Our Ever Changing South Africa Vacation Plans

February 3rd, 2022: Before we provide an update on where we are now, some background information.

Originally we planned to spend February and March 2021 in South Africa. Once we realized that this would not be possible due to Covid, we moved our trip to February and March 2022. Although some dates had to change, we were able to rearrange our itinerary.

We were excited when we found a direct flight from Newark N.J. to Cape Town, and everything was falling into place…..that is until the US put South Africa on the US Red List. Since we could no longer fly from the US, we cancelled our trip just before Christmas and submitted our insurance claim.

Then December 31st things changed again when South Africa was removed from the US Red List. The easy part was deciding to cancel our insurance claim as it had not yet been looked at by the insurance company. The more difficult part was “un-cancelling” our reservations. Some accommodations were no longer available, so once again we had to rearrange our bookings. The owners of the airbnbs and hotels were all so accommodating and we are really happy with our new agenda.

Of course, travelling this time of year is always more challenging due to weather. We left Toronto a day early to avoid a forecasted winter weather system. Not only did we have to change our Toronto/Newark flight, but also our Covid tests. Tests were negative so off we headed to the airport while the weather was still good. We were the only two going through Security and US Customs – very fast but strange. This is probably the only time we will end up chatting with a US Customs agent (only us around so he was lonely). It turns out that he was born in Jersey City so he gave us a restaurant recommendation –Light Horse Tavern.

Today is a drizzly day, but we were still able to walk around the Jersey City arts district where our hotel, Canopy Hilton, is located. We decided to have a late lunch at Light Horse Tavern, which is just 15 minutes from our hotel. The outside of the tavern is deceiving – it is unimpressive – we weren’t even sure it was open. Once inside, it is an innovative mix of fine dining and tavern/bar atmosphere. The food was very good and our server was friendly. The owner, Ron, came over at the end of our meal and we spent the next 1/2 hour chatting. Ron lived in South Africa for most of his youth. His father was the head engineer for a shipping company which operated on the east and west coasts of South Africa. Ron had many stories about his life in South Africa. He came back to the US for University and was an investment banker for the Deutsche Bank until he purchased, renovated and opened Light Horse tavern 20 years ago. Our lunch was an enjoyable 3 hour outing.

Now we wait to see if Winter Storm Landon will delay our flight until Sunday.

February 4th: Cold, windy day with drizzle/rain – not nice for exploring but hopefully good for flying – yeah! We packed up and then went to Light Horse again for a late lunch – a very cold walk but lunch was worth it.

It is 6:00 p.m. and we are checked in and relaxing (finally) in the lounge. At this point the plane is on time and from the United App I see that our bags are “on the plane” (the app lets you track your bags). The flight leaves at 8:30 p.m. and we arrive in SA at 6:00 p.m. 14.5 hours flying time (there is a 7 hour time difference). Many movies and hopefully we’ll sleep part of the time.

Not many pictures for this post. Next blog will be in a few days.