South Africa and its Borders

Author:

vagabondginger



Date of Trip:

March 2014

Johannesburg is not really a tourist destination but known more as a connection to the rest of South

Africa and that is exactly what I did. Upon my arrival at the airport from Dubai, I immediately flew

down to Cape Town. Here I stayed at the Atlantic Point Backpackers in Green Point, just a short

walking distance to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. The ferry to Robben Island leaves from there

and that was the first place on my agenda to go to as it is a World Heritage Site. Nelson Mandela

served 18 of his 27 years of imprisonment there and his labor in the lime quarry seriously damaged

his eyes. The guide was a former prisoner himself so that made the tour especially meaningful and

it was also March 21 which is Human Right’s Day, now a public holiday in South Africa.

Cape Town sits in a natural bowl with the flat top of Table Mountain as a backdrop. The Cape

Peninsula to the south is a mountainous spine that juts 40km (25 miles) to the point and is named a

World Heritage Site due to it’s plant diversity.

My Baz Bus Tour van picked me up at the backpackers and took our group on a scenic day trip all

around the Cape Peninsula. We drove the harrowing Chapman’s Peak Dr to to a small fishing

harbor at Hout Bay and I browsed several of the crafts markets, then we visited the African Penguin

Colony at Boulders Beach near Simon’s Town. These braying penguins rule this beach and we

heard they can be quite the late night party animals. In Table Mountain National Park we

encountered some cocky baboons along the road and had a picnic lunch. At Cape Point we

climbed up to the lighthouse and then did a challenging hike up over the rocks to the Cape of Good

Hope which is the most SW point of Africa where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic Ocean.

There’s lots more I would have loved to do in Cape Town but I next flew off to Durban on the east

coast. The airport bus dropped me right off at Gibela Backpackers where the owner Elmar also

lived. He was kind enough to set up a driver to take me to Underberg very early the next morning.

From there I had another driver from Thaba Tours take me and 2 others up the Sani Pass to

LESOTHO, a landlocked country completely surrounded by South Africa. The Drakensberg

Mountains are the highest in Southern Africa and this area is another World Heritage Site.

It requires a good 4X4 vehicle and an even better driver to take this dangerous drive up a steep

mule track with numerous switchbacks and hairpin bends coming to the border at the 2,874 m

or 9,429 ft level. Lesotho is called the “Kingdom in the Sky” and it is a constitutional monarchy,

but we were only visiting a Basotho Village of stone circular huts with thatched roofs. In this high

treeless landscape seeing the men on horseback with their wool blanket shawls, it’s the way

I would envision Mongolia to look. Our hostess served us fresh baked bread from her hut’s dutch

oven fueled by burning cow dung. I bought a doll she had made and gave her a package of nuts

and a bag of popcorn which she seemed pleased with. We visited the highest pub in Africa for lunch

and I had a Maluti beer. The drive back down was even more harrowing but the views were

magnificent.

Back at Elmar’s after a long day, I relaxed with other travelers out by the pool lounge and we had

some Castle beers. There was a cool zen vibe to this place and I wished I could have stayed

longer. I only had time the next day to buy a Zulu necklace before flying on once more.

Coming into the Kruger Airport at Nelspruit is pure joy as it’s just a small delightful thatched roof

terminal yet flights come in from all over. My driver awaited to take me to Kruger Inn Backpackers,

about 1 hour away in Marloth Park. Allison and Cor are the owners of this small place and

welcomed me to my little thatched roof hut with it’s own bathroom. Marloth Park is a wildlife

sanctuary on the Crocodile River’s south boundary and between the 2 entrance gates of Kruger

National Park. Zebras, giraffe, warthogs and impala roam free here all along the road and even

into the driveway as they are not restricted by fence, but there is a fence further out to keep out

dangerous lions, rhino and buffalo.

Allison arranged my day trip game drive into Kruger and there were only 4 of us in the open safari

Land Rover plus the driver. We almost immediately spotted a leopard walking along the road,

usually that’s the one of the Big Five (Elephant, Rhino, Buffalo, Lion, Leopard) that’s the most

elusive. The size of this park is a staggering 19,633 sq. km or 7,580 sq. miles, but just as

staggering are the number of animals. Over 1 million impala and other types of antelope, 18,000

zebra, 5,000 giraffe, 3,000 hippos, 2,000 leopards, 2,800 lions, 9,500 wildebeest, 2,000 hyena,

3,000 crocs, 11,000 elephants, 27,000 buffalo, 7,000 white rhinos and 350 black rhinos.

