Goodbye to Wonderful South Africa!

I was sad to leave St. Lucia last Friday because it was one of my favorite bits of South Africa. I had a great guide, named Seya, who is a 19 year old Zulu dude, and every day we did something different. We went snorkeling at Cape Vidal, went on lots of walks looking for birds in the forest around St. Lucia, visited Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park and visited Mkuze Game Reserve, which was huge and hot and full of birds, and as Seya noted, little else. "This park does not have the Big 5," he complained. "It only has the Big 2--birds and antelopes!" As you can tell, Seya thinks birds are for nerds. He loves hyenas, leopards and wild dogs. But the birds were, of course, magnificent and we even saw a water cobra (snake number 2).

I left St. Lucia one hot day, and drove to Eshowe, a little town in Zululand that has dense forests (where Shaka Zulu is reported to have hidden his wives during a war) with arial walkways where you can see lots of birds. I stayed at a dive hotel, which featured "Girls' Night" on the night that I arrived, complete with male strippers. Every 18-22 year old girl in all of Kwazulu-Natal must have been there. These girls looked like New Jersey girls on a Friday night, all dolled up for clubbing in New York--you can imagine the scene! Needless to say, I didn't buy a ticket to the event.

The birds in Eshowe were totally wonderful. I spotted lots of rare ones, including a scaly-throated honeyguide, spotted ground thrush, cuckoo hawk and a green barbet, which, due to its very specific diet of a certain type of fig, only lives in one little forest (the Ongoye Forest) in southern Africa. Wonderful!

Then, I drove like a seasoned minibus taxi driver (read: totally hardcore) down the N2 to the Durban airport to drop off my car rental and catch a ride into the city of Durban. Durban has a bad rep for being dirty and crime-ridden, but I love it. It's a gritty, colorful seaside city with lots of characters. On the shuttle to my hotel, an 18 years old surfer from Cape Town chatted me up; his name was Jordan and he was in town for a surfing competition. We talked about how his sponsors censor his Facebook postings and about favorite spots in South Africa. Predictably, his favorite city in South Africa outside of Cape Town is Jeffrey's Bay (the surfing mecca). He's a dude with one thing on his mind: catching the waves. Good luck on Friday, Jordan!

In Durban, I took the bus to the Victoria Street Market to look for crafts. Durban is utter chaos these days because they have changed all of the street names from boring names like "West" and "Grey" to freedom fighter names like Joe Slovo Ave. etc, and everyone is confused! Some original street signs remain, with black X's crossing them out. Wish I had a photograph of these censored street signs, but Durban's not the kind of city where you want to tote around a SLR, or anything at all, for that matter. I was at the market because someone (J.) wants a special kind of ostrich egg that I must hand carry on the plane back to New York. I bought a wonderful straw hat that will become my new look in New York this summer. And for dinner I had bunny chow, which is a poor man's dish of curry served in a hollowed-out loaf of bread. Delicious!

After a stroll on the beach and a goodbye to the Indian Ocean, I hopped on the night bus to Pretoria. J. gave me a very extensive shopping list, and I had to buy a huge duffel bag to fit everything. As a result, Intercape charged me R100 extra for my excess luggage, but it's all cool. J. must have his rooibos tea and peri-peri sauce! On the bus, I sat next to a young doctor in training from Botswana who is very, very homesick and is headed home to eat some mopane worms and pap prepared the right way (Zulu pap is too thick and stiff, he said). We chatted far into the night, and we had a very interesting conversations about various topics. The only big difference of opinion was about gay people. The good doctor cannot understand why people are gay, and he said it is against African culture. If he had a son who was gay, he would disown him! I said that in the US 50 years ago we thought the same, and gay people lived lives of quiet desperation, but now it is socially acceptable to be gay, and gay people can be free. I said I thought South Africa was changing too; in fact, equal rights for gay people are written into the Constitution. It was an interesting conversation, and I think the good doctor may change his mind one day.

Arriving in Pretoria, I had a near death experience in a taxi on the way to the backpackers. The driver was distracted and forgot that he was turning onto a two way road rather than a one way road. He turned directly into oncoming traffic and narrowly missing collision with two sedans. The driver turned white when he realized what he had done. "Do you want to kill us?" I asked him. Can you imagine who silly it would be if I braved everything in Africa--I even escaped the stomach bug that every single other person on my overland trip succumbed to--only to be in a taxi accident the day before I'm slated to return to New York?

Now, I'm in Hatfield, Pretoria. I had a great breakfast at my old favorite spot, the News Cafe, and now I've gotta go get a massage. Wish me a safe flight back to nyc tomorrow. I'm a weary traveler, and I'm ready to return!

