ZA to PARIS

update Nov 4

Oct 23
South Africa

Clearing immigration and customs out of Namibia and into South Africa was a no hassle experience as we were the only people there. We got our free condoms from South Africa, Namibia's box was empty. This border spot is open twenty four hours a day, so there was not a crowd waiting for the border to open at 7AM like the other areas.

for the next 2000 km the view was the same

 

 

Temperatures in southern Namibia and South Africa were running in the 40C plus range and on our first day in it was 45C. How hot is that? That is damn hot.....115F. So we turned west and headed for the beach again were the current from Antarctica brings cool temperatures to Port Nolloth, a dusty little small port town about three blocks deep, were we rented a cottage on the beach for a few days complete with our own flamingos, live ones, not those plastic ones, in our ocean view yard and the only restaurant, of the three, that is worth eating at is called Vespetti, after the Vespa. The temperatures did not fall until we were within ten km when the temperatures went from over a hundred degrees to sixty five Fahrenheit. Port Nolloth has none of the beauty of the Namibia ports we stayed in but it is cool. The first full day was foggy, cold and dreary, but the second day was sunny and gorgeous and we walked on the beach and rocks and watched our flamingos in the yard.

We spent three days covering the close to 2000 km back to Michaels house. When we arrived and he got home from his office he starting serving wine and that went on for the three days that we were there. Fortunately, we did have a break each day as he went off to work. We had a couple of fine meals. For my birthday, unknown to Michael until late as it is not a big day for me, he arranged for us to go to the unveiling of the Armani Vespa and the five star Pride of America Hotel and then out to a friend of his small restaurant.  James the owner is renowned for not only for his food, locally sourced and a lot grown on his farm, but as great promoter of small South African wineries. So, the food was excellent, but even better were the wines that he shared with us. I think it worked out to more than a bottle per person. We kicked around Michael's next adventure and covered lots of possibilities, from going up the west coast of Africa, to doing the four corners of the U.S., to doing that and adding South America. The easiest of the North and South America adventure would be to by a new scooter in the U.S., but Victoria, his beloved steed that took him across the African continent, is his ride of choice.

 

Setting on Michael's patio, Vicki and I both felt as though we had never left and the last two months had disappeared. We had traveled and seen some of the most spectacular nature and land and people in the world and it was just a blur now.

 

Thank you Michael for such great hospitality!!!

 

 a lot of this. On day three though, as we got closer to Johannesburg the traffic greatly increased, especially large trucks.

 

 This is some type of solar energy project

 

 We passed through a long area of massive ore and gold mining and saw long trains. This one evidently was a convertible.

 

 Every gas station is full service, windows, all of them, air, water and oil if you wish.

 

 We turned Son of Bucket of Bolts in after 12000 km. About four people came out to see it return. He has now crossed the 80000 km point and this was his last trip for Thrifty. He now goes to the auction block. To be honest I was not real sad to see him go.  Holding on with two hands for that long got real old.

 

 Johannesburg will soon have everything.  Why come home?

 

 

 

 

Michael saw us off with a fine bottle of champagne enjoyed on his patio in his back yard.  We caught the Uber to the airport, where we caught the overnight Air France bus to Paris.

 

 This whole trip is now a blur. There are a lot of fantastic things to see in southern Africa and even grander are the people.  They were always quick with a smile and a desire to help,  Over the two months I formed and reformed opinions about things here. Like earlier I wrote of my dislike of how the Botswana travel industry operates, but many people told me that, yes you can high end in the over priced lodges, but by far the most spectacular way to see the country is camping. Story after story of campers having lions, leopards, elephants, etc. just walk through their camp at night excited me.  We also had close encounters with the animals, but time after time Botswana came up as a great place to see camping.

 

My opinion of the Namibians wanting money for a picture also softened.  I read a newspaper article from the 50 or 60's, not sure exactly, of a researcher riding down the highway giving stuff to everyone he saw to the point that every time he drove back from the bush the road was lined with people with their hand out and the article wrote like that was a great thing. There are about 2.2 million people in Namibia and half of them have no jobs, so maybe collecting something for a picture is ok. It is just odd that one country demonstrates this trait. We did not see it in Botswana, where the unemployment rate is 20% (the over priced tourism must be working) or in South Africa where the unemployment rate is 43%.

 

So until we meet again.....

 

The Sun has Set on Southern Africa.......

 



 

 

 

Oct 31

 

"We will always have Paris"  Rick Blane........

 

 

Our apartment is just down the street for the Arc de Triumph.  We have several apartments around town that we rent, much better and cheaper than a hotel, but when we come from long trips with a stopover in Paris we always use Cobblestone Paris apartments.  It is all first class operation and you know when you walk in the door everything is there, coffee, sugar, etc., etc. including a rose, a bottle of wine and a some chocolate. We love shopping in the Paris markets, but being here just a few days it is nice to know that you don't have to.  In fact I have started having them stock the apartment with my desired first day items. It is really nice when you walk in and the baguette, the ham, and the cheese are there.  It was 7 Am when we arrived but there it was on the table and we sat right down and had some with the champagne, Veuve Clicquot, (the same that is drunk in Casablanca and most old black and with movies).

 

 

 

I like to walk the city as it wakes up.  This area is not as exciting as Montparnasse were we normally stay.  Ave de Grand Armee is the two auto mall.

