Safari Game Drive
Kruger National Park
but some of the funds go toward wilderness preservation.
Of course South Africa has more to offer than wildlife. The country
has become an international star for culture and cuisine, and produces
some of the finest wines on the planet. South Africa’s transition a
generation ago from international pariah, blighted by a policy of
racial segregation, to a place that celebrates liberty and diversity, has
created a lively atmosphere that nurtures artistic openness and has
made tours to places like Soweto, once an impoverished slum, inviting
and enlightening.
“When Nelson Mandela walked free,” said former U.N. Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon, “the world sang with joy. Ever since, South
Africa has stood as a beacon of hope for Africa.”
In September, one of the world’s major contemporary art museums
opens in Cape Town. Zeitz MOCAA (Museum of Contemporary Art
Africa) has been termed a “landmark opening and not just for South
Africa, … the biggest museum to open on the continent in over a
century,” by the U.K. newspaper The Guardian.
The $38 million museum will display solely work created since 2000,
featuring the collection of Jochen Zeitz, a German philanthropist and
the former CEO of Puma. Zeitz MOCAA will be housed inside a 187-foot-
high grain silo, a daring architectural icon overlooking the city’s harbor
that acknowledges Cape Town’s industrial history while propelling it
architecturally into the 21st century.
Lioness at Kruger National Park
Allow at least three days for Cape Town, as there’s so much to see and
do. And keep in mind that our fall is their spring, so it can get chilly in
South Africa, especially at night.
A trip to Robben Island, where anti-apartheid activist Nelson
Mandela was imprisoned for 18 of the 27 years he was incarcerated, is
revelatory. It’s hard to imagine the suffering Mandela endured — he
was confined to a tiny cell, forced to work under brutal conditions in a
quarry, and allowed only one visitor a year, for just 30 minutes.
This would have broken most people, but Mandela’s tremendous inner
strength allowed him to persevere and eventually become South
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