune heading to Cucq/ Berck/Merlimont.” Difficult? Now repeat, but this time play the game while your partner is driving, looking helplessly for street signs written in 8 pt font and swerving to avoid collisions with dairy cows and baguette-wielding cyclists. In short, we took some wrong turns….A LOT of wrong turns.

Anyway, the drive from Grenoble toward Valence couldn’t have looked more French. Green grass, dairy farms, old stone and stucco farm houses with wooden shudders lining the road. The highway offers significantly less scenery. The back roads were the way to go.

We arrived in Tournon-sur-Rhone about 11:30, scouted our hotel and L’office de tourisme to pick up some walking maps and ideas for how to occupy our time in this rural medieval town. Tournon’s original castle was built in the 10th century and some of the surrounding town has survived pretty well. How did we pick this place? Basically we were looking for a place to meet Heather and Russell that would work for their trip and I found this write-up online. So many thanks Mr. Martin – we followed your advice closely and we were not disappointed.

As it turned out, we would not see Heather and Russell until Sunday so we had the day to ourselves. Any guesses about what we did for lunch? Loyal WW readers might have guessed that we fell back on old faithful picnic of a baguette, goat cheese, and strawberries. (No chocolate bar this time.) We ate overlooking Tournon near the Tour L’Hopital, one of three 16th century stone lookout towers on the hills about the city. After lunch we took a long hike up to a lookout point on top of the hill. We finished our tour at the third of three towers and then made our way to our Hotel Amandiers. It was a nice enough place and reasonably spacious; perfect for a 3 hour nap.

At night we wandered the streets a bit more before settling in for dinner at La Chaumiere. Again, thanks James. The courtesy-of-the-chef, sliced pigs-in-a-blanket were a bit weird but hey, free is free we were starving by that point. We’ve gotten to the point where we can pick the foods we like out of a French menu. For Erin, chevre (goat cheese) is a necessity. For me, champignons (mushrooms) and anything vin-related tends to arrive quickly. I had a fish soup with (what I later learned was) paprika mayo…surprisingly fantastic. Erin’s warm goat cheese came on a heap of pickled/shredded carrots, beets, and greens of some kind. Odd combo but the cheese rocked. My chicken fricassee was equally outstanding, much better than Erin’s steak a poivre - proof that not even a French chef can salvage a steak ordered well done. Once we had worked though the remaining local wines, port (also supposedly local, suspiciously), ice cream, and coffee, it was bed time. Our walk back to the hotel was lengthened slightly by a bad direction call on my part. Regardless, Tournon looks pretty impressive at night outlined softly by the delicately lit pedestrian bridge, castle, and towers.

The next morning we got up and went for a jog along the river and through town. The croissant we had might have been the best ever, but we say that frequently. I don’t know the name of the bakery, but there was a small model windmill on the awning. If you’re ever in Tournon…

After our long, slow coffee and croissant, we walked around a bit more, crossing the Rhone to visit Tain l’Hermitage. It’s a relatively well-known appelation, but we could not for the life of us find an open tasting room. Granted it was Sunday, but come on! It’s not like we know wines well, but it just felt strange not to be able to sample the local delicacy.

We then drove to the top of the hills on the east side of the river through Crozes-Hermitage for a view of Tournon looking back across the Rhone. Beautiful.

Finally, we finally got what we came for in the first place….Heather and Russell arrived!! It had been since Christmas that we saw them so we were excited to spend the afternoon with them. Most of the restaurants were closed by the time they arrived, so we made due with an outdoor table at an Italian joint on the main strip in town. We then re-walked up to each of the three towers before hitting the road back to Lyon to catch a flight home. We would have preferred to tag along for the rest of Heather & Russell's adventure. By the time they got to us they had already covered a lot of ground and they still had a week left after that. Unfortunately the call of the office was too hard to resist so it was back to London for Erin and me.

Links to the pics: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=hj0zhyv.b9f8t3vr&x=0&y=-bthe71&localeid=en_US

Djuma, Franschhoek, & Cape Town, South Africa – April 2nd – April 13th, 2009

Friday 3rd April

Tambo International Airport – Landed in Johannesburg and proceeded to get sunburned during our 4 hour layover in the backyard of a tiny airport.

