It's An Obamanation!

From books to t-shirts to canvas shopping bags to school children’s backpacks, President Obama’s face is plastered all over east and southern Africa. This man is a legend here. This man has not only been an inspiration in America but in Africa as well. His poster that is captioned “HOPE” sells in the souvenir stores of museums and decals of the man cover mini bus taxis. From the wealthy to the poor; from the literate to the illiterate this man is widely known. South Africa recently had its fourth democratic election on April 22, 2009. The last ruling party (ANC) was guaranteed to win the election again despite rape allegations against it’s now President Jacob Zuma. Many opposition parties exist but do not yet have enough support to win over the ANC. So how does Obama fit into all this? Well, radio ad campaigns directed toward the younger generation are expressing that if America can make a change then why can’t we? This ad is encouraging people to actually make it to the voting stations to vote. Also the government has made voting day a national holiday to encourage people to perform their civic duty. So during this time of South Africa’s election year, I have realized that this great President of ours makes an impression of positive change evident across many countries. He is an inspiration to all races and cultures. Random people ask me where I’m from and I proudly say America and then a barrage of questions regarding my opinion on Obama come pouring out of their mouths! It’s incredible! Before coming to South Africa I didn’t know much about Apartheid, Mandela, Gandhi and other political/historical events. In my nearly 2 months in South Africa I’ve learned more than a book would have ever taught me…and am humbled. In 2009 the people here are well in the loop of current American events and this just goes to show me how important it is to read about the world and take my blinders off. Thanks goes out to Nadia, Narissa and Mbongwa!

Cape Town to Jo'burg

On March 19th my friend Sat and I embarked upon a South African adventure of our very own. No more getting up an hour and a half before departure time, no more setting up/taking down tents, no more pot wash and no more of the awful flapping dishes!!! We rented a car and took off along the Garden Route for Knysna...unfortunately we dawdled too much and ended up making it only to Mossel Bay. Mossel Bay is for bikers…Harleys mostly and since I was driving a Toyota Corolla I just didn’t fit in, so off early the next day to reach Knysna! This is where I had my very first oyster experience…thanks Sat!! Yummy!!! Now how does it go again…bread, wine, oyster, wine, bread?? In any order it’s fabulous! From the deck of the Knysna Oyster Co. Restaurant I took pictures of the lagoon and the two sandstone cliffs, known as the Heads that lead out to the Indian Ocean. Post oyster consumption we drove to an overlook point and the view was breathtaking! The sun shining on the water making it glimmer and sparkle like a gold souk in Dubai! After soaking in the view we headed off to Southern Comfort…no my AA friends not drinking, but a farm-house lodge. Sat and I got up early to head out for a horse-back riding adventure. Yes Abby, more trotting and cantering!! The views were spectacular, the air refreshing and the ride relaxing. After riding we went for a hike in the Knysna Forest. We were given information that the path is circular and a trail leads to the ocean and it takes about a half day, so without a map or registering with the parks office we set off. (Yes yes I already know most of you are shaking your heads and saying, “Fools! You should always take a map and register!”) Well…we ended up getting lost…we made it to the ocean, but it took us about 3 hours to get there and we hiked in a few circles before actually arriving to the viewpoint…by the way was an amazing viewpoint. A rocky beach without a soul in sight for miles!! It was beautiful! I enjoyed it only briefly as I was worried whether we would make it out before sunset. So in my head I was thinking WWBGD (what would Bear Grylls do)? Lucky for me I had a bottle of water, a box of matches, a pack of pistachios and my Swiss Army knife! So long story short, we ended up calling a man by the name of Benit and he directed us to a path and fetched us from the end of that trail! Embarrassed but happy and safe we thanked Benit and headed back to the Knysna Oyster Co. to celebrate our stupidity with more oysters!

Next destination: Cintsa, Actual stop: Grahamstown…SCARY!!!!! A very quick stop over for the night we stayed at Old Gaol Backpackers. This place was a former jail, so now I can say I spent a night in jail! When the employee opened up the door to the cell it made an eerie creaking noise and then she asked me how it appeared to me. I said, it looks cozy, reminds me of home and then laughed and regretted wanting to spend the night in jail. The showers were actually very nice…nothing like Shawshank!

