Friday3

I woke up at 6.30 and didn’t bother getting up as I thought horse riding was at 9.30, but at 8 Kate comes in saying it’s time to go, they’d forgotten to tell us it had been moved earlier so that we could ride along the beach before high tide. The ride was good fun, and trotting came back quite naturally and still haven’t quite got galloping, but I could play with the Contessa, the horse, as she would only move if it had another horse for company. Audrey, one of the Norwegian girls, Marie being the other, fell off, well she tried jumping off when the horse misbehaved slightly, which was a bit of a scare but she was okay. The Baz Bus to Umtata was about 2.5hours late.On the leg from Umtata to coffee bay the driver looked like a homeless guy, and a few of us thought he was begging at first, to clarify he looked like an English homeless guy, with a misfitting suit jacket, and sounded like he was high. When we got to Coffee Bay we were given a free, but Iain and I rushed off as we’d signed up for a Xhosa meal, this was at a local headman’s place, and he was late to the meal, as he’d been bitten by a dog, and it wasn’t known if the dog had rabies. The food was fantastic as we had a really good bean mix, with lots of different textures and a nutty sort of flavour. Then we had wild spinach with maize, which was also very good. Later we joined in the traditional ‘shuffly’ dance, but keeping more of a European personal space between us, the drumming was quite enchanting. We introduced them to the Hokey Kokey, Knees and Toes, and a funny chicken dance. It was quite nice as it felt like a two way cultural exchange, although it was odd as they asked us for some of our traditional songs or dances, and apart from Morris dances and dancing around a maypole I can’t think of any, or maybe I should count religious songs.

Thursday(A warm fire)

Thursday
It was too windy to go surfing, the wind was knocking the peaks of the waves down, so went for a bike ride. It was even more windy later on and had an incredibly strong cross wind, and was quite concerned working back at the end about being blown into traffic. They have funny little sandy colour birds running across the beach. The ride was okay but wouldn’t really recommend it to anyone whose ever their. The nice thing about the hostel was it put on a free activity every evening, including 10 litres of plonk, tonight’s was volleyball, and doing a few outdoor climbs on a climbing movie. I saw the tail of a huge yellow and black lizard which was exciting
In the evening I cooked for myself as the food the night before had been a bit disappointing, and chatted to Stephanie, a French Chef and whose father was from the Ivory Coast, and was now working in Birmingham and found the English a lot less narrow minded than the French, but hated the bland English food, later on it was a bit cold, and sat on large bean bags around a fire, which reminded me of home.

Weds(A superb day trip into the Transkei)

It was a fantastic day- lots of great scenery, activities and most of all fun. The day started with us all climbing into a large nine person Landrover and headed off for a day trip into the Transkei region, wind blasting into the back of the car, causing us all to blink quite a lot, but we soon started slowing down as the roads became dirt roads and the small bumps were accentuated into large jolts if we were going a little bit too fast for the road, we then took a tiny ferry across the Kei river, and I asked if I could swim across, but was told there are Buffalo(Zambezi) sharks which often swim upstream, The Zambezi apparently causes more shark attacks of the coast of Africa than the Great White. The next bit of the journey was off-road and at one stage I had to sit on the front of the bonnet to add extra weight to stop is slipping as much, it was on this terrain I started to understand the capabilities of off-road vehicles also later the path so steep two of us had to hang on to the side of the Landrover and lean out, to help make sure it didn’t topple over. It was really nice because we had opened up the roof, and 3 of us at a time could stand up taken in our surrounds, whilst keep care not to bruise our ribs against the sides of the roof opening.


We passed a place where a young girl**** made a fateful prediction causing the her people, the Xhosa, to slaughter their herd of cows resulting in 15,000 deaths, her ending is unrecorded but one was she was saved by some white settlers.




We also passed where she may have lived. We then went to see the Inkenkwai project, which I felt was a little bit of a disappointment, it may once have been better in the past but now had no money so lots of people had left. It had a pool which they hadn’t wanted but hadn’t wanted to offend their sponsors, and now the pump was broken anyway, and there were no plans to fix it. Why it was disappointing was as it felt a bit of a tourist trap, having a meagre shop with nothing that good, and them also asking for additional donations.




