First Impressions of Africa

We've been in South Africa for about three weeks now. We have only seen a tiny part of the country and have not been spending our time as typical tourists or visitors, but from what we have experienced so far it is an incredible place. Most tourists in South Africa come in search of the Big Five: lions, elephants, rhinos, cape buffalo and leopards. Our goal is to get the boat ready for us to live aboard, so our big five are: no mold, running water, flushing toilets, working lights, and clean sheets. We've got three of the five, so it won't be long before we are live aboards.

First Look at sv Harmony

Our days are mostly spent on the boat (cleaning, diagnosing, fixing, organizing)  or shopping (parts, groceries, things for the galley). Our first two weeks we didn't have a car, so we did a lot of walking. It's about a mile walk to the grocery store. So between not having a large kitchen and not wanting to carry a lot home, the grocery store became a daily habit. At times I thought if we spent as much time working on the boat as we did grocery shopping, we would be done by now.

Knysna Lagoon

Knysna, the town we are in is absolutely lovely, although a bit touristy. The boat is on Thesen Island, which David describes as a cross between Martha's Vineyard and Southampton (or La Jolla for the West coasters). The Knysna Lagoon is a large, protected lagoon surrounded by lush green mountains. The open wetland is teeming with wildlife. It's home to dozens of birds and an endangered sea horse, called the Knysna Sea Horse, which only lives on the south coast of South Africa.  We haven't seen one yet but look every time we walk the docks at low tide. We have seen several starfish and many schools of fish.

The food is excellent.  One restaurant had Zebra on the menu but otherwise it's mostly what you'd find in Europe. American brands are expensive but Coke and Oreos are the same. We're on the shore so there's lots of fresh seafood. Within walking distance there's an amazing fish market/restaurant, a chic bar with gourmet flatbreads and half price sushi specials, and a wonderful bakery with fresh bread and Rooibos cappuccinos. We definitely won't starve here.

Our Hood

Prices are strange.  The dollar is strong so most things are cheap.  Lunch and dinner out typically costs $4-7 USD. We celebrated purchasing the boat with a fancy meal for two with wine and dessert that cost around $40.  A loaf of bread is 50 cents.  We hired a wonderful local named George to help us work on the boat for less than $20 USD per day. But anything imported is expensive, sometimes double or more. Tools are outrageously expensive. And forget the Dyson vacuum we lusted after.

The one thing that has made the biggest impression on us so far are the people. The people here are wonderful, very welcoming and kind. There are so many examples and anecdotes we could share to prove this point. During our first week here we were shopping for a wet/dry vacuum (who does that their first week in Africa? - I told you we aren't typical tourists!) The store only had one and it wasn't quite what we were looking for so we asked the saleswoman if she could recommend another store. She could clearly tell that we weren't familiar with the store she named and said "follow me". She proceeded to walk us across the parking lot and down the street a bit to the store she recommended. Can you imagine a Best Buy employee doing the same? All retail employees we have encountered are super helpful and friendly. When you ask for a product, the answer is always, "follow me", never a dismissive "aisle 3".

In all, we really have accomplished a lot in three weeks. David is now conditioned to get in the right side of the car and to drive on the left. We are old pros at the grocery, always getting our produce tagged and weighed before going to the cashier. We found the laundry and discovered that ordering things online from Cape Town can be just as fast or sometimes even faster than Amazon Prime in the States. We are getting faster at translating from Rand to Dollars and from Celsius to Fahrenheit (although the same can not be said for translating from Afrikaans to English.) But most importantly, even though we are just at the beginning of this great adventure and we have no idea where it might lead, we have already made new friends and lasting memories.