pmb, country of Lesotho and birds

Hello again friends and persons who randomly clicked on this blog! Welcome back.

After our tour we headed to a town called Pietermartizburg. Wonderful Andre looked after us at a neat lilttle backpackers. He had a beautiful garden and a little old house. We did the pmb highlights: museum, Botanical gardens (caryn is going to post some pics of just this), mall. We chatted with Andre about how cool pmb USED to be, and vowed never to go back to the mall again! Our commitment to buying local was renewed after his passionate talk.

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Picture captions by Caryn:  This was a wall of antique mirrors in the cafe of the art Gallery we went to.  tots doing this in my next place- except a smaller version of course!

The statue of Gandhi that is in PMB is a monument marking where he was thrown out of the first class train in PMB.  The full story is interesting and can be found here.

Here Alison is at the natural museum.  Being eaten by a Hippo.

Took a local minibus from pmb to Underburg. A really nice shuttle man got us up to Sani Lodge, and he refused to be paid. Sani Lodge isn't really in a town, it's sort of between town and Lesotho. Lesotho is its own country, very mountainous. We did a hiking tour that went over Sani Pass into this beautiful country. The road up Sani Pass is so insane, that 1. If you don't have a 4X4, you are stopped at the border and not allowed to enter. 2. The turns in the road are named, like rapids on a river. There's Devil's Elbow, Backwards Corner (aka Oh My God Corner on the way back down), Grey's Corner (or Grace corner), Ice Corner (YES! there was ice!), and others.

This was a picture on the wall in our room at the Sani Pass, which shows you some of the crazy turns up the mountain.  Seriously, they were this sharp.

Internet in South Africa has been a bit more scarce and a bit worse than in India we have found.  This was the internet at Sani pass- which was in this HUGE cold dark room, and the screen was pink.  

Some of the Drakensburg scenery.

It was so cold at night in Drakensburg Ali resorted to wearing her handkerchief on her nose to keep it warm.

The Drakensburg Mountains are stunning. The hike was a highlight for me for our whole trip. With our guide, we hiked up one of the Hodgon's Peaks. On this little jutting-up peak, you had a 360 degree view. Down into the valleys below, across into Lesotho to see more mountains covered in snow, ever direction you looked was magnificent. There were so few buildings, hardly any trees even - so great mountains for a prairie lover! The Drakensburg range is unique - it's plate rose all together, didn't slide or shift (we're talking geologically) so anyway it makes for something I'd never seen before. I loved the place.

Some of the landscape before we got up into the mountain-y bit.

Drakensburg mountains.

View from the top of the peak.

This is a landscape picture that shows the mountain that we climbed!  It is the little boxy one on the far most left.   The box part is the peak that we climbed.

We ate lunch up on the peak, half of us in Lesotho and half in South Africa. Our tour ended with a drink at the highest pub in Africa and we braved the Sani Pass back to the lodge.

From there we hitched a ride with our new German friends to Port St. John's. We didn't really like this town. But, we had a cool experience: our hostel took a group of us up to "the old airstrip," to watch the sunset. The view was of endless mountains and the river meeting the surf, but what I loved were the birds. Hundred(s) of ravens were playing in the drafts created by the cliffs we were on. The could catch drafts and glide UP without flapping. Sometimes they'd fold their wings and drop or flip, looking like dragons. I was in awe.

The view from where we watched the sun set.

 Love you all and miss you more!!!

St Lucia, Durban

Caryn: After leaving Mozambique we drove to the small town of St Lucia, which was lovely. In St Lucia we went for a afternoon cruize on the river to see hippos and crocodiles.

Alison happy to be on the river.

Ali and I with Lindsay and Deson on the boat. They were the other 2 Canadians on our trip.

HIPPOS! After taking about 50 pictures of hipos, we deleted a bunch. They were very cute- in the water that is. Hipos are actually very dangerous and will charge you. Our tour guide said that they run around 45 km/hr, which is a problem if you are a human as the fastest human runs 36 km/hr. So he instructed us that if we see a hippo walking through town (not uncommon according to locals) we were to a) climb a tree or b) hide behind a wall. I wasn't exactly sure how he expected us to climb a tree however as NONE of the trees had any low branches. Luckily we did not encounter a hippo on the street. And i will not be asking for one this Christmas.

