Savannah in Israel and Jordan

One our last day in Dahab, (Feb 6)  we drove to the Israeli border and walked across, which I thought was really cool. We then went to our hotel in Eliat. After we settled in, Dad, Jack, and I went down to the seafront to check it out. There were mostly just stores. We saw some wild parakeets, which were really pretty.

The next morning we hung out until the afternoon, where we drove to the Jordanian border and crossed over. From there we found a driver that drove us first into a little bit of the Jordan desert before taking us to Petra. The desert there was really different from the Moroccan desert. There were a lot of amazing mountains, the ground was covered in little half dead plants, and there were a lot of big herds of camels owned by the Bedoin. We even went to Wadi Rum, which is the place where Lawrence of Arabia was filmed. It is an area with a lot of beautiful rock formations.  The driver took us to our hotel right outside of Petra. We had to drive up in the mountains and then down again. Up in the mountains it was really cold. The guy driving kept saying “very high” “very cold” “what you think” “better than Egypt – no?” “very beautiful” then a few minutes would go by…… “very high” a few more, “very cold” and so on. Once he even woke Dad up to say “what you think?”

We got up early to go to see the ancient city of Petra. We walked through a big, long, narrow rock formation with swirls of different browns and a little red in it. At the end of that, there was the main part and most preserved part of Petra, Khazneh. It was amazing! It was all carved out of sandstone. After that we saw the smaller, less preserved tombs, the royal tombs, and a theatre. My favorite part of all of it was the Silk Tomb. The Silk Tomb is a small tomb that is part of the royal tombs, and the colours that are swirled around it were amazing! There was red, blue, yellow, pink, and white. Jackson and I collected a lot of colourful rocks, and on the way back we got to ride horses. Overall, Petra was beautiful and amazing.

First ruin we saw in Petra - amazing!

Close up of beautiful colors in the sandstone

Savannah & Paul leaving Petra

Horseback for the last part of Petra

            When we were walking home, we saw a place that sold some little glass bottles with pictures of camels and mountains in the dessert, made out of colored sand. The guy there even made one in front of us, which was really cool! I ended up getting a little bottle. There were also some really cool vases that were actually made out of the coloured sand from Petra mixed with glass, and they are mostly bluey greeny, but when you put a candle in them, they look yellowy orange!

Savannah in Jordanian head scarf

After Petra, the same taxi driver picked us up.  When we were driving back through the mountains,  we stopped a few times to look out and see all of the mountains and desert below.  The driver took us back to the border and then we crossed back over from Jordan to Israel.

We went back to the same hotel and the next morning, we took a five hour bus ride from Eilat to Jerusalem. When we got to Jerusalem we went to the Jaffa Gate, which is one of the gates that enter into the Old City. In the Old City we didn’t get very far before a guy came out of his shop and managed to sucker us in. He was very nice and got us drinks, and he showed us all of his jewelry. I got to try some green tea, but it had fresh sage in it, which was really good. When we left his shop, he showed us a good place for dinner, where they served shwarma.  

We went back to Jaffa gate the next morning and found  a guide that took us around Jerusalem. The most interesting thing about the Old City is that it is made up of layers and layers of different cultures, religions, and people, because it was conquered at least 38 times, and the different people just built a new city on top of the old one. When you look at the Old City wall, you can see three or four different layers. We went to a lot of different layers of the city, and you can see the difference in architecture. In the Roman layer, the streets are made of cobblestones, in the Turkish layer, there are little mini bridges in between the buildings, and so on.

Old City Jerusalem - door with Cross of Jerusalem

We went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where we saw the bath where they bathed Jesus before burial, and we got to touch the rock where the cross stood.

We also got to walk the Via Dolorosa (Stations of the Cross), which is the path that Jesus walked with the cross, and we learned that you can rent a cross to carry along like Jesus did. We went to most of the stops, including the one where Veronica wiped his face, Simon helped him with the cross, the three times that he fell and the time where he saw Mary.

Station of the Cross where Jesus meets his mother, Mary

We also went into the markets, which were a little bit like Moroccan souks, but the stores were bigger, and they seem to sell more food. We tried some oblong shaped sesame bread shaped and fresh squeezed pomegranates.

