South Africa - Part II

The last two weeks in South Africa have lived up to the first two, however they were a completely different experience. Less land mammals and small cute towns, more coast and big cities! After Addo Elephant Park we spent two nights in a coastal town called Wilderness. We are now in the Western Cape region of South Africa. Wilderness is close to Oudtshoorn, which is the ostrich capitol of South Africa. Boy are those giant birds everywhere! We visited the Cango Caves and also a huge market in Sedgefield.

Next we moved on to Cape Agulhas, the Southern most point of Africa. There is an old lighthouse on the point, including museum. It was Elspeth's first time in a lighthouse and she loved it! It is such a charming thing, something from the past.

Cape Agulhas is also said to be the meeting of the Atlantic and Indian oceans. The water here is a beautiful deep blue. It is windy this time of year so the ocean constantly slams against the rocks and sends up huge sprays of water.

Another beautiful spot is Hermanus. This place is said to be the best whale watching spot in the world. We saw dozens of the Southern Right Whale, which congregates in the bay during the month of November to calf. We saw them playing and splashing any time we were near enough to see the ocean. The slap their tails on the water and jump into the air only to belly flop in a huge splash. The town of Hermanus is an endearing seaside village with good restaurants and good shopping! We were hoping to try a turn at cage diving with Great White Sharks, but the day of at 4am we were told it was cancelled due to bad weather. The disappointment was strong, but for Alex it was crushing.

After a week on the coast we were ready to head to wine country, Stellenbosch is the Napa Valley of South Africa. On the way we stopped at Betty's Bay, which is home to a colony of African penguins!

These little guys spend their days waddling around on rocks, sleeping in the sun, and flying through the sea. And, they SMELL! How can something so cute smell so bad? Once in Stellenbosch we planned a full day wine tour. We visited four different wineries and had a delicious lunch.

We roamed the vineyards and drank a lot of wine (good thing we are close to sea level here.) Sarah said that we didn't have to drink all of the wine at each tasting, it's not really the point. Tasting the wine is the point. But, we thought it best not to be wasteful. These American's think that drinking all of the wine is the point. The three of us decided to stay a third day in Stellenbosch.

We did a walking tour of the city, which has burned down a number of times in it's history. This means that most of the original buildings are now gone. There is Dutch influenced architecture. Small white buildings with thatched roofs are quite aesthetic.

On our last day we went to a couple of more wineries, by this time we had already accumulated 4 bottles of wine (they're so affordable) but Alex decided he needed two more. Good thing we have our own car, and two parents on the way to share them with. We also visited a cheetah reserve at the Spier vineyard. We haven't seen one in the wild so the Cheetahs are quite a treat. A number of people were doing "cheetah encounters", which basically means you go into the cage and pet the cheetahs. Even after seeing other tourists do it, I still don't think it sounds like a good idea!

Now it's time for Cape Town! We arrived on 11/11/11, should be able to remember that! Cape Town is quite a nice city on the coast. It reminds me a little of San Francisco. The defining feature is Table Mountain. A flat topped butte smack in the middle of the city. We spent one morning climbing to the top. The trail is composed of switchbacks and rocks and goes straight up.

Once at the top you have an excellent view of the city and the ocean.

There is a finicky cable car that runs to the summit and we were lucky enough to ride it down. We also visited Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years. South Africa has an amazing and turbulent history, the affects of which are still noticeable today. Although apartheid was ended in 1994 there is still noticeable segregation of the black and white populations, heavily defined by economic status. While South Africa has amazing natural features and resources it is really important to me to learn about what has taken place to the people of this country with in my life time.

There is nothing like traveling to a country to make the history of a place come alive and feel tangible. Sarah and Elspeth visited the Jewish Museum where an exhibition was in place for a political cartoonist, Zapiro. This man has a talent for turning a simple picture into a strong message.

