Bomvu Paradise was the name of the backpackers we stayed at in Coffee Bay, one of only two - the other being The Coffee Shack, just across the road. It's another funky, rustic place with the same chilled out vibe as many of the other backpacker places in South Africa. It's also a bit of a stroll to the beach, having to leap-frog over stones to cross a small river - but as usual the awaiting sweeping beach was just reward.
Again we stayed longer than I would normally have anticipated, with days spent just lazing around or strolling to and along the beach, or watching pied kingfishers from atop the large sand dunes. There was a lovely expensive resort at the very far end of the beach, so of course that made a nice luxurious lunchtime stop one of the days.
The staff at Bomvu would organise little free 'events' each evening, and we partook of quite a few. Drumming lessions, sundowners on the adjacent hillside, free traditional Potjie (lovely slow-cooked game stew), local girls singing and dancing.
We also did a day trip to the next village along the coast, called The Hole in the Wall - named after a natural rock formation. Yet again this hike was magnificent, with the usual stunning coastal views on another beautiful day. After a relaxed lunch of BBQ'ed sandwiches gazing at the 'Hole' we got a lift back to Coffee Bay, sharing the van with the hostel's racist guard dog (he'd lean his head out of the window and bark furiously at any black people walking along the road - he never barked at white people, not very nice really).
Eventually it was time to leave, and it was here that we left young Luke. He had been stalling, wondering whether or not to ask for a short-term job at the backpackers. He also fancied one of the girls working there, but we had to leave him with neither issued resolved (I literally bumped into Luke a couple of months later in Cape Town, and both issues had found satisfactory outcomes in the end!).
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Saturday, December 22, 2007
The Wild Coast
After quite a long drive we arrived at the Jungle Monkey backpackers in Port St. Johns. The town is really just two streets, so there's not a lot to do there exactly, but that's more than made up for by the madness at the backpacker place itself. Even our guidebook reckoned that the best bar in the town was the backpacker bar - and I reckon that certainly proved to be true for the few days we were there.
Jungle Monkey, like most backpacker places we've encountered throughout South Africa and since, was actually very self-contained - it had a nice restaurant (although there was also cooking facilities), it had a nice clean swimming pool, it had the best bar in town that had live music regularly (including a mad tall, Masai Mara-looking dude with huge platform shoes and a mad outfit, who was actually really good), and of course all the staff were brilliant craic. The whole place was quite big, and had a couple of nice verandas, one of which was nicely removed from everywhere else and had a great view of the sea (and luckily our room was quite removed from the bar, and so was nice and quite - although we did manage to smash a window. It wasn't our fault though, it was just very windy and the wind blew the window back on itself - the nice owner guy just shrugged it off and told us it was always happening, and he had it fixed that evening).
As for things to do, one day myself and Sarah went horse riding. The poor horses arrived to meet us lathered in sweat, as there had been a mixup in the booking, and the guide had to race the poor horses to meet us as we got off the free river ferry. But after a short rest and a slow start they seemed fine.
It was really windy, but still a beautifully sunny day, and the trek we took followed along the beach and then up along the high cliffs, which offered stunning views overlooking the turbulent sea. We stopped for a delicious traditional lunch in a tiny local village outside the town (cooked by the guides aunt, apparently), before heading back down the hills and finally wading out to the ferry to take us back across the river and home.
Another day we hiked along the coast for 5km to a beach simply called Second Beach. This is the only safe swimming beach near Port St. Johns, and it was a lovely spot (it was actually quite busy, which has been unusual for a beach throughout this entire trip - although I didn't swim, just paddling about for a bit). This hike was unguided, and we only had the barest outline of a description of the route. But it was easy enough going in the end, taking us up and around a lovely lighthouse and over lovely rocky outcrops past some friendly locals and their shacks (and past the Millennium Bar, a strange little bar in the 'locals' part to the town that we'd visited with Jungle Monkey residents for a sundowner a few days previously).
Passing through the tiny village of Second Beach we stopped for lunch at a lovely, funky little restaurant called The Delicious Monster (really just a local couple's house, with the restaurant seating in their well maintained front garden). Although someone had recommended it, there really wasn't much choice in the area, and if we hadn't been given directions we would never have found it. We were the only customers too. It wasn't particularly cheap, but the fresh crayfresh sounded lovely. It turned out to be one of the very best meals we've had on the whole trip - amazingly fresh, and served with homemade mayonnaise, pitta bread and salad - all very simple really. But we were both bowled over by just how good it was - it just goes to show you can never judge a restaurant by it's appearance. In fact, all the outstanding meals on the trip so far have been at simple, relatively cheap little homely places - and each of these places has blown away all the five-star hotels and fancy-dancy restaurants (and we've tried very many of those at this stage!).
The night life at the Jungle Monkey is pretty notorious and it lived up to that reputation while we were there. We met lots of interesting people, including an extended family group of Afrikaners (who ended up buying a large B&B operation in the town). These guys seemed to take a wee shine to us for some reason (they kept asking us to join them for days out, they always seemed to be drawn to us in the evenings, and when they left early on their last morning they left us a lovely note and a wee present). It was really interesting to meet them though, as the Afrikaners are a very different breed than the English-white South Africans (Luke the Duke for instance didn't like them at all, and generally avoided them completely) - but from my point of view it was interesting to get their take on South Africa and it's future. In fact, it was eye-opening and educational in much the same way as meeting the two self-confessed 'Racialist Rhodesians' back in Zimbabwe. In many ways that captures what proper travelling is all about really - meeting and engaging with all the various types of 'locals', not just the obvious indigenous people.
The nature of Jungle Monkey (and the extremely friendly, engaging and entertaining staff, who we got to know quite well), seemed to engender a general atmosphere of camaraderie and everyone just seemed to mix and gel naturally and easily. So I think we ended up staying five nights at Jungle Money, and it was kinda weird to leave it, but by that stage I was fairly exhausted really!
Port St. Johns actually marks the beginning of what the tourist industry here calls the Wild Coast, which is basically just a long stretch of the coast dotted with small, but idyllically beautiful, little towns that cater mainly for the backpacker trade. I kinda knew at this stage that I wasn't going to let our original timetable dictate how long we'd spend travelling through South Africa (we could just extend our flights and the car rental easily over the phone), so we pretty much decided to try and check out all of the Wild Coast towns - and next up was Coffee Bay.
Jungle Monkey, like most backpacker places we've encountered throughout South Africa and since, was actually very self-contained - it had a nice restaurant (although there was also cooking facilities), it had a nice clean swimming pool, it had the best bar in town that had live music regularly (including a mad tall, Masai Mara-looking dude with huge platform shoes and a mad outfit, who was actually really good), and of course all the staff were brilliant craic. The whole place was quite big, and had a couple of nice verandas, one of which was nicely removed from everywhere else and had a great view of the sea (and luckily our room was quite removed from the bar, and so was nice and quite - although we did manage to smash a window. It wasn't our fault though, it was just very windy and the wind blew the window back on itself - the nice owner guy just shrugged it off and told us it was always happening, and he had it fixed that evening).
As for things to do, one day myself and Sarah went horse riding. The poor horses arrived to meet us lathered in sweat, as there had been a mixup in the booking, and the guide had to race the poor horses to meet us as we got off the free river ferry. But after a short rest and a slow start they seemed fine.
It was really windy, but still a beautifully sunny day, and the trek we took followed along the beach and then up along the high cliffs, which offered stunning views overlooking the turbulent sea. We stopped for a delicious traditional lunch in a tiny local village outside the town (cooked by the guides aunt, apparently), before heading back down the hills and finally wading out to the ferry to take us back across the river and home.
Another day we hiked along the coast for 5km to a beach simply called Second Beach. This is the only safe swimming beach near Port St. Johns, and it was a lovely spot (it was actually quite busy, which has been unusual for a beach throughout this entire trip - although I didn't swim, just paddling about for a bit). This hike was unguided, and we only had the barest outline of a description of the route. But it was easy enough going in the end, taking us up and around a lovely lighthouse and over lovely rocky outcrops past some friendly locals and their shacks (and past the Millennium Bar, a strange little bar in the 'locals' part to the town that we'd visited with Jungle Monkey residents for a sundowner a few days previously).
Passing through the tiny village of Second Beach we stopped for lunch at a lovely, funky little restaurant called The Delicious Monster (really just a local couple's house, with the restaurant seating in their well maintained front garden). Although someone had recommended it, there really wasn't much choice in the area, and if we hadn't been given directions we would never have found it. We were the only customers too. It wasn't particularly cheap, but the fresh crayfresh sounded lovely. It turned out to be one of the very best meals we've had on the whole trip - amazingly fresh, and served with homemade mayonnaise, pitta bread and salad - all very simple really. But we were both bowled over by just how good it was - it just goes to show you can never judge a restaurant by it's appearance. In fact, all the outstanding meals on the trip so far have been at simple, relatively cheap little homely places - and each of these places has blown away all the five-star hotels and fancy-dancy restaurants (and we've tried very many of those at this stage!).
The night life at the Jungle Monkey is pretty notorious and it lived up to that reputation while we were there. We met lots of interesting people, including an extended family group of Afrikaners (who ended up buying a large B&B operation in the town). These guys seemed to take a wee shine to us for some reason (they kept asking us to join them for days out, they always seemed to be drawn to us in the evenings, and when they left early on their last morning they left us a lovely note and a wee present). It was really interesting to meet them though, as the Afrikaners are a very different breed than the English-white South Africans (Luke the Duke for instance didn't like them at all, and generally avoided them completely) - but from my point of view it was interesting to get their take on South Africa and it's future. In fact, it was eye-opening and educational in much the same way as meeting the two self-confessed 'Racialist Rhodesians' back in Zimbabwe. In many ways that captures what proper travelling is all about really - meeting and engaging with all the various types of 'locals', not just the obvious indigenous people.
The nature of Jungle Monkey (and the extremely friendly, engaging and entertaining staff, who we got to know quite well), seemed to engender a general atmosphere of camaraderie and everyone just seemed to mix and gel naturally and easily. So I think we ended up staying five nights at Jungle Money, and it was kinda weird to leave it, but by that stage I was fairly exhausted really!
Port St. Johns actually marks the beginning of what the tourist industry here calls the Wild Coast, which is basically just a long stretch of the coast dotted with small, but idyllically beautiful, little towns that cater mainly for the backpacker trade. I kinda knew at this stage that I wasn't going to let our original timetable dictate how long we'd spend travelling through South Africa (we could just extend our flights and the car rental easily over the phone), so we pretty much decided to try and check out all of the Wild Coast towns - and next up was Coffee Bay.
Friday, December 21, 2007
The Mantis and Moon
Next stop was Umzumbe and the Mantis and Moon backpackers. This was another lovely backpackers place set in lush forest surroundings that bleed down to the beach (although the weather wasn't great for us, so I didn't get to explore the beach at all).
Here we just relaxed again, not doing much. One of the nights we had a really interesting chat with the German owner of the place, and the previous owner who was visiting for the weekend. Both guys were passionate 'lovers-of-life' who knew from a young age exactly what they wanted to do with their lives, and so, to a large extent, had pretty much achieved all their life goals.
I loved the German guy's story about a really spectacular surfing poster that he had had framed and placed in the bar. He said he had seen the poster when he was a young kid in Germany, living hundreds of miles from the sea, but he had just looked at it and immediately said to himself that he was going to ride huge waves just like the surfer in the picture. Of course, he didn't just say that to himself, he 'believed' it, he 'knew' he would ride huge waves. So he'd kept that poster and naturally, years later, that was exactly what he did, and he became a professional surfer. Now his dream was simply to own a cool backpackers lodge near some great surfing and spend his time relaxing and enjoying life - and of course, since he always believed he would, that was exactly what he was doing. I really love when I come across people like that, it always gives me a faint glimmer of hope for the future of humanity. Sadly of course, it doesn't really happen very often, but it's still good to know that there are one or two left out there!
We did have a day trip to the Oribi Gorge where we watched a number of people do the Gorge Swing (YouTube video here). If I'd had a Mr. Mullins or a Mr. Hanno with me I'm sure I would have done it, as I'd loved the one in Victoria Falls, but without Ezeria to give me a kick in the ass I didn't bother doing it here.
We did a couple of short hikes in the area though, one of which lead down to the bottom of the gorge itself. After waiting for a while we got to see a couple of people jump while watching them from below, but the view wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be (they didn't really get close enough to hitting the ground!).
The gorge has a couple of cool overhanging rocks that allow some tricks-of-the-eye photo opportunities - i.e. where it looks like your sitting casually right on the edge of a thousand foot drop, when actually there is a ledge just a few feet below you. There were plenty of spectacular views and genuinely mad shear drop-off's all the same though.
