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of our trip to South Africa
SOUTH AFRICA
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A long, long flight….
The concept of distance is something we usually take for granted. We think of the daily commute in terms of minutes. Planning a car trip we calculate the miles. We found in flying to South Africa we measured the distance by the soreness of our butts.
We flew from San Diego to Atlanta on Monday and stayed in a hotel near the airport so as to be well rested for the long flight to Johannesburg. We were surprised to find Atlanta fogged in and we circled awhile until air traffic control could fit us in. Got to the hotel without any problem, mainly because we didn’t have to get on a freeway. All the commuters were at a crawl. Since Monday was Valentine's Day we wanted a nice dinner, which we enjoyed at Ruby Tuesday's, the only restaurant within walking distance.
The airport was still fogged in when we left the hotel, but things cleared as the morning wore on and we departed on schedule at 10:30.
The
first leg of our flight was about 8 1/2 hours to Isla Sal in the Cape Verde
Islands, where we refueled. We expected to be able to deplane and walk around
the terminal while the plane was being refueled but that was not the case. We
just stood in the aisle and stretched.
Airborne again, they gave us a snack and turned out the lights. We were still on Atlanta time so we weren't at all sleepy. Fortunately the Airbus 360 has individual TV in the seat backs so we watched another movie. We never did get any sleep and arrived at our hotel in Johannesburg at 10:30 Wednesday morning. Total flight time was something over 18 hours.
We decided to get some lunch, and then take a nap. We walked to a shopping mall a couple of blocks from the hotel. Had a hamburger with "monkey gland sauce" (sort of a barbecue sauce) and an excellent local beer.
We picked up a couple of souvenirs and went back for our nap. We were never hungry enough for dinner and settled for an ice cream cone. We were surprised to learn the mall stores all closed at 5:30. Not quite the same as the US. That's the biggest difference. In the area of Jo'burg where we stayed we might have been in an American city.
We caught our ride to the airport Thursday for the one-hour
flight to Hoedspruit. This is the nearest airport to our
destina
tion, the tent camp. It is
located adjacent to the huge Kruger National Park. We learned the Hoedspruit
airport is a military base and is open to commercial flights only two hours a
day. As you can see from the picture of the terminal, it's quite small. There
were two others on our flight going to Gwalagwala, Peter and Meg from the
Orlando area. They arranged their trip through
SkyAuction.com as we did. After a
short drive we arrived at the camp and were shown to our tent. Very luxurious
setup on a platform up in the trees above a river.
After a light lunch we took or first "Big Five" game drive.
The name refers to the five animals that are most dangerous to hunt on foot:
elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion, and leopard. Ironically the animal that kills
the most people every year is not included: the hippopotamus. The guide told us
there is also a "super seven" which includes the hippo and the cheetah. There
is also a "gnarly nine" for tourists which includes rocks and logs. We spotted
plenty of those! It is fascinating to see how the big animals blend into the
background. At first all you
see is the brush.
Then you see some movement, possibly
a tail. Then suddenly you see the entire
animal.
We were visiting the Thornybush Reserve (aptly named, we
learned). It is 12,000 hectares (about 30,000 acres) of "mixed bushwillow
woodlands". This first day there were ten of us besides the ranger and a
tracker in a specially
configured Land
Rover. There's a little seat on the front fender for
the tracker (we thought
he was just bait). There are dirt tracks throughout the park, but our ranger
would occasionally just take off through the brush to get around the route the
animals were taking.
The first of the Big Five we spotted was the lion. Actually,
we had to stop to keep from
running over lions sleeping on the road. These
predators clearly don't feel the need for camouflage when they aren't hunting!
In this group there was one male, three females and four cubs. I think you
can tell from the picture how close we were. This area is closed except to these
rangers, and there are only three vehicles at a time in the entire 30,000 acres,
so the animals are pretty familiar with them. If you remain quiet and nobody
stands up, the animals don't run from the cars. The rangers are also quite
familiar with the animals and the pattern o
f their daily movements.
Late in the afternoon the animals were starting to move
toward the water, so the ranger put us ahead of them.
We saw the second of the
big five, a White Rhino. We would see this female and her "baby" again the next
day. The ranger coordinated movements with the other two vehicles in the area
so that others could see the animals without impeding their progress.