It was interesting seeing the traditional healers, differing from witch doctors in the fact they use no bones, and had a go at crushing maize with a stone slap, then saw some traditional dancing, and then had a go at joining in, dancing with sticks, which seemed to me possibly to do with fertility rites, especially as the guide said she couldn’t explain what they were singing.
This is probably wrong, but couldn’t really understand the guide: To become a healer had to die at the river and the relatives couldn’t weep otherwise they’d never come back, and then if they did they couldn’t wear shoes or take cars as had to keep their feet always on the ground, this reminded me of a Raleigh team building game about understanding different cultures, this involved the women looking like they were the rulers- wearing shoes, being fed first, but the premise was the ground was sacred and they were fed first in case the food was bad.
The witch doctor then crushed some unknown herb and mixed it into water, then we drank the froth, which was apparently good for the stomach, then the second healer sucked the rest off and looked a bit silly with foam all over her face.
After this we went to tribal land and paid 5R per person for a toll road, which was a dirt road, after some rock and roll we reached the great ‘cut’ through the rocks where the river flowed, having made itself a short cut in the distant past. We had been hoping to go through the cut by boat, but the boat had been stolen, so we drove around. There was a very pleasant waterfall which really pounded our heads, as it was a really heavy flow. Then we went and jumped from a 5 metre high water fall, which seemed quite a scary jump, and did a couple of times until the adrenaline rush decreased. Next we were told to come on, as we had to do the proper jump, this was 10 metres high and was quite scary to look at, but it was a necessary evil if you wanted to swim back, so 3-2-1 weeee. It was such good fun that I did it again, the two of us who did it swam back through the cut, and the river was lovely, although it did have lots of cold patches under the hot top level. Later we had a really steep uneven surface to climb in the landrover, so had two of us sitting on the bonnet, which was fine, apart from the numerous horseflies, a.k.a evil biting flies, which weren’t too hard to swat if you spotted them.




The penultimate part of the journey took us to see the Jacaranda wreck( which was possibly an insurance claim as it happened in the dark near one of only beaches on a very rocky coast). It was quite amazing the amount the sea came in by, and how suddenly deep it became. I built a 50 cm high sand castle which vanished under a wave. Loads of local kids came to play on the beach while we were there, all stark naked. After lunch they came and asked for the left over bread and accompaniments, this time wearing some clothes.


The photograph mad Québecan woman(5 rolls that day!) tried to evenly distribute the food by getting them to line up, but it soon descended into a free for all.


Last stop was Hunters Bay were we had a sundowner, basically an evening drink while the sun goes down, watching the crashing waves. In the eve we had roast chicken and was joined by Elizabeth and Helen from Vienna. Later chatted to Ralf, Cool and Marlane and laughed about the mad foaming lady and had to defend British food and drink.

Sunday(Jeffries Bay, Silly buses and more warm rain)

I felt a little rough in the morning, as we’d ended up sleeping over, and it would have been too far to walk back to the backpackers. I went surfing again, and loved it, and got to stand up a lot more, and also had a lighter board, so could turn more easily and catch waves, and Donna kindly gave us a lift back, and the hire was only 45R, bargain!. The other nice thing was being shown the best place to surf, so that we didn’t get carried out by rip tides, and warned not to even leave shoes on the beach as they might get stolen.
I got a lift to Shell Ultra City, the out of town petrol station, and the bus was 50 minutes late, I organised the backpackers to pick us up from Humansdorf, the closest stop to Jeffries Bay(J Bay), which turned out to be wrong as the bus now goes to J Bay, but it made me feel better that a body, Martin, who was coming to teach Sandboarding for his uncles company also got off there, he was going to be paid 80R a day to teach, and a person who did a lesson was going to be charged 250R for 2 hours.
The weather was quite lousy in J Bay and I wouldn’t recommend Jeffries Bay backpackers to anyone, I choose it as my first two choices were full, the problems with it were, loud music could be heard all night, it had a nasty damp smell in it, it wasn’t really near anything, and had a few beggars almost outside, which made me feel quite uncomfortable in the dark. The following day(Monday) was raining do decided to leave, plus also I could get a lift direct to Cinsta(Chinsta) with Ralf(a German who’d also stayed at Wilderness and worked in sales for Philips).
[Woman at reception at JBay BP reminded me of Kim]

The drive to Cinsta took a fair amount of the day, and relaxed in the afternoon, before going to have a great Indian meal(50R), and met two Irish lasses who were off next to Australia for at least a year, and were thinking of doing 3 months agricultural work, as you can then get a 2 year visa.

