Virgin On Insanity

Flight back to London from Cape Town

I flew back to Cape Town from Livingstone via Johannesburg.  I checked back into the Road Lodge opposite the airport and the next evening arrived at the terminal for my Virgin Atlantic flight to London.  I initially made sure that I got all the VAT money back for the goods that I had purchased.  The VAT there is 14%.  The VAT office is on the 2nd floor of the departures building, to the left under the escalators.

At the boarding gate they announced that there was a minor delay so I continued doing last minute shopping in the duty free shops.  Then they announced that the delay was going to be some time so everyone was starting to get a bit restless.  Finally, Virgin Atlantic said that the flight was being cancelled due to a technical problem.  They didn't tell us what the problem was at the time but we found out later on the next flight back that the technical problem was with a part that monitors fuel consumption and lets the cockpit know.

After another hour of confusion and chaos, without any information being given by the ground staff, we were hoarded onto 5 coaches which transported all 300 of us to a 4 star hotel in downtown Cape Town called The Southern Sun.  We all had to line up before reception and it took a good half an hour to be given a room, but by 1am everyone was in their rooms.  My room was large and luxurious and the bed was very big and comfortable, with a down duvet and pillows.  The next day, the complimentary breakfast was a lavish spread of all kinds of buffet food from fruit, to cheese, to salmon, to full English breakfast, cereals, juices, etc.  You could have exploded just on the breakfast.  Lunch was a nice buffet of chicken, beef, and seafood, with salads, and desserts.

There had developed a Dunkirk spirit amongst the passengers with everyone chatting away and having small banter.  It was very impressive to see that everyone, including children and the elderly were so well behaved and patient throughout.

Shit Happens

The transfer to the airport was at 5pm so there was time to visit the V&A Waterfront for a quick wander.  I got the free airport shuttle to the waterfront and was trying to find the Diamond Museum but in the meantime ended up talking to a lone luscious Lebanese lady sitting on the steps, who turned out to be an Emirates airhostess.  After a couple of minutes, from above and behind me came a spray of liquids and solids which hit my shirt, my head and the back of my neck.  The Lebanese girl also had the stuff on the front of her shirt.  We were both taken aback and I wondered who had thrown stuff at us.  I looked at my shirt and noticed bird shit.  I managed to get some tissue paper from my pocket and wipe the shit off my head and neck and my shirt.  I also gave some to the girl to remove the filth from her shirt.  So, a rather shitty ending to my chat-up.

Back to the Airport

I saw the Diamond Museum and rushed back to the hotel, only to have to wait an extra hour for the transfer to the airport.  It was all chaotic as usual and back at the airport the line at the check-in desk was moving as fast as a tortoise.  I was rushing again to make it to my boarding gate when at passport control, an elderly woman in front of me forgot that she was at passport control and was just standing in front of the immigration woman.  The immigration lady had to repeatedly ask her to produce her passport but the lady kept saying that she wanted to board the plane.  Finally she was persuaded to get her passport out which she did at a slow-motion pace.  Then when she had her passport handed back to her, she just stood there without moving.  The officer asked her to proceed, but the woman said that she wanted her gate.  I was getting rather concerned about missing my flight at this stage.  Eventually I just handed my passport to the immigration women while the elderly woman was still standing there next to me.  Quite a bizarre situation which I have never been in before.  I made it to the plane.  Phew !!

On the plane it was quite surreal.  I knew half of the people on there and everyone kept saying hello.  It is not often that you get on a flight and know half of the people already.  I am not going to fly Virgin any longer.  They used to be good but have gone downhill.  The airplane staff are unprofessional and have attitude, and the ground staff didn't handle the situation very well when the flight was cancelled.

Victoria Falls - Zimbabwe

Border Crossing

The crossing to Zimbabwe from Zambia is across a bridge which separates the two countries.  Half of the bridge is on the Zambia side and the rest on the Zimbabwe side.  The immigration for Zambia is right before the bridge and the Zimbabwe immigration is around a kilometer from the bridge.

Bag Thief

I was at the Zambia immigration and had one of my bags on the ground near my feet, when an opportunistic thief grabbed it and ran outside.  I gave chase and caught up with him.  My bag had a bag of crisps and a water bottle in it.  Another guy's bag that the thief grabbed had his mobile phone it in.  He also went running after the thief.  He managed to get his phone because it went flying on the ground.  I was able to get my water bottle back but my crisps packet was being eaten up by the thief.  I wanted to kick the baboons pink arse for his audacity, but decided not to.

Zimbabwe Immigration

The visa fee for a British national to enter Zimbabwe is US $55.  I tried to haggle with them but they were not as accommodating as the Zambians and it got to the point where I was concerned that they would even refuse me entry if I carried on.  So, I paid the money and got through.  I had to pay US $30 at the park entrance to the falls but I persuaded the official there to let me pay as a South African citizen, which was US $20.

Victoria Falls - Zimbabwe

I personally think that the falls on this side are better than the Zambian side.  The ferocity of the water is much more and the visibility is better as well.  The trails are much prettier and the vegetation is much nicer.  There is also the statue of David Livingstone in the Vic Falls park.  The view of Livingstone Island is also much better from there as it is directly opposite the Victoria Falls park.  There is a place called Danger Point which on a clear day is a spectacular place to stand because it is right in the middle of the falls so quite a dramatic place to be standing.  The sound of the water and the panorama is quite overwhelming and to some extent unnerving.

Victoria Falls Town

When the park closed at 6pm, I went to Victoria Falls Town which is a couple of kilometers away.  It was very quiet and hardly any tourists around.  The restaurants were all empty.  The few locals that I met were all very kind and friendly.  I engaged some of them in conversations and got the impression that life was quite hard for them, and they had a real fear for the current regime and Robert Mugabe, who had just celebrated his birthday a few days earlier and had spent well in excess of US $1 million on it.

