Wow, how time is flying! I can't believe that it is already time for me to make my way to Jo'berg and to dare another trip on a bus. This time I plan to be prepared and make a quick stop in a KFC or maybe even the local Chicken Licken – well, OK, maybe not. Hopefully since it is a day trip and only 7 hours, I won't have the “welcome to the fast food grease pit” thing going on again.
So, what have I been up to the past few days...well after a second wonderful night in the Mantis and Moon Oasis, we got another early start and headed back to Umkomaas to do some more diving (Payson dived the day before). Ok, wait, before I go on, I am sure some grammar police somewhere is saying that I should use the word “dove” not “dived”, well after the dive in Zanzibar with the rest of my overlander friends, we got into a debate about this. The Canadians said “dove” and the American (me) said “dove” but the Brits said “dived”. Given that it was such a heated debate, one of the the Canadians went out and did a little research and discovered that when diving, as in scuba diving or diving off a diving board, one should say “dived” but in other instances the word “dove” is appropriate. Go figure. If anyone else has any other thoughts, please feel free to jump on in!
OK, back to my story, we headed to the dive shop to dive the Aliwal Shoal, about 60kms South of Durban off the coast of a little town called Umkomaas. Will and Payson both decided to do the shark dive, which entailed going out on a boat, chumming the water (dropping in a canister with some chopped up fish) and then waiting. Once the sharks appeared, they all jumped in and hovered at about 12 meters watching for as long as they wanted or as long as their air lasted. Payson said it was the most peaceful dive he had ever done, meanwhile Will said it was a bit freaky and that he was “on guard” the entire time. I opted out of the shark dive and went the more benign route diving just the shoal itself, which was still known to have a sharks running around (the ones that run off to check out the chumming), over a thousand different fish species and beautiful soft coral.
It was quite a frantic dive experience. Not sure how great the operator was as they didn't as a single one of us to see our dive cards. Sort of an important thing. Equipment getting was like running around a grocery store with unnamed aisles trying to pick up bits but not getting them the first time round. Basically they said, “OK, go back there and get your equipment” and a guy handed you part of it, but not all and then you had scavenge around to find the rest. Then there was getting the wet suit, which they seemed to be short of and kept insisting that super large ones would work just fine for some while cramming other people into suits one size too small. Will swears that when he peed, it had no way out of the suit and so he had to unzip under water and try to flush his suit out with water. I can only imagine what that looked like.
Once set, having put my equipment together completely unsupervised and unchecked, everything was loaded into a truck and taken down to the river mouth so that we could jump in the boat and shoot out to sea. They did not have a pier to launch from so we had to start in the river and time the waves that were crashing in to get out to sea. It was quite a wild ride and I am sure my sis would have been green in the face and proving the fishies with some food before we even made it past the first wave. It didn't get much calmer once we were out at sea and we were faced with big rolling, stomach dropping waves. Then, finally were were there and the following instructions were given, “Put on your mask, get in, and go!”. Normally the boat captain or dive master checks to make sure you are in the water OK before heading to the bottom, but well, before I knew it, all fins were in the air and we were heading down. I have never felt a current like this one. I think I sucked half my tank down in the first five minutes while trying to find something to grab on to so that I could orient myself. To speak in Sus' words (my first tent mate on the overland trip), “I had to take myself aside and have a little word with myself”. In this case, to convince myself that I could breath, it would be OK, and we were just waiting for everyone to get down, which was taking some time as someone had to go back up, and then we would float nicely along with the current and not fight against it. In these moments, I did also manage to think about the horror my dear auntie Jane would feel seeing nine people clinging to coral covered rocks at the bottom of the ocean. It was such a crazy current I am amazed that I was able to hold on as long as I did.
The coral did bite back, however, and now I have a few nice scrapes on my wrists and fingers that are reminding me again and again not to touch the sea life. I did mention to the dive master that I was surprised as most dive masters state very clearly that you are not to touch things and he agreed but also said that well, not too many people were out there so, it wouldn't do too much damage. Yeah, right, not too many people, just 7 dive shops that go out five times a day with six to eight people on each boat. Sigh...The rest of the dive was lovely though and we were whisked along the shoal almost from the top to the bottom in about an hour covering approximately 2.5km. Amazing, huge, fat starfish, a couple sea turtles (also fighting the current - to get food), and loads of fishies. No sharks though, as they were all down with the other boat at the far end of the shoal. Definitely a nice place to dive.
