Final destination - Cape Town!

Cape Town is an incredibly beautiful city but, before you see the beauty, you see the extreme poverty of township housing on the way from the airport to downtown. Shacks, often little more than pieces of corrugated metal hammered together, line the highway into downtown. We were told that, in an effort to clean things up for the World Cup, the government has built some public housing, and sure enough, soon we passed a section of small, neat, stuccoed cement block houses lining the road, behind which were more shacks.


Our hotel was in Seapoint, on the other side of Table Mountain, one block from Table Bay. Quite nice, but we were told not to go walking at night. Daytime walks along the water were lovely, though. During my last days with the Overseas Adventure Travel group, we had a city tour and visited the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, saw the Moslem part of the city, and had dinner with a coloured family (seems hard to write but here it is PC) in their home in one of the townships. Renee and I did a "must see" trip to Robben Island where we viewed the cell in which Nelson Mandela spent 18 years of his life. On Saturday, January 30, the day I was due at Cross Cultural Solutions, we took the cable car up Table Mountain for spectacular views and we drove along the coastline out to Cape Point, which is not where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet! The best part about the day was the visit to the penguin colony where we saw African pengins enacting their courtship rituals, braying and even mating. During my time here, I definitely plan to go back to the top of Table Mountain and also to the penguin colony - I could have spent a half day at each, instead of just a half hour. I left the group as they were entering Kirstenbosch Gardens back in town because I knew I would have plenty of time there for a much longer visit (probably several visits) and because the gardens were a short cab ride from the CCS home base which would be my abode for the next five weeks.

So here I am, living with 19 people younger than me (some by a lot), making this very stratified city my home for the next 5 weeks. Just another challenge....

On to Lesotho...

The next day our conveyance was a 4x4 vehicle which took us up another precipitous and bumpy road to Sani Pass in the mist at about 10,000 feet and into the independent kingdom of Lesotho, crossing a border out of South Africa again. The highlands of Lesotho have an alpine feeling, as did the restaurant in which we ate lunch, dubbed "the highest pub in Africa." Most interesting was a visit to a wild and remote-feeling Basuto village where people live much like they did centuries ago, yet raising a white flag if they have bread (baked over cow dung coals) or a red flag if they have meat (from their herds of goats) for sale to the odd traveler who ventures up this road.

Returning to lower elevations at our hotel in Himeville, I hiked out to the top of a majestic waterfall, its flow draining from the spectacular highlands we had just visited.

On to KwaZulu-Natal Province...

Continuing south through lush, green countryside we crossed the border back into South Africa and headed into Zululand. Shaka, the great and terror-inspiring Zulu warrior-king, led the only significant battle in which the British were defeated (1879). He also is known for things like slaughtering his own children and ordered all old mothers in his kingdom killed when his own mother died so that his subjects should share his pain. He came to power by assassinating his brother; in turn, one of his other brothers assassinated him.

Our next stop was Simunye Lodge, which was a tractor-driven ride down from the plateau on a long, bumpy, precipitous road into a green canyon -- and then we trudged in the heat (about 80+ degrees) across a river on a footbridge and up a hill right next to a Zulu Village. Our lodgings were in a rondavel - a bit less rustic than the real thing, though. Of course, we met the chief and were entertained with singing and dancing and demonstrations of battle lore. The second day we had some time to wander around and to relax by a very unique pool built into the canyon wall. I actually had the first massage of my life there - the equivalent of $14 for an hour's full-body massage!

Leaving Simunye the next day, we had the same tractor ride uphill. Continuing south on our van, we passed more rustic-looking homesteads, but also large sugar-cane plantations and huge tree farms (pine, eucalyptus). We drove into Durban, which has the largest Indian population outside India, and visited a spice market. We had hoped to have lunch on the Indian Ocean waterfront, but it was all torn up in preparation for the 2010 World Cup. (Lots of road work going on all over South Africa, as well, to get ready for this event.) I wasn't unhappy when we headed back out into the green countryside, west toward the southern Drakensberg mountains, the region in which Cry, The Beloved Country was set.

On to Swaziland...

Leaving Kruger, heading south, we passed farms and villages which provide vegetables and farm-grown game meats for Kruger lodges. Yes, we ate ostrich (tastes and looks like beef), kudu (very tender beef), and guinea fowl (tastes like chicken) in Kruger. Also passed commercial farm operations - sugar cane, sorghum, etc. All of these large green open spaces make you think about how crowded the city townships are and make you wonder if South African tribal cultures wouldn't have been much better off staying on the land than moving to the city. But, of course, they moved for jobs in the gold and diamond mines, to build the English and Afrikaaner infrastructure, and to work as domestics in the homes of the white folks. Sometimes they were, in fact, forcibly moved. Today there is a "willing buyer, willing seller" approach which is redistributing some of the land because many fear that if this does not start to happen SA will degenerate into a Zimbabwe situation.

