The final days in SA

In Mauritius, our new home, now but won't get into all that until I've recounted the rest of the South Africa trip. We stayed in Laura's family home in Polokwane and when we weren't doing all those little obnoxious errands that have to be done before you move countries, we were definitely making the most of it. We took a casual trip to Polokwane nature reserve and had an epic bike ride. It's quite symbolic of the culture here, get a few hours free in the afternoon and all you have to do is take a 10 minute drive into the nearest "safari park" (you'll get hell if you call it that here, and laughed at), and you'll see species of animal you've never even heard of before. 

We took a visit to see Laura's family's domestic worker ("maid" is not politically correct, apparently) in Laatstehoop (sp?), a township around 30 minutes drive from the house. Her name's Maria and she's clearly quite the matriarch in the community. A terrific lady who knows anything and everything about who's who and who's doing what. We met a young lad called Miko (sp?), who didn't have any parents and was living with Maria. She makes sure he's fed, does his homework etc., while he takes care of her when she's not well. He wasn't the only one she looked after, and apparently she always has taken care of various kids over the years, in addition to having her own kids. 

The other member of the household was her mother-in-law, who was terrifically old, and could not stop smiling. She seemed quite excited at having her photo taken.

A thoroughly great 6 weeks, I can't wait to go back. Now... To the beach!

Cape Town - Penguins and Prison

African Penguin

Cape Town was the last leg of the Journey before we headed back to Polokwane. After several weeks of small seaside towns, it was weird being back in a  big city. While the Waterfront was great, and there was plenty to do around Cape Town, there was a weird feel about the place. Nonetheless, we had a good time and made three days' worth of fun out of it. The first day, we strolled from the backpackers to the V & A Waterfront, had some coffee by the water, looked around the shops and all that tourist stuff. The second day we took the train down to Simon's Town, and walked along to Boulders Beach, a famous nesting ground for African Penguins. Watching them on TV doesn't give much impression of how comical those things are. Watching them work up the momentum to take just one step forward was enough to make it worth going to see them.

Mandela's prison garden

The final day of the trip we went to Robben Island, sight of the prison in which Nelson Mandela spent most of his sentence, now more of a historical monument. Some of the stories written by ex-prisoners were enough to make your stomach turn. It was interesting to stand in Mandela's own garden, where he apparently hid his papers for A Long Walk to Freedom, which he'd apparently been working on for many, many years. When the prison decided to build up the concrete wall as you see it here in the photo, they dug up the ground and discovered the papers, which earned Mandela an extra four years on his sentence.

Nelson Mandela's prison cell

When you see what his cell looks like, the idea of even four days in it would be a struggle for most of us.

South Africa (Part 2)

The next part of the trip was one of the highlights; Knysna. A great little town with a crackin' waterfront. We tried the oysters, which Knysna's famous for, but they didn't compare to the Kudu we put on the Braai the following night!

We also took a township tour, something that was recommended by some magazine article I read before we headed out on the trip. It turned out the be a good recommendation; great to see a whole side of the nation that you'd be excluded from under normal circumstances. A group of kids latched onto us at one part of the tour, clearly intrigued by us. One girl was very enthusiastic to pose for us, and proceeded to organise the other kids into place ready for more photos. One boy in particular stood out, he stood still holding his little toy train in his hand, his expression never changing from that sad look, barely moving at all from his pose the whole time. I wish I could know what he was thinking.

Next stop was Oudtshoorn. We got off the bus at George and had to catch a shuttle up to the hostel. The town (a very Afrikaans type place, apparently) was famous for ostrich, which we tried immediately, and, being a town in the mountains, it was a great place for bike riding. We didn't cycle upwards but instead got a car ride up to Swartberg pass, a high-point in the strip of mountains near the town. We spent the next 50-odd kilometres riding downwards back to the hostel. Needless to say, we saw some fantastic views on the way down, not least of all being the stop at Cango Caves we did on the way down. The caves were formed by acidic water obliterating the rock several hundred million years ago, and later, when the water dried up, made a perfect home for a group of Khoisan people; an indigenous group of people of Southern Africa (and later the rest of Africa, and then the world, though physiologically very different by then). After seeing some great stalagmites, stalagtites and pre-historic cave paintings, we carried on free wheeling down the road.

Hermanus was where we went shark cage diving. I can't advise you enough to strike that one off your bucket list, huge disappointment. The coastal walk and whale watching, however, made Hermanus another fantastic stop. You would struggle not to see whales on the coastline there, and, as always along the garden route, there were plenty of nice restaurants and cafes to chose from, little of which we sampled but instead chose to eat picnics with red wine next to the water. What else could you want?!