South Africa

 

Cape Town

We continued along on our bus journey as the sun rose to vineyards, farms and gold tinted fields. Eventually arriving in the afternoon, we worked our way around the Cape Town bus system and got to our first couch surfing host, Ofer, an Israeli guy who had lived here for 13 years. He was a lovely host and gave us a few good ideas of what to see around the city.

On our first proper day in the city, we headed to District 6 museum, which told of how the original immigrant and black community were evicted from their homes to make way for a ‘new cape town,’ turning their district into a place for white people only. Everyone was moved to new homes, and not necessarily to places where they got to stick with their previous neighbours. Imagine being evicted from your home, for it to be destroyed and you to be plonked in the middle of nowhere, a 2 hour commute from work, where it used to be a 5 minute walk, and no longer living next to your neighbour, who happened to be your cousin, but instead a Chinese immigrant instead, feeling equally lost!

We popped into the slave museum which used to be an old slave holding where people were held and eventually sold to the highest bidder. It was a depressing history that we struggled to read, and it always makes you wonder with these things…what will we look back on in, say 30 years’ time, and think, that was ridiculous that we let that something go on. My guess is that it won’t be harm to people, but our planet.

The parliament gardens were beautiful to walk through before we headed down Long Street, a popular one for a night out, and then onto the Waterfront. We had a bottle of wine, watching the sun go down across the port, which was beautiful.


Waterfront at Cape Town

The next day we decided to head to Boulder’s beach to see the penguins. After a late start, we got the train to the nearest town. We met a guy on the train who was with his son. We told him where we were going, and he mentioned he lived in Fishoek bay with his family, about 3 stops away from our destination. He kindly offered us a lift as the station we had to get off at was an hour walk from boulder’s bay. After taking us to his home and dropping off his son, he drove us all the way there and even took us to some hidden local spots. We spotted the penguins, although not as many as there usually are, apparently. We saw some baby ones too under their mother’s tummies.




Penguin at Boulder's

This guy told us there was a game going on with Stormers vs Lions – essentially a Cape Town rugby team and a Jo’Burg one. If we were lucky, we could get tickets that day, so we decided to test our luck, as we heard it was a good atmosphere. We did get lucky and managed to get a couple tickets right in the middle. We started in a beer garden and met two lovely couples who had flown down from Jo’Burg for the game. They bought us drinks and told us they needed to win this game to stand a chance of winning the league. Everyone swarmed into the stadium, and the felling was electric. Maybe it was the beers, but I got really into it. The CT Stormers had the lead, but in the last few minutes, the game was tight, but they pulled through in the end, and the stadium exploded with cheers…they were the last South African team to stand a chance in the 3 nations.



Boulders beach

The next day we headed to Table Mountain. We decided to hike the 2 hours up. The views were incredible but it was a long, tiring trek. We felt like we conquered the world when we got to the top, but looking down and seeing people climb up from all different sides, along sheer cliffs made us feel like we had just stood on the right of a tiny escalator – nil effort!


Table Mountain vew

The views were breath-taking and we walked a couple hours around the top to take it all in from all angles. After deciding our legs wouldn’t be able to handle the decent, we took the cable car down.

We had a massive thali when we got back down to earth, a welcome dinner after not really eating all day. As we strolled out and asked a street security guy where we could get the bus from, he took us to the bus stop and waited with us till the bus came, saying it wasn’t safe alone. And he was right, we wouldn’t have felt safe otherwise as there were loads of guys loitering around the streets looking really suspicious. This was Long street, the one we visited the other day- as I said, good for a night out but at the same time, dangerous to wander down alone or drunk, as it’s full of violent pick pocketers!



GIANT thali

 

Stellenbosch

The next day we headed out on a train to Stellenbosch, part of the winelands. Yes, I did feel at home! The place was beautiful, a really quaint little town full of cafes and wine bars. It just felt really relaxed and am easy place to live in. It was also a student town, and reminded me very much of Durham with predominantly students occupying the bars and cafes.

We met up with our couchsurfing host, Jason, a student in his final year who kindly had us to stay at his place, who he shared with several of his best mates. We met all but one of them and they were all lovely, and welcomed is into their home. It was a huge place which they called ‘the farm.’ It was in the centre of the town and had a huge living area with instruments everywhere (it seemed all of them were talented in that area) and chickens running around the massive gardens where they grew veggie patches.  

That day we took a wander through town, did some clothes shopping to make us look a bit more normal (goodbye zippy off trouser/shorts, hello jeans), and obviously stopped for some wine. We had dinner with the guys that night, who all had a rota of cooking for each other pretty much every day. After a fair few glasses of wine, but absolutely knackered, we all headed to bed with a promise to go out the next night.

The next morning, we took Jason up on his offer to take his car for the day. We headed to Franshoek, a nearby town to check out the scenery and the wineries (of course).

The drive was beautiful, passing through mountains and beautiful vineyards which had just passed their season so gave off a golden glow.

We stopped in the town and had a walk along the main road, popping into cute little shops. And then we had to decide on a vineyard to visit…which one…well of course the most expensive, most recommended one! How could we refuse the extortionate price of £2 for a wine tasting. Go big or go home!


