Month: April 2016

Johannesburg and Soweto

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Johannesburg

The Baz Bus left Drakensberg about mid-day. We headed west and up.

After passing through the Drakensburg mountains we were on the high plains.  Again the landscape was broad acre farming reminiscent of western NSW.

Dodgy Service Station

We stopped at a service station about 100 kilometres from Johannesburg.  The driver suggested that we “do not use the ATM in this place”.  In some respects, I think that warnings like this are a bit over the top. However, they must be based on some experience.

When we did stop, I went into the service station to ‘use the facilities’.  I did note that ‘the facilities’ had a guard.  Maybe the ‘do not use the ATM’ advice was valid.

Traffic Jam

I had mention previously that the Baz Bus drivers were keen to get into Johannesburg as soon as possible.  This was so that they could beat the worst of the peak hour traffic.

Well it seems that ‘peak hour traffic’ lasts much more than an hour.  It seemed to take us for forever to get from the outskirts of the city to the Brown Sugar Hostel that is about 5 kilometres from the CBD.

I had booked a single room at the hostel.  This turned out to be at cottage at the back of the main building.  The main building is an old house, properly better described as a mansion.  It is big enough to easily covered into a hostel.  The place has a pool, albeit it needs a bit on maintenance.

I was told by the manager of the hostel that the house used to be owned by the Mafia.  I guess that is true.

The staff advised that no evening meals were being offered “because it was Thursday”.  They didn’t explain what the relevance of Thursday was with respect to cooking or not cooking meals.

They said that they could order a take away meal from a “local outlet”.  I ordered chicken and vegetables.  It arrived in 10 minutes. It must have been ‘very local’.

Into Maboneng

I spent the morning doing ‘administrative stuff’, including trying to sort out my annual Superannuation contribution. I am wondering why I pay any fees to the fund. They seem to as close to completely incompetent as it is possible to get.

It was late in the afternoon when I finally headed into town for ‘lunch’.  I had heard about the ‘Maboneng Precinct’.  It is an area near to the CBD. It is not unlike other cities – London, Sydney and Melbourne –  an area near to the CBD’ that has fallen into decay and is now in the process of being ‘gentrified’. The reason for the fall into decay in Johannesburg’s case are probably a little more complex than is the case with other cities.

Using Uber

Anyway I used Uber to take me from the hostel to the Maboneng Precinct.  Having to use Uber is  an example of an issue with travelling in the RSA.  Albeit it is a short distance from the hostel to the Precinct, I could not walk. I was forced to use an Uber taxi.

Just as an aside, the ‘taxis’ service is run from San Francisco,  and for tax purposes the company is domiciled in the Netherlands.  The cars used by the Uber drivers are German – Mercedes and Audis.

The thing is an excellent example of the impact of globalisation.

On my way up from Durban, I had listened to a podcast about your ‘social made reputation’. Uber was given as an example.  Apparently, the drivers rate the customers in the same way that the customers rate the drivers

On the ride to the Maboneng Precinct, I asked that driver what my rating was.  He told me that it was “5 out of 5”.   I guess that is pretty good.

The route into town took past the Ellis Park Rugby stadium.  Like many stadia nowadays, it is sponsored by Emirates Airlines.

Good Meal

The Maboneng Precinct has lots of trendy restaurants.  The one I picked was very good.  It also served good craft beer – Butcher’s Pale Ale.

City Tour

Next day I decided to take a hop on hop bus tour of the city. These are often a good way to acquaint yourself with a new city.  In Johannesburg’s case you really do not have an option.  It would be very difficult, actually impossible, to get around the sights on foot and public transport.

I took an Uber taxi to Park Station, the closest stop for the bus.

The tour took us around the CBD.  The commentary was interesting. It talked about the CBD becoming “vibrant with outdoor stalls and people selling all manner of goods”.  I think another view would be that the previously ‘white area’ had been overrun by the blacks’.

Tall Tower

The bus stopped at the ‘Africa Tower’.  I got off the bus with a Chinese woman.  We were met by a guide who works for the bus company.  He explained that “it was his job to look after us as this was not a safe part of the city”.

The guide explained that the tower was part of complex that included a hotel, that used to be the best and most popular hotel in Johannesburg.  However, this part of the city had changed.  The hotel closed “owing a lot of tax”. The building is now used to house the Taxation Department. A bit of irony there.

The tower is the tallest building in Johannesburg and it is also the tallest building in Africa.  The guide took us to the lift that whisked us to the top of the tower.  The views are spectacular.  To the west you can see the mounds of dirty that were extracted from the goldmines.  They are huge and are actually small hills.  Beyond the hills you can see Soweto.

To the north of the CBD you can see a ‘new area’.  This is where large number of the businesses, including banks and professional services companies have relocated.  To the east you can see Ellis Park. The guide explained that the area better the CBD and the Ellis Park “was dangerous.  A lot of migrants had moved into the area and were squatting in the buildings”.

Football City Stadium

After checking out the Africa Tower, I reboarded the bus.  It took me south and then west out of the city. We passed the Football City stadium which was built for the Football (soccer) World Cup in 2010. The final was played in this stadium.

Next stop was the Gold Reef Casino. This was where I took a detour on a small bus to Soweto.

Soweto

This bus had a guide.  He was a bit of a character.  He explained that he was “born and raised in Soweto and was very proud to live there”.

It was a relatively short drive from the Casino to the start of the Soweto Township.  The road was wide and very busy.  The bus stopped at the sign signifying the start of the township.

The guide explained that “there are over 50 separate districts with the Township”.  He also said that the conditions in the districts vary.  He pointed to the house nearby.  “Many of these houses cost over Rand 1 million (over AUD 100,000).  These houses have electricity, water and sewage. Most have satellite dishes and garages.