We then went to the Wailing Wall.  The men go to one side and the women to the other. The Wailing Wall is inside the Old City walls, and it used to support the place where the Jewish Second Temple was built, but now there is a Mosque (Dome of the Rock) on the site. The Wailing Wall is a place where Jewish people go to feel close to their most holy place, where the first and second temples were built and eventually destroyed and is the place they believe the third temple will be built.  The wailing part comes from the fact that the Jewish people are crying because they can’t get to the Holy Place because it’s under the Mosque.  People write messages and prayers on slips of paper and put them in the wall because they believe that they are writing a message to God.

Wailing Wall in Old City, Jerusalem

The following morning,  we hired a taxi to take us to Bethlehem, which is in the West Bank and part of Palestine,  meaning the Jewish people are not allowed to go there. We were able to drive straight there without getting out. When we got there, we hired a guild and went straight to Church of the Nativity, which is the church built on the site where people believe Jesus was born. We learned that, despite everyone thinking he was born in a barn, he was actually born in a cave! The cave is now inside the church, and we went in and saw the spot where Christians believe is the spot where the manager was. The church itself was very pretty and decorated really nice. In some places, they had uncovered a mosaic floor. After the church, we grabbed street shwarma (which were really good) and went to a place where they make nativity scenes out of olive wood, and we bought one for our new house.

Savannah and Jackson outside of the Church of the Nativity

Back in Jerusalem, we went to the Holocaust Museum, which was one of the saddest places that I have ever been. It is so sad that someone could do those things to people! After we went through the main part, we went to the children’s memorial. It was beautiful, but extremely sad as well.  It was a maze of lights and mirrors and a voice said each child’s name out loud.

We also went to the Israeli museum, which was a really nice and interesting museum. First, we went to see the Dead Sea scrolls. It’s amazing to think that they were written  between 150 BC and 70 AS by some ancient Jewish people called the Essenes, and  and then discovered by accident in a cave.  In the same exhibit, they also had  little gas lamps, (one of them still had the remains of a wick!) combs, beads, lots of pottery, (dishes, etc.) and other daily used items. After the Dead Sea scrolls exhibit, we wandered through the rest of the museum, the Roman, Greek, Ancient Egyptian, paintings, etc. It was a great museum!

 After lunch, Dad, Jack, and I did the same tour of the Old City as before, but this time we had a different guide who spent his childhood in New York, so obviously he spoke great English. We went to the same places as before, but this time, we understood a lot better.

One day we went in on a day trip in a taxi with a really nice guy named Sam.  Before leaving Jerusalem,  Sam took us to the Mount of Olives.  We stopped at a few different places, the Garden of Gethsemane, and a viewpoint of Jerusalem. In the Garden of Gethsemane, we saw the place where Jesus was arrested, and we went into the church that was next to it.  The Assention Church was built on the spot where Jesus rose to heaven, and we saw what people think was his footprint. On the side of the mountain we stopped and looked out at Jerusalem, and the view was breathtaking! We had a great view of the Old City and some of the gates, and a great view of the Dome of the Rock. Before going down, we also drove past the place where Sam lives on the mountain.

View of Jerusalem from Mt of Olives

Sam then drove us to Masada which is a fortress on top of a mountain. We took a cable car to get up, and on the top we walked around and saw all of the ruins. One of the best parts was the bathhouse, which even had a steam room!

View of Dead Sea from Masada

We also made a stop at Qumran,  which is the place where the Dead Sea scrolls were found.  We went up to see the ruins where the Essenes people lived and spent their days working, bathing (they did a lot of bathing), eating, and making the Dead Sea scrolls. Almost two thousand years later two Bedouin shepards went after a sheep that strayed from the herd,  when they discovered a cave and that was the start of finding many caves in the area and many of the ancient scrolls.

Savannah, Paul & Jackson at Quram, in front of cave where first of the Dead Sea Scrolls were found

After Qumran,  Sam took us to a beach on the Dead Sea.  It was one of the coolest parts of Israel, but unfortunately, my hands were chapped really badly so the salt stung really badly.  At least I managed to float once before having to get out.  Daddy enjoyed it the most of all of us.