On the morning we were leaving the backpackers we met a young South African lad over breakfast. He told us he was trying to make his way south, and when we offered to give him a lift some of the way he jumped at the chance. Half an hour later we were all packed up and on the road south again, this time with our young adopted local boy - Luke (aka The Duke!).
Here we just relaxed again, not doing much. One of the nights we had a really interesting chat with the German owner of the place, and the previous owner who was visiting for the weekend. Both guys were passionate 'lovers-of-life' who knew from a young age exactly what they wanted to do with their lives, and so, to a large extent, had pretty much achieved all their life goals.
I loved the German guy's story about a really spectacular surfing poster that he had had framed and placed in the bar. He said he had seen the poster when he was a young kid in Germany, living hundreds of miles from the sea, but he had just looked at it and immediately said to himself that he was going to ride huge waves just like the surfer in the picture. Of course, he didn't just say that to himself, he 'believed' it, he 'knew' he would ride huge waves. So he'd kept that poster and naturally, years later, that was exactly what he did, and he became a professional surfer. Now his dream was simply to own a cool backpackers lodge near some great surfing and spend his time relaxing and enjoying life - and of course, since he always believed he would, that was exactly what he was doing. I really love when I come across people like that, it always gives me a faint glimmer of hope for the future of humanity. Sadly of course, it doesn't really happen very often, but it's still good to know that there are one or two left out there!
We did have a day trip to the Oribi Gorge where we watched a number of people do the Gorge Swing (YouTube video here). If I'd had a Mr. Mullins or a Mr. Hanno with me I'm sure I would have done it, as I'd loved the one in Victoria Falls, but without Ezeria to give me a kick in the ass I didn't bother doing it here.
We did a couple of short hikes in the area though, one of which lead down to the bottom of the gorge itself. After waiting for a while we got to see a couple of people jump while watching them from below, but the view wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be (they didn't really get close enough to hitting the ground!).
The gorge has a couple of cool overhanging rocks that allow some tricks-of-the-eye photo opportunities - i.e. where it looks like your sitting casually right on the edge of a thousand foot drop, when actually there is a ledge just a few feet below you. There were plenty of spectacular views and genuinely mad shear drop-off's all the same though.
On the morning we were leaving the backpackers we met a young South African lad over breakfast. He told us he was trying to make his way south, and when we offered to give him a lift some of the way he jumped at the chance. Half an hour later we were all packed up and on the road south again, this time with our young adopted local boy - Luke (aka The Duke!).
Diving with the sharks
After a brief stopover at Blue Sky Mining Backpackers in Warner Beach it was on to the small town of Umkomaas and the Aliwal Dive Centre and Lodge. We stayed here for just a couple of nights while I got to do three dives (even the dorms were mighty expensive, as they were just completing extensive renovations).
This dive site is famous for having lots and lots of ragged-tooth sharks during their mating season, which luckily enough just happened to coincide nicely with my arrival. Over my three dives I got see two turtles and a pod of dolphins right beside the boat as we were kitting up, but of course the real highlight was seeing three mature ragged-tooth sharks over two different dives.
These lads are mighty impressive looking sharks, about 2-3 meters long and swim with their mouths slightly open, thereby displaying their impressive teeth. They are the most common sharks displayed in the larger aquariums around the world, due to there docile nature but impressive appearance and size. They are actually very common this time of year and so are a major attraction - they are generally completely harmless to humans, unless your a complete idiot and harass them somehow.
It really was one of my scuba diving highlights to just relax and observe these magnificent animals in their natural environment. Again the visibility wasn't the best though, which was a pity, but I still got to get up really close.
I also got to do a nice intricate cave dive, just me and my divemaster-qualified dive buddy (Dave), which was brilliant. In fact, I was lucky enough to have highly experienced divers as dive-buddies on each of my dives (with 72 dives I think I was probably the least experienced diver of the lot). It meant I could really relax in the presence of the sharks (since everyone else had dived many times with sharks), and it also meant I got to have the full 50-minute dive time limit on each dive - usually inexperienced divers use up their air much more quickly than that.
So all-in-all some great diving, and I'd love to return when the visibility is better. The town itself was very small, so not many dining options, although there was a lovely bar/restaurant right on the beach which had fantastic views on the moon-lit night we were there.
This dive site is famous for having lots and lots of ragged-tooth sharks during their mating season, which luckily enough just happened to coincide nicely with my arrival. Over my three dives I got see two turtles and a pod of dolphins right beside the boat as we were kitting up, but of course the real highlight was seeing three mature ragged-tooth sharks over two different dives.
These lads are mighty impressive looking sharks, about 2-3 meters long and swim with their mouths slightly open, thereby displaying their impressive teeth. They are the most common sharks displayed in the larger aquariums around the world, due to there docile nature but impressive appearance and size. They are actually very common this time of year and so are a major attraction - they are generally completely harmless to humans, unless your a complete idiot and harass them somehow.
It really was one of my scuba diving highlights to just relax and observe these magnificent animals in their natural environment. Again the visibility wasn't the best though, which was a pity, but I still got to get up really close.
I also got to do a nice intricate cave dive, just me and my divemaster-qualified dive buddy (Dave), which was brilliant. In fact, I was lucky enough to have highly experienced divers as dive-buddies on each of my dives (with 72 dives I think I was probably the least experienced diver of the lot). It meant I could really relax in the presence of the sharks (since everyone else had dived many times with sharks), and it also meant I got to have the full 50-minute dive time limit on each dive - usually inexperienced divers use up their air much more quickly than that.
So all-in-all some great diving, and I'd love to return when the visibility is better. The town itself was very small, so not many dining options, although there was a lovely bar/restaurant right on the beach which had fantastic views on the moon-lit night we were there.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Durban Town
So parts of Durban city are quite nice I suppose, although we didn't really linger long (and the centre didn't seem to have much to offer once night fell, as the long beachfront becomes dangerous). We spent a great day at the Ushaka Aquarium though, one of the largest and most modern in the world. It was brilliantly laid out I have to say and of course I could have stayed there all day. Sarah got to see her first dolphin and seal shows, both quite impressive of course (although they don't have a killer whale show like in California's Sea World!).
Durban is famous for an Indian fast-food delicacy called Buni-Chow, but we actually had a hard time finding a place that had any (I finally had one later in Port Elizabeth and it was quite nice, and a tad novel I suppose). The guidebook had mentioned a place along the beachfront, and so after a beer at the famous surfer-watching bar of 'Joe Kools' we went strolling around looking for it, but couldn't find it. It was starting to get dark and we did look conspicuously like clueless tourists wandering about aimlessly when out of the blue this local girl jogging along the promanade passes from behind us and very casually says, 'They are about to rob you!'.
She didn't even look at us, so I wasn't sure that she was talking to us, and looking around I didn't see anything obvious. She kinda stopped jogging just in front of us and told us, again not looking at us at all, that she had just overheard a couple of guys behind us and that they were moving in to rob us. This time I had a proper look behind, and indeed two dodgey looking lads were a fair bit behind us, and did appear to be kinda stalking us. I thanked the girl profusely and moved along pretty sharpish, whilst trying to keep an eye on the lads, as they continued to follow us. Then we broke into a bit of a trot back to the car, only a little nervously of course, and went straight back home. It was probably a lucky escape, although I suppose we'll never know for sure what might have happened.
Our backpackers (Gibela Backpackers Lodge) was a lovely place, one of the nicest in SA really, and it was situated nice and close to Florida Road, one of Durban's main night spots. I spent another day strolling around the local parks, one of which (Mitchell Park) has a pretty cool little zoo with loads of playful marmosets that had me mesmerised.
But after a few days it was time to move on again (after I'd inadvertently burnt the outline of a mozzy coil into the varnish of the bedside table!), and I headed south to try some more diving at another famous dive site - Aliwal Shoal.
She didn't even look at us, so I wasn't sure that she was talking to us, and looking around I didn't see anything obvious. She kinda stopped jogging just in front of us and told us, again not looking at us at all, that she had just overheard a couple of guys behind us and that they were moving in to rob us. This time I had a proper look behind, and indeed two dodgey looking lads were a fair bit behind us, and did appear to be kinda stalking us. I thanked the girl profusely and moved along pretty sharpish, whilst trying to keep an eye on the lads, as they continued to follow us. Then we broke into a bit of a trot back to the car, only a little nervously of course, and went straight back home. It was probably a lucky escape, although I suppose we'll never know for sure what might have happened.
Our backpackers (Gibela Backpackers Lodge) was a lovely place, one of the nicest in SA really, and it was situated nice and close to Florida Road, one of Durban's main night spots. I spent another day strolling around the local parks, one of which (Mitchell Park) has a pretty cool little zoo with loads of playful marmosets that had me mesmerised.
But after a few days it was time to move on again (after I'd inadvertently burnt the outline of a mozzy coil into the varnish of the bedside table!), and I headed south to try some more diving at another famous dive site - Aliwal Shoal.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
The outskirts of Durban
I'd been looking forward to arriving in Durban for a while, as it was going to be the first big city we'd been in for quite a while (and I was looking forward to swanky restaurants and lively nightlife). We'd also had a kind offer from a friend of a friend that we'd met way back in Johannesburg. This friend (Bernd) had a holiday home just outside Durban, and had kindly offered to let us stay there. I felt awkward accepting such an offer from a complete stranger at first, but we met Berndt twice, and both times I ended up paying for his dinner. Apparently the guy was quite wealthy too, so I assumed we wouldn't be putting him out of his way at all by accepting.
I was also looking forward to being able to spend a few days just chilling out, thinking we'd have a lovely place all to ourselves in a lovely location for next to nothing.
Anyway, when we arrived at Umhlanga Rocks (actually a really posh district north of Durban city) we had to phone Bernd to arrange to get the keys - at which point he tells Sarah that we can certainly stay at his place, but that there would be a service charge associated. Naturally we thought this was completely fair, as it was a serviced apartment and so the management company would charge for anyone staying there. The shock came when we heard the amount - 450Rand a night. Up until this point we had been paying 200-250Rand a night for really nice places - the most we have paid in over two months in South Africa is 400Rand a night and that was for the exclusive use of a genuinely fabulous, huge house.
At first I just thought that the place must be an out-of-this-world amazing apartment, so we agreed to spend three nights, although I still thought it was a bit strange. After getting the key from the agent and moving into the apartment we realised that there must have been some kind of miscommunication somewhere along the line - the apartment was very small and actually quite run-down (paint peeling, damp patches, rusty ceiling fan). It did have a great location though, the balcony looked straight out over the crashing ocean, although it didn't have any access to the beach (a major storm in March had caused extensive damage along the shoreline and renovation work was continuing).
Realising that Bernd's kind offer wasn't quite as kind as we'd thought we phoned the agent and reduced our stay to just two nights. The agent informed us that the usual price for renting the apartment was 550Rand a night, so I suppose Bernd was doing us some kind of a favour, but the impression everyone got when he made the initial offer was that we could stay for nothing.
Anyway, Umhlanga wasn't even that great a place. It was all fancy and everything, but had a bit too much of an American-shopping-mall feeling to it. It's saving grace for us though was meeting up with a couple of Irish lads the first night. I think these were the first Irish we'd met on the whole trip and they were a mad laugh. They were both from Kerry and were working at the Durban docks building new cargo cranes (apparently world trade is booming and Durban has a serious lack of capacity), so they knew Umhlanga well. It ended up a very late and slightly bruised night, with Sarah a tad more under the weather than me I have to say. The entire next day was spent with both of us recovering in bed, so we never got much value from our stay (and never got to go to the fanciest restaurant in town, at the Beverly Hills Hotel - actually a really nice place, despite the really off-putting name).
The next morning we checked out of the apartment and went to visit the Natal Sharks Board. These guys are responsible for maintaining the shark nets that protect the swimming beaches of South Africa and they give an educational shark dissection demonstration every day. They inevitably catch sharks in the nets every time they check them - if they are still alive they release them, if dead they use them to try and help educate the public through these dissection talks. The talk was very interesting I have to say, and you get to touch and feel all the cut up bits of the poor 'auld shark at the end.
Next stop was a backpacker place in the heart of Durban city proper (the only reason we moved really was the fact that the backpacker place was sure to be nicer and much cheaper!).
I was also looking forward to being able to spend a few days just chilling out, thinking we'd have a lovely place all to ourselves in a lovely location for next to nothing.
Anyway, when we arrived at Umhlanga Rocks (actually a really posh district north of Durban city) we had to phone Bernd to arrange to get the keys - at which point he tells Sarah that we can certainly stay at his place, but that there would be a service charge associated. Naturally we thought this was completely fair, as it was a serviced apartment and so the management company would charge for anyone staying there. The shock came when we heard the amount - 450Rand a night. Up until this point we had been paying 200-250Rand a night for really nice places - the most we have paid in over two months in South Africa is 400Rand a night and that was for the exclusive use of a genuinely fabulous, huge house.
