track our trek

day 3 took us across the border into namibia and we arrived at fish river canyon in time for a sunset walk along the canyon rim...the canyon is the oldest in the world, and is between 200 and 500m deep! there are catfish in the river at the bottom which burrow into the mud to wait out the dry season! we watched the sunset and placed bets about what time it would go down...then compared the actual time to what mario's (the german physicist) gps device calculated...it was great! after dinner, we set up camp in the dark...piece of cake after a couple of nights! we also showered in the dark, and broke down camp in the morning before sunrise...we left that campsite without ever seeing it by the light of day! lol! the next day we headed on towards the namib desert...most of the landscape is flat dry scrub desert along the way. we saw lots of ostrich and springbok...a differnet variety from the springboks we saw in kruger national park. desert springboks are adapted to survive with very little water, taking moisture from plant roots. we watched one frightened springbok break its neck trying to jump a fence along the road. :O(
the namib desert starts very abrubtly...you can see the road straight ahead for miles, and you can see where the vegetation stops and the sand begins...it's really dramatic. we were up before dawn to climb sossusvlei's dune 45 to watch the sunrise. it was incredible...beautiful orange sand dunes for as far as the eye can see! we've never seen anything like it! it took almost half an hour to climb the dune...when you're on the ground it doesn't seem nearly that high! but it is very difficult to climb up a pile of soft sand!! go figure! with calves and ankles burning, we sat at the top to take in the scenery...after a treat of bacon and eggs for breakfast (normally it's cereal and bread), we headed off to see more dunes and deadvlei, a valley between dunes where water used to reach, but hasn't in hundreds of years...now there are just dead tree trunks scattered across the cracked earth...it is amazing! we were overwhelmed by all of namibia's different landscapes! everything from desert scrub to sand dunes to jagged rock formations to canyons to coastal plains and rolling hills!

we met up bright and early at the nomad office in downtown capetown for day 1 of our overland adventure. we met our zambian guide, mcnell (mac) and his lovely assistant puleng from bloemfontein, sa. we made introductions - there were 13 of us, including 5 folks from germany, one from from denmark, one from france, one from australia, one canadian, and two from england. then we loaded up the truck - not a bus - and were off! (anyone who slipped and called it a bus must buy a round of drinks for everyone.) we stopped outside capetown to pick up groceries and to try to stock up on sa rand and us dollars... rand and usd are accepted in all of the countries we'll be visiting, and some of the optional activities can only be paid for in usd...the first day took us to the cederburg mountain region in northern sa, famous for rooibos tea and citrus farming. we got to campsite, learned how to pitch our tents and promptly ran off to float in the olifants river on inner tubes for hours...the lodge at the campsite had a bar, a pool table, and quite decent toilets (called ablutions). we thought...wow if we're camping like this the whole way, it's gonna be a piece of cake! we even got comfy-ish foam mattresses to sleep on! dinner was a delicious poitjie (beef stew) that mac and puleng whipped up over the camp fire.
our next stop was along the banks of the orange river, the border between south africa and namibia. we went on a half day canoe trip down the orange river...it started out as a really wonderful scenic trip downstream, but soon we ran into upstream winds that were stronger than the current! the trip took us more than an extra hour of battling the winds to get back to camp! by the end we were exhausted, & we decided that rowing sports are not a strength for the dd/dp team! i think we'll skip white water rafting on the great zambezi in zimbabwe! jokes!

we'd accidentally -on-purpose missed our flight from joburg to harare b/c of unrest in zimbabwe and b/c we didn't want to travel there w/ our usual m.o...no plan and no real understanding of the situation...we also discover on our way across south africa that it was going to be extremely expensive to get ourselves up to ghana to meet our next flight - accra to london. (on the order of $1500-$2000 apiece!!) so naturally, we started reviewing our other options and decided to change our flight to leave from joburg to london in mid-march. it means we won't make it to ghana on this trip, but it gives us time to see more of southern africa...we're anxious to get out of "africa's europe" and see more. though we've had some hairy moments along the way for lack of advance planning, we've been blessed w/ good fortune and things keep falling into place. we lucked out again at the last minute and scored seats on a 22 day camping tour leaving from capetown and ending in joburg 2 days before our london flight! along the way we'll travel through namibia, botswana and zimbabwe to victoria falls! it will be a proper camping adventure, pitching tents for 20 of the 22 nights! we've got our cheap sleeping bags and are ready to go...

