Preparation
Sally and I had been talking about an African trip for sometime. Originally we were thinking of going to Nigeria. Sally was there from 1964 to 1966 as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and she wanted to see the place again and see if she could find any of her old students, a kind of nostalgia trip. But a trip to Nigeria seemed too dangerous, especially when the US State Department was warning all U.S. citizens not to travel to Nigeria. Crime was and still is rampant particularly in Lagos where Sally lived and wanted to go. The travel warnings were as follows: Tourist have experienced armed muggings, assaults, carjacking, kidnappings and extortions, often involving violence. In addition Americans have experienced harassment at checkpoints and shakedowns during encounters with Nigerian law enforcement officials. That was enough to change our plans.
Although South Africa was reported to also have some security problems, it seemed safer than Nigeria. So by May of 2009, we were ready to start preparations for our South African trip. We were debating about going with a group or doing it on our own. It is much more interesting to go on your own, than with a group on a prepared trip. Yet it was a very difficult decision for me because when we are on our own, we have to worry about everything. Despite that, we decided to go on our own, partly because the people in South Africa speak English, at least that what we thought. But, as you read this, I warn you not to take my advice. Going on your own is very difficult. Besides, going with a group to Africa is also very exiting. However, when you’re on your own, it becomes more of a journey, and the journey takes on its own life. This is when the trip can become very difficult and at the same time, it becomes very real. This then was a very serious moment in the planning phase. Once this decision was made and we had bought our tickets and reserved our hotels, there was no going back.
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The following is a high-level chronology of our preparations:
5-12-09 called Craig Pollard 415-xxx-xxxx Gretchen’s friend at Delta Airlines. He handled our standby tickets. We charged our Buddy Pass to a credit card, approximately $350.00 per person one way. Very nice!
5-15-09 I read more about the trip and I was worried, but still liked the idea.
5-27-09: Going with a group or on our own? That was the question. I was still thinking.
6-06-09 Things we would like to do in South Africa:
Johannesburg, Cape Town, and possibly Kwa Zulu Natal, Kruger National Park, Victoria on another before it filled up. It was $939.00 pp plus $200 each for the local guides. This was a very serious move in the Falls in Zambia, Chobe National Park, Botswana, Etosha Park in Namibia. We had not thought of Zimbabwe.
6-10-09 the plan was coming together. George Soloki sent me some more information about the GAP tour to Namibia and since we were very interested in Namibia, we signed up immediately because the tour was getting full and we had to decide immediately. At this point, we have made the decision that we would be going on our own and we were married to the trip. There could be no more bemoaning about what we should do or what we should have done. We were together in our plan, us against the world. But still the journey had no particular purpose beyond “Seeing Africa”. But not long after that, by accident – as we were discussing what we wanted to do, we decided on the end point of the trip -- The Great Zimbabwe Ruins. To get to the ruins became the goal and things had to be organized with that in mind.
6-18-09 we went to Kaiser. Since we were going to Namibia, we had to get immunized against Hepatitis A and a Polio booster shot (inactive virus).

The following is what I packed:
Medications: In addition to my regular medication I took malaria medicine, also 20 tablets of 600 mg Ibuprofen, 10 tablets of 500 mg ciprofloxacin (against diarrhea), 20 tablets of Tylenol with Codeine, some Swiss Kriss herbal laxative and Metamucil.
Clothing: 3 socks, 3 underwear, 3 T-shirts, 2 long pants, 1 short pants, 2 turtlenecks, 1 sweater, 2 hats, 1 leader shoe, 1 walking shoe, 1 worm jacket, sleeping gear, vest, scarf and hats and gloves.
Miscellaneous: Wristwatch, map of Africa, 2 digital cameras with several disks, Digital camcorder, pocket knife, a big bag of nuts and fruits, and 2 books book for reading (Jacob Needleman recommended that I read Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson, but I took only the first 380 pages, and the Lonely Planet.