At first I just thought that the place must be an out-of-this-world amazing apartment, so we agreed to spend three nights, although I still thought it was a bit strange. After getting the key from the agent and moving into the apartment we realised that there must have been some kind of miscommunication somewhere along the line - the apartment was very small and actually quite run-down (paint peeling, damp patches, rusty ceiling fan). It did have a great location though, the balcony looked straight out over the crashing ocean, although it didn't have any access to the beach (a major storm in March had caused extensive damage along the shoreline and renovation work was continuing).
Realising that Bernd's kind offer wasn't quite as kind as we'd thought we phoned the agent and reduced our stay to just two nights. The agent informed us that the usual price for renting the apartment was 550Rand a night, so I suppose Bernd was doing us some kind of a favour, but the impression everyone got when he made the initial offer was that we could stay for nothing.
Anyway, Umhlanga wasn't even that great a place. It was all fancy and everything, but had a bit too much of an American-shopping-mall feeling to it. It's saving grace for us though was meeting up with a couple of Irish lads the first night. I think these were the first Irish we'd met on the whole trip and they were a mad laugh. They were both from Kerry and were working at the Durban docks building new cargo cranes (apparently world trade is booming and Durban has a serious lack of capacity), so they knew Umhlanga well. It ended up a very late and slightly bruised night, with Sarah a tad more under the weather than me I have to say. The entire next day was spent with both of us recovering in bed, so we never got much value from our stay (and never got to go to the fanciest restaurant in town, at the Beverly Hills Hotel - actually a really nice place, despite the really off-putting name).
The next morning we checked out of the apartment and went to visit the Natal Sharks Board. These guys are responsible for maintaining the shark nets that protect the swimming beaches of South Africa and they give an educational shark dissection demonstration every day. They inevitably catch sharks in the nets every time they check them - if they are still alive they release them, if dead they use them to try and help educate the public through these dissection talks. The talk was very interesting I have to say, and you get to touch and feel all the cut up bits of the poor 'auld shark at the end.
Next stop was a backpacker place in the heart of Durban city proper (the only reason we moved really was the fact that the backpacker place was sure to be nicer and much cheaper!).
Umfolozi and Saint Lucia
Next stop was Hluhluwe Backpackers and Safaris, right next door to the game reserve. We only spent one night here, getting up early the following morning and spending the whole day driving around the park.
I checked out staying at the main camp in the park, but they were completely full (lovely place though with a great short hiking trail through dense forest). This park had fantastic scenery, but not an abundance of game - still no leopard sightings.
That evening we drove the relatively short distance to Saint Lucia (Bib's International Backpackers), back on the East coast. Again we spent more time here then we first thought we would. We actually had our very first South African braai here (their word for a BBQ), whilst watching the first South African rugby game in a local bar. The atmosphere was good, but nothing compared to an Irish rugby game (but then we were in a smallish, touristy town).
Again we hired bicycles to explore the area, which has some amazing beaches. We visited the crocodile farm, which was very impressive (especially the baby crocs that were extremely feisty and would snap viciously when you'd approach them). The guide was actually originally from Ireland (O'Dell) and the tour around all the enclosures was very good - and yes, we did get to pet a baby croc while the guide held it firmly.
We took the evening cruise one of the days, just turning up and hopping onboard. The highlight of the cruise is meant to be the crocs and hippos you get to see, but by this stage we've seen what seems like hundreds of both, so I just sat on the upper deck and relaxed with a beer watching the sunset and the hippos, crocs and fish eagles drift past (all of the other people on board were down below eagerly snapping photos). In fact, I was strongly reminded of just cruising down the Shannon back home, it was such a lovely wee excursion.
I was tempted after seeing glimpses of whales at Sodwana to do a whale watching boat trip, but they were very expensive, and I knew I'd be diving again further down the coast so I didn't bother. Luckily I didn't either, since all you have to do is go to Hermanus at the right time of year and your pretty much guaranteed a fantastic show right from the shore.
Our last day in Saint Lucia we drove up the coast to Cape Vidal, through another game reserve. This reserve really doesn't have much game, it's more for the drive and the beach at the destination. Cape Vidal really was another great beach and we got to see lots of the really cute samanga monkeys - common here but endangered elsewhere across the world.
From St. Lucia it was off to Durban.
I checked out staying at the main camp in the park, but they were completely full (lovely place though with a great short hiking trail through dense forest). This park had fantastic scenery, but not an abundance of game - still no leopard sightings.
That evening we drove the relatively short distance to Saint Lucia (Bib's International Backpackers), back on the East coast. Again we spent more time here then we first thought we would. We actually had our very first South African braai here (their word for a BBQ), whilst watching the first South African rugby game in a local bar. The atmosphere was good, but nothing compared to an Irish rugby game (but then we were in a smallish, touristy town).
Again we hired bicycles to explore the area, which has some amazing beaches. We visited the crocodile farm, which was very impressive (especially the baby crocs that were extremely feisty and would snap viciously when you'd approach them). The guide was actually originally from Ireland (O'Dell) and the tour around all the enclosures was very good - and yes, we did get to pet a baby croc while the guide held it firmly.
We took the evening cruise one of the days, just turning up and hopping onboard. The highlight of the cruise is meant to be the crocs and hippos you get to see, but by this stage we've seen what seems like hundreds of both, so I just sat on the upper deck and relaxed with a beer watching the sunset and the hippos, crocs and fish eagles drift past (all of the other people on board were down below eagerly snapping photos). In fact, I was strongly reminded of just cruising down the Shannon back home, it was such a lovely wee excursion.
I was tempted after seeing glimpses of whales at Sodwana to do a whale watching boat trip, but they were very expensive, and I knew I'd be diving again further down the coast so I didn't bother. Luckily I didn't either, since all you have to do is go to Hermanus at the right time of year and your pretty much guaranteed a fantastic show right from the shore.
Our last day in Saint Lucia we drove up the coast to Cape Vidal, through another game reserve. This reserve really doesn't have much game, it's more for the drive and the beach at the destination. Cape Vidal really was another great beach and we got to see lots of the really cute samanga monkeys - common here but endangered elsewhere across the world.
From St. Lucia it was off to Durban.
Scuba at Sodwana
Sodwana Bay is actually located within a marine nature reserve, and so the accommodation options are quite limited. But it turned out that the best and nicest place to stay was with the main scuba diving operation - Coral Divers. They are a pretty major operation and have superb facilities and equipment, and seeing as how we arrived mid-week in low season I got a great deal on a diving package.
In total I did five dives there - all of which were in poor visibility (8-10 meters), but all of which also had some kind of highlight. The launch site for the boats actually had quite big breakers, so actually just getting beyond them was a great laugh (we had to wear life jackets, and the boat captain had to do a practice run first to make sure the engines were working properly). On our first ride out to the dive site the dive master spots a whale shark and jumps into the water to try and get a proper bearing on it. I'm hurriedly getting my snorkel and flippers on, but the dive master can't find the whale shark again and we miss it. On my last dive I was bumped off my original dive boat to make room for a group of students, and of course on their way back from their dive they found a whale shark and got to dive with it and get really close - naturally I was raging, but that's just the luck of the draw really.
But it also whale season at Sodwana and coming back from my first dive a humpback whale's tail came right out of the water, no more than 30 meters from the boat. I thought this was amazing at the time, but the next day on the beach I saw flippers flapping about and just caught a glimpse of a full breach (where the whale jumps straight up vertically from the water, and splashes back down again in a huge explosion of water). But over the following few weeks (and especially at Hermanus) we got see lots of lots of whales, sometimes extremely close.
The dives themselves weren't really spectacular (mainly due to the poor visibility), but I still got to see lots of coral , lion and scorpion fish, nudibranchs, moray eels, rays, an octopus, puffer fish, pipefish, etc. It was great to get back diving again - it was hard to believe it had been over seven years since my last one.
I saw four turtles over the five dives, which is always nice. Sarah got to see one too when she did a Discover Scuba dive. Discover Scuba is for people who want to just give scuba a go without doing a full course, so after about an hours instruction Sarah got to come on one of my dives. She was pretty nervous but once she relaxed she got to enjoy the dive. Her instructor was good too, and let her free swim for a bit (i.e. not holding her hand for the entire dive) and she managed very well (some people will just bolt straight for the surface). Her air managed to last a good 40 minutes too, which was very good for a first-timer. She didn't get to see any sharks though!
From Sodwana it was South again and time for a tad more safari.
In total I did five dives there - all of which were in poor visibility (8-10 meters), but all of which also had some kind of highlight. The launch site for the boats actually had quite big breakers, so actually just getting beyond them was a great laugh (we had to wear life jackets, and the boat captain had to do a practice run first to make sure the engines were working properly). On our first ride out to the dive site the dive master spots a whale shark and jumps into the water to try and get a proper bearing on it. I'm hurriedly getting my snorkel and flippers on, but the dive master can't find the whale shark again and we miss it. On my last dive I was bumped off my original dive boat to make room for a group of students, and of course on their way back from their dive they found a whale shark and got to dive with it and get really close - naturally I was raging, but that's just the luck of the draw really.
But it also whale season at Sodwana and coming back from my first dive a humpback whale's tail came right out of the water, no more than 30 meters from the boat. I thought this was amazing at the time, but the next day on the beach I saw flippers flapping about and just caught a glimpse of a full breach (where the whale jumps straight up vertically from the water, and splashes back down again in a huge explosion of water). But over the following few weeks (and especially at Hermanus) we got see lots of lots of whales, sometimes extremely close.
The dives themselves weren't really spectacular (mainly due to the poor visibility), but I still got to see lots of coral , lion and scorpion fish, nudibranchs, moray eels, rays, an octopus, puffer fish, pipefish, etc. It was great to get back diving again - it was hard to believe it had been over seven years since my last one.
I saw four turtles over the five dives, which is always nice. Sarah got to see one too when she did a Discover Scuba dive. Discover Scuba is for people who want to just give scuba a go without doing a full course, so after about an hours instruction Sarah got to come on one of my dives. She was pretty nervous but once she relaxed she got to enjoy the dive. Her instructor was good too, and let her free swim for a bit (i.e. not holding her hand for the entire dive) and she managed very well (some people will just bolt straight for the surface). Her air managed to last a good 40 minutes too, which was very good for a first-timer. She didn't get to see any sharks though!
From Sodwana it was South again and time for a tad more safari.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Swaziland
Swaziland is a tiny little country, land-locked and very mountainous - and therefore mighty pretty. We crossed the border at Bulembu along a fairly torturous dirt-track road (by this stage the poor Toyota Corolla was well and truly layered in fine dust, inside and out). We stayed the night in a nice restored old building in the town of Piggs Peak, a mostly deserted mining town that used to process asbestos. But the town was tiny and had no shops or restaurants or any life really, so the next morning we moved on to the capital Mbabane (but only stayed there two nights - Abacus Backpacking Lodge, run by a kinda weird, sad, but friendly, English lecturer).
Even though Swaziland is so small, we still managed to spend over a week seeing and doing just about everything there is to see and do. The highlights were in the main touristy place, the Ezulwini Valley where we stayed in a wildlife sanctuary (Sondzela Backpackers), which was a really beautiful spot. We hired bikes one day and rode around quite a bit of the park - stopping for a peek at a lovely private lodge (as usual, nobody thinks to stop you from having a good nose-around), and got a great view of execution rock (where apparently the ancient tribes used to throw sacrificial victims to their gruesome deaths). Another day we rode horses around with just us and the guide, while for the rest of the time I just chilled out in the pool or sitting in the restaurant of the main camp (which had a great location right up against a watering hole with crocs lazing around and birds coming and going).
Another day while just driving from one place to the next we passed some ramshackle signs for rock art. So naturally we followed the signs and arrived at a very simple local setup in the middle of nowhere. As always, everyone there was extremely friendly and welcoming, and a young local girl took us for about a 10 minute walk to an overhanging rock with some faint, but visible, ancient rock art. She didn't hype it up at all, and explained that there quite a few things they didn't know or understand about it, even it's exact age. But it was a lovely little excursion to see genuine African rock art whilst knowing we were genuinely helping a local initiative.
Further south we stayed at Legends backpackers. Again we rented bikes for pottering about, but while passing the parliament buildings (just across from the not-too-impressive national soccer stadium), I just popped in on the off-chance and got a great personalised tour of the Swazi government buildings and a comprehensive explanation of how their system of government works. The government wasn't in session though so we didn't get to witness any debating or anything. After that we had coffee and cake in a lovely place beside a nature reserve (which we didn't have time to visit properly, and looked kinda corny anyway due to the 'traditional village' they had built).
Another Swazi highlight was a scenic drive through the mountains, stopping off to climb the worlds largest granite outcrop, and popping into the five-star Royal Swazi hotel. As usual I just completely ignored any semblance of security and strolled straight over to their swimming pool and dive in. I did order coffee though, so although I wasn't a hotel resident I was a patron. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the hotel setting was magical, so we ended up sitting by the pool for a good while.
