Stephen,

Thanks for you email. 

Yes, unfortunately I am home and back to work agian ;-(   My mother did great, in fact, much better than expected, and she can't stop raving about the trip.

Everything went very smoothly except for one hiccup on the part of South African Air. 

 At the time, I was really burned up about them bumping us from our flight from Joberg to Hoesdespruit, despite the fact I checked in an hour before the flight as was recommended by the airline. 

They said that the plane was over their weight restriction and therefore could only issue one of us a ticket. 

They suggested one of us go and the other wait around until the next flight which I told them was not an option. 

 They gave us the run around in the airport, kept telling us conflicting information, made us check our bags, then refused us boarding at the gate. 

They made me run back though security to retreive bags, then recheck bags for a later flight.

No one from SAA would even help me make a phone call to the emergency number so I could arrange/confirm for a later pickup at the Hodespurit airport.  They couldn't have been more inept.

 Man was I angry, but we made it there with about 2 minutes to spare before the afternoon game drive, and thus the whole thing turned out to not matter much in the end.  Other than that, everything went off perfectly...even my driving on the "wrong" side of the road for the first time ever. 

We had a great time at Simbavati.  The accomations, staff, and food were excellent.  Our safari guide was very knowledgable and accommodating.  I would love to go back for another safari.  In fact if I could do it again, I would have liked to stay another day or two on safari. 

Cape Town was great as well.  I had no idea you could fit so much in 2 days with the guided tour. 

 I felt like we covered so much of the stuff I wanted to see in the first 2 days, it was so productive.  We did some shopping (and bargaining), we went to the aquarium and loved the penguins on the beach so much we went back for more. 

We didn't get to go up to table mtn because it was closed for the first 3 days we were there, and the lines were ridiculous after it reopened, it wasn't worth it to wait in line for hours.  We found out later that we could have gotten internet tickets at the hotel which would have helped, but the next day it was closed again due to rain and we left for home the following day.  But we didn't care too much because he had plenty of great views all over the place, so we didnt feel like we missed out on that much. 

The Bay Hotel was awesome.  I think it would be a hotel I would have not normally picked if it had been up to me, as there were less expensive hotels which were perfectly acceptable... BUT, after having stayed there for the week, it could not have been a better choice.  The service was impecable, my mother and I never felt so pampered. 

 The food options were great as well, not only with the included (massive) breakfast, but also the dinner as well.  And of couse the view from the room and the location were unbeatable. 

 After having driven myself around CPT and looking at all the hotels in the touristy places (like the V&A for instance), we would choose to stay at the Bay Hotel any day! 

All and all we had a perfect vacation, and wouldnt have changed much, except for maybe staying an extra day or 2 on safari...but hey, there's always next time.

Thanks for all your recommendations.  We look forward to visiting Africa again in the future

Adrienne