And here's a goodbye to all of my new friends in South Africa. There's Stefan from Cape Town, Donna from Langebaan, Seya and Kholiwe from St. Lucia and so many more. And there's even a very, very old friend, Jenny H., who I got to see again in Cape Town after 12 years! As an added bonus, I got to meet her wonderful husband.

Africa Top 12

Now that my trip is drawing to a close, here's my list of top experiences in Africa:

1. Sea kayaking to the Takwa Ruins (Lamu, Kenya)

2. Eating lobster on the beach with Freddie (Kendwa Rocks, Zanzibar)

3. Sunset Cruise on the Zambezi River (Livingstone, Zambia)

4. Helicoptering over Victoria Falls--totally amazing!

5. Swimming in a big blue quarry (Ghanzi, Botswana)

6. Sunset dinner of linefish in a butter garlic sauce (Swakopmund, Namibia)

7. Sunrise over the Sesriem Dunes (Sesriem, Namibia)

8. Oysters and champagne (also known as "Methode Cap Classique") with J. (Franshhoek, South Africa)

9. Cooking a potjie (stew cooked over hot coals) with friends (Kuruman, South Africa)

10. Sunset over the Kalahari (Tsineng, South Africa)

11. Spotting a pair of Verreaux Eagles (Langebaan, Western Cape, South Africa)

12. Watching the sun set over Lake St. Lucia and really, everying about St. Lucia! (St. Lucia Estuary, South Africa)

Clearly, I enjoyed sunsets, fresh seafood, birds and water views the best!

On another note, I still hear from the overlanders from time to time, and it is clear that they are still furious with me! My favorite recent quote is "The travel agent who sold you the [overland] tour should be shot!" Really, drag my mild mannered travel agent out into the street and shoot her? That's not a little extreme? I also wonder how long they will remain furious; for how long will they bore people with the story of the Mean Girl on their overland trip? (What does that do to a person, to fester with anger for weeks and weeks?) I've been totally unrepentant but I recently had a chat with my mother, who suggested, as mothers will, that I make at least one apology. One person had hurt feelings about the content of my blog and she really didn't deserve to be hurt. So, one (and only one) apology is forthcoming.

Birds spotted: Green twinspot, blue waxbill, yellow-throated longclaw but not the elusive Narina Trogon (looks like a cute little parrot).

Crocs, Hippos and Snakes in St. Lucia

St. Lucia Estuary
Kwazulu Natal
South Africa


South Africa, it seems, is where blogs go to die. The roads are paved, the restaurants are world class, and wireless internet access is widespread and the scam artists are not as crafty as they are in, say, Zambia or Tanzania. Traveling, the way I am now in South Africa, staying in lovely guesthouses with a rental car, is very civilized and lacks the frisson of my overland travels through East Africa down to Cape Town. I have encountered no more simbas in camp, and there are no outraged overlanders to add dramatic intrigue.

Now, I'm in the lovely village of St. Lucia, just north of Durban. I flew to Durban from Cape Town and picked up my rental car from the airport. Despite daily newspaper headlines that scream "Durban N2 Collision Ends in Death, Injury" or some such variation on the theme, I've gotten a lot more comfortable driving in South Africa. St. Lucia is the gateway to the St. Lucia Wetlands Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site with lots of hippos, crocs, birds and snakes. It encompasses the beautiful Cape Vidal and other lovely, deserted beaches. The guesthouse where I am staying boasts occasional leopard sighting in the garden and nightly hippo sightings. Hippos come up from the lake for an evening cocktail of swimming pool water. Guests are advised not to get between the hippos and lake, because hippos can and have attacked people. So, although my last week in South Africa may not have simbas in the camp, it does feature dangerous animals.

In my travels, I have totally wanted to see a snake, and in St. Lucia I finally spotted one! I saw a very long, fast green mamba crossing the road quickly just outside of town. What a beautiful serpent. I was happy to spot it from the safety of my car rather than on foot. Local newspapers report that three people have been bitten by green mambas in Kwazulu-Natal in the last month. March and April are prime green mamba months here, it seems. I'll keep a lookout. In the meantime, here is a picture of a baby zebra from Hluhluwe Game Reserve, the game reserve famous for bringing the white rhino back from the brink of extinction. I was sitting on the grass in the picnic area, meters away from this little zebra!

My trip is winding down, and I am so, so ready to return to New York! By all accounts, spring has sprung, and I've managed to miss the entire winter. See you soon!