Just down the road from the Royal Swazi was a natural hot spring swimming pool which was really for the locals I think. You had to pay a few pence to get in but the water was like a jacuzzi and the atmosphere was much livelier than the hotel - loads of local kids just running around having a great laugh (we were the only white people there), as opposed to the rich crumblies sipping silly cocktails at the Swazi (to be honest though, of course, I liked both settings!).
So all in all we spent about a week in Swaziland, a lovely laid-back place with more of the same lovely African people. We passed through the border control effortlessly again (as we had coming into Swaziland), and headed straight for Sodwana Bay on the East coast of South Africa, which was reputed to have great scuba diving.
Even though Swaziland is so small, we still managed to spend over a week seeing and doing just about everything there is to see and do. The highlights were in the main touristy place, the Ezulwini Valley where we stayed in a wildlife sanctuary (Sondzela Backpackers), which was a really beautiful spot. We hired bikes one day and rode around quite a bit of the park - stopping for a peek at a lovely private lodge (as usual, nobody thinks to stop you from having a good nose-around), and got a great view of execution rock (where apparently the ancient tribes used to throw sacrificial victims to their gruesome deaths). Another day we rode horses around with just us and the guide, while for the rest of the time I just chilled out in the pool or sitting in the restaurant of the main camp (which had a great location right up against a watering hole with crocs lazing around and birds coming and going).
Another day while just driving from one place to the next we passed some ramshackle signs for rock art. So naturally we followed the signs and arrived at a very simple local setup in the middle of nowhere. As always, everyone there was extremely friendly and welcoming, and a young local girl took us for about a 10 minute walk to an overhanging rock with some faint, but visible, ancient rock art. She didn't hype it up at all, and explained that there quite a few things they didn't know or understand about it, even it's exact age. But it was a lovely little excursion to see genuine African rock art whilst knowing we were genuinely helping a local initiative.
Further south we stayed at Legends backpackers. Again we rented bikes for pottering about, but while passing the parliament buildings (just across from the not-too-impressive national soccer stadium), I just popped in on the off-chance and got a great personalised tour of the Swazi government buildings and a comprehensive explanation of how their system of government works. The government wasn't in session though so we didn't get to witness any debating or anything. After that we had coffee and cake in a lovely place beside a nature reserve (which we didn't have time to visit properly, and looked kinda corny anyway due to the 'traditional village' they had built).
Another Swazi highlight was a scenic drive through the mountains, stopping off to climb the worlds largest granite outcrop, and popping into the five-star Royal Swazi hotel. As usual I just completely ignored any semblance of security and strolled straight over to their swimming pool and dive in. I did order coffee though, so although I wasn't a hotel resident I was a patron. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the hotel setting was magical, so we ended up sitting by the pool for a good while.
Just down the road from the Royal Swazi was a natural hot spring swimming pool which was really for the locals I think. You had to pay a few pence to get in but the water was like a jacuzzi and the atmosphere was much livelier than the hotel - loads of local kids just running around having a great laugh (we were the only white people there), as opposed to the rich crumblies sipping silly cocktails at the Swazi (to be honest though, of course, I liked both settings!).
So all in all we spent about a week in Swaziland, a lovely laid-back place with more of the same lovely African people. We passed through the border control effortlessly again (as we had coming into Swaziland), and headed straight for Sodwana Bay on the East coast of South Africa, which was reputed to have great scuba diving.
Kruger and the Blyde River Canyon
One of the reasons initially for renting a car in South Africa was to allow us to drive around Kruger National Park independently. Up until this point we'd always had to go on safaris through tour operators, but in Kruger (and South Africa generally) the roads are excellent and even in the park itself all the roads and tracks are really well signposted. So in fact most people rent a car and 'do' Kruger themselves.
But on the way towards Kruger is the Blyde River canyon that has a number of spectacular sights to see, trails to hike, (many) waterfalls to ponder and some lovely picturesque towns to visit. Between just Kruger and Blyde canyon we must have spent nearly two weeks pottering about really. Our first hostel stop in Nelspruit was full, so we just moved up closer to Kruger and stayed in a cool laid-back backpackers place in Hazyview. We stayed here a few days, checking out the local animal rehabilitation centre (where Sarah hand-fed a huge vulture), and a local snake park. After Kruger we remained in the Blyde River area and stayed three nights in a really nice house 10kms outside the pretty town of Graskop. This house was really brilliant and we had the whole thing to ourselves (it was the only accommodation option they had left, so I managed to haggle a good price). The owner had worked for years in the construction industry and had built the house himself - it showed in the attention to detail and the beautiful finish. When I get back to Graskop (someday) I'll definitely try and stay there again - it was also only a 10 minute walk to a lovely small river with a small waterfall (which was nice for a bit of Hanno-esque meditation), swimming area and great, unspoilt natural picnic spots.
Somewhere along the way around here (I can't remember exactly), we did a short cave tour. It was the first of now many cave systems we visited, but was quite interesting. We had our own guide, and the tour didn't take very long, but we did get to see the resident bats.
From here we also did a full day hike down into the canyon itself. This was actually a pretty tough hike, but was rewarded at the bottom of the canyon with a really spectacular series of mighty waterfalls. It was a great a place to stop for lunch and then further along at the end of the hike (an out-and-back hike as opposed to a loop) there was a nice spot for a swim. It was probably the most invigoratingly refreshing swim in a river I've ever had, as it had been a tough hike on a gloriously hot day.
In total we spent five days driving around Kruger, and still only managed to see about two-thirds of the park. We spent three of those nights at camps situated within the park (even though it was low-season it was still difficult to get a room), the other days just outside the park. The main camps are really excellent and the rooms are actually rondavels which are self-contained and really comfortable. We spent two nights at Olifants camp and one night at Pretoriuskop camp.
But even with all that time spent in Kruger we still never managed to see a leopard, the most elusive of the big five. Lots of people we met had seen one, some had seen a few, but many others hadn't seen any at all, so it's all the luck of the draw really. But we had plenty of up-close-and-personal encounters with elephants and rhino and loads of other amazing critters (including another chameleon just walking across the road) - but I'd need to go through all the photos to remember them all.
We did a night drive one of the evenings and although you generally don't get to see much on these trips I did manage to spot a bushbaby. It didn't have the mad huge eyes I expected though, and at first I thought it was just a squirrel but then it started leaping around the tree it was on and was unmistakably a bushbaby - another critter off the list so.
We also did a half-day cycle safari with a couple of guides. We were lucky to get this trip, as all their bikes had just come back that day from two weeks of servicing. The trip itself was a bit too short for my liking though - it was obviously designed for people who don't normally cycle much, so although it was on off-road tracks, the distance was only 12km in total and the tracks weren't difficult at all. But it still felt very different being in rhino/hippo/elephant/lion/etc country on a bicycle instead of being wrapped up in a car or in a sturdy jeep.
Overall I think I have to say that the best place we've been on safari (so far!) was actually the very first one, on day two of the whole trip in the Masai Mara in Kenya. I think it was the most beautiful and varied in terms of scenery, and also in terms of the shear number of game animals loitering about. It certainly had the greatest number of lions (by far), but then again maybe we were just lucky with our timing or whatever.
Anyway, after pretty much exhausting everything there was to see and do in both Kruger and the Blyde River Canyon we finally started moving South and headed across the border into Swaziland.
But on the way towards Kruger is the Blyde River canyon that has a number of spectacular sights to see, trails to hike, (many) waterfalls to ponder and some lovely picturesque towns to visit. Between just Kruger and Blyde canyon we must have spent nearly two weeks pottering about really. Our first hostel stop in Nelspruit was full, so we just moved up closer to Kruger and stayed in a cool laid-back backpackers place in Hazyview. We stayed here a few days, checking out the local animal rehabilitation centre (where Sarah hand-fed a huge vulture), and a local snake park. After Kruger we remained in the Blyde River area and stayed three nights in a really nice house 10kms outside the pretty town of Graskop. This house was really brilliant and we had the whole thing to ourselves (it was the only accommodation option they had left, so I managed to haggle a good price). The owner had worked for years in the construction industry and had built the house himself - it showed in the attention to detail and the beautiful finish. When I get back to Graskop (someday) I'll definitely try and stay there again - it was also only a 10 minute walk to a lovely small river with a small waterfall (which was nice for a bit of Hanno-esque meditation), swimming area and great, unspoilt natural picnic spots.
Somewhere along the way around here (I can't remember exactly), we did a short cave tour. It was the first of now many cave systems we visited, but was quite interesting. We had our own guide, and the tour didn't take very long, but we did get to see the resident bats.
From here we also did a full day hike down into the canyon itself. This was actually a pretty tough hike, but was rewarded at the bottom of the canyon with a really spectacular series of mighty waterfalls. It was a great a place to stop for lunch and then further along at the end of the hike (an out-and-back hike as opposed to a loop) there was a nice spot for a swim. It was probably the most invigoratingly refreshing swim in a river I've ever had, as it had been a tough hike on a gloriously hot day.
In total we spent five days driving around Kruger, and still only managed to see about two-thirds of the park. We spent three of those nights at camps situated within the park (even though it was low-season it was still difficult to get a room), the other days just outside the park. The main camps are really excellent and the rooms are actually rondavels which are self-contained and really comfortable. We spent two nights at Olifants camp and one night at Pretoriuskop camp.
But even with all that time spent in Kruger we still never managed to see a leopard, the most elusive of the big five. Lots of people we met had seen one, some had seen a few, but many others hadn't seen any at all, so it's all the luck of the draw really. But we had plenty of up-close-and-personal encounters with elephants and rhino and loads of other amazing critters (including another chameleon just walking across the road) - but I'd need to go through all the photos to remember them all.
We did a night drive one of the evenings and although you generally don't get to see much on these trips I did manage to spot a bushbaby. It didn't have the mad huge eyes I expected though, and at first I thought it was just a squirrel but then it started leaping around the tree it was on and was unmistakably a bushbaby - another critter off the list so.
We also did a half-day cycle safari with a couple of guides. We were lucky to get this trip, as all their bikes had just come back that day from two weeks of servicing. The trip itself was a bit too short for my liking though - it was obviously designed for people who don't normally cycle much, so although it was on off-road tracks, the distance was only 12km in total and the tracks weren't difficult at all. But it still felt very different being in rhino/hippo/elephant/lion/etc country on a bicycle instead of being wrapped up in a car or in a sturdy jeep.
Overall I think I have to say that the best place we've been on safari (so far!) was actually the very first one, on day two of the whole trip in the Masai Mara in Kenya. I think it was the most beautiful and varied in terms of scenery, and also in terms of the shear number of game animals loitering about. It certainly had the greatest number of lions (by far), but then again maybe we were just lucky with our timing or whatever.
Anyway, after pretty much exhausting everything there was to see and do in both Kruger and the Blyde River Canyon we finally started moving South and headed across the border into Swaziland.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
The Road Trip begins
Pretoria (the actual capital of South Africa) was actually a nice enough place to spend a few days. We were in a nice backpackers place with a friendly Irish owner situated in the student area of the city. But the place had no bikes for rent (quite an annoyingly common problem in backpacker places in South Africa I've found), so we moved to another place down the road that did have bikes.
It turned out they only had one bike available, so I headed off of the day exploring while Sarah chilled out and used the Internet. Having a bike gives great freedom in checking out a city (a car is far too inconvenient when you don't know the city and can't get parking), so I had a great day. Cycling around the downtown area was a tad worrisome though as I was getting a few strange stares, as I think I stood out as a crazy tourist target (everyone else was arriving at tourist locations in tour buses). But I just cruised about and also used the bike to check out a few different car rental places about the town. I was kinda nervous about it really, as I've never rented a car before (since I still can't drive one properly - something I'm quite proud of in fact. Luckily, for whoever is reading this, I'm not in the mood for one of my rants right now, so I won't wax lyrically on the benefits of living inside 'the machine' unburdened by a car).
Anyway, after checking out a few options I think I managed to get a good deal. We got a Toyota Corolla 1.4 for 31 days, with power steering and air conditioning - not the cheapest option by any means, but I thought the AC would be a nice luxury (although we've actually only needed it a couple of times). We've already extended that rental period twice - first by one week, then by a further two weeks, and will have to ring them again tomorrow to extend a third time - no idea by how much yet.
So naturally enough Sarah was quite nervous about driving a strange car in a strange country. But at least we'd been in the Pretoria area for a couple of days, so she knew the local roads and she had no problems at all as we just drove back from the rental place to the supermarket and back to our hostel before hitting the highway...
