South Africa

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For the last 4 weeks I have been traveling South Africa using the Baz Bus (a kind of intercity bus for backpackers that transports them between hostels). I started in Johannesburg where I didn't do much
except a tour of Soweto. This turned out to be quite interesting as Soweto was very different to how I'd expected. It is a collection of townships and some areas are surprisingly wealthy, no different to an upper middle class suburb in Britain. Other parts are very poor though, so the massive wealth gap was very obvious to see.

I left Jo'burg for the Drakensberg mountains to the south. There I took a hiking tour to the summit of the Amphitheatre mountain, which also has the second highest waterfall in the world (to the Angel Falls in Venezuela). The scenery was awesome, but not unique as it is similar to the Lake District in north England.

With better beaches ahead I passed through Durban, only staying the one night, onto St Lucia. I passed through it during the low season as the hostel was nearly empty - I had a choice of 13 dorm beds, 2 showers and 2 toilets every night. Spacious! Compared to Jo'burg, St Lucia must be the polar opposite, in terms of size, number of people (though apparently it gets packed out during the peak season) and crime (our guide keeps his car unlocked with the keys in the ignition every night). The town was so laid back that I nearly fell asleep walking through it. St Lucia is famous as it is home to 5 different ecosystems and I had a great time kayaking along the estuary with the local crocodiles and hippos. Though I loved the tranquility of the place, I didn't stay for long as I was getting bored fast.

On my last night in St Lucia I met Alex, a German with a sense of humour! It just so happens that he was also going to Sodwana Bay to take a PADI open water course and had a car, which dramatically
simplified my transport issues. Having a car is so useful in South Africa, and makes everything cheaper. On the way to Sodwana Bay we stopped by the Hluhluwe Game Reserve and took a car drive in Alex's
car. A game drive would have cost 550 rand per person with an organised tour (~35 pounds), whereas with our own transport it was only 90 rand. Hluhluwe seemed to have a high concentration of animals
because we saw animals at regular intervals. We saw rhinos, elephants, buffaloes, giraffes and zebras up close and personal. Personally though, I was a bit disappointed (probably unfairly) because what I
really wanted to see was a leopard, the only one of the big 5 that I hadn't seen. It's not so much that leopards are rare here in southern Africa, it's just that they are solitary, elusive animals and
therefore the most difficult to spot.

We took our diving course with Coral Divers. They are a massive dive operation and have more than 5 boats going out 4 times every morning. At 3250 Rand (210 pounds) including accomodation, it was bargain (a similar course in UK would cost around 300 pounds). Being a complete
novice diver I have nothing with which to compare the diving at Sodwana Bay. It's touted as one of the best dive sites in the world and we certainly saw a lot of aqua life (including a manta ray and a large eel) and coral, but the visibility was only 15 meters and people have later told me that there are better dive sites in the Carribean, Hawaii, Thailand, Mozambique and Egypt. We were also a little unfortunate since the day after we completed our course the visibility cleared up and some people even got the chance to swim with dolphins! Damn.

Alex and I parted our ways after Sodwana Bay as he flew back to Germany while I headed for Swaziland. The thing about traveling on your own is that though you get to meet some great people but you
never get to know them very well before you go your separate ways. That's what I miss most about home - my close friends.

The Kingdom of Swaziland is the only absolute monarchy in Africa. Under Swazi culture a man can take more than one wife and King Mswati III currently has 15 wives, and lots of children! I stayed at
Swaziland Backpackers, which runs a cultural tour. We went to the local market, a cultural village, the local handicraft workshops and took in some of the wonderful natural scenery. The next day we went to the local "pub" for a braai (BBQ with a log fire) lunch and in the evening we went to a concert by Oliver Mtukudzi, apparently quite a famous South African artist. The concert was very good but it was
unfortunate that we didn't know any of the songs whereas the locals were singing to every word. I liked my stay in Swaziland mainly because I got to go the places where local people go and do some of
things that they do, which was a break from my normal life as a "tourist". I got to experience living life in "African time", which means that if someone says they will meet you at a certain time then expect them to be an hour late. Noone is in much of a rush in Swaziland.