Crossing the Border at Night - Undercover Policeman

I was eating a delicious local food which is made of maize and a vegetable called Rape, as well as some chicken.  You eat it by hand and it is just divine.  After the meal, the father of the restaurant owner, a White Zimbabwean man who had emigrated to Australia with his wife but was visiting his daughter, gave me a lift to the border because it was nearing 10pm when the border would close.  I was concerned about not making it on time.  At the Zimbabwean side, one of the officials decided to have a lengthy conversation with me about the world economy and politics and I was trying to politely get away so that I could make it to Zambia before they closed the border.  After a few attempts, I finally bade farewell to him and got into a taxi that took me to the Zambia border for US $2.  The driver eventually told me that he was an undercover policeman and that he was using the taxi as a means to carry out surveillance on some smugglers who were at that very moment smuggling some goods across the border from Zambia into Zimbabwe.  I managed to get through to Zambia in time and catch a shared taxi back to Livingstone.

Victoria Falls - Zambia

 My flights

I flew with a low cost airline in South Africa called Kulula very early in the morning from Cape Town airport.  I had checked myself into the nearest hotel to the airport called Road Lodge, at GBP 40 per night.  It was literally a 10 minute walk to the terminal building.  My flight was to Johannesburg where I got a connecting flight with British Airways (code sharing with Kulula) to Livingstone, Zambia.  Johannesburg airport is very modern and large with lots of shops and good restaurants.  They play popular music  over the speaker system in the airport.  Any louder and it would be like a massive disco.

Livingstone Airport, Zambia

The British Airways flight took an hour and 45 minutes to reach Livingstone.  Just before landing, we flew past Victoria Falls and could see a massive plume of smoke (water vapour) rising into the air from the massive Victoria Falls.  It is a sight that I have never seen before in my life.  Zambia from the air looked quite green, covered with low bushes.  The sky was a deep blue and the clouds were ivory white and very high up in the sky, not like the clouds over England which are low and dense.

The airport was tiny, and the heat hit me hard when I walked down the steps of the plane to the airport terminal, which was a small building with a couple of shops and a restaurant.

Zambian Immigration

I had prepared myself for purchasing a double-entry visa by coming with US Dollars.  That is the only currency that they accept for getting Visas.  A single entry visa is US $50 and a double-entry visa is US $80. I needed a double because I was planning on visiting Zimbabwe for the day to visit the falls from the other side.  There were 3 lines for immigration, a line for diplomats, a line for non-payers of visas, meant for South Africans and some other nations that are exempt from paying, and then the line for paying for visas.  I initially stood in the long line for purchasing a visa but then decided that I was going to take my chances and stood in the short visa-exempt line.  The official told me to pay US $80 for my visa but I managed to use my Persian haggling skills and got him to provide me with a double-entry visa for only US $50, saving myself US $30. As the saying goes, a penny saved is a penny earned.

Accommodation

I got picked up at the airport by the driver of a hostel called Jollyboys.  I had booked a couple of nights in one of their dorm rooms.  The ride was only about 10 minutes.  I was met at the hostel by the owner, Kim, a Canadian woman from Vancouver Island.  She was rather grumpy, cold, and patronising, and I felt quite uncomfortable there so just decided to stay for one night and find another place to stay.  After leaving my bags there, I wandered the streets of Livingstone to find an information office to enquire about rooms.  I noticed a European girl walking around and being hassled by the locals.  I caught up with her and it turned out that she was an English girl doing volunteer work around Africa.  She took me to a place where she was renting a room and I liked the look of another room so reserved it for the following night.  I ended up staying there for the rest of my stay in Livingstone.  It was called Comfort Corner Guest House and owned by a pleasant chap called Joseph.  Of course, I haggled with him as well and got the rate of the air-conditioned ensuite room down to US $30 per night plus free continental breakfast.

Livingstone

This town has a population of less than 100,000 people.  It is rather worn-out with buildings that are in need of a facelift and roads that are part asphalt and part dirt and pot-holes and bumps everywhere.  There isn't a downtown area specifically, just a main road that has banks, supermarkets and eateries.  You can also find people, especially women, cooking and selling food on the side of the road, for example, sweet potatoes, and corn on the cob.  I had to remonstrate with a mother to exercise caution, because her infant child was very close the the boiling oil pot which was cooking the sweet potatoes.

The local food there is called Nshema and it is delicious.  It is a dough made from maize.  Accompanying it is a vegetable called Rape, which is a bit like green boiled cabbage.  You can have chicken or beef with it and their juices.  You eat it by hand by mopping it up with the maize dough that you mould into a scoop.  A nice local restaurant off the main street in Livingstone worth visiting is called Aunty Nancy, which is behind the post office.  It is very popular with the locals.  A plate of Nshema will cost you Kwacha 12,000 or just over US $2.  The touristy restaurants will cost 5 times that amount and you won't get food as tasty as that.

Judging from talking to locals, reading the newspapers, and watching the television, Zambia appears to have a very strong Christian culture.  Around 10 days ago, the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon visited Zambia and said that there should be acceptance of homosexuality and same sex co-habitation.  There was a massive outcry over his statements with article after article in the papers and letters from people rejecting his views, stating that they are anti-Christian and against the laws of Zambia.  The front page of a major daily even listed the 10 Commandments.  At the same time, Zambia suffers from an HIV epidemic.

Victoria Falls or the local name Mosi-oa-Tunya (The Smoke Which Thunders)

I took a shared taxi from the taxi rank opposite the old Shoprite supemarket in Livingstone to Victoria Falls for 6000 Kwacha.   5000 Kwacha is US $1.  All the taxis are blue in colour and the drivers are all very nice and helpful.  The ride to the entrance of the falls took around 7 minutes along a straight road out of town.

At the entrance, the fee was US $20 but I negotiated it for US $10 and got in.  The roar of the falls could be heard before entering the grounds.  Walking the trail to the falls took me past lots of trees and bushes, and there were baboons running around everywhere.  The sight of the falls was amazing.  Seeing the millions of gallons of water falling over the edge per second and the massive amounts of water vapour rising up and the thunderous noise everywhere was quite moving.  I was so happy that I had been able to see the 4th and last of the major waterfalls of the Earth, the other 3 being Niagara, Angel, and Iguacu.

Victoria Falls is at 70% water capacity this time of year but it has a lot of water vapour which can seriously hinder your view of the falls.  In April/May it is at 100% capacity but it is virtually impossible to see the falls.  They say that the  best time to see the falls is in July/August when it is around 50% capacity but the visibility is very good.  So there is a trade-off between the amount of water and the visibility.  In October/November, the falls are all but dry.  You seriously ought to take a waterproof bag to put all of your valuables in because unless  you go between July and November, you are going to get completely soaked from head to toe.

