Alsguth Travel Blog

 Hi - we flew to Cape Town from Johannesburg on Saturday night late - Sunday morning we began to explore this vibrant city. This is Table Rock - the famous landmark of CT. we did a helicopter flight to see the sights from the sky. The mountains around CT are not the tallest but they are sure beautiful! A view of Cape Point and the Soccer stadium from the recent World Cup. Nelson Mandela Gateway to Robben Island. Clock Tower. It is certainly not "fun" to visit a prison but for us a visit to South Africa is not complete without at least trying to gain some understanding of the struggles and the history of this country.  Robben Island is the prison island where Nelson Mandela, along with many other political prisoners were living out their sentence.  The guide, in purple, was himself once incarcerated at Robben Island for five years for political activisim.  He gave us a view / understanding of what life was like for the prisoners.  It of course was difficult but a...

Hi!  Always give the people what they want!  I assume you all want amazing pictures of animals ... these are some of the pictures that Carsten took.   Young Hyena. Impala Giraffe Hippos - they turned out to be super fun to watch and listen to ... kind of like a grumpy gus with a sort of snort/snore way of communicating. Elephant - we saw them splashing in the river having a grand time - like little children splashing in the rain. Blue Wildebeast - considered one of the "Ugly-5" Monkeys are always fun to watch! A rare white-lion.  There are only two in Krueger Park. We saw many birds of prey. Martial Eagle. Baby elephant! African/Cape Buffalo (another of the "Ugly-5") Zebra - lovely but quite skiddish!  Lilac-breasted Roller (my personal favorite) Sunrise in South Africa We are in Cape Town now - I will blog about that tomorrow if I am not too drunk from the wine tasting ... don't worry, we will not be driving! LOL Take care, Sheri & Carsten

 Hello, We have spent the last four days exploring Krueger National Park and the Greater Krueger Area. My personal battery as well as my phone battery are low so I will let the pictures tell the amazing story. We were at the Tropic of Capricorn.  This is the point where the sun is over the earth on the Winter Solstice (Dec 21) before it starts to come back North for the summer. [it's a nerdy thing ... but a cool thing] This baby elephant is probably only 3 months old.  The momma elephant trumpeted at us when we overstayed our welcome! Cool & a little scary. This is a young hyena.  Hyenas have the reputation of being ugly but these young hyenas and their pups were super adorable! Lots of giraffe!  We have a video of two females (they have to be sisters) "play" fighting!  So cool! a lioness. I have run out of adjectives ... fill in your own... Carsten has some really good pictures as well so this may be a two-part blog when I figure out how to make it wor...

On Saturday night we met up with our dear friends Falk & Svenni at the hotel in Jozi ... that is what the locals call Johannesburg. We have been traveling together for 32 years, this is our 11th trip - we have really seen the world together.  That night we celebrated with the South Africans winning the Rugby World Cup - that was a wild scene in the bar! Sunday we took a full-day tour of Jozi - we wanted to see what the largest city in SA had to offer. There is a lot of history here around Apartheid.  I cannot possibly do the subject justice in this short forum.  Basically from 1948 - 1994 there was a system of oppression meant to keep the native/black/colored/asian populations down. In June 1976 the "Soweto uprising" took place, led by students.  They were protesting the requirement that subjects in school be taught in "Afrikan" language - that none of them spoke.  They wanted to learn but could not under those circumstances.  15,000-20,000 students fro...

 Hello, I mentioned that I did not know what we were going to do today.  Well, it was amazing! A recap: We decided to do a morning safari in Zambezi National Park and we got so lucky to be the only two with our guide Tam.  He picked us up at 5:45 am - but that is fine because we are still pretty jet-lagged. We saw so many animals it was unbelievable honestly.  Here is a sample: warthog (Pumba) zebra - my "giddy" meter is going up quickly at this point Grey "goaway" bird - because of it's call. Somewhat obviously - a giraffe elephants were around as well. more giraffe more elephant this is an impala - we saw many of these, even saw them running / jumping away - so quick! a grey warthog little baboon family one of the big 5 (so named because they are dangerous to humans) - a water buffalo how about another impala marking his territory - reminds me of my grand-dog Rocco ! This is Tam, the truck and a little breakfast snack.  So lovely. This is a baobob tree.  ...