Saturday(Surf's up dood)

Saturday
Today I was having my first ever surf lesson, and was really looking forward to it, as body boarding had been so much fun. Donna, the teacher, said the important things to do were;
1 Protect your head from the board when you fell off, with one arm across you face, and one behind your head.
2. Keep space around you, as your board can be 14ft away, with the length of the board plus the safety rope
3. Keep your feet together.
4. Stay with your board if things go wrong and you’re swept out.
5. When standing up, it like a push up, but with you arms lover down, and then bending your knees and pushing upwards with your legs under your body.
It was a real buzz catching my first wave, even though I wasn’t standing up as standing wasn’t as easily as I thought it would be. It was great fun, and swallowed quite a lot of salt water, which was mainly due to having to think a lot, and wanting lots of oxygen, so had my mouth open too much, I found the best thing was when you’re about to be hit by a wave was to blow out though your nose, quite obvious, but with so many other things to concentrate on, I’m not so sure. It was exhausting having waves crashing over you and not knowing if you want to go for the wave, or wait until the next one, or even can you get over it before it crashes. The other thing you have to make sure of is when going though a wave, to have the board next to your body, so its buoyancy doesn’t kick in, and cause it to smack you in the face. The first time I stood up was a definite wow moment. And after trying surfing I have a huge appreciation of the skill that good surfers have, and also can’t wait to try it again.
In the evening at the brai ended up talking to South Africans from Cape Town, Stuart, Lex, Rob and Pete and ended up going with them to Robin’s house, Rob’s Uni Friend, which was a great eve with comedy dancing from Rob to a new Bloodhound gang song( I wish I’d taken a video clip!)

Friday(A chilled out day)

In the morning I started a ride to Addo Elephant park, but got very hot and thought I was going to run out time so turned back before getting there. In the afternoon I gave body boarding a go, which was ace. In the evening I talk to Mark( who worked at the backpackers) and a pair of Canadian with great personalities on whether SA government policy on black empowerment was working, one had worked at Ashanti Lodge. I went out afterwards to Flash Back a an evening drink, which had a very good buzz there, which may have been due to it being a choice destination for SA high school student who have just matriculated partying for a week

Thursday(and maybe Friday too)(Steaming along to Plett)

I did the Kingfisher walk, which had the excitement of walking through a field of very long grass which was a bit taller than me, and found my self imaging that I was the size a bug, and having a huge foot crashing down upon me, honey I shrunk the kids esque.

Later I saw the Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe Steam Train go past and looked forward to the ride I was planning to take on it later on Knysna.The rest of the walk was very pleasant, with unusual paving at one time, walking over pipes and at the end I was rewarded with a very nice swim in a waterfall.


Boarding the train involved having to understand the very strong Afrikaans accent of the conductor telling me I had to buy a ticket before boarding. The journey was great with the constant sounds of ‘clackety clack’, soot landing in my hair, the smokey smell, the sonorous sound of the whistle and lots of fun sights; huge steam releases from the engine, large numbers of birds flying away on the water, and from the fields as the train went past, crossing a lake with water on both sides. On the train I met an English couple from Cirencester who had booked all there accommodation before hand with Trailfinders and were paying 600R a night per person for accommodation, and they were starting to question whether it was good value.
The first backpackers I arrived at in Knysna was shut, so walked back down the hill to the Knysna Backpackers, which was quite pleasant, it had a huge garden, just off the dormitory.


I spoke to a really nice pair of medics from Amsterdam, who were trying to fight a parking ticket for parking their rear of their car in a slot as opposed to the bonnet. I also learnt my first bit of Dutch ‘Slav Lekker’ for good night, I tried to learn some more but other simple expressions seemed but more complicated
[The lady running it was having a dubious conversation with a window fitter from the UK]
I was vaguely planning to spend two nights here, but was offered a lift by a pair of BA staff(John and Claus) to Plettenburg, and had been planning maybe later to go to _Roberg NP__ but didn’t as I was relaxing in a incredibly comfy hammock, and then catching the tail end of a African dance in town.


I was staying at the __Plettenbug Backpackers___ which was really nice, with hammocks, a place you could barbeque your food every night, free body boards, and quite comfy beds, plus run by a really friend Dutch couple. I decided to take myself to __Roberg NP__ and so hired a bike and did the 18km return journey, which although not far, was along very steep hills and so very knackering, the walk was fun, seeing superb crashing waves, the layers of different rock strata, old cave dwellings, the hundreds of seals playing in the sea.