Paul covered in Dead Sea mud

Our last stop was Jericho, which, like Bethlehem, is on the West Bank (In Palestine).  It is one of the oldest continually inhabeted cities in the world and is also below sea level. First, we went up a mountain by cable car. On the mountain, we climbed a little bit to get to the a Greek Orthadox Monestary at the Mountain of Temptation.  It was said that Jesus spent 40 days and nights here while being tempted by Satan.  After we took the cable car down, Sam insisted on taking us to a place that sells fruit and givin us some saying that the fruit from Jericho was the best in Israel.  We also bought some Jericho dates to bring back to the man who rented us the apartment as his is Jewish and no longer able to go to Jericho.

Savannah & Jackson at Jericho City sign

After five days in Jerusalem, we rented a car and drove to Nahariya, which is in the northeast part of Israel on the Mediterrainian Sea. On the way we stopped at Beit She’am, where there are some really well preserved Roman ruins. The best preserved building was the theatre, because during the earthquake that ruined the settlement and buried everything under ruble, two of the three sets of seating were buried, and because of that, it basically wasn’t touched until now. The seating is stone benches in a semicircle around the wooden stage and orchestra section. Above the two sets of seats that are still there, there are the entrances to the theatre and private boxes. There used to be a big building behind the wooden stage that hid the view of the main streets from the people in the theatre. The building was used as homes for the actors. Behind the theatre is one of two main streets that is street in the middle, and it is lined with columns behind which is the pedestrian walkway that is decorated with mosaics. Behind that street is the bathhouse, which contains the public toilets, public bath, and steam room. At the end of the big street, there is another one that goes across; together they look like a cross, but in Beit She’am the top of the T backs up to the base of a hill. When we climbed up the hill, we could see all of Beit She’am. It was really cool to look out at all the ruins.

Jackson Paul & Savannah in Ampitheatre, Bet She'am

After leaving Beit She’am, we had time for stop at a small museum by the Sea of Galilee, where there is a two thousand year old boat. Two guys were walking along the shore of the sea during an unnaturally low tide, when they found a nail and a small chunk of wood. After that, there was a whole process of digging it up and because they were scared that as soon as it hit air it would crumble, they had to be extremely careful. They think it could be either a boat that transported Jesus and his disciples across the Sea of Galilee, or just a fishing boat.  

The next morning we drove down to Akko, but it was raining and very windy, so we only looked around a little before leaving. We did get to go into a cistern, which was really cool. It was underground and it was more like a tunnel, but on either side of the walkway there was a little water. After that, we left Akko and went to Zippori (Sephorra), which was some more ancient Roman ruins but this time there was a lot of extremely well preserved mosaics. It had the same cross shaped Roman style main streets and a theatre and all of the ruins surrounding it, but those weren’t as well preserved as Beitshe’am, the main and best part was the mosaics, and those were amazing! There were patterns as well as pictures. In one place they even had what is called the Mona Lisa of Israel, because just like the French one, the woman’s eyes follow you wherever you go.  

Mosaic "Mona Lisa of Israel"" at Sepphoris

On February 17, we left IsraelL. We drove to the airport and flew to Turkey. The bright side of leaving Israel is that we get to see Auntie Lynn and Uncle Graham in Turkey!

Jackson's Egyptian (Mis)Adventure

Hey bloggies!  It’s me, Jackson. For our Egypt trip, we started in Cairo and ended in Dahab but I’ll get to that. In our days of Cairo these were my favorite things I did.

Our first day (Jan 27) we got a guide to show us some of Cairo. The first place our guide took us was the great pyramids of Giza. The pyramids were casting huge shadows because there so big.

Then Savannah and I got to ride a camel but this time the seats were really comfy.

After that the guide took us to another pyramid and Savannah, Dad and I went in. The air was nice and cool in the pyramids and the ceiling was low. We saw a couple chambers but since the guide was not with us we could not tell which one was the tomb. Our guide told us that the Egyptians put granite in the walls to help keep the walls from falling down and Dad spotted the granite.

When we got out of the pyramid our guide took us to the Sphinx!!! The Sphinx has the face of a pharaoh named Cheops and the body of a lion. Most people think that an Arabic man shot of the nose of the Sphinx. While we paid the Sphinx a visit it was being restored.

When we done with the Sphinx our guide too us to a perfume place. When we got there we saw a man make a glass perfume bottle. Then we were brought upstairs to test perfumes. All the perfumes smelled lovely. Then our guide took us to a papyrus store where there were lots and lots of papyrus scrolls. My Dad said he once came to the same shop the time he came to Egypt alone. I bought a little papyrus scroll with the solar boat on it. The Egyptians thought that the solar boat would take the spirits of the dead to the afterlife.