After that we grabbed a quick bite and headed up the coast toward Durban and the Hippo Hide. I am still amazed at all of the people standing on the side of the road trying to hitch somewhere or the other. They make signs with their hands or hold a piece of paper with a few letters on it to indicate where they are going. In many cases they hold out a bit of money to indicate that they are willing to pay for the ride. The roads are most packed during the morning commute and at those times, you often see people dressed as they are going in to office jobs. Will managed to flip one of them off, which was quite funny. The guy was holding up a finger to indicate where he was going and Will thought he was flipping us off so flipped him off. Payson and I were both a bit shocked and Payson said “What the hell was that for Will?” and Will replied, “Wasn't he giving us the bird?” We both burst into laugher and said, “ugh, no, he was indicating that he wanted a ride”. We all laugh about it now and every time we see someone holding up a finger, ask Will if he wants to flip that guy a bird as well.
Today was a bit of a sad day as my great adventure with Will and Payson has come to an end. Will hopped on his Baz Bus up to Swaziland this morning leaving Payson and I to wander around Durban until Payson also had to leave, heading for the airport to catch his flight back to the states. We had a great Indian meal last night as our “last supper” as Durban is known for having a bit of an Indian flair to it. Supposedly it has the largest Indian population outside of India. Whether or not that is really true, I don't know but by the looks of the people on the street and the people running the shops, I'd go for a “Yes”. It is a very strange city, the downtown almost completely black and Indian but surrounded by quiet peaceful areas full of little shopping malls and the more fortunate who live there. It is loud and dirty and chaotic but supposedly has beautiful beaches that people flock to in the summer (I haven't seen them yet).
And on that note, I am going to return to my book – A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian – don't ask....
Friday, December 29, 2006
Monday, December 25, 2006
AWAY WITH THE FAIRIES TO MANTIS AND MOON!
No - I have not completely lost my mind, the title is in fact the names of two of the hostels I have stayed at over the past week. I am currently at Mantis and Moon, which is on the Wild Coast section of South Africa about 100km outside of Durban.
I started this little jaunt with an overnight bus trip from Cape Town to East London. It qualifies as one of the more interesting bus trips I have ever taken. My first goal upon boarding the bus was to look for the skiniest person on board to sit next to (everyone seemed to be HUGE, OK, the women were huge). After I narrowed down the skinny part, my next qualifier was a person who was not carrying a bag, box, bucket or container of any sort that had fried fish, chicken and chips. Let me tell you, this was not an easy feet. The bus could have been a mobile Kentucky Fried Chicken. I think I was the only person (and the woman next to me) that was not carrying a grease oozing bag. Guess I didn't realize that this was the required meal for the trip and little old me only brought bread, cheese and olive tapenade.
The lady next to me and I were the only two white people on the bus, which I wasn't really suprised about. I had hoped to chat with one of the more African women and get a little more insight to the culture and history here but they either A. were HUGE and already smashing in their bloke against the window (why is it that the men are always small and the women boardering on hippodum?) or B. carrying a greasy bag of fried chicken or fried fish. She was quite pleasant and making the journey up to her mother's house for the holidays. We settled in for what we thought would be a fairly quiet journey. I pulled out the neck pillow, eye mask and ear plugs and settled in for a restless night of sleep hopeful that I would at at least get a little rest. So looking like a right drooler (british term for idiot) I scrunched myself down in the seat and assumed a position that would not completely cut off all the circulation in my lower extremities.
However, In all the excitement for the holidays, a couple of blokes decided to celebrate their way through the night. Basically that meant that they drank and drank and ate and well, talked and talked and talked and talked and talked - you get the idea. It even made it through my trusty ear plugs. They also decided at about 11:00 that a movie might be in order. The sound didn't quite work and every time we hit a bump, the sound system cut out and changed and I couldn't figure out if it was people talking on the bus or actually was the movie, or just the loud guys three seats up. Half sleep haze is quite an odd thing and really my mind wandered all sorts of directions. So, finally at 6:30 am when we arrived at a gas station for the morning break, I gave up on the sleep thing. The guy was still talking and the woman next to me was LIVID and could not believe it was so bad. She had tried during the night to quiet them down but that just made it worse and he got louder. I belive he did take a nap around 10:00am for an hour or so but that was about it. So needless to say, it was not a restful night but also apparently not the norm for the journey.