It was supposed to be a circular walk and had met a couple coming back the other way saying it was too overgrown and so turned back, so I took what I thought the path and it was overgrown, and had to crawl at times to avoid big spiky branches. It turn out to be the path to the light house, and so worked my way back down, and returned to the about half way along the path I started on. I went down the big sand dune to the other side to see if I could find the path on the other side, and ran into the Cirencester couple again, and found the path which ran just along the edge of the crashing sea, and was like scrambling over rocks than following a path.

Wednesday(Wilderness and a lot of rain)

Finally went on the Bazbus to Wilderness( an area with 250 different species of bird, surrounded by wetland and forest), the journey was a bit of a disappointment, no air con, movie, funny driver, plus we were late leaving, a bit different from the brochure. Before we got to the Hostel I was aiming for, the driver went too fast over a pot-hole and broke the axel on the trailer, so I decided it looked a good place to stay and it was lovely. Beach House Backpackers(beachhouse@mweb.co.za) a fantastic view over the sea from the balcony, with the kitchen behind a huge glass window/doors adjacent to the balcony, the place was slightly lacking in indoor toilets, and the path to the outdoor toilets could have done with a little more lighting. I spoke to some people about their experience of bungee jumping, and it seemed the first bit was good fun, but the subsequent bounces could be a bit unnerving and very jerky.
I went a did a walk which started along the railway towards George, and then went past a lovely beach, in a valley, then up to ‘map of Africa’ and saw a flash of an animal which I couldn’t figure out what it was, it looked like a large cat, but it was only a glimpse. The were quite a lot of interesting looking spider web’s, consisting of funnels made out of web on the ground, which were especially visible when it rained. And rain it did, it poured down, and I was utterly soaked to the skin, and towards the end tried to hold my t-shirt away from my skin, as it felt less chilling when the wind gusted. There was a lovely smell in the air when it rained, and can’t wait for technology to be able to build smell capture into cameras.

Tuesday(A funny creature)

My legs are still feeling a little sore from the running down a mountain, so going to give surfing a miss. I moved to a different hostel, one on Marsh St called Mossel Bay Backpackers(www.gardenrouteadventures.com) which has a pool, better security and I thought for a while a room to myself. I bought a hat for 15R, but managed to loose it on Thursday, but wasn’t too bad as quite sure if the logo gave the right impression.
I took a walk past the beach, and saw finally got to see people trying surging, and continued on a walk to Dai beach along the cliff, it was a lovely scenic walk, but turned back when the path turned to slush. I had a superb moment on the way back,
I saw a Dassie, and quickly snapped a photo of it, then a few steps later realised there were huge numbers of them, with their funny little faces. In the eve I went out to a restaurant called Jazzbury to try Mopane worms, the place was a huge disappointment, they didn’t have them, so had Bobottie, which wasn’t done well in my opinion, it stuck me as bland mince meat topped with an egg and an apricot, with cinnamon donought pieces and sweet potato, which smells to my mind of stewed apple. When I came back to the hostel chatted to Marta, a kitesurfing German, later on two Londoners turned up, one an ex-Streatham resident, now living in Earlsfield.

Monday(Mossel Bay)

My quads were quite store and it felt that I did very little apart from catching a bus to Mossel Bay, in the Guinness book of records for having the worlds second mildest climate, second only to Hawaii, and my first location on the Garden Route. I tried chicken biltong which was okay, but beef is definitely a lot better. When I arrived at Santos Express train lodge, it was quite exciting as it consisted of old train carriages, and was on the sea front. They were very disorganised, and I think that were had just started dealing with backpacker in addition to normal guests, and had no equipment in the kitchen, and when we managed to get hold of some pots they didn’t have handles, and they couldn’t understand why we didn’t have our own cutlery and crockery, there were no pillow covers and only one sheet, so I wouldn’t recommend the place. I did have a whole train compartment to myself, which was nice. The security worried me: sited right next to the beach, with a very old style lock on the door, and tiny padlocks on the normal room doors, and unlockable from the inside, plus I had to close all the windows myself (they were like the windows on a slam door train). When I’d registered they’d also made me sign a disclaimer that they weren’t responsible if my stuff got stolen, or if I was run over by a train. It was a great location though and the gentle sounds of surf could be heard. It turned out to be quite a nice night there as an Irish Couple, Francis and Eamon, had also just arrived and spend the evening in the very pleasant bar, with a musician doing covers of songs, talking about living about Australia and having doing a bob ride near one of the hot springs in New Zealand.

