Rustenburg and Pilansberg

From Joburg we headed North to Rustenburg but made sure to first stop at a barber shop so I could shave my head for the first time. The woman thought I should leave my hair long enough so that I would not burn my scalp...so I did. What a mistake and we both agreed immediately after leaving the barber shop that it would have to be dealt with later when we had more time. We got instructions again from Peter at the Joburg Backpacker Ritzs and headed on our way. Now there are many things that you have to understand about the people here and South Africa in general.

#1) Although, they are nice and have all of the amenities of any first world nation they surely have not the same detailed driving directions that us Saskatchewan people give to new comers. But after driving the roads for a while you can understand why. When they say go twenty km then turn right, go four km take a left and then drive straight forever, you see that it wouldn’t matter if they gave us the name of street signs because there are none. For example, in our Sasky nation we even label our township roads whereas here you could go right by your turn off without ever having known it until you end up in another rural village or town.

It took us quite a while to find the right roads to Rustenburg. Despite our careful attention and persistence to spot the road we seemed to consistently get lost. We are not talking about a few blocks but rather ten to twenty kilometres. Not always are we lost for that long but we just can’t figure out how to turn around because the traffic is crazy. This leads to point number two you need to understand about SA.

#2) When a sign says beware of pedestrians, cows and other domestic animals (somewhat domestic animals) you really need to watch out. Unlike Canada this doesn’t imply that a pedestrian cross walk is approaching or that a fence may be broken and a cow may escape. This means that in a two hour drive you may pass by 10,000 locals on their way to work, around town and just out for a stroll. You will also likely pass a herd or two of goats or cows that have been let out to munch on the grass that is no more than 10cm off of the highway. Yes that is right...highway!! We are not talking about arterial or small roads...we are talking about major highways. This also leads to point number three that most of the locals are very trusting.

#3) I asked one of the locals about why the goats are wandering the streets and he said that the owner will take them out in the morning to a nearby bush to graze, which after they will be allowed to wander around with no worries of them being stolen or lost. Later that evening they are simply rounded up from wherever they wander to. It is crazy to think that in areas where people are very hard off, they would not take someone else’s animals. Not only are they trusting, but they truly help each other out. When someone is driving along the highway and sees a hitchhiker it is very unusual for them to not stop and help each other out.
Ok so now back on to our adventures. So when we arrived in Rustenburg we tried to contact the owner of the hostel that we would be staying at, to try and get directions. However, we could not contact them so we figured we could find it ourselves based on the address and simple directions (i.e. 10.5 km from the waterfall mall third brown sign on the right hand side of the road). There was no information on what direction this distance was from town and what the sign would say. So we managed to pass through Rustenburg without really knowing it and end up in the middle of a platinum mine area with no real buildings around. After driving around and considering staying at everywhere else in town, we were stumped as what to do. Sadly as it is to say as ‘newbies’ we were a bit worried about some of the areas of towns even in daylight because we did not know what to expect. We had never seen so many people walking the city streets with small huts and rural like buildings right next door. Finally we managed to find someone who could help us because he had a GPS and just typed in the name. He was nice enough to drive us to the area of town where the hostel was.

We finally found that ‘third brown sign’ which was no larger than a pizza box and lead us to a gravel/boulder road that looked like a service road or back alley between acreages. Nevertheless, we had arrived and were awestruck by how nice the courtyard and the lodgings were. It was a different type of beauty in comparison to the courtyard of the ritz in Joburg. Anyways our hectic schedule did not slow down from there. Not more than two mintues after checking into our accommodations, did we have a game drive booked that evening, despite a recommendation by the owner to hold off until the next day because it was too rushed. So we got again ‘simple directions’ and were told that we could not get lost. Well that was a stupid thing to consider because sure enough we were lost before we started. We ended up about thirty km past the location stopping every ten minutes to try and recoup and not kill eachother. At one point we thought we had found the right place because the sign said Pilanseburg (that is the name of the national park near Rustenburg) but wow to our surprise that was an airport, although there had no mention of an airport on the sign and we had not seen any other signs for an airport along the roadway.
We finally managed to find the place but we were eight minutes late for our night game drive and were in total despair especially because it felt like we had been through hell to get there and it was for nothing. However, luckilyt hey had not yet entered into the park and one of the park employees helped us to intercept them before they did.