As we continued, we passed another area where the guide pointed out some ‘barrack’ style buildings.  Apparently these were where the miner workers were housed when Soweto was first established.  The black workers were brought to Johannesburg from other areas without their families.  They lived in these barracks.

They ae now used by poorer people, mainly immigrants from countries like Zimbabwe.  The conditions in these buildings are dire. There is no running water or electricity.  There are very rudimentary ‘shared’  toilets.

Our next stop was the Hector Pieterson Memorial.  This commemorates one the most infamous events of the Apartheid period. Check out the Wikipedia link.

Significant Houses

Not far from the Memorial, “is the street where two Noble Peace Prize winners lived”.  We got off the bus and walked past Nelson Mandela’s house and the house where Desmond Tutu lived.

The Casino

After leaving Soweto, the mini bus took us back to Casino.  I decided to have lunch there.  Eating and drinking are the only reasons I go to a Casino.

The Apartheid Museum

Not far from the casino is the Apartheid Museum. Places like this are important.  I went to museum in Santiago in Peru which commemorates the atrocities committed by the Military Junta in that country.

Albeit that the Apartheid Museum is good, it does not have the impact of the museum in Santiago.

Mining Walk

I reboarded the bus and headed back into the city.  The next hop off point was an area known as the ‘Mining Walk’.  It is in part of the CBD that is still occupied by large companies.  The ‘mining’ aspect of the place is basically and replicate of ‘shaft tower’ and an old train that transported miners underground.

Wik University

The bus passed the Wik University.  I thought about getting off, but it was getting late.

Trendy Pub

A couple of young bloke on the bus told me that they were getting off at the next stop “because it was a good area to find a place to eat”.

I decided to join them.  The place we stopped at was very lively. It was full of young people.  The blokes told me that they worked for a telecommunications company.  One was from Johannesburg and the other was from Dubai.  We shared a couple pizzas as we drank some craft beers.  The blokes had some interesting things to say about Johannesburg and South Africa in general.

The local pointed out that “you looked around you would think that you were in any first world city – London, Sydney or Berlin”.  There lots of young people of different races (but predominantly white) enjoying a drink in the late afternoon sun.  Everything was relaxed.

However, the local pointed out that “if you were walk more than two blocks in any direction from where we were, it would be almost certain that you would be robbed and possibly mugged”.

Uber Again

After the meal and the beers, I ordered an Uber taxi back to the Hostel.

Moving Hostels 

I decided that the Brown Sugar Hostel was too boring.  I had seen a place in the Maboneng Precinct that looked pretty good. I made a reservation on their web site.

In the morning I ordered another Uber taxis and headed to the new hostel.  It is called Curocity and it’s really good.

I decided to have lunch in the restaurant over the road from the hostel.   It is an interesting place.  It serves Argentinian food – i.e. streaks.  I am not a big meat eater, but I enjoy the occasional steak.

The meal was good. Over a post meal craft beer, I had a chat with the owner.  He told me that he had left Argentina over fifteen years ago and had lived and worked in several countries including the USA and Mexico.  He had come to the RSA and had decided to stay.

A bit About Maboneng

He told me that the redevelopment of the Maboneng Precinct was primarily being done by one company.  It is owned by a Jewish bloke in his thirties.  He is buying up the derelict building and refurnishing them.  The building where the restaurant is housed is an example.  The Argentinian told me that the Jewish guy “had to sort out the security in the precinct himself”.  This involved employing security guards. “It is not possible to trust the police”.

Early to bed

I had an early night.  The next day I was heading to Kruger National Park.

Flickr Link

https://flic.kr/s/aHskvzThji

Maboneng Link

http://www.southafrica.net/za/en/articles/entry/article-maboneng-precinct

Soweto Link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soweto

Hector Pieterson Link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector_Pieterson

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drakensberg and Lesotho

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Lesotho

Lesotho

The Baz Bus for Johannesburg arrived at the hostel early.  The driver explained that he wanted to get to Johannesburg before the worst of the peak hour.

We drove out of Durban through the western suburbs.  It is a very big city.

Once out of the city we passed through farming land.  It is similar to the Western Cape, with broad acre farms similar to the farms you see in Australia.

Pietermaritzburg

We passed through Pietermaritzburg, the driver joked that “there is no point in stopping here because there is nothing to do?”.

Before mid-day we crossed into the Drakensberg district. This famous for its mountain range.

We stopped at the Amphitheatre Backpackers.  I was immediately taken by the place. The driver told us that we would be stopping for 20 minutes or so.

As I walked in to the reception I ran into George from Georgia. He asked if I was staying there. I said I hadn’t planned to, but I may change my mind.  He said “you should”.  He also said that I “should do the Lesotho tour”.

I spoke to the driver and he called the Baz Bus office to vary my ticket.

I had a simple lunch and spent the afternoon relaxing in the hostel.  It has large grounds and swimming pool.  I was a bit of hit with a Labrador and another dog, who seem to want someone to walk with, albeit we went around in circles.

The hostel put on an evening meal.  Like other places that I have posted about, there were two options – vegetarian and non-vegetarian.

Trip into Lesotho

The hostel offers a tour into Lesotho.

The tour party assembled in the reception area. There were four Spaniards three of who had been competing in the World Underwater Hockey competition in RSA.  There was another Spaniard who was a Doctor.  There was French girl who was travelling extensively through African doing a mixture of paid and volunteer work. There was an American bloke from Chicago who had been developing computer systems for Obamacare. Finally, there were two Germans – a young woman who was living in Pretoria with were boyfriend who was on a posting working for BMW.  The German bloke with her was a family friend from Munich who was on a world trip.

We left at 7.30 a.m.  The guide who works at the hostel explained it would be a long day.  We drove towards Harrismith and then to Phathaditjhaba before heading into the mountains to the border crossing at Montantsa Pass.

