South Africa

It is my last night in South Africa. I have crammed in as much as possible into the past two weeks and have had a fantastic vacation. I'm exhausted, but it was all worth it! Today when I was hitchhiking back from the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve and telling the driver everything I had done she said it sounded like I had been here for at least a month. It feels like it

Nothing was planned. Which turned out to be a good thing due to my delay and detour to Egypt. On the flight from Cairo to Johannesburg I ran into an old friend and coworker from Antarctica. Crazy small world. Chelsea was going on vacation to South Africa from Germany. Last time we saw each other was randomly in Laos 4 years earlier. 

 

I had one night in Johannesburg (first bed in 4 nights) then left at 6 am the following morning on a 4 day Safari in Kruger National Park. It took most of the day to get to the park. Along the way, we stopped at a Cheetah center and did a game drive there. Late in the afternoon we arrived at Timbavati near the Orper Gate in the central region of the park. It was a great place to stay and camp. The food was good, they had a pool and warthogs running around. My favorite part about it was the pet mongoose the owners owned. I thought he was wild at first until he about climbed in my lap.

 

On day 2 we met at 5:30am for our drive through Kruger National Park. We rode in an elevated 9 passenger safari touring truck with open sides and a cover for shade. It was sweet. The air was cool in the morning but as soon as the sun popped up over the horizon it warmed up nicely. Within five minutes of entering the park we stopped because there were two leopards on our right hand side of the truck (rare to see two at the same time). It was a mother and her adolescent son. They were beautiful animals and a great way to start the day! The pictures didn't turn out that well, since the sun wasn't up and the lighting was poor.

We stopped for some coffee and then continued further into the park. Right away we ran into elephants, giraffes, and some jackals chasing impalas. The safari was amazing! We saw everything - cheetahs, wild dogs, all sorts of antelope, birds and more. It was so fantastic that 2 days driving around just wasn't enough. Our last night camping at the lodge I decided to just stay in Kruger while the rest of the group went back to Jo'berg. 

Elephant at the fence around Satara

I hitched a ride in and once I was inside Satara I found out I needed an actual tent to camp there. Weird. The lodges/camps inside the park are each surrounded by a huge electric fence, but apparently a tent is needed for protection (I highly doubt a tent is going to offer more protection than the blanket I was going to use). I didn't have one, but a ranger working there was nice enough to loan an extra broken one to me. (It collapsed in on me by the morning, but worth it to stay there.) I paid him back in beer that night and we talked for hours. The people in south Africa have such amazing stories.

For pics and all the stories about Kruger National Park please visit the page here: http://wildstrawberriesforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2012/05/kruger-national-park.html

When the bus arrived back in Jo'burg I started looking around and realized the bus just happened to drive down the street I stayed on before. So I hopped up and asked the driver if I could get out. He let me out and I just walked back to the hostel. I ran into an old lady who was worried about my safety so I walked part of the way with her as she went to her grandsons school. I didn't get mugged then or on any of my other walks through the city. Maybe I got lucky, maybe its not as bad as its made out to be.

Unfortunately the hostel was full. I spent a couple hours making phone calls and looking up a few things on the internet. I was trying to get a bus/flight out of the city to Cape Town. I arrived just when school holidays were starting and all the buses and flights were booked and double if not quadruple the normal price. The owner of the hostel recommended staying at another hostel a few miles away called Ghandi so I went over there. It was another great place to stay. The shuttle driver was a cool guy and we hit it off. When he was done driving for the evening, we had a few beers, played pool and talked till almost 3 am. It was great to talk to someone living here and hear their story and talk about the events and struggles of his life here.

The following morning I was able to get a ticket because there was a cancellation just as I walked up. The bus was departing for Cape Town at 3:15 that afternoon and it meant I would be able to make the concert with Carolyn on the other side of the country. Great news. I let Carolyn know, went back to the hostel to book my flight to Munich and to get things organized.


I slept like a baby on the bus. I might as well have been in a bed. I was definately exhausted from all the excitement and lack of sleep in the past week or so.

In the morning I talked to Carolyn and worked out that if I got off the bus early at Paarl I would be closer to the event.So that's what I did and hitched to where Carolyn and her friend were waiting. Whew. Somehow it all worked out!

The next morning we woke up at Terrhi's place which was beautiful! She just moved to a cottage next to the mountains. It was dark when we arrived at night so I was blown away in the morning when I could see. Carolyn and I headed to Cape Town on the Metro, found a sweet hostel, booked a trip to go cage diving with great whites for the following morning and decided to climb up Table Mountain.