Upon arrival, I hopped onto another shuttle and headed up to Away With the Fairies, a hostel up in Hogsback. The place was a childhood vacation spot for JRR Tolkein and I can see where he got all the ideas for the forest lands of his book. It was set up on a cliff overlooking the valley and the three mountains called, funnily enough, Hogsback 1, Hogsback 2 and Hogsback 3. The view were incredible when the mist was not blowing around the bungalows. Thought I might even bump into a fairy or two. I cannot describe how magical the place was and how mystic. We had a group meal in the cozy bar, played cards and prepared for our hikes the next day. The big draw here, besides the mountains, is the number of water falls around the area. It is covered in them. It had rained a bit the night before so the paths were muddy but that didn't stop us from tromping through and climbing up amongst the roots and rocks to reach the beautiful cascades of water coming down the cliffs and ledges. Had planned to go for a swim in one of the many rock pools but when Will came out with little worms on him, I decided that might not be such a good idea. It had been clear most of the day but by the time we climbed back out of the valley and to the top, the mist had blown back in and the entire town - wow, I made it sound substantial and I should have said, little hobbit-like village - was covered in mist. It was so thick that we couldn't make out the cows in the road until we were about 10 feet from them. Really gave you a feeling of isolation - but in a good way. Had another fun night of cards, beers and good conversation and prepared to head back down the hill to the coast again.
Back at the beach, I settled in for the Xmas celebrations at Buccaneers Hostel in Cintsa. I had already met a few of the people there along the road so had a good base of friends to celebrate with and then I met Anne, a sweet German girl, who also joined in. The hostel had a huge celebration planned with hors d'eouvres and cocktails (blue and green ones with a vodka base and that tasted a bit like toothpaste) overlooking the ocean follwed by roast chicken, lamb and ham with all of the trimmings. Every table had several bottles of champagne, party crowns and christmas crackers. There were over 90 people at the celebration with about 10 per table. My table consisted of a fellow american, germans, dutch, a south african, swissies and a belgian guy. We drank mightily of the champagne, stole it from other tables, and pulled more christmas crackers than even kids would know what to do with. It really was a grand time. After, everyone retired to the bar for more festivities and dancing late into the night. Christmas day was a bit of a recovery day for all but started off nicely with a champagne and orange juice (tang like stuff in this case) breakfast down by the pool. Many people picked right back up from the night before and continued to drink throughout the day but us more modest folk, enjoyed the mimosa's and hung out by the pool reading books for most of the day. In the afternoon, we did muster enough energy to go take a walk on the beach, which was fantastic. Got caught in a bit of a rain shower while we were out but the weather was warm and we didn't mind too much.
By the time we made it back to the pool for the evening braai (BBQ) , a bunch of drunk guys had taken over the pool and were playing naked beer and volley ball. We decided that they were the afternoon's free activity (the hostel had a free activity each night - the night before was wine and volleyball) and settled in to laugh a bit at them, and well, with them. They carried this on through the night, which was not suprising, and finished in the bar doing shots called Springboks, with their pants around their ankles.
The idea behind the Springbok shot (Amarula and peppermint schnapps) that sprinboks have white asses so, if doing the shot, one must bare their ass crack. Clearly the enthusiasm from these gentlemen was quite high as the pants seem to have made it a little lower than the ass crack. It did make for quite a laugh watching them with their hands held to their heads imitating antlers, looking left and right for lions, then jumping forward to the bar and leaning over to pick up the shots with their mouths (springboks have no hands). All in all, a very amusing Christmas!
On boxing day, Will (a Canadian I had met) made it back down from Away with the Fairies and met up with Payson (the american - also met at Away with the Fairies) and me. From there we hopped into Payson's car and headed down the coast to Mantis and Moon for a couple nights. Payson was heading my way to go diving and I told him about the place I was planning on staying and he decided it was a better bet than his original choice. Will also heard about it and was going to go with Payson as well so we all ended up at Mantis and Moon for a couple of night for relaxing and also diving. The place is fantatistic. It is nestled back in a rain forest with little wooden paths throughout and banana leaves the size of beach towels. There is a rock pool, a jacuzzi and a very cool bar/sitting area. Half of the bungalows are up in treehouses. Tomorrow we will go diving and hopefully run into a few sharks!
Well, I think I am exhausted after all that! Time to go and find the evening meal at the local Spar (we are going to give cooking a try!)
