Authentique French B&B and Sun City

We travelled to South Africa overnight and then drove for some 3 hours to Rustenburg near Sun City. We had decided to try out a small B&B to get a feel for how the locals lived and picked the “Authentique French B&B” run by Alain and Francoise. (The latter was unfortunately ill and we did not meet her.) Alain was very entertaining and breakfast was a humorous 1.5 hour affair. There is something attractive about hearing jokes in English with a strong French accent.

Breakfast was in the dining room or out on the patio depending on the weather. Alain helped to organise a safari of Pilanesberg National Park. We undertook a self drive followed by a guided tour and BBQ held in the bush.

We saw some great wildlife. The zebra here was probably called Baloo as he had a great old scratch on this tree.

Meanwhile the McDonalds meal in the park (an Impala) was on constant lookout. This male was in a herd of males that stay together (more ears and eyes) while they sort out the pecking order and then join female groups.

One of the “Big five” (elephant, buffalo, lion and leopard being the others) was not in the least perturbed by any wildlife although he did appear a little agitated by our presence. Time to move on!

The animals swam past two by two….

Some of the birds were just spectacular. This is a Southern Red Bishop bird.Wild pig were also in abundance. Interesting the way they go down on their front knees to eat. They walk like this grazing. Meanwhile in “middle of road” was a dung beetle. How he missed being run over escapes me but once the ball was made promptly moved to a safer place.

The evening brought a spectacular sunset with a number of giraffe grazing. They are very elegant even when they have bitten off more than a mouthful.

Our guide for the late afternoon tour was great and could spot wildlife even in the dark with a torch. He hopped out of the vehicle to collect a chameleon he saw amongst the leaves in a tree and then brought it round for us all to see.

We then moved onto Sun City for a couple of days staying at the Cabanas and rejoined Kate and Alan who had been to Kruger where they had had an awesome time. We had high tea at the Palace….

A subtle little establishment!

We also got in a couple of games of golf. This is a par 3 on the Palace course. The tee is in the background up the hill (which is pretty steep) and gives a spectacular view. It is called the Croc. hole…

Because you have to hit across a pit containing 6 crocs. There were quite a number of balls in the pit! Fortunately Alan and I both drove our balls safely across but were nonetheless relieved to see there was a drop zone for those less fortunate.

From Sun City we moved to Pretorius for one night. In the evening we went to Loftus park to watch the Brumbies take on the Bulls. What an experience. It started with finding a car park, as we drove down the road runners stepped in front of the car encouraging us to run over them or follow them to a car park. It was chaos but after a while we selected one likely looking athlete, drove to his space and handed over the essential fee of $8! I suspect they could not get insurance for this amount.
The crowd was extremely vocal. Although most were very friendly there were one or two who would have been better off watching soccer. Loftus is huge and the match was very exciting for some 60 minutes as the Brumbies maintained a narrow lead. However, the last 10 minutes saw quite a swing and resulted in a loss of 50 to 32. Here Stirling is converting a penalty that was awarded within the first minute of the game.
We managed to negotiate our way safely out of the stadium and went to the Brumbies hotel where we briefly met Stephen Hoiles and Pat Mcabe (who scored a good try at the end of the game).

Brumbies Venture 2010

Sometime prior to the World Cup, rugby tragic Alan Scandrett and I convinced each other that we should have one season when we saw all the Brumbies matches from the sideline. During the World Cup in 2007 we committed to the venture in 2010. The Canberra Times got wind of the trip and printed an article with a picture at the airport as we took off for the first match in Perth. The attraction of such an article escapes me, it could hardly be to lift sales.

We arrived in Perth to a hot afternoon and after a couple of drinks and a meal meandered to the Force’s new Members Equity ground. Nice to be at a rectangular ground, close to the action rather than an oval ground built for some other game. The preliminaries were a little shy of Melbourne Casino’s flame show but were nonetheless entertaining.
We had seats at the Southern end (space does not allow me to relate the fiasco that occurred with Force management and Ticketmaster in getting reserved seating tickets).

We were close to where Stephen Moore scored the Brumbies second try. Here Stirling is lining up his conversion (successful).

Brumbies won 24 to 15 which was a just result given the former had 3 tries and the Force could only muster penalties. Particularly pleasing as I had picked the margin in the tipping competition.

We tried to catch up with the Brumbies at their hotel after the match but somehow missed them but did get to see all the Essendon AFL team (who were a bit down having lost to some Perth outfit).After a great nights sleep we set of for adventure aboard the Rottnest Express. What a great spot the island is. Everywhere we looked there was magnificent views. We took a hop on hop off bus trip around the island and did force ourselves off for one hop and visited the lighthouse. More great views.

We then relaxed back at the local restaurant at Thompson Bay and had a bit of lunch.
The only disappointment was that in our trip we had not seen a Quokka so at the end of the meal one obligingly decided to hop past –we did not even have to get out of our seats.

The trip back to the mainland was uneventful albeit a little rougher than on the way out which gave Helen pause for thought – thoughtful Kate decided to talk to Helen the rest of the trip to take her mind off her stomach!!
We had planned a romantic meal watching the sun go down over the water which is not something we can experience in the East. Unfortunately being Valentines day weekend everyone had the same idea so we had a rather more noisy meal in a pub and then walked to the sea front to see the sunset.

