Kruger Park, Drakensberg Mountains and Lesotho.

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Hello all, it's been a while hasn't it? In fact I noticed that I haven't written a travel blog since December 2008, which in itself is a depressing thought! Aside from a 2 week road trip through Europe last summer with my gal pal Natasha (making myself sound camp 2 lines in, impressive)I haven't set foot on foregin soil since I returned. But after a long period of scraping the pennies to try and pay off the last trip, I have sort of reached a point where I could get travelling again, admittedly I still owe a lot of people a lot of money but these are minor points if you ask me, desperate times and all that. So here I sit in South Africa, as usual this blog will be aimed at family and friends back home to keep them in the loop(hi, am still alive), but also at other backpackers who stumble across this in the midst of their own research(in short, just come here it's great). This blog covers a lot so will be wordy, but I suspect you never doubted that for a second with me.

Anyway, I can't tell you how good it feels to actually be travelling again, every day there has been some new sight to behold that my eyes have never met before, something to learn, a smell, a taste, anything. I paraphrase Bill Bryson by saying I can’t think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything. Suddenly you are five years old again. You can’t read anything, you only have the most rudimentary sense of how things work, you can’t even reliably cross a street without endangering your life. Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses. I love it! This blog will cover Johannesberg and Soweto, my safari in Kruger Park, the Ampitheatre trek in Northern Drakensberg and a trip to Lesotho.

Johannesburg
So after 2 uneventful flights I arrived in Joberg (it's what us cool kids call it) and stayed in a small and very quiet hostel-Bob's Bunkhouse. This was my first realisation of South Africa-that there was a startling lack of backpackers, I realised before booking the trip that it was winter here, but as it is summer everywhere else I thought it should still be busy. However one hostel owner has told me it was the quietest he had seen it in 17 years and a bus driver told me it was 'scarily quiet', I guess the credit crunch bit hard. It's not like I have been on my own, in fact not once since I arrived(see I CAN make friends) but it's startingly apprant that the hostels and dorms are far from full. On arrival I went for a wander around the suburb and literally within 20seconds a sickening, threatening and daunting realisation hit me as I looked around and stared open mouthed,my stomach lurched, aghast in shock and horror at the sight before me...Michael Bolton was in town. Any country that willingly lets him in, let alone advertises that fact must have some serious issues. Bravely I pressed on and as I did I become aware of another, and lets face it probably more important fact, I was the only white person walking the street. It took a few minutes before it sunk in, but after that I couldn't shake the feeling, was I in danger? did I stumble into the wrong neighbourhood?was I just being stereotypically racist anyway to even feel uneasy? After a while I noticed another fact, that all the cars were being driven by white people, and it was in these first few minutes that my first impressions of South Africa were formed, and to be fair I haven't seen much since to sway me otherwise. It was apparant that it is the land of have and have not's, I did a quick count to check and of the next 20 cars that passed me only one was being driven by a black guy, and every person that passed me on the pavement was not white. It is a crude hypothesis and not exactly scientfic but I think the Joberg car test did apply. I have since found out that the country has 50million people in it, and of this only 4.9 million are actually white, yet they hold all the power and money. I tred carefully on the race relations ground and want to stay clear of it, but look out if the masses ever revolt that's all I'm saying.

Joberg itselt was nothing special, a large city full of the usual stuff, but quite run down and dangerous looking. My hostel was surrounded by an electric fence and electronic gate, with each door having its own gate attached too, it's just that kind of place. It was also cold, it sits 1800m high so is warm in the day but cold at night. I booked onto a day tour which took us through central Joberg and he pointed out a few things but the 15minutes it took seemed more than enough for me. The main reason for the tour was to visit Soweto(short for South West Township) essentially a massive suburb outside the city where the non whites were shipped and now stands at an impressive 3-4million people, depending on which stat you believe. The main suprise of this trip was learning that Soweto itself has a class system, it has 3 layers whereby the upper class actually have massive houses that are much bigger than mine (ok parents) at home, then there is a middle class of brick houses but on a smaller scale,and then the bottom rung which is the metal shacks and corrugated iron I had expected to see. These were the most fascinating aspect and reminded me of the favella shacks in Rio, but as with there I constantly had a feeling of guilt, that being there and taking pictures of 'poor people' around their homes was morally wrong. The guide, and indeed actual Soweto inhabitants we met assured us otherwise,but still the feeling of animals in a zoo didn't escape me. The area 'Kliptown' was vast and sprawling, each family had its own very small corrugated shack, which was about the size of my kitchen, but comprised a bedroom, living room and kitchen, the house we viewed slept 6 people. There was one portakabin toilet outside, which was shared between 8 other familes, and water was avaiblable from a pump well. They had electricity in the form of one light bulb, which we were told frequently went out so candles were used a great deal. We were also shown the school, which was run through donations, overall 380 children pass through each week where there are just 6 teachers. However this is not compulsory and many parents would not let their child go to the school, those that do get about 1 day each as the different age groups have a different day to attend. Overall it was a real eye opener and I recommend every traveller to pay it a visit. The inhabitants of the township were welcoming and friendly, they seemed keen to show off their area and were proud of what they had, the kids were just too cute as well. The trip also involved the Apartheid Museum and Hector Pietersen Museum, which further highlighted the problems faced by the country but did give an insight into how it reached its current state. We also got to see Neslon Mandela's house after his release and have since seen his current house, unsuprisingly the guy is a God here. Oh and also Desmond Tutu's house but he wasn't in, a shame really as I do a cracking Desmond impersonation.