We took 2 successively smaller aircraft with 15 year old pilots to Djuma Bush lodge landing strip that was covered with dirt and dung

Picked up by Patrick (the tracker) and Greg (the guide) who would be our leaders for the trip. On the 15 minute drive to the lodge, we made our first sighting: zebras!

One of the very first things that was said on the ride to the lodge was:

Maria: Do you carry rabies shots on the jeep?

Greg: Why, who has rabies?

-So funny. We should have known after this exchange that Greg would turn out to be quite a laugh.

And another Greg quip:

Vic: Do you carry a rifle (on the game drives)?

Greg: Yes, but I’ve never had to use it…on an animal

En route to Djuma, we had, as a group, planned our evening not knowing it was already planned for us each day: Game drive in the morning, breakfast, high tea, game drive in the afternoon/evening, dinner.

1st game drive: Dusk-dark

Included the following:

A leopard in a tree eating an impala – apparently it had been eating it for 2 days.

Yellow-billed horn bill (bird)

Stop for drink/snack – called ‘sundowners’ which is the equivalent to our ‘happy hour’ – we ate biltong (jerky) and drank local wine & beer

When the sun went down the drive continued with Patrick upfront tracking back and forth with a search light

One of the coolest night sightings were the herd of elephants in the dark- there were about 15 of them including a baby. At one point we turned the lights out and just enjoyed the faint sight of them and the sounds. It was really cool.

The stars and the moon were so bright. It was beautiful.

Scrub hare

Dinner: family style. So much food!!!!

Appetizers- Sherry and biltong and peanuts with apricot

Dinner; curry chicken, popadoms, beef with cheese sauce, merlot, mgantola (fish soup), Greek salad, peas with onion and banana tart dessert

We met a family from Barcelona (who made fun of us for how much we as Americans ate) and another family from Denmark – the camp had 8 chalets total.

Saturday 4th April

5:30 a.m. wake up for coffee/tea. 6 a.m. depart.

2nd game drive: Morning

Included the following:

Warthogs, zebras, giraffe family, wildebeest, rhino, search for female leopard/cub but couldn’t find her. Water Buffalo. Already we had seen 4 of the Big 5 (rhino, elephant, leopard, water buffalo, lion)

Snack of coffee, tea, hot chocolate, muffins

Breakfast – full English plus cereal, croissant, fruit, yogurt

Bush walk: 60 min walk in the bush near the lodge to look at flora and fauna with some of the Spanish family, Andrew (another guide), Greg (who calls himself Johnny Green (after Johnny Walker) because there is another Greg who works within Djuma) and a rifle.

We saw and learned the following:

Leatherback tortoise, orb spiders with really strong webs.

‘Toilet paper tree’ – basically soft tree that if necessary you could wipe your bum with

‘Toothbrush bush’ – scrape the coating off the bottom of the one of the branches, and have at it.

‘Hand santizer/shampoo’ leaves – just add water – a type of plant that grows near the ground. If you add water to it you can rub it on your hands and it is like soap and then it disappears

Termite mounds everywhere! One in particular that we saw was 40 years old

Greg put impala poop into his mouth and spit for distance (apparently this is a South African game amongst children – we were all VERY skeptical.)

Greg told us he failed the ‘shoot a charging animal’ test in his guide certification course – You have to go through a strict training program that takes several years in order to become a certified bush guide. Greg did end up passing the charging animal test but it took him 2 extra bullets.

When we arrived back from the walk we were told to check for ticks. These ticks aren’t like the ones in the states where they can give you Lyme disease, but a tick is a tick and a tick is disgusting. I found one near my undies, Theresa had one in her bra, and I am pretty sure Maria had one as well. Ticks must love the ladies.

Patrick and Greg

Lodge Fun Facts:

The Djuma Bush Lodge: 29 staff for 16 guests in 8 chalets

Have had all animals wander into the lodge including a pack of lions.

The lodge is surrounded by one layer of electric fence therefore not all that secure. Guides have dinner with us at night. Then they must escort us back to our chalets at night; we cannot leave the room once in it.

In the morning we are woken up by someone who has checked the area and made sure that no animals are lurking.

