Whirlwind Tour of South Africa

I could probably write a whole novel on the adventures of the last two weeks but I only have the patience to write the summary (and a rather short one at that).

Friday night I flew from George to Jo'burg. I was supposed to land roughly an hour before my mom (who came out to travel South Africa with me), but due to a thunderstorm in Detroit she was delayed 24 hours.

I spent Saturday on a tour of Soweto (one of the neighborhood of Jo'burg that shows a great cross section of the South African population - millionaires and township side-by-side) before going to the airport to meet mom.

Sunday mom and I got our act together and headed off towards Kruger. We were worried that I wasn't going to be able to drive, but the age limit here is 21 and so we only had to pay just over $20 for me to be able to drive. We spent Sunday night at Panorama Restcamp, which sits on the edge of a cliff with stunning views. We were planing on camping, but mom had most of the camping gear and somewhere in the 24 hour layover he luggage didn't make it so we stayed in cabin instead.

Monday through Friday we spent in Kruger. It was great! We saw all of the 'Big 5': Elephants, Rhinos, Buffalo, Leopards, and Lions in addition to zebras, giraffes, wildabeest, ostrich, a African wild cat, impala, waterbuck, reedbuck, kudu, nyala, warthogs, hyenas, and black backed jackals, plus dozens of birds, just to name the ones that I can think of at the moment. This was my favorite part of the trip.

Friday night we spent camping outside a hostel in Nelspruit. It was not the best of places to camp (we were probably about 40ft from the bar) but we survived.

Saturday and Sunday we went to Swaziland. We camped at the best place - a hostel in the middle of a wildlife sanctuary. Swaziland was excellent! We saw 4000 year old rock art, hiked on one of the biggest granitic outcrops in the world, sorted through a huge makeshift market of African nik-naks, and met some really great people.

Monday night we made our way to the Drankensbergs - the mountains the separate South Africa and Lesotho (the country entierly contained in South Africa). And spent Tuesday night there as well (although in a slightly different place). They are beautiful mountains, but the practice of burning the land is common there and the air was very very hazy.

Wednesday was driving towards the Wild Coast, we spent that in Port St. Johns. We ended up as very very hippy hostel, and ended up not spending much time there.

Thursday night we stayed at a place in Grahmstown that used to be a jail - very funky. But the real reason we went to Grahmstown is that there is an arts festival going on there. It was EXCELLENT!!! We saw a play: 'Relationshit' which was fabulous, and went to a traditional dance/music show that was amazing! In addition to seeing lots of street performances.

Friday night we spent at a hostel just outside of Addo Elephant Park where we went on Saturday. Compared with Kruger it wasn't as exciting so we decided to go to Storm's River/Tsitsikamma that afternoon.

Tsitsikamma was gorgeous. We saw a bunch of humpedback whales that afternoon and went for a short hike along the coast. But we had to get back to Karatara so we didn't get to spend much time there.

The week in Karatara was a pretty normal work week for me, but this weekend we went over to Cape Town.

Cape town was great! We got to stay at Sandy's (the Eden Campus manager) house which was both in a great place and a very nice house - TONS of thanks to Sandy for letting us stay there. We went to Boulder Beach and saw African Penguins, went to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point and then went into town and the Green Market Square (a craft market in Cape Town). Terry and I had to take the bus back (my mom drove us there, but she turned in ther rental car when she flew out). It wasn't that bad of a bus ride but it was rather long - 8 hours.

All in all it was a great trip, and I got to see a lot of South Africa.

In other news, Terry and I had to give back the car and I didn't manage to take a picture of it before we had to give it back, so no picture.

Enough writing for now, perhaps a movie tonight to relax after all that adventure.