South Africa 20.April 2013

20th April 2013 Life after Shoestrings 

4^th April 2013

Soweto and the Apartheid Musuem

In our last couple of days at Shoestrings, We have been to visit the home of Nelson Mandela in Soweto and we also went to spend a day at the Apartheid Museum.

On our visit to Soweto, we were accompanied by Tabitha  who was keen to show us Soweto and to some extent to see it for herself as she does not herself often visit. Soweto was very interesting. Far from the impression that we had that it is mostly seriously impoverished and rather desperate. It has now in fact developed into a sprawling town in its own right. Most of the ramshackle dwellings that we have come to recognise from the television are gone and replaced with more modern and substantial buildings often modelled on the same lines as before but now good quality homes Soweto is a city with a real history, it played a critical part in the overthrow of Apartheid. The city now is a thriving community where, it is said people really choose to live. Some of the old shanties still stand as do some of the long single storey buildings that use to be mass hostel accommodation for rural workers who had to come seeking work in the old days. I found the most striking feature of this huge community was that children play out in the clean and tidy streets everywhere.

Nelson Mandelas home in Soweto is now a museum open to the public. It was quite interesting but It is owned by a foundation of Winnie Mandela. The history that is expressed there seems to airbrush out any reference to some of the excess of Winnie’s part in the struggle. I feel that this is a great pity as I have come to learn as is so often the case with South African History that all is not always what it seems, and that there is an important view to be expressed and that such cynical editing rather detracts from the integrity of this view of history. I felt that this may be the case in order to protect the reputation of  Winnie. In the spirit of truth and reconciliation I feel that If there is a point of view then let it be out there.

Interestingly we went the next day with Rob at the Apartheid Museum which was a moving and fascinating day. It seems that whole story is laid out in incredible detail and that all the main players get a platform from which you are able to make your own judgements. I really liked that.  It was also for me an opportunity to get some of the historical facts clear in my head. Names, dates and so on which I had recalled inaccurately  I suppose that visiting this place is something of a requirement for the visitor.

6^th April 2013

What a stupendous day we have had today!

A picture of me having a stupendous day.

We had quite a long drive yesterday which took us up to a place called the Blyde River canyon. We got up early this morning and drove to a number of points along the canyon that are of truly astounding beauty. There are several that are quite well known. The Three Rondavels, The Potholes and Gods Window. They are all stunningly beautiful vista points.

         The Blyde River Canyon,  Stunning!

As we drove away through the beautiful rugged countryside we saw a sign directing us to a vista point and ‘South African food’. As it was lunch time and we were kind of peckish, we went to see what’s what.  We had to cross a river and drive around a quite long rugged road until we arrived at more signs for food.  I was rather expecting the equivalent of hot dogs and lukewarm tea.  Not so, we eventually found the ’Bush kitchen’. All in the open air was a restaurant made of bamboo with tables made of logs and an open air kitchen where the cooking was being done on Braais (barbecue) made from lorry wheels. They were serving simple but fantastic huge steaks with vegetable and pap on enamel plates. This was possibly the most simple and inventive business I have seen. The food was great and the setting close to idyllic. 

The wonderful bush Kitchen

So after a lovely lunch and having spent a little too long enjoying the site of the canyon we had to start making our way across to the gate of the Kruger Park, which turned out to be rather further than we had estimated.

First  impression of Kruger

           Although we knew there was a time that they closed the park we did not actually know what time that was.  We did guess, correctly as it turned out, that we did not have very much time. The last 40km of this journey was a completely straight road and we were the only people on it. So I was able to get a move on. We arrived at about 4.40 at the gate and we were told that we would have to drive directly to our camp and not to stop. Rules in this park are strictly, even ferociously enforced. So off we went the speed limits are between 40 and 50 Km/hr which is really not very fast. And whilst we were not to hang around,  we could only drive slowly. The first impression of this incredible place was that the roadway was littered with the biggest turds that can be imagined and everywhere was manure of all kinds.