3rd Game drive: Dusk-dark

Erin almost lost her hat.

2 male Impala fighting. 1 dominant male travels with a pack of 30 females. Often solitary males try to impose onto another male’s territory and then they fight.

One of the most surprising and awesome spots that Patrick made as a tracker was the chameleon. Patrick spotted it in the dark after we had already driven past the bush where it was hiding approximately 30 feet away. The bush was green, the chameleon was green; we definitely thought that it was planted there.

Still seeking the lion.

Sunday 5th April

4th Game drive: Dawn

Finally!! We found the lioness and her 3 cubs. It became a challenge for us to spot the big game and then tell the other jeeps in the area where it is located. There is a sense of pride when you are the first to spot something.

This morning drive was full of sightings! Lots of animals: herd of buffalo drinking from a small pond. They then got startled and started to run. They then surrounded the jeep!

Mama lion with cubs

Visit to the nearby villages of Dixie and Utah with a guide called Fonade who grew up in Dixie. They were proper African villages comprised of wood huts with tin roofs (if that) and children playing the streets with no shoes. We visited a school that doubled as a church and were entertained with choir singing that was phenomenal and inspiring. We also saw Utah. Bought souvenirs at the road-side which they call a ‘curio shop’ (which longform means curiosity shop)

Drank Shaangali beer – made of: flour, watermelon juice, water.

5th Game drive: Dusk/Dark

One of the coolest (and scariest) sightings we had was a herd of elephants that were eating about 500 feet from the roadside. Patrick had spotted them a bit deeper in the bush. Greg decided to offroad the jeep over logs and through trees and bushes to get a closer look. For a short time the elephants just went about their business: eating, 2 males fighting, baby learning to use his trunk. But then the mother started getting protective and faked a charge at us. They all approached the truck, but then just walked right by us by at a very close distance. Basically, Greg had 2 escape routes all planned out (which I wasn’t believing) and he said that that little stunt was the mama just showing her authority and protecting her kids.

Other drive highlights:

Springbok (which look like deer and are equally yummy to eat)

Beautiful sunset at sundowners

Spotted a leopard on an impala hunt – the leopard had a beautiful coat, but unfortunately we hadn’t yet figured out the night setting on the camera and ended up with a blurry mess.

The lodge

Out last night, the camp organized a ‘Bush dinner’ surprise In the middle of the bush approx 1 km from the lodge. We were greeted with a Pimms upon arrival and sat on picnic tables (and later danced) around a big campfire. The buffet style meal was nothing short of delicious. Our group at with Greg and Kim and feasted on chicken, lamb, beef sausage, veg with curry-like sauce, with roasted marshmallows to top it off. There was only one rule on the night: ‘no roaming’ by yourself. Every 2 minutes, specific guides would flash a spotlight into the surrounding brush to ensure no predators close by. After all, the smell of meat had to be enticing.

Vic was our ‘tracker’ on the way home – he sat in the top seat and ran the search light back and forth. No animals spotted though.

Last night woke up at 4 a.m. to noise outside. Hoped it was animals, but it was just the Spanish family leaving

Monday, 6th April

6th Game drive: Dawn

Last game drive. Very little to see: only a Lilac breasted roller , a lizard, a rhino and a few giraffe. It’s amazing what becomes old news after you have seen them a few times. Impalas were such a bore by the 3rd day! The lizard that Patrick had spotted was a disgusting, long, brown thing which we learned was called a Rock Monitor. Again, the lizard was the exact colour of the tree and we had driven 30 meters past it, and it was about 5 meters up! Patrick was an incredible tracker – or that lizard hasn’t moved in 8 years.

We were sad to leave. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience.

Pickup at 9 a.m. for 3 hour drive to Kruger Mpumalanga

Drove through rural Mpumalanga., Half dirt road. All black faces for 2 hours. Passed quite a few ‘townships’ by the airport. Townships are shanty towns with tons of little shacks with tin roofs (or no roofs) really close together. Very colourful, but look so sketch. Travel day.