It turned out they only had one bike available, so I headed off of the day exploring while Sarah chilled out and used the Internet. Having a bike gives great freedom in checking out a city (a car is far too inconvenient when you don't know the city and can't get parking), so I had a great day. Cycling around the downtown area was a tad worrisome though as I was getting a few strange stares, as I think I stood out as a crazy tourist target (everyone else was arriving at tourist locations in tour buses). But I just cruised about and also used the bike to check out a few different car rental places about the town. I was kinda nervous about it really, as I've never rented a car before (since I still can't drive one properly - something I'm quite proud of in fact. Luckily, for whoever is reading this, I'm not in the mood for one of my rants right now, so I won't wax lyrically on the benefits of living inside 'the machine' unburdened by a car).
Anyway, after checking out a few options I think I managed to get a good deal. We got a Toyota Corolla 1.4 for 31 days, with power steering and air conditioning - not the cheapest option by any means, but I thought the AC would be a nice luxury (although we've actually only needed it a couple of times). We've already extended that rental period twice - first by one week, then by a further two weeks, and will have to ring them again tomorrow to extend a third time - no idea by how much yet.
So naturally enough Sarah was quite nervous about driving a strange car in a strange country. But at least we'd been in the Pretoria area for a couple of days, so she knew the local roads and she had no problems at all as we just drove back from the rental place to the supermarket and back to our hostel before hitting the highway...
Jo-burg 2
Seeing as how Mark now had another week in South Africa we decided to head out to Sun City, and to stay overnight. It's actually a pretty cool place - basically a big water park with fancy hotels and casinos. Kuda knew someone working at a hotel just outside the park, so we stayed there (and got a room upgrade 'cos our original room hadn't been made up properly). The first night we just visited a big casino where Mark won quite handsomely and then we headed back to the hotel.
I just don't get the whole casino thing though. In fact, walking around the endless rows of slot machines (which are mostly just video game things these days, with very few actual mechanical ones with spinning wheels), I just feel terribly sorry for all the poor sods sitting in front of them. It's similar to the sadness I feel when walking around a gym seeing people cycling stationary bicycles or jogging on treadmills (after having driven their cars to the gym - bloody Epsilons!). I always get a strong sense of desperation - desperate to lose weight or desperate to win a few quid, it's both the same thing. For the record, my idea of 'not desperate' solutions - to lose weight, eat less. To earn more money, be entrepreneurial (e.g. start your own company or join a start-up) or get a better job (or a better education to get a better job).
But Mark plays roulette or blackjack. I still struggle to 'get' the attraction of roulette in general, but Mark plays quite simply on the higher odds options (like 'red' or 'odd') after watching the previous results and so doesn't play the numbers. But at least I can kinda get why people play blackjack. At least each hand is very quick, and the player does get to think and appraise their odds with each card, so I enjoyed watching Mark play, but I still had no inclination to play myself.
I know there is the simple 'buzz' of a win, so I've enjoyed playing cards with mates at home, but playing for money when you know the casino has better odds just seems plain silly to me. And besides, the prospect of winning big money has never really appealed to me either. Its the fundamental reason I've never played the lottery or bought a scratch card - I'm 'weird' I know, but I've always, since I was a kid, felt that I wanted to earn any money I get through my own labors, and not just be given it for no genuine reason.
I guess it might have something to do with Karma or something, but I love the story of my generous Aunt in America offering to pay my college fees when I was 22. But since I'd worked all Summer I had the fees saved up myself. I told my Aunt I had the money myself and she understood and respected my motives. Later that year I was dealing with the college authorities over something else (I can't remember what), when the lady I was dealing with asked what occupation my parents had. She then discovered that I was actually eligible for a government grant to cover my college fees, something I had never even considered. The following week I received a government cheque for the entire amount, and I felt immensely proud for not having accepted my aunts original offer of assistance. Its about having the confidence to be independent and stand on your own two feet - and the rewards, ultimately, for doing so.
Anyway, rant over, back to Sun City. The next day was a gloriously sunny day, and was perfect for all the water slides and generally exploring the whole complex. We all had a go on the kamikaze slide - they always have one in water parks - a big slide with a vertical drop, and generally no queue. The 'no queue' bit should have been a bit of clue, but Mark bravely gave it a go regardless. I think he gave himself a right fright though, as halfway down he tried to climb out of the slide! I was trying to video him and captured it nicely I think, even though I was laughing so hard. Needless to say, none of us did it again.
There is a massive, very fancy hotel in Sun City, but only residents are allowed walk into and around it. We tried to walk in but were turned away, along with lots of other people. So instead we went exploring some of the lovely forest trails and eventually realised we could gain access to the hotel via one of those trails. So we just sauntered in and explored the hotel acting like we were residents (even though it was a mad fancy hotel and we were all wearing shorts and I had no shoes or sandals on at all). After another wander through the casino we drove back to Joburg.
Mark's last night we went to a famous Joburg jazz venue (I forget the name of the place) and after a few technical problems saw a pretty good performance. We had met up with another friend of Marks - a famous South African actress named Nambitha (we'd met her previously for a dinner in Jimmy's Prawns (a chain of restaurants - there are lot's of chains here in South Africa), and she'd been accosted by a couple of groupies, signed a plate for the owner of the restaurant and received a free bottle of champagne) - and so we felt safe in her company, seeing as how this venue was in one of the rougher parts of town. The place was fairly quite though, as the following week was a big jazz festival, so I think people were saving themselves for that. But after the show we kinda stumbled into a private party a couple of doors down (I think Nambitha's notoriety might have had something to do with us being invited in). In was actually in some marketing company's office and was a really cool party, with everyone being really friendly - in fact, it was probably better than the jazz gig.
The next day we bid Mark farewell at the airport (after he met up with an old friend of his fathers - which turned out to be quite unexpected and emotional). We stayed another night in Kuda's kind hospitality and the following day she drove us to Pretoria, which we planned to check out and then rent a car for the rest of South Africa.
I just don't get the whole casino thing though. In fact, walking around the endless rows of slot machines (which are mostly just video game things these days, with very few actual mechanical ones with spinning wheels), I just feel terribly sorry for all the poor sods sitting in front of them. It's similar to the sadness I feel when walking around a gym seeing people cycling stationary bicycles or jogging on treadmills (after having driven their cars to the gym - bloody Epsilons!). I always get a strong sense of desperation - desperate to lose weight or desperate to win a few quid, it's both the same thing. For the record, my idea of 'not desperate' solutions - to lose weight, eat less. To earn more money, be entrepreneurial (e.g. start your own company or join a start-up) or get a better job (or a better education to get a better job).
But Mark plays roulette or blackjack. I still struggle to 'get' the attraction of roulette in general, but Mark plays quite simply on the higher odds options (like 'red' or 'odd') after watching the previous results and so doesn't play the numbers. But at least I can kinda get why people play blackjack. At least each hand is very quick, and the player does get to think and appraise their odds with each card, so I enjoyed watching Mark play, but I still had no inclination to play myself.
I know there is the simple 'buzz' of a win, so I've enjoyed playing cards with mates at home, but playing for money when you know the casino has better odds just seems plain silly to me. And besides, the prospect of winning big money has never really appealed to me either. Its the fundamental reason I've never played the lottery or bought a scratch card - I'm 'weird' I know, but I've always, since I was a kid, felt that I wanted to earn any money I get through my own labors, and not just be given it for no genuine reason.
I guess it might have something to do with Karma or something, but I love the story of my generous Aunt in America offering to pay my college fees when I was 22. But since I'd worked all Summer I had the fees saved up myself. I told my Aunt I had the money myself and she understood and respected my motives. Later that year I was dealing with the college authorities over something else (I can't remember what), when the lady I was dealing with asked what occupation my parents had. She then discovered that I was actually eligible for a government grant to cover my college fees, something I had never even considered. The following week I received a government cheque for the entire amount, and I felt immensely proud for not having accepted my aunts original offer of assistance. Its about having the confidence to be independent and stand on your own two feet - and the rewards, ultimately, for doing so.
Anyway, rant over, back to Sun City. The next day was a gloriously sunny day, and was perfect for all the water slides and generally exploring the whole complex. We all had a go on the kamikaze slide - they always have one in water parks - a big slide with a vertical drop, and generally no queue. The 'no queue' bit should have been a bit of clue, but Mark bravely gave it a go regardless. I think he gave himself a right fright though, as halfway down he tried to climb out of the slide! I was trying to video him and captured it nicely I think, even though I was laughing so hard. Needless to say, none of us did it again.
There is a massive, very fancy hotel in Sun City, but only residents are allowed walk into and around it. We tried to walk in but were turned away, along with lots of other people. So instead we went exploring some of the lovely forest trails and eventually realised we could gain access to the hotel via one of those trails. So we just sauntered in and explored the hotel acting like we were residents (even though it was a mad fancy hotel and we were all wearing shorts and I had no shoes or sandals on at all). After another wander through the casino we drove back to Joburg.
Mark's last night we went to a famous Joburg jazz venue (I forget the name of the place) and after a few technical problems saw a pretty good performance. We had met up with another friend of Marks - a famous South African actress named Nambitha (we'd met her previously for a dinner in Jimmy's Prawns (a chain of restaurants - there are lot's of chains here in South Africa), and she'd been accosted by a couple of groupies, signed a plate for the owner of the restaurant and received a free bottle of champagne) - and so we felt safe in her company, seeing as how this venue was in one of the rougher parts of town. The place was fairly quite though, as the following week was a big jazz festival, so I think people were saving themselves for that. But after the show we kinda stumbled into a private party a couple of doors down (I think Nambitha's notoriety might have had something to do with us being invited in). In was actually in some marketing company's office and was a really cool party, with everyone being really friendly - in fact, it was probably better than the jazz gig.
The next day we bid Mark farewell at the airport (after he met up with an old friend of his fathers - which turned out to be quite unexpected and emotional). We stayed another night in Kuda's kind hospitality and the following day she drove us to Pretoria, which we planned to check out and then rent a car for the rest of South Africa.
Jo-burg 1
So we arrived in Johannesbug (aka Jo-burg or Jozi) on time and hassle free. A good friend of Marks, Kuda, picked us up at the airport and dropped us straight back to her house, where she was putting up all three of us. Obviously myself and Sarah felt a bit cheeky crashing in the house of someone we'd never met, but Mark assured us it would be OK. Little did we know that Kuda had two kids (Curtley, aged 14 and Vuyiso, aged 7), and myself and Sarah were to be given their room.
The original plan was to only spend 4 days in Joburg, as Marks entire holiday was just 2 weeks. We spent the first couple of days visiting Soweto (Nelson Mandela's house, Wandys famous restaurant) and touring the excellent Joburg museums and some of the huge shopping malls. Mark then showed some signs of wanting to extend his holiday, naturally enough, so of course we pounced on him and badgered him into actually doing it (Sarah and Kuda took turns on the phone to the various ticket agents to rearrange everything for him).
So we ended up spending a total of 10 days in poor Kuda's house. The kids were off school for the holidays so when Mark and Kuda went out for the afternoon doing some wheeling-and-dealing myself and Sarah would lounge around or go down the road to play tennis and go swimming with the kids. What with playing Mark in Zim, and Curtley in Joburg, I've developed a taste for tennis - something I haven't played since watching Bjorn Borg as a kid.
One of the days Mark, myself and Sarah took the two lads off to Hartebeesport Dam for the day. It was a nice drive and the dam was impressive enough. We went to a pretty cool zoo there too that had all the big cats. Curtley had borrowed Sarah's sunglasses earlier in the day, and while myself and Curtley were teasing the lions to get a reaction from the lazy loafers Sarah's glasses flew off the top of his head and straight into the cage. The understandably frustrated lion pounced on them straight away of course, and then began eating them while Curtley ran off to get the zookeeper. He just laughed when he saw the lion munching away, although Sarah was anything but laughing when we told her her glasses had been eaten by a lion (I had to show her the photos to prove it). Ah well, I'd told her not to buy such expensive sunglasses before we left, as on a trip like this the chances of managing not to lose them is slim indeed, although admittedly I hadn't thought they'd be eaten by lions!
The original plan was to only spend 4 days in Joburg, as Marks entire holiday was just 2 weeks. We spent the first couple of days visiting Soweto (Nelson Mandela's house, Wandys famous restaurant) and touring the excellent Joburg museums and some of the huge shopping malls. Mark then showed some signs of wanting to extend his holiday, naturally enough, so of course we pounced on him and badgered him into actually doing it (Sarah and Kuda took turns on the phone to the various ticket agents to rearrange everything for him).
So we ended up spending a total of 10 days in poor Kuda's house. The kids were off school for the holidays so when Mark and Kuda went out for the afternoon doing some wheeling-and-dealing myself and Sarah would lounge around or go down the road to play tennis and go swimming with the kids. What with playing Mark in Zim, and Curtley in Joburg, I've developed a taste for tennis - something I haven't played since watching Bjorn Borg as a kid.
