Destination: Cape Town

At this point in our African roadtrip, we just wanted to get back to Cape Town. After waking up in a snake sanctuary, I wanted/needed a little more luxury. As stated earlier in this travel series, this was my first time camping/roadtripping/doing anything adventurous. Now that we had seen animals, natural wonders, and finally gotten to Victoria Falls– it was time.

We drove quite the distance over the course of these two days. To be honest, nothing exciting really happened.

Kimberley, South Africa

The most exciting part was arriving in Kimberley. Because we had been camping for so many days, we decided to splurge on a backpacker/hotel. By splurge, we mean spend $35 USD rather than $10 USD. This was the first time in 9 days that I was able to take a shower without having to walk to a tent in flip flops while my feet were getting dirty again 🙂

The picture below holds a lot of emotion for me. We had run out of peanut butter sandwich making supplies so we had to get fast food. If you know Maxwell and I at all, you know that we are anti-fast food (other than Taco Bell). We had to get KFC because it was the only place open in Kimberley by the time we arrived. In the drive through, we were outed as Americans by the drive through attendant. She gathered the skeleton staff and as three South Africans were squeezing in the window to get a few words in the conversation with us.

Among the questions asked:

• “Why are you here in the middle of nowhere?”
• “Why are you in South Africa?”
• “Why are you so blonde?”

My favorite:

• “How’s Obama?”

No, my dear South African friends, I had not spoken to him recently. But from what the news says, he is good.

We enjoyed the luxurious “hotel” room. In this picture, I’m crying over food- we were beyond HANGRY-, wrapped in a towel because our Air Conditioning was broken and constantly running, and eating furiously first to get to then take a shower and be in for the night. Though I loved this roadtrip- I was almost done with patience.

Hot mess KFC dinner in Kimberley, South Africa

The next and final day, we woke up slowly because we only had about 9 hours of driving left. And since we were arriving in Cape Town, we could get into Maxwell’s apartment at any time of night.

We decided to get breakfast in an actual restaurant. After being served our fresh fresh fresh squeezed orange juice, we were delighted. Within 5 minutes, an elderly South African lady who only spoke Afrikaans decided to park her shopping card behind (?) my chair so she didn’t have to have it by her chair and could enjoy space during her breakfast. The personal space and consideration is just plain…different.

Breakfast in Kimberley, South Africa. Please note the shopping cart parked behind me.

Back in Cape Town, South Africa

After 9 hours- we arrived back in Cape Town. We went to dinner at Maxwell’s favorite spot, Cocoa Wah Wah, and enjoyed a bottle of wine.

Enjoying wine at Cocoa Wah Wah in Cape Town

Francistown, Botswana to Kimberley, South Africa

Kimberley, South Africa to Cape Town, South Africa

Overall African Roadtrip thoughts:

When we were planning this roadtrip, I remember Maxwell being hesitant about doing it. Victoria Falls is VERY far from Cape Town and there was so much that could have gone wrong. Looking back, there were situations that could have gone differently and really ruined our time. We believed that this road trip would happen and work out so we committed to it.

Also, it may have been mentioned before but this was really our first extended time together. We met in the summer of 2013 when Maxwell was living in Cape Town and we had three weeks in person to meet, date, and commit to being in a long distance relationship. We spent more time in 2013 in Africa together than the USA. 

This trip solidified our relationship and showed that the essential communication skills were there which lead to a great foundation. Once I committed to going to Africa 5 months later, our relationship was a no brainer and this roadtrip was a major part of that. This is why we moved back to Cape Town when presented the opportunity <3

-Leeann