One day we drove down to the Cape of Good Hope, which is the peninsula South of Cape Town. We've also gone to two movies (Breaking Dawn is undoubtedly the birth of a classic), had a number of nice meals, spent time shopping at the water front, sailed on a sunset cruise, and visited the beautiful beaches of the peninsula.

Oh yeah, and did I mention shark cage diving? The great white is a seriously big fish, with a lot of teeth. We saw several different sharks, all with battle scars and a voracious appetite. They breach the water to feed. Every sighting was truly awesome.

We said goodbye to wonderful Sarah on the 17th and now will spend a couple of extra days in Cape Town so that the car is in tip top shape for the journey ahead. We are off to Namibia, good bye beautiful South Africa!

El & Al

the two lions

South Africa Part 1

We arrived in South Africa to be greeted by our friend Sarah at the international arrivals. She accompanied us back to Life Hotel and had a nice dinner, and some serious planning of our upcoming trip together. The next morning we had a delicious breakfast, Alex had Mince on toast, which is pretty much sloppy joe but more stew flavored. Then we started the hunt for a car and found that it was a lot more complicated than we originally thought; but we met a lovely family that owns a car dealership and they helped us out with everything! The money transfer took the slow boat from China so we decided to rent a car in the meantime in order to not waste the time we had in South Africa.

We got a shiny new red Chevy Spark, which is really small and barely fit us with all our stuff.

Off we went to the northeastern Mpumalanga region heading for Kruger Park. We drove about half way and stopped over in a sleepy village called Dullstroom. This place reminded us of a little Canadian town; it had nice, cute cafes, and shops for beads. We stayed the night and the next morning headed out to Blyde River Canyon.

The canyon is the third largest in the world and had huge carved gorges, but small smooth “potholes” as well. We cruised through snapping pictures and having fun, we even had our first bribery incidences; one involving a corrupt park ranger and the other with a bogus speeding ticket that we had to “pay right there”. Got out of the canyon and rolled into Phalaborwa, which is one of the gate towns for Kruger Park.

At five thirty the next morning we went to the gate and got our tickets squared away and then we were off!

We drove through the gate and within 2 minutes we saw our first Impala, within 4 minutes we saw our first giraffes, and within 10 minutes we saw our first elephant. The park was so beautiful and wondrous that it’s really hard to put into words. We drove over hills and valleys, through dense thicket and scrub lands. The rivers we crossed gave us the opportunity to get out of the car because the bridges are a safer place to get out. Hippos and crocs were relaxing together while Waterbucks were drinking. Amazing wildlife was all around us. The day was spent driving up to the northern camp of Mupani and back down to the central camp of Letaba; we saw Impala, Steinbok, Hippos, Crocodiles, Elephants, Zebra, Giraffes, and Waterbuck, plus a rare endangered Horn Billed bird.

At Letaba we stayed in a nice cozy Safari tent that had four soft beds waiting for us! Quite the first day! Much excitement and so much wildlife!

The next day was just as exciting! We saw a Rhino off in the distance sleeping, and later it walked straight in front of our car! A huge herd of Elephants drinking and grazing, our first Gazelles, and our first Buffalos, plus a weird tall bird that looked like a roadrunner, and other amazing birds like hornbills (Zazu), and warthogs. we ended the night staying in Olifant’s River camp in a round hut for the three of us! Olifant’s is the only camp built on a hill in Kruger and the patio had an amazing view of the forest below; we watched the Giraffes graze as we ate dinner! That night the three of us went on a night drive through the park to see all the nocturnal critters! Springhares, hares, a Genet, and some elephants and hippos were the highlights of the night!

Our last day came sooner that we thought. We got up early again to get a whole day in. Right away we saw a hyena walk right in front of our car and pass within inches of the door. We looped back around to the camp and we found some lionesses that were laying on the tar road.