I had been on safari in Kenya several years ago so this was a total different experience for me

driving through Kruger National Park and spotting these animals on just a single day trip for

only $75. ( I think it costs about that much to go to Disneyland and see make believe stuff).

There was a good viewing area set up to watch the hippos in the river. Hippos are Africa’s most

dangerous animals and they killed 1500 people last year (that are known of anyway). In spite of

how they look, they can move fast and their big powerful mouth can bite a person in half, they won’t

eat you, just kill you and leave you for the crocs to eat. This time of year the grass was too tall for

us to have spotted any lions, but we were successful in seeing many elephants, a couple of rhinos,

cape buffalo, wildebeest and our leopard plus many giraffes and zebras which are my favorites.

On another day trip I went to MOZAMBIQUE with 2 other people from a lodge close by. At the

border I was required to get a Visa and it was costly at $82. The area we drove through was

incredibly flat and not particularly scenic, the rural areas are very poor and lots of the children do

not go to school. Mozambique was colonized by Portugal in 1505 and after 4 centuries of

Portuguese rule they gained their independence in 1975. Two years later the country was in a civil

war lasting from 1977 - 1992. The official language is still Portuguese with little or no English

spoken. The capital city of Maputo has over 1 million people and the city infrastructure is incapable

of handling so much traffic or parking. We visited the historic train station and the big local market.

I watched a girl holding plastic bags of cashews over a candle to seal them. The whole city just

seemed kind of tired, sad and grubby to me with so much litter everywhere and I kept thinking that

it had so much potential to be beautiful because of the beaches. Just a good cleanup and some

paint would make a world of difference. But I was told the country’s economy, industry and tourism

is growing and the future is hinging on several major foreign investment projects, but, as with so

many of these countries, there’s strong hints of corruption in the government. There is a huge gap

between the very rich and the very poor with almost no middle class at all. I also was told just north

of the city the beaches are very beautiful and that the Chinese built a brand new airport there.

Mozambique was a place of contradictions for me. I did enjoy a wonderful seafood lunch with a

Laurentino beer at a beachside restaurant before we headed back.

The next day trip for me was to SWAZILAND with another guy from a nearby backpackers. Our

driver Nick was so much fun and he loves going to Swaziland instead of Mozambique for the day.

It’s a kingdom and one of the smallest countries in Africa at just 200x130 km or 120x81 miles -

about the size of Wales or the state of New Jersey. We visited a small Swazi Village of beehive

huts and these traditional homesteads are polygamous but each wife has her own hut. We enjoyed

their singing performance and danced with them. The official language is Bantu but English is

spoken. It was a British protectorate and gained independence in 1968. There was a variety of

landscapes from mountains with deep canyons to plantations of sugar cane, bananas & pineapple.

There is a big crafts industry here and many of the women earn money with their master weaving of

baskets and textiles, really beautiful work. There was a big candle shop with candles made into all

kinds of African animals and a recycled glass factory that made hand blown glass items. The shops

also had many wood and stone carvings and artwork. I just bought a small wooden African piece

and had a Sibebe beer with my lunch. We passed over a huge dam with a really impressive design

on our way back. The people here just seemed so happy and everything was so clean and litter

free. But…their HIV/AIDS level is the highest in the world, they say almost 40% of all adults are HIV

positive and the life expectancy is about 37 years of age so there are many orphans. Such sad

statistics for a beautiful country.

Back at my backpackers hut, Allison invited me to go on her group bush walk the next day as she is

one of the rangers at Marloth Park and the talk centered on plants and some really skanky spiders

in their webs. I also went on a long walk down the road myself that day and ran into a tribe of

cheeky monkeys. That night we had several more backpackers staying so they cooked on the grill

and we sat out and drank beers until late in the night. This 5 night stay was a good one with all the

ground I covered while here.

I got my transport back to the Kruger Airport and flew into Johannesburg or as it’s called Jo-burg.