One of the days Mark, myself and Sarah took the two lads off to Hartebeesport Dam for the day. It was a nice drive and the dam was impressive enough. We went to a pretty cool zoo there too that had all the big cats. Curtley had borrowed Sarah's sunglasses earlier in the day, and while myself and Curtley were teasing the lions to get a reaction from the lazy loafers Sarah's glasses flew off the top of his head and straight into the cage. The understandably frustrated lion pounced on them straight away of course, and then began eating them while Curtley ran off to get the zookeeper. He just laughed when he saw the lion munching away, although Sarah was anything but laughing when we told her her glasses had been eaten by a lion (I had to show her the photos to prove it). Ah well, I'd told her not to buy such expensive sunglasses before we left, as on a trip like this the chances of managing not to lose them is slim indeed, although admittedly I hadn't thought they'd be eaten by lions!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Gorge swinging
So Victoria Falls of course markets itself as one of those mad adventure sports places - white water rafting, bungee jumping, microlight flights, yawn, yawn... Zeria had done the bungee jump from the bridge over the gorge a couple of years ago (I think), and when we saw a new operation offering three different variations on the bungee theme Zeria was mad keen to try all three.
The three were a flying fox jump (just running off a platform and flying out over the gorge face-down), a zip-line (much faster but basically the same as the flying fox, but in a sitting position) and a gorge swing (quite like a bungee jump, but you swing out over the gorge at the end of the drop, as opposed to bouncing straight back up again - and you fall in a standing-up position, as opposed to bungee where you immediately go head-down).
I had thought originally that we'd just try one of the three things each, as I didn't think it was worth the money for any of us to do all three, and I'd already done some similar stuff before (like the bungee with Sarah in Uganda, and various zip-line things). But because Zeria was a Zimbabwean resident it meant she could do all three for just US$25, and she was mad keen to do all three of them herself. Mark had his residency ID number too, but he really didn't fancy any of the three swings. So that meant that I could use his ID number to get all three jumps for the same US$25 - so of course, just to support Zeria, I had to agree to do all three.
So first up was the flying fox, and fair play to Zeria, even though I offered to go first, she bravely stepped up and said she'd rather just go for it and do it herself. She showed no hesitation in the slightest and ran off the platform at an impressive sprint. I went next and it was a good buzz, but nothing like as scary as a bungee or anything - the fact that you run along a level platform first actually makes it relatively easy as you can't see the bottom when you start, and you have to drag a pulley behind you, which makes you feel nice and secure.
Next up was the zip-line - and this time I went first. This was a step-up in scariness, as you have to tentatively step off a short platform and dangle over the gorge first. Then they release the whole contraption and you zip off across the gorge, apparently reaching 125kph. So that was good and Zeria went next without a hitch too.
The final yoke to do was the gorge swing - and this was yet another step up the scary ladder. All very simple really - you just step up to the edge of the platform and just jump off. The harness is completely different to bungee though, it attaches to your back so your feet aren't bound in any way at all, so no waddling like a penguin to the precipice. So a big, deep breath and away you go. Straight away it felt completely different to a bungee, simply because you remain in a basically standing-up position. The free-fall lasts only a couple of seconds, but was really exhilarating, but then the terror kicks in and I noticed my legs starting to involuntarily kick like mad, as if I was trying to run like a cartoon character whose just run off the top of a cliff. But just then the swing part kicks in and you start decelerating and swinging out over the gorge, and I just immediately relaxed knowing I wasn't falling straight down anymore and that I was coming a safe halt.
Once at the bottom, which was in a really beautiful setting, I felt absolutely elated. I reckon a gorge swing is 10 times better than a bungee, since it's far less disorientating, and I would highly recommend it to anyone.
Zeria was up next, and her jump didn't go quite so smoothly I'm afraid. Basically she hesitated slightly when the guy shouted 'Go!', and so he needed to give her a bit of a shove (I think he had no choice really as he supports a lot of the weight of the cord, so when he says 'Go!' he needs to let go of that weight and it will drag you down whether you want to go or not!). Anyway, it meant Zeria ended up jumping head-first and I think she got a nasty shock - her scream was certainly a tad blood-curdling anyway (captured it nicely on video).
So that was it basically - although at the end Sarah wanted to have a shot at the zip-line jump. But she didn't feel up to doing it on her own, and since you have the option of a tandem, I ended up doing it a second time and 'zipping' with her. Again it's caught on video, with a nice cheeky little kiss from me just as we zip off.
That night we went to a traditional boma for dinner. It was basically a real tourist trap restaurant thing with a big buffet and traditional drumming and the like. Sarah and Zeria got some nice tribal face-painting before we realised we didn't have enough Zimbabwean money to pay the bill. But after a bit of persuasion and haggling and under-the-table money changing Mark and Zeria managed to sort out the situation.
The next day myself, Sarah and Mark bid Zeria goodbye and caught a flight to Johannesburg. It was all a bit weird saying goodbye to Zeria - even though we'd only met her less than two weeks previously, she'd done so much running around to sort out loads of bits and pieces, including driving for two days to get us all to Victoria Falls (and now she had to drive all the way back on her own). Sarah was quite touched too when Zeria gave Mark one of her bracelets for Sarah (she'd given it to Mark after myself and Sarah had gone through the airport security so that Sarah couldn't refuse to take it). She's actually wearing it now sitting beside me here in this Internet place.
So that was 'Zim' - we only had 10 days there I think, so we didn't get to see too much. All the media hype was, of course, almost total rubbish (interestingly, before we got there everyone was asking, 'why are you going there, isn't everything mental there at the moment?', but once we were there and told Zim people we were heading to South Africa they'd all ask, 'why are you going there, isn't crime mental there at the moment?' - needless to say we haven't seen nor heard any crime in over two months here).
But I certainly got a taste for the place, and got an inkling into why so many people we've met really love the country (or at least loved it before Mugabe went mad). It has fantastic potential to regain the 'power-house of Africa' status it enjoyed before, and I can certainly see why Mark loves the place so much - I'm looking froward to returning there again some day. But for now it was on to South Africa and scary Johannesburg - the crime capital of the world (or at least one of the contenders, I suppose there are a few cities vying for the privilege).
The three were a flying fox jump (just running off a platform and flying out over the gorge face-down), a zip-line (much faster but basically the same as the flying fox, but in a sitting position) and a gorge swing (quite like a bungee jump, but you swing out over the gorge at the end of the drop, as opposed to bouncing straight back up again - and you fall in a standing-up position, as opposed to bungee where you immediately go head-down).
I had thought originally that we'd just try one of the three things each, as I didn't think it was worth the money for any of us to do all three, and I'd already done some similar stuff before (like the bungee with Sarah in Uganda, and various zip-line things). But because Zeria was a Zimbabwean resident it meant she could do all three for just US$25, and she was mad keen to do all three of them herself. Mark had his residency ID number too, but he really didn't fancy any of the three swings. So that meant that I could use his ID number to get all three jumps for the same US$25 - so of course, just to support Zeria, I had to agree to do all three.
So first up was the flying fox, and fair play to Zeria, even though I offered to go first, she bravely stepped up and said she'd rather just go for it and do it herself. She showed no hesitation in the slightest and ran off the platform at an impressive sprint. I went next and it was a good buzz, but nothing like as scary as a bungee or anything - the fact that you run along a level platform first actually makes it relatively easy as you can't see the bottom when you start, and you have to drag a pulley behind you, which makes you feel nice and secure.
Next up was the zip-line - and this time I went first. This was a step-up in scariness, as you have to tentatively step off a short platform and dangle over the gorge first. Then they release the whole contraption and you zip off across the gorge, apparently reaching 125kph. So that was good and Zeria went next without a hitch too.
The final yoke to do was the gorge swing - and this was yet another step up the scary ladder. All very simple really - you just step up to the edge of the platform and just jump off. The harness is completely different to bungee though, it attaches to your back so your feet aren't bound in any way at all, so no waddling like a penguin to the precipice. So a big, deep breath and away you go. Straight away it felt completely different to a bungee, simply because you remain in a basically standing-up position. The free-fall lasts only a couple of seconds, but was really exhilarating, but then the terror kicks in and I noticed my legs starting to involuntarily kick like mad, as if I was trying to run like a cartoon character whose just run off the top of a cliff. But just then the swing part kicks in and you start decelerating and swinging out over the gorge, and I just immediately relaxed knowing I wasn't falling straight down anymore and that I was coming a safe halt.
Once at the bottom, which was in a really beautiful setting, I felt absolutely elated. I reckon a gorge swing is 10 times better than a bungee, since it's far less disorientating, and I would highly recommend it to anyone.
Zeria was up next, and her jump didn't go quite so smoothly I'm afraid. Basically she hesitated slightly when the guy shouted 'Go!', and so he needed to give her a bit of a shove (I think he had no choice really as he supports a lot of the weight of the cord, so when he says 'Go!' he needs to let go of that weight and it will drag you down whether you want to go or not!). Anyway, it meant Zeria ended up jumping head-first and I think she got a nasty shock - her scream was certainly a tad blood-curdling anyway (captured it nicely on video).
So that was it basically - although at the end Sarah wanted to have a shot at the zip-line jump. But she didn't feel up to doing it on her own, and since you have the option of a tandem, I ended up doing it a second time and 'zipping' with her. Again it's caught on video, with a nice cheeky little kiss from me just as we zip off.
That night we went to a traditional boma for dinner. It was basically a real tourist trap restaurant thing with a big buffet and traditional drumming and the like. Sarah and Zeria got some nice tribal face-painting before we realised we didn't have enough Zimbabwean money to pay the bill. But after a bit of persuasion and haggling and under-the-table money changing Mark and Zeria managed to sort out the situation.
The next day myself, Sarah and Mark bid Zeria goodbye and caught a flight to Johannesburg. It was all a bit weird saying goodbye to Zeria - even though we'd only met her less than two weeks previously, she'd done so much running around to sort out loads of bits and pieces, including driving for two days to get us all to Victoria Falls (and now she had to drive all the way back on her own). Sarah was quite touched too when Zeria gave Mark one of her bracelets for Sarah (she'd given it to Mark after myself and Sarah had gone through the airport security so that Sarah couldn't refuse to take it). She's actually wearing it now sitting beside me here in this Internet place.
So that was 'Zim' - we only had 10 days there I think, so we didn't get to see too much. All the media hype was, of course, almost total rubbish (interestingly, before we got there everyone was asking, 'why are you going there, isn't everything mental there at the moment?', but once we were there and told Zim people we were heading to South Africa they'd all ask, 'why are you going there, isn't crime mental there at the moment?' - needless to say we haven't seen nor heard any crime in over two months here).
But I certainly got a taste for the place, and got an inkling into why so many people we've met really love the country (or at least loved it before Mugabe went mad). It has fantastic potential to regain the 'power-house of Africa' status it enjoyed before, and I can certainly see why Mark loves the place so much - I'm looking froward to returning there again some day. But for now it was on to South Africa and scary Johannesburg - the crime capital of the world (or at least one of the contenders, I suppose there are a few cities vying for the privilege).
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Still alive.
Jasus, I can't believe it's nearly two months since the last update - but finding Internet places that have a decent connection speed and are not a total rip-off is mighty hard here (most backpacker places charge 6 Euro an hour, which is crazy - even in 'rip-off-Ireland' you only pay 1 Euro an hour). Anyway, finally found this place in Port Elizabeth, but after the usual e-mails and banking I started catching up on Mr Mullins' blog (http://seanmullinsrtw.blogspot.com) and spent the next two hours reading that, so now I've no time left to update my own blog.
Updating it now is a daunting prospect too, given that it's been two months, but I hope to come back to this Internet place again tomorrow and catch up a bit on it (they are closing here now).
But in a nutshell, needless to say we're still having a ball, and South Africa is amazing. We've extended out flight to Perth twice already and I wouldn't bet against a third extension. We've been in South Africa for seven weeks and have only made it from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth (about half-way to our destination, Cape Town), so we've been crawling along spending lots of time in nearly every place we arrive, and we haven't even started on the highlights of the Garden Route and Cape Town. Anyway, hopefully I'll get an update fired off tomorrow, fingers crossed...
Updating it now is a daunting prospect too, given that it's been two months, but I hope to come back to this Internet place again tomorrow and catch up a bit on it (they are closing here now).
But in a nutshell, needless to say we're still having a ball, and South Africa is amazing. We've extended out flight to Perth twice already and I wouldn't bet against a third extension. We've been in South Africa for seven weeks and have only made it from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth (about half-way to our destination, Cape Town), so we've been crawling along spending lots of time in nearly every place we arrive, and we haven't even started on the highlights of the Garden Route and Cape Town. Anyway, hopefully I'll get an update fired off tomorrow, fingers crossed...
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Victoria Falls
After our week in Harare we were forced to drive to Victoria Falls, after being unable to get flights. It’s a long journey, so we broke it into two days, staying overnight in the nice town of Bulawayo. Before starting out on the second leg we took a short detour to a wildlife orphanage, which has an impressive array of animals. We petted rhinos and loads of very impressive lions, got to see our first leopard up real close (petting its tail even), as well as lots of cheeky monkeys, birds, owls and snakes.