Turns out that those two lions had seven lion cubs with them! We watched little baby cubs crawl around and walk all over for about an hour! They blocked traffic and ran around exploring together as a small pride. It was really a highlight of the park! Then later on we drove south towards Satara rest camp and came upon some cars. Turns out there was a Leopard right next to the road sleeping in a tree!

We watched him sleep for a while before continuing south. We spent the day driving south towards Pretoriaskop to leave. More Elephants, Giraffes, Rhinos, and loads of Impala later we got out of the gate with only minutes to spare as the sun was setting! Kruger Park was truly an epic experience that we’ll never forget.

Back to Joburg to return the rental and pick up our car after the money transfer went through. We loaded up and headed south to a small town called Parys which is situated in a huge valley that was created by a meteor around 250 million years ago. In the morning we had a little hike around the guest house and then drove the crater’s rim to get a better view. Then onto another small town called Clarens. This place was the picture of small town. Our guest house was called the Blacksmith’s Cottage and was just like snow whites house. Alex wasn’t feeling well the next day so Elspeth and Sarah went on a drive around Golden Gate National Park and did a small hike. Alex scored some tickets to a concert with Elvis Blue, the winner of South Africa Idol, for that night and we all went. The opening act was a pair of guys that played covers, and one guy was a super hippie, but he taught himself to play violin in a local cave he lived in. The locals we all so nice and the drinks were given to us liberally!

On to the Drakensburg mountains, gorgeous views of the whole range of mountains from our hostel. The afternoon was spent drinking and playing banana-grams. We met many couples there from France, Germany, India, and South Africa during dinner. We were convinced to do a hike around the mountains and so we signed up to do a trek the next day at a feature called the Amphitheater. The morning started off cold and really foggy.

The hike was steady but soon turned into us all climbing up a 250 meter gorge to the top. Our legs were burning all the way up and when we summited the view was fantastic. The clouds had burned away and the view was of the whole valley. We later saw the worlds 2nd highest waterfall on our way down, which was really just a trickle down a cliff, but still! Steel ladders were strung down the side of the cliff face which made for an extremely scary descent. The first part was a 9m ladder that wasn’t so bad and then an 18m ladder that went over a cliff that you couldn’t see. The descent was very scary for most but when we got to the bottom we both felt a sense of accomplishment and general badassery!

Driving from Drakensburg to Coffee bay the next day was a long and troubling trip. Fog so thick we had to drive about 15km/hr on a highway, wrong turns and rain made the day really tough. We got in really late (i.e. 9 o’clock) and had to spend the night at a guest house that was “organic” and really into the “hippie” vibe, our room had a bird nest in it and smelled of pot, straw, and cat pee. We left quite early the next morning to escape and got to a hotel on the beach called Hole in the Wall, not because its hidden, but because it’s situated right next to a natural formation called Hole in the Wall that was carved out by water long ago. We went on a hike to see the hole and ended the day watching Whales jumping and playing off the coast! What a treat to watch from the coast as the sun was setting low.

The Nelson Mandela Museum in his home town of Qunu was on the way to Chinsta which was our next stop down the coast. After an amazing visit to the museum Some hostel are really cheap and shabby, this was a mecca for backpackers and travelers. Right on the beach with free activities and great family style dinners. We signed up for a beach horse back ride the next morning, and the ride turned out to be a lot of fun. Running on the beach with the horses and sea breeze in your face was such a great way to spend the morning. We all had different rescued horses that all had their own personalities. Alex’s was the lead horse, while Sarah’s was a follower of Alex’s. Elspeth’s horse was the horse with the worst past and liked to keep near the rear of the pack. We spent the rest of the day driving to Addo Elephant Park, which is a small national park. We did another drive around the park to see Jackals, Zebra and a troop of Elephants that had about 100 females and a bunch of males playing in the water hole. We parked our car and watched the fun/chaos for about an hour. We later saw lions sleeping in the bushes, some Elands and the famous Dung Beetle, two different snakes cross the road and many more birds.