Brian Patrick Abbott

South Africa

  1. 1. Cape Town

  2. 2. Overberg

  3. 3. Garden Route

  4. 4. Addo

  5. 5. Wild Coast

  6. 6. Zululand

  7. 7. Drakensberg

  8. 8. Karoo

  9. 9. Winelands

Trip Map

Map of my South African trip

The trip began on the brutal, 15-hour flight from JFK to Johannesburg, with a few-hour layover for the 2-hour flight to Cape Town.

I spent eight days in Cape Town, much of which was spent at the conference with some padding on either end, then set off for the Overburg on Day 9 with Jackie. We spent Day 15 on the Indian Ocean coast in Zululand, near the Mozambique border.

We spent a few days in the Drakensberg Mountains, then on Day 19 set off for Graaff-Reinet in the Karoo. We dropped back into the Garden Route town of Wilderness on Day 20, then a stop at the vineyards, and then we were heading back to NYC on Day 23.

Introduction

In March 2010, I traveled to South Africa for three weeks. My main reason was to attend the Communicating Astronomy with the Public conference in Cape Town. After the conference, my friend Jackie joined me from New York and she and I traveled around the country for two weeks, from the southwestern city of Cape Town to the north east coast, and parts in between.

This will be my second visit to Africa. My first visit was to Morocco in 2004, the northern, Arab-flavored state sandwiched between the Sahara and the Mediterranean, but now I’m heading to the opposite extreme—the southern, European-flavored part of Africa.

I am not without concern. First, I have never driven a car on the opposite side of the road. Nor have I driven from the opposite side of the car. And, South Africa has one of the highest rates of automobile accidents in the world.

Crime is a national obsession, will I encounter any problems? As in any foreign land, I am always willing to give people the benefit of the doubt, after all, people (or most people, at least) just want a peaceful, comfortable life. And, New York City is certainly good for sharpening my awareness skills. But, the economic disparity in South Africa is stark, and this makes a tourist ultra conspicuous.

All of these weigh heavily on my mind, and I asked everyone I knew in the country how much stock I should put in these concerns. They were always reassuring.

My visit to South Africa confirmed my suspicions that the country has many similarities with America. It is culturally diverse and is a destination for Africa’s immigrants and Europe’s ex-pats. It is ecologically diverse, with tropical forests, arid deserts, and green pastures. It has a history, albeit more recent, of racially based turmoil and strife, with a dispossessed populace. While the culture of South Africa is unlike that of the US, I see many parallels between the two countries.