The road up to the pass was ‘as rough as’.  It is a goat track that is in the process of being rebuilt. We passed at least four  different gangs working on the roads.  The gangs seemed to consist of at least 50 workers.  There seemed to be 50/50 men and women working on the gangs.  They had some machinery e.g. cement mixers and trucks, but most of the work was being done with picks and shovels.

At the top of the pass, we came to the border control.  We submitted our passports that were duly stamped by the immigration officials.

We then headed down the hill into the valley on the Lesotho side of the Drakensberg range.  The road was very steep.  Fortunately, the improvement to this part of the road have been completed.  It is covered with concrete blocks or poured concrete slabs.

At the bottom of the hill, we crossed river that the guide explained, is “the official border between the RSA and Lesotho.

School

After a short distance, we stopped at what turned out to be school.  I had noticed that the first row of the seats of the mini bus was full of gardening equipment – forks, spades and cement and boxes of seedlings.

These turned out to be gifts from the owners of the Hostel to the school.

Principal’s talk

We were invited to go into the class rooms to meet the children and watch their lessons in progress.  That was an interesting experience.  The children were clearly a accustomed to having visitors, but still seemed somewhat apprehensive about the experience of being watched.

The guide then told that the Principal would give us a talk about the school. She was speaking in English, but it was very difficult to understand what she was saying.

Some of things I was able to glean from what she was saying included: the school was not funded by the government – the parents paid fees and the Hostel where we were staying also provided support with books and equipment, a lot of the children had been impacted by the HIV/AIDs epidemic that is ravaging the country – some had lost a parent, others were orphans, the “lessons were in English” – albeit a form of English that was not easy for others to understand.

Walk to Rock Painting

After the Principal’s talk, we headed up a path into the hill behind the school.  It was a real goat’s track.

Our destination was rock formation where we were to see some rock paintings.

Before seeing the paintings, the guide told us a bit about Lesotho.  I knew that It was an independent country in the middle of the RSA, but very little else.

The guide explained that it was originally inhabited by the San people who were nomadic.  Over time other tribes move into the area and established permanent settlements.

The major turning point for the people in the area was the Boer War.  The English were pushing the Afrikaans off their land and they in turn, were moving into what is now Lesotho.  The native people appealed to the British for assistance and the British declared the area as a British Protectorate.

When the South African Union (the forerunner to the RSA) was formed, the people of Lesotho decided to remain separate from the Union. The country was granted independence from the UK in 1996.

The country is very poor.  As noted above, it is ravaged by HIV/AIDs.

After lunch the guide showed us the rock painting that were nearby.  Apparently there are better examples in the Natal National Park, however these ones were interesting to see.

Beer

We walked back down the hill into the valley.

We passed a number of huts until we came across one with a white flag.  The guide explained that the villagers use flags to communicate to others that they have items for sale.  A red flag says that there is meat for sale, a green flag is for vegetables, yellow is for corn.

A white flag indicates that the people in the hut have some beer for sale. It takes three days for the beer to be brewed.  Once it is ready for drinking it has to be drunk and finished off in one day.

We stopped to taste the beer.  A couple of the locals had clearly had enough, but were keen to keep drinking.

Traditional healer

We got back to school and boarded the bus.

Our next stop was the house of a ‘Tradition Healer’.  She was an ‘elderly woman’  (probably in her forties).

The guide explained that she would say somethings and he would translate.  The upshot of what she said included: she was a healer because her ancestors had picked her, she was confirmed as healer in a ceremony where she danced all night with a cock (bird variety) on her head and the cock didn’t fall off, she gets her knowledge of which treatments to use (herbs and animal parts) from her ancestors, they speak to her when she is in trance after smoking a herb (take that as marijuana).

After her chat, the healer took questions. In response to these question we learnt that: the most of her patients had sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS, she works injunction with the clinics that administer ‘western medicine’, when she gets sick she goes to another traditional healer.

Traditional food

After leaving that healer we headed back towards the border.  The guide was worried that it was getting late and that we would not be back at the border crossing before it closed at 4.00 p.m.

We stopped briefly at another house for a tradition of meal of corn ‘porridge’ and vegetable.

This place has a small solar panel and was the only house in the village with electricity.

Over the border before 4 p.m

We crossed over the border back into the RSA.

Phone Call

We stopped in Harrismith to get fuel.  While the bus was being fuelled, the Spanish Doctor called a hostel in Johannesburg to book accommodation for himself and his companions. He had his phone on speaker phone.

Albeit the doctor could speak very good English he spoke with a very strong accent.  The bloke at the hostel did not have very good English and spoke with strong African accent.

The ‘conversation’ between the two of them was hilarious. There was constant misunderstanding and Doctor resorted to spell words out e.g A for Africa, B for buffalo, N for Nigeria.  His selection for words to indicated the letters add to the confusion.

The other passengers, including myself, were in hysterics.  The German woman had tears running down her face.

At the end of the ‘conversation’ it was agreed that the Spanish Doctor would make to the booking on -line.  As the American bloke observed, “technically you have yet to make a booking”.

I only wish that I had recorded to the whole episode.

Interesting Conversation

Back at the hostel we had a communal meal.  There were some very interesting conversations covering a wide range of topics, including security issues when travelling Africa, the EU migrant crisis and the USA election.

Flickr Link

https://flic.kr/s/aHskyCiWKa

Garmin Link

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1141267610

About Lesotho

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesotho

 

Durban

billrider20132 Comments

Durban

The Baz Bus collected me from the Shell Service station in Mtharta.  The bus was quite crowded.  I had meet a number of the people before.  That was to be expected as individuals and groups head along the Garden Route.

Bloke who could Talk

As well as the backpackers with ‘Hop on and Hop off’ tickets, there were two blokes that bought tickets off the driver. One looked to be in his forties and the other looked to be in his late teens.   The older bloke got into the front seat next to the driver.

