Well we successfully survived driving to and from Hazyview from Joburg, and we have been in Cape Town for several days. Driving on the other side of the road, as well as African driving norms, have proven to be interesting. Shaun did all the driving, and I was perfectly fine with this, other than the fact that at every seen photo radar on the side of the road, we got a jolt from Shaun breaking hard. There is a ton of photo radar in South Africa, as their death toll due to motor vehicle accidents is astronomical. I heard on the radio that their death toll since December 1 of this year has been 1029 and rising. The government has been making a conscious effort to increase traffic control, and decrease casualties. But having said that, driving here remains interesting. The shoulder acts as a second lane on both sides, allowing cars to pass using the actual lane. There are also loads on trucks that are far larger than would be allowed, and you still see people riding in backs of trucks, more people in the cabs of cars than there would be seat belts, and children and babies wrapped in a towel (similar to a baby bjorn), attached to their mothers, rather than in a car seat. Maybe that’s something they should look at rather than just speed of cars.
Hazyview was a quaint little town, just outside of Kruger National Park. On the day we arrived, we checked into our hotel, and then headed to another traditional African dinner. There was also amazing African singing and dancing, traditional to the Shangen, Zulu and Swazi people. I am pretty sure every black person in Africa has the natural talent to sing and dance. Their voices are beautiful, and they are crazy dancers, often making instrumental music to accompany their voices, as they have shakers and shells attached to their ankles and wrists. We had more kudu and game meats with dinner, and settled into bed pretty early. Since we have been on Safari, we have been going to be no later than 11 and often waking up around 6. As amazing as safari was, we are all exhausted from the long days and minimal sleep, and it’s catching up with us now. Another thing is that although our Malaria pills have had minimal side effects for all of us, we are all having crazy and bizarre dreams, often so realistically strange that they are waking us up throughout the night.
In Hazyview, we saw some of the highlights of the region, including God’s Window (although it was foggy and ended up seeing nothing haha), Lisbon falls, and the Blyde River Canyon. The canyon is the 3rd largest in the world, falling behind the Grand Canyon in the US, and Fish Canyon in Namibia. It was beautiful, and we were told some of the histories of the canyon, told through oral history of the tribes in the area. It is said to be that the canyon and it’s peaks represent a tribal chief and his 3 wives. The chief’s name was Maholoholo, and his first wife name was Maserota and she was the most respected, representing Mother Nature. The second wife’s name was Mugalabowa, which means “the drunken monster” (haha) which represents the violent weather and catastrophe that has come to the area over the years and the third wife’s name was Magodikwa, who was the hard worker, maintaining order and keeping the area clean. Or at least that’s what I understood through our tour guide’s accent.
Later that day, we had the opportunity to play, interact and ride some orphaned elephants. The elephants have 400,000 hectares of space to roam and play in, and the organization is no longer trying to re-introduce elephants into the wild, as these elephants are too used to humans, but their aim is to educate people on the beautiful species of the African elephant. They do not use any physical violence or force to tame the elephants, just use food rewards. The elephants are incredibly smart, and able to follow more than 100 commands, including lying down, spinning, shake a paw, and talking. Some fun facts that we learned while we were there include:
1) The height of an elephant is twice the circumference of their front foot. Don’t believe me? We tried it. Total truth!
2) They can pick up 1.5 tons of stuff with their trunk, and their trunk has more than 5000 muscles in it.
3) Elephants are either left or right handed, just like humans. It is actually right of left tusked and you can tell by which tusk is shorter. The shorter tusks determines which side they dominate.
4) Female elephants don’t ever say no sex, and they are then pregnant for 22 months. They often produce 10-20 babies in their lifetime. So they’re either having sex or a baby for most of their lives. Crazy elephants.
5) Elephants can drink 23-25L of water in a single sip.
6) Elephants can smell 14x better than dogs, and they are used in Africa to track drugs, and landmines. They can smell in water, and can track up to 2000 hectares per day, which gives them a distinct advantage over dogs. It sounds pretty cool with the way they use elephants to find landmines. The elephants will give a signal when they know that a landmine is in the area, and then will get out of the area, and they will send mice in to find exact location, and they will drop a rock or pebble on the landmine, but the mouse isn’t heavy enough to set off the landmine. They will then send in a machine to detonate and remove the landmine. Pretty awesome if you ask me.
7) And elephants have belly buttons.
