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O.K. so I have one confession to make - even though I was in Durban for almost a week I didn't have a Bunny Chow, in fact I didn't have a curry at all! Awful, I know. For those that don't know Durban has the largest Indian population outside of India and the Bunny Chow is an African/Indian delicacy - 1/4, 1/2 or a whole loaf of bread hollowed out and filled with delicious curry (I actually had one in Joburg so I know they're good!)
After all that beach and village life style Amy and I were in need of a little civilisation. traveling through the Eastern Cape was definitely an experience and I loved the feel of 'Africa'. It is the poorest area in SA and you can really see it as you drive through. The scenery is beautiful and the towns shabby but very interesting because it was a side of SA I had never really seen before - the shebeens (illegal drinking dens), the Hair Salon in the 2x2 rusted tin box, the childern in smart school uniforms walking on the roads miles from anywhere! Our Baz Bus driver even got out at some of the
Entering Lesotho
This guy was running around after the donkey smacking it with a stick - what a way to enter a new country!villages on the side of the road to hand out bread.
We arrived at Tekweni BP in Durban and were again greeted my Stef proping up the bar, but other than that little piece of familiarity tekweni's was not our favorite place. I'll tell you it's a grower thou and Amy ended up staying over a week! Our first day we went out into the city and went to the Victoria Market which is a local Indian market. It was an incredibly contradictory place - there were no whites and yet the place was full of sovenier shops - who did they sell to? We went round the market very quickly coz I'm getting pretty 'marketed out'; I don't have any money to buy anything and it's the same old toot everywhere. We ended up taking a walk in the streets surrounding it, we got some strange looks because it was obviously just a lot of people going about their daily business, but it was really nice to get a feel for what the city was really about. And we never felt threatened or uneasy even though people had warned against it. We had a slightly interesting time of
Melting the snow
Drakensberg Mountains it when we popped into a little kebab shop/cafe and tried to order some coffee and snacks - they looked at us like we were nuts (although the Indian lady who decided to join us at our table didn't seem to mind!)
Stef had to get her plane back to Italy so we said goodbye and Amy and I headed out to Gateway Shopping Centre! Like I said we were in need of a little civilisation; it sounds really strange but watching a movie and having a nice lunch in a cafe was actually really lovely (tres random movie though - normal romcom with an etheral women that kept on popping up as mother nature and a semi greenpeace/globalwarming propagana at the begining!) Unfortunately the next day we missed all the hot surfers at the Big Wave comp on North Beach due to boring admin duties but we did manage to book a tour around a local Zulu village and a 2 day adventure into the Drankensberg Mountains.
The Zulu tour is something we wanted to do because we were in South Africa in the KwaZulu Natal and it was meant to be an interesting experience, being a
Rising from the mist
The Drakensberg Mountains real, modern Zulu village. Unfortunately I didn't really learn anything I hadn't already at the Xhosa dinner (for a fraction of the price!) but is was a good day out in the beautiful 1000 hills area. The Xhosa and Zulu traditions seemed, from the small amount I had seen, to be very similar. But we did learn a bit more about the love rituals (the woman has no choice again!) and apparently in this village it all happens down at the river. The female shows off her worth by washing and working hard, so the men can see she is not lazy and will make a good wife. Then when a man decides who he wants, the girl has to make him a love bracelet from river reeds to show her acceptance. Contrast that with the rondavel that we went into for lunch, obviously someone's home, that had a wide screen TV and leather 3 piece suite! All the other homes in the village are without electricity but the school has it for their computers and all that stuff - so it is definitely a modern village. Traditional Zulu culture mixed with the modernism of the west. One thing we
The Surfers Jump From Here!
It's too much hassle to fight the waves to get to the good spots did do that I was very interested in was going to see the Sangoma. Sangomas practice traditional/spritual medicine for the villiage, it is often and calling but this village did it by ancestery so the whole family were healers. I don't generally liek the stories I have heard of sangomas taking lots of money for something that could be done at a nearby clinic or to tell peopel they are ill becaus the ancestors are angry, they must sacrifice a goat. I have always actaully been very open to alternative therapies and things like tarot etc but I did not feel one single thing/ spiritual vibe from this women from the moment she entered. She sat there and vogued, while our guide explained what she did (apparently she can cure AIDS!) - and she still wanted money even though she didn't even throw the bones or anything. Basically I came out thinking 'what a crock of shit'.