After our river cruise, we went back to our backpackers to watch Zulu dancing. It was so neat to watch. It seemed similar to Swaziland dancing in some ways but instead of dancing as a group it was more individual if that makes sense. Once again we had a chance to join in at the end and Alison was great! You'll have to ask her to demo her Zulu dancing next time you go out with her. ;)

The next day we drove about 4 hours to Thousand Hills (a Zulu suburb 40 mins from Durban) for a day tour and homestay. The tour company we were with for the day, Vuk Africa, directs all its proceeds to Light Providers. This is a non-profit organization that works within the Thousand Hills community to empower young people through offering recreational activities, life skills programs, and skill development programs.

After a brief history of their organization we were off! Our first stop was a local butcher shop, where we bought a bunch of meat for another braii, which the butcher's little brother bbq'd up for us in front of the shop. It was really good, and we had fun interacting with the locals. Then we went to a "go-go's" house (go-go is Zulu for Grandma) to get a chicken for dinner. A live chicken. So for the rest of the day we had to carry around this Chicken, which was going to be our dinner. That one of us would have to kill. Have i mentioned that i haven't eaten meat since?

After that we visited a home where women were selling traditional Zulu bead jewlery. Then it was off to the Sangoma's Hut. A Sangoma is a traditional Zulu practicioner of herbal medicine, fortune telling and counseling. She told us a bit about when she was called by her ansestors to become a Sangoma. Then she read her bones (these were bones and shells that she skattered from a horn of a cow) for our fortune as a group, then danced for us. It was really neat.

After the Sangoma, we returned to the Light Providers center, where a choir sang for us. They were so good. So so good! If we ever have internet that will let us, we can post a short video clip of this.

Our group was then divided into 2 smaller groups, and we were off for our family homestay. Ali and i went to this one that had 16 children, 6 who were 5 and 6 (they were foster children as they were orphans), and the rest ranged from about 8-18. The kids were adorable, and when we got there they greeted our group with some songs and some more Zulu dancing. Our group decided to do an impromtu performance for them, and we sang songs ranging from the chicken dance, cucaborro, and the great big moose who drank juice (Ali's specialty).

Alison talking now: That night we watched the chicken being killed, Caryn prompty stopped eating meat and we played with the kids. The kid that latched onto me did lots of laughing, Caryn's friend would chat away to her ernestly in Zulu. It was really hard to leave the kids in the morning, the homestay had been such a highlight.

Next day we went to Durban for a finale braii at Darren's parent's house. And that was it! Our wonderful tour had ended. We ate out with those that hadn't left right away. The restaurant had a huge tank in it with sharks! Slowly, over the next day, our group got smaller and smaller.

Until, it was back down to two.

(Pictures of Homestay and Shark restaurant when we can get them up!)

Miss you!

Swaziland and Mozam

First off: Here are a couple of pictures from Kruger that we forgot to put in our last post!

This looks nice but I am FREEZING COLD. I got in because I was ROASTING HOT.

Such is life, no? We are lucky to have such problems.

Our overland vehicle for a night safari.

Kruger in the evening. Once it was dark we used spotlights to find the animals by seeing their gleeming eyes. You don't even want to see those pictures. The elephant looks like a blog of grey in a blob of light in darkness.

Ok, now that you are all warmed up and reminded, let's get back on tour! From Kruger Nat. Park, we head to the little country of Swaziland. Our first stop was for lunch and at a glass factory. They pay locals to bring them old bottles, etc, so everything is recycled. Locals are also the artists who are blowing the glass and making the art. It really is a fantastic organization.

Glass guys

Once to our campsite, we went on an Ex-"Walk with the Rhinos" walk. Since there weren't any rhinos, that makes it... just a walk. BUT, as you know, plants are right up my ally ali, so I had a wonderful time learning learning.

Trying to get the classic African-sunset-with-that-African-looking-tree-siloetted picture.

I swear, there are classic African photo ops everywhere you turn.

No rhinos in this photo.

That night in Swaziland, we were treated to traditional Swazi dancing by the staff. Dress in full traditional gear, we enjoyed the high kicks, drumming and fantastic singing by the fire.

The next morning, we probably got up early as usual and headed off. A typical day for us on tour was: wake up to Darren tapping on our tent. Shower, or not. Eat cold breakfast, take down tents, pack personal gear, pack food, chairs, table (etc- other group gear), leave. Potentially push the truck to start it. Do a touristy thing or two on the way to destination. Arrive. Unpack and set up tents, group gear, etc (as above). Help to cook (or not, or perhaps it's your turn for dishes!). Eat a FAB meal made by Darren and whomever helped.