I started this little jaunt with an overnight bus trip from Cape Town to East London. It qualifies as one of the more interesting bus trips I have ever taken. My first goal upon boarding the bus was to look for the skiniest person on board to sit next to (everyone seemed to be HUGE, OK, the women were huge). After I narrowed down the skinny part, my next qualifier was a person who was not carrying a bag, box, bucket or container of any sort that had fried fish, chicken and chips. Let me tell you, this was not an easy feet. The bus could have been a mobile Kentucky Fried Chicken. I think I was the only person (and the woman next to me) that was not carrying a grease oozing bag. Guess I didn't realize that this was the required meal for the trip and little old me only brought bread, cheese and olive tapenade.
The lady next to me and I were the only two white people on the bus, which I wasn't really suprised about. I had hoped to chat with one of the more African women and get a little more insight to the culture and history here but they either A. were HUGE and already smashing in their bloke against the window (why is it that the men are always small and the women boardering on hippodum?) or B. carrying a greasy bag of fried chicken or fried fish. She was quite pleasant and making the journey up to her mother's house for the holidays. We settled in for what we thought would be a fairly quiet journey. I pulled out the neck pillow, eye mask and ear plugs and settled in for a restless night of sleep hopeful that I would at at least get a little rest. So looking like a right drooler (british term for idiot) I scrunched myself down in the seat and assumed a position that would not completely cut off all the circulation in my lower extremities.
However, In all the excitement for the holidays, a couple of blokes decided to celebrate their way through the night. Basically that meant that they drank and drank and ate and well, talked and talked and talked and talked and talked - you get the idea. It even made it through my trusty ear plugs. They also decided at about 11:00 that a movie might be in order. The sound didn't quite work and every time we hit a bump, the sound system cut out and changed and I couldn't figure out if it was people talking on the bus or actually was the movie, or just the loud guys three seats up. Half sleep haze is quite an odd thing and really my mind wandered all sorts of directions. So, finally at 6:30 am when we arrived at a gas station for the morning break, I gave up on the sleep thing. The guy was still talking and the woman next to me was LIVID and could not believe it was so bad. She had tried during the night to quiet them down but that just made it worse and he got louder. I belive he did take a nap around 10:00am for an hour or so but that was about it. So needless to say, it was not a restful night but also apparently not the norm for the journey.
Upon arrival, I hopped onto another shuttle and headed up to Away With the Fairies, a hostel up in Hogsback. The place was a childhood vacation spot for JRR Tolkein and I can see where he got all the ideas for the forest lands of his book. It was set up on a cliff overlooking the valley and the three mountains called, funnily enough, Hogsback 1, Hogsback 2 and Hogsback 3. The view were incredible when the mist was not blowing around the bungalows. Thought I might even bump into a fairy or two. I cannot describe how magical the place was and how mystic. We had a group meal in the cozy bar, played cards and prepared for our hikes the next day. The big draw here, besides the mountains, is the number of water falls around the area. It is covered in them. It had rained a bit the night before so the paths were muddy but that didn't stop us from tromping through and climbing up amongst the roots and rocks to reach the beautiful cascades of water coming down the cliffs and ledges. Had planned to go for a swim in one of the many rock pools but when Will came out with little worms on him, I decided that might not be such a good idea. It had been clear most of the day but by the time we climbed back out of the valley and to the top, the mist had blown back in and the entire town - wow, I made it sound substantial and I should have said, little hobbit-like village - was covered in mist. It was so thick that we couldn't make out the cows in the road until we were about 10 feet from them. Really gave you a feeling of isolation - but in a good way. Had another fun night of cards, beers and good conversation and prepared to head back down the hill to the coast again.
Back at the beach, I settled in for the Xmas celebrations at Buccaneers Hostel in Cintsa. I had already met a few of the people there along the road so had a good base of friends to celebrate with and then I met Anne, a sweet German girl, who also joined in. The hostel had a huge celebration planned with hors d'eouvres and cocktails (blue and green ones with a vodka base and that tasted a bit like toothpaste) overlooking the ocean follwed by roast chicken, lamb and ham with all of the trimmings. Every table had several bottles of champagne, party crowns and christmas crackers. There were over 90 people at the celebration with about 10 per table. My table consisted of a fellow american, germans, dutch, a south african, swissies and a belgian guy. We drank mightily of the champagne, stole it from other tables, and pulled more christmas crackers than even kids would know what to do with. It really was a grand time. After, everyone retired to the bar for more festivities and dancing late into the night. Christmas day was a bit of a recovery day for all but started off nicely with a champagne and orange juice (tang like stuff in this case) breakfast down by the pool. Many people picked right back up from the night before and continued to drink throughout the day but us more modest folk, enjoyed the mimosa's and hung out by the pool reading books for most of the day. In the afternoon, we did muster enough energy to go take a walk on the beach, which was fantastic. Got caught in a bit of a rain shower while we were out but the weather was warm and we didn't mind too much.