The Drakensberg
We left digustingly early in the morning (especially since we had chosen the night before to go out for drinks!) I had roped another girl from my room into coming with us so it was just the 3
of us on the trip but it was completely awesome! I had originally decided to do this whole road trip just so that I could go through the Drakensberg so I was so happy to be doing a proper trip into it. (even though Amy and I had at one stage considered missing it in favour of flying back to cape town and doing a road trip to hogsback with a couple of guys!) Sleeping most of the way to Underberg and waking up just 2 hours later in completely different landscape was most disorientating! We had arrived in a town in the southern Drakensberg which basically made all think we had flown to Canada or Vermont. (not that I have ever been to these places but you knwo what I mean!) all around us were green rolling hills and perfect trees with their autumn dresses on, giving way to the spectacular snow covered mountains behind. Unfortunately every damn time I saw the perfect shot to show this off I was in the car and not able to get it.... grumble grumble. We got straight into a 4x4 and were whisked off up the Sani Pass, which is a very
As the sun goes down
Durban after the surfer crowds have left rough road up through the mountains and into Lesotho. We travelled up the Pass and it was just awe inspiring, every turn of the road brought a new stunning scene into view getting closer and closer to the snow! We were so lucky, the Drakensberg had just had a cold snap so the mountains were looking their best covered in snow and yet the day was bright, with clear blue skies. The driver stopped a few times for a photo break but I, yet again, had ants in my pants about not being able to take them when I wanted! We arrived at the border of Lesotho and had bascially entered a whole new world - we had travelled through 3 already this morning! I couldn't believe it; from sub tropical Durban to fresh and leafy Underberg and now barren, snow covered Lesotho.
The driver told us we would be going to meet a Lesotho family in a village abotu 5 km fromt he border and I was immediately dubious. After the Xhosa and Zulu experiences I was worried that it would be another forced meeting; my worries were completely unfounded. When we arrived the lady of the house
came out and spoke to our driver like an old friend, she smiled and greeted us too and invited us into her house. She spoke a little english so communication was with her rather than through a guide or translator and because we were such a small group and she was so friendly and glad to see us that it was like going to visit a friend. Walking into the little rondavel was wonderfully warm and I almost forgot that the world outside was glistening with snow; it was heated simply by a square stone in the floor, underneath the fire and it acted as central heating even when the fire wasn't burning. This lady obviously gets visits fairly often through the tours so knows ish when to expect people but her delight in having us made it evident that she was glad for the adult company. (she usually lives there with her children in a small community while her husband works away) She had made bread and beer for us, the bread was so well made I had to take a photo and luckily the beer was not of the vodka-sicky-vomit variety! She did have soem things to sell
(doesn't everyone) but we weren't pushed to look or buy which was a very welcome change! I was so glad that this meeting was so much better than the others and that we left feeling that we had really experienced something unique.
The next item on the list was a visit to the highest pub in africa (i would've text my dad from the top because I knew he would appreciate it but I didn't ahve any credit - at least I was thinking of you!) We took photos, had lunch and hot chocolates and then started the long trip down to Underberg. From there we were picked up and taken to the hostel that we would be staying at for the night. I had previously reaad the write up for this in the coast to coast ('bible' to those traveling SA!) and I had been put off thinking it was some kind of wild western themed lodge. I was happy to find a very relaxed farm instead. We were greeted with beer (always a good start!) they went out and got red wine to make gluwine (mulled) for the evening and before bed we got to cuddle and
Photo Op
Amy's broody nature takes over feed the little orphaned lambs from the farm. In the morning we went out on a ride in the surrounding hills. Here was a very different ride from J Bay but amazing all the same. There wasn't any galloping off but that would've ruined the views! We just walked across the hills and had the view of the farm and surrounding country side mixed with the mountains, so we just spent the time taking it all in.