As we headed off the bloke in the front seat started talking to the driver. I caught bits of the conversation.  He “owned a construction company….lived in  Ramsgate south of Durban…owned a BMW 7 Series….”

The amazing thing was that the bloke did not stop talking. His comments seemed to get more and bizarre.  He talked about “having over 20 poisonous snakes in his house” and “fatally shooting a black guy that broke into his house”.

A couple of times he turned back to say something to the teenager who boarded the bus with him.  As time went he still didn’t stop talking and seemed to be getting pissed.

One of the other passengers started to chat to the young bloke.  It transpired that the bloke in the front seat was his uncle.  The young bloke worked for his uncle’s construction company.  They had “just finished a section of new road near Coffee Bay and were heading home for the weekend”.  The reason that his uncle sounded pissed was because he was “drinking a 26-ounce bottle of vodka”.  The young bloke said “that 90% of what his uncle said was true albeit he was prone to a bit of exaggeration”.

It was about 5 hours’ drive from Mtharta to where we dropped these blokes off. The older had not stopped talking for the whole time.  They were met at the stop by the younger blokes sister, his uncle’s wife and his children.

When he was unloading his luggage, the uncle took a cloth bag out of a metal case and placed it of the ground to show his children.  It moved. There was a poisonous snake in the bag.  Maybe he did kill and black guy the broke into his house.

Nomads Hostel

I was booked into the Nomads hostel in Durban.  There was a young Australian girl on the bus that was also booked into the hostel.

As we walked through the gate that place seemed closed.  As we got closer to the main door we could hear loud music.  As we walked through the door we were greeted by a bloke with an extremely loud voice.

It later transpired that the boke with loud voice and number of other quests were in Durban for a music festival taking place over the weekend.  The bloke with the lead voice was providing sound equipment.  I was to later learn that the reason that he spoke so loudly was that he was partially deaf as a result going to so many loud concerts.;

Walking tour

In the morning I decided to take walking tour that was offered by the hostel.  I had heard about the tour by a bloke I met in Coffee Bay.  He told me that “the guide, Johnny, was very good.

Johnny was a ‘mixed race’ – Indian and Zulu.

There were four other quests on the tour, a couple from Brazil and bloke from Belgium.  The first part of the tour involved taking a local mini bus in to the city.  Passengers and the driver’s off siders use hand signals to say where they want to go and where the bus is going.  It is a bit of a chaotic system but it appears to work.

Whites leave the city

We got off the bus near a large market. Johnny explained “that area had changed significantly since democracy”.  It turned out that that was his term for the end of Apartheid.

He told us that during the Apartheid years “the downtown area was for the whites. The blacks, coloured and Indians were not allowed to live there.  The Indians were allowed to have businesses, but the blacks were not. He said that the streets were all very clean and quiet.  The blacks that worked on the downtown area had to return to their townships when they finished work.

All this changed with democracy.  Everyone was allowed to move freely throughout the RSA.  This included allowing the blacks to be able to live and start businesses in downtown Durban.  Over time blacks started business on the streets and slowly started taking over shops as the white shop owners left the area.

Johnny pointed out that we, his quests, were the only white people on the street.  He was right.

Markets

We went into a food market.  The people manning the stalls were all black.  Johnny explained that most of the stalls were owned by Indians. Some of the items on offer were ‘interesting’ – for example, goat and sheep heads.

After the food market we walked on a bridge over the railway line. It was wide and covered.  On either side people were selling CD’s and DVD’s.  They were all playing ‘music’ on ‘ghetto blasters’.  The noise was excruciating.

Next stop was another bridge where people were selling ‘tradition remedies’.  These included herd, roots of plants and animal parts.

Town Hall the same as Dublin’s

Leaving the market, we past the Town Hall.  Apparently it is built to the same design as the one in Dublin.

In the square in front of the Town Hall there are memorials to the fallen with WW1 and WW2.  Virtually all of the names are British, not Afrikaans.

Indian meal

Next stop was the beach.  We had an Indian meal at a restaurant.  It was pretty good.

Johnny explained that in summer that beach is packed with locals and people that travel to Durban from Johannesburg. He said that the people seemed to practice “voluntary Apartheid” with the whites going to the far end of the beach.

Beer in a glasshouse

We walked along the beach to an ‘entertainment centres’ that included shops, bars and restaurants.  There is a pier with a bar, that Johnny suggested was a good place for a beer.

On the way out to bar Johnny pointed out that the people swimming in the water to the right of the pier were predominantly white.  Those to the left of the pier were predominantly black.

The walls of the bar were all glass.  The sun was streaming through and it was incredibly hot.

Curry meal

In the evening, the hostel put on a curry meal.  It was really good and cheap – less than AUD 7 and the beers were less than AUD 2.

I had a chat with one of the other guest and the manager of the hostel. The guest was an older bloke who told me that he was in Durban on business.  His business was to install mechanisms that make it difficult for “gangs of blacks” stealing copper wire from the electricity network.

The conversation turned to shark attacks.  The Manager said “that the number of attacks had increased with the increase in the number of blacks that were taking to the beaches”.  The other bloke agreed.

AUD 9 hair cut

I spent most of the next day in the shopping centre that was about 400 metres from the hostel.  It had a large number of small shops and the big department stores including Woolworths (not related to the Australian company) and Ackerman.

I had a ‘full service’ haircut (i.e. cut and wash).  It cost AUD 9.

I also had a really good meal with a beer and wine for AUD 21.

The RSA is cheap.  Durban is particularly cheap.

 Flickr Link

https://flic.kr/s/aHskyNj5b6

 

Coffee Bay and Port St Johns

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Coffee Bay and Port St Johns

The Baz Bus from East London was to take me to Mthata where I would take a shuttle to Coffee Bay.

Mandel’s House and Grave

Short of Mthata we passed through small town called Qunu.  This is where Nelson Mandela grew up.  When he retired from being  President of the RSA he built a house there.  It is also where he is buried.