It was interesting that the animals all seemed to use the
roads to move about. The first elephants we
saw were in the bush, but the next
day we met up with them on the road. This guy was really giving us the once
over. He was about five feet from me. (Seemed closer at the time.) Click
on the photo to the left for a movie clip! (Use “QuickTime” Player to view.)
For a video of a different kind of “elephant” we saw in Madrid, click HERE.
Number four on our list was the buffalo. They were a little shy and we had to get off the road to get close. They don't seem that menacing as individuals but in protecting the herd they must be pretty tough adversaries.
We struck out on number five, the leopard. Another couple
staying at Gwalagwala sighted one on a drive the same morning but we weren't so
lucky. The leopard is the most difficult to find.
Since our first drive was in the late afternoon, we had an
opportunity to take a break to observe the sunset, a tradition
they call the
“sundowner”. Naturally this occasion must be accompanied by an appropriate
beverage, so
Tascha, our ranger was prepared.
Our stopping place was adjacent to an old termite mound, one
of the hundreds
we passed on our drive. These are grass-eating termites and they have a
symbiotic relationship with
the trees. More often than not we would see a
sizeable tree growing up next to the termite mound. The termites carry grass
and other organic matter down into their nest, which provides nutrition for the
tree roots. The tree in return pulls moisture up from deeper levels which
benefits the termites.
After our “Sundowner” we continued driving in the dark, with
the assist of a spotlight. 
Lawrence would sweep the light through the trees,
looking for reflections from a leopard’s eyes. No luck.
We returned to camp for cocktails followed by a wonderful meal. It had cooled down nicely so we headed back to the tent. We found the bed turned down with flowers and candy on the pillows.
Pam made some comments about Paradise and we dropped off to
sleep with the sounds of the river and hyenas in the background. A couple of
hours later we were brought out of a sound sleep by a cacophony of noises. We
didn't know if it was birds or animals, but Pam insisted I go out on the deck to
see what was about to attack us. After more discussion I reluctantly complied,
after Pam’s reassurances that she would get a search party organized if I was
carried off. Since I managed to write this I clearly survived. The noise
continued off and on all night. We later learned that most of the noise was
from birds, but also from monkeys, baboons, hyenas, and bushbabys.
We were up before five a.m. the next day for an early morning game drive, in hopes of seeing the elusive leopard.
We were picked up by our ranger, Tascha and his tracker
Lawrence. I s
uppose we drove over some of the same areas as we had the previous
day, but it all looked new to me. We saw many of the same animals, but in
larger numbers. The impalas were the most timid of all, probably because they
are pretty high up on the menu of the predators. We did spot a few.
We met another couple of male lions that we hadn’t seen
before, and then found the elephant herd. This time there was a big old male
with them. Tascha told us he is about 45 years old, which is not particularly
old as elephants go. He is clearly larger than the others in the herd. The
young elephants were playful and pretty well ignored us. I noticed that Tascha
was quite wary of the big
male, and backed the Land Rover toward the herd. We
assumed this was so we could make a rapid departure if
necessary.
We realized he was exercising the same care when we located a
big male Rhino. There seemed to be an invisible line we couldn’t cross with
most of the animals. As long as we stayed outside this limit, were quiet,
didn’t stand up or try to get out of the vehicle, they pretty well ignored us.
We got a little too close to the male rhino. Tascha told us to watch him as he
defined his area and showed us what he would do to us… He stomped around, shook
his head, then turned
away from us
and urinated.
That’s an understatement. It was as if he had a fire hose! We got the message.
Within three hours or so we realized we weren’t going to see
a leopard, so we headed back to camp. It was time for breakfast! We climbed up
to the tree house where our hosts, Lyn and Peter were laying out a substantial
spread. 
We decided to follow the example of the lions and have a nap
during the heat of the day, maybe read a little, in anticipation of the
late afternoon
game drive. Later, we decided to follow the example of the hippos and take a
dip in the pool. There was
probably some other resemblance, so no photos of us
in the pool are included.
At about 4 PM we loaded up in the Gwalagwala Land Rover for
an afternoon view of the animals on the Gwalagwala reserve. There are no
predators in this area (other than hyenas) so we were treated to more close-up
views of impala, warthogs, zebra and
giraffes. Here we were able to get out of
the vehicle and walk up a bit closer.
After another “sundowner”, we drove some more with spotlights, attempting to see “the brights of their eyes”. Not much luck. I think most of the animals were off in the brush settling down for the night.