Memories of safari:

Greg and Kim – ‘welcome back guys’

‘Awesome guys…rhino’

Maria – “I honestly heard Patrick say ‘ooga booga’ when speaking to Greg” (in another language)

PD probably sick of hearing about Greg (we continued to talk and talk about Greg and his funny sayings throughout the rest of our trip)

Greg saying, ‘Cool bananas’

Franschhoek

Gorgeous Klein Genot estate –Eric and I had been given the huge pink penthouse which was a really nice surprise.

Dinner at Haute Cabriere – mediocre/soft talking waiter/in a bunker in the side of a mountain/ ordered the tasting menu and the snooty chef wouldn’t serve Jeff Prosciutto without the melon (even though he is allergic to it.)

Tuesday, 7th April

Went for a nice run into town with Maria, Eric and Theresa. It was a bit warm, but it gave us a chance to check out downtown. Upon return to the estate, Eric became enthralled with the little house dog and the random resident black swans. Yummy breakfast with amazing homemade muesli

Our guide P.D. (Petey) picked us up and drove us to various Franschhoek and Stellenbosch wineries – Noble Hill (fish pond view), KanonKop – snooty, but nice

Lunch at Le Petite Ferme – amazing lunch and views. Lots of rabbit, ostrich fillet and mushroom tart for me (in my defence, the first ingredient was goat cheese, but the mushrooms were everywhere and the goat cheese was scarce).

Boekenhoutskloof Winery – home to Porcupine Ridge, Wolfpack and Chocolate Box labels.

Haut Espoir Winery– arrived last minute before they closed. The proprietor was a huge Norse warrior that looked like he wanted to eat us. We were so scared that within the first 5 minutes, we had tried 3 wines and bought 9 bottles. He then decided he liked us and offered us a taste of another and then gave us a 6 pack of beer.

Arrived back at the estate, tipsy and loving life. We enjoyed some of our haul at our own happy hour near the swan pond with cheese (terrible), Pringles, tea, some weird little sandwiches and more wine

Dinner at Reuben’s - Eric somehow managed to get spiders all over him (the huge and really scary kind). They were actually quite small, but somehow he managed to get them literally all over himself after a little walk outside. Eric had kudu, can’t remember what I had, but Jeff ordered salmon and then got into quite a heated discussion about what colour salmon should be – he insisted pink, they insisted white. It was in fact white, but it was a special kind of salmon apparently.

View from our room at Klein Genot

Wednesday, 8th April

Another hot morning run with a hangover = very painful. In lieu of a run, I had a facial! It was divine!

On the drive down to Cape Town, we had gotten a recommendation to visit Spier Winery where they have a cheetah encounter. Very amateur after being in the bush!! To be fair, they were cool (and you could pet them at a price) but it just didn’t seem all that exciting since they were in cages.

Camps Bay arrival – decided to take a nap on the beautiful Camps Bay Beach

The villa we stayed in– Villa Lincoln- was 4 bedrooms and right off of the main road. The villa itself had such heavy security– electric fence, locks on everydoor – you can actually lock yourself in the kitchen

We had our own version of Sundowners (as we continued to reminisce on the awesome time we had on safari) with drinks on the roof, looking over beach at sunset before a BBQ – burgers, fries, the works! This villa basically had nothing except for toilet paper so we had gone to the store and bought literally everything from salt and pepper to charcoal for the grill. The one thing we didn’t get was something to light the charcoal. So, as boys are, they were determined to get it to light and used a piece of paper towel, stuck to a paper towel role, and inserted into the toaster to make fire. Being the nervous Nancy I am, I was convinced the house was going to catch on fire.

The roof provided some great views of Lion’s Head, Devil’s Peak, Table Mountain and 12 apostles

Camps Bay roof view

Thursday, 9th AprilIs this novel of a recap boring anyone yet?!!

Breakfast of Eggs McLargey – basically, Jeff’s grandfather thinks that McDonald’s ripped them off

9 a.m. start off for Table Mountain hike. It took 90 min when they say it will take about 2 hours. It was a hard climb with huge ‘stairs’. The stairs were huge, jagged boulders and rocks. The views were spectacular and subsequently, we took lots of pics. According to P.D. early settlers used to climb the mountain every morning looking for trade ships.

We could have hiked back down, but to save time we took the cable car.

