The Final Count Down :(

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Cape Town

Singapore Airlines got mildly abused by Jon and his Free-Alcohol habit and as we were circling Cape Town International we were informed of the local climate - yes 8 degrees Celsius! Having come from Asia and the average of about 25 - 30 degrees we were in for a shock being able to see our breath in the air. Anyways. . . once through our final port of entry we got a minibus shuttle to Long Street, central Cape town and found a hostel for the next few nights - Blue Mountain Backpackers. We had been traveling for hours and hours but it was early morning by the time we had sorted ourselves out so we powered on through and explored Cape Town on foot the day we arrived and window shopped, ate lots (obviously) and took on some much needed coffee before finally resigning ourselves to bed at 9pm which we think is quite an achievement considering we had been awake for about 48 hours! In Cape town we visited Robben Island which was really interesting especially as it was the ex political prisoners who showed you around, we climbed table mountain (being to poor to pay for the cable car) the climb was long but worth it for the breathtaking views. Was absolutely freezing up there though so we consumed multiple hot chocolates to thaw out. We also spent a lot of time at the V&A waterfront which is very Port Solent esqe. We did a walking tour (self conducted) and visited the slave lodge (where the slaves were housed) and District 6 museum which was all about the segregation of the black and coloured people during apartheid several other things of interest. We also had a day at the national museum which had cool stuffed whales and stuff but was half empty and very poorly set out! We then hired a car which would be our transport for the rest of our time in SA. On the virst day we drove round Cape Point where we stopped at boulders beach to watch the penguins who were very entertaning and lots had babies who were super cute. We also went into the national park where we walked up to the lighthouse taking care not to get blown over, and ate in the famous 2 oceans restaurant. We then took a detour on a little circular road where we got very over excited as we saw a zebra, and an ostrich (which we then saw hundreds of at farms so felt a bit foolish for getting so over excited!)

Stellenbosch

Our next stop was Stellenbosch wine country where we did a multitude of wine tastings including the easy ride wine tours which involved drinking about a bottle of wine each (but a mixture of sparkling, red, white, rose and dessert wine so very fuzzy heads) and having a traditional south african lunch. Was really fun and met two medics from sheffield uni which increased the fun had!

The Garden Route

We then embarked on the garden route - this shall all just be brief as we dont have much time but will hopefully expand on it later
Mossel Bay - we went cage diving with great white sharks which was incredible - they came so close they were actually putting their noses through the doors!
Oudtschoorn - we went on a 54km bike ride with a guy called Nigel (who will keep cropping up throughout this blog) and a girl called Nicola - very sore bums. We stopped at the Cango cango caves which we pretty amazing and huge although we couldnt do the adventure tour as it was full but having heard about the size of some of the gaps i'm not sure we would have been able to fit through. We also stopped at a lovely tea rooms for lunch and then went to an Ostrich farm where we could stand on the eggs and Debbie got to ride an Ostrich which was frightening but hilarious - especially as noone but her would volunteer to go first! The next day we went to an animal sanctury and saw baby tigers, white tigers, cheetahs and lots more - very cute!
Knysna - went on a township tour which was very eye opening - saw the schools and a rasta community and got to meet lots of people of the township who each told us there tales. It was shocking to see that even after apartheid there is such a distinction between the black and white communities.
Jeffreys Bay - a big surfing town with lots of outlet shops, spent time shopping and on the beach
Chynsa - another beach town but we went to a free school concert by the local school which was very moving and very impressive - really lovely place with an amazing view considering it was a backpackers
Coffee Bay - amazing place in the transkei which is where a lot of the black community was sent during apartheid - had lots of fun hear drinking and laughing. Went on a walk to the hole in the wall which was really beautiful and we saw whales and dolphins pointed out to us by our guide fez. Nigel was fascinated when he told us about the circumsision the men must go through so fez agreed to take us to meet the 'doctor' and two guys who were recovering from the operation! It wasnt too pleasant but we were really lucky to have been able to go as not many people get to witness such things. He also took us to the local shebeen (pub for the locals) which was really cool and we had a bit of a dance south african style

Durban

We then stopped at Durban where we stayed for 2 nights having not arrived until late on the first night (it being a long journey for poor chico time and no radio in the car!) We explored the town and went to the beach where there was a surf competition going on. The town was a little frightening especially at night but the beach area was lovely

St Lucia

Amazing town in the middle of a wildlife reserve - on our first night hippos were grazing outside our hostel!!
That night we went on a night drive around the town where we saw hippos, springbok, chameleons amongst other things.
Day 2 - free morning walk around the reserve where we saw blue wildebeest, giraffes, hippos and a 6m croc! Then went to a croc zoo place which was croc prison as all but 2 of the crocs there had eaten someone!
Day 3 - Game drive in Hluhluve Imflozi park - early 5:30 start - saw 4 of the big five - buffalo, rhino, lion and elephant - just the leopard to go. Also saw giraffes, zebras, hyenas and lots of other animals - very cool
Day 4 - Jon and I went deep sea fishing which was v cool but hard work - caught loads of fish and cooked up quite a bit for eating!!! Jons star catch was a king mackeral and Debbies was an Englishman (the name of a fish - she wasnt out on the pull!!)
Day 5 - Had a lie in after 2 very early starts and then went on a booze cruise down the esturary to watch the sunset in amongst all the crocs and hippos, in the evening we were entertained by traditional zulu dancing
Day 6 - Today we drove into swaziland so we got some more stamps for our very decorated passports

Swaziland

We spent the morning looking round the local craft markets before sorting our trip to Kruger which consequently resulted in us leaving that afternoon in order to be in Johannesburg for our early morning collection - consequently our trip in Swaziland was cut a bit short but since we never intended on visiting the country and it just provided a short cut for our plans it was no great loss.

Kruger

We stayed just outside Kruger in a treehouse which was really high up and you had to go downstairs and outside to go to the toilet and shower (which also electricuted us at one point!). We were staying there for 5 nights, our first night we went on a night drive in a nearby game reserve (not in kruger). We then spent 2 days in Kruger where we saw lots of animals we hadn't seen in St Lucia, including a leopard, and had much closer encounters with lions. On our 4th day we visited conservation centres where Jon fed the wild dogs and we got to stroke a cheetah, we also visited a mock village and ate traditional food. Our 5th day was spent back in Kruger where we tried to soak up the last of our safari experience and were very luck to see a pack of wild dogs as we were leaving the park as there are less than 300 of them left in the whole park. On our last day we drove back to Jo'burg stopping at the Blyde River Canyon on the way, which was beautiful but so so cold!

Johannesburg

We spent a few days here, the first was spent shopping, the next we visited the Apartheid Museum which was fascinating and really well organised, after this we crossed the road to a theme park where we tried out a large selection of the roller coasters. On our final day before catching our plane home 😞 we did a tour of Soweto township. We visited an informal settlement (real back to basics shacks), a church badly damaged during the apartheid uprisings, Nelson Mandelas house, and the Hector Pieterson Museum, named after the first person do die in the apartheid uprising. Really opened our eyes to how poorly treated the black community were during apartheid and the fact that there is still a large racial divide in South Africa today.

Unfortunately we then had to return to our hostel to pack up our stuff (and throw away loads of clothes which had been on our backs for the last 9 months) and head to the airport to catch our plane home 😞 9 months really did fly by!

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