By the time we made it back to the pool for the evening braai (BBQ) , a bunch of drunk guys had taken over the pool and were playing naked beer and volley ball. We decided that they were the afternoon's free activity (the hostel had a free activity each night - the night before was wine and volleyball) and settled in to laugh a bit at them, and well, with them. They carried this on through the night, which was not suprising, and finished in the bar doing shots called Springboks, with their pants around their ankles.
The idea behind the Springbok shot (Amarula and peppermint schnapps) that sprinboks have white asses so, if doing the shot, one must bare their ass crack. Clearly the enthusiasm from these gentlemen was quite high as the pants seem to have made it a little lower than the ass crack. It did make for quite a laugh watching them with their hands held to their heads imitating antlers, looking left and right for lions, then jumping forward to the bar and leaning over to pick up the shots with their mouths (springboks have no hands). All in all, a very amusing Christmas!
On boxing day, Will (a Canadian I had met) made it back down from Away with the Fairies and met up with Payson (the american - also met at Away with the Fairies) and me. From there we hopped into Payson's car and headed down the coast to Mantis and Moon for a couple nights. Payson was heading my way to go diving and I told him about the place I was planning on staying and he decided it was a better bet than his original choice. Will also heard about it and was going to go with Payson as well so we all ended up at Mantis and Moon for a couple of night for relaxing and also diving. The place is fantatistic. It is nestled back in a rain forest with little wooden paths throughout and banana leaves the size of beach towels. There is a rock pool, a jacuzzi and a very cool bar/sitting area. Half of the bungalows are up in treehouses. Tomorrow we will go diving and hopefully run into a few sharks!
Well, I think I am exhausted after all that! Time to go and find the evening meal at the local Spar (we are going to give cooking a try!)
Thursday, December 21, 2006
WHAT TO WHEN BEING ATTACTED BY AN OSTRICH
Well, it has been over a week since I have heard Charles’ “Don’t Waaaaiiiiit!!!!” cry for breakfast, lunch or dinner and I seem to be managing to maintain all the pudge I put on eating three massive meals a day and not getting much exercise. This, despite the fact, that I have been getting loads of exercise the past week. Jules I tackled every trail we could find and we even threw in a canoe trip for good measure.
So, after a few days in lovely, sunny, warm, brilliant Cape Town with the ocean breezes and many goodbyes to the other Overlanders, we packed up our things and jumped into a very small, and probably incredibly dangerous, little white car thing. Not sure if it was more qualified for Barbie or for us but as we have made it safely back to Cape Town again, I will give it credit for being a form of human transport rather than doll transport. Our plan was pretty simple – drive up the coast to Plettenberg Bay, relax there for a few days, head to Fairy Knowe in the Wilderness Park area (still on the coast), then go inland to Oudtshoorn to check out the ostrich farms and finally spend a couple nights in Franschoek enjoying the winelands.
Plett (Plettenberg Bay) was fantastic. Gorgeous sweeping beaches with crystal clear turquoise waters. We were floored by the many mansions dotting the hills around the bay and are still baffled at how the people here are affording them especially after seeing the townships (shanty towns) on the way out of Cape Town. We did, just for fun, check out the pricing on these gorgeous mansions with unparalleled ocean views (OK, I’ll give you that there are equally lovely places on the CA coast). It appears that you can get a pretty decent sized abode (starter that is – 3 to 4 bedrooms and an ocean view) for around US $500,000 or ZAR3.5 million. We did a couple day hikes in the Plett area – Robberg and Tstitsikama – both of which ran along the coast and provided great views of the surrounding area as well as dolphins and seals. The trails were most interesting and not just for the scenery. They sort of, well, disappeared on occasion and we had to do a bit of searching to figure out exactly where it picked back up. This meant that we took a slightly different route going out than coming back. In many cases, we were climbing along rocks on the beach searching for some footprint painted on a rock or scrambling across and down stream/creek beds looking for where it picked up on the other side. Of course, when you didn’t need a sign post or direction, there was one, and when you did, there wasn’t. Still, it was fun and I can’t say I have been on a hike before with such varied terrain.
