Sounds pretty incredible, wish I had a spare $17k laying around...

South African Wine Tour & Safari

$16,750 per couple.

Daddy, will you take me with you?

Some of the most exciting days of my life were spent on a 10 day Safari/Cape Town wine country visit four years ago. Maybe you don't want to take this particular trip but if you can I'd get there in the next couple of years before it is really spoiled.

Evenings on the back deck at tent camp... elephants, hippos and monkeys, oh my. A gun, port and cigars, oh my oh my!

I'm gatting all kinds of mail for these junkets. $17k is the low end.

Don't they know I'm a doctor?

SA is a great country to visit, especially for first time US travelers to Africa. Then again, I really don't consider SA to be an "African" country. At the same time, it is beautiful, in terms of people, places, sites, animals, etc. If one ever has a chance to visit, he/she must go.

Doc

My visits to Johannesburg and Cape Town were actually pretty scarry. Hotels keep their outside doors locked all the time and the doors are guarded by armed guards. Taxi drivers carry guns in plain sight. I felt safe in the "tourist" places including some very nice restaurants but step out doors at your own risk. Just my experience.

Now get out of SA and go on a good safari in a nice tent camp... that is living. I stayed in a tent camp that we had to hike about 1.5 miles in to the brush after leaving the Cesna on a dirt runway. The tent Tricia and I had was only a little bit nicer... than the Presidential Suite at The Plaza Hotel in NYC.

Davidn,

When were you there last and what places did you stay at? The safari sounds great.

I go pretty regularly to SA (i.e., Jo-burg, Cape Town, Pretoria, Grahmstown, Nature's Valley, Port Elizabeth, etc.). I have never had a problem or ever felt in danger.

Cheers,
Doc

One of my clients is an African tour operator and we had a sales meeting in SA about 3 years ago. Really enjoyed Cape Town, stayed at the Cape Grace and the Table Bay Hotel, only one night in Jo 'berg, but stayed in Sandston, on the outskirts...not downtown as you definitely DON'T want to be there after dark...one night in Sun City at the Lost Palace...felt like Disneyland meets Las Vegas...played golf on the Gary Player designed course there where you had to avoid the alligator pen at the front of the par 3-17th green (I think)...DON'T retrieve your ball...followed by two nights at a lodge in Kruger National Park, the name escapes me but was really nice...also did a brief visit to the Stellenbosch region...would have liked to have more time there but my time wasn't my own...great trip although I think I preferred the less developed tourist infrastructure of Tanzania...just my 2 cents...

T-Rep

I was very keen on taking my two boys on a safari in a few more years.

Then one of my lawyer friends told me about a case he is involved in where a sleeping 10 year old boy was dragged out of one of the tents by hyenas and killed. So I think I might wait a few more years, until the boys get a little bigger (and some firearms training).

On a different note, the people I know who have been to SA tell me that the Cape area is the most beautiful wine region in the world.

Rothko:

I had heard that the kid killed by the hyenas opened up his tent at night when he heard noises outside and that the hyenas got him then. The word in the safari industry was that it was his own fault...who knows??

I was only in the SA wine country for an afternoon but as I recall it, it's quite nice, with mountains surrounding the vineyards, Dutch styled buildings and good restaurants. A definite must for anyone going to Cape Town.

T-Rep

This is from the Complaint that was filed in Broward County:

"During the safari, on or about July 19, 2000 in Botswana, Garrit was sleeping alone in a tent at the camp site when one or more hyenas entered his tent and dragged him away. The hyena(s) then mauled Garrit to death, decapitating him."



I am glad I don't practice personal injury/wrongful death cases. They can just tear your heart out (no pun intended).