Sunday. I will survive

The weather was great, I sadly had run out of breakfast, so started off on an empty stomach, and packed my supplies for the day; 4 bananas, 1 apple and 2 litres of water.
I spoke to Daryl, someone who had done the ‘trail under construction’ from Twaalfuurkop(12 O’clock) to Tienuurkop(10 O’clock), the path up to Twaalfuurkop consisted of crumbly ground for some of the way, the view commanded from the top of the other side of the mountain was stunning, having sheer cliff faces, verdant greens and a sense so utter tranquillity, you could hear bees gently buzzing, 5 birds flew overhead sounded like a tornado jet fighter, it also felt quite special as it felt untouched by humanity. When it came to Tienuurkop I tried sticking to the top of the ridge, as there was no sign of any trail of any sort, so I didn’t go down into the wrong valley, but the bushes had started scratching my legs and so tried to avoid them by climbing down a nearly vertical rock face, things didn’t necessarily seem much better down below. I was a little concerned for a while and thought going forward might be a bit hopeless until I saw a landmark, a hut which was further than I needed to go but at least something to aim for, and also figured trying to find a route back over to my valley I’d walked up Elfuurnkop(11 O’Clock), and the fact walking up was easier due to the angle and having rocks to use as steps. At one stage the terrain changed to big clumpy things which were nice and soft, but at one point my leg plunged down into the ground, and the route became boggy, and after hearing stories about bogs in Somerset West, changed my route to avoid the boggy area. On the route there were a lot of dead trees and their branches, which were to be avoided or else they jabbed into you, a plant I’d call the washer plants, which if you trod on them, would cause water collected in the part between the stem and the leave to be knocked out, later I considered them to be my ‘handy plants’, good to hold on to, but the dead ones were ‘scratchers’.At five pm I was almost at the hut, but then couldn’t believe there was a river between me and the hut, and was starting to think it might make sense to spend the night in the hut, as sunset was around 7.30. The problem was on almost reaching the river, the river bank was far too steep to go down, so I walked to where somewhere I thought it was less steep, It wasn’t in fact much less steep, or that solid, it was metre high fern and I became quite scared when I had to climb back up the fern and could see it was a 6m drop at least, I got quite a few scratches, and went a bit further along, and it felt like serious rock climbing, double checking my hand holds before moving my feet, I’m not quite sure what would have happened if I’d slipped, and I had no reception on my phone, when I got down I was very happy, and could still feel the adrenaline pumping. At the bottom I realised it wasn’t going to be quite that simple to get back up. Whilst walking along the haphazard arrangement of rocks along the edge the narrow valley of the river, I was quite concerned about the welfare of my camera if I slipped, I found the route wasn’t impassable and turned back and tried crossing over to the other side of the river, but the other sides face wasn’t climbable, I was quite scared about how to get out of this place, I went back and decided maybe I could swim/wade it to another point which I might have more luck with, so I emptied my pockets and left my beg with all my stuff – I found somewhere I thought I stood a good change and also having the water only coming up to my armpits so I could carry my bag with one arm in the air. It was relatively simple to get to the hut then. I would have really enjoyed the ambiance of a night in there, and seeing the stars at night, but didn’t want to risk having them sending a search party out for me. It was a serious rush getting back, and had to run, mind you only on the flatter bits, and finally got down when it was 8pm and dark. They’d sent a small party out to shout for me, so got a lift for the last bit in a bakkie. I had a steak burger for supper, with lovely chips with bits of skin still on them – a friend of Alex’s drove us and seriously appreciated it, and was utterly shattered. Later in the evening a bloke called Martin, and ex-game keeper, showed us interesting photos and stories from that time of his life. I learn that white rhinos are black, but white was a corruption of the Dutch word for wide, referring to their mouth. White rhinos live in open planes and will have their babies walk in front of them, and black rhinos that live in bush will have their babies walking behind them, as the mother needs to open a path in the bush up. I also found out how to spot certain animals coming towards a watering hole; with elephants you see plumbs of dust as they spray themselves before bathing, with rhinos you just get dust clouds. There was an interesting photo of a giraffe from the side, just getting up from drinking, with tiny arc of water coming from its legs as it stands up, apparently the arc of water occurs every time they stand up

Saturday(Marloth NR)

I had been hoping to go up into the Marloth Nature Reserve, but it was a bit misty and I had been told a few horror stories, so I decided to give try another day. I hired a bike and cycled around Bontebok National Park, which I could happily have missed, as the zebra were a long way away from anywhere I could get on the paths, and the rest of the wildlife was congregated near the entrance. In the afternoon I went and tasted different fruit liqueurs at Wildebraun.co.za , Roeibosh liqueur was interesting tasting like a nice version of the tea, fennel was refreshing and not as harsh as aniseed, but youngberry was my favourite as it was slightly sharp.