In Fairy Knowe, we did pretty much the same thing but our destination on these hikes was to water falls rather than down and along the coast. They were quite nice and for one of them, we had a 3km canoe trip to get to the jumping off point for the trail. Sadly the water lacked crocs and hippos grunting at us but it did have some nice birds and the scenery was quite pleasant as well. Trails were equally interesting as in Plett, which made for good laughs as some other hikers tromped by in their flip flops and sandals. We topped our final day at Fairy Knowe off with a paragliding trip. Jorg, one of the workers at the hostel, was an instructor so we went out with him. It was incredible floating, or shall I dare say soaring, over the hills, beaches and water. Jorg was quite a laugh as well so it made for an enjoyable chat. Although, it did make me a bit nervous when he got excited about what he was explaining and used his hands to gesture, leaving the sail controls completely unattended. He obviously knew what he was doing since we did land safely back on the ground.
Oudtshoorn was out next stop – ostrich capital of the world and known for being a leaner, tastier dark meat than beef. It is, in fact, quite tasty and the skin does also make for some very nice purses. Our first venture in Oudtshoorn was to go see the Cango Caves and take on their “Adventure Tour” which involved crawling through incredibly small places from cave to cave with names like the Devil’s Coffin and The Post Box. The caves were beautiful with loads of stalactites and stalagmites that had been formed over millions of years and in a few instances, joined together to make one giant column. I think we reached about 150 meters below the surface and did a few kilometres worth of trekking. We topped the day off with an ostrich meal – as you have to do when in the ostrich capital of the world.
The next day started off with an ostrich egg breakfast (not so sure about the texture of the egg when scrambled but otherwise quite a nice mild taste) and then went on to a farm where we could learn more about these funny little creatures that dotted the hills around Oudtshoorn. The tour ended with the chance to sit on and also to ride an ostrich. Somehow I opted myself into the riding section of the group and got dumped on the poor little bugger first. Boy did he go! Thankfully, they have two “jockeys” who are versed in ostrich riding that run along side and made sure you don’t hurt yourself. Basically, they catch them by hooking their necks and then dumping a bag over their heads. They walk them, must like a prisoner going to execution, over to a blocked section/cage where they are held so that us humans can climb on top. When they are ready to be released, the guide takes the bag off their heads and well, they back right out and sprint off. Meanwhile, the rider holds on to the bones in the wings for dear life, and if possible wraps their legs around the front of the body. I think I lasted about 5 seconds. It is quite sad really and I don’t think I this is something we should be torturing the poor birds with. They did not look happy at all to be caught and ridden.
We wrapped up our trip with a couple of nights in Franschoek just enjoying the scenery, checking out the cute little shops, tasting wine and with me, having a few meetings and trying to get to know a few people in the industry here. Odd to actually have meetings again…think I was doing quite nicely without them – at least for now. Still having too much fun wandering about.
Now I am back in Cape Town. Jules left early this morning so we had a celebratory meal last night at a fun funky restaurant that would have cost at least a couple hundred in the US but came to around $70 here (a good bottle of wine included). It was sad to see her go and today is a slow day with me doing a bit of an admin as I have free access to a computer and internet (sigh). Tonight I’ll hop on an overnight bus up to East London for a few more days of coast time (working my way up) before I head into Jo’berg to meet my friend and then head off to Kruger for the New Year.
Oh, I think I forgot to address the title of the blog…apparently you are to lie down and play dead (this seems to be a theme when being attacked by some vicious creature). Once you have done that, it is likely that the ostrich will trample you and that it will be excruciatingly painful. Given that you will still have your wits about you (ha, ha) you are to grab one of the legs (not sure how since they will be trampling you) and pull the bird down. The ostrich will fall on his back and then you are to grab the neck and smack it on the head. A blow to the head will kill it and then you are safe and free to go on with your day.
So, if I don’t get to this blogging thing again in the next couple days, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!