Our last stop was the very first pyramid to be built. People call it the step pyramid because it is made of 6 steps. At the front of the pyramid was a courtyard with two B shaped structures. It was probably what the Heb Seb festival looked like. The Heb Seb festival is when the king has to prove to his people that he is the rightful king of Egypt. To do this the king has to run around the B shaped structures 30 times. After this the king has to defeat a bull.  

    

 One day later we were evacuated into another section of Egypt called Dahab.  We got to Dahab in a car. 3 of our bags fit in the back. Where did the fourth suitcase go you ask? It was unfortunately on our laps. It was a 7 hour drive. When we arrived at Dahab we stayed in a hotel by ocean.

In Dahab we walked along the boardwalk that is next to the ocean. On the boardwalk there were loads of restaurants. At a lot of these restaurants you could either sit at a table or on pillows on the floor, which is traditional Bedoin seating. At a lot of these restaurants there were a lot of cats hanging out on the floor, hopping to get a good meal.

Our favorite restaurant was called the Jasmine. They had amazing chocolate milkshakes and it was full of a lot of nice cats. Almost every time we went to the Jasmine, a lot of cats slept and sat on our laps. The first time we ever went to the Jasmine we made a big mistake. Our mistake was not guarding our food from the cats. One of the cats, who we later nicknamed “the thief,” because he ate part of our starter, main meal, and dessert! He was a naughty cat, but we later loved him J.

Another day at the Jasmine it got a little scary because one cat clawed my sisters face. Two of the other cats at the Jasmine got to drink milk that we ordered for them. They were little black and white kittens. Another day we met a friendly dog named Gina, and on our last day we found her on our doorstep.

On our last day it was really cool when my dad wandered onto the beach and discovered that the beach was covered with starfish!

 Another day we went snorkeling. It was really cool because we saw lots and lots of fish. Some of the fish were sergeant majors. I also saw a gar fish. The place we went snorkeling was called the Blue Hole, and the reefs there were beautiful. We swam through a whole school of sergeant majors. One of the sergeant majors looked at me from about two inches from my face.

One of the other days we found a little tiny baby kitten that had been born about a week ago. The kitten had no mommy with him. That night we wanted to see if his mommy had found him yet. When we found him, he was on the side of the path. We went to the owner of the Jasmine and asked him what to do. He said to put the kitten back in an area that was him home. When I carried the kitten, he pooped on my arm, but he was still cute.

Another day we went to a monastery at the bottom of a big mountain called Mt. Sinai. The monastery has monks living in it. As well at the monastery there was a place where there is a bush that represents where the burning bush was suppose to be located in the story of Moses. We then climbed Mt. Sinai. Some of the rocks were humungous! It was a big mountain that was very hard to climb. It took around four hours to get to the top, and two and a half down. Near the end, we had to go up a whole bunch of steep steps, which a monk built. At the top of the mountain, there was a Greek Orthodox Church. On clear days, people usually watch the sunset on the top of the mountain. There are a whole bunch of other mountains around Mt. Sinai.

Another day, I had my very first massage. It was really fun in Dahab and I don’t think I’ll ever find cats as cute as the ones that were at the Jasmine.

Savannah's Short but Sweet Visit to Egypt

Today (Jan. 27, 2011) we landed in Egypt! I am really excited because Egypt is the place that I am most looking forward to. When we landed, we took a car to our hotel in the very early hours of the morning.

            In the late afternoon/early evening, we left our hotel and went on a Nile dinner cruise! The dinner cruise was really cool. After standing out on the deck for a long time, we went back down to dinner. At dinner, all of the other guests ate all of the food before we had touched our main course! After dinner, we had three different people entertain us. The first person was a belly dancer. She was really good! After her there was a guy who was twirling around and around and the huge multicolored skirt he was wearing flared out and the colors mixed together. The next guy did the same twirling in the same outfit, but he did a lot of cool things with his skirt and other things. The coolest thing was when a guy from outside threw him a tray, and he balanced it like a waiter but tilted, then in came a cup and a big bottle of water, and he balanced them at an angle, (he is still spinning!) and then he opened the big bottle and poured it! Then, he closed it and drank the water in the glass! Then he threw it all back and kept spinning. That was the coolest part of the night!