Cintsa and Hogsback
We made it to Cintsa (East and West) in the late morning to lay our eyes upon two completely opposite beaches. Cintsa east flat, white sand with soft waves that brush over your toes ever so gently. Cintsa west large rocky paths that lead a quarter of a mile out into the ocean with harsh waves crashing ashore to heights of 5-10 feet! Both beautiful in the own unique ways. A short time spent at both beaches and then off to heaven…I mean Hogsback! ;)
Hogsback is located at an elevation of 1300m in the Amathole Mountains, about 10km off the main road, up a very windy and narrow road. Our lodge even further about 5km from the center of town on a dirt road full of potholes (slaggate! In Afrikaans). The Edge is a beautiful lodge with great cabins that overlook the valley and city. It was a place anyone could truly relax and get completely lost in their thoughts. The cabin we stayed in had a fireplace, a claw-foot tub and an amazing view! We liked it so much we spent two nights there! And of course I took advantage of having the tub and took a long soak!! Okay besides the cabin, Hogsback had a great place to hike and this time we didn’t get lost!

Next Stop: Malealea, Lesotho!
I know I go on and on about how breathtaking the views I’ve seen are, but it’s the truth and if I could create words that expressed “breathtaking to the infinite degree” then I would use them, but my pictures and words will have to suffice. As we followed the turnoff to Malealea Lodge, I glanced in the side-view mirror and was completely stunned by the sun setting over the ridge of the Thaba Putsoa Mountains. The entire ridge was lit with soft pink as the bright orange fireball slowly descended for the evening! Yes I pulled over and got a few pics! ;)
The next morning Sat and I signed up for a pony trek to see San paintings. My pony’s name was Brown Sugar…I’m not kidding it really was!!! We had a leisurely ride through the farmlands and finally reaching the gorge that housed the Makhaleng River, Echo Cave and Sans paintings. Again a sight so beautiful pictures and words can’t even come close to capturing its beauty! The incredible colors that surrounded us were: canary yellow stones, rusty orange rock formations, hues of green of the farmlands and a perfect blue sky! A must visit place and lodge! That evening I relaxed by the campfire and roasted/toasted mallows and sipped hot chocolate until the generator stopped and then off to bed…

Destination: Sani Pass
An 8km rugged pass from the border post of South Africa to the border post of Lesotho that leads to an elevation of 9400ft via the Drakensburg Mountains. Sat convinced me to hike this pass, with hesitation I said yes and we embarked upon our journey. Many 4x4’s passed by offering to give us a lift to the top and begrudgingly I said no and pushed on. Yes I know I summited Kili, but I just wasn’t in the mood to do another climb. In the end I was ecstatic to have hiked this rocky path and celebrated with a view, brew and food at the highest pub in Africa!

Final Destination: Jo’burg
Not much to say about Jo’burg itself, but I did manage to fit in four movies (Marley & Me, The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons, Gran Torino and Paul Blart: Mall Cop) in two days and a tour of Soweto!
So if you’ve read my blog on my experience with the Kigali Memorial in Rwanda, then you’ll find the following filled with the same emotion…sadness. I visited the original home of Nelson Mandela now a brand new museum that just opened on March 19th 2009, took a driving tour of the three sections of classes (upper, middle and the poor) living in Soweto and saw the current residences of Winnie Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. On June 16th 1976 a group of students marched in the streets to protest having to learn in Afrikaans. These students felt that this language was the language of the oppressor and refused to learn it. They organized a peaceful demonstration, but it turned deadly as the police shot ~200 students dead. Among the students who had died was Hector Pieterson, a 13y/o boy who is now regaled as a hero. I visited the Hector Pieterson Museum which houses the history of the Soweto uprising. I couldn’t complete touring the entire museum because I was too overcome with grief and sadness. My reason to continue to revisit, read and learn more.

Sat, thanks for a great trip! See you again soon!

Cape Town Goodbyes

I arrived in Cape Town in March on Friday the 13th! The overland group celebrated our last dinner together at a game meat restaurant! My eland was delicious! (Sorry veggies, but you are missing out!) After dinner the real celebration started at Dubliner’s a favorite pub of my fellow Irish friends! We had a great time dancing the night away to a local South African cover band that played Jessie’s Girl, Summer of 69 and to everyone’s dismay a poor version of Metallica’s Enter Sandman. For two days my friend Maura and I tried to make it to Table Mountain, but were unsuccessful secondary to self-induced fatigue. We did manage to make it to Robben Island to see where Nelson Mandela had been incarcerated. On Sunday I rented a car and Maura and I drove out to the Cheetah Sanctuary to see my friend Kelly. (Kelly and I had met when I first started the overland tour in Uganda). At the sanctuary I was fortunate to have the opportunity to pet two cheetah cubs. So cute! After playing with the big cats the three of us headed off for dinner in Stellenbosch. The next morning we went for wine tastings at three different vineyards. Delheim was my favorite for its sauvignon blanc chenin blanc white wine and for its sweet red wine…mmmm!!! Fairview was my favorite for it’s cheeses, especially the white rock with cranberries!!! The next morning I drove to Cape Agulhas with friends. This is where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet and is the southernmost tip of Africa! Another amazing view! The sound of the waves crashing against the shore was really intense, something so violent sounding but so beautiful to look at was quite an ironic sight! That St. Patrick’s evening Maura celebrated her Irish heritage at Dubliner’s while Kelly and I visited her (and now my) friend Kate in Camp’s Bay! We had a lovely lasagna dinner, opened a bottle of Delheim wine and chatted the night away. The next morning I said another farewell to my Kiwi and headed back into Cape Town. On Thursday March 19th Maura and I said our goodbyes and Sat and I headed on our very own journey through South Africa.