Birdinghiding West Coast Style

March 12 - 15, 2010
Langebaan, Western Cape

I was happy to get out of the city for the Cape Argus cycle race (Jackie and Elle, you've gotta do it one of these days--it looks amazing!) because the city swarms with cyclists (including Lance) and spectators and all the roads close. I rented a car and drove up the R27 to the West Coast, where it's peaceful and there are lots of lovely birds. I stayed at my very favorite guesthouse yet, Walking on Water. The owners, Magdel and Andre, took me in hand and made me a very specific itinerary of where I must go, what I must see, what birds I must spot, and where I must eat. It was very, very helpful. Since J. left, I've just been cooling my heels in Cape Town, and it's great to have someone tell me what I must do!
There are lots of picturesque fishing villages along the coast and restaurants where you can enjoy an Appletiser with a sea view.Some of them reminded me of little Greek fishing villages, with whitewashed cottages lining the beach.

On Saturday, Andre took me on a bird tour in and around the West Coast National Park. He is a former military man, and he approaches birding in a very strategic manner. We saw Verreaux eagles (huge eagles that stand a meter tall) pelicans, various types of cormorants, flamingos, lots of different types of plovers and my favorite, the very graceful marsh harrier (a big black and white raptor). Total, we spotted 80 species! The park boasts bird hides, little huts where you can observe the birds unseen.One of the bird hides was jampacked with birders from Cape Town. They wanted to identify a weird godwit (large shorebird) one of them had seen. The bird in question was jostled by another bird, raised its wings to reveal the identifying dark underwing coverts and a cry broke out in the hut as they identified it as a Hudsonian Gotwit (endemic to Alaska / Canada). This poor bird had gotten in with the wrong crowd and wound up in the Western Cape. My conclusion: birders are totally weird, but I'm loving the birds!

Dinner was a 10 - course fish braai on the beach at a restaurant called Die Strandloper. You sit in the sand and eat with your hands or mussel shells. A guy with a guitar plays Afrikaans ballads like De La Ray. It was so much food: I barely made it to crawfish (course 5). Where's J. when you need him?Birds spotted: More than you want to know!

Books: Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler. What's up with Anne Tyler and characters destined to die sad & alone?

Conversations in Hermanus

Hermanus
March 11, 2010

An outgoing German lady who I met at the guesthouse in Cape Town invited me to join her on a day trip to Hermanus, the town 130 km east of Cape Town where you can spot whales, in season. As it turned out, she was hilarious, and very quirky in a California / New Age kind of way, and I had a blast!

Topics we discussed included:
1) How aliens have interacted with people and modified human DNA
2) How aliens have implanted bits of unknown metal in people who have had alien encounters
3) How everyone chooses their own parents. A baby born with congenital abnormalities has chosen to be born that way for a specific purpose.
4) How people who are poor and people who suffer merely lack sufficient consciousness . With proper consciousness, they would acquire the health / material goods they lack.

We had lots to talk about. I love the fact that you can meet all kinds of characters on the road and, as you can tell, I'm definitely more tolerant when I don't have to spend every day with he same characters!

Hermanus has a great cliff walk

where you can spot rock dassies, who are famously cousin to the elephant, and a beautiful beach, Grotto Beach. Books read: A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore.

Cape Town Reveries

March 7, 2010
Cape Town, South Africa

J. and I spent two days at one of my favorite hotels in the world, the Winchester Mansions Hotel, in Cape Town, before he left. This is the view from our window,
and this is the Winchester's wonderful indoor courtyard, where lots of glossy starlings and Cape sparrows hang out and on Sunday afternoons you can enjoy a jazz brunch.
When J. left on Wednesday to return to New York, I was sorely tempted to hop on the plane with him. I've been traveling for 10 WEEKS and I still have 3 weeks left to go. I miss my huge king size bed, I miss my cats, and I miss my friends, who are undoubtedly doing all sorts of fun New York things without me. Traveling can be kind of exhausting, I've learned, particularly if it involves lots of transit from one place to another, pitching a tent, and stuffing items into a backpack. Then I regained my senses. New York in March (think grey, slushy, rainy, miserable) vs. Cape Town at the end of summer (think sunny days, 80 degrees+, the Atlantic ocean, sundowners at beachside cafes). Who am I kidding: it's no contest!

So here I am in Cape Town. I have a suite at the lovely Villa Rosa
for only R540 (about 70 USD) per night with a sumptuous breakfast included. (Mitch, you'd love it here: it's cheap & sunny!). I visited one of my favorite spots on earth, the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, on the side of Table Mountain, and greeted the guineafowl.I also hiked up Signal Hill and part of Lion's Head. I didn't summit Lion's Head. Ever since I toppled down a mountain when I was in the Peace Corps (as Nicolette will remember) I'm a scaredy cat when it comes to vertiginous heights. I'll be here for another week or so. Does anyhow (like Ben or the RPCVs) have recommendations for must see spots in Cape Town and the Cape Peninsula? What would you do with a long empty week in Cape Town?

Books read: Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro. Another downer of a short story collection by the Booker prize winning Canadian author.

