I am writing the story of how we were robbed now as I am floating down the Nile on a cruise ship…I am in a much better state then when this whole ordeal happened and no doubt, I am sure I will tear up just thinking about it. But, now looking back at it, everything that happens to us will be part of our journey. We have to take in both the good and the bad (although luckily for us, we have had tons of amazing experiences and just a few bad ones to try and cloud our views) and it will be these details that we will never forget and that will undoubtedly shape us for the future to come…so here we go!
Jeremy and I had just hopped off of a 6 hour bus ride from Arusha to the Nairobi International Airport. We were both sick and were not looking forward to our 10 hour layover before our 5 hour flight to Cairo (at 4:45am in the morning). We immediately befriended a fellow Canadian named Kip and agreed our best option was to head to the local pub, grab some food and drinks and talk the night away (Kip was flying to Amsterdam the following morning at 8am). While we were walking, Kip met up with Rob (Dutchman) who was on his same shuttle bus. It turned out Rob was catching the same flight to Cairo as us and he happily joined our group. So…here we were, a group of 4 of us. We found a table at the Terminal 2 Pub in the front corner where we all piled up our bags in the one corner. But…because we have so many valuables in our purse (i.e. our money, credit cards and passports) and our electronics bag (2 canon cameras, laptop, binoculars, iPods, Eurotrain passes etc.) we always make sure to have them on us or under us. So, we naturally put both bags underneath the table. I can’t stress this fact and even when we went on Safari’s and left our camp for the day, we would take these two bags with us just because we didn’t want to take any chances – why risk it right?!?
Halfway through our conversations on Tanzania, Kip asked if any one of us had been to Zanzibar – Rob had not so I got Jeremy to grab the camera and showed them the beautiful pictures of the beaches and the vibrant oceans. We figured this is where the people next to us learned of our valuables. Jeremy accidentally put the bag with the other bags adjacent to his chair (but still right next to us and our table). At one point when I was telling a story, I stopped talking and stared at our bag, it had grabbed my attention, but I didn’t realize why (I mean it was still right next to us). A minute later it happened again and this time Jeremy looked back at it too…we were sick and tired from travelling and did not realize that the couple next to us (whom minutes before was a party of three) were slowly pulling the bag towards them. When they got up to leave, I noticed the woman was standing for a very long time in front of our view and not even a couple of minutes after she left, I looked for our bag and knew it was gone. The ironic part of this story is that just before this happened, Rob was telling us just how corrupt and bad Kenya was for robberies. He was in a hotel in downtown Nairobi and was gone for 1 ½ hours. When he returned to his hotel, everything was gone – stolen! All he had was his clothes on his back and luckily his passport (which was later attempted to be stolen at a Market in Nairobi). I sympathized with him and told him I could not imagine losing the pictures – the items and clothing could all be replaced with money but no matter what expense, you could never buy back the pictures.
Jeremy and I were escorted to the only exit gate where we (with the aid of the airport security) started stopping every vehicle and looking in their cars. I have never cried so much and in front of so many strangers. For the most part, everyone we stopped understood and sympathized with us and told us to be thankful that we still had our lives – something that up until this point, I had not really even realized. Although it was hard to see the good in this, the more I stayed with the parking security, the better I felt. They were so kind to me and I was even given a pair of sandals as a gift (in my current state, I had sprinted from our table without my sandals and was thus barefoot). She wanted me to have a good memory of Kenya because so much bad had happened to us. I stayed at the exit gate for about 3 hours while Jeremy went to file a police report and look in and around the pub. At first, we were told that this was a rare occurrence at the airport, but the more people and workers I talked to, the more I learned that Terminal 2 pub was notorious for theft. One of the security guards told me to get the police to check the pub itself as he was confident that it had to be an inside job. The more we thought about this, the more sense it made because the pub had security cameras but when we asked to see them, their response was very vague and they informed us that the footage would be too dark. We passed this on to the policeman but they basically told us there was nothing we could do.
Jeremy went back to the pub and offered the workers $200US cash for any information but nothing came about. We desperately looked through garbage cans, bushes, shrubs and bathrooms but we found nothing. The policeman informed us that these criminals work in sets of three. Once the realize they have a job, the one goes to get the car while the two (usually a couple like in this case) distract and do the stealing. From there, they simply have to walk a few steps to be picked up on the street and then the exit is a short drive away. Looking back at it, there were so many signs that we should have seen. I should have realized that the bag was moving, Jeremy should have known that when he looked at the bag, it was in a different location from where he had put it and we should have realized that the couple was constantly looking at us, watching our every move. If I could only go back in time and ask Jeremy to grab that damn bag, that bag that we have guarded and protected so much in the past. We were so close and that is was kills me to think about. The old familiar phrase that haunts me right now, “Coulda-Woulda-Shoulda”. I only wish that karma will come back to that group of people and they will get what they deserve.
We said good bye to Kip (after many more tears and hugs) and together with Rob, Jeremy and I checked into our airline. Had there been a plane to Saskatoon, I think I would have taken it…Jeremy was great as usual and was a good shoulder to cry on. I think he was in shock and the full effect of what happened did not really hit him until he had landed in Cairo.
We phoned both of our parents once we landed in Cairo (at 1:30am Saskatoon time) and cried on their shoulders. They were all just relieved that we were okay and gave us nothing but loving support (thanks guys, much MUCH appreciated). I have since put on my ‘Big Girl Panties’ and although we are both still unable to act on Rob’s advice (“One day we will be able to laugh at this whole experience”), I am no longer crying and we are enjoying our days of travel.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
I am pleased to announce the beautiful birth of Jaxson Wilfred Heisler, who came into this world on March 14h, 2010 at 9:41 pm weighing 6 lb and 11 ounces. As my brother Adam would say, “He’s just a little guy”. Amanda and Matt should be very proud as they have given life to a beautiful baby boy. Mommy and Daddy are doing just fine and love their new days as parents. Jeremy and I were on a Safari when Amanda gave birth to baby Jaxson and because of the high number of lions we saw while on Safari (more than any other place); he will always be nicknamed as “Simba” (meaning lion in Swahili) to us. Although, we are not there physically, our hearts, spirits and tears (as I cry every time I see new photos of the baby and my family) are with you all. I am a very, very proud Auntie and I am letting everyone and anyone know this as we travel. Much love and many hugs and kisses to Baby Jax! xoxoxoxoxoox
Safari Heaven (Great Animals, Food and Locals!!!) - Arusha
The plane ride was quick and was worth the few extra dollars because we had an incredible view of Mt Kiliminjaro. It was extra funny when we headed over the mountain, the pilot pulled out a bazooka of a camera and started snapping pictures (autopilot is the way to go I guess).
When we arrived in Arusha we were greeted like celebrities. I don’t think that we knew how celebrity like we were going to be treated over the next couple of days. We had been told to expect the steep prices of safaris, but we figured we had negotiated a good deal and a good enough deal that would surely not include any celebrity like treatment. But...we left the gates of Arusha to find a man waiting there holding a sign that read “welcome Jeremy” and were escorted to our car (haha royal treatment minus the red carpet). We were finally introduced to Abraham whom we had spoken to and texted many times in planning for our safari.
We were first taken to our hotel to discuss all the details of the trip which included the final cost, the itinerary for the parks we would visit and the finer details like our meal preferences and such. After deciding on Lake Tarengeray, Serengeti, Ngorogoro Crater and Lake Manyare, we headed to the bank to settle up. Although it was a fair deal of money, the actual size of the stack of bills was incredible and the TSH amount was in the millions (oh…if only we were millionaires in Canadian dollars). After returning to the hotel, counting the money and settleing up all of our details for the next day departure, Abraham asked one of his employees if he could escort us to the market to pick out some fresh fruit and see if we could find a book so I could learn Swahili. Stanley was extremely kind and brought along his son who was absent from school because he was ill. Katie made a new friend instantly and was dragged along by this very cute four year old (glad he was so young or I might have lost my gf to this cutey). The market was interesting to see but definitely not a photogenic place that Sobey’s would have included in their advertisements. The Swahili book was not what I had been hoping to find as it was simply a phrasebook. It is pretty difficult to learn to speak a language when they simply give you long phrases but it was nice to try because everyone here is so willing to help you learn.
After the market Katie and I headed to the hotel room to just chill out and enjoy some quiet time with no one trying to sell us anything (if you can avoid the street people in the lobby then you only have to avoid the hotel staff who are also trying to sell you their own ‘hand made’ batik’s).
The next morning we were greeted in the lobby bright and early by Rueben, our guide. He was there to keep us on time as we had much to do and could not afford to get behind. Despite the distance, (less than ten feet from the lobby) we were immediately hounded by people who ‘remembered’ us from the night before and who informed us that we had told them we would ‘support’ them by buying a safari hat, a batik, or some trinket that could be of no use…I can say for certain that we did not meet them but I guess to them it was worth the try.
After picking up the essentials we headed out of town. We were a little concerned about the fact that there was no seatbelts at all and we would be driving for the next several days in this vehicle. Rueben didn’t seem too worried and just commented to Katie that we weren’t going fast enough for anyone to get hurt because the speed limits in Africa are low. He said this as he traveled over 100 km/hr down a highway with no end of the traffic and infinite obstacles to avoid.
#18) Get used to having no seatbelts in Africa because some of the taxis are either too old for them to have been built originally or may have been removed because they did not work and there was just nothing available to replace it or no money to do so. The drivers here are exceptional because they are so used to avoiding everyone and everything that they are on constant alert mode or so it seems (knock on wood).
Our first campsite was in Lake Tarangiere. It was a deserted campground with dilapidated buildings. I now understand what Dawit has told me about camping in Africa. When you go camping here you don’t really do it by yourself. Well of course you could do it yourself but that it is just not how things work here. As soon as we got to the campsite we were greeted by four young men who took our bags and the rest of the camping gear and within minutes had the kitchen and tents set up. Gregory immediately set to making our dinner as we went to Lake Tarangiere for a late afternoon game drive. It was a nice park and we got to see many elephants, giraffes and much of the same we had seen before. The most exciting part was the large (at this point considered large) herd of elephants and a set of twin elephants (our guide was shooting pictures and so we asked why – response was that they were the same height and followed the same mother and were always together – big deal if your guide is also taking pictures).
We were a little perturbed that the game drive ended after only three hours but we waited to see what else was going to happen over the next days. Once we returned back to the camp we were intrigued to see a table for two setup under one of the little huts. We sat down and were hoping to get to charge our cameras and computer but when we plugged into the outlet we were shocked to find no electricity (ok shocked was an overstatement because after no power on the island for three months we figured it was normal). We were more shocked that there was only two plates when there was four people in our group but we asked and they said that only ’we’ ate there. The meal was as Linda (the reference for our safari) had described, incredible. (Side note – we had discovered this safari company from a Czech group while on the ferry from Tanzania to Zanzibar. She exchanged the number for the group and said the price was good in comparison to others and the food was amazing.) It was amazing to see Gregory cook all that he had in the dark or near dark and how many courses the meal was when we were camping. The meal had been way too much for the two of us and so we returned the extra and Gregory divided it up amongst all of the workers. I could have let Gregory come and gather the rest of the food (they would serve us on head and foot if we wanted) but I was intrigued and went over to see how they worked. Not only was Gregory working but the other four men that were working at the campground were also helping to do the dishes and help prepare Ugali (local staple food made of crushed maize and flour which is cooked or boiled until it turns into porridge/jello like mixture). They had absolutely no light with the exception of some small lanterns, so we offered Gregory our headlamps which he took graciously.
Rueben had disappeared after the game drive to head to town to fix the vehicle because it was shorting out and we had to push the jeep to get it going. He had seemed different than the day before but we figured it was because he was sick. He kept returning to the washroom time after time but would never let on that anything was affecting him…not yet anyways.
We spent our first night in the tent under the canopy of a small hut because it had threatened rain but were lucky enough to avoid any wet spells. However, Katie began to feel ill just before bed and awoke in the middle of the night to purge her stomach. The toilets at the camp (squat toilets) were a bit different than we were used to so it was unfortunate to be sick here ;).
The next day we awoke very early to head on our morning game drive. It was a nice morning and we captured beautiful pictures of the sunsets (pictures gone ) but did not see as much game as the night before with the exception of a dead giraffe being feasted on by the vultures and a scavenger stork. After the game drive we headed back to the camp for another amazing meal (just the beginning of many) and a tour around the campground by one of the workers. They were pretty excited to show me how things work and I was shocked at the same time and especially with their home. Their home was a very modest hut the size of a very small room that was segregated into four rooms by sheets which also doubled as mosquito nets. I was extremely embarrassed at this point to be on our trip and enjoying the food we were and accepting their infinite kindness. I guess the upside was that all of the food that we didn’t eat (because of the size of the portions was a lot) they feasted on and with our tips they had extra money for their families. These guys were hard workers because even though this was low season and they had no guests they still hand cut all of the grass on the premises.
Our second stop was Lake Manyare campground which was just a pit stop on our way to Serengeti. On the way our guide and our cook barely talked to each other so we decided that we might as well give them our ipods to listen to. They did not refuse by any means and were extremely happy to listen to our music. I can’t be certain if they liked it all but it was music and they were just glad to have it. The campsite here was much nicer. We were surprised to be greeted by eight employees considering we were the only guests. Back home a campsite would be looked after by a park ranger or someone but they would definitely not be there all day and night to look after our needs and sleep amongst us but would rather wait for us to call in any problem (not sure this system is all efficient but is probably more of a job creation program). Again they setup our tent (without us even knowing) and then our cook went to work preparing the evening meal.
At this point Katie and I had decided that we did not want to head to Europe any longer. We were wanting to spend the rest of our travels in Africa (as Africa has no doubt stolen our hearts) but were not sure how safe it would be in places like Rwanda and some of the surrounding countries for us on our own. Plus on short notice it would be difficult to figure out our transportation requirements and would get mighty expensive with flights. We decided that the best way to do it would be to get ourselves on an Overland tour across Africa. If we were going to organize this we figured we had to do it today because we weren’t guaranteed to have power for the next couple of days. The people at the campsite must have thought we were weird because we were on our computer or talking to our computer for most of the evening (we explained later that this was skype). It was hard to research any travel options because our internet signal was weak. It was even worse because we were trying to book flights for Egypt at the same time as organize our overland trip. Almost every tour was booked solid because it was such short notice but we never gave up and eventually got ourselves a trip. It was a little longer than we had hoped but it was the only thing available. Despite it not being the length we wanted it was going to cover all the countries we were interested in seeing: Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Botswana, Nmimbia , Zambia and South Africa. We were a little unsure about Tanzania because they were going to cover all of the same places we had been too but we called our Safari company (the one we were presently with) and he said that he could organize us a trip to Mount Kilimnjaro. In Zambia we were also going to visit Victoria falls but because it would be short and would be from the other side of the Falls we decided to do it.
