Day One: Durban
We arrived in Durban (South Africa's third largest city, on the Indian Ocean) just in time to catch the last day of the Mr. Price Pro surf competition. If I recall correctly, it is the second oldest surf competition in the world and the largest in Africa. It was awesome! We got to see two semi-final heats and the finals. I had never watched professional surfing before, but they really make it look easy and really fun.
That afternoon we attempted to walk to the Indian Market, but were stopped along the way by some people who told us that we would "definitely get mugged" if we tried to walk there. Apparently downtown Cape Town and downtown Durban are two very different worlds. Downtown Cape Town is one of the safest places in the city, whereas downtown Durban is prime mugging territory. I wish we had known this when we booked our backpackers (Banana Backpackers), which we chose based on its "convenient downtown location". Warning: do not stay at this backpackers. Instead of going to the market we took a long nap and had a leisurely dinner with Jon David, who was also in town visiting some of his UCT friends.
Day Two: Durban
Day two was certainly one of the best on our trip. We got up early, bought some beach towels and breakfast, and headed to the beach. Em and Niv went surfing while Allie and I napped on the sand. In between dozing I managed to see Em and Niv catch a few waves. Now I understand just how easy the professionals had made it look...
In the afternoon we met up with a future Rotary Scholar who lives in Durban, Smangele. Sma is going to be studying in Seattle in the fall, and found out about me through this very blog. She showed us some true Rotary hospitality and brought us to her township, KwaMashu, for the afternoon and evening. One of her neighbors is a member of the Nazareth Baptist Church, which is a religious group of nearly a million members (most of whom are Zulu) and mixes Christianity and traditional African beliefs. Every year the devotees of this church gather on a hillside near KwaMashu for the month of July. Sma and her neighbor brought us to their hillside, and we managed to catch the very end of a ceremony which involved the virgin girls in the church performing a dance and being blessed. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We walked through the main road in the settlement, meeting people and checking out the goods that were for sale.
It was obvious that not too many white people ever venture into this area. We were nervous about taking pictures, but soon discovered that people were sneakily taking pictures of us on their cell phones. We had a good laugh when I caught a few of the women in action, and took a picture of them taking a picture of us.
After, Smangele brought us to her home, where her daughter and family members had cooked us a delicious braai. Smangele showed us pictures from her time in the Middle East, where she had been a teacher, and we shared some advice on living in America and being a Rotary Scholar. Sma was a wonderful hostess, and showed us a side of South Africa that we all had yet to experience. Thanks so much!!!
That evening we joined up with our 5th travel partner, Lisa, a Joburg Rotary Scholar, who had spent the past few days with yet another outbound Scholar, Kate, who is on her way to San Diego (what a network!). We had dinner at the Durban waterfront (like a mini V&A - the Cape Town waterfront) and then retired early back to the infamous Banana Backpackers.
Day Three: On the road to St. Lucia
We started off our day running errands and finally making it down to the Indian Market (which, after having been to the bazaar in Istanbul, was rather unimpressive). Knowing that our rental car for the next 10 days would not have a connection for our iPods, we all chipped in and brought some CDs for the road. This would turn out to be one of the most important decisions of the trip. We listened to these CDs for the next 10 days straight. I just did some rough calculations, and we spent about 50 hours in the car during those ten days. So, I know all of the lyrics to the songs in the following albums: Amy Winehouse, "Back to Black"; Maroon 5,"It Won't be Soon Before Long"; and "Uno" a 3-disc compilation album of the greatest hits of the past 3 decades.
We picked up our rental car (soon to become known as Charlize the Chartreuse Caboose) at 11 and were on the road for St. Lucia by noon. St. Lucia is a small beachfront vacation town on the Indian Ocean about 4 hours north of Durban. It is home to a national park (the 3rd largest in South Africa), which lies at the confluence of 5 different ecosystems (coral reef, dunes, swamps, lakes, and savannah). We stayed at a fantastic backpackers there, and managed to see a hippo grazing in the park across the street during our dinner. In the evening we went on a game drive into the park, where we saw zebra, hippos, all sorts of buck, and a chameleon.
