Roy, Deb and Ashley Giampoli
Tom, Lynn and Amy Vogelsinger
Chicago
- USA
23 July 2005
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The Giampoli's and Vogelsingers were caught up in a SAA strike when arriving in South Africa meaning that their flight to Cape Town from Johannesburg was delayed for 9 hours. After a long flight + waiting time in Johannesburg airport they arrived at the Cape Grace hotel on 22 July just before midnight.
The following morning we set out on a Hermanus tour at 10h30
Roy, Ashley, Deb, Amy, Lyn and Tom with False Bay in the background
Ashley and Amy enjoying pancakes in Kleinmond
The ladies in the group in front of the Kleinmond beach
Roy and Deb at Kleinmond
The sixsome with Hermanus in the background.
Whale spotting at Severs Point in Hermanus
We spotted many whales at the point with some whales coming to within about 100
yards from us
The happy sixsome on Severs Point
We travelled on to Kwaai Water where on arrival we suddenly heard Tom scream out loudly "HOY BREACH" and we then saw two whales breaching about 1 km out to sea.
We had some chips for lunch on the Hermanus walkway which the seagulls finished for us JJ
We stopped in at the Peregrine fruit stall in Elgin on our way back to Cape Town
In the evening we had dinner at The Africa Cafe. Here we see the sixsome with our waitress Tozi
Shopping in the Africa Cafe shop
Day 2
24 July 2005
Cape Peninsula
Our day started out with a visit to the Bo-Kaap (Upper Cape Town) region where I took this picture of the sixsome in front of Table Mountain
Ashley does the Titanic on Table Mountain.JJ
Doing the Table Mountain shuffle JJ
Having fun on Table Mountain
Posing in front of Muizenberg
Amy and Ashley with Just Nuisance
Ashley showing off her gymnastic skills to Just Nuisance. JJ
At the Penguin Colony on Boulders Beach
Shadowy humans watching penguins. JJJJ
At Cape Point
The sixsome with the Cape of Good Hope in the background
Ashley does her great acrobatic trick at Cape Point - Go get em girl! JJ
In the funicular at Cape Point
Babboon action at "Ape Point". JJ
Tom says "Now listen buddy is this place called Cape Point or Ape Point?" JJ
The girls having fun with the baboons
Sunset at Kommetjie
What a way to end an incredible day!
Day 3
25 July 2005
Chapmans Peak, Stellenbosch and Kayamandi
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We started our day on Chapmans Peak where Amy and Ashley decided to take the plunge. JJ
All of us on Chapmans Peak
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The girls having fun on Chapmans Peak
We travelled on to Stellenbosch and Kayamandi after our visit to Chapmans Peak and the Atlantic seaboard
We first stopped in at the Isibana Sempulelo creche (Light at the end of the tunnel creche) where the following photos were taken
After our visit to the creche we travelled up to Ernie Els's winefarm
Signing the guestbook at the farm
In the wine cellar
Tom having fun in Ernie Els's private tasting room
Enjoying a winetasting at the winefarm
Both families standing outside the entrance of the winefarm
We travelled back to Kayamandi after our visit to Ernie Els's farm
Inside Nosandile's shack
Outside Nosandile's shack with Mzwake and Tshepo joining in for the picture
Playing soccer in the street with the kids of Kayamandi
The soccer teams
Having fun with the kids in Zone J
With Mzwake at the Water Church
Enjoying the singing of Bana Bagotso (Children of Peace)
After our experience with Bana Bagotso we travelled back to Cape Town
FANTASTIC DAY!
The Giampoli's and Vogelsingers were two fabulous families to travel with. Everybody in the group had so much to bring to the tour that it simply had to work. We had wonderful experiences together be it from whalewatching to choir singing. All in all I can but only hope that a fabulous experience was had by all; I certainly know that my time with these two wonderful families certainly represented three memorable days that are going to be hard to forget.
THANKS A TON FOR ALL
GIAMPOLIS AND VOGELSINGERS
and a BIG THANK YOU from the people of Kayamandi for your very kind generosity
Received 10 August 2005
Dear Selwyn,
We've been home now for less than a week, and already we miss Africa! We've
already started to talk about when we might get back to your amazing country!
Thank you for showing us the best that Cape Town has to offer - enough of
the "tourist" stuff so we didn't feel like we missed anything (that is,
anything that could reasonably be squeezed into three short days), but
enough of the "off-the-beaten-track" stuff so we feel like we really got to
know the place - not just look at it from the outside, but really get inside
and know it. As so many of your guests have been, I'm sure, we were all
deeply impacted by what we experienced at Kyamandi - what a
remarkable bunch of people we met there - but the best part, I think, is the
impact it had onAmy and Ashley. Teenagers (especially ones from well-off
families in the U.S.) are very hard to impress, but this visit reached them in
some very surprising and powerful ways. They talked all the way home about
how they might organize something back in the U.S. to help the people
there - things like Church mission efforts, and fundraising; buying and sending
soccer balls and art supplies for the preschool, taking their pictures of the kids
and blowing them up poster size and sending them to Nosandile to decorate
the walls of the preschool...we'll be in touch to get your thoughts about
the best way to make a difference there. And Roy, who tends to be much more
analytical than emotional, said that he found himself very moved by the
preschool, the kids in the streets, and the spirit of the people there.
Every day that we were in Cape Town, we saw something (sometimes several
somethings) that "blew us away" - and we've so enjoyed "reliving" the
experiences in the pictures that we took (we'll forward some of them to you
when we have a chance to get them organized a little better).
Thank you for your warm spirit, your love for Cape Town (it really is
contagious), your patience with all of us, and your delightful sense of
humor. You were a pleasure to spend our days with there.
Your tour was a remarkable start to an amazing holiday - and set the tone
for the rest of the trip. We left Cape Town for Victoria Falls (well worth
seeing - breathtaking!), then Chobe Chilwero, where we saw a herd of
elephants taking a mud bath (more like a mud party!), then to Chief's Camp
where we saw a leopard kill a warthog not 15 feet from our Land Rover, Mala
Mala, where we tracked 3 lionesses who were looking for their cubs, and
eventually found them and had a wonderful reunion (they must've been out
hunting for several days), and Ulusaba, where we saw a black rhino (first
sighting there in more than 10 years, and first ever sighting for our 31
year old, "bush-raised" tracker)! and so much more that I wouldn't know
where to begin to tell you about all of it...We saw and experienced so much
that we're still having a hard time "processing" it! (Our family alone -
Roy and Ashley - took more than 6,000 pictures, and there wasn't a blank
page left in my journal by the time we boarded the plane for home!)
Thanks again, Selwyn, for giving us experiences we'll never forget...we will
be in touch...God Bless.
Deb Giampoli
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