Later that day we had an all together different experience. When picking a guide for a hike I would generally steer clear of the one that falls asleep on my shoulder in th ecar on the way to the drop off. From The moment he got inthe car we all felt a little uneasy, his speech slurred and he repeated himself often. "in this lands the bushmen were hunters and gatherers..... hunters and gatherers means they huntered the animals and gathered the plants" - hear that 3 times in one short car journey and you'd be weirded out too! At first I was ready to give he the benefit of the doubt - perhaps he thought we were a bit 'special' or
Sweeping Up
Zulu Village couldn't understand his accent? No. When he continued on this track once we had been dropped off we thought we would make the most of an 'interesting' guide and have a bit of a giggle with him. But when he started on about the bloody hunters and gatherers (which lived her many years ago - ranging from 20 to 1000 years, depending on which minute you spoke to him!) we had a bit of a laugh coz it was such a riddick situation, then he got really offended and obviously was not ready for the fun banter part of the trip. We headed off up the side of a hill and we weren't on a path when he started singing in Zulu in the middle of one of his speeches. We asked what the song meant and he just carried on, running away and then stopping for a word. Then the dancing started. He was dancing on the spot in front of us, his trousers undone and buldge clearly coming out (thank god for those little red boxers!) As we danced away from us Amy whispered to Jorinde and I "are we really going to carry on with this?!" basically
the answer was no! There was no way any of us were going to carry on up a mountain with no path with this man as our guide. When we had to cross a fallen barbed wire fence and he started on about the H&G's again we thought it time to mention that we were very tired from the trip yesterday and ride this morning that we thought we might not be able to make the whole hike. He got really angry and started repeating his complaints about us - "you don't trust me - but I trust you - I love you - I don't want a relationship with you - I have a wife - I love you - you don't trust me - you make me very sad" We tried our best to placate him, told him it wasn't him, we did trust him it's just that we are tired. He phoned R (our driver) when we asked if we could be picked up 1hr earlier. He said he would come and started singing again and moaning about how this was his job, he must take us to the bushman paintings, he must still get his money.
Look at Me!
And check the leather suite and wide screen TV behind (this really was a modern Zulu Village) He got very upset and we started to get a little scared, he said he wouldn't carry onthe hike at all if we wouldn't go the whole way. We just started walking back down tothe pick up site hoping that R might still be there. He hollered after us and shouted then when he stopped we turned around to see him with his trousers down peeing onthe top of the hill. Well enough is enough! We decided to keep walking even when he randown the hill after us, we ignored him when he asked what a black man has to do to get a western girl, and when we got to the site and asked him to phone R again he said we would have to wait for 2 hours. He eventually started talking to him and when we asked for a word he hung up. He said he would call us - R didn't have our numbers and we didn't have our phones - he then said he would call back on his phone and gave it to us. More singing and dancing. We checked dialled numbers - R hadn't been called at all and when we tried ourselves
we found our guide had no credit! The Idiot had been having full on conversations with himself! We had no idea what to do till our guide - realising that he couldn't persuade us to do the hilke said we would be meeting R aat a hotel down the road.
Thank god some kind of help! even if R wasn't there we would be able to get some help from the staff and we could see the hotel from where we were. We were still unsettled but realised that this was actually goign to be funny when we were home!😉 Although we all agreed it wouldn't have been funny at all if any of us had been doing this alone. On our way to the hotel we walked along rickety wooden panel bridges, the type you get in old indiana jones style movies across ravines with huge drops or molten lava at the bottom! Although ours only had a smallish drop with a river beneath and we didn't have a Harrison Ford lookylikey helping us across - we had our guide standing at the other end jumping on it and shaking it! Much more fun I thought! We walked
A Lesotho Village
This is where we met the lovely lady and her lovely bread! up to the back of the hotel though the golf course while our guide rolypoly'ed his way across it. (actually not joking here, this man was doing rolypolys across the putting green and swatting imaginary flies from his head whenever he recomenced his Zulu dances!) KIDS - DON'T DO DRUGS! We finally made it to the hotel and asked to use their phone - spoke to R and found he was in fact outside. Safe back in Underberg with our guide out the way we explained everything and got a refund for the hiking portion! R said that this guy was normally very good and had never seen him do anything liek this before. It was one on the more interesting portions of my time in SA I will say that!
The next morning after a reallynice dinner with Jorinde and Amy, I said good bye and headed back to Joburg because I had to get my flight to Hong Kong in just a few short days! I stayed again at my Aunt and Uncles and will forgo the explaination of what happened when the 3rd watson woman fell a foul of the Lusito Land Caperanias! needless to say
- thank god I had two days till my flight!
Another huge thank you to my fabulous family for letting me stay with you and for being just so generally great! (even if Lourens should know better than getting ladies Jagermeister instead of the requested waters!)
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