Day Four: St. Lucia
Day four was rather eventful. In the very early morning we went on a wetland kayaking tour. Niv stayed behind due to a cold, so Allie, Lisa, Em and I got put into two-person kayaks with some nice South African guys (they split us up so we would all paddle at the same speed). My partner was Mark, a young guy studying at Stellenbosch. Also not the smartest cookie in the world, as revealed in the rest of this story. We paddled up to a pod of hippos (but kept a wide margin, because hippos are one of the most vicious and territorial animals out there) and saw a crocodile sunbathing on the shore. As time went by, I noticed that Mark and I were struggling to keep up with the rest of the group. When I turned around to comment on my increasing exhaustion, I noticed that Mark and his entire end of the kayak was submerged in murky swamp water. Fantastic. Thanks for sharing, Mark. We were sinking, and we were about 30 feet away from the rest of the group, which was stopped up ahead looking at something on the shore. We finally caught up, announced our problem to our guide, looked up, and noticed what everyone else had been looking at. We were about 10 feet away from a sleeping crock. And sinking. Our guide pulled us up on to the shore (now about 30 feet from the crocodile) and discovered that our kayak was missing a certain plug that kept the water from leaking into the air-filled cavity used to keep paddlers afloat. While I stood guard, ankle deep in water and armed with a paddle, Mark and the guide emptied out the kayak. We plugged up the hole with a piece of plastic and were happily back on our way. Other than this minor snafu, we all had a really, really nice time kayaking!
That afternoon we dozed in the sun and went on a short walk. In the evening, despite a power outage in the entire town, we enjoyed the free dinner at the backpackers and the Zulu singers who came and performed.
Day Five: One the Road to Maputo
We hit the road very early and were crossing the border into Swaziland, en route to Mozambique, before noon. Our intended route through eastern Swaziland should have only taken just over an hour. Instead, plagued by the incessant speed bumps which dominate the Swazi landscape (you think I'm kidding), cows, school children, and a wrong turn down a very long unpaved road, three hours later we were at the second border crossing. (On the bright side, we got to see a lot more of Swaziland than we otherwise would have.) The Mozambican authorities were very friendly, and only tried to rip us off two or three times. After a long day of driving, we reached Maputo just in time for rush hour traffic. Maputo is a bustling city (and by "bustling" I mean dirty and crowded), which, despite its flaws is friendly and full of life. Under no circumstances, however, would I recommend driving through it. Thanks to Lisa's masterful driving, we reached our Maputo backpackers with Charlize unscathed. We enjoyed a delicious dinner on the water and then quickly passed out back at the backpackers.
Day Six: On the (Very Potholed) Road to Tofo
With Amy Winehouse blasting on the CD player we left Lisa behind in Maputo (with some old friends) for our three day adventure to Tofo. I was behind the wheel for the first leg of the journey, which we had been warned would be a bit arduous. About 2 hours in to the 8 hour drive something momentous occurred: I received the very first blemish on my immaculate driving record by getting my very first speeding ticket!!! I was going 94 in an 80 (but that's kph, not mph, people!). 1000 metacais later, we were back on our way. We broke for gas and a snack in the largish city of Xai-Xai and then continued on to Inhambane.
The road deteriorated immediately after leaving Xai-Xai. There were potholes everywhere. It was like a minefield (and knowing a bit about Mozambique's history, it very well could have been). The easiest way to avoid these potholes was to drive directly down the middle of the road as slowly as possible and swerve in either direction when necessary. After two hours on this road (in our tiny little Charlize, nonetheless) I am now officially a master driver. If you can drive there you can drive anywhere. I eventually turned the wheel over to Niv, and as if by an act of God, the road became freshly-paved and pothole (but not goat or chicken) free. 4 hours after leaving Xai-Xai we were in Inhambane! Inhambane is a beautiful seaside town right next door to the tiny beachfront community that was our final destination: Tofo. Niv took us down the homestretch into Tofo, at one point sending us airborne over a poorly marked speed bump. Finally, we had arrived. We checked into our chalet on the beach and strolled over to the neighboring bar. We had delicious pizzas and reveled the beauty of one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.