That evening we purchased a goat leg because the guide thought it would be nice. Katie was not so impressed by our meal choice but Gregory insured her that he would make something else in case she did not like it. We agreed because it cost only 3 dollars for the entire leg and it would also feed the rest of the workers if we couldn’t eat much of it. It turned out to be a lot of food (I mean it was an entire leg) and was delicious (well I thoroughly enjoyed it) and Katie had freshly made pizza. The cooks here are incredibly ingenious and made a makeshift oven by using coals underneath a frying pan and then placed more coals over a second frying pan that is turned upside down over the food. I talked a lot with Gregory that night and discovered that the reason he is such a good cook is because he is actually training to be a chef. Not only is he cooking great for us is he is also teaching many of the workers to cook and must be a good teacher because they cooked most of our food here, with his help, and it was fantastic. I cannot stress enough how good the food is. Picture a top notch restaurant and then remove the nice décor get rid of the large kitchen but keep the food and that is what we are having every night on our safari.
Because Gregory liked our music so much we told him to keep it while he was cooking. We were very pleased to go back to the kitchen, after planning our trips, to see several of the staff bouncing while listening to our music. They were taking turns with the cooking and were just smiling ear to ear listening to our tunes. We thought they couldn’t be happier but after dinner we let them use our computer to browse the internet and we soon realized how much happier they could be especially over something that we considered so small. It was amazing how much pleasure something so small for us could be for them. I realized how little they had used a computer when I came back after half an hour and they were still trying to log onto their email. They still had our gmail page open and were trying multiple combinations of their yahoo addresses in the gmail login section. It was such a good feeling to be able to show them something so simple and to see them light up after so much frustration. Once they logged on, it was also interesting to note that although they could read their email they did not know how to reply…they had never replied. So I showed them how to reply and then they began typing.
At one point I wanted to pass out but it was too hard to tell them they had to stop so I just let them continue. After a while I looked over to see a very sad look on Gregory’s face and realized that the email had disappeared. I think he was going to quit so I asked him if I could type out what he had lost. They were amazed by how fast I could type and I was amazed that he had only typed three lines in twenty minutes but I guess without any practice how would they learn? Gregory was so happy that I was able to return his email. I spent much of the night talking with these guys about Canada and life on our side of the planet and was returned with much information about their way of life. For some reason I found it very difficult here to comprehend how they live. I didn’t think I would ever feel so sad but that night when I tried to fall asleep I was not able to…I just kept thinking about how fortunate we were and how unfortunate they were here, yet how incredibly happy they always were and always will be.
The next morning when we awoke we were greeted by several of the workers and they were so looking forward to using our ipods. Even if we had wanted to say no there is no way we could have done so because they were so excited…just like small children. After dinner we packed and headed out to Serengeti. Again Gregory and Rueben passed the time by listening to our ipods while we tried to read up on Egypt and to admire the people and their very different way of life. For example, the endless carriages being pulled by cows that are born with large humps on their backs. And not only are the cows used to pull the carriages but there are endless amounts of people pushing makeshift carriages carrying vegetables, water or even people between stores and homes or between towns. The scenery along the drive was nice but once we entered the Ngorogoro conservation our opinions changed as the Ngorogoro conservation area was a jungle winding through the mountains. We had thought we had seen large herds of animals until we left the Ngorogoro Mountains and found what seemed like a hundred giraffes just chilling out. Katie had to stop to pee, everyone ended up peeing, and was very entertained that she got to watch the giraffes while she was tinkeling. Then, when we entered the stretch between Ngorogoro and Serengeti, we witnessed part of the large migration of Wildebeest and Zebra’s. But it didn’t end with these animals because we saw the largest herds of elephants we had ever seen and many many groups of elephants (over 100+). It seemed like the migration went on forever because everywhere you looked there was just black dots on the horizon.
Just before we entered the Serengeti park we stopped to stretch and a group of Massai women came up to us and in sign language told us to take a picture for 1000 TSH. We did not know what to do but decided that we would help them out. When I took the picture they just stood without changing their expressions or changing their positions. When we were finished they just stared at us and said one more so we did and then they demanded another thousand. We were shocked because they did not speak about payment before and we didn’t have any more money so we gave them some small change and under the guides instructions just left.
That evening we had a night game drive and we were fortunate enough to see lions and leopards sleeping in trees. Our guide did not take pictures of the lioness in the tree but he took some pictures of the leopard and also helped us to take pictures in the bright sunlight. Again it became obvious how important a leopard spotting could be because there were so many cars parked there to witness a leopard simply sleeping (again, no pictures to share as they were stolen ).
That night we were not greeted at the campsite by any workers as we were now staying in the Serengeti park…instead, we were greeted by herds of giraffes, walking next to and alongside our campsite. We were also fortunate to arrive just in time to see the sun setting over the Plains – so beautiful. We helped Gregory cut up the vegetables and after dinner we helped him with the dishes which I think he was very grateful of. We also learned that our driver did not like to sleep in a tent because for the last two nights he had left our campsites to sleep at a friends homes. Also our hunch about him being ill was correct as in Lake Manyare he had visited the doctor because he had been having abdominal pains which the doctor figured was due to an Amoeba he had received from drinking some bad water. This had us a little concerned as maybe it was what had caused Katie’s illness but he informed us that he had drank some bad water in Lake Natron despite knowing it was not a good idea. Yet even being sick he was always up on time and always wanting to continue. Although, he said that he could not sleep in the tent due to a bad back I think he was a little scared about the wild animals that would come out at night in the campground.
We weren’t really sure about what we were going to hear that night but were told that usually about two hours after dark, the hyenas would surely be out and who knows what else. To stay cool we left open all of our vents but realized part way through the night it may have been a bad idea. We awoke at one point to hear a low grumbling noise from around the tent but had no idea what it was. The crazier part was that about a minute later the tent behind us opened up and someone wandered out to the bathroom. We thought the person was crazy because no matter how bad we had to pee we were not going outside. And almost immediately after that person left to use the toilet the grumbling continued.
The next morning Katie also told me that she had awoken at one point and had heard an animal either screaming in heat or because it was being killed. Our guide also filled us in on the noises we had heard the night before…lions…crazy campers going pee!!!
That day, we headed out on a morning game drive and were greeted by a picture perfect beautiful sunset over the Serengeti plains (kills me to think we no longer have this picture). We saw very few animals with the exception of a hyena running down the road towards us (our first hyena sighting – yah!). We tracked lion footprints and spoor but found nothing. The only other exciting thing was that our truck broke down and had to be fixed…well not good exciting. Our guide was kind enough to get us a ride back to the campground as none of us had eaten breakfast. It took our guide two hours to fix the vehicle and when he got back he wouldn’t eat. He just didn’t want us to waste anymore time so he refused to eat until we had left the park and had reached the area where our permit was to be returned. We figured that our guide must have to pay out of his own pocket if he were late to return our permit because as soon as we were out of the campground we were going extremely fast. We couldn’t stand in the roof rack area because we feared that we would hit a bump and smash our heads. It wasn’t hard to coax out of our guides that they weren’t paid by the safari company but lived off of the tips because when the vehicle broke down our driver had to ask us for a loan on the money until we returned to Arusha where we would be reimbursed and the cost wasn’t high (~13 dollars US). We headed to Ngorogoro but this time we didn’t stop near any entrances for the fear of having to take pictures of local tribes for money.
#19) The Massai people are one of the tribes of Tanzania and bordering countries that live in the wild. They are similar to our Amish people as they do not really believe in modern technology. So much so that they do not allow their children to be educated because they do not want to alter their customs. They live in the wild with the animals and to fend off the animals. They rub themselves with cow fat. Supposedly the only animal they are afraid of is the Water Buffalo which seems to be the animal the guides are also worried about.
The Ngorogoro campsite was also supposed to have electricity which was not only important for us but also for our driver as our vehicle had consumed about 30 liters of water as it continued to overheat every hour or so. Unfortunately when we arrived at the campsite we discovered that while all of the surrounding campsites had electricity, we would be without. It wasn’t a big deal for us as we still had enough battery power in our cameras but it made it difficult for Gregory to cook and Rueben had to drive to a surrounding campsite to find a mechanics shop. But as always they both managed with no problem, and with our help, we ate another incredible meal. I stayed with Gregory to help with dishes as Katie had done this the night before. Gregory said that of all the Safaris he had been on he enjoyed us the most as very few people join in on the cooking and cleaning process. After I explained to him the rule that runs back home, “those that cook don’t clean”, he kindly asked me to look around the cooking hut to show me that there was no one else in there besides the hired help. Not only did these guys cook for all of their guests they also prepared the lunches for the next day and after all of that around 10:30 would eat for themselves and then do all of the dishes.
#20) If you ever go on one of these safaris and have a guide and cook and want to make them feel appreciated all you have to do is one night try and help them with the dishes. A simple deed that will bring them a lot of pleasure and joy.
That night we were not greeted by lions but rather we heard both wild pigs and Water Buffalo wandering around the campsite. It was obvious to us that they were pigs because you could hear them snorting as they gobbled on one piece of garbage or the next. Although, we had been told that it would be much colder here, we did not believe it until we tried to sleep and had to put on socks and lots of clothing. The morning was further evidence of the chill here in the mountains as we could easily see our own breath.
The game drive in the Ngorogor crater (Kaldera rather than crater – name given to a crater that has life and is not only barren ash) was by far the best we had experienced. Within 100 meters of entering into the park we ran into a queue of vehicles watching a couple of cheetahs lounging below a tree and walking in the grass. Shortly after, we ran into a pack of lioness lounging in the sun (at a distance) as well as elephants, ostrich and even some black rhino. We had our second hyena sighting followed by our 3, 4, 5 and then many more. The Kaldera was filled with flamingos and all sorts of other creatures. Shortly after discovering a hyena lounging in the water we were treated to the sight of a lioness sleeping no more than one foot off of the road. We pulled up and just sat there watching her sleep and snapping endless pictures (our guide included). Once we finally were able to pull ourselves away from such a sight we ran into two male lions wandering down the road. There was only one other vehicle around so we were able to follow the lions for about 500 meters before anyone else interrupted and drove the lions off. It was a spectacular thing to see these seemingly ferocious creatures casually wander down the road. The driver of one of the other vehicles was actually daring enough to put his hand out the window and touch the lion as he passed. As I mentioned the day was spectacular with so many sightings and even a close up of a very pregnant zebra – circle of life at it’s greatest!
We spent our last night in Lake Manyare at the same campsite that we had stayed three nights prior. The guys were excited that we were back and within seconds had asked if they could use the iPods. We gladly gave them the iPods and had to cycle through the two of them because they would use it until the battery died and then return it to us in hopes that another one would be charged and ready to go. We got to know all of the staff better that night and discovered both their true names and the nicknames they gave themselves. It was easiest to talk with Pancakes and Tomato Boy as they spoke the best English. Somehow it came about that we should make them cds (one of our ideas) and all of a sudden we had suggested that each write down their postal addresses and favorite artists and we would send them each some cds. Well that was a hit. They took our book and altogether frantically wrote down all of the cds that they could think of…I think there will have to be a little filtering on our part but they were just so damn happy!!!
Our last day was a hard one because it was hard to say goodbye to all of these nice people we had met. But it wasn’t going to be goodbye forever because we had already arranged our Mount Kiliminjaro trek and would be taking Gregory as our cook (we insisted). Oh ya, and I was kind of glad that the camping was over for now because I needed some good rest to fend off my nasty chest infection!! Katie was now just starting to get sick…hello hotel in Arusha!
As for the pictures, you will learn of our sorrow in our next blog. We just only wish we could share with you the beauty we were so fortunate enough to see…
When we arrived in Arusha we were greeted like celebrities. I don’t think that we knew how celebrity like we were going to be treated over the next couple of days. We had been told to expect the steep prices of safaris, but we figured we had negotiated a good deal and a good enough deal that would surely not include any celebrity like treatment. But...we left the gates of Arusha to find a man waiting there holding a sign that read “welcome Jeremy” and were escorted to our car (haha royal treatment minus the red carpet). We were finally introduced to Abraham whom we had spoken to and texted many times in planning for our safari.
We were first taken to our hotel to discuss all the details of the trip which included the final cost, the itinerary for the parks we would visit and the finer details like our meal preferences and such. After deciding on Lake Tarengeray, Serengeti, Ngorogoro Crater and Lake Manyare, we headed to the bank to settle up. Although it was a fair deal of money, the actual size of the stack of bills was incredible and the TSH amount was in the millions (oh…if only we were millionaires in Canadian dollars). After returning to the hotel, counting the money and settleing up all of our details for the next day departure, Abraham asked one of his employees if he could escort us to the market to pick out some fresh fruit and see if we could find a book so I could learn Swahili. Stanley was extremely kind and brought along his son who was absent from school because he was ill. Katie made a new friend instantly and was dragged along by this very cute four year old (glad he was so young or I might have lost my gf to this cutey). The market was interesting to see but definitely not a photogenic place that Sobey’s would have included in their advertisements. The Swahili book was not what I had been hoping to find as it was simply a phrasebook. It is pretty difficult to learn to speak a language when they simply give you long phrases but it was nice to try because everyone here is so willing to help you learn.
After the market Katie and I headed to the hotel room to just chill out and enjoy some quiet time with no one trying to sell us anything (if you can avoid the street people in the lobby then you only have to avoid the hotel staff who are also trying to sell you their own ‘hand made’ batik’s).
The next morning we were greeted in the lobby bright and early by Rueben, our guide. He was there to keep us on time as we had much to do and could not afford to get behind. Despite the distance, (less than ten feet from the lobby) we were immediately hounded by people who ‘remembered’ us from the night before and who informed us that we had told them we would ‘support’ them by buying a safari hat, a batik, or some trinket that could be of no use…I can say for certain that we did not meet them but I guess to them it was worth the try.
After picking up the essentials we headed out of town. We were a little concerned about the fact that there was no seatbelts at all and we would be driving for the next several days in this vehicle. Rueben didn’t seem too worried and just commented to Katie that we weren’t going fast enough for anyone to get hurt because the speed limits in Africa are low. He said this as he traveled over 100 km/hr down a highway with no end of the traffic and infinite obstacles to avoid.