We returned to camp for our last evening meal, one of the
highlights of the day. We collected in the boma for more wonderful food. Two
of the special dishes were
Bobotie, a
traditional ground meat, rice and curry dish and
Paprika Pork.
These were both so good we prevailed on Lyn to give us the recipes. We’re
sharing them with you here – just click on the names to link to the recipe
pages.
The next morning we were ready for a bit of a “lie in” and a leisurely morning until time to go to the airport to continue our trip. We left for Hoedspruit mid-morning to catch the daily flight to Johannesburg. We were a little early (actually the plane was a little late), so we had time to relax in the outdoor waiting room. This also gave Pam a chance to pick up a few more postcards.
A quick stop
in Johannesburg, then on to Cape Town. We were met at the airport by a
representative of the travel agency and whisked to our hotel, the
Park Inn at Greenmarket
Square. We found there is a daily market in the square, strictly craft
items. We spent a few minutes each day wandering through the booths, looking
for that “perfect” souvenir. We had a tour of the
area scheduled for the next
morning, but the rest of the day was free. We wandered around the hotel area
for awhile, and then caught the shuttle to
Victoria & Alfred Waterfront
with Meg and Pete. Had a nice dinner on the wharf, wandered around a bit, and
returned to the hotel.
The next morning we were collected by our tour guide and
headed to Table Mountain. This is one of the “E Ticket” destinations in Cape
Town, as it is the predominant feature of the area. There is a cable car to the
top, but it doesn’t run if the visibility if poor because of fog or it is
windy. These are both routine conditions, which had existed for the previous
few days. Anyway, we were there on a Sunday, and every tour company in town
seemed to send full tour busses there ahead of us. Undaunted, we got in the
ticket line, and they stopped selling tickets for the day just before we worked
our way up to the window. Oh well, next trip……
We drove to the Malay District, an area of very colorful
houses and a mostly Muslim population. I’ll digress a bit here to
mention there
are four distinct population groups in South Africa – Whites, Blacks, Colored,
and Indian. The colored originated as a mixing of the early Dutch settlers and
their Asian (hence Malay) slaves. With the end of apartheid there is no longer
legislated segregation, but the country isn’t really very integrated yet.
Our guide had an acquaintance in the area, Tante Maria, so we stopped at her house to buy some Koeksisters, a donut-like pastry. Very good.
On to the Castle o
f Good Hope, which is the oldest surviving
colonial building in South Africa. It was constructed in 1679 and was the
seat of
government for both the Dutch and British Governments. It contains a couple of
museums, including the
Democracy X
Museum.
Tuesday we were set up for another tour, to the Cape Point
and Cape of Good Hope area. There were just six of us, Pam
and Me, Meg and
Pete, and a couple from Norway who didn’t speak much English. I hope they
enjoyed the scenery.
A favorite
local trip is a boat ride in Hout Bay to visit the seals on Duiker Island. It
was a nice day and a nice ride. Great scenery. I kept hoping a sh
ark would
drop by for lunch while we were watching the seals, but no luck. The seals were
cute little guys.
We had a nice welcome back to the pier at the end of the boat
ride. Entertainment plus an opportunity to
buy another of
the one-of-a kind souvenirs. We didn’t disappoint them – bought a carved
ostrich egg.
Continuing down the coast past Hout Bay to Chapman’s Point we
were treated to some magnificent views and an impressive example of highway
construction. They carved the road out of the cliff! It is sort of a “half
tunnel”. This whole area at the south tip of the cape is a nature preserve. At
first glance you wonder w
hy they bothered. It is all scrub bush and salt
grass. It doesn’t look like it could be used for much anyway.
We continued south to the very tip, to Cape Point, which is the site of the Cape Point Lighthouse. While this is an impressive location, it apparently wasn’t a good site for a lighthouse, as it is frequently obscured by fog (as it was for us). It was fun to ride the funicular up to the top and look down through the fog though.
We backtracked to the actual Cape of Good Hope, which is just
to the west of the Cape Point Lighthouse. On the way there we saw a troop of
baboons being herded away from the tourists by a couple of rangers. Also saw a
few wild ostrich.
We rounded out our tour with lunch and a visit to a penguinrookery.
We hadn’t thought about penguins living in such a warm area, but they
are thriving. We learned they were endangered but a few years ago a couple of
pairs showed up on the beach to breed so the government
fenced off the area to
protect them.
Now there are more than 4,000 penguins in the area.