Our first zebra

 And then, within 10 minutes of being in the park we saw a zebra and then a buffalo. As we drove on we saw several herds of various deer and antelopes. By the time we reached our camp about an hour later we had encountered half a dozen giraffes, had our path blocked by a herd of zebra, seen an elephant from a distance and witnessed  4 hippos swimming in the river. We arrived at the camp and it was getting dark. We got a major telling off for arriving after the gate closed.

  As we settled in we were greeted by a man and his son, Leslie and Roland Childs who were initially interested in our van and our adventures. Interestingly we had in common that he had also been a policeman. It soon also became clear that as regular visitors to the park they had between them some considerable experience and as they took us over to see a small group of hyenas who were massing on the other side of the fence, we were able to glean a great deal of benefit from their experience, for which are very grateful and we had a very interesting evening. 

                                                                                  

Unusual to see Hyena in the daytime

  All in all, it was a pretty full and satisfying day. We are meant to be up and out at 6 am to find more animals. I am warning them they had better be there if I have to get up at that hour now I am retired.

7^th April 2013 - Carnival of the animals 

I always look like this in the morning

We did not see him till he was almost in front of us

 Love means never having to say you are soggy

Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder

Traditional African lunch

There is no rule that says aliens must humanoid 

                                                           Never smile!

'This is our park.  Move on!'

Today was equally exciting we have seen so many animals. Elephants giraffe, warthogs, more deer of various kinds  than you can shake a stick at. I think the deer and other lesser animals constitute a kind of fast food service. I haven’t seen any mopeds but I have a mental picture of the predators sitting around in easy chairs with the football on, as the delivery arrives.  “ Who ordered the waterbuckburger”?  “ MMM not me,  mine was the family bucket of squirrels”! 

There were crocodiles, hippos. I could go on … Now Ping a person not easily satisfied She is considering asking for a refund if she doesn’t see a lion soon!  This despite the fact that we saw a leopard lying on the branch of a tree which is something seasoned visitors here don’t get to see. We spotted the leopard, thanks to the wonderful binoculars that we were given!

Having got up at 5 am but having all this excitement am I tired?  

Oh god yes!

Of all the animals in the park these are the top of the tree for me. Graceful beauty.

At one of the camps that we stayed at, we found that a disused railway line that ran through the park. It was discontinued in the 1970's. It used to serve Harare in the north and Maputo in the east, joining them with the major south African Cities. Now defunct we were delighted to learn that the station which is located inside the camp has been put to use as a restaurant. When we went to investigate we found that the station had been restored to an incredibly high standard and there was even a couple of carriages and a locomotive at the platform and the track going off  into  a curve in the far distance. Honestly it was really as if it had been held like that, frozen in time! To make the restaurant they had simply added tables and chairs around the station. 

The wonderful Railway Station Restaurant in the Kruger National Park

We couldn’t resist so we decided to have a meal.  We had to book which is a bit of a surprise for a restaurant really in the middle of nowhere.

When we went for the meal we decided to get dressed up a bit. I even had a shower. The meal was truly incredible, first class no pun intended. It was simply a beautiful meal in a beautiful setting. As we left we looked up into the most fantastic starry sky. ‘Perfik!’ as they say here in South Africa.

Having had a further exhausting couple of days for me, the Kruger Park has been an excellent experience. I really would not have missed it. Ping was quite disappointed not to see any Lions. She really had her heart set on seeing them. Despite my reassurance that there will be plenty more times that we may get to see lions and plenty more.Having said all of that we have seen animals that many who visit do not get to see: Leopard, 2 Cheetahs, rhinos , both Black and white.as well as all the others that are common in the park but are an absolute joy to see.

We're lucky to have seen a Cheetah

There was a small fly in the ointment in a way. We paid each night for our camp fees together with park conservation fees.  On our last day we discovered that there is a kind of loyalty card scheme called the wild card, where you pay so much for the year and if you visit more than a few times it is effectively free.  Each time we paid the reception staff omitted to tell us about this until we had already paid for 4 days. We put up a spirited case that we would like to buy this card but that as we would have bought it on the first day, had we known about it. So could we please put the money already spent towards the price of the card? We were quite annoyed to find that no one was prepared to discuss the matter.

