Blogs from South Africa, Africa - page 681

Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Cape Town November 1st 2003

Hi there. Welcome to the African Archives... At the southern tip of Africa lies a mighty and vibrant city! I spent a couple of months living and working in Cape Town. During that time I explored the city quite intimately and got to see a lot of interesting stuff. Dave.... read more

On our own again

Africa » South Africa » Eastern Cape » Port Elizabeth July 8th 2003

Lions Head and Robben Island from Table Mountain

thetravelbugtribe

As you can see we have reached the other end of Africa now. South Africa has been great (so far), we are really enjoying all we are seeing and doing. Its weird not being with the truck and all our "new" friends anymore though. We crossed from Namibia into SA and headed down to Stellenbosch. A lovely town, full of well looked after Cape Dutch style buildings, and of course vineyards. We did a tour round four wineries, sampling well at each. All the wines were good, some were just better than others. We did get a couple of bottles, but of course we have drunk them already! From there it was a short drive down to Cape Town, in the rain! Table Mountain could barely be seen, and we certainly couldnt see the top. We ... read more

Pretoria

Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Pretoria May 5th 2003

DMac

We stayed at a great new backpackers in Pretoria where I watched a very poor Champions League game - Italian football can be so dull... and then we caught a bus to Bulawayo Zimbabwe the next afternoon. I had a bit of a cold from jumping in the pool at midnight at Sondzela I think, but we weren't doing much apart from buses now anyway. ... read more

Hippos & Crocs

Africa » South Africa » KwaZulu-Natal » iSimangaliso Wetland Park April 29th 2003

Elephants

DMac

The greyhound would only take us to Richards bay, and from there we would catch local shared taxis/combis to St Lucia changing in Mtubetube. It was great to finally catch a combi and be crammed into the back seat with the locals. Seeing the people at Richards Bay as we were waiting to leave (the buses leave when they are full) was great. We started to really feel like we were in a country that had much more for us to discover the way of local culture. St Lucia was a great stop. On the way in we saw in the distance some Hippos in the water. We had decided to take our first safari from here in place of going to Kruger - which seemed to us a little too big and expensive. Our day ... read more

Umslanga

Africa » South Africa » KwaZulu-Natal » Durban April 26th 2003

DMac

From Cinsta we headed up to Durban. We considered staying around the Transkeii, but both of us were keen to get further north and into Swaziland and further north into tropical Africa. We had a great time in Durban where we were put up by Wayne and Crystal. We had met Wayne on Ko Chang in Thailand and he had wanted us to get in touch if and when we got to Durban. He has a lovely apartment backing onto a small private beach in Umslanga (that is how you say it not how it is spelt). Wayne and Crystal took us to the Indian Market by the waterfront and we hung out there, chatted and enjoyed Durban's beachfront on a Sunday afternoon. It was quite a treat for both of us to be the guests ... read more

Transkeii

Africa » South Africa » Eastern Cape » Chintsa April 23rd 2003

Schoolkids

DMac

From Hogsback we travelled to Cintsa to a huge hostel called Buccaneers of which we had heard great things. It was the gateway to the Wild Coast or Transkeii part of South Africa which was from what I understood pretty much an independant state during Aparteid and run by the non white native people - like Zululand. Upon arrival we promptly went on a tour to a local school where they put on one of their weekly concerts for the backpackers who by donating after the concerts pretty much fund the school with the help of volunteers from a German school. The kids from the school ranged from 4 to 15 by the looks of it and sang their hearts out for about 2 1/2 hours. It was amazing. They were all very enthusiatic and fun. ... read more

Away with the Faeries

Africa » South Africa » Eastern Cape » Hogsback April 21st 2003

DMac

Away with the Faeries was in Hogsback - a tiny village set on a ridge about 3 hours inland from East London. We had heard great things about the place from previous hostel runners and guests. It was a lovely place where we got a great little room in a small cottage - there was a large main house and lots of campers too. We were sharing the cottage with a South African girl and her American boyfriend from Seattle and they turned out to be going to a meditation session nearby and invited us. We had just sat around the fire for most of the day since it was raining - a lovely day, and decided to go along. Neither of us had really done any meditating since doing Vipassana - it quite put us ... read more

Sugarshack

Africa » South Africa » Eastern Cape » East London April 19th 2003

DMac

From Strormsriver we booked a bus to East London. We had to catch the bus at the shell station at 3 in the morning. It turned out that the shall station was pretty happening at the time - especially when a minivan - which are the minibus taxis over here and the cheapest form of transport - stopped and the entire contents jumped out and danced so some local beats for a while before jumping back in a driving off. A good way to stretch the legs on a long journey I think. This was practically the first time we had seen black people in South Africa having fun, although a few nights before we had heard some beautiful singing coming from a town near to Stormsriver. I think the town where to quote a local ... read more

Biggest Bungee in the world

Africa » South Africa » Eastern Cape » Storms River April 18th 2003

Biggest bungee in the world...

DMac

So far South Africa was too western for our travelling tastes, especially after our time in Asia. We enjoyed doing stuff but it was also a little too expensive and the seperation between the whites and the blacks seemed large to us - naturally enough given the country's history I guess. As we would progress further north this seperation would decrease and we found ourselves enjoying things more. I guess I didn't come to Africa to hang out in isolated white settlements with Gap year students from the UK - not that there is anything wrong with that. In Stormsriver we did the largest bungee jump in the world - couldn't pass that without the jump. It was 216m high and the freefall was quite amazing. We also took a walk around an indigenous forest and ... read more

Hitching didn't work...

Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Caledon April 16th 2003

DMac

We decided to try and hitch from Hermanus to Stormsriver - the next stop up the East coast of South Africa. We didn't have much success as we just got one ride in 2 hours and that was only for 15 minutes to Caledon. When we got to Caledon we ate some Fish and Chips - unfortunately the White South African's diet seems to consist of Meat Pies and Fish and Chips - I wonder where they got that from... and then booked the next bus to Stormsriver - which was the next morning. There wasn't much in the way of places to stay in Caledon so the guy at Tourist info set us up at a hotel with a Greek Island Theme... where I got to watch ManU draw with Arsenal on Satellite TV. The ... read more

Brief history of South Africa

After the British seized the Cape of Good Hope area in 1806, many of the Dutch settlers (the Boers) trekked north to found their own republics. The discovery of diamonds (1867) and gold (1886) spurred wealth and immigration and intensified the subjug...more history

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