Day Seven: Tofo
We had all hoped to snorkel on one of Tofo's famous reefs, but our only full day in Tofo was a bit too windy to go out to sea. Instead, we settled for a very lazy day reading on the beach. This pretty much sums up our entire day. It was fantastic!
Day Eight: The Road Back to Maputo
Day eight was pretty much just the reverse of day six. We left Tofo after breakfast, but got stuck in the sand on our way out. After digging ourselves out we realized that our front tires were terribly bald (probably the handiwork of that unpaved Swazi road) needed to be rotated. We stopped to do this in Inhambane. Using hand motions, grunting and Emily's rudimentary Spanishy Portuguese, we managed to convey our needs to our Mozambican auto-mechanics. A half hour and 200 mt ($8 or R55), we were rotated and as good as new.
We stopped again just up the road at the market and bought some of the most delicious bread ever baked, the most delicious pineapple ever grown, a few pieces of sugar cane and fabric.
We then trekked down the dangerous road back to Xai-Xai, pausing there only to refuel (and exhale). We were in Maputo by late evening, just in time to enjoy a fantastic Indian dinner with Lisa and her friend Kristian and fall into bed.
Day Nine: Onward to Kruger
We left Maputo after a quick breakfast, heading back into South Africa and Kruger National Park. The border crossing from Mozambique to South Africa took us forever on the Mozambican side, but after 2 hours, we made it! We stopped in the sleepy Afrikaner town of Nelspruit to grocery shop and have lunch at Nando's (Emily's favorite! If only they made Mozambican food that good in Mozambique...). Driving on towards Kruger, we realized that there was no way we would make it into our rest-camp by gate closing time, 5:30. Fortunately, we were able to change our camp reservations when we reached the gate into the park, to a camp much closer, and made it through the camp gates at approximately 5:25. On our journey from the park gates to the camp gates we even saw some elephants and zebra!
For my non-South African readers, Kruger National Park is the largest of the South African national parks, and is absolutely enormous (bigger than Israel!) and full of game. Visitors can stay over night in one of more than a dozen different rest camps inside the park. The park offers game drives in safari vehicles, but you can see just about everything from your own car, too.
We spent our first night in Kruger in Lethaba rest camp, which is close the middle of the park. We grilled ourselves some chicken for dinner and gazed at the stars until our early bedtime.
Day Ten: Kruger
We awoke at 4:45 for our 5:15 game drive (that's am, people). Highlights of the drive included a family of giraffe and a rare black backed jackal. We also thought we saw lions at least two or three times, but it turned out it was only lion-shaped dung or rocks. I also must note that the drive was absolutely freezing cold. Niv is still warming up.
We spent the rest of the morning and afternoon driving north to our second rest camp, Shingwedzi. Being in Kruger is all about driving around and looking for game. After dodging cows, goats and people in Swaziland and Mozambique, we were experts already! We spent quite a while hanging out about 20 feet from a grazing elephant, spotted quite a few giraffe and zebra, as well as all sorts of impala, waterbuck, and bushbuck. Lisa, our bird expert, also pointed out quite a few rare and beautiful species.
Our second night in Kruger was spent much the same as the first, grilling sausages, drinking wine, cooking marshmallows and singing some of our favorite tunes.
Day Eleven: All Roads Lead to Johannesburg
We spent our morning cruising for lion and leopard, but left the park having seen no big cats. We did see a herd of zebra cross the road right behind our car, though! It was absolutely amazing.
We left Kruger at 11 and drove straight to Johannesburg with only a quick lunch break. We had a fantastic dinner at one of Lisa's favorite restaurants in Melville and then a really great time at a bar next door. We met up with some old friends and made some new ones. Plus, the bar played at least four of our favorite songs from our car CDs.
Day Twelve: The End
We finished our vacation with a bang, spending the morning at the largest exhibit of contemporary African art in the world, and the afternoon at the apartheid museum. Both were fantastic and highly recommendable. We drove on to the airport, returned Charlize, and flew back to rainy old Cape Town...
Congratulations! You have made it to the end of this miserably long post!
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