We travel
One of our hobbies is travelling.
At the beginning we made short trips to Italy, then came a flight to Mallorca. Later we dared to travel to North Africa where we visited three times Tunesia and several times Egypt.
After this Christine expressed the desire to go to South Africa. Emanuel lived in Johannesburg and Durban from 1974 till 1976 and then made the journey back home to Switzerland by Volkswagen Bus. He knew South Africa from this time quite well, could however not make up his mind for a vacation. He had a bad feeling because of all the crime reports made in the news. Not that he was scared, but the thought not to be able to move freely everywhere as he used in former times, disturbed him. Christines persistence finally made him to bury his doubts. For the first journey to South Africa we booked a three weeks round trip from the catalog, extending the it by one week to stay longer in Durban and Cape Town. It was the classical route from Johannesburg to Krugerpark, then down south through Swaziland to reach Durban. From there by plane to Port Elizabeth from where we continued with a rented car. Allong the the Garden Route, with a excursion to Oudtshoorn, and finally arrived in Cape Town. Before the journey, Emanuel contacted his former bosses in Durban and Gansbaai. We visited them, and still keep in touch.
Since this time we visited also other countries of Southern Africa. Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe pleased us also very well. The longest journey took us 8 weeks and led from Johannesburg, to the Okavango delta, by the Caprivi, in to the Etosha national park, then Windhuk. From there direction south till Cape Town with a stopover in the Cedarberg's and then along east coast to end in Durban.
In 2009 we hade our grandchild Marco with us on a 4 weeks round trip through Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
Once Christine said, we could drive from Switzerland to South Africa. After dropping his initial doubts Emanuel agreed to this idea, now it's our plan for the time after our retirement. There will be sufficient time for such a long travel. 2009 we bought a Mercedes 310 with four-wheel drive. In former times it served as a fire-brigade vehicle. Build in 1987 it’s not the youngest, however it has scarcely 17' 000Km on the counter. Now it will be converted to a camper. Which will still take some time, and we have time to test him befor we start the long yourney.
Whe named him Nelson after Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.