#18) Get used to having no seatbelts in Africa because some of the taxis are either too old for them to have been built originally or may have been removed because they did not work and there was just nothing available to replace it or no money to do so. The drivers here are exceptional because they are so used to avoiding everyone and everything that they are on constant alert mode or so it seems (knock on wood).
Our first campsite was in Lake Tarangiere. It was a deserted campground with dilapidated buildings. I now understand what Dawit has told me about camping in Africa. When you go camping here you don’t really do it by yourself. Well of course you could do it yourself but that it is just not how things work here. As soon as we got to the campsite we were greeted by four young men who took our bags and the rest of the camping gear and within minutes had the kitchen and tents set up. Gregory immediately set to making our dinner as we went to Lake Tarangiere for a late afternoon game drive. It was a nice park and we got to see many elephants, giraffes and much of the same we had seen before. The most exciting part was the large (at this point considered large) herd of elephants and a set of twin elephants (our guide was shooting pictures and so we asked why – response was that they were the same height and followed the same mother and were always together – big deal if your guide is also taking pictures).
We were a little perturbed that the game drive ended after only three hours but we waited to see what else was going to happen over the next days. Once we returned back to the camp we were intrigued to see a table for two setup under one of the little huts. We sat down and were hoping to get to charge our cameras and computer but when we plugged into the outlet we were shocked to find no electricity (ok shocked was an overstatement because after no power on the island for three months we figured it was normal). We were more shocked that there was only two plates when there was four people in our group but we asked and they said that only ’we’ ate there. The meal was as Linda (the reference for our safari) had described, incredible. (Side note – we had discovered this safari company from a Czech group while on the ferry from Tanzania to Zanzibar. She exchanged the number for the group and said the price was good in comparison to others and the food was amazing.) It was amazing to see Gregory cook all that he had in the dark or near dark and how many courses the meal was when we were camping. The meal had been way too much for the two of us and so we returned the extra and Gregory divided it up amongst all of the workers. I could have let Gregory come and gather the rest of the food (they would serve us on head and foot if we wanted) but I was intrigued and went over to see how they worked. Not only was Gregory working but the other four men that were working at the campground were also helping to do the dishes and help prepare Ugali (local staple food made of crushed maize and flour which is cooked or boiled until it turns into porridge/jello like mixture). They had absolutely no light with the exception of some small lanterns, so we offered Gregory our headlamps which he took graciously.
Rueben had disappeared after the game drive to head to town to fix the vehicle because it was shorting out and we had to push the jeep to get it going. He had seemed different than the day before but we figured it was because he was sick. He kept returning to the washroom time after time but would never let on that anything was affecting him…not yet anyways.
We spent our first night in the tent under the canopy of a small hut because it had threatened rain but were lucky enough to avoid any wet spells. However, Katie began to feel ill just before bed and awoke in the middle of the night to purge her stomach. The toilets at the camp (squat toilets) were a bit different than we were used to so it was unfortunate to be sick here ;).
The next day we awoke very early to head on our morning game drive. It was a nice morning and we captured beautiful pictures of the sunsets (pictures gone ) but did not see as much game as the night before with the exception of a dead giraffe being feasted on by the vultures and a scavenger stork. After the game drive we headed back to the camp for another amazing meal (just the beginning of many) and a tour around the campground by one of the workers. They were pretty excited to show me how things work and I was shocked at the same time and especially with their home. Their home was a very modest hut the size of a very small room that was segregated into four rooms by sheets which also doubled as mosquito nets. I was extremely embarrassed at this point to be on our trip and enjoying the food we were and accepting their infinite kindness. I guess the upside was that all of the food that we didn’t eat (because of the size of the portions was a lot) they feasted on and with our tips they had extra money for their families. These guys were hard workers because even though this was low season and they had no guests they still hand cut all of the grass on the premises.
Our second stop was Lake Manyare campground which was just a pit stop on our way to Serengeti. On the way our guide and our cook barely talked to each other so we decided that we might as well give them our ipods to listen to. They did not refuse by any means and were extremely happy to listen to our music. I can’t be certain if they liked it all but it was music and they were just glad to have it. The campsite here was much nicer. We were surprised to be greeted by eight employees considering we were the only guests. Back home a campsite would be looked after by a park ranger or someone but they would definitely not be there all day and night to look after our needs and sleep amongst us but would rather wait for us to call in any problem (not sure this system is all efficient but is probably more of a job creation program). Again they setup our tent (without us even knowing) and then our cook went to work preparing the evening meal.
At this point Katie and I had decided that we did not want to head to Europe any longer. We were wanting to spend the rest of our travels in Africa (as Africa has no doubt stolen our hearts) but were not sure how safe it would be in places like Rwanda and some of the surrounding countries for us on our own. Plus on short notice it would be difficult to figure out our transportation requirements and would get mighty expensive with flights. We decided that the best way to do it would be to get ourselves on an Overland tour across Africa. If we were going to organize this we figured we had to do it today because we weren’t guaranteed to have power for the next couple of days. The people at the campsite must have thought we were weird because we were on our computer or talking to our computer for most of the evening (we explained later that this was skype). It was hard to research any travel options because our internet signal was weak. It was even worse because we were trying to book flights for Egypt at the same time as organize our overland trip. Almost every tour was booked solid because it was such short notice but we never gave up and eventually got ourselves a trip. It was a little longer than we had hoped but it was the only thing available. Despite it not being the length we wanted it was going to cover all the countries we were interested in seeing: Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Botswana, Nmimbia , Zambia and South Africa. We were a little unsure about Tanzania because they were going to cover all of the same places we had been too but we called our Safari company (the one we were presently with) and he said that he could organize us a trip to Mount Kilimnjaro. In Zambia we were also going to visit Victoria falls but because it would be short and would be from the other side of the Falls we decided to do it.
That evening we purchased a goat leg because the guide thought it would be nice. Katie was not so impressed by our meal choice but Gregory insured her that he would make something else in case she did not like it. We agreed because it cost only 3 dollars for the entire leg and it would also feed the rest of the workers if we couldn’t eat much of it. It turned out to be a lot of food (I mean it was an entire leg) and was delicious (well I thoroughly enjoyed it) and Katie had freshly made pizza. The cooks here are incredibly ingenious and made a makeshift oven by using coals underneath a frying pan and then placed more coals over a second frying pan that is turned upside down over the food. I talked a lot with Gregory that night and discovered that the reason he is such a good cook is because he is actually training to be a chef. Not only is he cooking great for us is he is also teaching many of the workers to cook and must be a good teacher because they cooked most of our food here, with his help, and it was fantastic. I cannot stress enough how good the food is. Picture a top notch restaurant and then remove the nice décor get rid of the large kitchen but keep the food and that is what we are having every night on our safari.
Because Gregory liked our music so much we told him to keep it while he was cooking. We were very pleased to go back to the kitchen, after planning our trips, to see several of the staff bouncing while listening to our music. They were taking turns with the cooking and were just smiling ear to ear listening to our tunes. We thought they couldn’t be happier but after dinner we let them use our computer to browse the internet and we soon realized how much happier they could be especially over something that we considered so small. It was amazing how much pleasure something so small for us could be for them. I realized how little they had used a computer when I came back after half an hour and they were still trying to log onto their email. They still had our gmail page open and were trying multiple combinations of their yahoo addresses in the gmail login section. It was such a good feeling to be able to show them something so simple and to see them light up after so much frustration. Once they logged on, it was also interesting to note that although they could read their email they did not know how to reply…they had never replied. So I showed them how to reply and then they began typing.
At one point I wanted to pass out but it was too hard to tell them they had to stop so I just let them continue. After a while I looked over to see a very sad look on Gregory’s face and realized that the email had disappeared. I think he was going to quit so I asked him if I could type out what he had lost. They were amazed by how fast I could type and I was amazed that he had only typed three lines in twenty minutes but I guess without any practice how would they learn? Gregory was so happy that I was able to return his email. I spent much of the night talking with these guys about Canada and life on our side of the planet and was returned with much information about their way of life. For some reason I found it very difficult here to comprehend how they live. I didn’t think I would ever feel so sad but that night when I tried to fall asleep I was not able to…I just kept thinking about how fortunate we were and how unfortunate they were here, yet how incredibly happy they always were and always will be.
The next morning when we awoke we were greeted by several of the workers and they were so looking forward to using our ipods. Even if we had wanted to say no there is no way we could have done so because they were so excited…just like small children. After dinner we packed and headed out to Serengeti. Again Gregory and Rueben passed the time by listening to our ipods while we tried to read up on Egypt and to admire the people and their very different way of life. For example, the endless carriages being pulled by cows that are born with large humps on their backs. And not only are the cows used to pull the carriages but there are endless amounts of people pushing makeshift carriages carrying vegetables, water or even people between stores and homes or between towns. The scenery along the drive was nice but once we entered the Ngorogoro conservation our opinions changed as the Ngorogoro conservation area was a jungle winding through the mountains. We had thought we had seen large herds of animals until we left the Ngorogoro Mountains and found what seemed like a hundred giraffes just chilling out. Katie had to stop to pee, everyone ended up peeing, and was very entertained that she got to watch the giraffes while she was tinkeling. Then, when we entered the stretch between Ngorogoro and Serengeti, we witnessed part of the large migration of Wildebeest and Zebra’s. But it didn’t end with these animals because we saw the largest herds of elephants we had ever seen and many many groups of elephants (over 100+). It seemed like the migration went on forever because everywhere you looked there was just black dots on the horizon.
Just before we entered the Serengeti park we stopped to stretch and a group of Massai women came up to us and in sign language told us to take a picture for 1000 TSH. We did not know what to do but decided that we would help them out. When I took the picture they just stood without changing their expressions or changing their positions. When we were finished they just stared at us and said one more so we did and then they demanded another thousand. We were shocked because they did not speak about payment before and we didn’t have any more money so we gave them some small change and under the guides instructions just left.
That evening we had a night game drive and we were fortunate enough to see lions and leopards sleeping in trees. Our guide did not take pictures of the lioness in the tree but he took some pictures of the leopard and also helped us to take pictures in the bright sunlight. Again it became obvious how important a leopard spotting could be because there were so many cars parked there to witness a leopard simply sleeping (again, no pictures to share as they were stolen ).
That night we were not greeted at the campsite by any workers as we were now staying in the Serengeti park…instead, we were greeted by herds of giraffes, walking next to and alongside our campsite. We were also fortunate to arrive just in time to see the sun setting over the Plains – so beautiful. We helped Gregory cut up the vegetables and after dinner we helped him with the dishes which I think he was very grateful of. We also learned that our driver did not like to sleep in a tent because for the last two nights he had left our campsites to sleep at a friends homes. Also our hunch about him being ill was correct as in Lake Manyare he had visited the doctor because he had been having abdominal pains which the doctor figured was due to an Amoeba he had received from drinking some bad water. This had us a little concerned as maybe it was what had caused Katie’s illness but he informed us that he had drank some bad water in Lake Natron despite knowing it was not a good idea. Yet even being sick he was always up on time and always wanting to continue. Although, he said that he could not sleep in the tent due to a bad back I think he was a little scared about the wild animals that would come out at night in the campground.
We weren’t really sure about what we were going to hear that night but were told that usually about two hours after dark, the hyenas would surely be out and who knows what else. To stay cool we left open all of our vents but realized part way through the night it may have been a bad idea. We awoke at one point to hear a low grumbling noise from around the tent but had no idea what it was. The crazier part was that about a minute later the tent behind us opened up and someone wandered out to the bathroom. We thought the person was crazy because no matter how bad we had to pee we were not going outside. And almost immediately after that person left to use the toilet the grumbling continued.
The next morning Katie also told me that she had awoken at one point and had heard an animal either screaming in heat or because it was being killed. Our guide also filled us in on the noises we had heard the night before…lions…crazy campers going pee!!!
That day, we headed out on a morning game drive and were greeted by a picture perfect beautiful sunset over the Serengeti plains (kills me to think we no longer have this picture). We saw very few animals with the exception of a hyena running down the road towards us (our first hyena sighting – yah!). We tracked lion footprints and spoor but found nothing. The only other exciting thing was that our truck broke down and had to be fixed…well not good exciting. Our guide was kind enough to get us a ride back to the campground as none of us had eaten breakfast. It took our guide two hours to fix the vehicle and when he got back he wouldn’t eat. He just didn’t want us to waste anymore time so he refused to eat until we had left the park and had reached the area where our permit was to be returned. We figured that our guide must have to pay out of his own pocket if he were late to return our permit because as soon as we were out of the campground we were going extremely fast. We couldn’t stand in the roof rack area because we feared that we would hit a bump and smash our heads. It wasn’t hard to coax out of our guides that they weren’t paid by the safari company but lived off of the tips because when the vehicle broke down our driver had to ask us for a loan on the money until we returned to Arusha where we would be reimbursed and the cost wasn’t high (~13 dollars US). We headed to Ngorogoro but this time we didn’t stop near any entrances for the fear of having to take pictures of local tribes for money.
#19) The Massai people are one of the tribes of Tanzania and bordering countries that live in the wild. They are similar to our Amish people as they do not really believe in modern technology. So much so that they do not allow their children to be educated because they do not want to alter their customs. They live in the wild with the animals and to fend off the animals. They rub themselves with cow fat. Supposedly the only animal they are afraid of is the Water Buffalo which seems to be the animal the guides are also worried about.
The Ngorogoro campsite was also supposed to have electricity which was not only important for us but also for our driver as our vehicle had consumed about 30 liters of water as it continued to overheat every hour or so. Unfortunately when we arrived at the campsite we discovered that while all of the surrounding campsites had electricity, we would be without. It wasn’t a big deal for us as we still had enough battery power in our cameras but it made it difficult for Gregory to cook and Rueben had to drive to a surrounding campsite to find a mechanics shop. But as always they both managed with no problem, and with our help, we ate another incredible meal. I stayed with Gregory to help with dishes as Katie had done this the night before. Gregory said that of all the Safaris he had been on he enjoyed us the most as very few people join in on the cooking and cleaning process. After I explained to him the rule that runs back home, “those that cook don’t clean”, he kindly asked me to look around the cooking hut to show me that there was no one else in there besides the hired help. Not only did these guys cook for all of their guests they also prepared the lunches for the next day and after all of that around 10:30 would eat for themselves and then do all of the dishes.
#20) If you ever go on one of these safaris and have a guide and cook and want to make them feel appreciated all you have to do is one night try and help them with the dishes. A simple deed that will bring them a lot of pleasure and joy.
