Park...Beach...Mountains...and back to the City!

  Pretoria, South Africa
Wednesday, September 20, 2006

GPS Coordinates:
S 25°43'47.9"
E 028°13'26.0"

Temperature: 22.5°C
Humidity: 70.2 %
Pressure: 102 kPa
Altitude: 1242 m

Salut!

I'm actually in Botswana right now but backdating my adventures just because I didn't have access to a reliable Internet connection and honestly didn't really have the time...

A "herd?" of crocodiles...

Hippo's lazing around

Well after driving out of Kruger National Park, I went around the Kindgom of Swaziland and ended up in St-Lucia. This is a resort town situated around an estuary flowing beside the Indian Ocean. It offers interesting vegetation and wildlife similar to the Everglades in Florida but with crocodiles and hippos. I did a boat tour of the estuary... (See some of the pics).

Sand Dunes off Indian Ocean (St-Lucia)

Marty the Fearless Zulu Warrior and his Brothers

When I left St-Lucia, I briefly stopped at a traditional Zulu village where I experienced their traditional way of life. At the end of the tour they danced for me and presented their Zulu warrior war dance. They then invited me to join them, which I did! I impressed them so much with my "warrior dancing boogie" skills that they invited me to be an honorary member of the Veyane Tribe... (See pic)

I then drove down along the Indian Ocean coast (which you unfortunately don't see from the highway) to Durban. By the way the villages sighted along the way all look the same, some poor shacks followed by nice brick houses in the same neighborood. The plan in Durban was to have a short visit of the city and then relax on the beach for a few days. Well... Murphy showed up again and gave me the worst weather (cloudy, overcast, rainy, and relatively cold) I had experienced so far. Then, I had to improvise... soooo, I went out drinking with the interesting people I met at the backpacker's (Hi! Jay and Jako) place I stayed at and ended up at a special Jack Daniel's (OH! GOD! I think I'm drunk just thinking about it! (Inside for Yan & Murray)) promo for his birthday (15 Sept) with Jako (ex-bouncer / policeman with contacts...). I also went out to a nice Casino / Nightclub place with a person I met at a travel agency (Hi! Raj...). I have to admit that I felt kind of weird being the only white guy in the place. Durban is filled with people of Indian descent since a lot of their ancestors came to SA to work in the gold mines. One morning I went on a boat tour with the Natal Shark Board which clears the nets off the public beaches. They weren't any shark activity that day but it was a good occasion to see Humpback whales and dolphins. I decide to stay an extra day in Durban just to see if the weather would clear up. The next day, even more bad weather, I forced myself to go do a tour of the city by tourist bus. The day I was leaving was better so I decided to finally go do at least a surfing lesson before heading off. It was cold but quite the experience. I was actually pretty good for my first time. Sorry! All pictures are on my water-resistant camera so you will have to wait to see the DUDE! in action...! KOWABONGA!

Marty in the Drakensburg

SAN people cave paintings

I then drove through the mountain chain called the Drakensburg. It was nice sightseeing. I stayed at a placed called "The Nest" where I met a very nice couple of South African's from Durban who run a successfull interior design company. We chatted all night about anything and everything (philosophy, to politics, to even religion!). The next morning, I ended up doing a 3 hour bush walk with my guide Brighton to go see original (approx. 1000 year old) SAN people cave paintings (See pic).

Then back to Pretoria for two days to organize my following adventures to Botswana...

Stay tuned...

Ngiya bonga & Hamba kahle (Thank you & Goodbye)

Mart