            The next day (which we later learned was our only day of the tour we planned that we could do.) we had an incredibly nice guide whose nickname is Sheco who is studying Egyptology (so cool!) and driver Mohamed, that took us to Great Pyramids, the Sphinx, the Djoser Step Pyramid, a shop that sells essence, and a papyrus museum.

            The Great Pyramids were AMAZING!!! It was really cool to see them in person. When we got there, we walked up to the biggest of the three and touched it. A few years ago, you used to be able to climb to the top and sit on it, but not anymore. When you see them up close, you realize just how hard it must have been to build. After that, we went to a different one, and we went inside it! You have to bend over and climb down, but the inside is not too bad. We were only allowed in three or four rooms. They are completely empty though. When we were done inside, we drove to a spot pretty far away, but we could still see them. Jackson and I went on a camel ride, which was surprisingly more comfortable than Morocco. Sheco took shots of us “holding” and “eating” the pyramids, which were pretty funny.

            The Sphinx was another amazing monument that was great to finally see in person. We couldn’t touch it though. We went through a temple to see it. We learned that Napoleon actually didn’t shoot off its nose, but that someone from another Middle Eastern country broke it off to embarrass the Egyptians and prove that he had conquered them.

            In the essence shop, we first saw someone making one of the little perfume bottles by blowing glass. Then, we had a person who showed us around and let us sample a couple different smells on our skins, including frankincense, meuir, lotus flower, citrus, papyrus flower, and many others. After that, we brought a couple things.

            The Djoser Step Pyramid in Sakkara is really cool for a few reasons: it is the oldest pyramid ever discovered, and the only step pyramid ever discovered. The architect that built it just kept layering big blocks smaller and smaller. The architect that designed it liked his king so much that he even built him a huge courtyard and a temple. There is a huge wall around the whole thing. The courtyard is probably made to look like the Heb Sed festival. In ancient Egypt after a king has ruled for thirty years, the public kills him, because they think he is not fit to rule anymore. At the Heb Sed festival, the king has to prove himself. What he has to do is run around two formations thirty times, (thirty back then was pretty old, and in the heat too.) and if he manages that, he has to wrestle and kill a bull. There was one guy (Rames II?) who had to do it twice!  The pyramid itself was amazing. From a point up on a hill we could see the Red Pyramid, and one of the failed tries to make a perfect pyramid that the king after the one that build the step pyramid had ordered to get made for him.

            Our last stop, the papyrus museum was really cool as well. We saw the papyrus plant that is used to make the scrolls. Jackson and I each got a piece of stem to try and break, and we got a few paper cuts. Someone then explained to us the process. After that, we got to see the completed and painted scrolls.

            On the way back, there were a few police blockades, but there was no problem and it didn’t seem unordinary or anything. When we did get back to the hotel, our guide tried to break the news as nicely as possible. We were not able to take the overnight train ride to Aswan we had planned. Instead, they said that we would have to stay another night at a hotel while they tried to get us on a morning one. They were so incredibly nice about it though. The hotel that we stayed at last night was getting renovated and there were no doors, just tarp type things, so we had to go to another one just around the block, but it was after curfew! It was a little creepy, because the streets were practically empty and silent too. There is still no internet or cell phone service.. In the room we could hear tear gas and we saw a road a few streets away with a big group of people, presumably headed to the protests.

            The next morning we learned that we were actually not going on the morning train, and we would get another call at five. We had CNN or BBC on constantly, and they were just showing the same pictures over and over. At noon we got a call saying that they were trying to get us on a bus to a resort city called Dahab tomorrow, because the best thing to do was to get out of Cairo. At least we were able to get out of the hotel for lunch. There were little groups of people on every corner and shopkeepers building walls in front of their stores with anything they could get their hands on, mostly bricks, but we did see one made of cases of water bottles. After lunch we sat in our hotel room all afternoon. We could see military vehicles, tanks, and hear more tear gas, and even some gunfire. It is pretty scary. The only event that happened was when mom tried to send dad out for diet coke after curfew with the escaped convicts and all sorts of people taking advantage of the situation around.