Cape Town is one of the best cities in the world. I fell in love with it and was half temped to just stay and find a job. The hostel that Carolyn and I stayed at was kickass. The hostel system is great in South Africa. It reminds me of the hostels in OZ. Carolyn and I had the afternoon so we decided to hike up to Table Mountain. It's a steep climb, but def worth it. You can ride up and down in the cable car, but we decided to just take it down. Once we reached the top we walked out to one end and then back to the cable car. We caught the last one down (lucky for us since we didn't bring headlamps which would have made the hike back down nearly impossible). Since we had to get up so early the next morning we had an early night.

 

We rose in the dark and waited for our van outside. It was a 2 hour ride to the town of Hansbi where the shop was located. I slept most of the way. By the time we got there I was wide awake and super excited to go see some great whites. It was a 20 minute ride out to the diving area. Originally it was a one man cage that people climbed into, but now that it's prob a million dollar business there are newer cages that hold 6 people. Its a long cage that is one man deep and six to seven people long and it is connected to the side of the boat. The top is open (that's where you climb in). There is a bar to hold onto and the first rule is - Don't stick your hand out of the cage or the whole boat goes back to shore. Fair enough.

As we started to get closer to the site the crew started to chum the water with fish guts and blood. It smelled just as appetizing as it sounds. Finally it was time to get in the cage. Carolyn and I put on our wet suits, mask, fins, booties and climbed into the chilly water. Luckily my adrenaline was pumping so the cold water wasn't so bad. In order to get the sharks close to the cage they put fish heads on a rope and threw it a few feet out in front of the cage. Unfortunately we had terrible visibility. There was some sort of bloom in the water giving us only a foot (maybe up to three) visibility. It was just enough to see the sharks when they came close.

Several times the sharks would swim close enough to the cage that they would whack it with their tail and the whole thing would shake. I loved it! The highlight was when one of the smaller great whites actually came up and bit the cage right in front of my face!

After the diving we rode back to Cape Town. Our driver dropped us off at the train station so we could take it south to Simon's Town. The ride was beautiful. It started off going thru the city for about an hour, but the second hour the tracks were right on the coast and the views were incredible. There were little towns in each of the coves, each with its own little beach.

 

Once we arrived in Simon's Town we found the one hostel in town. It was a great place to stay with great staff. Since we still had a few hours of daylight and both Carolyn and I love penguins we walked on down to Boulder Beach where they lived. There were so many penguins and they were adorable. They were originally called Jackass Penguins because they make a noise that sounds like a donkey, but they have been renamed to the African Penguin. Either way, they provided us hours and days of entertainment.

 

Carolyn and I spent the next day at Boulder Beach hanging out with the penguins. We eventually headed out as the sun was setting. On our walk to the hostel we ran into a man who told us an iridium flare was happening in an hour or so so we hung out with him till we saw it then headed back.

Carolyn had to head back to work so I took off on my own the next morning to go hike down to the Cape of Good Hope. I booked a hut to stay in online the night before. I really didn't know what I was getting into, but I thought it would be more fun to get in a hike along the coast rather than just hitchhike to the end.

I hitched to the entrance to the park and picked up my key. There was an option to have my stuff dropped off at the hut for me and I took it. (I knew I wouldn't be getting any treatment like that over the summer in Glacier) Man was it nice to just hike with a camera and some water!

The hike was amazing and offered beautiful views all the way to the end of the peninsula. It climbed at points and dropped back down to the beach. I arrived at the hut in the mid afternoon and was shocked at how nice it was. The bathroom (indoors) had hot water, there was a kitchen and multiple rooms with bunks. I had a whole room to myself. And all my stuff was delivered and waiting for me. The hunts, which were more like hotels were up near the top of one of the biggest hills and had fantastic views.

Since I had a couple of hours before sunset I headed towards Cape Point and the lighthouse. It was still a couple peaceful miles away and once I hit the parking lot the chaos began. The area was packed with people, souvenir shops and a restaurant. I saw a handful of people the whole day and the crowds were a little overwhelming. But I went up to the lighthouse and soaked in the views. Then I headed back to my hut for some dinner while enjoying the sunset.

In the morning I hiked back out to Cape Point and beat the crowd. Nothing was open and the parking lot was deserted. I made it down to the new lighthouse this time. Then I walked over to the Cape of Good Hope. People starting arriving but it was fine. I expected it and knew I needed a ride out of there so they would come in handy later.

 

After another day of hiking around, I hitched out to the entrance, dropped my key and continued north to Cape Town. I lost my toothbrush so I went out to buy one. It took awhile to find a shop and across the street was a bar so, toothbrush in hand I went in for one last South African beer.

The next day I wrapped up a few things, repacked for flying and showered before the long flights to Munich, Germany.