Our tour was in an open jeep trolloping through the mountains. Our guide Humbo (pronounced oom-bo-which means to remember) was awesome and super knowledgeable. Within about ten minutes in the park we ran into a group of giraffes just munching on some tree tops. Being our first real wild animal sighting we snapped pics like crazy. This continued when we spotted a huge group of elephants walking across one of the hillsides. Even at a distance the noise was easy to hear (breaking branches). Then we moved on and ran into a heard of wildebeest, impala and zebra (we were told they stay together for safety). Shortly afterward, we ran into 4 elephants just wandering across the road. It was neat how they protected their young and made noises to try and stop us from getting closer to take pictures.
This wasn't the only elephant we seen running on the road. We ran into a baby bull elephant (but big) and it walked two feet from my (Jeremy) face. It literally looked me in the eye as it walked on by (at the back of the jeep) and was at my head height. We also seen crocodiles, a rhino like thirty feet away, a pod of hippos out of the water, more giraffes at night, owls all over the road (they hang out on the road to catch their prey) and lots more of the same. We stopped at one point and Humbo turned off the engine and lights so that we could see the fireflies and listen to the melody of the frogs. It was so amazing. The tour was under $50 Canadian and ran for over three hours and was well past dark when we finished.

The road home was good but even after getting directions from three people for the same route, to cover our bases, we got lost. It was worse this time because it seemed like once we got into town we kept driving into the ghettos. I mean the busiest streets by day were absolutely deserted by night. Finally after stressing out and driving around like crazed people for an hour, we got some help from a security guard and finally made it home.

Before heading out again the next morning to get lost, we stopped and bought a GPS and also purchased a razor to get rid of the goofy hair cut I now had. We thought, enough of this shit!!! Had we not gotten this, we would soon be alone (Katie jokes and tells everyone that had we been married, we would now definitely be divorced). What a lifesaver, not only will we not kill each other but hopefully we will not get lost in sketchy neighbourhoods again... (although we paid ~300 CAD for it – YIKES). After getting our GPS we headed out to Sun City. Although, the GPS was a saviour it routed us to the back entrance of Sun City which we could not enter through. I guess it was meant to be because we ran into a market at a park gate there and bought quite a few souvenirs. Originally we thought that all of the market stalls were part of a group so we looked through them all. However, it turns out they were all separate and so felt bad when choosing where to buy from. Therefore, we purchased something from each separate stall. It was probably a little more than we wanted to spend but they were super happy that we bought things from each and some were so grateful as to say god bless.

#4) If someone working at a market tells you that they made the merchandise themselves, you have a 50/50 chance that they actually did. It is either a lack of communication or they just really need to sell something.

#5) People here love to ask us where we are from and then inquire about how much money it would cost to go there. We are not sure if it is a kind of ‘run around’ way to get us to help them out because after we tell them how much it would cost and the opportunities there, they almost all seem to tell us how little there salary is and how long it would take to get the money required to get there. However, some of the people we have spoken to are sincere and have informed us that there is no opportunity for most people to travel or move somewhere else as their wage is just enough to pay for the basic necessities with no money left to be saved.
When we finally arrived in Sun City it was easy to see it was a miniature version of Las Vegas in the jungle. This is not at all what we were expecting and it was kind of disappointing, although the palace grounds and the scenery on the drive out were stunning. The rebuilt ancient Palace was nice except you needed to pay just to look around inside. It was only 85 rands but after being to Vegas, how nice can any other hotel be?!? Anyways Katie asked a couple coming outside to see if it is worth it, while I was getting harassed by one of the workers to come inside. Well we made ‘friends’ with the couple quick and they walked us in and then left us to venture around (free self tour). It was definitely not worth the 85 rands and we felt out of place because several of the guests eyed us up and down as though we looked like we just came off the streets????

Although, it had been talked up as this historical site, from our visit we found that there was really no history to be learned but we could gamble to our hearts content if we liked. So we left and headed to the Rustenburg football (this implies soccer because some say that to use the term soccer in SA is an insult) stadium which to our surprise was going to be the main stadium for the world cup. We tried getting by security to take a look around and snap a few photos but even our plea as Canadian tourists, although it was close, did not work and we had to leave.

When we got home Katie shaved the rest of my head with the exception of about 5mm of hair.

The following morning we woke at half past three to go on one more game drive in the Pilanseburg national park. We managed to make it with time to spare...a first...thanks to the GPS. We were fortunate to have the same guide Humbo that we had previously. The morning started off with a bang as he managed to get us right alongside a family of elephants. The elephants were directly alongside the road when we pulled up and after he stopped the car the matriarch ventured onto the road and parked herself no more than two feet from the front of the jeep. She watched over us as the young crossed the road and munched on the trees twenty feet from us. This lasted nearly ten minutes and was, in Humbos’ words, the closest we would ever again get to an elephant in the wild without it being in the jeep. We spotted all of the animals we had previously seen however I did spot the ONE and ONLY ostrich remaining in the park – pretty impressive huh?!?

Next stop, Kruger National Park!!!