At the falls, I met a very interesting guy called Johann from Germany, who had left his country and just shown up in Brazil, not knowing anyone.  He bought a piece of farm land in northern Brazil, and met a local girl and married her. They are expecting their first child soon.  Johann is the only person I have met who has also visited all 4 major waterfalls in the world.  We hung out quite a bit after that.

Excursions - Crazy Prices

There are loads of activities to do whilst in Livingstone and they are organised by every accommodation that you stay at.  But the prices are ridiculous.  For example, a 15 minute microlight flight will cost you US $140 and a helicopter flight for the same duration will cost you around US $200 or more.  Every other tour will cost you at least US $120 - 140 each.  So you will be spending a lot of money if you go for these.  I only did one excursion which was the Jet Extreme experience.  The owner, Tony, will pick you up and drive you 40 minutes to a gorge down the Zambezi river where you will go down the gorge in a cable car and then have a 30 minute jet boat ride up and down the river.  He does rapid spins which are between 5-7 G-force.  It goes very fast through the rapids and you get soaking wet.  I was ready to throw up by the end of it.  The highlight of the trip was driving through the beautiful countryside past the traditional villages inhabited by the Tokaleya people who live very simple and removed lives and live off the earth.

Hit And Run

Last night, I was driving back from the top of Table Mountain.  I had invited my guesthouse host and his wife to join me to see the wonderful sunset from one of the 7 Natural Wonders of The World.  This time round, the sun set a lot faster and it became much colder than when I was up here 6 weeks ago.  It is coming towards the end of their Summer.  My hosts left earlier than me so I headed back to Fish Hoek later, arriving around 11pm.  I noticed a man lying dead on the side of the road, covered with a blood splattered white sheet, and further along the road a white plastic bag with his belongs in it.  There were a few police cars around.  I asked one policeman what had happened and he said that it was a hit and run.  The deceased man was 33 years old.  Nothing like this happens in this sleepy little coastal village/town.  The only incidents of people being killed in this place is when they are attacked by Great Whites while swimming. 

Close Brush With Death : Face to Face With Cobra

Two days ago, I went for a drive up to Ceres and the surrounding areas, 90 minutes drive north of Cape Town.  Ceres is a cute little town with a lot of fruit farms surrounding it as well as mountain ranges and rivers.

I find out about a little isolated restaurant outside of Ceres called Toll Huis in a valley with mountains on both sides.  After a nice meal, I had a chat with the owner who was a pleasant Afrikaans man.  I asked him what he advised me to do after my lunch as I had a few hours left until the sun went down and I headed back to Cape Town.  He suggested going for a hike along an unused railway line 60 meters up the mountain behind his restaurant.  The views were supposed to be very good. 

Me:  Is there anything dangerous up there?
Restaurant Owner (RO):  Be careful of the baboons, but they are scared of men so will run away.

Me: That's it ?

RO:  And the cheetahs, but they are small so not to worry about them.

Me: How about snakes?

RO:  Well, it's Africa so there will be snakes but don't worry.  At this time of day they shouldn't be around much.
Me:  What type of snakes?

RO:  Cobra snakes.

Me:  They are lethal, aren't they?
RO:  Well, if they bite you, you will live for 10 minutes.  Just look out for anything moving or making a noise.

Me:  Is there a hospital nearby?

RO:  Yes, but we are closing the restaurant now, but here is the number for the emergency services should you need to call them from up there:  10111.

The path to the disused railway line was overgrown with plants and very rocky.  It was difficult to see what was in the undergrowth.  I walk a part of the way and then questioned myself on what I was about to do.  Part of me thought it was foolish and risky and another part of me was not going to let fear overcome me.  I said a prayer and decided to continue up.

At the top, the view was lovely and the railway line was overgrown with bushes on the side.  I decided to walk away from Ceres and see where I got to.  After walking some minutes, I passed a small bush to my right, on the outside of the railway track.  As I passed, I heard something move less than a meter away.  I walked about 2 meters more, stopped and looked around and there I saw it, a cobra snake lifting its head and the upper portion of its body out of the bush, with its head spread out.  It turned and looked at me with its long tongue sticking out.  Then it turned its head the other way and proceeded to come out of the bush and slide in the other direction along the rocks on the side of the track.

Fear gripped me, but instead of doing what a normal person would do, I unzipped my camera case and took out my camera.  I managed to take a photo of it, before running past it back to where I had met the railway line.  I must have broken the world record for the 100m dash.  Too bad no one was there to record the time.  Looking down the trail that would take me back to the locked up restaurant, I wondered if any of the cousins of this snake were waiting for me.  I just ran down the hill as fast as I could and gave a sigh of relief when I reached my parked car. 

Thankful that I was still alive, but with adrenaline pumping around me very fast, I decided to carry on with my journey.

Bain's Kloof Pass

I had heard that Bain's Kloof Pass was a beautiful winding road going through the mountains and a gorge.  It was down further along the route R301 towards Wellington.  As I drove there were some turn-offs but the signs were a bit confusing so I carried on driving.  Along the way, I noticed a pickup van along the side of the road so I stopped and asked the friendly black guy if I was on route R301 to Wellington.  He looked at the map, smiled, and assured me that I was.  I noticed that he had crates of fruit at the back of his pickup so I asked him how much an apple was.  He said 1 Rand so I paid him and he came back with a nice apple, a pear, and the largest plum I have seen in my life.  I thanked him and carried on.  After 20 kms, I arrived in a town called Tulbagh.  I had in fact gone the opposite direction to where I needed to go, not on Route R301, but route R46.  I had to turn and go back 20 kms.  The guy who sold me the fruits had been telling me utter rubbish  Arrrrrrggggghhhhhh  !!!!!  Still, his fruits were nice.

The Bains Klook Pass was probably the most beautiful pass that I had driven on in South Africa.  It was unbelievably beautiful, especially in the glow on the golden sunset.  I could hear the sound of the river down below as I drove along the gorge with towering mountains on either side of me.