            The next morning I awoke to the sound of gunfire and people relatively close by yelling. I am really worried but I know that we are safe. When the time came that we were supposed to leave on a bus, we learned that it is too dangerous for tourists to leave the area. We then waited for a driver. When the driver does show up, it is in a tiny car, but assuming that it is just taking us to the bus station; we cram everything in and put a suitcase across mom, Jack, and my laps. We eventually do figure out that we are doing the full 8 hour drive to Dahab in this car! We had to drive to the Sinai Peninsula, which Dahab is in. The peninsula was amazing! It was full of beautiful mountains that ranged from different sizes and shapes, and the colours were all different yellowy sandy colours. Along the way, we saw a lot more tanks, and a lot of police blockades. We went through the Suez tunnel (which was not closed) which was really cool. I was really upset about leaving Egypt, but I definitely understand the situation. 

Waiting to Leave Egypt

            There wasn’t much to do in Dahab, but it was really nice just to relax. These are the main things that we did:

            Swimming: Since it is the middle of winter in Egypt, (same as us) we didn’t do much swimming. We went to the beach once, which was fun. Jackson and I jumped in the pool a couple of times, but it was FREEZING!

            Snorkeling: One day we went to the Blue Hole to snorkel. It was really cool, but nothing like north rock in Bermuda. We saw lots of cool coral and fish though. Mom didn’t want to go in, and as she sat in the little restaurant, she met a twelve year old boy named Mohamed. Mohamed was really nice and he made really pretty jewelry.

            Mt. Sinai: On our last day, we went and climbed Mt. Sinai. It was really hard, but the views were amazing! We had planned on watching the sunset, but since it was a really cloudy and cold evening, we decided to get some of the climb down over with in daylight. On the top I was amazed to find that they sold snicker bars and Pringles. We had a really grumpy camel named “toot” (you can guess why) that carried our bags for us. There were a few other people doing the climb with us, including a couple that carried their eighteen month year old (really cute) little girl named Chloe up with them.

Almost there!

Made it to the top!

            The Jasmine: The Jasmine was my number one favorite place in all of Dahab. We went there at least once every day, just to hang out. The Jasmine is a restaurant with the traditional Bedoin seats (pillows on the floor with low tables) like all of the restaurants have, and although the food was nothing special, they had cold beer, great chocolate milkshakes, (but nowhere near as good as my grandpas) and …………………………… cats! The restaurant was full of cats that would climb all over you. Some of my favorite cats were:

·         Two little black and white kittens that were adorable and always tried to climb on the low tables, and we always had to pull them off.

·         An adult black cat that always sat on dad and slept the whole time. At the end when dad tried to lift him off, he would climb back on right away. One night we learned that he was the two kitten’s mom because they were all on my lap and the kittens started suckling.

·         A young white, blonde, and black cat that after the first visit we nicknamed “the thief” because on our first night, he managed to steal a piece of calamari, a huge piece of pizza, and a piece of melon.

      Kitten: One day, we went to the grocery store, and Jack and I found a little kitten wandering through the grocery store, and when I started stroking it, it climbed up onto my lap, and I picked it up and held it in my arms. It was ginger, and a little bit smaller than the black and white kittens at the Jasmine. It purred a lot, and at the end I had to pry it from my arms.

      Newborn Kitten: One day as we had just escaped from the Funny Mummy, we saw a little tiny kitten smaller than my hand that had barely even opened its eyes! It was soooooooo cute!

            Massage: One day, Jackson and I got our first ever massages! As mom said, we weren’t too keen. It was relaxing though. 

            Starfish: On our last day it was low tide and our dad wandered out onto the beach in front of our hotel, and he discovered that it was covered in starfish!

Jackson in South Africa (Jan 10 - 26, 2011)

Hi bloggies, this is Jackson.  After Morocco, we spent almost three weeks in South Africa and these are my favorite things I did.

In Capetown:

Table Mountain. Table Mountain is called Table Mountain because the top of it is as flat as a table. It is kind of like a table for giants.

To get to the top we took a cable car. The cable car was really cool because as we were going up the floor was slowly spinning so you could see the view from all sides. When we got to the top we sat at some picnic tables and ate lunch. It was really windy at the top so we had to hold on to our sandwiches so they wouldn’t blow away. After lunch we started walking down some trails. The trails had paths of grass everywhere, It was also pretty rocky. We saw a couple lizards on the rocks. I spotted a lizard but at first I thought it was a baby crocodile. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t see a dassie but it was still really fun. On a board it said that baboons, lynx, antelopes, dassie and lots of other animals could be spotted on the mountain, but we didn’t’ see anything other than the lizards. The view was amazing. It was a little scary to me because I am afraid of heights.