There is a huge promotion for AIDS awareness throughout Africa, which is great, and apparently been affective in decreasing the prevalence of AIDS in the region. You see billboards on the sides of highways saying “wear one” with a picture of a condom, and throughout national parks, pubs, bars, hotels and restaurants, there are free condoms. But our elephant guide reports that the education is still much needed, and only recently have families and people talked about AIDS. Many people have died from AIDS but their families and friends say that it was a heart, stomach or head problem that they died from. There are people that feel that garlic, onions and beet root will cure aids, or just have a shower after sex, and you won’t get AIDs. Taking care of yourself and a healthy diet is beneficial in many ways, but I’m glad people are getting more educated and talking about it.
One of the things that seems much more prevalent in South Africa and in other parts of Africa (after talking to others who have been on safari around Africa), in comparison to Botswana is the prevalence of poachers in parks. Rhino’s and elephants are still drastically poached for their horns and tusks and sold on the black market. In Botswana if a poacher is seen by a park ranger, he has the ability to shoot him dead, with no questions asked. There also isn’t cell reception in parks, where there has been cell reception throughout South Africa. People aren’t also allowed to carry guns in Botswana, where in SA, they are. But it’s awful, and there are many beautiful animals killed for only a small part of their bodies. It would be like a human being killed for their finger nails. It’s so wrong, and I feel these people should be castrated. It’s so wrong.
The following day, we hung out at the pool for a little R&R for an hour, before heading back to Joburg to catch our flight to Cape Town. We got in late, and headed to bed, to only be picked up at 7:45 for an early morning city tour of Cape Town. We headed to Table Mountain first thing, but for the past 3 days, Cape Town has been experiencing crazy crazy winds. Winds have been noted between 100-110km/hour. I’m not sure if I’ve experienced winds like that. Having said that, Table Mountain was not in operation. We drove around different quarters, learning more about the British and Dutch colonization, and the racial segregation that occurred. We drove through district 6, which was one of the apartheid governments first districts for black and coloured people as they were kicked out of downtown, and it ended up being a big joke on the government, as it proved that people can live in harmony, regardless of the colour of their skin.
After the tour, we spent the afternoon in the waterfront, looking for a place for NYE dinner, to see around, and to catch a bite to eat for lunch. We ended up booking dinner at a Thai restaurant, which turned out to be the most overpriced and undervalued New Years’ experience of all time. But we were all together, so that’s what counts (although it definitely confirms my dislike for NYE, as it’s overpriced and blown out of proportion). At midnight, there was fireworks, bands and DJs playing throughout the waterfront, but it was so windy that the fireworks were flying sideways, and we were so cold and tired that we just decided to head back to the hotel. New Years day was spent in good fashion, relaxing in the sun and wind, reading our books and hanging out. We met an Australian couple, and we ended up going for dinner with them in Camps Bay. There was a bush fire in the hills of Camps Bay and the winds didn’t help. There were helicopters water bombing the area, and it was quite hectic. But we had an awesome dinner as the sun set in Camps Bay.
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| Cape Town |
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| Goofing off in the last hours of 2012! |
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| Dinner in Camps Bay with our new friends! |
Today we headed did a Cape Tour, driving south along the coastlines out to the Cape of Good Hope (the most southwestern point of the African continent) and Cape Point. We then headed to Boulder’s beach to see the African penguins and finally stopped in Simon’s Town for a late lunch, before heading back home. The Cape was AMAZINGLY beautiful, with white sandy beaches, a rocky cliffs. The water was crystal blue, and awesome. Along the cape, there is lots of great white sharks, and there are flags indicating the safety of the water. There are spotters on the cliffs that look for sharks all day, and radio down to the beaches in case anything is spotted. A green flag means it’s safe to swim, and no sharks are spotted in the area. A black flag states that the visibility is too poor to spot anything, and people are to swim at their own risk. A red flag states that there are sharks in the area, but the sharks don’t seem motivated to attack. A white flag states that there are sharks in the area, and seem motivated to attack. The spotters can tell whether or not they are motivated based on the way they swim and the way they behave. We saw mostly green and black flags today, but I think I’m staying clear regardless.
We are heading out wine touring tomorrow, before we head to Hermanus for 3 days of relaxing. 2013 is starting off wonderfully for us, and we wish you all a very happy happy new year back home!! All the best and love you lots! We will be home in less than a week!