VIP Tour of Robben Island

Robben Island

I was invited, together with a guest, to visit Robben Island.  The guesthouse owner, Delgun, and I were met by the senior manager of operations at the boat terminal at the V&A Waterfront.  At the island, the senior manager drove us around in a private airconditioned people carrier (the tourist buses are cramped and have no a/c).  I was there as a guest an also as an informal consultant to help them with ideas on how to improve their tours.

We were shown areas of the island that were not accessible to the general public including the lime quarry where Nelson Mandela used to break lime rocks during his 18 years of hard labour on Robben Island.  There was also a cave which we went inside, which was used as shelter and rest, as well as a place to go to the toilet.  The educated prisoners like Mandela would also undertake to teach the uneducated prisoners in that cave, away from the watchful eye of the prison guards.  The phrase 'Each One, Teach One' was coined.
 

Nelson Mandela Cell

We also had the rare privilege of entering the cell of Nelson Mandela and holding the key.  Only a few hundred people out of the millions of visitors have been invited to enter his cell, which was a real honour.  It was so small inside that I couldn't have survived for more than a couple of days, let alone 18 years.

Cederberg Mountain and Rooibos Factory

A day or so after my visit to Robben Island, I decided to drive up to the Cederberg Mountains as I had heard that they were quite scenic.  I drove up there but was not that impressed.  However, I did visit the Rooibos Ltd company and was given a screening of how they grow and cultivate Rooibos tea, which is only grown in this part of the world.  It is a very healthy and tasty drink, high in antioxidants, and which they export around the world.  I drove from Clanwilliam where the factory was to the coast along route R364 and down to Elands Bay.  What a spectacular route !  I highly recommend it, although there is a patch that is not paved, but they are working on it.

Seal Island and The Great White

Speedboat To Seal Island

A couple of days ago, I went to Simon's Town with a German guy who was staying at the same guesthouse as me.  We boarded a RIB (rapid inflatable boat) which speed off towards Seal Island, half an hour away in False Bay.  The boat was almost flying, it was going so fast.  It was going around 70mph.  We were airbourne a number of times and I was holding on to dear life.  As we approached Seal Island, it was strange that it was so black.  Approaching it closer, I noticed that the blackness of the island was due to the seals there.  The skipper of the boat was that at any one time, there were 70,000 seals on that island.  National Geographic have filmed that island many times and it is the most famous place on earth for watching seals.  The seals were having a great time, playing in the surf and jumping in and out of the water.  It felt like a waterpark for seals.

The Great White

The Great White sharks come to these waters in droves because they consider this area an abundant feeding ground.   With 70,000 seals, there is plenty for the sharks to eat.  There was a cage diving expedition nearby, with people watching the Greate White from an underwater cage.  They had a bait which they threw from the boat to lure the shark closer.  It was amazing to see the Great White lunging at this bate and circling the boat with its fin cutting through the water.

Hermanus

Hermanus, a small, quaint coastal village on the other side of the bay from Fish Hoek, Muizenberg, and Simon's Town.  It took me a couple of hours to reach it, along route R44, which is the coastal road.  The view was breathtaking along the winding road next to the sea.  During winter months one can see plenty of whales and Hermanus itself is a world famous location for spotting whales very close to the shore.

West Coast

I did a day trip up along the coast from Cape Town to Langebaan, Saldanha, and Paternoster.  These are very small towns along the coast.  I preferred Paternoster the most, with its whitewashed buildings and long beach.  This village has expanded rapidly in the past 16 years or so, with Capetonians building weekend retreats and guesthouses.

Oudtshoorn & Cango Caves

 Oudtshoorn

I arrived in this very pleasant looking chilled out town called Oudtshoorn, inhabited by 80,000 people and famous for being the home to the world's largest Ostrich population with a number of specialized ostrich breeding farms. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the town saw a large Ostrich boom as their feathers became extremely popular as fashion accessories.  This made the town very rich and the Ostrich farmers very wealthy.  However, by 1914 the boom ended.

I found a lovely hostel on top of a hill in a large Tudor style house.  The interior was immaculate with lovely furniture and beds.  The name of this place was Karoo Soul.  The resident owner, Ilse, a warm and bubbly young lady, always loved this house since she was a child.  She managed to earn and save a tidy sum of money, mostly through tips, working 16-20 hour days on a US cruise ship for a couple of years as a waitress. One day she saw that the house was up for sale and bought it and then converted it into an upmarket hostel.

Cango Caves

The Cango Caves are 30 kms north of Oudtshoorn.  They are 5 kms long and have spectacular formations of stalactites and stalagmites.  Known as South Africa's largest cave system, they are thought to have started forming about 750 million years ago.

I decided to do the Adventure tour which involves crawling in tunnels and up very narrow holes inside the caves.  This is not something for claustrophobic people.  I happened to have been put into a group full of American college students, mostly girls, who had come to Cape Town University for a term/semester.  For some reason the girls had thought that wearing flip flops was going to be just fine, until they started crawling and climbing etc.  Their flip flops just disintegrated and a number of them ended up walking barefoot the rest of the way.  One or two got stuck in the tight holes and had to be pulled out.  A couple kept falling and one almost hit her head on a stalagmite. Our tour guide, a coloured guy in his late 20s/early 30s was as camp as can be.  So, it was all very bewildering and amusing to be a part of.

 Swartberg Pass

After the Cango Caves, I continued up route R326 towards the Swartberg Pass.  It was a steep climb up the mountain on gravel road.  A car broke down in front of me on this narrow pass on the edge of the mountain.  Soon, there were many cars waiting behind it.  It took some minutes before a rescue truck was able to load the car onto its rear and soon the traffic started moving.  Once back down the mountain with the amazing views, I started driving down a gorge that had a river running down it.  The steep walls of the gorge and the trees and bushes going down it were a beautiful site to see.  The gorge walls were red and there was the deep blue sky and the green vegetation so a lovely mixture of colours.   I stopped once in a while next to the stream and listened to the wonderful sound of the crystal-clear water flowing.