That night we were not greeted by lions but rather we heard both wild pigs and Water Buffalo wandering around the campsite. It was obvious to us that they were pigs because you could hear them snorting as they gobbled on one piece of garbage or the next. Although, we had been told that it would be much colder here, we did not believe it until we tried to sleep and had to put on socks and lots of clothing. The morning was further evidence of the chill here in the mountains as we could easily see our own breath.
The game drive in the Ngorogor crater (Kaldera rather than crater – name given to a crater that has life and is not only barren ash) was by far the best we had experienced. Within 100 meters of entering into the park we ran into a queue of vehicles watching a couple of cheetahs lounging below a tree and walking in the grass. Shortly after, we ran into a pack of lioness lounging in the sun (at a distance) as well as elephants, ostrich and even some black rhino. We had our second hyena sighting followed by our 3, 4, 5 and then many more. The Kaldera was filled with flamingos and all sorts of other creatures. Shortly after discovering a hyena lounging in the water we were treated to the sight of a lioness sleeping no more than one foot off of the road. We pulled up and just sat there watching her sleep and snapping endless pictures (our guide included). Once we finally were able to pull ourselves away from such a sight we ran into two male lions wandering down the road. There was only one other vehicle around so we were able to follow the lions for about 500 meters before anyone else interrupted and drove the lions off. It was a spectacular thing to see these seemingly ferocious creatures casually wander down the road. The driver of one of the other vehicles was actually daring enough to put his hand out the window and touch the lion as he passed. As I mentioned the day was spectacular with so many sightings and even a close up of a very pregnant zebra – circle of life at it’s greatest!
We spent our last night in Lake Manyare at the same campsite that we had stayed three nights prior. The guys were excited that we were back and within seconds had asked if they could use the iPods. We gladly gave them the iPods and had to cycle through the two of them because they would use it until the battery died and then return it to us in hopes that another one would be charged and ready to go. We got to know all of the staff better that night and discovered both their true names and the nicknames they gave themselves. It was easiest to talk with Pancakes and Tomato Boy as they spoke the best English. Somehow it came about that we should make them cds (one of our ideas) and all of a sudden we had suggested that each write down their postal addresses and favorite artists and we would send them each some cds. Well that was a hit. They took our book and altogether frantically wrote down all of the cds that they could think of…I think there will have to be a little filtering on our part but they were just so damn happy!!!
Our last day was a hard one because it was hard to say goodbye to all of these nice people we had met. But it wasn’t going to be goodbye forever because we had already arranged our Mount Kiliminjaro trek and would be taking Gregory as our cook (we insisted). Oh ya, and I was kind of glad that the camping was over for now because I needed some good rest to fend off my nasty chest infection!! Katie was now just starting to get sick…hello hotel in Arusha!
As for the pictures, you will learn of our sorrow in our next blog. We just only wish we could share with you the beauty we were so fortunate enough to see…
Paradise Found…It Just Took One Day and One Night In Hell To Get There (Stone Town and Zanzibar)
The whole process for entering Tanzania was very slick as we had already applied for a visa prior to our departure. This meant no line ups and no waits. We grabbed our bags and headed for a taxi. The next morning, we noticed that all of our zippers on the external parts of our bags were open…and not surprisingly enough, empty! We had no time to investigate further as we had a morning departure from Dar es Salaam to Stone Town via a ferry. After purchasing our ferry tickets for a very horrid exchange rate (currency in Tanzania is Shillings but all of the commercial operators list their prices in US Dollars - so when converting back to Tanzanian Shillings, they make a small fortune on tourists like us), we were bound for the island that we had pictured in our minds to be pure paradise.
When we arrived, we saw a very different picture –street vendors everywhere, crowds of people from all areas of the world and Garbage! Garbage was everywhere including the ocean. We later met a couple of doctors studying abroad and they had seen a couple of syringes floating past them in the water. Needless to say, they did not (and encouraged us also) not to swim in the waters near Stone Town.
After we were successful in dodging all touts and taxi’s, we arrived at our hostel which Lonely Planet had deemed ‘perfectly acceptable’. We were tired, hot and too lazy to look elsewhere so we settled on the place for a whopping $35US per night (trust me, not so good of a deal). We were also informed that the island was without electricity, and that it has been this way for the past 3 months (and we think our government is bad). They informed us that they had generators which would be in operation from 6pm to 11pm every night. After paying, I went to use the toilet but after seeing the condition of the bathroom, my sudden urge to pee dissipated. In the communal washroom were bugs crawling out of the sink and multiple marks/streaks from multiple peoples business (since there was no electricity, the water pump was not in operation which meant no flushing the toilet).
We left the hostel ASAP and thought we would kill the day wandering through the historical narrow streets of Stone Town. The man at reception was very friendly and gave us some good advice as to where to eat – there were just two restaurants that kept their generators running 24/7 for the tourists. You don’t realize just how many things are affected from lack of power – refrigerated and cold food being a number one priority. But, even knowing this, we tried to stick to the fresh fish of the day and kept our fingers crossed that we would not get sick.
Stone Town was so hot that we could not even survive one hour without taking a break in one of the two cooled off restaurants – we sipped tons of Cola’s and bottle after bottle of water. Jeremy and I both agree that we have never experienced such heat waves and high humidity in our entire lives. We do not know the exact temperature, but we were told by many that we were above 45 degrees (the generators only added to this heat and made the already unbearable temperature even more unbearable…if that is at all possible). After the sun set, we headed back to the hostel which had just turned on the electricity for the 5 hours as promised. We started recharging are usual things – camera’s, laptop, iPods and cell phone. We opened the windows and to our surprise, our building was situated right next to a garbage dump – that’s what the smell was! We tried to cool off by having a cold shower (we couldn’t have even had a hot shower if we wanted to) but it was still so hot out (not to mention we were on the second floor) that nothing did the trick to cool us off. We lay in bed tossing and turning and tried to keep cool by drinking copious amounts of water. This was all good until about 11pm when the generator was switched off and the ceiling fan (that was providing a small amount of relief) came to a standstill. We were living in hell and I did not think it could get any worse…but trust me, it did! Next came the mosquitoes and they attacked like crazy and at one point, I drenched myself head to toe in OFF – aka my savior. The hostel had provided us with mosquito nets but there must have been holes in them as they bit me like crazy. Although Jeremy was sweating profusely, he was not affected by the bugs (lucky ducky). We again continued to toss and turn until it was dawn then quickly had another cold shower (before all of the water was used up). I basically waited and prayed that our shuttle bus (which would take us to the North part of the island called Nungwi) would not forget us or break down making us have to spend another night in this place.
Our shuttle (aka mini bus) service did come, we had to walk a few blocks to get to it, but none of that mattered, all that I cared about was that we were leaving this horrible place (Jeremy did not think it was that bad but trust me…it was). I was very apprehensive during the one hour drive and I kept secretly grabbing Jeremy’s hand and squeezing it. The roads were very small with all the usual distractions that we have seen before but only now add cows and donkeys pulling huge carts with overflowing produce and goods. Jeremy did not seem that nervous but all I could think about was that our lives were in the hands of this crazy taxi driver. We made it safely to the northern tip of the island and we ended up hopping off of the shuttle before our intended hotel. We were told that the place we had booked was not the ideal location. So, we checked in to the Amani Suites with a beach front view – although it was very pricy (100US per night), we had shopped around enough to know that this was the going rate for Zanzibar.
We headed to the beach and contemplated sitting on a couple of beach chairs but that was until we were approached by a worker who told us that to use them, they would cost $10US each per day – ‘a very good deal’ in his words. We were horrified at the price and Jeremy put his skills to work and built both of us his famous ‘sand/beach recliner’. They were very comfortable and a great conversation starter as many people informed us that we should go into business and sell them for half price of the beach chairs - we would be rich! We stayed in the sun glued to our books for a few hours before retreating to the shade. We had applied tons of sunscreen but looking back at it now, I don’t think it had done anything…after all, we were just using SPF 40 and really, to be safe, I think we needed at least SPF 70 (if they even make that?!?). We tried to cool off by swimming in the ocean but the water was like a warm hot tub, no where could we find a cool place to hang. This was basically the only time we were able to sit in the sun because we both got so badly burnt (me more so than Jeremy). While we were lounging both in the sun and the shade, we were constantly interrupted by people trying to sell us stuff. This stuff ranged from sunglasses to paintings to wood carvings to drugs to snorkeling trips. These people drove me crazy and I just ignored them but Jeremy couldn’t resist striking up a conversation. This only meant one thing to them…a sale!!! Jeremy got suckered in to buying a hat and box of fruit. I tried to reason with him and tell him we were being horribly ripped off on the fruit but Jeremy believed there ‘sob’story. We later asked the hotel what the going rate was for some banana’s, 4 mangos and 2 pineapples and they informed us that 5000 Shillings would be more than fair…Jeremy paid 15000 shillings (and would have paid more had I not been there).
We did meet one very nice and sincere man named Emmanuel, who convinced us to support him and buy some hand carved wood work. We decided to get a few key chains for my parents for their business at the lake. The key chains are beautiful and say, “HHHaven – Cochin” on them. It took Emanuel the better part of the day to complete them and he was very gracious when we gave him the money.
We walked up and down the beaches and really wanted to rent a paddleboat but because of the price ($40US for ½ hour…crazy expensive especially when we can go paddle boating for free up at my lake) we thought swimming would be fine enough. This was the one disappointing thing about Zanzibar – everything was commercialized and everything was very very expensive.
Day 2, we relaxed in the shade taking turns from our patio (with the great ocean view) and lounging on the coarse white beaches. Towards the end of the day, Jeremy and I started taking a million photos of the beautiful beaches and vibrant ocean colors; we had asked a young girl to take a picture of us. She happily agreed and asked where we were from. We told her Canada…she said, “me too”. She had asked us where, and we said, “Saskatchewan”. She said, “me too”. It turns out that Rebecca, her mom and dad are from Saskatoon. Her mom is a doctor and knows Jeremy’s dad Ted (also a doctor). Her father is retired from Sasktel and used to work with Jeremy’s good friend’s dad (Chris Whiteside). Rebecca works at Stantec and works with my great friend’s husband JP (Nicole Mills). All I can say is what a very small world when you run into another family from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada on the white beaches of Zanzibar, Tanzania and they know the same people you know – six degrees of separation right?!? We swapped tons of information (including emails) and they gave us some really good advice about a cheap place to stay just a few beaches down. We immediately headed to this beach hotel and after I bargained down the price to $30US a night, we reserved 2 nights and a snorkeling cruise with them.
Earlier that day, we had looked at getting some laundry done but the prices were so outrageous that we couldn’t bring ourselves to get any of it done. We figured we worked too hard to blow it on laundry. Undies were $1US each, T-shirts were $3US each, Shorts were $3US each….you get the point - very VERY expensive. Had we not been down to our last pair of undies and recycling our dirty shirts and shorts, I probably would not have been so creative. But desperate times call for desperate measures. I scrubbed out the bathroom garbage can and filled it with scalding hot water and added the suds –painfully Jeremy (yes Jeremy helped too…what a gem!) and I took turns swishing, turning and swashing our clothes in the bathroom garbage can – we were our very own washing machines. We were truly revolted whenever we changed out our water as we never could have imagined that our clothes could have contained so much dirt! Hours later, we relaxed on the patio strewn with all of our clothes, watched the sun set over the ocean and sipped on our lovely ice cold Coca Cola’s from a BOTTLE. I don’t know why, but pop taste’s so much better from a bottle than it does from a can. Later on that night, we walked down the beach to a nearby hotel for supper and entertainment. The food was amazing and the local dancers were very talented (and humped the air on multiple occasions – very comical).
On day three, we checked out of our $100 US hotel a night and into our $30US hotel a night – the only real difference we noted was that we no longer had A/C – but really, what good is A/C when you have no electricity. We left our luggage with reception and hopped on the snorkeling tour boat. Here we met a very nice Finish man named Thomas who now currently lives in Rwanda. I read most of the way to the island, casually glancing up and the unbelievable scenery while Jeremy, Thomas and Dredge talked the whole way. It turns out that Thomas used to work as a police officer but has now switched careers to help pursue and prosecute genocide in Rwanda. Dredge is originally from Uganda but has been hired to help as a translator in the rest of the groups investigations. They had worked together for three years and you could see that their work had really helped them to form a very strong family like bond. Dredge, our age, was pretty much a son to Thomas who watched over him constantly and teased him like a father would tease his own son.
We snorkeled for about 1 ½ hours before climbing back into the boat and sailed to another island for a prepared lunch. We saw tons of vibrant and very colorful fish, a manta ray (very dangerous here), two types of eel, starfishes and tons of sea urchins.
When we arrived on the island, we were greeted with a beautiful smorgasbord of fresh tuna (steamed over a fire), rice, salad and our favorite…fresh fruit including mangoes, pineapples and banana’s. We stuffed ourselves then took hundreds of photos of the island (I wish we could share these pictures with you but unfortunately our bag with all of our electronic devices were stolen in Kenya before we had time to upload – will tell you more about this later). From here, we sailed back to our island but it was not long before we had a pod of maybe 10 dolphins swimming next to us. The whole trip was so amazing and so beautiful – we really felt blessed.
That night, we arranged with one of the workers on the snorkeling boat a private fishing trip for 2 hours for the following morning. We really wanted to go deep sea fishing but the prices started at $500US a person. We figured the $40US total was a bit more in our league. That night, we ate supper at the hotel restaurant and watched the local guys play a game of soccer in the sand. This followed into sprints on the beach, followed by pushups in the water. When the guys turned to gymnastics, I happily joined them and we took turns doing back handsprings down the beach. I was inspired by their creativity as they had made a makeshift springboard out of a large truck tire. We truly felt like we had found paradise.
On Day 4, we meet our new friends and hopped aboard their little fishing boat. I have to admit that I was again a bit nervous as it seemed like we were driving out to the middle of the sea and nowhere did I see any fishing rods. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. Jeremy assured me things would be fine and sure enough, just as soon as he said that, we had stopped, anchored our boat and were piercing our squid bait with our hooks. We did not have fishing rods (which explains why I could not see them onboard) but we used a plumb bob (heavy weight), a fish hook and fishing line. We were instructed to drop the line and when we felt ‘quick biting’ just pull up until the end of the line and hook were back up in the boat. Jeremy immediately caught a fish but once we took a look at it, we both laughed and assumed we would be throwing it over – I am not sure what to call it because it seemed like a large minnow. We did keep it and our captain told us that these tiny fish make great soup. They informed us that our goal was to catch twenty. Jeremy and I both took turns (or so it seemed) catching these little guys and in the end, I had caught 4 while Jeremy had caught 5 ½ (I call it ½ because one was so small that even the guys said we should let it go). I was distraught at the fact that the guys were not killing the fish so Jeremy (my sweetie) asked our captain to finish the fish so we would not have to witness them jumping around in the pail –and they agreed…which is very kind I have to admit. Our fishing trip turned into 3 ½ hours of pure joyful fun and on our way back, I took some beautiful pictures with our boat, our captain and skipper, the anchor and the endless colors of the waters…these picture are what is killing me as it was my favorite from Zanzibar and now because we do not have it, it will only remain in our minds.