Lunch at Quay Four at the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Waterfront in Cape Town harbour. Huge seafood samplers. At lunch PD explained the rules of cricket and after lunch we left him there to watch the SA vs Aussie match at Newlands while we shopped. We couldn’t get tix for that or for Robben Island, so we will definitely have a reason to go back!

Wandered around harbour mall and craft warehouse – bought a few gifts, but there was mostly crap.

More pre-dinner/sunset roof drinks. The sofa that was in the room upstairs was dragged onto the roof to provide for more comfortable drinking conditions.

Cape Town Fish Market for dinner – quite good and reasonably priced. Gelato for dessert

SA won cricket

Friday, 10th April

9a.m. start after another great home-cooked breakfast with good teamwork

Drive with PD to Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope

Took a ferry to Seal island to check out the over 70,000 seals that live on this one cluster of rocks! Bought a bongo drum in the ferry parking lot for Lydia’s birthday.

Drove through Constantia wine region (and US Consulate) to Cape Point Nature Reserve

View of southern/western tip

Penguins ‘zoo’ at Boulder’s Beach near Simon’s Town – sad we couldn’t get closer to them, but very odd to see penguins in such a hot climate

Awesome lunch at Harbour House upstairs to Live Bait – tuna tartar and blue fish and spectacular bay window view overlooking crashing waves and a random seal that was entertaining the crowd.

We had lots of wine and probably began to annoy PD our driver.

More beach drinks then cab down town to Mama Africa. Live music with a very weird crowd - prostitutes, he/shes, Tracy Chapman looking male lead singer. But fun and an experience. We sort of danced but not to the live music, but to the huge bongo that Theresa had bought at the restaurant.

Memories from Cape Town

Cape coloreds - Black/white disparity. Learned a lot about recent history from PD and Rob

Camps Bay – like South Beach/Laguna Beach

Felt safe, mostly

Election on 22nd April. ANC bound to win even after Zuma corruption. White folks frustrated.

Saturday, 11th April

Vic and Theresa made breakfast then we had a beach day. Perfect weather and temperature. Water around 15 C

Picnic at beach for sunset and sundowners (cartwheels, maracas, and rock band)

Late dinner at Codfather. Coked-out waiter – Nick the Greek, spoke like JT on Single-Ladies SNL sketch or Jim Carey In Living Color cave-woman character

No menu- you pick fish from ice box. There was so much fish! Swordfish, oysters, sushi, calamari, marlin, butter fish and Mozambique prawns almost the same size as Lobster tale! Cape Malay spice was a good sauce for dipping some of the fish.

Theresa, Vic, Maria and Jeff went to club Karma in town. It was lame and the drinks were awful so they left quickly. We went to bed early because we had to get up early for …

Eric is in the cage below

Sunday, 12th April

Eric and I went shark diving! 5 a.m. pickup. 3 hr drive to Gansbaai and Dyer Island. Went through a company through Marine Dynamics. Alison was our marine biologist guide who was very knowledgeable and very patient.

Cage held 6 people and each ‘round’ in the cage was for 30 min. You wait on the boat with the other divers (14 in all) until the sharks are spotted in the area. The area around the boat is ‘chummed’ with a disgusting mix of fish and guts and once they are in the area, people descend into the cage. The cage is attached to the side of the boat and when Alison gives the go you go under and hold your breath as the shark goes by. Eric got a chance in the cage, with 3-4 great passes by 6 different great white sharks. He was on the left most side of the cage and was therefore hit in the head repeatedly with the bait (of multiple fish heads) and marinated in disgusting chum for an hour – absolutely filthy.

I didn’t get a chance in the cage because the sharks were only around for a short while. The visibility was really poor and the sightings were fleeting because there was no wind to carry the smell of the chum through the water. I didn’t mind though because I got some great pictures.

These last few hours spent on the boat was a great way to end the trip of a lifetime.

View of Lion's Head from the top of Table Mountain

The pictures from our amazing adventure:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=hj0zhyv.7mxvbcqv&x=0&y=-p65xqz&localeid=en_US

Jeff & Maria's pictures:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=mf0winp.4bn9s889&x=0&y=lrz80q&localeid=en_US

Theresa & Vic's (boatload of) pictures:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=hj0zhyv.3pezd8uf&x=0&y=wxmyhz&localeid=en_US