Friday(De Hoop NR)

Today was a lovely relaxing day in De Hoop Nature Reserve seeing Bontebok, Ostriches, Baboons, Cape Mountain Zebra, and Whales. The nature reserve trip was booked with Alex at the backpackers for 300R which seemed very reasonable considering it was one guide for the two of us, and included a really nice DIY lunch and included quite a long drive along a dirt road which must take it toll on any vehicles which use it. On the drive there saw eight of the national bird, they blue (grey???) crane sitting on a rock, they are stunning birds, with really elegant necks and long legs, later on we passed a field with Ostriches in, happily with them behind a fence, so didn’t have to worry about being kicked by one, especially as they are strong enough to be happily ridden by an adult. Later on when we were inside the reserve saw Bontebok, and later walked towards a Dazzle of Zebras, Cape Mountain Zebras, which are smaller and apparently less aggressive than ‘normal’ Burchil Zebra, it was also fun, due to the head, looking at them though binoculars you could see them shimmer. After lunch we saw baboons running over the top of one of the buildings in the park, and went down to the sea, you could see a whale and every so often there was the curious sight of a huge plumb of water in the air, or a flipper, sadly the whale wasn’t deep enough to breach the water, jump. If I was going to do the trip again I’d be tempted to take a plane flight (300R?) over the coast to get a better view.


The beach was nice and relaxing, and played quite a lot of Frisbee and almost managed to get a decent reverse throw. Swimming for the first time in the sea on this trip was pleasantly warm, also the beach had really exciting jagged rocks, made of vicious looking Swiss cheese like rock, with a very nasty death if you happened to be ship wrecked near by and were washed on to the rocks. There were some nice stones on the beach with a line of quartz crystal running through. On the way back passing the glimmering white sand dunes, which reminded me very strongly of snow cropped mountains,
I ran up it and then rolled down, but not all the way as I wanted to avoid the plants at the bottom.
In the evening some of us from the hostel and I had a few Milk Stouts

Thursday(Lions Peak)

Yet another great day, it was really nice having the extra time in Cape Town, I started off by getting a ticket, and was quite lucky as there were only 2 seats left on the three buses that were departing that day. I then looked at the shops, and I wonder if I’ll end up with any souvenirs as nothing really appealed, I think also helped by the fact I’ll have to lug it around for another 4 months.


In the afternoon wandered up towards Table Mountain and go up Lions Peak, and first took a wrong road, but was good as I got to see a pair of _________, a very territorial bird and got a bit of a fright after seeing them showing off their wingspan, as I had one running towards me, which was also slightly delayed, and I was looking at the camera screen. Mind you they also retreated too. When I found the actual path I saw a scorpion which was a rewarding experience for trying to spot wildlife. I ran out of time before reaching the peak so another reason to visit Cape Town again :-)
I thought it was much better going to Swellendam, a town nestled below some of the best peaks in the Langeberg range, by a Greyhound coach rather than Bazbus, as I was sitting next to an interesting 24yr old medic from Llanga , and talked about safety, HIV, ambitions and culture( such as 21st vs. 18th being a big thing). Where the bus stopped at 11.30pm in Swellendam had moved and so was concerned about getting lost in the pitch darkness. I was given a lift by some bar staff who were just shutting up their bar for the evening, I’m not sure how well I would have done with out their lift, as some people turned up the following day after spending 2 hours driving around the town lost.
Swellendam Backpackers(www.swellendambackpackers.co.za) is really nice with a good choice of accommodation, Wendy cottages, tents, and rooms. Most importantly the beds seem quite comfy, on the first night I had to make a choice of hearing the lovely sound of Cirdaca chirping away, interrupted by the dulcet sounds of snoring or the silence of ear plugs, and if the ensuing search in the dark for them I unfortunately probably disturbed people, plus I also failed to find them. The air in Swellendam is fantastic, and lovely and fresh, and had the peaks which used to be used by farmers as sundials to tell the time.