Adrenaline Junkie for Two Days!

In Zimbabwe we stayed right near the Zambian border nearby Victoria Falls…just so everyone knows America has better falls ;) Those of you on the tour reading this will surely get my joke. Anyway, this was the place for a lot of the adrenaline activities, so I decided to partake in a few. First up flying fox…I didn’t know what this entailed but knew it was some type of ziplining activity. The flying fox harness is on your back so you are prone as you sail across a gorge which holds the water of the mighty Victoria Falls. I felt like superwoman!! It was thrilling and only increasing the adrenaline flowing through my body in preparation for the gorge swing.

Next up: Gorge Swing…again I wasn’t sure how this activity worked, but what the heck let’s do it!!! The harness is now in front and I face forward on a wooden plank that’s blazing hot! My toes hang precariously over the edge and I’m not sure what I’m doing here overlooking an intense drop…5-4-3-2-1!!! And I am pulled by the tension of the rope and swing like a gorilla, but not as elegant across this 316m wide, 120m drop with a 70m free fall gorge hanging by a rope!! Wow! Thrilling!!! As I was hanging at the bottom my imagination came alive with my eyes fooling me into seeing crocodiles swimming around in the bottom of the gorge awaiting my rope to snap and have their lunch delivered like dominos pizza in 30 minutes or less! Fortunately for me no crocs…only logs and the rope withstood my weight! Next up: Gorge Swing #2! Yes after my first adrenaline filled-what-the-heck-am-I-doing-swinging-over-a-rushing-river-swing, I decide to do it again…only this time I go backwards…well that was the intention! So again I get to the edge of the plank, feet on fire, facing my trusty harness securing experts, but this time with my heels hanging off! I give the guys one last fearful look, arms crossed over my chest and yell so loudly as the tension of the rope pulls me off!!! I ended up doing a backflip and then flipping back over and flying across this incredible gorge! As a Kiwi friend of mine would say…AWESOME!!!! Again filled with so much adrenaline I came up trembling with a rush and a high that felt so euphoric!!! Unbelievable!! After that I went on to see the falls from above…yes a 12 minute helicopter ride to view a beautiful sight…superfluous rainbows over every part of the falls, seeing the intensity at which the water rushes over the edge to drop 100m below into a swirling pool and a mist so pretty and cool like awakening to a foggy spring morning! Twelve minutes just isn’t long enough.
Next day…BUNGY JUMP!!! An 111m (~360ft) jump from Vic Falls bridge with approximately four seconds of freefall!! As I walked across the bridge, in all honesty I wasn’t scared one bit, I actually thought the bridge was going to be something more spectacular and for some reason I thought it would be higher?? Anyway, I registered, weighed in and patiently waited in the queue. My turn came, I stepped into the harness, secured by two carabineers, sat on a bench as instructed, watched as my legs were wrapped in dark blue towels “for comfort” and a multitude of straps and lanyards and carabineers. As I sat there my new found friends kindly recorded my fear expressed on my face and cheered me on. One last instruction given to me, “Remember this is called a bungy jump and not a bungy fall, so jump!!” 5-4-3-2-1, BUNGYYYYY!!!! I leapt off the edge and plummeted toward the Zambezi River rushing furiously below me!!! Staring all the way down, keeping my body stiff as not to get retracted by the cord like a tape measure! INCREDIBLE!!! The rush was thrilling!! I must have recoiled about 3 times before the elasticity settled in the cord and I spun in circles like an Olympic figure skater…unfortunately I wasn’t accustomed to this motion and began to feel ill. I decided to go into OT mode and deduce whether it was better to keep my eyes shut or open, so I did a bit of both and neither helped. I just spun until I was retrieved and tilted upright and hoisted back up!! I did it!! I bungeed!! The worst part was walking under the bridge back up to the top as my body was trembling with adrenaline!! Oh how incredible!! Later that evening I noticed my right calf was in extreme pain and the driver of the overland truck had noticed some blood in my left eye! I guess that’s what I get for throwing my self off an 111m bridge! FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!