Day 1 (19 January 2014) in Hermanus, South Africa

Wow! After more than 16 and half hours on the air, I arrived safely in Johannesburg. Humm! South African airline is very much ok; not my best nor my worst choice. The immigration process is relatively laidback. However, one thing staggered me, which I have never done it in any of my travels before. The lady who was making queue direction before we see an officer requested me to take off my eye glass, which is not sun glass but normal glass that helps my poor sight. I said okay—and took it off, and then she asked me to wear it back. Humm! That is peculiar, and I’ve no idea why she queried me to do that. After I passed the security, I decided to convert local currency. O! man, I guess the South African government do not have shortage of hard currency like many other African countries do. I said this because; they charged crazy commission, i.e. about 16%.

 Descending to Cape Town

 Looking down to Cape Town Suburb

Then I progressed to my connection flight and boarded the plane to Cape Town ontime without any delay. Looking down Cape Town, the beautiful beach side city, looks amazing. At Cape Town international airport I was then greeted by my host (Dr John Bosco) from SANSA (South African National Space Agency). He acquainted me with the driver of the SANSA car and another young fellow who came to the airport with them. I was a bit fatigued, unfortunately there is more to reach the final destination; excess of an hour drive to Hermanus where SANSA is located. Actually it was fun driving with people that you know well, eyeing the beautiful landscape on our way to Hermanus. Now I know why South African is known with magnificent wines; I have witnessed a lot of wine farms on my way to Hermanus. 

 Here we go to Hermanus

At Hermanus, you cannot find that many good hotels instead quite a number of guest houses with great quality are in abundant. I was taken to one of these guest houses. After I checked in, John offered me two options: (a) to have relaxed and got rest for the day or (b) to be fetched after an hour and be taken to the beach (this time Indian ocean). To make my colleague (back at BC) jealous as they are in the middle of freezing, I picked the second option and went to the beach which is amazingly beautiful. After we have an early dinner and glass of beer, my John drove me around and showed me two opposite way of life suburbs within this small town. Finally, before he drove me back to my cave, he took me a beach side bar, which looks like “white only bar”, because I did not see any, other than the waiters. That was my first day. See you tomorrow!!

Enjoying the Indian Ocean sea breath