We spent the last day again on the beach in the shade buried in our books. I love that Jeremy is content relaxing and reading…a trait he no doubt acquired from both his family (Brenda, Teneille and Brooke) and Hawaii. Jeremy met a local who did not speak any English yet he was able to play a couple of games of cards – I still am confused about the rules...I think Jeremy is too but it was so nice to see a local man smile so much with Jeremy (although I think he was pretty drunk). We treated ourselves to some seafood curry at an amazing restaurant at a nearby hotel called Langi Langi. We were seated on the patio that was built over the ocean and again, watched the sun set over the vast ocean in front of us. It was very romantic and a perfect way to end our little bit of paradise on Zanzibar.
On Day 5, we headed back to Stone Town (I shudder at the thought of it) via the personal car of the hotel owner but only this time, we headed to the airport and not downtown where the ferry was. We opted in taking a plane from Zanzibar to Arusha (more costly) instead of the painful task of waiting to catch the 3 hour ferry back to Dar Es Salaam followed by a days wait then a 10 hour bus ride to Arusha (very cheap) where the start of our Safari was to begin. Our driver and hotel owner, Hasheena, gave us a good background on Zanzibar and his thoughts as to why he (along with then entire island of Zanzibar) wants to separate from Tanzania. When Tanzania had their power outages and power issues, the government worked efficiently on the cities like Dar and Arusha (who had their power out for a mere 24 hours)where as Zanzibar is still waiting…it has been 3 months now without power and the government continually makes their ‘pie crust’ promises to the people. The government, in what they believe is an act of good faith, supplied every household and every business with a generator, but because the common people are so poor, they can not purchase the fuel to run the generator let alone food to feed their families, making the generators completely useless. If this is not bad enough, the oil companies raised the prices of fuel on the island to as high as $4/liter. When we had visited, the price had dropped to just over $2/liter. Hasheena had also said that for him and his brother who work in the tourism industry (and own the beach front hotel) their business has been greatly affected and they have experienced major economical losses. When we left, the power was supposed to be restored within the week so we told him that we would keep our fingers crossed and prayed for him.
Just a side note about Tanzania…these are the peculiar things we have noted so far:
1) When gassing up, people do not turn off their vehicles - I am not sure if they think this is more economical, more fuel efficient or maybe they just don’t know the dangers involved, but everywhere you go, no car, trucks or bikes turn off their engines.
2) All showers in Tanzania do not have a shower curtain and they are not contained in a tub or a surround wall. This means that water sprays everywhere (yes, this includes the toilet, mirror and sink) and goes on everything. The water drains along a slightly sloped floor until it reaches a small drain in the corner of the bathroom – very bizarre…but then again, I wonder what they think about our culture and our ways of life. I bet there would be someone similar to me, writing a blog about how we have these peculiar curtains in the shower that get wet from the shower water.
3) And the strangest of all is the sex tourism. Yes people travel from all over the world to come and sleep with the local men. The ‘predators’(as the mainland Tanzanians call them) just sit on the beach with their nice clothes, and wait for their next prey to come and find them and pay their way. I could not believe this when I hard about it – have people not heard of AIDS???
We arrived safe and sound at the Stone Town Airport and waited painfully to check in to the very slow moving lines (airport official were not skilled at multi tasking). We waited another hour in the departure room (very very hot) before boarding our 12 seater plane and saying one final goodbye to this little place of paradise.
Also as a side note, some of our pictures from Zanzibar and Stone Town were uploaded (and are on the website) but because we were experiencing internet issues, a great deal of them were missed out - :(
When we arrived, we saw a very different picture –street vendors everywhere, crowds of people from all areas of the world and Garbage! Garbage was everywhere including the ocean. We later met a couple of doctors studying abroad and they had seen a couple of syringes floating past them in the water. Needless to say, they did not (and encouraged us also) not to swim in the waters near Stone Town.
After we were successful in dodging all touts and taxi’s, we arrived at our hostel which Lonely Planet had deemed ‘perfectly acceptable’. We were tired, hot and too lazy to look elsewhere so we settled on the place for a whopping $35US per night (trust me, not so good of a deal). We were also informed that the island was without electricity, and that it has been this way for the past 3 months (and we think our government is bad). They informed us that they had generators which would be in operation from 6pm to 11pm every night. After paying, I went to use the toilet but after seeing the condition of the bathroom, my sudden urge to pee dissipated. In the communal washroom were bugs crawling out of the sink and multiple marks/streaks from multiple peoples business (since there was no electricity, the water pump was not in operation which meant no flushing the toilet).
We left the hostel ASAP and thought we would kill the day wandering through the historical narrow streets of Stone Town. The man at reception was very friendly and gave us some good advice as to where to eat – there were just two restaurants that kept their generators running 24/7 for the tourists. You don’t realize just how many things are affected from lack of power – refrigerated and cold food being a number one priority. But, even knowing this, we tried to stick to the fresh fish of the day and kept our fingers crossed that we would not get sick.
Stone Town was so hot that we could not even survive one hour without taking a break in one of the two cooled off restaurants – we sipped tons of Cola’s and bottle after bottle of water. Jeremy and I both agree that we have never experienced such heat waves and high humidity in our entire lives. We do not know the exact temperature, but we were told by many that we were above 45 degrees (the generators only added to this heat and made the already unbearable temperature even more unbearable…if that is at all possible). After the sun set, we headed back to the hostel which had just turned on the electricity for the 5 hours as promised. We started recharging are usual things – camera’s, laptop, iPods and cell phone. We opened the windows and to our surprise, our building was situated right next to a garbage dump – that’s what the smell was! We tried to cool off by having a cold shower (we couldn’t have even had a hot shower if we wanted to) but it was still so hot out (not to mention we were on the second floor) that nothing did the trick to cool us off. We lay in bed tossing and turning and tried to keep cool by drinking copious amounts of water. This was all good until about 11pm when the generator was switched off and the ceiling fan (that was providing a small amount of relief) came to a standstill. We were living in hell and I did not think it could get any worse…but trust me, it did! Next came the mosquitoes and they attacked like crazy and at one point, I drenched myself head to toe in OFF – aka my savior. The hostel had provided us with mosquito nets but there must have been holes in them as they bit me like crazy. Although Jeremy was sweating profusely, he was not affected by the bugs (lucky ducky). We again continued to toss and turn until it was dawn then quickly had another cold shower (before all of the water was used up). I basically waited and prayed that our shuttle bus (which would take us to the North part of the island called Nungwi) would not forget us or break down making us have to spend another night in this place.
Our shuttle (aka mini bus) service did come, we had to walk a few blocks to get to it, but none of that mattered, all that I cared about was that we were leaving this horrible place (Jeremy did not think it was that bad but trust me…it was). I was very apprehensive during the one hour drive and I kept secretly grabbing Jeremy’s hand and squeezing it. The roads were very small with all the usual distractions that we have seen before but only now add cows and donkeys pulling huge carts with overflowing produce and goods. Jeremy did not seem that nervous but all I could think about was that our lives were in the hands of this crazy taxi driver. We made it safely to the northern tip of the island and we ended up hopping off of the shuttle before our intended hotel. We were told that the place we had booked was not the ideal location. So, we checked in to the Amani Suites with a beach front view – although it was very pricy (100US per night), we had shopped around enough to know that this was the going rate for Zanzibar.
We headed to the beach and contemplated sitting on a couple of beach chairs but that was until we were approached by a worker who told us that to use them, they would cost $10US each per day – ‘a very good deal’ in his words. We were horrified at the price and Jeremy put his skills to work and built both of us his famous ‘sand/beach recliner’. They were very comfortable and a great conversation starter as many people informed us that we should go into business and sell them for half price of the beach chairs - we would be rich! We stayed in the sun glued to our books for a few hours before retreating to the shade. We had applied tons of sunscreen but looking back at it now, I don’t think it had done anything…after all, we were just using SPF 40 and really, to be safe, I think we needed at least SPF 70 (if they even make that?!?). We tried to cool off by swimming in the ocean but the water was like a warm hot tub, no where could we find a cool place to hang. This was basically the only time we were able to sit in the sun because we both got so badly burnt (me more so than Jeremy). While we were lounging both in the sun and the shade, we were constantly interrupted by people trying to sell us stuff. This stuff ranged from sunglasses to paintings to wood carvings to drugs to snorkeling trips. These people drove me crazy and I just ignored them but Jeremy couldn’t resist striking up a conversation. This only meant one thing to them…a sale!!! Jeremy got suckered in to buying a hat and box of fruit. I tried to reason with him and tell him we were being horribly ripped off on the fruit but Jeremy believed there ‘sob’story. We later asked the hotel what the going rate was for some banana’s, 4 mangos and 2 pineapples and they informed us that 5000 Shillings would be more than fair…Jeremy paid 15000 shillings (and would have paid more had I not been there).
We did meet one very nice and sincere man named Emmanuel, who convinced us to support him and buy some hand carved wood work. We decided to get a few key chains for my parents for their business at the lake. The key chains are beautiful and say, “HHHaven – Cochin” on them. It took Emanuel the better part of the day to complete them and he was very gracious when we gave him the money.
We walked up and down the beaches and really wanted to rent a paddleboat but because of the price ($40US for ½ hour…crazy expensive especially when we can go paddle boating for free up at my lake) we thought swimming would be fine enough. This was the one disappointing thing about Zanzibar – everything was commercialized and everything was very very expensive.
Day 2, we relaxed in the shade taking turns from our patio (with the great ocean view) and lounging on the coarse white beaches. Towards the end of the day, Jeremy and I started taking a million photos of the beautiful beaches and vibrant ocean colors; we had asked a young girl to take a picture of us. She happily agreed and asked where we were from. We told her Canada…she said, “me too”. She had asked us where, and we said, “Saskatchewan”. She said, “me too”. It turns out that Rebecca, her mom and dad are from Saskatoon. Her mom is a doctor and knows Jeremy’s dad Ted (also a doctor). Her father is retired from Sasktel and used to work with Jeremy’s good friend’s dad (Chris Whiteside). Rebecca works at Stantec and works with my great friend’s husband JP (Nicole Mills). All I can say is what a very small world when you run into another family from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada on the white beaches of Zanzibar, Tanzania and they know the same people you know – six degrees of separation right?!? We swapped tons of information (including emails) and they gave us some really good advice about a cheap place to stay just a few beaches down. We immediately headed to this beach hotel and after I bargained down the price to $30US a night, we reserved 2 nights and a snorkeling cruise with them.
Earlier that day, we had looked at getting some laundry done but the prices were so outrageous that we couldn’t bring ourselves to get any of it done. We figured we worked too hard to blow it on laundry. Undies were $1US each, T-shirts were $3US each, Shorts were $3US each….you get the point - very VERY expensive. Had we not been down to our last pair of undies and recycling our dirty shirts and shorts, I probably would not have been so creative. But desperate times call for desperate measures. I scrubbed out the bathroom garbage can and filled it with scalding hot water and added the suds –painfully Jeremy (yes Jeremy helped too…what a gem!) and I took turns swishing, turning and swashing our clothes in the bathroom garbage can – we were our very own washing machines. We were truly revolted whenever we changed out our water as we never could have imagined that our clothes could have contained so much dirt! Hours later, we relaxed on the patio strewn with all of our clothes, watched the sun set over the ocean and sipped on our lovely ice cold Coca Cola’s from a BOTTLE. I don’t know why, but pop taste’s so much better from a bottle than it does from a can. Later on that night, we walked down the beach to a nearby hotel for supper and entertainment. The food was amazing and the local dancers were very talented (and humped the air on multiple occasions – very comical).
On day three, we checked out of our $100 US hotel a night and into our $30US hotel a night – the only real difference we noted was that we no longer had A/C – but really, what good is A/C when you have no electricity. We left our luggage with reception and hopped on the snorkeling tour boat. Here we met a very nice Finish man named Thomas who now currently lives in Rwanda. I read most of the way to the island, casually glancing up and the unbelievable scenery while Jeremy, Thomas and Dredge talked the whole way. It turns out that Thomas used to work as a police officer but has now switched careers to help pursue and prosecute genocide in Rwanda. Dredge is originally from Uganda but has been hired to help as a translator in the rest of the groups investigations. They had worked together for three years and you could see that their work had really helped them to form a very strong family like bond. Dredge, our age, was pretty much a son to Thomas who watched over him constantly and teased him like a father would tease his own son.
We snorkeled for about 1 ½ hours before climbing back into the boat and sailed to another island for a prepared lunch. We saw tons of vibrant and very colorful fish, a manta ray (very dangerous here), two types of eel, starfishes and tons of sea urchins.
When we arrived on the island, we were greeted with a beautiful smorgasbord of fresh tuna (steamed over a fire), rice, salad and our favorite…fresh fruit including mangoes, pineapples and banana’s. We stuffed ourselves then took hundreds of photos of the island (I wish we could share these pictures with you but unfortunately our bag with all of our electronic devices were stolen in Kenya before we had time to upload – will tell you more about this later). From here, we sailed back to our island but it was not long before we had a pod of maybe 10 dolphins swimming next to us. The whole trip was so amazing and so beautiful – we really felt blessed.
That night, we arranged with one of the workers on the snorkeling boat a private fishing trip for 2 hours for the following morning. We really wanted to go deep sea fishing but the prices started at $500US a person. We figured the $40US total was a bit more in our league. That night, we ate supper at the hotel restaurant and watched the local guys play a game of soccer in the sand. This followed into sprints on the beach, followed by pushups in the water. When the guys turned to gymnastics, I happily joined them and we took turns doing back handsprings down the beach. I was inspired by their creativity as they had made a makeshift springboard out of a large truck tire. We truly felt like we had found paradise.