from coffee bay, we pressed on towards port elizabeth, where we visited it's little aquarium and a couple small museums and found some much needed internet access. daryll, always the adventure eater, topped his adventures with the japanese fermented soy beans by ordering tripe at a local restaurant (that's some sort of intestines for those who are unfamiliar)...natassa and i could barely sit at the table with the smell once the lid was off the pot! dp made a valiant effort and tasted a bite, but was unable to eat any more! blech!! from there we went to plettenburg bay, another lovely beach town where we found the abalone guest house...(we're taking notes on all these great places we're staying...running a guesthouse could be a 2nd career in the making...hmmm...) in spite of the beautiful beach and views from the guesthouse, we were rained in for our two days there, so we rented some dvd's and relaxed before we moved on to knysna...we were less impressed w/ knysna, not the least b/c of another bout w/ a bed bug at our very sketchy backpackers...knysna's highlight was the elephant park! we spent a couple hours feeding the elephants there & cooing over the 6 week old new year's baby elephant!
from knysna to mossel bay - much more built up than other towns along the way - and finally on to capetown!
capetown is a sharming city...much different from the little we'd seen of joburg...very european w/ tons of overpriced shopping at the watefront. but set between the atlantic ocean and table mountain, it is truly beautiful! we spent a few days there, visited table mountain, cape point and the cape of good hope, and catching up w/ friends. we got to hang out w/ sofie, our friend from nyc who's just arrived in sa to study at the university of capetown for a semester. we also met natassa's friend justus and his girlfriend, jo. they treated us to a genuine south african braii at justus' place on our last night in capetown! good food, great company, and lots of fun!

on our way to coffee bay, we unwittingly left the main highway and wound up on a secondary road winding our way through hills and mountain villages all the way out to the coast. we drove past many villages and hundreds of children walking miles home from school. the drive was beautiful, but it added several hours to our trip, so we didn't arrive in tiny coffee bay until well after dark where we found reception at the first 2 hotels closed! although it was only 8pm, we were relieved when we found geckos b&b next door to one hotel and were lucky enough to get two rooms for a couple of nights! we spent a day in coffee bay visiting the hole in the wall, an enormous hole carved in a rock formation by the sea. like tofo, coffee bay is still just a tiny african town not yet spoiled by too much commercialism...(unless you count the teenagers who extort money out of you for "looking after" your parked car...jokes!) we gave a kid a generous R10 b/c we could find our customary R5 coin, and he wanted R20!!

we left beautiful tofo armed w/ a loose itinerary for the rest of our drive, and headed back to south africa by way of swaziland. we drove the 8 hours straight thru and across the border into manzini, swaziland's sleepy capitol. swaziland is known for its national parks, hiking and trekking opportunities. the country is very poor, and it is estimated that a staggering 35% of the adult population is living with AIDS! condoms are distributed at the borders and there are huge advertising campaigns encouraging monogamy and safe sex.
with the better part of our first week of car hire up, we opted for only one night in manzini, as we were anxious to push further along the coast... another day of driving brought us to umhlanga, an upscale beach town outside durban. after our 4 nights in tofo roughing it in an open dorm fighting mosquitoes and all manner of other creepy crawlies, natassa was ready for some creature comforts in a proper hotel. so we left her at the 4 star cabana beach hotel and headed off in search of more affordable accommodation for ourselves. we found the lovely thekweni house just down the road & stayed for a couple of nights relaxing and lounging on the high-priced sand outside natassa's hotel! we didn't spend much time in the water b/c there were more bluebottle jellyfish in the water. paul and his wife, owners of thekweni house told us about their 21 year old daughter who is riding her bicycle alone from spain down through west africa and eventually home to south africa! at the moment she was in guinea, headed towards ghana. mother and grandmother were fretting a bit about how she would make her way around the congo safely...incredible! can you imagine?

we decided to head into mozambique for a few days...neither of us had planned to travel there, but we heard it was lovely, and we could go swimming with dolphins in tofo (pronounced tofu). so off we went...the official language in mozambique is portugeuse. we spent one night in busy maputo, the country's capitol. we felt the atmosphere was completely different from what we'd seen in our first few days in sa...much more laid back, slower pace...and the city was much less modern than parts of south africa. day two, we hit the road for a 7 hour journey north to tofo...another major difference from south africa is the roads!! the distance wasn't so great, but we spent a couple of hours bouncing gingerly and dodging enormous craters in the road with our little vw golf. when we finally reached the little town of tofo, we travelled the last 2km down a sand road to our backpackers, where we got stuck and had to be pulled out by 2 nice guys in a pickup truck! tofo and bamboozi backpackers were not the beach resort town natassa had envisioned, but we thought it was beautiful! with no hotels, the town offers only thatched huts and a few holiday apartments to rent. we stayed in a huge open air round thatched dorm hut w/ 14 beds where we quickly discovered there was only electricity for several hours at night, and no internet access at all...we had to charge our camera battery behind the bar! but the reward for its remoteness and lack of modern amenities was a beautiful full moon over a pristine beach! we spent a few days soaking up the sun, and perusing the local craft market. on our last day, we tried to go on an ocean safari to swim with whale sharks...they are the world's largest shark measuring some 8 meters long...don't worry, they are plankton eaters, so they have no teeth! unfortuantely, we had a very unlucky trip...there were no whale sharks to be found in our 2-hour boat trip...only the quickest glimpse of 2 dolphins who wanted nothing to do with us! as consolation, the captain to us to a reef for some snorkelling...after a couple minutes in the water, dp and i were noticing pin pricks along our arms...jellyfish! a bit frightening, but i tried to relax and concentrate on the fish down below...they were pretty much a bust too...the reef is too deep there, so you really need to scuba dive to be able to see the fish. i gave up when i got stung across the lip and ear! ouch! painful for a few minutes, but harmless, they said...hmmm...next time i'll try snorkelling somewhere i don't have to worry about getting stung!