This is disappointing, as the South African National Park Service which sets itself up to be a kind of ‘Patron Saint’ of conservation, appears on this occasion at least, to be just another money grabber organisation with little real interest in the loyalty of its customers. Even when a customer ask for such matter to be put right, none of their ‘managers’  considered themselves to have the authority to make a decision or to alleviate the sense of ‘being cheated’. If you plan a trip to Kruger, and you should, then be aware that you should ask for a ‘wild card’ and you can also use this for all the other National Parks in South Africa. We didn't allow this to spoil this amazing experience. 

Swaziland

Beehives type accommodation - not suitable if you'r over 5ft

So off we set once more now bound for Swaziland.  Swaziland is an independent Kingdom surrounded on three sides by South Africa, and on the fourth side by Mozambique.

We were greeted by absolutely wonderful mountain scenery lovely lakes and rivers.

We made our way to the Mlilwanie Wildlife Sanctuary.  This a much less intense experience than Kruger but delightful in its way.  There are very few of the restrictions that apply in Kruger We have decided to just kick back for a day or so and enjoy the wildlife that just walks casually around the campsite which would never happen in Kruger.  Really lovely!

Passing the time of the day with the  local inhabitants

We have been told that we have to visit Mozambique as it's an unusual place, rather different to South Africa, so we will be going there and return to South Africa via Lesotho. As usual, we love to hear from you all, do write.

Love

Ping and Noel

pingbow54@gmail.com

noelbow51@gmail.com

April 2013 - Johannesburg

A bit of an interlude.

First things first - Thanks to Pam Northing for answering the question everyone had on their minds. This is what she sent us

“I have just looked up Belgium and it covers about 30,528sq km.......ranks 141 in size in the world…..like Lesotho.…...and Rwanda is 26,338 and.......UK 243,610” 

Thanks Pam.

So now we know when we are told that we should compare to an area the size of Belgium we know exactly what we are talking about. I don’t see any reason to use Kilometers, I feel it would make me quite, well, French!

I also looked up the other place that is used for meaningless comparison and I found out two things.

1.       Wales is 8,022 sq. miles in area and

2.       if they flattened out all those mountains it would be bigger than England.

Fascinating fact -  Lesotho is about the same size as Belgium.

17^th March 2013 

Having had such an interesting few days in Durban, where we were reunited with our home, we then spent the week end with Sheryl and Gary's family and friends, where we were thoroughly spoiled and well looked after. Our experience of South African hospitality just got better and better....wow!

Dinner with Sheryl (L) and Gary 

Eating again in their beautiful garden

18th March 2013

We returned to the Shoestring Lodge in Johannesburg  after an exhausting 8 hour drive.  The journey was so tiring partly because we are now driving on 1^st world quality roads and so we found ourselves driving 600 km in such a short time. It is easy to underestimate how much traveling you can cram into such a time.  Some folks are never satisfied.

We visited my old friend Charles whom I have known from our nursing days. Charles has had an astonishing career, having left (then) Ian Smith’s Rhodesia many years ago to arrive in Britain as a student nurse. I am delighted to find that he has gone on to have a distinguished academic legal career in South Africa. Wow! Professor and Doctor, not sure which title to use.  We had such a nice reunion having not met for more than 30 years. I very much hope it won’t be the last.

Shoestrings is a different kettle of fish. The place and the people have not changed, but the ever generous owners, Rob and Tabitha, now have us camping in their huge and lovely garden. They have allowed us to take our time and do all the cleaning and maintenance that is now needed on the van after the punishment of driving through West Africa.

Pegasus parked in with the incredible fleet of Wicked hire vans.

Rob has even permitted us to use his workshop, I am overwhelmed with such generosity.  So we are taking a fairly leisurely time to get all our housekeeping and repairs done.

The van is clean and serviced. YES! We have had the electrics sorted out, we hope, once and for all. We have decorated the van a bit and I am currently making some structural changes inside the van to give us a bit more storage space.