 

 

 

 

 

We have spent five days in Paris having a calm time. The weather has been from sunny to drizzle but the temperatures have been mild in the 50's and 60's the whole time and we have followed our usual pattern of walking, a lot. Took a few days to get into it after setting in the SOB all those weeks but by day four we were in full stride.

We have certain natural duties on these trips. Vicki is in charge of entertainment, laundry, shopping and cooking. I am in charge of transportation, navigation, and anything computer, mechanical, or financially related and eating. We do a pretty good job of it, but as we age a few things go array## every now and then. I have a built in sense of direction but occasionally now I will find me gyros slowing down and I will miss a turn here and there, but not serious. Then again, we are never lost, just taking a different route .

Vicki too is experiencing this age related phenomena. Tuesday we set off to see the Louis Vitton museum. We had walked around it but never in it. We left the apartment about 9:30 and started walking and a lovely walk it was even in the occasion light, light rain, over the Blvd Peripherique, the inter ring highway around Paris, and through the woods to Vitton's house we went. Only to find that Vicki had made a error as it was closed today. And on the days it does open it does not open until high noon and we were there by 10:15. No worries, as the Australians say, we turned around and headed out through the forest and back into the city. We walked up the Grand Armee where we had coffee and got my glasses fixed for free. Around that Arc thingy and down the Champ Elysee, were we visited the Toyota and Renault show rooms. Around the Grand Palaice area they had started to construct all the little Christmas booths that line the grand avenue for the holiday. We sat down and took a rest. We had had a disappointing lunch yesterday as we failed the follow the cardinal rule of lunch, always get the plate dejour. So, for a sure thing we would go to the little brassiere we had found several years ago for the lunch, the Regent near the Place the Victories. We continued in the direction of the Louvre. At the Place the Concord Vicki was able to investigate the strange “thing” they had built next to the obelisk. It is a work of art of course having to do with the first light bulb or something of that nature that took place on that spot. I thought it was artists Christmas tree. It is temporary, like some much art in this town. They are crazy for art and I love it. We continued on through the Tuileries garden with the least number of people I can ever remember being there. Usually there are hawkers selling bottled water for one euro, but not today, so Vicki forked over three bucks for a bottle so she could take pills in order to help her back forget those crappy cushions in the Air France seats. We moved over to Rue de Rivoli, cut up left on Rue Croix petits Champs, left on Rue de Vrillirie, right before Victories, down to the end of the block were the Le Regent awaited.

This is a small, small place in the V of two streets. It is like a Cheers bar. Surprisingly there was a table available, but no room at the bar, which made getting to the table a challenge as there was no room between bar and the other tables. We knew most of the menu words but on describing the beuf we did not know one of the words. Long ago we gave up dictionaries and guide books as they never have what you want in them anyway. Clare, the waitress, yelled over to Jennifer at the bar for an interpretation of the word and three or four people in the place including the lady next to us said something. We said “what”, they said again “Scottish”. So in the end we figured out that it was a piece of beef of a Scottish cow, very thick the waitress signed, and mashed potatoes. Afterwards we ordered coffee and I ordered a Oie de Vie, the French version of grappa. They had none but the chef came out and recommended a good orange congac and I followed his recommendation. This is a great place to set and and watch the inside of the bar as opposed to the normal view outside. Almost every one coming in got the double kiss from the staff indicating that they all knew and liked each other. Clare was sneaking her boyfriend a glass when the chef/owner was not looking. I got a lot of thumbs up from the bar when I received the cognac. Leaving was a grand ceremony after I told the chef that every time we come to Paris we eat in his place at least once and he was very pleased.

There was a metro station right out the door at the Victoiries, and our plan had been to catch it there as it had been a long walk and we were just getting our walking legs back, but we needed to walk off some of the lunch. So we wandered back through some alleys and the Palais Royal garden and caught the metro at the Louvre, which took us to the Arc de Truimph and we walked home via Ave de McMahon arriving at 37 Ave des Ternes just before four. Now the qeustion was, take the elevator or the stairs up the apartment on the fourth floor. I was hoping the painters were still working on the narrow stairs thus forcing me into the elevator, but they were nowhere to be seen, so up the stairs we went. Strange these stairs. No floor has the same number of steps in the small winding staircase.

Another great day in Paris done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday Paris in the rain.

 

 

 

(If you wish to know about the real Paris, click this link sent to me by Ed Chappel. The Real Paris It is on CNN and a little heavy with ads. Click here)

Tomorrow, November 5^th, we will be going home. We always wait until after the election, even if we are voting on nothing, and we do vote via email, to go home. It has been a great journey, but the elephants playing the water and the lions trying insure they have a future generation and the zebra's, all the damn zebra's that Vicki loves, are fading memories and thus the reason for these blogs. I greatly enjoy all of you that come along via the web and send their comments and questions and I thank you.

 

But in the end, it is also my memory box, where a lot of the great times are stored forever.

 

I encourage, as always, that you get out of your comfort zone and go create memories of your own, and if you chose, share them with us.

Thank you.

Now lets get home and see what is in this damn birthday envelope from my longest known friend....Bob, and that lady that has tolerated him all these years..

 

If I can get the videos loaded when I get home I will put them under a "Video" page.

The Sun Sets on Paris