Bob of Bob’s Bunkhouse was to come fetch me at the airport but when I called he was in Port Alfred

so he had me call his son, Darin who came over in his “bakkie” to get me. I took a walk with a gal

from Houston who had been working on a Habitat for Humanity build down near Cape Town and

another gal from Brazil and we got some food to bring back.

Bob and Joan’s place was just delightful and son Darin and his wife Maura were lots of fun so we

had a great time sitting around the bar and getting to know each other. The coke vending machine

was set up to spit out Hansa beers.

I booked a 7 day camping trip to Victoria Falls and back through Baz Bus and was emailed a pickup

time of 5AM the next morning, but they called Darin and told him I would be picked up at 6:15AM

instead. So when Bob and Joan returned that evening we decided to have some more beers with

them and stayed up quite late. I had repacked for this trip and decided to leave things behind at

Bob’s Bunkhouse because I would be back there after the camping trip. At 5AM the next morning

Bob woke me and said the van was outside to pick me up so I had to make a mad dash out the

door. The driver, David said it was not my fault and of course everyone else he was picking up also

was not ready so it was a long slow process. And, it wasn’t Baz Bus at all as they had outsourced

it to Selous Tours.

Needless to say we had a long drive ahead of us and a border crossing into BOTSWANA where we were to camp out in Khama Rhino Sanctuary.

Instead of arriving about 4PM, we were coming in at 9PM and weren’t even suppose to be driving into this place after dark.

We were bush camping and drove about 3km in and hit a big bump in the road and the camping

trailer hitch broke and it came off the van. Another van was behind us as these trips do caravan in

case of problems. So we had to set up tents in the dark and it was not a great start to this trip.

The next morning was spent ding-donging around with breakfast and dealing with the broken hitch

and we got off to another late start. We were moving along to Elephant Sands Campsites in

Botswana and were to be in by 4PM and got there at 6:30PM, just at sunset so we hurried to set up

tents. This was a great campsite near the watering hole for elephants and we did see several.

Also it had a bar and restaurant - things are looking better! At 11PM the generators are cut and do

not come back on again until 6AM. David decided we would leave very early so we had to break

down our tents and pack things up at 4:30AM in the dark.

We had a long wait to get our Visa’s for $10 at the border and were now crossing into

ZIMBABWE where we would be at a rest camp right in the town of Victoria Falls and it was a good

one with a poolside bar and restaurant. Just entering the town you see the “smoke that thunders”

which is the mist coming off these impressive over a mile wide waterfalls. It’s known as one of the

Seven Natural Wonders of the World and it is also a World Heritage Site. It’s not the highest or the

widest but the largest sheet of falling water in the world. After camp set up we went to see the falls

and walk all along them. Later we went on a beautiful sunset cruise on the Zambezi River.

The next whole day was free to do whatever we wanted. After walking through the African Markets

with their impressive stone and wood carvings, I walked out across the Victoria Falls Bridge where

I met a young Zambian man who escorted me to the ZAMBIA side and took me to the place where

the bungee jumps and zip lining could be arranged. No, I was not going to jump off a bridge

but I did decide I would zip line from Zambia to Zimbabwe. So for $35 I was launched off a cliff in

Zambia and zipped across the river and came out on a platform under the bridge on the Zimbabwe

side. (I dubbed it the ZIM-ZAM-ZIP) But first they put a “tatoo” on my arm with a green marker.

I jokingly referred to it as a form of identification for when they pulled my body from the river,

(if the crocs didn’t get me first). It was a nice smooth zip and after I made my way back across the

bridge to return the harness, I spent time with others at the bar overlooking the bridge drinking Mosi

beers as we watched the bungee jumpers. Later I decided to walk to the 1904 historic & charming

Victoria Falls Hotel where I had hoped to have high tea, but it was only set up for two people for

$30. So my second choice was to sit on the veranda overlooking the bridge and the mist of the falls

sipping Pimm’s and lemonade and in spite of my deet smelling, sweat stained camping clothes, I

felt like one of the elite. After a shower back at the camp site and another layer of deet, I enjoyed

some Zambezi beers at the bar.