So, after a few days in lovely, sunny, warm, brilliant Cape Town with the ocean breezes and many goodbyes to the other Overlanders, we packed up our things and jumped into a very small, and probably incredibly dangerous, little white car thing. Not sure if it was more qualified for Barbie or for us but as we have made it safely back to Cape Town again, I will give it credit for being a form of human transport rather than doll transport. Our plan was pretty simple – drive up the coast to Plettenberg Bay, relax there for a few days, head to Fairy Knowe in the Wilderness Park area (still on the coast), then go inland to Oudtshoorn to check out the ostrich farms and finally spend a couple nights in Franschoek enjoying the winelands.
Plett (Plettenberg Bay) was fantastic. Gorgeous sweeping beaches with crystal clear turquoise waters. We were floored by the many mansions dotting the hills around the bay and are still baffled at how the people here are affording them especially after seeing the townships (shanty towns) on the way out of Cape Town. We did, just for fun, check out the pricing on these gorgeous mansions with unparalleled ocean views (OK, I’ll give you that there are equally lovely places on the CA coast). It appears that you can get a pretty decent sized abode (starter that is – 3 to 4 bedrooms and an ocean view) for around US $500,000 or ZAR3.5 million. We did a couple day hikes in the Plett area – Robberg and Tstitsikama – both of which ran along the coast and provided great views of the surrounding area as well as dolphins and seals. The trails were most interesting and not just for the scenery. They sort of, well, disappeared on occasion and we had to do a bit of searching to figure out exactly where it picked back up. This meant that we took a slightly different route going out than coming back. In many cases, we were climbing along rocks on the beach searching for some footprint painted on a rock or scrambling across and down stream/creek beds looking for where it picked up on the other side. Of course, when you didn’t need a sign post or direction, there was one, and when you did, there wasn’t. Still, it was fun and I can’t say I have been on a hike before with such varied terrain.
In Fairy Knowe, we did pretty much the same thing but our destination on these hikes was to water falls rather than down and along the coast. They were quite nice and for one of them, we had a 3km canoe trip to get to the jumping off point for the trail. Sadly the water lacked crocs and hippos grunting at us but it did have some nice birds and the scenery was quite pleasant as well. Trails were equally interesting as in Plett, which made for good laughs as some other hikers tromped by in their flip flops and sandals. We topped our final day at Fairy Knowe off with a paragliding trip. Jorg, one of the workers at the hostel, was an instructor so we went out with him. It was incredible floating, or shall I dare say soaring, over the hills, beaches and water. Jorg was quite a laugh as well so it made for an enjoyable chat. Although, it did make me a bit nervous when he got excited about what he was explaining and used his hands to gesture, leaving the sail controls completely unattended. He obviously knew what he was doing since we did land safely back on the ground.
Oudtshoorn was out next stop – ostrich capital of the world and known for being a leaner, tastier dark meat than beef. It is, in fact, quite tasty and the skin does also make for some very nice purses. Our first venture in Oudtshoorn was to go see the Cango Caves and take on their “Adventure Tour” which involved crawling through incredibly small places from cave to cave with names like the Devil’s Coffin and The Post Box. The caves were beautiful with loads of stalactites and stalagmites that had been formed over millions of years and in a few instances, joined together to make one giant column. I think we reached about 150 meters below the surface and did a few kilometres worth of trekking. We topped the day off with an ostrich meal – as you have to do when in the ostrich capital of the world.
The next day started off with an ostrich egg breakfast (not so sure about the texture of the egg when scrambled but otherwise quite a nice mild taste) and then went on to a farm where we could learn more about these funny little creatures that dotted the hills around Oudtshoorn. The tour ended with the chance to sit on and also to ride an ostrich. Somehow I opted myself into the riding section of the group and got dumped on the poor little bugger first. Boy did he go! Thankfully, they have two “jockeys” who are versed in ostrich riding that run along side and made sure you don’t hurt yourself. Basically, they catch them by hooking their necks and then dumping a bag over their heads. They walk them, must like a prisoner going to execution, over to a blocked section/cage where they are held so that us humans can climb on top. When they are ready to be released, the guide takes the bag off their heads and well, they back right out and sprint off. Meanwhile, the rider holds on to the bones in the wings for dear life, and if possible wraps their legs around the front of the body. I think I lasted about 5 seconds. It is quite sad really and I don’t think I this is something we should be torturing the poor birds with. They did not look happy at all to be caught and ridden.