The driver slowed the bus down as we passed the gate of the house. A little further up the road he stopped.  We got out of the bus.  We could look down the hill to see the house.  It is on a farm that extended into the distance.

The driver also pointed out some shrubs on hill on the property.  He told us that that was Mandel’s last resting place. It is interesting that this is still a ‘private’ place.

Shuttle to Coffee Bay

The Baz Bus dropped me off at a large Shell Service station at Mthata.  This turned out the be a transit point for a number of regional and local buses.  There were people everywhere.  The take way food shop and the mini supermarket in the complex were doing a roaring trade.

There were a couple of other people from the Baz Bus that were going to Coffee Bay. The shuttle bus was waiting. We joined some other passengers and headed off.

The route took us through the main part of Mthata.  This is very chaotic town.  It is obviously quite poor.

We continued towards the coast.  Most of the traffic was mini buses and small trucks. There were very few sedan cars.

There was a lot of road works being performed. This seems to be the case across the RSA.  I seemed to have struck at least one major piece of road work every day I have been travelling.  Typically, the work is simply resurfacing the road.  This involves closing one lane.  What is really odd is the length of the lane closures.  Some are over 2 kilometres long.  This results in long waiting times as the oncoming traffic passes.  The really odd thing is that actual work is being performed on a very small part (typically a couple of hundred metres) closed section of the road.

Coffee Shack

There are a number of hostels in Coffee Bay.  I had heard that the Coffee Shack was the best.

The place seemed to be very popular – it was fully booked.  Most of the quests were young and were in Coffee Bay to surf.

The hostel offered dinner.  This there were only two options – vegetarian and non-vegetarian.  The vegetarian option turned out the be the non-vegetation option without the meat.

Walk in the Village

One of the activities that the hostel offered was a tour of the Coffee Bay village.  I decided to take the tour.  As it turned out, I was the only participant.

The guide was a young bloke from the village who worked in the hostel.  His name was Jesse. As we headed off he explained how the village worked.  The village was basically the houses that we could see.  They were spread out, 300 to 400 metres apart.  There was ‘Mayor’ of village.  This an elected position.  His role is to sort out any disputes, e.g. the allocation of land and any disagreement about the use of the land e.g. fencing off areas to plant corn.

There is a chief of the area that includes the Coffee Bay village.  This is a hereditary position.  The Chief’s area of control covers 20 villages.  The Chief’s role includes sorting out any issues that cannot be solved by the Mayors.

We walked past the village school, Jesse told me that he attended the school.  He said that the students were taught in the local Xhosa language.  “The idea is that they are taught English, but is difficult to find teachers who can speak good English”.

As we walked along we came across a white bloke walking in the same direction.  Jesse clearly knew him and they started to chat.  The white bloke told us that he had “found a house in the village and was very happy”.  He turned off the path.

I asked Jesse “who was that guy”?  He told me that he was from Johannesburg and was working one of the hostels in the village.  It was interesting to see a ‘white’ who had gone ‘native’.

After a short distance, we came across a group of houses. There were a group of people sitting in chairs outside one of the houses.  Jesse spoke to them in Xhosa.  He introduced me to the people.  One was his father, two were his sisters and there were a couple of older female neighbours.

No Electricity

As we walked off I asked Jesse if his house had electricity.  He told me that it didn’t because “his father and the other elders of the village were against having it in the village”|.  I said “but I can see electricity wires on the hill”.  Jesse told me that “the village could have electricity, but the elders asked that government not the link the houses to the grid.  There is only one house that has electricity, and that was owned by a German bloke who has married a girl from the village”.

We actually passed the German blokes house.  Apart from having electricity, it looked like all the other houses in the village.  Apparently the German was a doctor who met his wife while working in the local clinic.

Face painting

Next stop was place where the locals get mud that they use for face painting.  Jesse explained that in the past it was used for ‘war paint’.  Now it is used for sun protection.  Apparently it is very effective.  Given my skin issues, maybe I should have painted my face with mud in my youth.

Mud Bricks

We also passed a place where some of the villagers were making mud bricks to the used to make a house.  Jesse told me that if the house is properly maintained, it can “last forever”.

Tradition Meal

Towards the end of the walk, we stopped off for a late lunch in a village house.  The meal consisted of corn meal and vegetables.  Jesse explained that it is the staple diet of the people.  They basically eat the same meal every day. If someone in the village kills a goat or another animal they will share it will others, as there is no way of storing it.

Blokes wanting a “contribution”

Later in the afternoon, I when for a walk to the main beach.  As I returned I was meet by two blokes in their teens.  They chatted a bit in broken English:  “where are you from? “ and that sort of stuff.

They then asked me “if I would like to make a contribution of 100 Rand? I told them politely that I would not.  It was a bit threatening.

More Dutch

Back at the Hostel I had dinner.  It was better than lunch.  I chatted to a young Dutch couple who were studying at the University of Stellenbosch.  The girl was very striking.  I wondered if she had a sister who was in Koh Tao in Thailand in August 2012

Back to Mthata

In the morning the shuttle bus took me back to Mthata.

There was another older bloke on the bus.  He spoke with a southern USA accent.  He told me that he was “George for Georgia”.  He said he had only recently started travelling outside of the USA.  He was an interesting bloke.

The shuttle bus dropped us off at the Shell service station.  From there a ‘local’ mini bus was to take me to Port St Johns.  I had been told by the hostel in Port St Johns to “wait the fast food restaurant and the driver will find me”.

As I was sitting drinking my coffee, I heard a girl speaking in French accent chatting to a waitress.  She seemed worried about a bus being late.  I asked her where she was headed.  She said that she was going to Port St Johns. She seemed quite distressed. We were staying at different hostels and she could not get hold of her hostel.  I said I would call mine. As it turned out were to take the same mini bus.