Jackson, Paul & Savannah with Table Mt in background

Robben Island. We took a ferry to Robben Island. Robben Island is famous for many things and one of those things is the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela, the former president. He is famous for playing a big part in stopping the South African white rule of apartheid. Nelson Mandela made a lot of famous speeches too. In the prison on Robben Island they did a lot of cruel punishments.

Another famous thing that happened on Robben Island is the ‘each one, teach one’ this started because there was a lot of smart people like doctors and lawyers in jail and they knew how important education is so they all taught each other everything they knew.  

Prison room for 30-40 prisoners on Robbin Island

Cape of Good Hope:    To get to the Cape of Good Hope we took a few hour drive. When we got there we got to ride on a funicular instead of using the stairs (yeah). When we got to the top we stood by a light house and got to see about where the two oceans Indian and Atlantic meet. Then a few people spotted something over the edge and what we saw was a Dassie. A Dassie is really cute and looks like a big light brown hamster.

Tassie - closest relative is the elephant!

When we were done at the Cape of Good Hope we drove to a beach that had wild penguins EVERYWHERE! There were grown-up penguins, teenage penguins and even baby penguins! We even saw one digging his nest!   

African penguins at Boulder Beach

The Garden Route:

Spier: In Spier we went to a really cool place. Where we went you could pet a cheetah (a cheetah sanctuary), hold and stroke an owl, and hold and stroke an eagle. The first thing we did was pet a cheetah. Our cheetah’s name was Joseph. While we were petting Joseph a lady told us that when cheetahs lie down they use their tails to swat away the flies. When we were done with Joseph we went to the bird sanctuary. In the bird sanctuary we saw some cool types of birds. When we got to the end of the bird sanctuary we went into huge cage where they were letting you hold an owl. I had to wear a glove, then they put some owl food on my glove and then an owl flew right onto my glove! On my glove the owl kept giving me an evil glare. Then we got out of the cage and a man asked my dad if he wanted to hold a Wahlberg eagle and he said yes. So the man took us to Wallie (Wallie is the eagles name) when it was my turn to hold Wallie, the man placed Wallie on my glove. While Wallie was on my hand I stroked him while he was either preening his feathers or nibbling my hand. On the way out of the bird Sanctuary we got to pet some very small owls. (They were really soft). 

Franshoek: It was early afternoon when we arrived in Franshoek.  We stayed at a guest cottage on a farm that was a vineyard. When we got there a nice lady showed us our cottage and the area but when she was done a big black and white dog came running at us with a stick in his mouth. The lady told us that his name was Joey. All afternoon Joey left and came back. Each time he came back he bought a stick with him. And every time he was with us we threw the stick for him. At night we had to leave Joey outside but when my dad woke up and opened the door and found that Joey had been sleeping right outside our door! Then after breakfast we took Joey with us for little walk out in the farmer’s land. While we were walking we walked past plum trees, pear trees, grape vines and squashes. We walked all the way to the end of the farmers’ property. On our way back Joey found a stick twice as long as him. I was really sad to say goodbye.  

Our new friend Joey with his stick

Mossell bay: We got to Mossell bay early afternoon. That night we ordered pizza to be delivered to our apartment while we all played pool. After pool my mom and Savannah went to bed while me and dad walked across the beach. While we were walking we saw a couple fishermen all of which said they were having no luck. The next morning Savannah and I went swimming in the Indian Ocean and played on the beach after me and dad went Jogging. 

Knysna: In Knysna we had a great apartment with a pretty view. The first morning dad and I went jogging. That day we went to an elephant sanctuary. When we got there a man took us to the elephants where we got to put fruit in their trunks!!! Then the man took us to walk among them and we got to pat them. We even got to pat the baby!! Their skin was very tough.