Beautiful and remarkable how quickly the sun sets.

The following day I took Kate and Alan to the airport (Helen and I stayed an additional day in Perth so I could run a workshop – all those tax deductions you know!). Our timing was perfect as we found the Brumbies training on the waterfront. I suspect we are going to get accused of stalking when we get to SA if we keep leaping out of cars, unexpectedly taking pictures and then roaring away without a g'day!

California (yes the USA)

We arrived from Ottawa to a significant lift in temperatures (99F or nearly 40C). We picked up a hire car and drove to our time share unit at Windsor in Sonoma country. This took longer than the expected 1.5 hours as San Francisco people clearly take an early mark on Friday afternoon and the traffic was very slow even at 14:30. As it continued at 40C we had a catch up day (blog writing etc) and then on Sunday drove into SF. Mind you we did not expect the change in temperature down to 17C. We had seen an article on the Californian Science Museum and had this near the top of the list for a 1 -2 hour visit. So much for our planning – it was so interesting that we left when the doors closed.
There were many great exhibits that we both enjoyed but the planetarium at the end of the day is a must see for any visitor. The 6 digital cameras have you flying out through the roof, hovering around the centre and then traveling out around the globe, moon, solar system, milky way and then other galaxies. The effects were so good I thought I experienced G forces as we swept through the skies. Just brilliant.

A wine tour was also a must as we were in the Californian wine area of Sonoma and Napa Valley. We went to four “ranches” (vineyard is much more romantic). The one at Battaglini was a small “Estate” winery (ie all they do occurs on their land – no imported grapes). The winemaker (Giuseppe "Joe" Battaglini) had some friction samples on display (for roads) and it turned out he was a civil engineer in a previous life which added a new dimension to the conversation.

He also had some very old vines (over 100 years). Not large grape producers but great history and flavour. The density of the grape bunches was really surprising. This is some of his Petite Syrah (or Durif as we know it). Apparently Syrah (Shiraz) was grafted with the Peloursin grape by Dr Durif in Southern France in the late 1800s.

We also had an interesting tasting in the middle of a field of a small specialist white winemaker. (They make reds in the Italian vineyard on Lake Como.) We succumbed to joining this club and receive some of their very limited bottle production. We came to the conclusion that the area produced excellent whites but we were less enthusiastic about the reds.

We were given a couple of German crystal glasses that I can now report have arrived safely back in Australia. We also now have an excuse to visit Northern Italy again. The Sauvignon Blanc and ‘1470’ Chardonnay were excellent.

The following day we opted for another trip to SF and started with a tour of Alcatrez.

The audio tour was narrated by both guards and inmates. The inmate Darwin Coon (bottom right) was actually in the prison when we left having written a book which he was signing. (Looked a bit different from this ‘photo.)

No escapes were apparently successful although there is a question over 3 escapees who (using spoons) slowly removed the grates from their cells and then climbed up onto the roof via the services gallery. It is unknown how they left the island but as the strong currents/cold water and sharks in the bay would make a swim a challenge it may be that they all drowned. Apparently nothing has ever been heard of the three (other than in a Clint Eastwood movie!).

A few inmates were quite well known. On the left is Capone (jailed for tax evasion – couldn’t get him on anything else). Apparently a fit and threatening character who slowly lost his mind as a result of Syphilis. Not the type you want your daughters to bring home.

The guards and some of the families lived on the island (and commuted regularly to SF) and developed some lovely gardens.

These and the view of the city were particularly difficult for the inmates. A free society only a couple of kilometres away.

The prison was shut in 1963 and later was the subject of an unsuccessful land claim by the native Indians. Now it thrives on a million tourists a year and is a wild life sanctuary.

Choosing where to eat wais a challenge. On our first trip we ate at pier 39 where Helen had some great halibut. The seals in this area are a huge attraction. They are certainly get up to some bizarre antics when they are in such numbers.

We also drove down “the crookedest street in the world”.

And of course had to enjoy a cable street car ride.

Looking over the bay from the street car with Alcatrez dominating the middle distance.

At the end of the week we took in some of the forests, starting with the oldest petrified forest in the world at 3.5 million years. Robert Louis Stevens visited in the early 1900s and was rewarded with one of the trees being named after him. Amazing history of a volcano eruption (near St Helen’s) knocking huge redwoods over, then being buried by ash, the timber slowly rotting and being replaced (at the microscopic level) by silica, then finally the ground being worn away exposing the petrified trees.

After the petrified trees we went to see one of the last stands of natural redwoods on the Californian coast. Some of the statistics are staggering – over 100 metres tall (tallest living thing on earth) 6 metres diameter. Their size makes it difficult to capture on a picture but…..

On the way to the airport we stopped in at Sausalito for an ice cream and final view of the city. A wonderful warm day with a small jazz band playing outside the nearby bar underscored our need to come back to SF and was a great way to end the holiday.

That and a view of the Golden Gate bridge.

So how to summarise such a varied trip? Awesome? Brilliant? Really a summary is not possible – but we are looking forward to doing some more tripping in 2010.