Local Bus

Finally, a bloke emerged asking for passengers for Port St Johns.  We got on the bus. This was my first ‘local mini bus’ ride, albeit I had seen them and read about them.  They are almost all Toyota vans.  As well as the driver, there is an ‘off-sider’ who calls outs (I assume telling potential passengers where the bus is going).  The offsider also collects the fares.  The objective appears to be to maximize occupancy at all times.

As we went along I chatted with girl with French accent. Back at the Service Station, I had assumed that she was an inexperienced traveller.  I could not have been more wrong.  She was from Belgium had been travelling for over 5 months from Kenya south.  She had previously travelled in South America, Asia and Australia and New Zealand.  She speaks French, English, Dutch and Spanish.  Her plan was to do the 60 kilometre walk along the coast from Port St Johns to Coffee Bay.

Port St Johns

It took ages to get to Port St Johns – dropping passengers off and getting new ones.

The hostels that the Belgium girl and I were staying at were quite a way out of the town.  My place was very alternative. It was run by a white South African who appeared to be constantly stoned.  A number of the quests appear to have the same interest.

The owner of the hostel has pet donkeys that roamed all over the place, including into the bar area.

I spent a couple of days in Port St Johns not doing too much apart from reading and walking. One of the walks took me into the National Park.  It was interesting to see.  There were about 30 huts for accommodation.  The only thing was that there didn’t appear to be any guests.

To Durban

I caught a local bus back to Mthata where I was to take the Baz Bus to Durban.

Flickr Links

Mandela House

https://flic.kr/s/aHskypSB5R

Coffee Bay and Port St Johns

https://flic.kr/s/aHskyqKBDE

 

 

Chintsa

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DSC05691 

I had a good time in Hogsback.  My next stop was Chintsa which is on the coast north east of East London.

Using Baz Bus required that I took a shuttle back to East London and wait for the bus at the, previously mentioned, Shady Shack Hostel. I chatted to a young English couple who had stayed there.  They confirmed that it was a “dodgy place in a dodgy area”.

Staying at Buccaneers

I had booked into a place called Buccaneers in Chintsa using Expedia.  I am not sure what I, or they did, but I ended up with a cottage all to myself.

Chintsa turned out to be a very small place. Buccaneers is sort of a resort, albeit a bit basis. It has a swimming pool with a café, a bar and restaurant.  There seemed to be more staff than guests.

Another Cattle Encounter

I had a late lunch in the café by the pool.  There was a group on cows in a paddock beyond the pool.  One was making a loud bellowing noise.  The girl in the café explained that its calf had escaped from the paddock and it was probably at the beach.  The “mother was calling to it”.

After the lunch I walk down to the beach. This involved going through a gate and down a narrow path that led to a wood bridge that crossed a small stream that flowed to the beach.  I crossed the bridge and continued along the path.

As looked along the path I could see a ‘not too small calf’ heading my way.  I turned and ran back to the bridge, thinking the calf would not cross the bridge.  I was right about that.  It simply ran through stream and up the path to the gate.

I headed up the path. I could hear both the cow in the paddock and the calf bellowing.

As I neared the gate the calf suddenly came out of the bushes beyond the gate.

It started to come towards me, but suddenly stopped.  The gate was open the it ran through it.

I walk up the gate.  One that staff from café was at the gate laughing her head off. She and seen me react as the calf came towards me. I obviously looked as scared as ‘all get out’.

She said “he is just looking for his mother”.  She had heard him bellowing and came out to open the gate.  As she did, he ran straight past her to the paddock.

In hindsight it was obvious that all the calf wanted to do was get to its mother.  It wasn’t interested in me except that I was on the same path.

Good Meal

In the evening, I had a meal in the restaurant.  That was the only place to eat and there was only one option on the menu – barbequed meat and salad.  It was very good.

All the quests dined at one table.  The conversations we interesting. Two of the guests were young lawyers from Cologne in Germany.  Naturally the ‘New Year’ incident came up.  They said “it was serious, but it will be the problem with the migrants will be resolved because Germany has good processes”.

Great view

The breakfast was served in the restaurant.  Has a really good view towards the beach.

Walk and Quick Dip

I went for a long walk on the beach and had a quick.  The water was much warmer than Jeffrey’s Bay, but still cool.

Friday night

It was Friday.  I ate in the restaurant again and went to the bar after the meal.

The place was ‘packed’.  The barman explained that the ‘locals’, come to the Buccaneer’s bar every Friday because it is “the only place there is”.

The ‘locals’ were a bunch of young and old, and male and female.  They seemed to three things in common: they were white, spoken Afrikaans and could drink like fish. Oh and one other thing: they all smoked.

To Coffee Bay

I had time for a walk in the morning before the Baz Bus arrived to take me to Mthatha where I was to catch a shuttle bus to Coffee Bay.

Flickr Link

https://flic.kr/s/aHskyiJZs9

 

Kenton on Sea and Hogsback

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Hogsback

After leaving Port Elizabeth I travelled to a small town called Kenton on Sea.

I had booked into a place called Woodlands Cottages.  It turned out to be a couple of kilometres out of town.   The Baz Bus took me to the front gate and the driver entered the code to open the gate.

I headed down to long driveway soon to be greeted by three dogs – one very large and two small fluffy things.  The large dog was very placid.  The little dogs yapped like crazy.  I was later find that they were “part Jack Russell”.  Those terriers are so annoying.

Woodlands turned out to be an old farm house.  The cottages were accommodation for the farm workers when it was a working farm.

The bedrooms of the main house had been converted into dormitories.  I was the only quest for this type of accommodation.

Walk into town

I was hungry and walked into town looking for food.  There were only two place to eat.  One was a bar of the beach that only served pizzas.  The other place was a rather up market café in the ‘CDB’ (there was sign telling to the direction to the CBD).  The food in the café was really good.