When we were done with the elephants we drove to a place called Monkeyland (a monkey sanctuary and rehabilitation place) where I brought a t-shirt. We took a walk with a guide who took us through what used to be a part of Knysna forest. He told us that the paths we were walking on were made by elephants a long time ago! Now most of the wild elephants are gone but they believe 3 -6 elephants still lived in the forest. But the coolest part was all the monkeys. There were hundreds! We walked among many different kinds of monkeys all living together, not separated by cages. We saw about 30 to 40 lemurs in a family.  The guide told us that the lemurs were dumber than the other kinds of monkeys.

After seeing the monkeys, we went next door to Birds of Eden.  It was a self guided tour through a very large Avery.  There were a lot of very pretty birds. A cockatoo landed on the railing right next to us. Then a lady came over to us and told us that the cockatoo was very naughty and steals things like jewelry from you.  When we were at the end we looked at the netted roof and saw a few baboons sitting on the roof!!!!  

Another day we went to the beach. At the beach the water was absolutely FREEZING!!! And… Savannah and I went in. After a while my dad took Savannah and I to get snow-cones.

Our last day on the Garden Route we drove to Port Elizabeth and then flew to an airport near Kruger.

Kruger:

The schedule in Kruger was wake up at 4:45am do a game drive until 8:25 have breakfast at 9:00, free time until lunch at 3:00 and another game drive from 4:00 until 7:00 and then dinner at 8:00. Almost every free time I either swam or played chess, but one afternoon, a ranger named Jason played scrabble with Savannah and me. Another afternoon, a ranger named Ryan played monopoly with us.

Jason & Ryan with Jackson and Savannah

On the game drives these are the animals I saw:

The birds we saw were: rollers, (three kinds; European, lilac breasted, and purple breasted.) magpie shrikes, grey go-away birds, eagles, (brown, snake and fish.) pearl spotted owlet, barn swallows, buffalo weavers, quail, and hornbills, (red and yellow billed.)

pearl spotted owlette spotted by Jackson!!

The animals we saw where lions, buffalo, cheetah, giraffe, impala, elephants, wildebeest, hyena, jackal, warthog, bubbling casino frog and foam nest frog.

One of the two lazy lions

Giraffes

unhappy water buffalo

The baby animals I saw were baby leopard, baby water buffalo, baby giraffe, baby impala, baby elephant, baby wildebeest and baby warthogs!!

Baby leopard

After five days on safari, we left Kruger and went to Johannesburg.

In Johannesburg we went to the Cradle of Humankind. It is called the cradle of humankind because that is where they found the oldest hominid fossil (“Mrs. Ples”, who is 2.3 million years old!) A hominid is part human and part ape. In the cradle of humankind a guide took us into the caves where they found all the fossils! It was really creepy but really cool. When we got to the very bottom of the cave our guide showed us an underground lake. Another part of the cave you had to squat to walk though a small tunnel. At the exit of the cave we touched a statue of Dr. Robert Broom hands and nose. Robert Broom was the man who found Mrs. Ples and you touch his hands for knowledge and his nose for luck.

Jackson rubbing Dr Broom's nose for luck!

SOWETO    

We got a guide to show us round Soweto. Soweto means Southwestern Townships. Our guide told my dad directions(in the car) while telling us information about Soweto.  During apartheid, the whites made the black people live in Soweto and many still live there.  The houses are mostly shacks.  Many houses do not have water or electricity.  One of the stops we made was at tour guide’s house.  We walked around in the area where she lived and three little boys followed us around. When we stopped, my mom took a picture of them. When she showed them the picture she took, they boys didn’t know who was in the picture! Our guide had to tell them it was them. My mom said, “It’s you” then they mimicked her and said “YOU”. Later, we drove to the grocery shop and bought them some candy for our guide to bring back to them when she went home.

Our friends from SOWETO

Another stop was the Hector Pieterson Museum about the Soweto uprising in 1976.  My mom was the same age as Hector Pieterson who was shot in the uprising when he was 13 years old.  The uprising was because the South African government was making the students learn Afrikaans. It is like somebody telling you that you have to learn a language that will be useless to you when you are older.  

Hector Pieterson Museum

We also stopped at the Walter Sisulu Square.  Our next stop was Nelson Mandela’s house, which is now a museum but he lived in it before they took him to Robben Island.  In his house they had many awards that were given to him, and one of them was a plate from Bermuda.

I really wish that someday I can go back to South Africa, as I really enjoyed it and it was truly amazing to see.