We wrapped up our trip with a couple of nights in Franschoek just enjoying the scenery, checking out the cute little shops, tasting wine and with me, having a few meetings and trying to get to know a few people in the industry here. Odd to actually have meetings again…think I was doing quite nicely without them – at least for now. Still having too much fun wandering about.
Now I am back in Cape Town. Jules left early this morning so we had a celebratory meal last night at a fun funky restaurant that would have cost at least a couple hundred in the US but came to around $70 here (a good bottle of wine included). It was sad to see her go and today is a slow day with me doing a bit of an admin as I have free access to a computer and internet (sigh). Tonight I’ll hop on an overnight bus up to East London for a few more days of coast time (working my way up) before I head into Jo’berg to meet my friend and then head off to Kruger for the New Year.
Oh, I think I forgot to address the title of the blog…apparently you are to lie down and play dead (this seems to be a theme when being attacked by some vicious creature). Once you have done that, it is likely that the ostrich will trample you and that it will be excruciatingly painful. Given that you will still have your wits about you (ha, ha) you are to grab one of the legs (not sure how since they will be trampling you) and pull the bird down. The ostrich will fall on his back and then you are to grab the neck and smack it on the head. A blow to the head will kill it and then you are safe and free to go on with your day.
So, if I don’t get to this blogging thing again in the next couple days, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Monday, December 11, 2006
TRUCKLESS AND LOST...or....
FREEDOM AT LAST! Well, I am off the truck now and have safely made it to Cape Town. Can't believe that it has been over 12 weeks that I have been on the road now...sigh...what a trip! Claudia is still within rock throwing distance parked in the back parking lot and every once and a while, I glance over at her with a small tinge of regret that I won't be getting back on her and heading on another adventure. Then again, I look at my Garden Route plans and the plans after that for going up the coast and on into Mozambique and I think, hell I can choose where I want to go and when I want to do it! Guess both options have their benefits and both options are equally fun, exciting and frustrating.
In any case, where did I last leave off...I am actually not really sure. I belive it was in Windhoek after our big game dinner of local beasts. After that, we carried on to an area where the unique and ever bizarre Quiver Tree is located. It is actually part of the Aloe family. The bark on the trees is similar to a gold lamay crocodile belt and the branches poke up and straight out with spikey little aloe type branches. We then wandered on to Fish River Canyon, which is supposed to be the second largest canyon after the Grand Canyon but apparently there is one in Peru that is also in the running. Regardless, it was quite spectacular. It was actually a canyon within a canyon and if you were really adventuresome, you could do an 85km hike through it. For all the bitching I have been doing about getting zero exercise, it was still a very unappealing offer. We did do a couple of shorter hikes and spent much of a day lazing around a hot spring. Quite ironic that when we finally do get hot water, and I do mean HOT, it is so warm outside that the only thing nice about getting in the hot water is the breeze that dries you off once out of the water. That said, the night swim under the stars and the swim first thing in the morning, were absolutely glorious.
We did a quick canoe trip down the orange river (just a day), then spent the evening in the hostel bar overlooking the water and chatting with a group of people who had just gotten off of a four day trip on the river. Figures that the one guy there "that was mine" - meaning an american - was from Boston and had only ever been out of the country once and that was to London...sigh...the stereotypes that I have to correct out here. I have actually been voted an honorary commonwealth by the aussies, kiwis, canadians and brits on the trip and several times have needed to apologize for "the ones that are mine" along the road. Thankfully there have not been too many.
So, onward we went to the wine country, Stellenbosch, where I was happily back in my element. Beautiful is about all I can say about the vineyards. The wine isn't too bad either. Jules and I rented a car and tooled around one of the days and had a grand ole time chatting with the locals. After a couple of good days of that, we arrived at our final destination - Cape Town. Wow, I cannot believe it. I am still reeling from the fact that I don't get back on the truck anymore and that all the people I have spent the past 10 weeks with (two of them 12 weeks) are peeling off one by one. It will be strange but I have no doubt that I'll adapt.
Past couple of days here have been spent poking around, touring the Cape of Good Hope and climbing Table Mountain. Have continually run into the truckies, so that has been nice and in many cases, have had a good laugh about a number of things and said "goodbye" again for the fourth or fifth time. Tomorrow, it really will be goodbye as Jules and I pick up our car and head to Plettenberg (sp). I am too tired at the moment to write too much or anything of wit, so off I will go. However, before I do, here is a pic of me finally there...
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