West Indies win the T20 World Cup

That evening I watched the T20 World Cup final between the West Indies and England.  I suspect everyone reading this knows what happened.  What an amazing finish!!!!!!  Great for West Windies cricket and the T20 game.

Hire a bike

The next day I hired a bike and went for a ride into the town.  It was good to be back on a bike again.  I am really looking forward to being reunited with my Cannondale in June.

To Hogsback

My next destination was Hogsback, which is quiet away inland from the coast.

The Baz Bus dropped me off at the Shady Shack Hostel in East London.  It seemed to a very appropriately named establishment. It looked very dodgy.  I was to be picked up there by a shuttle that would take me to Hogsback.

As I waited I when for a short walk along the path next to the beach opposite the hostel.  There was glass and litter all over the place.

Within an hour, the shuttle arrived.  There were two other people, a Spanish girl and a Norwegian bloke booked on the shuttle. The driver told us that we would be stopping at a shopping centre “to collect some supplies” before continuing on to Hogback.

The shopping centre was very big, not dissimilar to anything you would see in an Australian suburb or regional city. The vast majority of the shoppers were white.

The supplies turned out to flour and other cooking ingredients for the hostel.

Large Township

As we headed out of the city we passed a very large ‘Township’.  The driver told us that it was the second largest ‘Township’ after Soweto which is outside of Johannesburg.  The Norwegian bloke asked “what is a Township? I was very surprised at the question.

Into the Xhosa Homelands

One of the features of the Apartheid system was the establishment of ‘Homelands’.  These were areas where the native tribes like the Xhosa and Zulu people could live.  A black person had the ‘right’ to live in a particular ‘Homeland’ based on their ethnicity.

The ‘Homelands’ effectively operated as ‘countries’ within the larger South Africa. Movement between the Homelands and the big cities in South Africa was controlled.  The vast majority of jobs for the Blacks in the Homelands were in the big cities like East London.  The Blacks were allowed to come into the cities to work, but were not allowed to live there.

The area inland from East London including the Township are part of the former Xhosa Homelands of Ciskei and Transkei.

Since that fall of the Apartheid, that Homelands system and the related controls of the movement of the black people has been abolished.  This may well the case, however the physical remnants of the system remain.

East London and Hogsback are in Eastern Cape.  It is the poorest of the RSA provinces.  The contrast with Western Cape which includes Cape Town is extreme. The countryside of the Western Cape looks very much like Australia.  There are large farms that appear to be highly automated.  There are a lot of Black people, but they appear to living mainly in the Townships near the big cities or in the major towns.

The area we were passing through west of East London is very different.  As well as the ‘Townships’, the local Black people live in small houses that are dotted all over the landscape.

The driver explained that these “groups of houses are villages”.  Each village has a Chief.  The Chief decides who can live where on the land and how many houses and other buildings they can build. Most of the families own some animals, typically cattle, goats, sheep and chickens and have a small plot on which they grow corn and other vegetables.  It is common for the males of the family to move to other areas of the RSA to work in factories or the mines.  Others commute to East London for work.

Up to Hogsback

Hogsback is in the Amatola Mountains.  It is perched above the Tyume valley.  It is the classic ‘mountain retreat’.

I was booked into the ‘Away with Fairies’ Hostel.  I heard a lot of favourable reports about the place from other travellers.

Apparently the writer JRR Tolkien used to visit Hogback and it is thought that surrounding  scenery inspired him when he was writing the Lord of the Rings books.  There are a lot of references to the books and the characters in the town e.g. Bilbo’s Cottage.

MTB Ride

The main activity to do in Hogsback is hiking.

Another activity is Mountain Bike (MTB) riding.  There is company that offers MTB tours that include some abseiling down a cliff.  I booked myself a tour.  Unfortunately, I was the only PAX and the tour was cancelled.

My only option was to hire a MTB go for a ride by myself.  The bike shop provided me with a map detailing a route through the forest on 4WD roads and single MTB tracks. It turned out to be a good little ride.  I took it very carefully on the ‘technical’ parts of the single tracks.  I didn’t want to have a heavy fall, when it was likely that no one else would be around.

On parts of the ride, I came across quite a few cattle, mostly cows.  At one point I came across group that included a bull. As I approached he bellowed and started pawing the ground.

I skipped that part of the trail.

More Good Food

Hogsback has some really good restaurants.  I found one place in particular that was really good.  They also sold a very nice craft beer.

Being Cool

Because it is high in the mountains, Hogsback gets snow in winter.  As it is only early autumn it isn’t too cold at the moment, but it is still pity cool.  The hostel and the restaurants all had open fires.

One quirky facility at the hostel was a wood fired bath on cliff overlooking the valley below.

Flickr – Kenton on Sea

https://flic.kr/s/aHskusPhLt

Flickr – Hogsback

https://www.flickr.com/gp/twwilko_photos/q0bq2X

Port Elizabeth

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Port Elizabeth

I ended staying in Port Elizabeth for three days.

It not the most interesting of cities, but It was a good place to take a bit of a pause. As I noted in my post about the Addo Elephant Park, it is one the major industrial centres in the RSA.  It has two ports and automotive manufacturing and assembly plans.

Hostel

The Island Vibe Hostel is in one of the richer suburban areas on the beach. It is a house that has been slightly modified to be a hostel.  It is a very large house with a pool, Jacuzzi, a huge kitten and very large bedrooms.

The owners, an Indian couple, told that me they had bought the house with the specific intention to convert it into a hostel.

Walk along the beach

The hostel was about 700 metres inland from the beach.  There is boardwalk that runs along the beach.  It was late afternoon when I checked in and the owners of the hostel told me that  there was a good restaurant about 500 metres along the beach.

They said that it would “be fine to walk there, but if I was still out as it was getting dark, I should probably get a taxi back home”.

The board walk was very popular with lots of people, almost exclusively white, walking, jogging or cycling.