Then we walked across the border from SA to Swaziland. Condom dispensers (free) at the border crossings - in fact, everywhere you look in SA - an attempt to combat the 14% HIV rate. Swaziland is a tiny country which has a king with many wives in many houses who drive many fancy cars. Yet, the village and school we visited (a stone's throw from the king's palace) were very poor. The (female) chief of the village (the Umphakatsi) cares for many HIV orphans, the school is minimal (we brought some donations) and the homesteads (collections of huts, sheds, and some stone buildings in which a patrilineal group of relations live) we visited were spare. Our tour company, Overseas Adventure Travel, and its parent organization, Grand Circle Foundation, have - over time - constructed flushable latrines on the school site, replacing the long drop toilets of the past. They have tackled similar projects in all the countries they visit.

As we traveled on, the scenery included terrace farming, wooden roadside stalls, and picturesque homesteads, each containing a rondavel (round hut) for family meetings, etc., among more boulder-strewn green Drakensberg slopes. If there is dissension in these family homesteads - such as among the multiple wives, it may only be discussed in the rondavel, not argued out in the household. Seems like a great way to keep the peace - no bickering allowed! That night, to our surprise, our lodgings at the Mkhaya Game Preserve were stone "cottages", open at waist level to the night air and night critters (no screens). Kind of like an AT shelter, but in the African bush.

During our time at Mkhaya we saw both the black and white African Rhinosceros, dung beetles, and more elephants, giraffes, zebras, etc. No lions here but we did walk out tracking hyenas.

From the Highveld to the Lowveld

From busy Jo-berg we traveled west to the beautiful Magaliesberg Mountains to visit a Cheetah Reserve. I was happy to learn that outreach education here is directed at schools and also livestock ranchers, to encourage new methods to protect flocks against this endangered species and other predators in ways that don't harm the predators. We also saw a band of African Wild Dogs which one seldom sees in the wild. Then a long drive east through areas with large farm and ranch holdings to Grasskop where we spent time the next day walking/hiking above the Blyde River Canyon (third largest in the world after the Grand and the Copper). Blyde, however, is a green canyon and the area around it is a nature reserve. The land above the canyon has blocky-looking sandstone outcrops everywhere and is just stunning and part of the northern Drakensberg Mountains.

Then onto Kruger National Park for the next three days where we sighted the Big 5 (leopard, lions, cape buffalo, elephants and rhinos), numerous antelopes (nyala, kudu, bushbuck, waterbuck, impala), wildebeest, zebras, giraffes, warthogs, hippos, and wonderful birds. Although I have been on many game drives in Africa, our second day in Kruger was the most exciting yet. In the morning a black mamba (Africa's most venomous snake) took a warning jump about 2-3 feet high right alongside our vehicle - not a foot from where I sat. This was a new experience for Dylan, our ranger, and he wasn't happy about it. During the afternoon's walking safari we watched as an old bull elephant crossed the wide river in front of us and come within 50 feet of the rock on which we were warily sitting. Just as he passed, the wind changed and he scented us, swung around and snorted and bellowed and made like he might charge. At that point one of our (armed) rangers (the same one who had been so upset by the mamba in the morning) got up, strode in front of us and started to loudly mimic the call of the go-away bird, which says "go away, go away, go away". His partner shouted as well and when Dylan picked up a stick to wave at the elephant, the behemoth turned and sauntered away. Apparently, the interpretation was that the elephant was invading our space, and we challenged him back. Also, the fact that we were on a rock outcrop was a positive thing for us - elephants prefer walking on the ground. Just another very exciting day in Africa!

A different Africa.....

Arrived Friday evening after a bumpy flight but smooth on the details: no lost luggage, no delays, seamless pick-up. Slept like a log the first night and have now spent two days touring urban Jo-burg and Pretoria, the administrative capitol of South Africa, with our very congenial group. Highlights: the Apartheid Museum (feels like a spooky Holocaust Museum), the Vortrekker Monument in Pretoria (reminiscent of the Mormon Center in Salt Lake City - there are similarities in the religious zeal -and the covered wagons-that drove Mormons west and the Vortrekkers north), a visit to a deBeers diamond mine (lots of cameras to make sure we didn't pick up a stray piece of the matrix which might still contain a diamond), and lunch in a Soweto shebeen. Learning lots of history and seeing many positive signs of a nation in the process of healing. They are also polishing up for the Soccer World Cup which is being played here this summer - and the Jo-burg stadium was built to resemble a Zulu calabash! So far, this is a very different Africa from the very rural Africa I so enjoy. High rises, four-lanes, traffic, but tomorrow we head into the bushveldt!

For a map and a picture of the South African flag, see http://www.theodora.com/wfb/south_africa/south_africa_maps.html

OFF TO A NEW ADVENTURE!

Tomorrow morning Woody drives me to Richmond and I fly to Atlanta, where I meet my old friend and travel companion, Renee Fischer. We should land in Johannesburg, South Africa the next evening (January 15) after about 15 hours in the air.

The first 17 days will be travel: Jo-burg, Pretoria, Kruger National Park, Swaziland, Lesotho, Durban, arriving in Cape Town on January 28. After several days together seeing Cape Town, I start my volunteer committment with Cross-Cultural Solutions on January 30 and Renee flies home. I don't know yet just exactly what I will be assigned to do with CCS in Cape Town, but it will be in one of the townships and it will hopefully involve children.

I will miss those near (and far) and dear to me in the USA, but I won't miss the cold weather we have been having in Virginia this winter. Hope it warms up for you folks at home! See you in March!