Elephants

Now at Zulu Nyala!

Hello Everyone,
We went on our first safari ride this morning. Our guide Kyle is quite funny and knowlegable about the variety of plants and animals. We saw several animals including, warthogs, impala, nyalas, zebras, birds, two cheetah brothers, and three elepants! Kyle does not hesitate to get us up close and personal! We spent quite a bit of time with the elephants, very close! They smelled us, they were so close we could have touched them,but we didn't! Our room has a beautiful view overlooking the game perserve. Later today we are going to a cheetah recovery center and tomorrow morning (Friday) we will visit a zulu village and school. We are sure to have a great time here! TTFN Mary Jo and Karen

Last Day in Cape Town

We have had a lovely stay here in Cape Town. Today we will walk down into the city center. We plan on visiting some museums and the Castle of Good Hope. We also plan to see several govermental buildings and as much of the city as we can. We leave early tomorrow for our flight to Zulu Nayla. I am not sure when we will be able to blog again.

More about Yesterday

After our visit to the primary school we went to the town of Stellenbosh. Stellenbosh is a college town, very cute. The buildings were very European. We wandered around, had coffee and shopped. On our way back to Cape Town we stopped at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. The gardens are in the shadow of Table Mountain. This is quite a large garden. We imagine that you could spend all day here and not see everything. Last night we took a taxi down to Mama Africas a local restaurant. We were brave and had a crocodile appetizer. Wehad traditional African meals and listened to a lively band.

Today We Went to School

Monday, July 26th. Today our guide Alfred took us to the town of Klapmuts to visit a school. The Klapmust Primary school is a R-8th grade school. R grade is a primary grade for students 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 years old. School is year round with a large break in December. We were able to visit with the principal and a first grade teacher. The principal has great vision for his school. He was very excited to meet with us and to talk about his learners. We spent time visiting a first grade teacher. She had 33 learners, plus 7 more from a class that was split up because their teacher was sick. The upper grade may have more than 40 students. The differences in our schools was amazing. Their school had been torn down and a new one is being built. We hope to keep connected with the teacher we met. The kids were excited to see us and have their picture taken. The first grade class sang the South Africa national anthem. We both felt humbled by this experience. We are very lucky.

Cape of Good Hope

We drove through the Cape Peninsula National Park to the top of Cape Point. We could see the Indian Ocean meeting the Atlantic Ocean. The views were incredible! We also went down to the Cape of Good Hope. You could see for miles in every direction. The weather has been great and the sun and stayed with us!

Animals, Animals, Animals,

On our way to the Cape of Good Hope we saw a variety of animal life. Our fist sighting were the penguins. The southern right whales are here to give birth, we saw some in Chapman's Bay. We also saw a troop of baboons and some bontebuck.