I found the restaurant and had a reasonable meal.

Walk into Downtown

The next day I decided to walk into the downtown area, which is about 5 kilometres along the beach from the hostel.

As with the previous evening there were a lot white people walking and jogging.  There were also a reasonable number of people various parts of the beach.  There was a number of cafés and restaurants near a pier.  Further along, I found the casino and large sporting complex on the beach.

As I approached that downtown I passed some old fuel tanks and dilapidated rail lines.  There were very few other pedestrians and was definitely the only white person walking.

To get into the downtown area you have to pass under highway overpass.  There was broken glass all over the footpath and a strong smell of urine.

The downtown area has some impressive old buildings.  However, it does have the feeling of being run down. The shops were selling ‘cheap’ item including very basic clothing.  I decided to walk back to the ‘first world’.

Yet another Good Lunch

Found a really good restaurant near the pier.  It is almost impossible to spent more than AUD 30 on a meal and a couple of drinks.

Casino

I checked out the casino and the adjoining hotel.  It is fairly flash.  There were the usual miserable people playing poker machines.  Gamblers are the same the world over.

I noted that there was desk were you could leave your guns.  Hmmmm.

Flickr Link

https://www.flickr.com/gp/twwilko_photos/1949Ys

 

Addo Elephant Park

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Addo

The main reason for staying Port Elizabeth was to visit the Addo Elephant Park.  The park is located about 50 kilometres from the city.

I organised a tour of the park through the hostel.

Pick up

I was picked at the hostel by the guide, a bloke called Craig.  We stopped to pick up five other passengers before heading out of town.

As we dove along, Craig told us a bit about Port Elizabeth.  It is a major industrial centre with a large deep water harbour.  There are two dock areas, one in near the CBD and another, newer port, about 15 kilometres away.  Craig said that the plan was to move all of the ‘dirty activity’ from the CBD port to the newer port and redevelop the city port into a ‘green precinct.

New Industrial Park

As part of the new port development, the government has established a new industrial area. We passed through this area on the way to Addo.

Early settlers killed the Animals

As we approached the Park, Craig told us about the history of the park and why it had been established. Apparently the early British settlers in the area killed a huge number of elephants, lions and other animals as they established farms.

The elephant population was reduced to less than 20 and the lions were killed to the point of extinction.

In 1930, it was decided that “enough was enough” and the government established the Addo Elephant with the view to saving the remaining animals and re-establishing the numbers.

Over time that elephant numbers increased and in ???? it was decided to introduce lions into the park.  It was determined that a species of lion from Namibia was that closest to the original species.

It the early 2000’s it was noted that most of the female elephants in the park did not grew tusks. It was believed that this was due inbreeding.  It was decided to import some male elephants from the Kruger Nation Park in the north of the RSA.  This seems to have been a success and the female offspring of these bulls are growing tusks.

Into the Park

We were not in the park for long before we sighted our first elephants.  There were at a water hole near the road. Craig explained that there are few natural streams in the park and the rangers have built water holes using artesian water.

As well as the elephants, we saw zebra, antelope and lots of warthogs.

Craig explained that the trick to seeing as many animals as possible was to travel along the roads as much as possible.

The park is large.  In all it coves over ???? hectares, the diagonal distance across is over 200 kilometres. Over the years, the park has been expanded as farmers on the adjoining lands have been willing to sell to the government.

As we drove along, we spotted a lone buffalo.   Craig explained that it was an old bull.  Most of the buffalo live in groups with multiple families, however, as they get older the bulls tend to leave the groups and travel alone.

Off to see Lions

At one point Craig received a call on his mobile phone.  He told us that the call was from another tour guide that had spotted some lions.  The place was about 30 minutes’ drive from where we were.  This was an opportunity not to be missed.

The area where the lions had been spotted, was a new part of the park which had formerly been farmed.  Most of the ‘natural’ parts of the park are covered by thick bushes.  The previously farmed areas were largely cleared.

Craig spotted the mini bus owned by the guide who called him.  We knew that we in the right place.  Craig quickly surveyed the scene and spotted the lions.  There were three lions on hill about 500 metres from where we were on the road.

Craig told us the that were a “lioness and two teenage cubs – a male and female”.  He passed his binoculars so we could be a better look of the animals.

As we watched, one of the lions, the male started to move down the hill.  Craig pointed out that appeared to be heading towards an antelope and was grazing at the bottom of the hill.

As we watched, the lion moved from one small bush to another.  It was fascinating to watch.  Craig explained that he had been seeing this family group of lions since the cubs were born.

Male cub is not likely to have a good time.  There are two other adult males in this part of the park. Craig told us that they are unlikely to accept that young male when he is fully grown and will drive him away or possibly kill him.

No Lunch for this Lion

The young lion moved further and further down the hill.  We could see the antelope that he was head for another about 200 metres to the left.  Craig told us the it is “likely that one of the antelopes will spot the lion soon”.  They will they will make a load “bellowing noise to warn other Antelopes that there is danger”.

Craig was right.  One of the antelopes bellowed and they ran towards each other. Craig told us that the lion was probably not strong enough to take on an antelope at this stage.  He certainly would take on two.

Lunch

We had watched that lions for over an hour.  He did not get to have lunch, but we did. There is a really good restaurant in the main camp of the park.  The food was excellent.

Big Elephant

In the hour after lunch we actually saw nothing.  Craig was rather apologetic about the “lack of sightings”.

However, all was not lost, we came across a group of elephants including one of the bulls that had been brought down from Kruger National Park.  He is a seriously big boy.

Hyena

As we were heading back to the exit of the park we came across a hyena.  Craig explained that this is a “rare sighting”.  We were lucky.  Check out the Flickr link.

Back late

It was after 7.00 p.m. when we got back to Port Elizabeth.

Flickr Link

https://flic.kr/s/aHskxHVDWr