My final destination before Jo'burg was Nelspruit, where I stayed at the Nelspruit Backpackers. Nelspruit is the gateway to the Kruger National Park, 2 million hectares (about the the size of Wales I think), the most famous national park in South Africa and home to 336 trees, 49 fish, 34 amphibians, 114 reptiles, 507 birds and 147 mammals, including the big 5. Jimmy, one of the hostel managers, had been a guide there for many years. I hadn't planned on going back to Kruger but it turned out that there were a couple of other travelers at the hostel who did. Hiring a car and Jimmy as a guide for a one night/two day safari turned out to be very cheap (R1200, much cheaper than any tour) so I decided to join them in a last attempt to see a leopard.

Going back to the Kruger made me realise how important a good guide is. The last game drive I went on in Kruger was with a very unenthusiastic guide and it literally sent me to sleep; but before noon Jimmy had managed to lead us to the 4 of the big 5, including a very good sighting of a white rhino with her calf, who couldn't have been more than a few months old. Jimmy always had lots to say about every animal and I loved his stories about his personal encounters in the bush. The only one of the big 5 that we hadn't seen yet was, of course, the leopard and it continued to be elude us for the rest of the day and the night game drive. Even Jimmy can't seem to work his magic on that one. The next morning was my thirteenth and last game drive in Africa, but my hopes for a leopard sighting quickly evaporated as the early morning sun started to blaze down, which tend to make cats hide in the shade. Then tiredness set in from the 4am
start and everyone including myself started to doze off. I took over the driving from Jimmy when he got tired and by 7am I was the only one awake in the car, though only barely. I was just about to give up and search for a shade to park under for a quick nap when, just as we went over a small hill, I saw something moving towards us. I thought it was a lioness and woke Jimmy up, who jumped up with excitement. "This is your leopard!" And it was beautiful! A young female, 1-2 years old. Jimmy took over the wheels and coasted us closer but it was very nervous, as young leopards tend to be, and ran into the bush about 20 meters away. It stay there for about 10 minutes, poking its head up to see what was going before walking off into the bush. So there was a happy ending after all, I had managed to see the big 5 before leaving Africa! The way it all happened, the fact that I was the one to spot it and that she was literally one of the last animals I saw in Africa made the whole experience all the more special.

Before heading back to Nelspruit Backpackers, we went through the Drakensberg Encarpment, part of the same range of mountains I visited earlier in my trip. We stopped at the famous Blyde River Canyon, the third largest canyon in the world (so now I have seen the top three). It's different to the Grand Canyon or Orange River Canyon though, since the bottom of the canyon is green, rich in plant life.

Nelspruit Backpackers certainly isn't the best facilitated hostel I've come across but the chilled out staff and meeting all the other travelers meant that it's my favourite hostel in South Africa. I stayed for a whole week there (either side of my trip to the Kruger National Park), way longer than planned. The free pool table also helped!

So now I am in Jo'burg. I'm left with a few days before I fly out to Perth, which I will use to sort out some admin for traveling in Oz. It seems a bit of a shame to have all this free time and I feel like I should have made better use of it. Looking back I'd probably have taken a bit more time in the Drakensberg earlier on, maybe go to Losotho, and also in Swaziland. Nevertheless, I'm glad I took the time to travel South Africa (instead of going into Mozambique as originally planned). There is a huge amount of natural beauty here - beaches, mountains and wildlife, plus the living costs are very low. However, it can be a difficult place to travel, the crime is restricting, though not debilitating since most travelers have fun without getting
into trouble, and getting around without a car can be difficult and sometimes the only option is to take a tour, which can be expensive.

Staying in South Africa for an extended time has also allowed me to get more of a feel for the country. It seems that South Africa has a lot of challenges ahead. People (both travelers and locals) have often
talked about racial tension, crime and HIV. Even though the apartheid has ended and South Africa calls itself the "rainbow nation", whites, coloured about blacks are still separated by wealth and racism (this
is very obvious when walking down the street). A lot of whites resent the affirmative action that the black government implements, while the blacks resent the whites for the apartheid. The economy has struggled
after the arpartheid as white businesses pulled out of the country, and life for most of the poorest blacks have not improved. I've heard, on more than one occasion, that if things don't improve South Africa
will be the next Zimbabwe. I really hope not as the place has so much to offer.

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Photos

Soweto
The nice part.

Soweto
Not so nice part.

Northern Drakenberg
Top of the Amphitheatre.

St Lucia
Kayaking with crocodiles.

Kruger
White rhino cow with her calf.

Kruger
Elephant cow protecting a calf.

Kruger
Lionesses lazing by the road

Kruger
Leopard!

Comments

[Shaun Harrop]

South African Safaris
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