Vineyards at Stellenbosch

It was called the Grand Provence. We drove in through the vineyards and arrived at a beautiful building in the centre. We picked our wines for sampling and were guided to a long wooden table lined with glasses.

The wines were amazing, and we were given quite large glasses, and a generous one at the end. My favourite was the desert wine (one I know my mother would love). We hung around a bit longer, trying to get Luke back from tipsy to sober. Luckily there was an art gallery there to spend some time in!

That night, we headed out with Jason and one of their housemate’s Dan. They took us to a few places around the town. Always nice to buy a round and get change from a tenner! Before we realised it, it was nearly 3am and we had to get our bus to Port Elizabeth that same morning at 6am! Oh dear, in for a rough 12 hour journey.

We got as much sleep as we could, and woke up just as drunk as we were going to bed! After a brisk stroll to the bus stop, we boarded the bus and immediately fell asleep.

Port Elizabeth

We arrived in Port Elizabeth to be greeted by our next couchsurfing host, Shane. He picked us up and we headed back to his home to meet his lovely wife Hannah. They were a great, easy going couple with a beautiful home. They showed us to their spare bedroom which was amazing, and we ordered pizzas and drank wine, spilling stories of travels. It felt like we were at home. Oh, and did I mention their adorable dogs – Penny and Swazi?

We spent the whole of the next day planning where to go next. Lesotho…too cold, Swaziland…not much to see, Kruger…did we need to go to another national park?, Mozambique…visa hassle and peak summer time for visiting South Africans, school out. So we started looking at flights to South America, thinking we’d come back for a few weeks road trip across South Africa at some point. This was the original plan, but now we had time for North America because Africa didn’t take as long as we thought it would. So apart from cheap flights, the summer weather in the States compelled us to push that ‘buy flight now’ button. And we were booked…for San Francisco in less than a week’s time! With a stopover in Hong Kong for the day – well, why not try and fit in another continent this year?!?

We went out that night with Shane and Hannah for some incredible thai food and some delicious sushi. We wished we were staying there longer as we definitely felt at ease with these guys and they had some interesting travel stories of their own. Unfortunately we had to turn down their offer of going to their beach house with them that weekend to catch our flight onwards. Dessert was homemade ice-cream that they sold as a side business…could I love these guys anymore?

Jo’Burg

We said our goodbyes the next day and headed to Jo’Burg on an overnight bus. It was a long journey with not much to see on the way (especially when dark!). We arrived early afternoon to be picked up by Luke’s friend Christian who he knew from Phi Phi where we met.

He had kindly offered his home up to us. Christian had recently moved to Jo’Burg from Germany, transferred with his company. His place was lovely, and we were his first guests, so Luke and Christian rushed out to pick up a mattress for the spare room, whilst I sat back in a deck chair enjoying the sun…it helps to be a girl sometimes.

We spent the whole day planning for the States, debating whether we should be renting a car from coast to coast. But me not being able to drive, along with a $1000 one way drop off fee, made us ‘park’ that idea. Eventually we settled on hiring a car for 13 days from San Fran, picking up all the major sites in the East. And the rest of it…we were going to Megabus it across the states, yes the cheap British company arrived in the USA a few years ago- thank god for that, other travel is just too expensive!!!

The next day we joined Christian for a late breakfast – mmm, scrambled egg, avocado and halloumi on toast…breakfast of winners! The morning slowly turned into a long drinking afternoon, and then before we knew it, it had gotten dark and we decided to order some amazing wood fired pizzas to lessen the inevitable hangover the next day. We didn’t really see Jo’Burg, but it was just nice to relax and hang out instead of bouncing around all the time. He wouldn’t let us pay a penny, so favour is definitely to be returned on a visit to London – thanks Christian!!

We got up early in the morning to pack and get ready for the long flight. Christian kindly dropped us off at the airport and we headed to the check in.

The lady at the desk informed us that we wouldn’t be able to board the flight until we proved we were going to leave the States. As you’ve probably figured out, we don’t plan ahead…

We tried to explain that we’ve travelled the length of Africa and never once got asked for onward travel, but she wouldn’t have any of it, giving us a look of T.I.A (this ISN’T Africa). After booking a $6 megabus each into Toronto for a month’s time, she was satisfied enough, and we swiftly moved through to the airport lounge, dragging our hangovers with us.

We boarded the plane, and worked our way back to economy…seeing the seats go from papa bear size to mumma bear size, to baby bear’s one butt cheek size.

And we were off, leaving Africa behind us!

It’s been one hell of a journey – speeding minibuses, 4x4s (thanks Will, Dotes and Lauren), gorillas, the BIG 5, masai warriors, Mount Kili, chimps, blue waters of Zanzibar, too much falafel, free luxury lodging (thanks Wim and Coral), great couch surfing hosts and friends (thanks Ofer, Shane, Hannah, Jason and housemates, and Christian), incredible camping experiences, News-Eland, hippos, Egyptian temples, beautiful lakes, Himba tribe, boat rides and amazing scenery throughout!

This continent has stolen my heart – A.W.A (Africa wins again)!