Wednesday(Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens)

It was a fantastic day I took a Rikki, a limited local bus service, for 16R to the foot of table mountain and then walked up Platten Gorge taking 1:10 to climb up, I had considered waiting for suitable people to walk up with but could see some people walking up ahead and so started going up on my own as thought I could always stay close behind them, however, as I was going a lot faster than them I decided to go up on my own and figured if I fell or something someone would probably see me. It was a gloriously hot summers day and passed a family and their kid was really struggling with the steps and almost looked as if he was climbing, and I felt at time I was really having to swing my leg up to more than 90degrees, I could felt the lactic acid burn at times, the barman at the hostel, James, had very kindly lent me his hat, I would have roasted even more without it. It was great turning around every so often and looking back over he route taken and also the view over Cape Town, especially now that I knew the place slightly, I took in the top for a while and then decided to go down to Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens-via the ominously named Skeletal Gorge.

It was in fact a lovely route as it was shaded at time going through wooded areas, having interesting rock formations and ladders to climb down.
The guide book says try walking down Table Mountain before trying climbing up, but I would disagree, climbing up is hotter but it is definitely safer as it’s much harder to fall up a mountain than down a mountain.
I was concerned every so often that I might be lost as I was scrambling down a river at one point. I found walking on the edges of steps at times made walking down more comfortable on the joints as you could get more of a bounce.

Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens was a really nice place to end up especially as I realised by coming over Table Mountain I’d managed to save 25R on the entrance fee, sure going on a 5 hour walk is probably a bit excessive if that had been the point. There was a super collection of succulents in one greenhouse, with lots of different species with a stuffed scaly mammal, also saw a thing which looked like ferrets running across the gardens.
The was a little bit of a mini adventure after leaving the park, I found a taxi back would cost 150R and I was told could really walk back as it was a motorway back, and also quite a long distance, so I decided to hitchhike, I figured people leaving from the park would be a good ‘safe’ bet – I got a lift with a very friendly lady who apologised for SA’s poor transport system, her old car and her classical music – all of which I found highly amusing as I was very grateful for a lift that she gave me to the train station, the train was okay. In the evening I ate with the Aussies, and sadly won’t be visiting them as there isn’t time to visit Tasmania on the trip to Australia, played pool, and talked about travel and later the Brazilian, Marco, turned up and I got to have a game of table football. I was glad that I hadn’t booked the connecting bus from Cape Town, as it was quite a late night.

Tuesday(Sams Cultural Tour)

My body felt knackered in the morning, from the cycle ride the day before, and so seriously chilled in the morning.
In the afternoon went on Sam’s township tour, going to the district 6 museum, and getting a flavour of the history-seeing old apartheid signs, ID cards and learning of SA’s apartheid government’s definition of races. Also how they decided someone was black vs. coloured, such as the pencil test- putting a pencil through the hair and then telling them to shake it out, and if they had curly black hair it wouldn’t fall out and thus they were black. After the museum we went to the first township of the day, Langa and saw a variety of building and how the government was starting to update them, one we saw showed how overcrowded the rooms were with 3 families in a very small room, the overcrowding began after apartheid with women were allowed to move freely and then join there men, there was a room that was locked and did have quite nice blankets (so was curious to know if 3 families still slept in the room). The house had quite a stale smell and concrete benches and table.

We went afterwards to a sheebeen, a local drinking establishment, which had huge gallon drums full of beer, which the women who had brewed the beer ladled out into a beaker, which must have contained at least 5 pints worth of beer, with a price tag of 10R, it had quite a stilted environment as the regulars seemed to be waiting for us to leave before really drinking what we had left, and to be honest we hadn’t drunk that much of the stuff as it had bits of yeast still floating in it, the taste was somewhere between a larger and a cider, I got slightly concerned after leaving as I had a slightly tickly throat, and was a little concerned that I might have caught something. Afterwards we went to a witch doctors place; it was full of random substances, mostly dried plants and animal bones, plus a huge snake skin. Lastly on the tour went to Khayelitsha- which started as an unofficial township with mostly tin hut houses, and apparently despite outward appearances many have tvs/dvds inside, due to lots of people not necessarily wanting to leave friend and family and so upgrade their properties rather than move elsewhere. Saw some friendly kids playing with photos somewhere on http://endlesssummer2005.over-blog.com/
I had a nice quiet evening, but sillyly(sp?) walked from Long St. to the waterfront, silly because it was very quiet on the way, and read later in the guide book it wasn’t recommended. On the way found a pub for 9R a beer and bitter on tap, also planned to go out for a drinks with the Brazilian.