we spent a couple days in nelspruit and around. funky monkey was a charming little place w/ a resident french chef who created delicious desserts to go with our south african braai. (a glorified term for bbq.) we had fruit salad w/ port wine and brandy & bananas flambe w/ our grilled crocodile, boerewors and impala! yum...we drove one day to blyde river canyon and to see bourke's luck potholes...both really beautiful canyons and gorges. and we woke up before sunrise for our one day self-drive safari through kruger national park. the park is the size of israel! following advice from folks at the hostel, we arrived at the park before 7, as they assured us the animals are most active in the morning, and we'd have the best chance of seeing some of the big 5. by 9am it was sweltering in the car...did i mention we unwittingly rented a car w/ no a/c in africa in the middle of summer? whose bright idea was that?? then imagine driving around for hours w/ the windows cracked a few inches, in a park where you're not allowed to exit the car except in designated locations! phew! but we had a really lucky day! we saw hundreds of impala (a type of anteloupe we'd eaten the night before), lots of elephants crossing the road, including a mother nursing a baby, water buffalo, water bucks, zebras, lions sleeping in the afternoon, and even a leopard in a tree! the only one of the big 5 we didn't manage to spot was the black rhino! not bad for a one day safari! so we didn't feel bad that we opted not to stay overnight in the park.

after a few claustrophobic days at diamond diggers, we decided to make our way out of johannesburg to see some other parts of south africa. we met natassa, an englishwoman travelling on her own, and decided to split the costs and driving for a rental car. so we arranged for a car for two weeks to drive to capetown - (even the car was delivered directly to the hostel!) - and headed north through pretoria and on to nelspruit, which is outside kruger national park...an hour outside of pretoria, we had a tire blow out at 120km/hr on the highway! fortunately for us, it was a rear tire, so were able to safely pull over to change it on the side of the road. turns out the tire had been poorly patched...we found the patch in the smoking, shredded remains of the tire! a quick 15 minutes later, we were back on the road, driving cautiously & looking for a service station to have the tires balanced. not even 20km later is when we saw our first "no stopping - hijacking zone" sign!! what?!?! we continued to see them for about the next 30km. between the signs and all the people walking leisurely across the highway, our nerves were pretty frayed when we reached the next big service station. i was thinking, "what the hell have we done? renting a car in this dangerous country with no idea where it's safe to stop!" no one warned us about carjackers on the highway before we set out! no worries though...we reached nelspruit without further incident & fell into funky monkey backpackers w/ relief! the peace corps crew we met there (the first we've run into on our trip so far) had a good laugh at our adventure & assured us that we'd passed the most dangerous portion of our journey & wouldn't have any more such signs to strike fear in our hearts. jeez!

we went on a day trip to soweto the next day. mandla escorted us first to the "top of africa". at 50 stories, it is africa's tallest skyscraper, & from the lookout at the top, we got our only look at the full city of johannesburg. then we headed for soweto, joburg's largest township. we met thulani in kliptown, a sprawling shantytown that's representative of the poorest sections of south africa's townships. it is very sobering to see people living in acres and acres of shacks made of scrap metal and corrugated tin. with no electricity throughout most of kliptown, people use car batteries to power small appliances. with only 12 water taps in the whole settlement, one tap serves about 50,000 people!! dozens of families share one port-a-john...thulani grew up in kliptown and now works with SKY (soweto kliptown youth organization), which runs programs to provide meals for children, teaches classes in computers, and offers a small library where kids and adults can come and do schoolwork. from kliptown, we drove past winnie mandela's sprawling house on the way to the nelson mandela house and museum. a stone's throw from kliptown, this section of soweto is full of modest houses w/ plenty of german cars parked in driveways...the mandela museum is housed in the house nelson and winnie shared before he was sent to prison. there are some interesting artifacts, but the house and its displays are in dire need of some restoration. letters and certificates on display are damaged and faded from sunlight. it's a bit sad to see. by contrast, the hector pieterson museum is a clean, modern building with lots of photos and information about the 1978 soweto student uprising. south africa has a a fascinating history of political activism in the last half century, and the changes that have taken place in the country in the last 30+ years are interesting to see...