 Prince Albert and the Traffic Cops

When I cleared the gorge, I took the wrong turn and ended up in this small mountain town called Prince Albert.  It was from another age.  I drove through and then didn't know if I was headed in the right direction.  I was looking for the R407 back to Oudtshoorn which passed the Meiringspoort Waterfall.  I tried to wave passing cars to stop so that I could ask them for directions but some didn't stop and others stopped only after several meters so I kept driving on.  I noticed a police van approaching me from behind and it turned on its siren.  I pulled to the side and a policeman and policewoman came over.  The guy said that he had been contacted by a colleague that a guy in a car was waving motorists to stop and asked me what the problem was.  I told him that I couldn't find the waterfall.  He told me I was heading in the wrong direction and that I should turn around and head down the R407 and then the N12 South.

Meiringspoort Waterfall

After driving around 60 kms I reached the waterfall which was a 5 minute walk from the narrow road going through yet another gorge.  The waterfall was not large but it was gorgeous.  It was flowing down into a deep pool of water and was surrounded by a canyon.  There were signs to the waterfall warning of snakes but thankfully I didn't see any.  I couldn't resist the urge to jump into the pool so stripped to my underpants and dove in.  The water was freezing but exhilarating.  I managed to swim to the waterfall and then back again, pulling myself out onto the rocks.  Here is a YouTube clip that somebody posted so I have copied the link on here, although there was a lot more water flowing when I visited: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4mHzj21oZA

Road To Addo Elephant Nature Reserve

 

 
Guy Lying On The Road

I was driving back to the Armagh guesthouse on my final night in Storms River when I noticed something on the road.  I slowly drove closer and noticed a black guy with just his pants on lying in the middle of the road.  Another car approached from the opposite direction in this village.  It was a good thing that it was not daytime and I was not distracted by views around me.  Otherwise I may have run the guy over.  I had come to a complete stop and the guy was illuminated in my car headlights.  As the other car approached, it became clear that it was a police van with 2 cops inside.  They both got out and approached the man.  One of the policemen nudged the guy with his foot and the man moved slightly.  They realised that he was drunk so pulled him off the ground and walked him to the back of the van and dumped him inside.


From Storms River to Addo Elephant Park

I was driving along route N2 from Storms River to Port Elizabeth, which is just south of Addo Elephant Nature Reserve.  Just before reaching Port Elizabeth, the speed limit signs on the highway told us to slow down from 120 km/hr to 80 km/hr to 60 and then there was a police road block with a dozen police cars and around 40 police officers.  The first officer who spoke to me through my car window said they were stopping cars for drugs and weapons searches.  I was told to drive to a spot in the grass where 3 police men and women would search my car.  So, as I tried to park my car, a large black policeman told me that the car was fine where it was.  I asked him if he could wash my car.  He didn't like my sense of humour so I told him it was a joke.  He then asked me for my driving licence so I opened the boot to get it out of my small zip bag. Unfortunately, I had missplaced the key so was frantically looking for it at the back of the car, throwing underpants, socks, t-shirts, and shoes around.  The policeman and 2 police women were looking in bewilderment.  The policeman said not to worry and to proceed.  I told him that I was adament to find my keys and kept looking.  Then I found them and got my licence out.  He didn't know what to make of the old UK drivers licence with no photo on it and the pink and green colour.  I was getting bored as well so told him that tomorrow is my birthday and that he and the other 2 ladies should sing happy birthday to me.  The two policewomen were not interesting in the slightest in singing but the policeman did say happy birthday.  I told him to give me a bear hug which he did and then I got into my car and carried on driving.

Addo

I arrived at Addo village which is near the Elephant National Park.  A Swiss man and his French wife were running a bed & breakfast.  I managed to haggle with Swiss man to get the price down a bit but he was a bit inflexible.  They are not the best people to haggle with.  And the French lady kept saying 'My Engleeesh eess not so guuud' and sighing.  She had been living in South Africa for 3 years. 

Birthday With The Elephants

I drove into the park with my hire car full of optimism of seeing the Big 5 - Elephants, Lions, Leopards, Buffalos, and Rhinos.  They advertise the park as having all of these animals, although the majority are elephants.  It is 444,700 acres and takes an hour to drive from one end to another.  I drove non-stop for 7 hours and clocked up 130 kms.  For the first 3 hours I didn't see a fly.  I was mainly in the northern part and then headed south.  I stopped a guy and asked him if he had seen any animals and he said that they are all in the south so I carried on south.  Then I came across herds of elephants going towards watering holes that were created by the park for them.  Had it not rained a couple of days earlier, more of them would have come out from the bushes to the watering holes, instead of drinking the rain water in the bushes.  It was wonderful to see the mothers and the fathers and the baby elephants going on an outing together.  They are so communal and family oriented.

I also saw some zebras and large turtles, and well as buffalos.  However, I didn't see any lions or leopards, or rhinos.  When I asked where the rhinos were, the park officials said they couldn't tell anyone because of the problem with poaching.   Since the beginning of this year, 45 rhinos have been poached in South Africa. The horns are sold for many thousands of Pounds.  The horns are crushed for use in chinese 'medicine' according to various sources.

For my 2nd night I stayed at a wonderful B&B down the road called Rosedale:  http://www.rosedalebnb.co.za/
The owners, Keith and Nondumiso, are a lovely couple who are very welcoming and down to earth.  The rooms are very clean and comfortable, and the breakfast is delicious organic food, nearly all from their beautiful farm.  You should try the scrambled eggs and homemade bread....mmmm !!

Panic !!

I made a call to my carhire company in Cape Town to ask if I could extend my carhire by a few days so that I could drive back to Cape Town in a leisurely pace.  They told me that it would cost me more than double to extend my contract because there was a sudden great demand on their cars and their prices had shot up.  I Skyped the carhire brokers who told me that their rates had gone up for my car as well.  It seems like the stock market, with prices going up and down on an hourly basis.  So, you need to lock into a deal at a certain price for a certain period of time.

So, I had 3 days to get back to Cape Town, just under 800 kms.  So, I headed back down to Port Elizabeth, which everyone I have met says is a dive of a place, then along route N2 towards Plettenberg Bay, staying one night, then over to George and up the N12 to Oudtshoorn.  From Plettenberg Bay, the police had closed off part of the N2 westwards because of trouble in that township just outside of Plettenberg Bay that I had experienced a few days before.  It had escalated and apparently the locals were throwing rocks onto the busy motorway at cars and also throwing blazing tyres onto it as well.  All the traffic was diverted for around 10 miles around this township through dusty roads up in the hills.  It was a crazy site.