Although the government is forcing all hotels to charge room rates in foreign currency for non-nationals, luckily for us both Mark and Ezeria are residents and so we’ve managed to pay the local rates, which are incredibly cheap - thereby allowing us to stay in one of the fanciest hotels. So we stayed in a $30 room at the five-star Kingdom Resort - non-residents were paying $250.
On going to see the mighty falls themselves, we all got well and truly soaked. No namby-pandy raincoats for us – even though the Zambezi isn’t in full flow at the moment, the falls still kick up an incredible spray of water, rising up a hundred and fifty metres or so, and then falling like rain. The views are truly magnificent, and luckily we were on the Zimbabwean side, which apparently offers far better viewing than the Zambian. Most of the viewing points are fairly well protected (to save the epsilons from themselves) but at one point myself and Ezeria clambered forward and then lay down and crawled up to the very edge to peer straight down over the gorge to the base of the falls and the raging river below (exactly like you do at the Cliffs of Moher or Inish Mor). Mark gave it a go too but couldn’t quite be persuaded to get his head out over the edge.
The next night Mark blagged a complimentary dinner for us all at the neighboring Victoria Falls Hotel through the wink-and-a-nod of an influential friend. It was a spectacular restaurant in probably the best hotel in all Zimbabwe (apparently all the rooms were full, so we couldn’t stay there). All very colonial and grand, although I didn’t have much of an appetite after we’d already had high-tea there earlier that afternoon. It was kinda weird that the best meal in the best surroundings of the whole trip so far just happened to be completely free - but there was certainly no complaining.
Harare
So we spent the next week in Harare basically just living it large. In the mornings myself and Mark would play tennis on the court at the bottom of the garden, followed by a very quick dip in the freezing swimming pool to cool down before shooting some pool. Then we’d head out to get some groceries or Mark would visit some local friends.
Zimbabwe certainly is suffering pretty badly with the current economic situation, so the electricity and water supplies to the house were often cut (although both were restored towards the end of the week). But having no electricity didn’t really affect us, as we ate out each night and returning in the evening we’d just use torches to find our way to bed.
One of the biggest problems, especially in Harare, is getting motor fuel. Mark had arranged with a friend to have the use of a pick-up truck for the week, and an old girlfriend, Ezeria, had managed to arrange sufficient fuel. Mark’s house is out in the suburbs, so a car was a necessity, but due to the fuel shortages there are very few cars on the roads (there were groups of local people at all the major junctions trying to hitch lifts, many of them professionals in suits).
Naturally enough Mark took us to all the really fancy restaurants, so we ate extremely well. The restaurants always had one or two things unavailable from the menu, but still managed to offer plenty of options. The local prices are crazy low too, which is great for us ‘backpackers’, although it certainly doesn’t feel like backpacking this past week (there's really a two-tier price system - one price for residents and another price for non-residents, often up to 10 times more). But since both Mark and Ezeria are residents we managed to get local prices for most things.
On our last night in Harare myself and Mark are driving into the city for a lads night out after visiting the wife of one of Mark’s local friends (and leaving Sarah and Ezeria behind) when the pick-up truck breaks down. We try over and over to contact Ezeria, and the house we left them in, but one of the other things badly hit in Zim at the moment is the telecommunication networks, and so we just can’t get through. Eventually a couple of white Zimbabweans stop to help us out, and then offer to drive us back to Mark’s house. It turns out they’re both rather drunk, as the girl passenger (Cindy) hands us a freshly opened bottle of white wine, before casually pointing out that her boyfriend (Philly), who is currently driving whilst smoking a fag, has actually only got one arm.
But we arrive safely back at Mark’s house, and naturally invite our saviors in for a drink by way of thanks. Philly fills us in on the story of how he lost his arm – it had been eaten by a crocodile about 7 years previously, during a drunken night-time river cruise he was on with his mates. It also turns out that both of them are self-proclaimed racialists (their term for racist), and tell of how her grandparent’s and his parent’s farms had both been stolen by the Government, and were both now in tatters and producing basically no produce. I didn’t get too involved in the conversation, as I know little to nothing of the history of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe but it was certainly all very interesting to hear their side of story (and Philly did genuinely seem to be a decent bloke, and far less ‘racialist’ than his girlfriend Cindy).
The next day we relaxed for the morning and afternoon before heading off to Victoria Falls in the late afternoon (after a short stop at Mark's father's graveside to toast his memory).
Blantyre to Harare
I had a day and a half in Blantyre to try and sort out how to get the bus from there to Harare, and to check out the town itself. The bus seemed fairly straightforward, and in fact there appeared to be three bus companies that operated the route. In the last place I tried I met a helpful and dapper looking guy named George who explained a few things to me. He seemed genuine, but I got the impression he was just another one of the local characters who tries to hustle tourists, but who can be genuinely helpful sometimes. Later that evening I did find out that he was offering a very bad exchange rate for South African Rand, but that much of the information he gave me was correct (you always need to double, or triple check any information you get).
So thinking I had the bus situation covered we relaxed that evening, and spent the next day strolling around Blantyre, which is a nice small town. As usual I checked out all the fancy hotels in the area, and one in particular stood out - Ryalls. It was recently renovated and they did a great job reinstating the colonial grandeur of the place. It was mighty expensive to eat there, and although I was tempted, we had checked out an Ethiopian restaurant earlier that looked really nice. As it turned out the Ethiopian meal we had was probably my favorite meal of the trip so far, nice and spicy and absolutely delicious. I had heard that Ethiopian food was really good, and I think I tried one in Amsterdam with Enda, but had been disappointed (I think it had gotten a mention in one of the guidebooks and seemed to be resting on its laurels), but this meal in Blantyre was superb. Afterwards we went back to the mad fancy place for a mad fancy desert and an ordinarily fancy coffee, and just to relax and read the paper.
Sarah went back to the hostel to relax as I strolled on a bit to check out a magnificent church build in 1891, which happened to have a cool choir rehearsal while I was there. Strolling about I could hear loud music, and so checking it out found it to be a wedding. As I stood at the back of the hall I could see the newly weds on a stage, surrounded by their friends and family, and the hall filled with their guests. As I was leaving a girl handed me a small take-away box with free nibbles – which was rather nice of them I thought!
The next morning was the bus to Harare, which I was quite casual about, although of course I had the usual concerns about border crossings and the like (the journey from Malawi passes through Mozambique, for which you need a visa, but I assumed we could get them at the border, but it’s always a concern), and of course all the news about Zimbabwe was horrendous. Luckily we met a friendly Liverpudlian guy (Paul) at Doogles who had just spent three weeks in Zim and said he really loved it, and that in fact it was his favorite place. He said some things were tricky (like getting bread for instance), and that changing money was a nuisance, but that everything was grand really, the people were mad friendly and that there was nothing to worry about.
We had ordered breakfast the night before but when we got up there was no sign of the cook, so we just headed out to the bus station, which was next door to Doogles. Lucky we did too, because the bus was already there and there was a huge crowd of people scrambling to get aboard. It was totally chaotic with clearly far more people trying to get on the bus than seats available, and I had no idea what I was supposed to do. But lo and behold, who comes up to me only George from the day before. He chats to me in a friendly way and says he expected me there earlier, but that he has arranged seats, but it actually turns out he hasn’t managed to get them yet. In fact, people are supposed to buy a ticket first before getting on the bus at all, but already loads of people have picked out seats and are already sitting in them. The clamor for tickets then begins with everyone pushing passports and money at the ticket guy and bus company guys trying to force everyone into a single-file queue, and in the middle of it all is George trying to get me tickets as I try and queue.
After a bit George jumps on the bus and tells me to follow him. He moves down the bus a bit and then takes two bags off two seats and tells me to sit down and wait. Then he tells me to swap with Sarah, who is still outside with the bags. So now Sarah is sitting in a seat, and trying to keep another seat for me, while I barge my way towards the ticket seller. But its all totally mad, when suddenly the bus driver saunters into the fray and everyone runs over to him with their passports and money and the whole mellay starts again. Anyway, I’m seriously thinking of giving up and just getting a flight the following day when George takes my money and passports and somehow manages to get the driver to take them as he boards the bus. Another guy then takes them and copies the details onto a manifest and then tells me to sit down with Sarah. George now tells me that everything is OK and to just wait for my ticket, which finally arrives in another 10 minutes.
Of course I’m now expected to give George a few bob for helping me out, but in this case I’m absolutely delighted to do so. I think we probably would have been alright on our own, as we were the only white people in the entire bus station and Africans are really friendly and accommodating to tourists, but it was such utter chaos that having George to help was a Buddha-send (yeah, yeah, as in god-send).
Everything slowly calms down and eventually people take their seats and the people who failed to get tickets get off the bus, and only a little over an hour late we actually head off towards Harare. After that initial mayhem everything else went really smoothly, and the border crossings were really painless (with just a two-hour delay leaving the Malawi border, but it was a lovely day, so it was no bother really).
Before reaching Harare Sarah manages to blag a mobile phone from a lady we got chatting to at one of the border posts, and we manage to briefly contact Mark to let him know we’re on the bus and approaching Harare. But we lose the connection before arranging how to meet up, although we sort it all out later after we hop off the bus at the Holiday Inn and after eventually managing to get a taxi.
Mark (in his Mr. Del Monte outfit) and his two attack dogs greet us as we get out of the taxi, and after a quick tour of his luxurious house and a bottle of champagne we retire for the night in the fabulous master bedroom.
Zomba
Arriving in Zomba I needed to get cash and also US dollars for Zimbabwe, but ran into a spot of bother when the ATM broke down as I was queuing, just after the branch had shut for the day at 3pm. The second ATM’s queue suddenly doubled as everyone except me realized what had happened, and so I gave up rather than wait a further 2 hours. Luckily the place I arranged to stay for the night was great and simply said I could pay for the room the next day (as I had assumed they would – Africans really do seem to be amazingly accommodating). Later that evening I discovered another ATM right next door to the original bank - I needn't have queued at all, ah well...
The next day, after a fair bit of shenanigans at the bank (they don’t issue US dollars to non-account holders, so a bit of pleading was required) we headed up onto the plateau (at the base of which lies the town of Zomba) for a bit of a forest hike and to check out a local waterfall and the stunning view. I also fancied lunch at another exclusive lodge place that I’d heard about (the Sunset Ku Chawe).
The hike was indeed gorgeous, although we were a little pushed for time, as I wanted to make it to Blantyre that evening before dark, and we’d arranged with our taxi driver a certain time for pickup to get back to Zomba town. So after a few hurried photos and a bit of a linger at the small but impressive waterfall it was back to the lodge to tell our driver that we’d be staying an hour longer to give us time to have lunch. The driver, as is usual, hums and haughs and tries to extract a bit more money for his added inconvenience. But I love the whole African mentality, and it was obvious (to me anyway, Sarah doesn’t seem to see it so easily) that he was really just chancing his arm – as soon as I simply said no, he just smiles and says OK. That sort of thing has happened repeatedly, but when you say no (with a smile and without any hint of aggression of course), the people have always smiled back and just said OK. Its important to know the value of things you negotiate over (which is pretty much everything), and so I knew I was already giving this driver a very fair price, and so I also knew his asking for more money was just a harmless ploy – but I still love the playfulness of it all, and so far it’s always ended in smiles.
So after our lovely fancy lunch at the lodge we pick up our rucksacks and head towards the bus station to try and get to Blantyre. But as we get close our driver flags down a passing minibus, chats to the driver and then tells us that they are going to Blantyre right now. He turns the taxi around, drives after the minibus and we bail in, and we’re off to Blantyre without having to wait any time at all. Although in Limbe (7kms from Blantyre) the minibus stops again and says he isn’t actually going any further (same thing as happened enroute to Monkey Bay). Again the guy apologies and agrees to give me back some money, and he points us to another minibus to take us the rest of the way (and which then left straight away too).
Malawi
I stepped off the plane in Malawi to the most beautiful day of the whole trip so far. Although the weather has been really good the whole time (we still haven’t been rained on once yet), it had always been a bit hazy or sometimes cloudy, but here it was a brilliantly bright, clear blue, cloudless day.
Strangely enough, there is no public transport from Lilongwe airport, but Sarah managed to chat to enough people to eventually find a couple that wanted to share a taxi into the town. As it happened, they wanted to go to the main bus station, which was exactly where we wanted to go. We wanted to get as close as we could to Lake Malawi to have a bit of beach time after the Kenyan safari, and after a bit of waiting around we eventually set off towards Monkey Bay in a minibus.