As well as tourism, there was also a lot of visiting that happened with our new friends. I learned all about Tamil people in Singapore, for example. And about what it's like to be a tour guide, or how the electrian smashed his hand. The story about that-other-trip-they-went-on; how the pets are coping at home. Listened to the OT's swap stories. Heard about all the previous Africa adventures one group had just come from. Another cool thing about this was that we were traveling with Aussys, Kiwis, and people that had JUST been to India. So we could talk about specific places, and tell stories, and rave about their hometowns.

So, packed up, and BACK to S.A (passport stamp!) then OUT of SA (stamp!) then IN to Monzambique (stamp!!!). On the way to mozam:

Caryn's new house!!

Group photo minus guide and driver. Don't we look dashing! This is in front of a big dam.

Here we are at the border going into Mozam. Going from South Africa into Mozambique was unreal. The roads stop at the border. Our truck couldn't handle it so we had to "pack down" and move with less gear into 4X4 trucks.Here we are in the back of a half-ton, sitting on all our bedroll mattresses. You cross the border and the infrustruture stops as well. All the roads were sand! There are a couple larger cities, but we heard they are quite run-down. Mozam is recovering from a recent civil war and many people had come to live in the slums of Joburg and other parts of SA to find some work under the table. They can be ripped off and paid very poorly because they are unable to go to the police. Many of the poor in SA are from Mozam, Zim and elsewhere.

Mozambique is BEAUTIFUL! Happily we stayed for a couple nights. There was a stunning beach just beyond the trees by our campsite, you could hear the waves crashing. Without highrises, or traffic noises, the scene was paradise. We relaxed, enjoyed the classic drink R&R (rum and raspberry), and just generally hung out.
Ah yes, we did do one activity - a dolphin swim! We didn't get to actually swim with the dolphins, which was good and bad. Too bad, because it would have been magical. But good, because that really showed us that these guys were truly dolphin-friendly. They have strict guidelines about whether to swim that day or not... and clearly follow them. The dolphins must approach the boat, not the other way around. Many days, they do, they are curious. But in this case, they were more interested in each other. What happened was this - one main pod happened to join with another main pod. Our dolphin woman was beside herself with excitment! "Oh what a blessed sighting this is!" "Oh wow, I haven't seen this happen in a long long time!" So, we were truly lucky to watch these groups catch up with old friends. We watch these some 40-50 dolphins play in the surf. We saw some fantastic jumps! Some came quite close to the boat (but at that time we were in front of the wave break - another rule about safety - so no swimming). Lovely trip all in all. Sorry no pics - it was a small spashly pontoon type vessel.

This is how our guide Darren lounged in and out of Mozam on the gear trailor.

the beach

a rocky area of the beach we explored around sunset

Caryn loved the crabs, here's a little hole that they dive into, kicking back sand.

Remember jungle book at the very end where it's so disappointing because he leaves his jungle friends and follows that girl to her village? Yeah. I was singing, "IIIIIIIIII must go and fetch the waaaaaaaater..."

Note the barefeet. Mozam was all sand, as far as we saw. Roads, dunes, beaches...

Quiz: Mozambique is one of only four Portugese speaking countries. What are the other three? First to comment correctly I'll make an R&R for when we get home!
The wildly anticipated Part 3 will be coming soon!
Love you.

Africia Already

Sorry for the delay in posting.... we have just been too busy having fun! Actually we have been on a group tour for the last 7 days, and we did not stay in any one place long enough to even get on the internet (except one day for half an hour). So we have LOTS to update you on, and will do it in a few posts.

We arrived in South Africa on May 3rd, and were picked up from the Airport by Lisa Ekman, a family friend whom my parents met while they lived here in South Africa. When we were landing, we looked out the window of the plane and realized we were in... (da dah DAH) SASKATCHEWAN! haha- no, it just looked like the prairies from the plane.

Jo-burg is completely western... shoping complexes, cars, paved roads, no cows being hearded down the street like India. We spent our few days hanging out with the Ekmans, baking (lime cheesecake cupcakes again!), doing laundry, attending to Ali's ongoing GI problems courtesy of India. A definite highlight was going to the lion park- almost like a small zoo outside of Jo-burg where they have lion cubs, lions, cheetas, mircats, and giraffes. That way, Colin said, if we didn't see anything in Kruger national park we wouldn't be disapointed.

here i am with a sleeping baby lion!!! it was so cute!

Ali and i with sleeping lion.

Feeding the giraffe giraffe food. Giraffes have LONG BLACK tongues...

it was kind of surprising. They are beutiful and very gentle though.

