Over the course of 10 days we spent time in 6 out of the 9 provinces, jumped off a 709 foot bridge, made new best friends in a Zulu village, visited Nelson Mandela’s home, and [almost] got run over by elephants in Kruger National Park. We spent the first 6 days driving from Cape Town to Durban (a little over a thousand miles), stopping at various cities along the way. We left early Friday morning and drove about 8 hours east to Wild Spirit Backpacker in Nature’s Valley (truly the middle of nowhere, perhaps the most pristine, beautiful place I have ever been). A long-haired and shoeless twenty-something year old named Craig warmly welcomed us and we all piled into his old jeep and drove, ducking, through the forest to a gorge to watch the sunset. I realized later that night as we sat around a fire laughing and listening to a mixture of reggae and baboons that the next 10 days would be extraordinary.
- doh! ran out of petrol on the way back from the gorge
Saturday, of course, was bungee jumping! Post-scariest-experience-of-my-life, we hiked to an absolutely beautiful waterfall in the Tsitsikamma National Park.
After an afternoon of sun we got on a bus headed for Port Elizabeth where we stayed Saturday night. Early Sunday morning we left for a tiny beach town about five hours east called Cinsta. Our backpacker (Buccaneers) was located on a hill covered in monkey-ridden trees overlooking a lagoon, massive sand dunes, and the exquisitely beautiful Indian Ocean. The Indian Ocean! I still cannot grasp the magnitude of how lucky I am to have swum in 3 oceans at only 20 years old. (I have only my family to thank for this!)
We left Cinsta at noon on Monday after promising the workers we had gotten to know at Buccaneers that we would surely make it back before November (we’re trying to plan a long weekend surf adventure when the weather warms up). We drove for 10 hours through the Transkei to Durban and passed Nelson Mandela’s home village which was incredibly rural and remote.
Durban has the world’s largest Indian population outside of India so naturally we immediately went out for extremely delicious Indian food. Tuesday was one of my favorite days of the trip, we visited a Zulu village called Emphephetani and got to spend time with the most incredible kids. One of the women I met immediately said, ‘we both have black presidents! we’re just alike!’ I knew we would get along well.
- it was really hard to leave them
- sangoma (the traditional healer we visited)
The first of September marked the first day of Spring here and it was incredibly hot (in the 90s) so we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and relaxing at the backpacker.
- nomad’s
Wednesday morning we went to Victoria Market for some bargaining and then a few of us walked and had lunch on the beach. On the way back to Nomads we had quite the experience..our cab driver was pulled over for ‘bad tires’ but the police officer just wanted a bribe. Corruption is one of those things you know exists but it was honestly pretty disheartening to witness first-hand.
That night we flew to Jo’berg and finally got to stay in a hotel! I don’t think I have ever appreciated crisp white sheets and fluffy pillows as much as I did those two days. Although I hadn’t really realized I was missing the comforts of home that much, it was a definite reminder of the importance of not taking things for granted! Thursday was extremely busy as we wanted to experience as much of Jo’berg as we possibly could. The morning started in Soweto which is South Africa’s largest township (over 5.5 million people!) and the site of most anti-apartheid movements and happenings. We got to see where the Sharpeville Massacre took place, where Nelson Mandela lived prior to going to jail, where Archbishop Tutu lives, where Winnie Mandela lives, and many other historical landmarks. Perhaps the most sobering sight, however, was visiting the Regina Mundi Church in the heart of Soweto. Churches were vital for ANC meetings during apartheid due to the law that blacks could not congregate in more than twos with the exception of religious worship. There are still numerous bullet holes in the ceiling, a broken alter from the butt of a police gun, and a portion missing from the railing around the alter from stampedes of students running from police. We headed to the Apartheid Museum (which is where the photo in the header of my blog is from) and then to Constitution Hill. South Africa has the world’s newest and most liberal democratic Constitution and this court is set up to deal only with human rights issues. It is built next to the site of the political jail that Ghandi spent time in and emphasizes ‘justice under a tree’ as the tree is an extremely prevalent African symbol.
- apartheid museum
Thursday night Melikaya’s wonderful girlfriend Bulelwa made us all dinner at her condo in Jo’berg and then they both took us out dancing !
- girls with Bulelwa
Although the trip had already fully exceeded my expectations, Friday was really the day I had been waiting for. Ever since I can remember I have idolized my Grandpa Dunn for numerous reasons but one major one being that he has been on a safari. I grew up begging to look at slides over and over again from his trip to Kruger Park and now I was finally here for myself. (The Lion King also played a rather large role in my childhood) : ) Our guides Markus and Werner met us at the gates at around 3pm and we switched into open-air safari jeeps and headed to camp. Over the course of the 3 days we saw lions, elephants, giraffes, impalas, zebras, hippos, cape buffalo, numerous species of birds, kudu, hyenas, rhinos and probably a lot more that I can’t remember! On Sunday morning we took one last drive before flying back to Cape Town and saw crocodiles mating which apparently is extremely rare (weird.) and African hunting dogs which are the rarest predatory species in all of Africa. There are only about 250 left in Kruger Park and we saw two! So much better than Planet Earth.
- hunting dog!
- elephant crossing
outside of our camp
giraffe scaring off a lioness
kruger sunrise
on our way home to cape town!
[sorry for the ridiculous length of this post!]
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