Another seemingly strange aspect of this trip so far has been the ease and effortlessness of nearly all our traveling. Everything I’ve read or heard about traveling in Africa always emphasizes how much stress and hassle it can be. But so far for us it’s been a breeze. Apart from this minibus to Monkey Bay (where we had to wait an hour and half for it to fill up before it departed) I don’t think we’ve had to wait more than five minutes before a departure. The number of times we just arrive, get a seat on a bus and then it just leaves is uncanny. Either that or we just happen to meet people going our way who have their own car, or they want to share a taxi, or we get free transfers, or whatever – it’s been great really. Long may it continue though, as we have heard some pretty bad stories (3 breakdowns in one day, or waiting in a minibus for 3 hours just for it to fill up with people, etc.).
So anyway, our minibus was supposed to go to Monkey Bay, but when it gets to Mangochi (about 60kms away) they just stop and say they’re not going any further (obviously because there wasn’t enough people interesting in going any further, i.e. just me and Sarah). But at least the guy gives me back some money (with the usual beaming smile and an apology), but now it’s dark and we have no map of the town we’re in and no idea of where to stay. Negator’s a bit freaked, but after walking for just a few minutes we find a place that isn’t too bad and settle down for the night after a nice dinner served by a lovely auld dear who chats to us for a good bit. Its the little unexpected events like this that make independent travel so interesting really.
Early next morning as we’re strolling to the bus station a pick-up truck just stops and asks if we want to go to Monkey Bay and so we just hop up (see above about effortless travel in Africa!). We do have a puncture on the way though, but within about 30 minutes we’re off again (the wheel was removed and taken by a passing truck up the road and 20 minutes later is brought back by a guy on a bicycle – they wouldn’t waste ‘cramming-in-more-people’ space by carrying a spare wheel). After another very short wait we catch another pick-up truck to Cape Maclear, and meet up with Matt and Lucy, an English couple traveling the world for a couple of years.
It’s immediately clear as soon as we step off the pick-up that this is an amazingly beautiful place – straight out of any paradise island brochure. We end up staying here for 4 nights in a lovely place right on the beach. Yet again we got lucky, as the first place we tried was full, thereby forcing us to check out other places, and the place we did find was not only a lot cheaper, it was a lot nicer, quieter and next door to the best place for food. So needless to say we just chilled out and relaxed. I had a couple of days exploring, one on foot, one on a bike. Another day we hired a sea kayak and paddled all over the place, including across to an island were we met up with Matt and Lucy who had snorkeling gear. The lake (which is fresh water, which is lovely to swim in) has loads of really colourful small fish, so the snorkeling was pretty impressive.
Then we continued kayaking and watched as Matt and Lucy (who had wimped out and hired a motorboat with guides!) threw fish for the fish eagles. We were perfectly positioned in our kayak as the eagle would fly just over our heads, swoop down and pick up the fish in it’s talons before flying back to a tree right beside us to eat it. It would also call to its mate with a wonderful sounding shriek – yet another wildlife highlight of the trip, how many is that already…?
At around this time I discovered that an apparently easy route to Harare was from the city of Blantyre in southern Malawi. Apparently you could get a bus directly there, which suited us perfectly. So from Cape Maclear we simply headed south, making our way in the general direction of Blantyre. Our first stop along the way was Liwonde National Park, and as it was Sarah’s birthday I decided to stay in a nice lodge inside the park itself, Chinguni Hills Lodge.
The lodge is really lovely, although it’s going through a phase of expansion at the moment – which was the primary cause of stress and concern for the owner, a brash South African named Darren. When we arrived in mid-afternoon he was already quite drunk, but clearly this was his usual state of being. The building work (constructing 7 new safari tents) was way behind schedule and his workmen were constantly approaching him with more and more bad news, to which he responded by shouting and berating them mercilessly. Later that afternoon I could hear him firing one of the cooks in a flurry of rather colourful language.
That evening was Sarah’s birthday, and we were sharing our dinner table with a lovely English family (a mother and her three daughters). Naturally we had to sing ‘Happy Birthday’, but Sarah was getting a little nervous about the state of Darren’s inebriation, so we tried to sing it very quietly. Not quietly enough though I’m afraid, and of course in comes Darren asking who’s birthday it was. Upon seeing Sarah he becomes rather crude and lewd, much to Sarah’s embarrassment, and the English mother has to try and explain Darren’s language to her 11 year-old daughter. Needless to say we didn’t join Darren for after dinner tipples – Sarah just wanted to go to bed!
The next day we had planned on taking another boat safari, but nobody else was booked to go. If we still wanted to do it we’d have to pay a bit extra, which we probably would have done. But over breakfast we met two English girls (Catherine and Helen) and a Canadian guy (Garry) who told us that they were driving in Garry’s car to another lodge to do the boat safari from there, and they asked if we’d like to join them. This was great, because I wanted to check out the other lodge anyway (which was way more expensive than Chinguni Hills), it would mean we’d have a free game drive (the other lodge was 24km away) and the boat safari, according to the guidebook, was much better from the other lodge (as it was in an area with a denser wildlife concentration).
The game drive was a nice drive, although we saw very little wildlife (Liwonde Park is known more for its river than for its plains), apart from a fabulous Malachite Kingfisher. The exclusive lodge wasn’t all that great either, in fact we all thought the lodge we were staying in was a lot nicer and had a lot more character (and this place was literally 5 times the price of where we were staying – you can’t help but look at all the people staying at this place and thinking the poor fools are being completely suckered). But the boat safari was really excellent. We had a small boat all to ourselves, just the five of us and our guide. We saw literally hundreds of hippos, lots of which were out of the water (on the previous boat safari all the hippos were in the water, with just the tops of their heads showing – they’re supposed to spend all day in the water and only come out at night to graze along the shores). We also got really close to large herds of elephants mingling with the hippos, and quite a few crocodiles, and of course loads and loads of birds. At times I was reminded of cruising on the Shannon, just drifting down the river, and yet again I found myself in a place were I could have easily spent the whole day, or even days.
We got back to our own lodge in the late afternoon and I went wondering as usual. You can’t venture too far without a guide (as the elephants can be dangerous), but there was a short trail to a great lookout tower built into a tree that gave a great view over the plain. After another great dinner in the lodge we headed out for a night safari, our first one of this trip. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see much, we were all hoping to see bush babies (mad looking teddy bear-like critters with impossibly googliy eyes), but the best of what we did see was a nervous looking hyena.
The next morning we lounged around after breakfast waiting for our transfer back to the nearest town and transport down to the next town, Zomba.
Amboseli
Because we’d booked our safari over the phone, we had a free pickup at the airport, which was a nice little treat (especially as we arrived after dark). The safari company also provide basic dormitory accommodation free if you want it, and since we were arriving late at night and heading off on safari early the next morning it was really convenient to just stay there (and there was only one other person staying there anyway).
So 9:30 the next morning and we’re on our way to another safari, this time Amboseli. As nobody else had booked for that day we had the whole minibus to ourselves, which is both a good thing and a bad thing really. Obviously we had loads of room, so it’s more comfortable, but its nice to meet other people too. It also meant the safari was more expensive – the more people on the bus, the cheaper it is for everyone. We had three days in total, although it takes half a day to get there and half a day to get back.
Amboseli isn’t as scenically beautiful a place as the Masai Mara park, as it’s much flatter. There also wasn’t as much wildlife to be seen either, although we still say plenty (including lions with a kill, and a couple of very large pythons), especially elephants, for which the park is famous. In fact at one point we got caught in the middle of a large herd that were crossing the road, and a couple of them trumpeted, which is mighty impressive when your only a few feet away from them.
There were also a couple of rocky outcrops, one of which had very impressive boulders that you can clamber up and over, and then look down on a tiny local village. But really the safari was all about just relaxing and cruising around at leisure, and it’s weird how quickly you become complacent about seeing zebras and antelopes and buffaloes and elephants, etc.
Unfortunately Sarah got a bit sick on the last night of the safari, and so wasn’t feeling the best on the way back to Nairobi. So rather than stay in the basic safari company place again we booked into a nice new hotel on River Road (a notorious area, but fine once you don’t venture out at night). Sarah was fine the next day.
We’d booked our time in Nairobi with a bit of slack in case the safari dates didn’t work out, so when we got back from Amboseli we still had a full day to kill. I was mad keen to go back to the Carnivore restaurant and see if the Cheesy Dribbler hamburger really was the best burger in the world, or if the last visit was just a fluke. I can now report that yes indeed, the Cheesy Dribbler is the very best burger I’ve ever had, and the next time I’m in Nairobi I’ll be heading straight back to Carnivore for another one.
The following morning it was off early to the airport for our flight to Lilongwe in Malawi. I’d managed to haggle another free transfer to the airport from the safari company (they’d overcharged us a bit for park entrance fees), so we arrived nice and early, although we then had to queue at check-in for ages.
Rafting and Bungee-ing
Poor Sarah got a bit of a fright the first time the raft flipped, but the guide took great care of her and she was never in any danger at all – at one point the guide had Sarah by the shoulders and was shouting to her that everything was OK, and that she could open her eyes and breath – Sarah thought she was still under water when in fact she was floating along nicely on the surface, she just had her eyes shut so tight!
When we got back to the rafting campsite we discover that we could stay the night free, since we had done a full days rafting. The campsite was really nice and the setting was beautiful, on a high ledge looking down onto the Nile itself, so we decided to stay there instead of trying to get accommodation in Jinga town. It also meant we could do the bungee jump they have right there in the camp too, although we had to wait until the following morning, as they were wrapping up for the evening when we got back from the rafting. I wasn't particularly pushed about doing the bungee (having done one years ago), but Sarah was keen to give it a try (especially as they offered the option of doing a tandem), and of course I'm always really keen to encourage everyone to face and conquer their fears.
So the next morning I have a big fried breakfast before doing the bungee. We decided to go for the tandem option, although at first I thought it was cheaper than doing a jump each, but in fact it wasn’t. But Sarah felt more comfortable with a tandem so we just went ahead with that. We had to wait for a couple of English lads to do jumps first, but that was good because we could see how it all worked, and also see that they were both fine (or course!) and see that they both really loved it. The South African guy running the bungee was great, really professional and explained everything clearly. There are a few differences when doing a tandem – you have to stand side-by-side but then turn your upper body to face one another, and make sure we embraced each other tightly – if we let go we might split apart and then crash back together again, possibly smashing our heads together, which would have been rather nasty. As it happens, embracing someone next to you is a pretty natural reaction when you’re terrified, so that part wasn’t a problem at all.
We had the option of having our heads dunked in the Nile if we wanted, so obviously that was a given – I wasn’t going to have any Negator whinging on that one! The actual jump itself was all a bit weird – very different from the first jump I did years ago in Waterford with Mullins and Doherty. With that one you get to look at the horizon and see the ground rushing towards you, but on a tandem your kinda forced to just stare at your partner’s eyes, and so you don’t see anything really. It still had the same disorienting feeling when you start bouncing back upwards though, and the water dunking was pretty cool.
But straight after the jump I felt quite queasy, and about half and hour later, in the shower, I threw up. I think it was a combination of things really – the greasy breakfast, the fact that I swallowed a gob-full of the Nile on impact, the obvious fear factor but also the fact that the first thing to smack into the water was the top of my head. When I chatted with the two English lads who jumped before us, they said that they were told that the most important thing for them to remember was to keep their hands extended above their heads as they hit the water, so as to protect their heads from the impact. Obviously I couldn’t do that as I was grasping onto Sarah. Anyway, after a half hour resting in bed I was grand, and so we took out bicycles to ride the few kilometers into Jinga town to check it out.
It’s actually a nice little town, and I managed to have a quick peek at the plague that marks the supposed source of the Nile (after skipping around the ticket desk by following a local lad along a cross-country dirty track, since I was on a bike). After a nice lunch in the town we headed back to the campsite, as the two English bungee-jumping lads had offered us a lift back to Kampala in the car they’d hired for their holiday.
Getting a lift back into Kampala was a nice and handy treat. The lads were staying in the Sheraton Hotel and so I decided to check to see if we could just stay there too (we never did find a nice cheap guesthouse in Kampala). It was very pricey for what it was, but I decided to stay anyway as we’d agreed to head out with the English lads to Haandi, the local Indian restaurant we’d been to before.
The next day we headed down to Entebbe to check it out and to catch our flight that evening to Nairobi. I didn’t have much time to check out Entebbe, as I decided to make the most of the Sheraton’s breakfast and their pool, steam room and sauna, but I did manage to have a couple of hours running around the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre, while Sarah waited in the restaurant of a nearby hotel. It’s basically just a zoo, but you can get up close and personal with many of the animals, and like most of the places we’ve been so far, it was nice and quite with very few people about. I was petting rhinos and could have played with the otters, and again I could have stayed there all day, as it was just so peaceful and chilled out. But I had to leave, pick up Sarah and get a motorbike taxi (with both of us and our rucksacks on the one small moped again) to the airport and from there back to Nairobi.
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