Monday

Got up for 7.30 in the morning to hire a bike for 8. I’m having porridge at the moment for breakfast, as it’s the most dense cereal I can think of, and so easy to transport. The plan was to cycle to Cape Point and back, 70km each way, it was the toughest ride I’ve ever done, the 80km to Oxford was easy in comparison- it was nice and flat, this ride was up and down for practically the whole route, I almost wanted to scream towards the end of the return journey. There were times when my muscles felt they had no more to give, with my palms and finger tips feeling raw, from being gently sanded. The downhills which were fun on the way there became the evil uphills on the return journey. I didn’t get to stop for any proper breaks, and got back at eight in the evening. The scenery along the coast was fantastic with crystal blue seas, and amazing beaches, like Clifton bay and superb views out from Chapman’s bay. I was also amused by how well sound travels, I was having a banana break and two girls in the distance were walking towards me talking about sex, one saying their mum had said two days before, and two days after a period you can’t get pregnant, which was quite scary to hear people in SA hearing as it made me wonder if they we aware 25% of the population of SA is HIV positive. I’m sure it wasn’t particularly helpful to them but after saying hi, my parting comment was ‘condoms work all the time’
A lot later on down the road, almost at Cape point; it was funny seeing a baboon sitting in the middle of the road and seeing little ones playing higher up the bank.
* I also went to boulder near Simon’s town to see the penguins which I found a bit of a disappointment as it stuck me as a bit artificial, because in 1982 there were only 2 breeding pairs of penguins, and, and you also weren’t able to get close to the penguins, although later I found out there was a bit where you could walk a bit further and possibly be on the same beach as them, as opposed to a raised platform.
Next stop Cape Point
The scenery was stunning with a great variety of terrain, I loved it at one point having a view of the sea on each side of the cape and seeing waves breaking along the coast, it also had weird floaty stuff at points. I didn’t have as long as I would have like at the point, as I really wanted to make sure I was back before it got dark, as lots of the roads on the ways didn’t have street lights. On the way back I was trying a different route back, and got myself on the N3 (a proper motorway), I guessed I wasn’t supposed to be on it, and I wasn’t!, so I was going along the hard shoulder which was fine until you got to the exits (I had to be careful especially with the feeder lanes as my speed wasn’t that close to 100km/h).
In the evening I chatted to a pair of German siblings from Munich and some Aussies from Tasmania and some Swedes from Gothenburg, A shot of some spirit appeared before me, and the barman said Tom, had bought it for me, was a bit confused, as I’d never spoken to him, but drank it and found out why, it was quite a deadly 80% proof with superb warming affects, and Tom came over and said he’d had one bought for him, and found it amusing seeing the look of shock of people faces trying it for the first time, so I bought one for one of the Aussies . I also tried the traditional German shot Hoffmeister

Sunday Cont

In the evening it was great as they provided a brai, and all you had to bring was the meat, with them providing the salad and accompaniments, so had my first boereworst(a coarse SA sausage), this was something Carnival Court put on every Sunday, also quite a few Capetonians came along; it was quite interesting to chatting to some of them and hearing about the local airline announcements such as;
‘in your front pocket you have a fan or some thing which has important safety info on’
‘there are many ways to upset a mother in law, but only eight ways to leave the plane’
‘For those of you who are arriving for the first time in the Cape, have a good time, for those of you who live there we hope your car’s where you left it’
Also finding out waitress here are called waitrons, traffic lights are called robots, and if your going to do something later you might say ‘ I’m going to clean my car just now’

Catch up

Okay, back again, so what happened, well it was because Internet was being charged at 4 pounds an hour, and didn't really need to check my email, as I'd got a mobile with me for people to contact me in an Emergency. I'm now in Oz, 3rd day, and a bargain $2 for unlimited internet access, sadly they only have one machine with a CD drive, and it's quite tempermental, and I'm not using it, to find out if I managed to copy all my photos successfully from SA or need to ask my Aunt to kindly sent them to me. We finally have sun again today:-). While I was with my dad, there was no broadband access, so didn't want to post as I quite like the pictures to break up the flow of the text, plus I was quite busy, and also typing in my paper-blog notes.
So here goes.

Sunday(MISSPLACED POSTING DATE:Day 2 Cape Town)
I packed and got myself to Carnival Court, I set off early and knew the route from the night before, which was offering bike hire on it’s website, plus also it was 70R/pn vs 80R
They didn’t have sheets, also later on you could hear the music coming through the floor including good vibrations, however, there are spices in the kitchen and more space, however the beds are thinner!, you can’t win on everything, the most important thing is Carnival court has a good vibe.