Day 3&4 Tuesday Wednesday July 7-8 we were up by 7:00 am in the morning and out by 8:00am. We walked away from our hotel very fast for the one block to Park Station to lessen my anxiety. The plan was to catch the Shosholoza train to Cape Town (Shosholoza is also a folk song). This Shosholoza-Meyl train is a very comfortable long distance train and it would have taken us to Cape Town for 280 Rand, but there were no sleeping cars that day. The train takes a day and a night to cover the 1300 kilometers, so it would have been difficult without the sleeping car. That is why we had to find some other way to get to Cape Town. The SA Roadlink Bus company was leaving at 11:00 which was in an hour. The trip with them would be 18 hours for 450 Rand per person 900 Rand for the two of us. 900 Rand is about $135 dollars – still not too bad. We took it because we had to get out of Johannesburg. The bus was a double-decker and we went to the top and took separate seats from each other, so we had an additional seat next to us to put our stuff and we could also stretch out and possibly sleep. As I got on the bus I talked to the driver, a very big white South African man and he assured me that the ride would be safe and smooth. My anxieties subsided somewhat, but only on the surface. Deep down I was still jittery. South Africa is great, except for the security. I was still scared from reading the US Travel Advisory. Tourists like us are targeted and frequently robbed. The questions that came up in my mind were like “What am I doing here? Why on earth did I come here?” But the reality was that I had dreamt about coming to Black Africa since I was a child and now I was here and in reality it was fantastic! I was feeling better, and the adventure was on. The road was smooth and the ride was great and I was taking pictures as we were leaving the city. Sally was also excited about the trip, and she also took a lot of pictures. She also watched the onboard TV a lot. I continued reading Mr. Gurdjieff and slept a little. We arrived in Cape Town in the very early morning, around 4:30 am the next day. The place was still dark and empty, but there was a cab there. We took it to the Penthouse Hostel on Long Street for 20 Rand (3.00 dollars). The hostel was on the 6th floor and we had no problem getting into bed. Sally, thank God reserved this place for us for 4 nights for $30 dollars a day a real bargain. The hostel was clean and was centrally located. We slept until noon and than we decided to get up and look around the city. But first we had to eat something, so we went next door to an Indian restaurant and we had something vegetarian. After that, we started walking down on Long Street toward the Cape of Good Hope Castle. As we were walking there we stumbled on the First Dutch Congregational Church. I will write about this later, because we went in there again. We were anxious to find the castle and we had to ask for directions several times, but we found it. The castle was built toward the end of the 17th century, in the late 1600’s exactly between 1666 and 1679. We didn’t go in because it was closing when we got there. Maybe we should have. Apparently this is the oldest structure in South Africa. The "castle" was actually a defensive fort to protect the Dutch settlers. We took a lot of pictures there than went on to the District Six Museum: This area was the name of a former inner-city residential area which is known for the forced removal of over 60,000 of its people during the 1970s by the Apartheid regime. I spent a half hour with Mr. Noor the founder of the museum, and he told me that this was a terrible thing that the government did to this district. Because of this the peole are still suffering. Later on we, went in to the Woolworth Building to rest and relax a little and just watch people coming and going. We got back to our hostel around 9:00 pm.

Day 1&2 Sunday and Monday July 5-6. We’re to leave for Africa this morning. Delta flight #46 leaves SF at 6:00 am to Atlanta and from there in the evening at 8:05 another Delta flight #200 leaves for Johannesburg. Both Sally and I were up by 3:45 in the morning. I felt good and full of anticipation. I took a shower and packed my red backpack with food and some of my medications and one book Gurdjieff’s Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson. This bag is my carry-on, I’ll check through my green bag with my clothes and my sleeping bag. I called Sergio Torres, our neighbor; he took us to the airport. We got to the airport ahead of time and checked in at the standby counter. By flying standby we can only get on the plane if there were some empty seats. We were lucky; we got onto the 6:00 am Atlanta flight. Although we had to sit separately, we were on our way. In Atlanta we ate our sandwiches and waited, and waited, and waited. But we got lucky again, we not only got onto the Johannesburg flight, but we got seats in the Elite Business class. This was a major victory, because this means that we had a bed, so I could lie down horizontally, not to mention all of the other amenities. It started with champagne and orange juice I think they called it a “mimosa.” The dinner was also exceptional and after that I made my bed. I was reasonably comfortable and listened to some music and started to read the Gurdjieff book. This is a difficult book to read, and people who are not familiar with the Gurdjieffian system would not understand it at all. I’m somewhat familiar with his teachings, but still I had to force myself to read it. He raises a very important question “What is the sense and significance of life on Earth and human life in particular?” Wow! Very few people dare to tackle that question.
Much later I wrote the following in my diary on the plane: This is probably Monday already and we’re flying over the Atlantic Ocean close to Africa, and I just had my breakfast of croissants with butter and preserves. I had a difficult night, but I did sleep. I was thinking about the return trip already. Why am I thinking of the return trip already!? My God! The 1969 movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid” came to my mind, particularly the scene where Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) says as he encourages the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) to jump into a river way below, the only way of escape. Redford says “but I can’t swim” and Paul Newman replies “What are you worrying about not being able to swim? The fall will probably kill us anyway.” So why am I thinking about how I will be coming back? The question should really be “will I be coming back at all?”

After 15 hours in the air we arrived in Johannesburg around 6:00 pm. We easily got through emigration and as I walk out, I saw people with name cards picking up people. Nobody picked us up. I changed about 100 dollars to South African Rends with the exchange rate of 7:1 much better than I would have gotten back in Atlanta which was 6:1. I felt completely lost, but Sally was alert and was thinking about taking the local bus to downtown to our hotel, but common sense prevailed and we got a cab for 250 Rends to take us to the Formula Inn Hotel. Formula Inn is right behind Park station in the black section of Johannesburg next to the train station and the bus station. I felt very unsafe even in the car, but my fear diminished once we were in the hotel. We were 10,000 miles from San Francisco, but this was our home, because your home is where your bed is. We went to bed happy this is our first night in South Africa.