On Day 4, we meet our new friends and hopped aboard their little fishing boat. I have to admit that I was again a bit nervous as it seemed like we were driving out to the middle of the sea and nowhere did I see any fishing rods. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. Jeremy assured me things would be fine and sure enough, just as soon as he said that, we had stopped, anchored our boat and were piercing our squid bait with our hooks. We did not have fishing rods (which explains why I could not see them onboard) but we used a plumb bob (heavy weight), a fish hook and fishing line. We were instructed to drop the line and when we felt ‘quick biting’ just pull up until the end of the line and hook were back up in the boat. Jeremy immediately caught a fish but once we took a look at it, we both laughed and assumed we would be throwing it over – I am not sure what to call it because it seemed like a large minnow. We did keep it and our captain told us that these tiny fish make great soup. They informed us that our goal was to catch twenty. Jeremy and I both took turns (or so it seemed) catching these little guys and in the end, I had caught 4 while Jeremy had caught 5 ½ (I call it ½ because one was so small that even the guys said we should let it go). I was distraught at the fact that the guys were not killing the fish so Jeremy (my sweetie) asked our captain to finish the fish so we would not have to witness them jumping around in the pail –and they agreed…which is very kind I have to admit. Our fishing trip turned into 3 ½ hours of pure joyful fun and on our way back, I took some beautiful pictures with our boat, our captain and skipper, the anchor and the endless colors of the waters…these picture are what is killing me as it was my favorite from Zanzibar and now because we do not have it, it will only remain in our minds.
We spent the last day again on the beach in the shade buried in our books. I love that Jeremy is content relaxing and reading…a trait he no doubt acquired from both his family (Brenda, Teneille and Brooke) and Hawaii. Jeremy met a local who did not speak any English yet he was able to play a couple of games of cards – I still am confused about the rules...I think Jeremy is too but it was so nice to see a local man smile so much with Jeremy (although I think he was pretty drunk). We treated ourselves to some seafood curry at an amazing restaurant at a nearby hotel called Langi Langi. We were seated on the patio that was built over the ocean and again, watched the sun set over the vast ocean in front of us. It was very romantic and a perfect way to end our little bit of paradise on Zanzibar.
On Day 5, we headed back to Stone Town (I shudder at the thought of it) via the personal car of the hotel owner but only this time, we headed to the airport and not downtown where the ferry was. We opted in taking a plane from Zanzibar to Arusha (more costly) instead of the painful task of waiting to catch the 3 hour ferry back to Dar Es Salaam followed by a days wait then a 10 hour bus ride to Arusha (very cheap) where the start of our Safari was to begin. Our driver and hotel owner, Hasheena, gave us a good background on Zanzibar and his thoughts as to why he (along with then entire island of Zanzibar) wants to separate from Tanzania. When Tanzania had their power outages and power issues, the government worked efficiently on the cities like Dar and Arusha (who had their power out for a mere 24 hours)where as Zanzibar is still waiting…it has been 3 months now without power and the government continually makes their ‘pie crust’ promises to the people. The government, in what they believe is an act of good faith, supplied every household and every business with a generator, but because the common people are so poor, they can not purchase the fuel to run the generator let alone food to feed their families, making the generators completely useless. If this is not bad enough, the oil companies raised the prices of fuel on the island to as high as $4/liter. When we had visited, the price had dropped to just over $2/liter. Hasheena had also said that for him and his brother who work in the tourism industry (and own the beach front hotel) their business has been greatly affected and they have experienced major economical losses. When we left, the power was supposed to be restored within the week so we told him that we would keep our fingers crossed and prayed for him.
Just a side note about Tanzania…these are the peculiar things we have noted so far:
1) When gassing up, people do not turn off their vehicles - I am not sure if they think this is more economical, more fuel efficient or maybe they just don’t know the dangers involved, but everywhere you go, no car, trucks or bikes turn off their engines.
2) All showers in Tanzania do not have a shower curtain and they are not contained in a tub or a surround wall. This means that water sprays everywhere (yes, this includes the toilet, mirror and sink) and goes on everything. The water drains along a slightly sloped floor until it reaches a small drain in the corner of the bathroom – very bizarre…but then again, I wonder what they think about our culture and our ways of life. I bet there would be someone similar to me, writing a blog about how we have these peculiar curtains in the shower that get wet from the shower water.
3) And the strangest of all is the sex tourism. Yes people travel from all over the world to come and sleep with the local men. The ‘predators’(as the mainland Tanzanians call them) just sit on the beach with their nice clothes, and wait for their next prey to come and find them and pay their way. I could not believe this when I hard about it – have people not heard of AIDS???
We arrived safe and sound at the Stone Town Airport and waited painfully to check in to the very slow moving lines (airport official were not skilled at multi tasking). We waited another hour in the departure room (very very hot) before boarding our 12 seater plane and saying one final goodbye to this little place of paradise.
Also as a side note, some of our pictures from Zanzibar and Stone Town were uploaded (and are on the website) but because we were experiencing internet issues, a great deal of them were missed out - :(
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Cape Town - Been there, done that...but could easily go back again!
Despite the forecast showing rain over most of the Country and predicting rain for the remainder of our trip, we were pleasantly surprised when we neared Cape Town and were greeted by sunlight. This was great because we had accepted that we would just be doing everything we had planned wearing rain coats and long sleeves.
Within minutes of arriving at our hostel we had organized four days of activities. It took maybe twenty minutes for it to sink in that we had just bartered off all of our free time in Cape Town. After discussing it together we headed back to the front desk and asked if it would be okay if we cancelled a couple of things and make for a little more free time. All though the man working at the front desk always seemed displeased we were forgiven for our transgressions.
We were told by tons of tourists and locals that if a calm and sunny day were to arrive in Cape Town, we should head first thing to Table Mountain as the weather can change at the drop of a hat. It was explained that if the weather wasn`t great then the cable car would not operate and you would have to walk both up and down and we weren`t so keen on that. Luckily, the day we arrived had been the first time in five days that the cable car had been open due to weather. The other scenic type things we had been recommended were to see Cape Point and the penguins at Boulder Beach. Unsure of the order we made our decision based on the advice of the hostel staff that we shouldn`t view the sunset at Cape Point for fear of driving the route home in the dark.
Heeding the staff’s advice, we headed to Cape Point first taking the Chapman Peak scenic route (supposedly one of the top five scenic drives in the World). I (Jeremy) feel that I should be supplying references to all these things that I am saying (training I guess) but I have no backing for this statement other than the fact that it was so beautiful. Paranoid me was just wanting to rip to Table Mountain because if weather became bad, we were not really going to have any other time to do it. But Katie persisted that we stop every two minutes to take pictures of the coast line. Although, it did eat up our time and give me a bit of the sweats, it was so worth it. The views from the highway were worthy of postcards and advertising for travel brochures (not sure if that really makes it seem all that special but it was something that everyone should see). The neatest part about Cape Town is that it is an extremely short distance from the coast to the mountain range, something that I have not seen before. The route wound around the mountain range with the coastline just below the highway. At times proper beaches would entertain our eyes or jagged cliffs with blue to clean green (rhymes) water beating against scattered rocks just offshore.
Rather than navigating to the Cape Point we took a slightly incorrect turn and ended up at the boulder beach which was of no concern because we had planned it as destination two. Boulder beach was a wake up call because I figured that penguins were native to only the colder climates such as Antarctica and the Zoo. Well was I completely wrong because not only do the penguins habit this African shore but they love to suntan and play in the waves. Truly we weren`t interested in learning much about their way of life...we just wanted pictures as it was way too hot out.
After rerouting we made it to Cape Point to find the view here even more spectacular than the drive especially after climbing the small hill at the end of the Peninsula which housed the blind Lighthouse (named this because it was always shrouded in fog and had to be relocated after many boats had crashed into the shores below). After competing with the picture taking type of tourists (probably enough said – but in their defence they are only slightly more photo crazy than Katie and I who have been known to capture pictures of food) ...anyways...after we had managed to take enough pics to fill a small Curio Shop (name for a souvenir shop) we headed on to Table Mountain.
We arrived at Table Mountain with just enough time to do the climb which we had been told was better than just taking up the cable car. Despite not being in great shape we pretty much ran up the steps - okay we ran in between good breaks – and made it to the top in just over an hour and a quarter. This is even while carrying a jug of water and a rather clumsy bag...not to mention carrying rocks for protection. Katie was in combat mode the entire way up. The walk up was worth it but would have been just as good if we would have taken the cable car. However, climbing justified spending a little extra money and consuming calories on some snacks at the top. At first we were a little disappointed to see that one side of the mountain had had its view of below blocked by cloud cover but were quickly to change our opinion as the fading sunlight made the clouds look like ocean in constant motion. The day could not have ended any better and this could not have been a better and more romantic way to end the day (I should have been a little more cunning and thought to bring a picnic basket...however, it is funny to note that Katie thought a family with a picnic basket was selling food and we preceded to ask how much for beer and pizza).
The following morning we were destined for a township tour which was going to be a major eye opener for us.
#16) Now there is a big difference between a township and a village. It is not so much in the customs which defines the two but it is in the way in which they came to be. Many of the townships were created when the powers to be figured that the only way to control the colored, black and asiatic populations would be to remove them from the city limits. So they forcibly removed these people from their homes to designated areas. That is how these areas came to be in the past. In the present these townships have grown as farmers and villagers from rural areas have come closer to the city centers in search of work but cannot afford to live in the city. Some of these townships are extremely large and the actual populations are unknown because it is hard to keep track of everyone. One of the most famous is Soweto which has approximately 1.5 million people living in it. Now people say that Soweto is a dangerous place, which it may very well be, but it is supposedly becoming better than Johannesburg in terms of safety and after driving through Johannesburg during the day it truly feels that it could not be any worse.
Nlanga (Lawn –ga) was the township which we visited. When we were getting ready for the day it was hard to know what to bring along with us. One of the hardest things to decide was whether we were to bring a camera. Not that we were worried about it getting stolen but we were worried about what it would feel like, to us and the residents, if were to start taking pictures. I don’t know how I would feel if a group of tourists showed up at my house and began to take pictures. And I would never have to think like that because I cannot see any reason why anyone would want to take pictures of my house because I would consider it normal. However, if the people of the township were to come and see our home they would probably want to take pictures because they would be in awe at how we lived but if this happened I doubt they would have brought a camera or own one.
Our first stop on the tour was the District Six museum. As we learned district six was one of the locations within Cape Town that had its people forcibly removed from the city limits. The residents were given very little notice and no choice but to move. The white people told them that they had to move because they were going to develop this area but really they just wanted them out. After these people had been moved from their homes they were bulldozed and nothing was ever rebuilt there. Although, they did not seem to feel any sympathy to hide what they had done they constructed apartment towers in front so that visitors would not see the rubble that remained where these people once lived. Our stop here was very short as we had much more to see and to fully capture all of what happened in this area would take many many hours.
From the district six museum we passed through its location it in present day where the rubble still lies. We continued to Nlanga. Our tour guide filled us in on the many questions that were probably roaming through all of our heads:
Q) Is it okay that we are going to tour through people homes because they are a tourist attraction to us.
A) Yes it is ok. After working with the local people the tour guides have worked in agreement with these people to help them understand that the world needs to see how they live so that help can be given. Further the money generated from the tours is given primarily to the townships. Also throughout the town we are going to have the opportunity to purchase souvenirs and will also help the villagers.
Q) Can we take pictures or better yet should we take pictures?
A) Yes pictures are okay because again we will catalogue the injustice that is still going on in this part of the world. Even though we can take pictures we can only freely take pictures of buildings and children but adults must be asked before we can take pictures.
So we were dropped in the village and handed over to one of the villagers to tour us around. We started off in a shebeen (shhhh bean) which is the irish (not sure why) name for a pub. We were seated around and were given our second chance to try traditional maize beer. This one seemed a bit more appetizing and so I tried it again while Katie said she was good. Although, it looked much more pleasant it didn’t taste any more appetizing and I was good with one chug (should you ever have the chance to try it remember that it is always taken from the same jug it is never poured into cups and in some places it is customary to pour some on the ground for the ancestors).
The remainder of the tour is really hard to describe. The surroundings are not what are hard to describe. The village is made of small and dilapidated wooden framed structures with tin roofing and are mainly barren inside with the exception of the warm and pleasant demeanours of the people who were housed there. The path is littered with trash and people are everywhere.
#15) We have been given many explanations as to why there is always trash in local areas and the best answer that we have been given is that this is just customary. Why customary? Well when the locals inhabited the land many hundreds or even thousands of years ago when they threw something on the ground it would break down and would go back to the earth. That was long before they had plastic but that custom continued at first because no one knew any better. Best we can tell is that it wouldn’t matter because if they did want to get rid of it they would have to burn it because there is no one to come and collect it.
The reason it is hard to describe the village tour is because it creates so many emotions when you think about what you are actually seeing. For example, at one point we visited a small apartment that should normally house maybe three or four small families. However, we were shocked to discover that it actually housed 16 families. Why you may ask? Well these apartments used to be for migrant workers or miners but after the people were allowed to relocate they were told they could bring the rest of their family to come live with them. Therefore, one room which had housed three to four workers now became a home for three to four families. The size of the room was shocking. If you can visualize the size of my bathroom, that is about the size of a room that would be for three or four families. Each family would have one bed with a rooftop over each bed to house all of their belongings. All of the families would share one kitchen and one bathroom. When we were there we seen a girl, about our age, leave from one of the rooms. We were shocked because she was dressed just as us. I do not mean this in a bad way by any means it just it harder to comprehend our way of life. Not to mention whenever we were in town we could never be sure if the person at the grocer or the person at a restaurant was having to make the long trek back home at the end of the day after watching us move from place to place, watch us enjoy gourmet food and spend money like there was no end. Like they say here...although much of the racial segregation has ended there is no end to the continuing financial segregation. Even the Beverly hills of the township (known as by the locals) was what we would consider the government housing back home.
We also met a local Sangoma (this was a Khosa village) who had his hut in a C-can (trailer container) and was filled with all sorts of dead animals just hanging from everywhere. Every nook and cranny was stuffed with bundles of herbs and roots that would be used to help heal the sick. It was surprising that more people didn’t get sick just going in there and it was hard to move without bumping into a monkey hand (no doubt which was real) or something else. I am not meaning to offend how he lived but rather just describing how where I have been raised makes me see this very different way of life. That is probably the most important thing we are learning, is how different an equal human being is living their life somewhere else in this vast world. Despite everything that we seen most of the people that we met along the way were incredibly friendly to us.