Knysna To Storms River

 HSBC Nightmare

I got a call from one of the managers of the supermarket where the ATM had eaten my card.  He said that the ABSA woman was there, opening the ATM.  So, I arrived there within 5 minutes and saw a blond woman kneeling at the opened machine and between me and her was a guy with a bullet-proof jacket, a pistol and a machine gun, ready to shoot anyone who stole any milk or bread.  In all seriousness, he was with the lady from the bank.  As I approached, he spoke to me in Afrikaans so I told him I didn't understand.  He said in English to stand back.  The lady showed me my card and the date had expired at the end of Jan.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  How could I have overlooked this?  I usually get a card automatically a couple of months before an existing one expires.  In fact, I had told HSBC that I was coming here and they didn't issue one for me before coming, and I forgot about the date of the card.  So, it was a total mess-up!  Anyway, this lady told me that she had to destroy my card because it had expired.  I told her not to do it because I still needed the card to refer to when contacting HSBC.  She said she would take it to the nearest bank branch and it would be up to them to decide if it should be destroyed.  So, I headed to the bank and asked to speak to the bank manager.  The bank manager ushered me into her office and I explained my situation.  She asked for my passport and went away and came back with my card, asked for a release signature and let me have it, untouched.  I ended up speaking to her for an hour about life, her involvement in her local community through her church, and many other interesting things.

I managed to find an internet place and Skyped HSBC and they at first said they would not send a card to me in South Africa so I reminded them that they had let me down.  My relationship manager agreed to send it to an address that I was staying at in Cape Town so when I return there, the card should have arrived.

Hostel Nightmare

I was staying at a hostel off the main road in Knysna for a couple of nights.  At the same time as my arrival, 3 German lads arrived and were in my room, as well as an Australian girl and her guy cousin, an Israeli guy called Lior, and a German beauty called Steff.  They were all in their early to mid 20s.  One of the German lads, Basti, the Israeli guy, and the Australian guy, Mike, were all trying to get the attention of Steff.  She was loving the limelight.  The Australian girl, Ashleigh, was making a move on Basti, the German.  Then Susan, another German girl arrived and Lior made a move on her.  Another Australian girl made a bee-line for Mike, the Australian guy.  It was all a soap opera.

At 3.30am I was woken up by a bunch of people laughing and talking loudly outside my window.  They were clearly drunk.  I couldn't believe my ears.  The person talking and laughing the loudest was the hostel manager. I got up to go out and have it out with them when I saw the hostel manager come inside to use the toilet.  I asked him to turn it down and he apologized, but after 10 minutes of quiet talk, the noise level went back to what it was.  At 4.30 they all decided to call it a night, so I thought that silence had finally arrived.  Next thing, Ashlee, the Australian girl came into the room and straight into the bed with Basti, the German lad.  But I was determined not to be distracted from my sleep so proceeded to sleep.  But, the American guy across the way in another lower bunk started snoring his head off.  I tugged at his pillow and he stopped.  Then he started again until I tugged his pillow once again.  I fell asleep, but was awoken by his loud snoring again.  I turned to tug his pillow but instead of seeing his head, I saw his feet.  I guess he must have manoeuvred himself so that I wouldn't be able to tug his pillow anymore.  So, I hardly slept that night, and in the morning, I got out of there as soon as I could, vowing not to stay in another hostel for as long as I could.

Crazy Drive to Storms River

Just before Plettenburg, I passed a township which was next to the main N2 highway.  There was a mini riot going on, and some people had set fire to tyres and had thrown them into the highway so the police had closed the road and created a detour.  I drove through Plettenburg and somehow back onto the N2 again.  The weather was non-stop rain and low cloud, so bad visibility.  I arrived at the tolls and had to pay 35 Rand which is GBP 3 or US$ 4.50. 

Highest Bungee Jump In The World

On the way, I stopped at the Bloukrans Bungee Jump which at 216 meters high, is apparently the highest in the world, off this bridge called Bloukrans.  The owner there makes GBP 4.5 million per year from lunatics throwing themselves off this bridge and paying around GBP 90 for the jump and a dvd.  I asked one of the people working there how much it would cost to jump without a rope.  He said it would be free.  But I guess if you don't like it, you can't get your money back.

Storms River

This hamlet is surrounded by beautiful a forest called Tsitsikamma.  I am staying in a wonderful guesthouse called Armagh, named after the birthplace of the co-owner.  She and her husband built this place in 1994 and have added a nice touch to it.  I was determined to have a couple of good nights of peaceful rest, away from the hectic hostel mayhem.  I was thinking for some reason that I was one of the first people from my part of the world to have stumbled across this area.  In the dining room of this guesthouse, there are hundreds of business cards stuck to the walls.  I had a quick browse at some of them and was really surprised to see one from someone working for Barclays in The City in London, another working for American Airlines at Gatwick, another from a guy who works for my local VW garage in Hammersmith, and most surprising of all, the Assistant Press Officer for Prince Charles and The Duchess of Cornwall, at Clarence House.

 Walk To The Waterfall

I drove a few miles down the road and entered Tsitkikamma National Park and parked my car, then proceeded to walk across to the waterfall.  The sign did say that the walk is difficult, and at first it was lovely and green and full of vegetation.  But then it became very rocky and full of jagged boulders that were steep at the edges and difficult to cross.  To my amazement, this couple passed me with a 6 month old baby that the man was holding in his arms.  Either they were acrobats in the circus and were good at juggling and balancing, or they were just nuts.  Not sure how the baby survived that ordeal.

800 Year Old Yellow Wood Tree

Just down the road from here is an enormous tree and is 800 years old.  It is just mesmerizing to look at.  I highly recommend seeing it if you are here.