Kuruman and Tsineng

February 24 – 27, 2010 Kuruman and Tsineng
We left the Kgalagadi and drove to the town of Kuruman, which was my town when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer—it was where I collected my mail, hopped on the internet and shopped for groceries. Including stops and interesting detours, it was a full day of driving—distances are vast in the Northern Cape—and we barely made it to Kuruman by sunset. Because the roads are unlit and full of potholes and cattle and other creatures occasionally wander onto the road, I was very happy to pull into Kuruman just as the sun was setting on over the Kalahari.

We stayed with my dear friends Jenny and Dirk. I met them in 2003 when I was a PCV at the church in my village, Tsineng. They had driven from town to show a film and they very graciously invited me to come and stay with them in Kuruman whenever I was in town. Little did they know that I would be at their house every weekend! I always hated taking bucket baths, and I was so very grateful to be able to take a shower occasionally. Their house is beautiful, and they are wonderful hosts. They made J. and I feel very at home. They taught us how to make a potjie (stew of meat and vegetables cooked in a three legged pot over hot coals) and they sent J. home with a little cast iron potjie (pronounced POY-key).
After visiting some more old friends in Kuruman, we drove to Tsineng to see the village and my host family. Getting to Tsineng is so much easier with a car. As a PCV, I bounced around in the back of a bakkie (truck) or hitchhiked or took a terrible bus that took three hours to get me to my village. With our trusty 4WD vehicle, it was a straight shot!

My host family was so happy to see us! Because they missed our wedding in 2008, they wanted to celebrate with us and they surprised us with a wedding cake!There was a braai and lots of spontaneous dancing around the kitchen.

Here I am in with my host mother and father.


Overall, visiting Tsineng was a little bittersweet. I suppose you can never return home; you are always different, and home is different too. Sad things have happened; for instance, one of my friends in the village had a baby that died at three months. The older kids in the household have left to work in the mines. And my dog, Lesea (means “child” in Setswana) died last year after eating poisoned meat. Lesea had a pretty long life by Tsineng standards—he was 6 years old—but both J. and I were sad to hear about it. (Why are Tswanas always poisoning their dogs?)

Overnight, it rained buckets and the road was absolutely ruined. I very carefully drove back to Kuruman, happy that we had 4WD to get us out of the mud. At certain points, J. had to get out to move rocks that were hanging out in the middle of the road!
In Kuruman, we dropped by the animal shelter to donate the dog food and supplies that we had bought for Lesea. J. was immediately mobbed by cats, which he loved!

When we left, our friend Principal Jan and his wife gave us Bafana Bafana (SA national football team) T-shirts. Go, Bafana Bafana!

Brush with Criminal Elements: Before we hopped on the bus to return to Cape Town we were in Upington eating lunch (for J., springbok carpaccio, of course) when the wait staff ran in to tell us “Is your car the white one outside? Yes? You had better have a look.” We ran outside to find that the car, which contained all of our luggage (except for camera & passports, which we were carrying) had had the back window smashed out. Nothing was taken. Why, I wonder, would you go to the trouble of bashing a window if you’re not going to steal anything? I concluded that J.’s suitcase was, at 40 kilos, too heavy to lift out of the trunk. Hurrah for heavy luggage! We met the rental agent and filed a police report. Everyone was so nice about it, and worried that it would deter us from returning to South Africa. (No worries, nothing will deter me from returning!)

Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

February 20 – 23, 2010

Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

After a picnic lunch at a wine farm,

J. and I hopped on the overnight InterCape bus to Upington, the closest town to my favorite park in South Africa, the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. We stopped at Pick N’ Pay for groceries and picked up our 4WD car rental. On the way into the park, we stopped, as always, at a little resort named Molopo where they serve the best ostrich fillets in the country. J. had the ostrich fillet, and I ate what I always eat in South African steakhouses: a sad little Greek salad.

After all of the game viewing I had done at Masai Mara, the Serengeti, the Ngorongoro Crater, Chobe and Etosha, I thought that a visit to the Kgalagadi would anticlimactic, but it was fantastic. It’s like nowhere else on earth. And a self drive safari is so much better than a group safari, as you can imagine!

I was thrilled to see this pride of hungry lionesses.

One of them scratched the tree like an oversized house cat.

We had a great little chalet

and we braaied every night over the coals.

In the morning, yellow mongooses would drop by to beg for breakfast.

Birds spotted: Kori Bustard, Pale Chanting Goshawk, Crimson Breasted Shrike, and a Northern Black Korhaan (below). This korhaan hung out by the side of the road in the sand dunes and sounded the alarm every time we passed. I think it wanted to collect a 5 rand toll!

We saw lots of Sociable Weaver nests. Some nests,

which are composed of lots of smaller nests, are so heavy that they topple the supporting tree.