The only place along the tour that we felt was proper to take pictures was when driving where we seen goats eating the trees that had been planted by the city or when they were climbing on cars (haha hilarious) and at the kindergarten. At the kindergarten every little child was so happy to have their picture taken and wanted to see themselves after on the little screen which was followed by shouts of glee. It was quite an experience and one we were happy to have. Quickly all of the somewhat sleepy children were jumping all over us and a better description of us rather than tourists would have been human jungle gym’s. We didn’t mind and had a lot of fun playing with so many adorable children. I felt sorry for the two girls who would look after all 40-60 of them for 12 hours each day of the week because they were so full of energy.
We also drove through two other townships (another Khosa and a colored township – back in the day they were purposely separated) which were obviously not as accustomed to tourists because we never stopped and our driver repeatedly asked us to lock the doors and ensured that the AC was on so we could close the windows.
After the tour we had two hours to kill before heading to Robben island so we were dropped at the VA waterfront to have lunch. It was especially hard after our morning tour to really enjoy the ‘modern’ beauty of the waterfront with its very fashionable buildings and shops. Us middle class Canadians live like kings compared to some people here.
The ferry to Robben Island was very quick and it didn’t take very long to get to the island. Once at the island we jumped onto large buses and were taken around the island by a former prisoner. He was more of a poet than a tour guide and described much of the island in such a way that he would have given Paulo Coelho (author of the Alchemist) a run for his money. The tour took us from the location where the prisoners first entered the island to the little cells where they spent many years of their life and obviously the most famous of them all Nelson Mandela, who had spent 18 years of his life (you are probably thinking 27 years but not all of his sentence was served here). We also visited the cave where much of the ideas that formed on this island originally came to be and the most famous of all, “Each one, teach one”. This was the motto that gave the inmates the strength to carry on and to be courageous enough to accept their guards and those who had locked them away and to give them forgiveness. Although, the inmates had earned much respect by some of the guards they had been wise enough to use their disadvantages to their advantage...no white many could enter a black mans toilet which is what the cave was. The tour was well worth it despite many people telling us we would not see anything because of the throngs of people but we would definitely recommend it to anyone else visiting the Cape.
Our third day in Cape Town was spent on our own. We headed to the market place to see what we could add to our large pile of souvenirs before finding some way of sending it back home. We managed to find many great things some made of wire and recycled cans and caps. After we were satisfied that we had purchased more than enough, to cover almost our entire house in treasures, we located a shop dedicated to us dedicated shoppers, that would send all of our stuff home for only one arm and a leg. We had decided that we would not use the post to send our stuff home as many people had informed us that if we did some of the workers might find that they rather like our possessions and would take them into their possession. At Excess Baggage we met a nice man who happened to actually paint many of the pictures at his mothers shop right next door. We treated them to a coke and were very rewarded by their niceness and were informed that as we had suspected we had been ripped off in the market. We had been told by one the shop workers that he and his brother painted all of the works. He even used the name on the painting to sucker us in and because it was the morning we had not walked around enough to discover that this name was on most of the paintings. Beware of those that say the first sale in the morning is good luck. This just means that they don’t want you to head to the competition and find out they are lying. Because of how nice the man and his mother were we managed to buy to two of their paintings and were given one which were immediately added to our huge pile of souvenirs and quickly packed away.
The evening was spent on Clifton beach, which is as the locals describe a very posh beach hidden below the mansions from above. There is three or four beaches nestled in between the rocks. We spent most of our time here snapping pics of us playing in the waves with the sun low over the water and reading. What a great way to end our day.
The last of our days in Cape Town was to be spent bicycling around Stellenbosch area on a wine tour. We had asked many times how we could possibly bike after consuming wine but we were told that it would be no problem. We were driven to an inner part of Stellenbosch and dropped off to begin our tour. We jumped on our bikes and were told if we wanted to get pictures we should stop because many people had tried while riding but had fallen in the process...we did it anyways. The ride only took about ten minutes and after the first leg we decided that our choice of bringing sandals on a bike ride was ok.
Our first stop was Lanzerac which was the only vineyard in the world that produced a honey liqueur. The setup was very nice and the wine was very good and properly spaced out. We had a great lunch and sampled five wines and one honey liqueur which only I ordered and even with the help of everybody we could not finish...no wonder it is the only vineyard to make it.
To our surprise and dismay the first leg of our biking trip was the last. I guess the driver figured we were too intoxicated to bike anymore. Despite how many times we had asked we had been told that we would be biking. The bikes became a souvenir on the back of the trailer for the rest of the day.
The second stop was a statue of Nelson Mandela which seem to be all over South Africa, illustrating his importance here. We then headed to Frenchoek to the Delmas vineyard. This stop was the end of enjoying wine because here we had limited time but our guide still told the taster (popeye lookalike) that we could sample eight wines which turned into nine in twenty minutes or less. I think most of us left feeling sleepy and a bit sore in the stomach. Fortunately, our last stop, St. Paarl, was combined with cheese tasting. We loved the cheese (Katie more than I) and Katie bought some nice gruyere cheese and cream cheese for our picnic to come.
We had worked hard in the morning to prepare food for a picnic at the beach after our day of wine tasting. Everything was going according to plan until I realized that we were a camera short. We called our tour driver and Sele said he had our camera and told us to meet him. So we drove to location one surprised not to find him there. We called and he had had to go rescue one of his colleagues whose vehicle had broke down on the freeway full of tourists. We spent the next hour and a half driving around and even twenty minutes camped out on the side of a very busy freeway waiting. It didn’t matter because at the end we got our camera. But my forgetfulness or at least lack of care, ruined our picnic. But at least we got to leave Cape Town with our camera in hand and several bags of souvenirs lighter. We had now discovered why Cape Town had been praised by so many people and were finding it hard to leave.
Within minutes of arriving at our hostel we had organized four days of activities. It took maybe twenty minutes for it to sink in that we had just bartered off all of our free time in Cape Town. After discussing it together we headed back to the front desk and asked if it would be okay if we cancelled a couple of things and make for a little more free time. All though the man working at the front desk always seemed displeased we were forgiven for our transgressions.
We were told by tons of tourists and locals that if a calm and sunny day were to arrive in Cape Town, we should head first thing to Table Mountain as the weather can change at the drop of a hat. It was explained that if the weather wasn`t great then the cable car would not operate and you would have to walk both up and down and we weren`t so keen on that. Luckily, the day we arrived had been the first time in five days that the cable car had been open due to weather. The other scenic type things we had been recommended were to see Cape Point and the penguins at Boulder Beach. Unsure of the order we made our decision based on the advice of the hostel staff that we shouldn`t view the sunset at Cape Point for fear of driving the route home in the dark.
Heeding the staff’s advice, we headed to Cape Point first taking the Chapman Peak scenic route (supposedly one of the top five scenic drives in the World). I (Jeremy) feel that I should be supplying references to all these things that I am saying (training I guess) but I have no backing for this statement other than the fact that it was so beautiful. Paranoid me was just wanting to rip to Table Mountain because if weather became bad, we were not really going to have any other time to do it. But Katie persisted that we stop every two minutes to take pictures of the coast line. Although, it did eat up our time and give me a bit of the sweats, it was so worth it. The views from the highway were worthy of postcards and advertising for travel brochures (not sure if that really makes it seem all that special but it was something that everyone should see). The neatest part about Cape Town is that it is an extremely short distance from the coast to the mountain range, something that I have not seen before. The route wound around the mountain range with the coastline just below the highway. At times proper beaches would entertain our eyes or jagged cliffs with blue to clean green (rhymes) water beating against scattered rocks just offshore.
Rather than navigating to the Cape Point we took a slightly incorrect turn and ended up at the boulder beach which was of no concern because we had planned it as destination two. Boulder beach was a wake up call because I figured that penguins were native to only the colder climates such as Antarctica and the Zoo. Well was I completely wrong because not only do the penguins habit this African shore but they love to suntan and play in the waves. Truly we weren`t interested in learning much about their way of life...we just wanted pictures as it was way too hot out.
After rerouting we made it to Cape Point to find the view here even more spectacular than the drive especially after climbing the small hill at the end of the Peninsula which housed the blind Lighthouse (named this because it was always shrouded in fog and had to be relocated after many boats had crashed into the shores below). After competing with the picture taking type of tourists (probably enough said – but in their defence they are only slightly more photo crazy than Katie and I who have been known to capture pictures of food) ...anyways...after we had managed to take enough pics to fill a small Curio Shop (name for a souvenir shop) we headed on to Table Mountain.
We arrived at Table Mountain with just enough time to do the climb which we had been told was better than just taking up the cable car. Despite not being in great shape we pretty much ran up the steps - okay we ran in between good breaks – and made it to the top in just over an hour and a quarter. This is even while carrying a jug of water and a rather clumsy bag...not to mention carrying rocks for protection. Katie was in combat mode the entire way up. The walk up was worth it but would have been just as good if we would have taken the cable car. However, climbing justified spending a little extra money and consuming calories on some snacks at the top. At first we were a little disappointed to see that one side of the mountain had had its view of below blocked by cloud cover but were quickly to change our opinion as the fading sunlight made the clouds look like ocean in constant motion. The day could not have ended any better and this could not have been a better and more romantic way to end the day (I should have been a little more cunning and thought to bring a picnic basket...however, it is funny to note that Katie thought a family with a picnic basket was selling food and we preceded to ask how much for beer and pizza).
The following morning we were destined for a township tour which was going to be a major eye opener for us.
#16) Now there is a big difference between a township and a village. It is not so much in the customs which defines the two but it is in the way in which they came to be. Many of the townships were created when the powers to be figured that the only way to control the colored, black and asiatic populations would be to remove them from the city limits. So they forcibly removed these people from their homes to designated areas. That is how these areas came to be in the past. In the present these townships have grown as farmers and villagers from rural areas have come closer to the city centers in search of work but cannot afford to live in the city. Some of these townships are extremely large and the actual populations are unknown because it is hard to keep track of everyone. One of the most famous is Soweto which has approximately 1.5 million people living in it. Now people say that Soweto is a dangerous place, which it may very well be, but it is supposedly becoming better than Johannesburg in terms of safety and after driving through Johannesburg during the day it truly feels that it could not be any worse.
Nlanga (Lawn –ga) was the township which we visited. When we were getting ready for the day it was hard to know what to bring along with us. One of the hardest things to decide was whether we were to bring a camera. Not that we were worried about it getting stolen but we were worried about what it would feel like, to us and the residents, if were to start taking pictures. I don’t know how I would feel if a group of tourists showed up at my house and began to take pictures. And I would never have to think like that because I cannot see any reason why anyone would want to take pictures of my house because I would consider it normal. However, if the people of the township were to come and see our home they would probably want to take pictures because they would be in awe at how we lived but if this happened I doubt they would have brought a camera or own one.
Our first stop on the tour was the District Six museum. As we learned district six was one of the locations within Cape Town that had its people forcibly removed from the city limits. The residents were given very little notice and no choice but to move. The white people told them that they had to move because they were going to develop this area but really they just wanted them out. After these people had been moved from their homes they were bulldozed and nothing was ever rebuilt there. Although, they did not seem to feel any sympathy to hide what they had done they constructed apartment towers in front so that visitors would not see the rubble that remained where these people once lived. Our stop here was very short as we had much more to see and to fully capture all of what happened in this area would take many many hours.
From the district six museum we passed through its location it in present day where the rubble still lies. We continued to Nlanga. Our tour guide filled us in on the many questions that were probably roaming through all of our heads:
Q) Is it okay that we are going to tour through people homes because they are a tourist attraction to us.
A) Yes it is ok. After working with the local people the tour guides have worked in agreement with these people to help them understand that the world needs to see how they live so that help can be given. Further the money generated from the tours is given primarily to the townships. Also throughout the town we are going to have the opportunity to purchase souvenirs and will also help the villagers.
Q) Can we take pictures or better yet should we take pictures?
A) Yes pictures are okay because again we will catalogue the injustice that is still going on in this part of the world. Even though we can take pictures we can only freely take pictures of buildings and children but adults must be asked before we can take pictures.
So we were dropped in the village and handed over to one of the villagers to tour us around. We started off in a shebeen (shhhh bean) which is the irish (not sure why) name for a pub. We were seated around and were given our second chance to try traditional maize beer. This one seemed a bit more appetizing and so I tried it again while Katie said she was good. Although, it looked much more pleasant it didn’t taste any more appetizing and I was good with one chug (should you ever have the chance to try it remember that it is always taken from the same jug it is never poured into cups and in some places it is customary to pour some on the ground for the ancestors).
The remainder of the tour is really hard to describe. The surroundings are not what are hard to describe. The village is made of small and dilapidated wooden framed structures with tin roofing and are mainly barren inside with the exception of the warm and pleasant demeanours of the people who were housed there. The path is littered with trash and people are everywhere.
#15) We have been given many explanations as to why there is always trash in local areas and the best answer that we have been given is that this is just customary. Why customary? Well when the locals inhabited the land many hundreds or even thousands of years ago when they threw something on the ground it would break down and would go back to the earth. That was long before they had plastic but that custom continued at first because no one knew any better. Best we can tell is that it wouldn’t matter because if they did want to get rid of it they would have to burn it because there is no one to come and collect it.
The reason it is hard to describe the village tour is because it creates so many emotions when you think about what you are actually seeing. For example, at one point we visited a small apartment that should normally house maybe three or four small families. However, we were shocked to discover that it actually housed 16 families. Why you may ask? Well these apartments used to be for migrant workers or miners but after the people were allowed to relocate they were told they could bring the rest of their family to come live with them. Therefore, one room which had housed three to four workers now became a home for three to four families. The size of the room was shocking. If you can visualize the size of my bathroom, that is about the size of a room that would be for three or four families. Each family would have one bed with a rooftop over each bed to house all of their belongings. All of the families would share one kitchen and one bathroom. When we were there we seen a girl, about our age, leave from one of the rooms. We were shocked because she was dressed just as us. I do not mean this in a bad way by any means it just it harder to comprehend our way of life. Not to mention whenever we were in town we could never be sure if the person at the grocer or the person at a restaurant was having to make the long trek back home at the end of the day after watching us move from place to place, watch us enjoy gourmet food and spend money like there was no end. Like they say here...although much of the racial segregation has ended there is no end to the continuing financial segregation. Even the Beverly hills of the township (known as by the locals) was what we would consider the government housing back home.
