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The end of Africa
Entry 6 of 17 | show all | print this entry |
We've made it to Johannesburg after 32days and 4,200k's. Time has just sped by and it's amazed us how draining traveling can be but also what a different experience independent traveling is, not knowing where we'd end up sleeping each night but that has also bought us some of our best experiences.
"Chico" was the affectionate name for our VW 1.4 golf, old style shape-looks like a bath tub on wheels with similar aerodynamics, turned out to be a great decision and despite the dirt roads, potholes and swerving the odd stray cow it never let us down, a great birthday present, thank you very much David and Laraine. And I am proud to say that my map reading stood us in good stead also-big phew.
We began in Cape Town spending a few days relaxing, enjoying the V & A waterfront, Robben Island, Kirsten-bosh botanical gardens, had a wonderfully clear day up Table Mountain and spreading the contents of our rucksacks with abandon all over our floor.
We headed for the famous Garden route weaving our way through the wine regions, beginning at the Fairview estate which is owned and run by the "Back" family then onto Backsberg, there's a clue in the name! Naturally I claimed relative status. Stopping off along the way for a spot of Great White Shark cage diving. WOW. The 3 meter shark cruised slowly past the cage twice before I saw him, much to Michael's frustration. Visibility was so poor, about 1-1.5 meters, when I eventually saw him he cruised past so close to the cage I swallowed the sea water.
We stopped off at Oudtshoorne-"come for the sun", boasts 330 days of sunshine a year-it rained. Oudtshoorne also boasts "Ostrich capital of the World" that said Michael kindly nominated me for a ostrich ride. I spent the entire time with my eyes tightly closed and fearing I would fall off on my ass in front of 20 people-those things can move trust me! Surviving the experience we bought a very nice ostrich purse as a memory of my first and last ever ostrich ride. We've visited Cango Caves at the foothills of the Swartberg mountains, an amazing series of limestone cabins, vast halls, towering formations and the best stalagmites and stalactites we have ever seen, definitely a highlight. After finishing at Cango Caves I thought the 1cm, on the map, Swartberg mountain pass might be worth driving along. 2.5 hours later on untarred, steep, bumpy single track dirt road with shear drops and not a hint of Western road safety standards we made it back to the tar-ever wished you'd hired a 4x4! But that said the views were breath taking and well worth it.
Traveling along the Garden route we stopped off at Tsitsikamma "place of abundant waters". The area lies between the sea and Tsitsikamma mountains and stretches from the Bloukrans river in the west to the Clarkson in the east. It was really beautiful, lush deep gorges along the rugged coastline. We ended up staying 4 nights, mountain biking-which almost ended up in a temporary separation, I blamed the signs and Michael blamed the map! We did lots of walking, visited an 800 year old yellow-wood tree affectionately named the Big tree and it really was, girth was as big as 8.5 men stretched out hand to hand. We woke one morning to see a pod of bottle nose dolphins swimming right outside our window. From Tsitsikamma we had no real plans but then read about Addo, game park, 70k's north of Port Elizabeth so off we headed. As we passed through PE we pulled in to re-fuel Chico, but we were quickly told 'no electricity' 4 petrol stations later and a car that was off the red gage, "off shedding" was explained to us. ESKOM the electricity board are unable to supply the demand and randomly, without warning and indefinitely they pull the plug on cities electricity supplies. No petrol pumps, no traffic lights- it's chaos. ESKOM have just announce a 53% increase on all electricity bills. There is great fear for the 2010 football World cup, they no longer light Table Mountain at night. Addo turned out to be a great decision, the park is packed with elephants despite only having 11 remaining in the 1960's. We sat for about 1.5 hours at one particular water hole watching a herd of about 60 elephants, playing, swimming and giving themselves dust baths-we have about 1 gig of pictures!
From there we dipped into Swaziland, hired some mountain bikes and a guide after our last mountain biking experience. It's amazing how differently the animals view you, we got grunted at and seen off by warthogs. And then to the Kruger, the only planned part of our tour. 3 nights on the Bushman Wilderness Trail with armed rangers. It was fantastic. We re-tuned our senses to see and hear all the small things. Early morning, 5am wake ups and out walking by 6am back for brunch at 12 then out again at about 3 for sundowners, I resisted the siesta om day 1 but quickly succumbed on day 2. We can now tell with total confidence the difference between white and black rhino poo, elephant and Buffalo and antelope and porcupine-it's platted and it's a myth that they flick there quills out in defense. During one sundowner walk we were able to watch 5 massive white rhino's, which were within striking distance. My heart has rarely beat so hard and faster, it took me 20 minutes to remove my camera lens cap for fear of being heard.
At nights we'd watch the water hole, frequent visits from rhino's, a breeding herd of elephants and buffalo's and one night we were lucky enough to hear a male lion roar - fantastic. And now we are in Jo'burg. Rejuvenating in the Southern suns airport hotel ready to head off to India on Friday. Getting into Jo'burg was quite an experience, not our best timing, rush hour in heavy rain which quickly developed into a hard hail thunder storm right above us-scary. We missed our turning barely able to read the signs due to the heavy rain and an airport name change-great. So in the stationary traffic we pulled up along side a friendly truck driver and asked the way in between the cracks of thunder.
We have met some really friendly, welcoming, generous people-even filling Chico with fuel for us, as apparently "everyone knows you need a SA petrol card to fill your car in the Kruger" apparently not, Thanks again guys. Stay in touch all.
And onto some totally different sort of news, and this puts a great big smile on my face.....Vicky and Henry are getting married! September 5th 2008. We're heading home some time the beginning of August, I've yet to check out my bridesmaid dress. The plan then is to head out straight for Australia and pick back up our tour.
We miss you all and keep us up to date with all your news, we really look forward to receiving your e-mails and please bear with the global phone some times it works some times not-who knows! And remember we can't pick up answer machine messages.
Lots of Love
Suzy and Michael xxxxx
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