South Africa - South and East Coast

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After 7 months or so in Africa it was time for a bit of "civilisation" in South Africa... kind of! It really is a melting pot of cultures, with the white-Afrikaans (generally accepted as responsible for Aparteid) and the white-English (supposedly more open minded and accepting but still reaped the rewards of the oppression) not really seeing eye-to-eye... the so called "coloured" people (mixed race) trying to distinguish themselves and the native Xosa and Zulu's not being the best of mates either... well thats the impression i got in my short time here, but it doesnt really do the place justice and there is a real sense of optimism for the future and the signs of racial integration are there to see...

Anyway... We arrived in Cape Town after a 20 hour bus journey from Windhoek where we were brainwashed by some over the top christian films (I'm open minded but I'm not convinced God will make you win the Superbowl!)

Luckily Anna had some friends here, so we spent a few days making the most of their hospitailty and comfort and getting a tour of the area, including Simon's Town to see the penguins, the wine regions and a bit of an insight into life during Aparteid (from a white English-Sth African perspective)... the whole area is like being in Europe, an immense contrast from the rest of Africa...




From Cape Town we hired a car and made a bee line to the East "wild Coast" to see the sardine run... for a couple of weeks in the year, masses of Sardines follow the cold streams North which generated a feeding frenzy for just about any predator going! We took a boat out to find some bait pools, which occur when a pod of dolphins feed on the sardines, generally causing mayhem as the sardines break from cover and seagulls dive bomb from the top, sharks feed from underneath and whales come in for a piece of the action... naturally we did the sensible thing and went out a few days later kitted up with SCUBA and snorkel gear ready to join the fun... I will never forget sitting on the little boat watching the dolphins and whales and hearing the line "do you fancy going to play with the sharks?"

bizarrely without a second thought we were in the water armed with a metal "fuck off stick" for when the sharks got a bit too close... we spent the morning free-diving with sharks and dolphins, having to constantly be on alert as the sharks kept going for your fins... we also saw countless Southern Right and Humpback whales, unfortunately every time we tried to swim with them they shied away!



We spent about a week in the Transkai, in Port St Johns and also further down the coast in a tiny village where a guy let us use his cottage, where the only cost was to pay the maid, which was a little weird for us having never had a maid before! The Transkai was an area previously designated for "blacks" to live in and is a very poor area but the people and the landscapes are amazing...



We then toured the Garden Route and headed back to Cape Town, via Stellenbosch and Franshoek, where we toured the wine regions and did a lot of tasting! We also did a Great White Shark Cage dive in Gansbaai



From there we headed inland to Oodsthoorn, Ostrich country and to a cool little village calle d Nieu Besotha before heading to Lesotho...

Photos are uploaded at the following location:

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