Back in Cape Town, we had one more tour, and this turned out to be the most interesting of all.
In Cape Town, we had driven past a large area called District Six. When we visited the District Six Museum, we learned more about the “removals” during the apartheid. Click on the link to learn more about this area and the museum. We then drove to one of the townships, the Langa area. This township has 250,000 residents, but only 20 policemen and 10 doctors. We were about to see how much of the black population lives.
First, a little background. During apartheid, everyone carried an internal passport, which identified their racial group. The blacks were the most restricted. Many black laborers came to the cities to work, but they were not allowed to bring their families. Instead, the men lived in “hostels” and would be allowed to return to their villages to visit their families only infrequently. When apartheid ended, many of the families moved to the cities to be with their men. This put a terrific strain on the housing situation, as the families moved into the hostels.
The current situation in the townships appears to be division
into four levels of housing. (There may be some inaccuracies in my description,
but this is what we saw.) The hostel buildings are two storey concrete block
structures divided into apartments. Each apartment has a common room with a
couple of concrete picnic-type tables, and basic kitchen equipment. There are
three or four bedrooms, a bathroom and a shower room. The
building we visited
looked as if it had not been painted since it was constructed.
Each of the bedrooms had two or three beds. The residents rented the bed (for about $20 per month) and an entire family slept in the bed. Therefore, each bedroom could have three families sharing the space.
I
n the pictures above (click on the picture for an expanded
view) you can see some buildings are freshly painted. These are the next level
of housing. The buildings are the same, but they have been painted (and
probably renovated somewhat) and are occupied by more affluent residents. In
these buildings there is generally only one family to a room. The three
families still share the common area.
In the same area, just across the street, was a section of individual houses. Some of these were quite nice looking, had cars in the driveway, lawns, and security bars. These are apparently occupied by people with jobs, who have been able to purchase their dwelling. We were told there is some friction between these residents and the others in the area, most likely the result of envy.
If you look carefully at the back of the picture to the right,
you will see the fourth level of housing in the township. These
shanties are
constructed by the residents. I’m not entirely sure how they happen to be
living here instead of in one of the other levels of housing available. We
heard stories of one problem the government has. There is a waiting list for
the “apartment” dwellings. Apparently some people get selected to live in one
of the permanent buildings, then sell their place to someone else and return to
the shanty dwellings. For some it is a matter of preference. I think that
would be the case for me.
We have seen slums in Mexico that resemble these areas. A big difference is that in South Africa some of the streets are paved and there is electricity provided. There is a central water supply and concrete “port-a-potty” type toilets. The picture above right is a central water supply with hand laundry facilities. The man and girl in the picture were two Swiss tourists in our group. The expressions on their faces tells a lot. I think it was more of an eye-opener for them than for us, with our experiences in Mexico. (As a side note, this tour group had about 15 people, all Europeans except us. We were the only ones to tip the tour guide. Cheap Europeans!)
We had an opportunity to visit a school in the area. Much
like our experience in China, the children were excited at our visit and ran up
to grab our hands. We were treated to some
songs and dances by these very cute
little kids. Unlike our experience in China, this was not a government school.
It is completely supported by tourism and the donations from foreign visitors.
(Again, we were the only ones to leave a donation. Cheap Europeans!)
We then went to another area, Khayelitsha Township. This is a larger
township and the area we visited was all shanties, mostly
made from
corrugated iron. However, it had paved streets, electricity and running water.
We visited an interesting example of entrepreneur spirit,
Vicky’s Bed and Breakfast.
She has her own web site, which gives an interesting view of what a person can
do to get ahead in life.
Although her house is surrounded by “shacks”, it is
clean and well maintained. I would not hesitate to stay with her. In fact, it
would be an
interesting and rewarding cultural experience.
We also visited one of her neighbors, Beauty, who runs a sewing school. Beauty has about a dozen sewing machines that have been contributed to her school and she is teaching the women of the neighborhood a trade, so that they can find better employment. T
hat just about wrapped up our visit to South Africa. We flew back to Johannesburg and caught our flight to Atlanta. Cape Town to Atlanta – 22 hours. One more cultural experience. One of the movies offered on the flight was Yesterday, which was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film. The leading lady, LELETI KHUMALO, was on our plane, on her way to Hollywood for the Oscar ceremonies. (She was at the opposite end of the aircraft from us.)
Another great trip!