Cape Town To Knysna

Carhire Nightmare

I was trying to hire a car with comprehensive insurance cover but the companies here would not offer it and neither would the brokers.  I was spending a considerable amount of time and money calling various companies and reading their small prints.  I even tried to ask the representatives of the companies to explain their complex terms but most of them didn't know what they meant either.  I finally contacted a UK carhire broker called Travel Jigsaw/Carhire 3000 and a very helpful guy at the other end, based in Manchester, UK, answered all my questions, and arranged for me to pick my car up from Thrifty at Cape Town airport, with full insurance cover.  When I arrived, I got a free upgrade and was on my way.

Garden Route

The drive from Cape Town along N2 highway is quite dramatic, with lots of mountainous terrain and valleys.  Rather arid though but quite scenic.  The drivers are quite courteous.  They pull to the side, in the UK well call it the hard shoulder, and let you pass.  In the UK and elsewhere, you would have a battle on your hands to get past anyone, but not here.

The Southernmost tip of Africa, where 2 Oceans Meet (Atlantic and Indian)

Cape Agulhas is quite a unique part of the world, and the views of the oceans are quite spectacular.   Near land, the water is light blue or emerald colour and further out they become darker blue.  There is a lighthouse at Cape Agulhas which you can climb up.  The panoramic view is absolutely breathtaking.  The hostel/backpackers was really nice and chilled out.  It has a pool in the courtyard and a nice lounge and bar area and cool music.  The main benefit of staying in hostels/backpackers is socialising and meeting people.  I visited a very down to earth restaurant by the water called The Pelican and had a very tasty fish called Cob (not Cod).  I highly recommend it.

Mossel Bay

The drive from Cape Agulhas to Mossel Bay was quite an adventure and the vista around was awesome.  The heat was quite strong, so I was glad to have airconditioning in the car.  At Mossel Bay, I saw a sign for a backpackers and turned up.  The guy managing it showed me around and what an incredible place.  It was a Victorian style mansion with beautiful wooden floors.  The garden had lots of plants and water fountains.  Some had large fish in them.  The only problem was trying to sleep at night with all the noise being made by croaking frogs outside.  There was a fish restaurant called Kingfisher by the harbour.  I had a fish called Kingklip, which was a chunky white fleshed fish similar to Cod but more delicious.   It was incredible!

Knysna

This little town is quaint and laidback place, full of good restaurants and cafes.  Knysna has a harbour and has hills surrounding it.  I arrived here 3 days ago and the weather turned for the worst.  It has been raining continuously since then and the temperature has cooled considerably.  I was in another hostel the first night, but it was dirty and they had crammed as many beds into dorm rooms as they could.  The people running it were very friendly though.  I am now in a better hostel.  I decided to buy my own pillow so I visited the nearby shopping centre and bought a down + duck feather pillow, which feels great.  Only problem is, not sure how I am going to take it back to the UK with me. 

ATM Ate My Card

Yesterday, I was trying to take money out of an ABSA bank ATM machine inside a supermarket here in Knysna, and for some unknown reason, the machine ate my card.  This is the first time this has happened to me overseas so I was not too happy.  I called the number on the ATM and this lady called Denise said that they couldn't let me have my card back until today, in the afternoon.  I told her that I needed the card sooner but she said that the person who is responsible for accessing their machines was in another coastal town and would not be back in Knysna until later today.  Thankfully, I have a backup debit card which I used to take money out from another ATM machine.  I have learned from my previous trip to Thailand that having only one debit card is risky.

South Africa - The Rainbow Nation

I landed at Cape Town International Airport after a long overnight flight from London.  At immigration I got an unwelcoming growl from the immigration officer, asking me if I had a return ticket back.

After the cold and the dampness of England, being hit by the intense heat and powerful sun gave me a jolt.  The drive to Fish Hoek, an hour south of Cape Town was very beautiful and adventurous.  I had seen pictures of this city many times but to see it for real was quite something else.  It is probably the most beautiful city in the world, with the backdrop of Table Mountain and the beaches along the coast, and with Robben Island in the bay.  The scenery is quite dramatic!

Fish Hoek is a small sleepy town with a lot of retired people and teenagers who like to surf there and in the neighbouring small coastal town of Muizenburg.  There is a slight problem though.  There are a huge number of Great White Sharks in those waters.  A couple of months ago, a guy was in the sea up to his waist and was attacked by a Great White and had his leg ripped off.  He survived.  But not too long before that, a lady was eaten by a shark as she swam further out.  No one is allowed to hunt the sharks as they are a protected species.  There are outlook posts in the mountains overlooking the coastline that are meant to warn people to get out of the water, but I don't know if I want to put my life in their hands.  What is one of them is having a nap in the midday sun or going off for a pee ? 

Half the people in Fish Hoek tend to walk around barefoot, even into the supermarket.  It is a place where you get to bump into the same people every day.  I sometimes feel a bit like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.  Time slows down here.

Small World

I was walking along the main street of Fish Hoek when I noticed somebody familiar fetching something from a car in a carpark.  So, I went up to him to get to the bottom of how I recognised him.  It dawned on me that he was a colleague from my previous company in London.  He had also left that company and was now working in Durban and was in Fish Hoek for a couple of days, visiting his parents.

We All Live In A Yellow Submarine

Well, the submarine wasn't yellow, it was black.  I got invited by a senior person in the South African navy to go into an active submarine, based in Simon's Town, which is the main naval base in SA.  There are 3 submarines in the South African navy, all built in Germany and navigated down here, taking several weeks.  South Africa is the only African country to have submarines.  They are mainly used for surveillance to pass on information to the naval ships and the airforce on any illegal ships that are in the area.  For example, Chinese fishing ships have tended to enter nearby waters to catch fish illegally.  There is no way that I can live on a submarine for months on end.  It is so claustrophobic down there and the air is not fresh.  Two people share a single bed because they work shifts.  The engine room gets so hot that they sometimes hang steaks there to cook.

Taxi Van

So I was trying to get a ride in a group taxi from near the central train station to Camps Bay, which is the upmarket area of Cape Town, with a white sandy beach.  All the rich and beautiful people either live there or hang out at the beach.  This taxi was not going anywhere so I was getting a bit impatient.  I asked the drive to get a move on but he said he needed a couple of more people to get on board before moving.  So, I told him I would get 2 people for him, provided that he would not charge me for the ride.  He agreed, without taking me seriously.  After 5 minutes, I had 2 new passengers for the taxi, to the driver's surprise.  My free ride to Camps Bay was quite an adventure, with the loud stereo in the van blasting RnB and soul music.  I felt like I was in a moving disco.