Rob preparing for one of his legendary Shoestrings barbecues

Life at the Shoes String Lodge is never dull. Many visitors come and go, some stay for a night, others for longer, but they all have a story to tell. Like our previous encounters with other travellers  we find ourselves meeting and talking to the most fascinating of travellers - people of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities. We’ve experienced many interesting meetings; some people we very much hope to meet again. It has been enjoyable stimulating and informative.

The different nationalities gathering daily at the dining room table can sometimes provide a good anthropological study of social behaviours . It's difficult for me to be an observer, but one particular afternoon, I found myself doing just that. As it happened, there were a number of people around the table when I sat down to drink my tea. Around the table were: a young American with an unfortunate sense of humour, a very quiet young German Girl, two Indian men, whose English was good but their comprehension of what was happening around them was a bit lumpy. They also appeared to have a bit of an agenda going  between them, a little bit of friction. There was also a vocal Swedish man who was really quite deaf but seemingly unaware of the fact.

I sat and watched / listened to the most spectacular display of miscommunication which burned steadily for most of the afternoon. It was quite chaotic and largely unproductive. Added to this, a quite distracted woman would enter the room every now and then, and try to join in with the conversation, either make a statement that would reinvigorate the discourse or ask a question but not stay around for the answer. With the two Indians sniping gently at each other and the Swede making some provocative statement and then failing to either understand  or sometimes to hear the responses. It became a little like a pantomime. Nobody was actually listening to anyone, if they did, they appeared to respond as though they have not understood what was said.........but they seemed to be enjoying themselves.

This went on all afternoon,  that was until, with the house fully booked, the group of non English speaking Chinese turned up with no reservation and proceeded to join in, mainly to try to get someone at the table to help them meet some seriously unrealistic wishes and expectations of their coming days touring. There was much gesticulation and arm movements, in the end, I felt sorry for them and asked Ping to see what she could do to help. She could not manage German, Swedish or Hindi, but she did step in and, in Chinese, she soon sorted them out. No small undertaking. The others carried on as though nothing had happened.

25th March 2013

We remain living at Shoestrings, Rob & Tabitha have adopted us and refused to let us leave. They have allowed us to be very much living as part of their everyday life rather than as hotel guests. This has been such a benefit and Ping has been doing what she does so well and producing some pretty good dinners.

Good Friday

Tune in ,Turn on, drop out., but do the cleaning first

There are still some jobs to be done on the van and we are stalled a little as our next move will be to drive to Kruger National Park but we are strongly urged to leave it until after the school Easter break. Apparently it gets seriously crowded during the holidays.

Easter Monday

What of our plans?

In a week or so we will set off for Kruger National Park which sounds like a truly fascinating place to be. We plan to spend 3 or 4 days there and maybe finally  get to see some lions and tigers. We will then travel to the coast and to do some serious tourism along the way. We have made plans to meet with our friends that we travelled with for a short time way back in Morocco. That seems like a lifetime ago. We hope to link up with them in Namibia or there about.

Just before submitting this I would like to add three 'stop press'  items . 

• Having spent a fortune on electrical work  our fridge has again stopped working. this is really not fair! Auto electricians full of apology, taking van back tomorrow.
• The Chinese left having a fairly major disagreement between themselves  but nevertheless  they trooped off to Kruger to see the lions and tigers.  However one of them has just returned alone!  No real explanation, according to Ping,  as to what became of the others. Hmmmm!
• We have just met a chap over breakfast. He seemed a nice enough chap. When I asked him what he does for a job .  He told me that he has a job in Cape Town where he  pushes people off a bridge!  'Oh' says I how do they feel about it. He held my gaze and with a stony expression he flatly said " some of them scream and some of them go quietly"

The  Executioner

So there we are, we're off to Soweto now, and day after tomorrow, we'll set of to Kruger

Love you all! 

Cheers

Noel+Ping

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Noelbow51@gmail.com   pingbow54@gmail.com