So early the next day we broke camp and headed back across the border into Botswana to the

Thebe Lodge Campsite in Kasane along the Chobe River. This was another good place with a

poolside bar. Most of the group went out on a game drive but I was able to take a 3 hour river

safari instead which is something I had never done before. The animals come down to drink and

being on a boat we could get so close. The elephant families were such a joy to watch as they

played and rolled in the water and washed their babies. We drifted through grassy areas to sneak

up on crocs and we even crossed over to the NAMIBIA side of the river for a sunset cruise back

while drinking Namibian Windhoek beers. The next day we had another long drive to Palapye where we got into a really fun campsite for our

last night. The bar was very lively and some of the group played pool and darts, but I met an Irish

guy who had a hacky sack football game going and we were passing it around the room in a crazy

drinking game that involved everyone. Botswana has a beer called St Louis and there was lots of it

drank that night. I also got some cool bumper stickers for my “bakkie” and one says “What

Happens in Botswana, Stays in Botswana” and another “Botswana is Not for Sissies”.

Our last day driving back to Jo-burg was long but in spite of the rough start, the trip turned out

good. I wouldn’t recommend Selous Tours though as I think it would be better to just fly to Victoria

Falls. The second van that was following us was made up of several married couples and they did

decide to fly back from Victoria Falls and so left the caravan half-way through. It just meant half of

those in our van then moved to the other one and we all had more room for the long drive back.

So back at Bob’s Bunkhouse I was welcomed home by the family as we gathered once again

around the bar. The next day Cynthia (one of the “girls” aka the domestic help) washed all my

clothes and I hung them out in the sunshine. Joan then made arrangements for me to go see

Jo-burg and Soweto with a driver the next day.

I was taken downtown to Africa’s highest building and up to the 50th floor called the “Roof of Africa”

to get a look at the city in all directions. In 1886 the discovery of gold took the population of

Jo-burg from 3,000 to 100,000. Today the city has about 7 million and 73% are black. During the

Apartheid, blacks were separated from the whites and evicted from their homes and taken to

Soweto (SOuth WEstern TOwnships) outside the city. Due to a shortage of housing, many of them

ended up building shantytowns which still exist today. I did a walk through Shantytown with my

guide but I was very aware of these kind of places due to my work with Habitat for Humanity so

probably wasn’t as shocked as some would be. Soweto today is a mix of upper, middle and lower

class. We went to 8115 Vilakuzi St Orlando West in Soweto which was Nelson Mandela’s former

house and now a museum. This is where the man who changed the world returned upon his

release from prison. I also visited the Hector Pieterson Museum in this area named after the 12

year old student who was shot by police in the Soweto Uprising in 1976, then it was back to Jo-burg

and the Apartheid Museum. This was a dark time in South Africa’s history and so much of it has

been preserved in these museums. It reminded me of the fight for Civil Right’s that played out in

our South during Martin Luther King’s life.

As I readied to leave South Africa and it’s borders I reflected on visiting all these places. I had

traced some of the steps of Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom. I saw animals that most people only

see in a zoo. I visited cultural villages and diverse landscapes from bush to beach to mountains.

I drank each countries beer and ate bunny chow (curry in a bread bowl), biltong (jerky), boerewors

(sausage) pap (cornmeal), bredie (stew), sosatie (kebab on a stick) ostrich pate and crocodile.

I learned that a pickup truck is called a “bakkie” (buckee) and a form of greeting is “Howzit”.

I learned one should never drive over elephant dung as it has thorns in it that cause flat tires.

Botswana has the largest concentration of game in Africa with over 200,000 elephants that do cross

the highway, but it’s the crazy cows (or as I dubbed them “Kamikaze Kows”) on the highway that

turn driving into an extreme sport.

Various currencies: a 10 South African Rand bill = US$1. The Swaziland Lilangeni and Botswana

Pula were pretty much the same rate while Mozambique’s Metical was 30 to a US$1.

Zimbabwe’s currency became worthless due to inflation and was abandoned in 2009. Hawkers on

the street try to sell old $100 trillion Zimbabwean paper bills as souvenirs. US$ are now used.

Malaria is present in Vic Falls, Kruger and Mozambique areas and I took Doxycycline tablets.

By hanging out with locals I got a better perspective about the country’s progress and heard their

concerns about the high level of crime and about anti-poaching operations. And in spite of the rise

of middle class blacks, racial inequality still exists and I saw that most whites still have black

servants. Travel should be a eye opening experience.

South Africa has some of the most friendly, warm and welcoming people I have ever met and this

was one of the best trips I have ever taken