Prisoner of Robben Island Tour Company

I decided to check out where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 of his 27 years in captivity.  At the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, I boarded a large catamaran that took 30 minutes to get to the island.  On the bus, there was a tour guide lady of non-European origin.  She was facing the bus passengers and pointing things out to the left or right but getting her left and right mixed up with ours.  Her English was really poor and I couldn't figure out what she was on about.  She was constantly getting her facts and figures and dates wrong.  We were cramped on this bus the whole time and couldn't get off to look around.  The other guide who showed us around the prison was an ex-prisoner.  He also supposedly spoke English but I couldn't understand him either. He seemed to be singing-talking more than talking-talking.  The real poignant part of the tour was the cell of Nelson Mandela and the bare concrete floor.  I couldn't stay in there for an hour, let alone for 18 years.

Evening Train

I was nervous about getting the evening train back to Fish Hoek from Cape Town central station because I was told by many locals not to travel after dark.  But since I only made it to the 3pm Robben Island tour slot, I had to travel back to my guesthouse after sunset.  I had thought that there would be security or police on the train, as some people had assured me, but this wasn't the case.  I was in the first carriage where some people were sitting.  After half an hour into my train ride, a guy of European origin entered my carriage.  I started talking to him.  He said that he had been in the next carriage where there weren't that many people and there was a gang of youths that was going to rob a passenger.  He said I was fortunate to be in my carriage because as there were more people, the gang would not want to cause trouble.  He said I shouldn't be travelling at night and told me he had to because he was coming back from work.  I was thankful that nothing happened to me, because I had my camera and wallet on me.

 Table Mountain

The ascent to the top of Table Mountain in the rotating cable car was quite a sight.  That meant that no one had to fight to get a good view.  At the top, there was every nationality under the sun, walking around this flat mountain.  I stayed up there for 8 hours, and saw the sunset.  It was beautiful moment.  A few days later, an American BASE jumper lept from the top of Table Mountain with a wing suit and just before deploying his parachute lower down, was met by an unexpected gust of wind.  He hit a protruding rock and broke both legs and sustained other injuries.  He survived, but ended up in intensive care.  The South African National Parks authority is going to fine him and possibly also prosecute him for his unauthorised jump.
 

 Johnny Who ?

A friend of a friend from London had some tickets to a concert at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town, performed by a guy called Johnny Clegg.  I had never heard of him but when I saw the huge crowd with a diverse age range from little children to the elderly, I realised that this artist was some sort of legend in this country.  All his songs had a deep meaning behind them, as he explained before playing each one.  He had been a prominent anti-apartheid activist in the olden days and his songs reflected that.  The atmosphere was great, with everyone having a picnic on the vast lawn on a hill overlooking the large stage, with the backdrop of green mountains behind and the sun setting.  Quite magical !

My Impression So Far

South Africa, or what I have seen of it so far, is a very beautiful country, with incredible mountains, coastlines, seas, and vegetation, a lot of it only growing in this part of the world.

I am amazed how expensive things are here.  A lot of prices in Pick n Pay supermarket for example, are the same as or sometimes more expensive than Sainsbury's or Tesco supermarkets back in the UK.  Ironically, the restaurant meals are relatively cheap.  Accommodation here, especially in Cape Town is not cheap, and neither are pay as you go mobile phone tariffs.  Cars are also quite expensive because of high import taxes, and the parks and places of attraction such as Table Mountain (Rand 195), or Cape of Good Hope (Rand 85) are quite pricey.  So, if you think that this place is going to be as cheap as Thailand, or Latin America, then you are going to be quite shocked.

The South African people are very approachable, warm, and friendly.  I have struck up conversations randomly with local guys and after a couple of minutes, I have been invited to their local and treated to a beer and a history of their locality.

The first language of the white people is mainly Afrikaans, which is old Dutch.  Dutch people are amongst the first settlers here, having come to this part of the world on the way to the East Indies with ships, to trade.  Many settled here.  They also brought natives from Indonesia and India to work here so there are a group of people who are descendants of people from those places.  You also have Xhosa people and the Zulu people.  Nelson Mandela, for example, is a Xhosa.  To be honest, I haven't quite figured out how many nationalities came to this country over the centuries.  It seems everyone from the whole planet came here and put down roots sometime in the past, except aliens from other planet.  Perhaps they came too.

To get by here, it would be good to add some of the local way they speak South African English to your vocabulary.  For example:

Howzit?  = Hello, how are you ?
Cheers Hey = Goodbye
Lekker = Nice
Oke = bloke, guy
Pretty much every sentence starts with 'Look' and ends in 'Yah'
Bru = Bro(US), Bruv(UK)
Shuuuhh = wow!
Yohh = incredible!
Robot = Traffic Light

Not many South Africans that I have spoken to seem to have left their country.  Even a headmaster of a large prestigious school who studied history of European art in University, has never left South Africa.  To get to Europe, or America or anywhere outside of Africa costs a lot of money and is very far away.  Even flights to other African countries are expensive.  Ryan Air and Easyjet have made us Europeans very spoilt.
A generation on from the end of Apartheid, I can't help but noticing that there are still divisions between the whites, black, coloureds (mixed race) and Indians/Asians.  I have not seen them mixing together.  These groups tend to stick together in their own areas.   A number of white South Africans that I have spoken to randomly feel that they are now treated like 2nd class citizens and say that there is a lot more political corruption now than during Apartheid.  That greed and self-advancement are the prevailing mindsets in politics and in business which is hindering the progress of the country.

Affirmative Action

Affirmative Action is a quota system that has been introduced by the current government whereby a certain percentage of jobs in each sector have to be given to black people, regardless of whether they can do the job.  A lot of white people have commented that they know of friends or relatives that have had more qualifications and experiences than a black person for a particular role, but the job has been given to the black person.  So, a lot of white people are mentioning reverse Apartheid.  For this reason, a lot of people I have met work very hard, a large number of them every day of the week.  They mention that there is no job security, no company health insurance or private pension, and a lot of unemployment, so they must work hard to survive.