Kruger Park
And so it was on to my Safari in Kruger Park, which is the size of Wales (everything is the size of Wales here apparantly). It is massive though, so a 4 day tour spent in an open and raised jeep cruising around trying to find animals can be a bit of a mission. I booked my trip through the Baz Bus and the company was Livingstone Safaris which I would recommend for budget backpackers. 2 of these days involved actually getting to and from Kruger but that still left us with 2 full days and one night drive. We were also due to visit the Blyde River Canyon which is meant to be stunning but due to a miner strike(the workers, not that it was a small strike, or one by children) blocking the roads we couldn't pass through, flipping miners eh? Being Welsh I should have shown them how it's done, or maybe not, these soft girly hands aren't made for manual labour. The trip itself also meant lots of early starts, in fact that combined with my bus meant lots of early starts, my first week there led to wake up times of 7:30, 6:30, 4:30, 4:30, 5:30, for most mere mortals that would be tough enough but for me thats medal worthy. Another slight moan-it was FREEZING!!! One day I wore 3 pairs of socks, 3 trousers, 3 t shirts, 2 hoodies, a waterproof jacket, gloves, a hat and blanket, and was STILL cold. Early morning starts and open sided vehicles in winter are not a good mix just for the record.
Anyway, the safari itself was something I have wanted to do for since I can remember and overall it was really good. With an area that big there is always an element of luck inolved, so some people come away having spotted loads and others nothing at all. The search is for the 'big 5', lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino, althogh if you ask me the hippo must be pissed because it would batter a buffalo, they are just like big cows! The big 5 is actually those animals which are hardest to kill and the buffalo stick as a herd when attacked as in that famous youtube video, but I'm still not buying it, hippo's are double hard, as are the crocs! You can also spot giraffes, hyena, wilderbeast, warthogs, karibu, baboons, porcupines etc. Thankfully we managed to see them all, the lions being the highlight. All that is except a flipping leopard! Apparantly these are hardest to spot and the wardens can go 2 months without seeing them. But just to rub it in, the very next day after we left a leopard wandered into our camping area!! The guides always warned us that animals could and did wander nearby, and when asleep in our tents you could hear lions roaring and hippos bellowing, it was surreal and amazing. But I have since spoken to a few people who were there the day after me and apparantly a leopard was just lying on the other side of the river bank in the night staring at the tents but could not cross! Selfish thing coming a day late. Another group got to see a lion feasting on a buffalo it had just killed, but we were across the other side of the park that day, sods law! Overall it was great though and highly recommended.

Lesotho
Next up was a trip to Northern Drakensberg, which lies half way between Joberg and Durban. It is also very convieniently situated next to the tiny country of Lesotho meaning a visit just had to be done, be rude not to they might be expecting me to pop in. I didn't know much about the country before I visited, but have since learnt that it is the 3rd poorest country in the world and is also the worlds highest country. I have also learnt during my trip here that they love to throw stats like that around and need to be taken with a pinch of salt, for example it is only the 'highest' because it's LOWEST point is the furthest away from sea level than any other countries, so I guess that sort of counts. It was definitly poor though, surviving as a result of farming and living off the land, the only trade they complete is with other equally poor villages. The childrens clothes were the results of handouts and led to some bizarre sights, like the girl in the pink designer jumper and beanie hat while clutching a toy kangaroo. Unsuprisingly, the children couldn't speak any English but they did know 2 phrases "give me sweets" and "can I have", I didn't know whether to applaud their effort or cry at the obvious tourist effect, this left an odd taste in the mouth, as did the homemade beer they made us drink, think porridge and dirt with a hint of beer, I've probably had worse. The children were heartbreakingly cute though and the villagers seemed both fiercly proud and welcoming, they certainly laughed at our faces when we drank the beer. Nice to think I provide comedy value wherever I go, and overall I'm very glad I went.

Northern Drakensberg
The Drakensberg mountains were next up and stand at 3100m so it was always going to take a bit of a trek, what didn't help was the first snowfall in 9 years covering the mountain making conditions tougher. We were driven up to about 2300m so the rest of it I thought would be easy, but the snowfall which had then frozen meant gorges had to be climbed and traversed rather than simply bounding up grassy hills. The one stretch which lasted about 45minutes was one of the most physically gruelling things I have ever done. Team spirit won the day though, we had a great group of people in the hostel over the 3 days who did both tours together, and of course drank together too. There were Irish and Dutch sisters(honestly this travelling lark is difficult)a couple of English lads, a Dutch couple and some other random and odd characters drifting in and out. All had great banter and we had a good laugh over the course of the days, sadly after it we all went our seperate ways but this is the nature of the beast. The top of the mountains offered us some stunning views, the snow helping to frame then beautifully, the view itself actually reminded me of the Grand Canyon and was worth the climb, just. We also got to see the "second highest waterfall in the world", not that it was much of a waterfall as it had frozen and even then it wasn't hugely impressive, again it was named the second highest due to its altitude and not the column of water or drop it creates etc. The climb down the mountain involved the use of some ladders, which were more daunting than helpful as they were a sheer drop down the cliff face and as wobbly as my ever expanding stomach. We all survived to tell the tale though and duly got very messy in the bar afterwards to celebrate. Great time and those 3 days have been the highlight of the tour so far, the trips were superb and I advise doing both, but the company on the trip definitly makes it something special.

So since then I have bussed it to Durban where I only spent one night, which mainly involved going on a night drive with the English guys around Durban, getting lost and spending abut 2 hours driving through menace-ville to get back safely, interesting shall we say. Again the South Africa paradox exists though, a lovely sea front, large hotels, rich whites, and a street behind dangerous areas and poverty. After this I again whipped down the coast and spent just one night in Port Elizabeth, time is against me and I want to do things down the coast but there have been lovely views on the way down. Next up for me is the highest bungee in the world(this time its apparantly true) a spot of shark cage diving and some whale watching, this travelling business is ever so dull...

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