White lions at the lion park.

Another highlight of staying with the Ekmans was the road trip we took to Pretoria (where I was born). Pretoria is about 45 mins away from Jo-burg. We spent a few hours hunting for the apartment where my parents lived, visiting the hospital where I was born, and tromping around on the state union building grounds.

The state union building gardens. I took SO many flower pictures!

This is a picture of my mom at the Marifont hospital in 1984. When I told Lisa it would be cool to visit it, she made it her personal mission to make it happen! This hospital has since undergone 7 or so name changes, so nobody seemed to know where it was or if it was still there. However that would not deter Lisa! She started calling EVERY hospital in Pretoria, asking about the old Marifont. Eventually she succeeded, and we were able to visit! Once we were there she got a Nun to give us a tour.

Here I am with the same statue, 26 years later!

Alison: Other Jo-burg highlights included checking out the Ekmans' church where Colin is a pastor, visiting the future foster home currently being built (a project of Lisa's) and going to the famous Monte Casino. There we went to a movie and walked around the building complex and bookstore. It's been made to look like Tuscany, with even sky painted above you. Half of the building is in perpetual night.

Caryn: After 4 days of hanging out with the Ekmans, we began our 7 day tour that took us from Jo-burg to Durban. We went with a basic Intrepid tour, which means we were camping in tents and helping out with cooking/doing dishes). There were 12 other people on it with us: 5 from Austrailia (one who was a Occupational Therapist as well! oh- and one was also a teacher :) , 2 Kiwi's, 2 Americians, 2 other Canadians (from Hamilton), and 1 from Sinapore, and we were between the ages of 24 (Ali was the baby) and 42. We had SO much fun with them all- it was so sad having to say goodbye yesterday. But we are just adding to the list of friends we have from all over the world that we will have to go visit I guess!! Anyways I'm getting ahead of myself. So we met them all at our hotel, along with our tour guide Darren and our driver on Saturday night. We all went for dinner at a resturaunt called Moyo and then went to bed early because we were leaving at 5AM the next day!

On the way to Kruger we stopped at two places in the Blyde River Canyon to take pictures and walk around.

A picture of the Three Rondavols

A handi-crafts market at Blyde River Canyon.

We drove from there to the potholes, which are rock formations that were eroded to look like potholes. On our way we met a large group (30 or so) South Africian women who were touring around celebrating Mother's day together. They kept breaking into spontanious song and were SO joyful about being there and seeing what they were seeing. They were very interested in where we were from, and kept inviting us to join in their songs. One lady asked me to give her something from Canada, and because we had practically nothing on us, I ended up giving her a package of hand soap sheets I had in my pocket. I later realized (because i had another one in my backpack) that they say 'made in China' on them. haha.

Alison: We dipped our feet in the river with them that washes away your bad luck. We threw a coin for good luck and prayed. This was an amazing time, we felt really blessed to be with these women.

Us with some of our South Africian women at the potholes.

Some of the potholes.

Caryn: At this same stop, Alison was OVERJOYED to find out they had a Lichen Trail. She had SO much fun, prancing around looking at Lichen, reading the slightly odd signs that were written from the Lichen's perspective (example: "We Lichen are so glad you came to visit us!)

Alison: And, "what's a lichen's favourite music?" "Rock!"

Ali with cool silver plant.

Caryn: In total it took us about 12 hours to get to Kruger park, due to our stops and also the slowness of the overlander vehicle that we were in. We camped in Kruger for 2 nights in 2 different camps. Kruger park is a huge game reserve, where basically you are fenced in (you are either in your vehicle or in the little 'village' areas) and the animals roam free. It was very neat. We went for a couple game drives and a night drive. Some of the animals we saw:

Elephant! They are huge and beautiful! One nearly charged our vehicle on our night tour... was a bit nerve racking!

Rinos who were on the road we were driving!

Giraffes! (We really did see real giraffes too. This is Ali riding a giraffe with her ice cream treat in Kruger)

You HAVE to click on this picture to make it bigger if you can. It is a Cameleon who had all the traffic stopped in kruger, because it was crossing the road reeeeeeeeeeally slowly. It was so funny!

In Kruger our car troubles started. On the first day, we had to push start our tour car- and on the second it would not start even with us pushing it! Eventually (with the help of 2 of the tour guys- an airplane engineer and a electrician) our driver got it started.

Here we are, joyfully pushing the 'truck'.

This is a good place to end 'Part One'. We'll post part two and three over the next few days.

Miss you all! Much love

Caryn and Ali