We also met a local Sangoma (this was a Khosa village) who had his hut in a C-can (trailer container) and was filled with all sorts of dead animals just hanging from everywhere. Every nook and cranny was stuffed with bundles of herbs and roots that would be used to help heal the sick. It was surprising that more people didn’t get sick just going in there and it was hard to move without bumping into a monkey hand (no doubt which was real) or something else. I am not meaning to offend how he lived but rather just describing how where I have been raised makes me see this very different way of life. That is probably the most important thing we are learning, is how different an equal human being is living their life somewhere else in this vast world. Despite everything that we seen most of the people that we met along the way were incredibly friendly to us.
The only place along the tour that we felt was proper to take pictures was when driving where we seen goats eating the trees that had been planted by the city or when they were climbing on cars (haha hilarious) and at the kindergarten. At the kindergarten every little child was so happy to have their picture taken and wanted to see themselves after on the little screen which was followed by shouts of glee. It was quite an experience and one we were happy to have. Quickly all of the somewhat sleepy children were jumping all over us and a better description of us rather than tourists would have been human jungle gym’s. We didn’t mind and had a lot of fun playing with so many adorable children. I felt sorry for the two girls who would look after all 40-60 of them for 12 hours each day of the week because they were so full of energy.
We also drove through two other townships (another Khosa and a colored township – back in the day they were purposely separated) which were obviously not as accustomed to tourists because we never stopped and our driver repeatedly asked us to lock the doors and ensured that the AC was on so we could close the windows.
After the tour we had two hours to kill before heading to Robben island so we were dropped at the VA waterfront to have lunch. It was especially hard after our morning tour to really enjoy the ‘modern’ beauty of the waterfront with its very fashionable buildings and shops. Us middle class Canadians live like kings compared to some people here.
The ferry to Robben Island was very quick and it didn’t take very long to get to the island. Once at the island we jumped onto large buses and were taken around the island by a former prisoner. He was more of a poet than a tour guide and described much of the island in such a way that he would have given Paulo Coelho (author of the Alchemist) a run for his money. The tour took us from the location where the prisoners first entered the island to the little cells where they spent many years of their life and obviously the most famous of them all Nelson Mandela, who had spent 18 years of his life (you are probably thinking 27 years but not all of his sentence was served here). We also visited the cave where much of the ideas that formed on this island originally came to be and the most famous of all, “Each one, teach one”. This was the motto that gave the inmates the strength to carry on and to be courageous enough to accept their guards and those who had locked them away and to give them forgiveness. Although, the inmates had earned much respect by some of the guards they had been wise enough to use their disadvantages to their advantage...no white many could enter a black mans toilet which is what the cave was. The tour was well worth it despite many people telling us we would not see anything because of the throngs of people but we would definitely recommend it to anyone else visiting the Cape.
Our third day in Cape Town was spent on our own. We headed to the market place to see what we could add to our large pile of souvenirs before finding some way of sending it back home. We managed to find many great things some made of wire and recycled cans and caps. After we were satisfied that we had purchased more than enough, to cover almost our entire house in treasures, we located a shop dedicated to us dedicated shoppers, that would send all of our stuff home for only one arm and a leg. We had decided that we would not use the post to send our stuff home as many people had informed us that if we did some of the workers might find that they rather like our possessions and would take them into their possession. At Excess Baggage we met a nice man who happened to actually paint many of the pictures at his mothers shop right next door. We treated them to a coke and were very rewarded by their niceness and were informed that as we had suspected we had been ripped off in the market. We had been told by one the shop workers that he and his brother painted all of the works. He even used the name on the painting to sucker us in and because it was the morning we had not walked around enough to discover that this name was on most of the paintings. Beware of those that say the first sale in the morning is good luck. This just means that they don’t want you to head to the competition and find out they are lying. Because of how nice the man and his mother were we managed to buy to two of their paintings and were given one which were immediately added to our huge pile of souvenirs and quickly packed away.
The evening was spent on Clifton beach, which is as the locals describe a very posh beach hidden below the mansions from above. There is three or four beaches nestled in between the rocks. We spent most of our time here snapping pics of us playing in the waves with the sun low over the water and reading. What a great way to end our day.
The last of our days in Cape Town was to be spent bicycling around Stellenbosch area on a wine tour. We had asked many times how we could possibly bike after consuming wine but we were told that it would be no problem. We were driven to an inner part of Stellenbosch and dropped off to begin our tour. We jumped on our bikes and were told if we wanted to get pictures we should stop because many people had tried while riding but had fallen in the process...we did it anyways. The ride only took about ten minutes and after the first leg we decided that our choice of bringing sandals on a bike ride was ok.
Our first stop was Lanzerac which was the only vineyard in the world that produced a honey liqueur. The setup was very nice and the wine was very good and properly spaced out. We had a great lunch and sampled five wines and one honey liqueur which only I ordered and even with the help of everybody we could not finish...no wonder it is the only vineyard to make it.
To our surprise and dismay the first leg of our biking trip was the last. I guess the driver figured we were too intoxicated to bike anymore. Despite how many times we had asked we had been told that we would be biking. The bikes became a souvenir on the back of the trailer for the rest of the day.
The second stop was a statue of Nelson Mandela which seem to be all over South Africa, illustrating his importance here. We then headed to Frenchoek to the Delmas vineyard. This stop was the end of enjoying wine because here we had limited time but our guide still told the taster (popeye lookalike) that we could sample eight wines which turned into nine in twenty minutes or less. I think most of us left feeling sleepy and a bit sore in the stomach. Fortunately, our last stop, St. Paarl, was combined with cheese tasting. We loved the cheese (Katie more than I) and Katie bought some nice gruyere cheese and cream cheese for our picnic to come.
We had worked hard in the morning to prepare food for a picnic at the beach after our day of wine tasting. Everything was going according to plan until I realized that we were a camera short. We called our tour driver and Sele said he had our camera and told us to meet him. So we drove to location one surprised not to find him there. We called and he had had to go rescue one of his colleagues whose vehicle had broke down on the freeway full of tourists. We spent the next hour and a half driving around and even twenty minutes camped out on the side of a very busy freeway waiting. It didn’t matter because at the end we got our camera. But my forgetfulness or at least lack of care, ruined our picnic. But at least we got to leave Cape Town with our camera in hand and several bags of souvenirs lighter. We had now discovered why Cape Town had been praised by so many people and were finding it hard to leave.
Garden Route Part 2
After completing the bungee we had a braai (bbq) and cooked up some amazing chicken and sat around the fire talking with some of the staff and other travellers. It was a great night and we filled every new person in on our bungy experience... I mean every person. Whether they wanted to hear it or not (or watch it or not) they heard all of our view on the experience. I don’t think anyone minded and if they did we didn’t perceive it as we were too excited, overwhelmed and in shock that we had just completed the most massive task on our to do list...and that is not our garden route plan but our life list.
The next morning was supposed to be an adventure down Storm’s river on a tube but with the nonstop rain (thank god we had done the bungy the night before) it was cancelled. A quick search of the weather forecast for the area revealed that it was most likely not going to happen for quite some time if rain was to be an issue – so we kept on trekking down the route. We left and on the way re-evaluated our garden route list and started cutting things down left and right trying to gain some time in Cape Town.
Our first stop was at the Plettenberg Bay’s Elephant Sanctuary where we were able to meet the elephants up close. It would have been nice to do this before running into them in the wild with our dinky little car. We learnt a little about the elephants and their behaviour, touch the elephants (all over) and then feed them as a thank you for spending the morning with us. The best part was leading the elephants by the trunk through the forest. It was super neat despite our hands being covered in elephant snot but this was an obvious reaction due to the fact the elephants trunk is its nose, water vacuum tool and spray tool. The elephant doesn’t actually drink through its nose because then the water would enter the lungs and it would suffocate. It sprays the vacuumed water into its mouth to drink it. After the thank you’s we realized that they weren’t exactly as gracious and left us feeling used (although we used them for our pleasure) because they knew when the food was all gone and at that point just walked away without even saying goodbye.
From the Sanctuary we bee lined it to Knysna for lunch at Fat Susi’s Cafe which was famed for great food and one of the top ten places to eat on the garden route. I foolishly chose a sandwich that had anchovies (smelt like dead fish) while Katie feasted on one of the best chicken burgers we had ever been fortunate enough to sample – yum yum!
We jumped back on the highway and headed on our way to Ootshornd (Out’d Shorn –as in Out with a D rather than a T). For some reason, still not yet understood, our GPS took us off the major highway and into a rather hellish winding road thru the mountains but it was of no concern because it was quite a nice scenic view. After struggling with road construction, detours and my (Jeremy) driving, we managed to get to back on the highway but decided that we could easily still see the Ostrich farm, knock off a couple of items in Outshornd and make it to Mossel Bay by nightfall. It was obvious by now that we were in Ostrich country as the farms went from cattle to endless herds of the largest bird...and to our surprise we must have hit the only pocket of nice weather and sunshine.
#13) If you want to physically understand the diversity and the segregation that still remains in this country, all you have to do is drive and you can and will see it. We are not only taking about diversity in the geography but about the country in general. For example, there was no longer domestic animals venturing across the roads and villagers walking from town to town but rather well defined farms and extremely large houses and well manicured yards and acreages. This diversity continues to greaten as you head further down the coast.
The Ostrich farm was very informative and unique. We learned that the male ostrich is a player/stud (requires at least three females to remain satisfied), is plucked every nine months while quite alive and is extremely deadly while being terrified of thorn bushes (used as a means to scare off the ostriches when entering their territory). We witnessed this as one of the guards led us into ‘Jack the ripper’ and ‘Susie the stripper’s pen to observe the nest and to stand on one of their eggs. It sounds horrible but we actually stood on one of their eggs without ever fearing that it would break. Anyways as we were leaving the nest, Jack decided he wanted us out and to take a charge at us (amazing how fast he could accelerate) but stopped dead in his tracks when the guide lifted the branch of thorns she was carrying. I am glad because that one single claw on their foot could easily rip a wide open gouge from chest to feet. A tip that we feel should be passed on to everyone is that If you ever run into an Ostrich in the wild just lay down because they won’t be able to strike you or at least they will have a lot more trouble doing so. And when feeding them lay, your hand perfectly flat or you may just come up a finger short. This was probably one of the scariest animals to feed because they move around so erratically and strike like a bullet when they pick food from your hand. Too fast to even really capture it in a picture well at least the adults...the little ones were easier to approach. A kind woman in our group held Katie’s hand (as per Katie’s instruction) close enough that the birds could feed (she did not want to do it on her own but after watching I wasn’t sure that I wanted to either).
Next we were herded to a pen of Ostrich’s where some of the tourees sat face to face with the birds as we were given a breakdown of their anatomy by the guide. Literally face to face as there were maybe six inches between those giant eyes and these people’s faces...much braver than I. We then mounted an Ostrich to take a picture and a chance to ride the Ostrich’s. We had decided not to but Katie literally didn’t have much of a choice as when she went to get off its back (for picture purposes) the guide simply asked if she was ready and before receiving a response slapped the Ostrich’s ass and had her ripping around the pen. It was hilarious to watch her doing circle’s around the cage as she had no idea that the guide was still following her to make sure she would be ok. They thought it was pretty hilarious and had no qualms about riding the Ostrich’s because shortly after we watched them doing a running jump onto an Ostrich and race each other down a small horse track.
It took us another couple of hours to reach Mossel Bay and we were disappointed that as soon as we had left Outstornd and headed back to cross the mountains (the mountains shield the inland from the coast) we were back in cloudiness and rain. What made it worse is that the mountain passes that we were heading through were also listed as some of the nicest drives and the top hundred things to see while on the Garden Route. We couldn’t complain because we had had such nice weather and this area was hoping to be relieved of the worst drought they had in the last 150 years. Rather than stop in Mossel Bay we actually stayed in a small town called the Little Brak River about ten minutes away. It was not a backpacker as we had expected but turned out to be a comfy and clean place to sleep and not to mention had free internet.
14) When here if you wish to use skype make sure that you either ask or hide in a corner because although it says free internet the people here pay through the roof for it and just like airtime you have to buy data packages that are prepaid and once they run out they run out until you purchase more. I only say this because we had no idea and after the six guests all used Skype (everyone was there for the free internet) and multiple times we had maxed out the internet. Nothing here is free, even local calls at a tourist information office will be charged to you otherwise the staff will have to pay. Unfortunately, they just don’t say anything and you find out the hard way and then feel bad about it.
We met two nice couples from France and America (not typical Americans or at least we felt that they wouldn’t be judged that way) and we all headed down to the museum the next day followed by lunch at another top ten spot to stop at on the Garden Route. At the Bartholomew Dias museum, we increased our geographical knowledge (something we are realizing was worse than we thought) and learned a great deal about how the Portuguese really were the ones to explore the world first. They were some of the first to discover South America, Africa, India (with the exception of the local people).
#15) So everyone has heard the advice that if you are traveling abroad that you should declare that you are Canadian rather than be thought of as an American (despite to the French who don’t care) but you don’t really realize how true it is. After speaking only two words most people stop to ask where we are from. Although, they may just be asking for interest sakes it seems not so because our answer is almost followed by: fortunately not American, thank god or another hundred versions of something similar. Although, we feel that we declare it subtlety through our Canadian sweaters and shirts with large print, most people seem to not notice. And in some cases they just don’t believe you (supposedly some of our neighbours disguise themselves to appear Canadian) and you may need to carry a passport strictly to prove that you are truly Canadian.
From Mossel Bay we decided to try and drive to L’Auguluas to see the most Southern point of Africa and the point where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet (don’t they meet everywhere?). After staying much later than we should have in Mossel Bay, we figured it was going to be difficult detour. However, we made it just before the last remaining sunlight disappeared (althgouh there really wasn’t any sunlight because it had not stopped raining along the coast since we left Storm’s river). We did manage to get to take a few pics and dip our feet in the ocean before we were thoroughly drenched. After debating for some time whether we dared to venture a further three hours in the rain and dark to Cape Town, we decided to try and find accommodation in what looked like a past castle. Unfortunately, it was full and was obviously expensive because they would only inform us that the price was in the high end. We settled on a backpackers (our ideal price range) and tried to dry out our belongings.
The next morning we headed to Cape Town to try and discover what everyone described as one of the must see’s of South Africa. We were a little confused as to why another city could be so miraculous but I guess we were soon to find out.
The next morning was supposed to be an adventure down Storm’s river on a tube but with the nonstop rain (thank god we had done the bungy the night before) it was cancelled. A quick search of the weather forecast for the area revealed that it was most likely not going to happen for quite some time if rain was to be an issue – so we kept on trekking down the route. We left and on the way re-evaluated our garden route list and started cutting things down left and right trying to gain some time in Cape Town.
Our first stop was at the Plettenberg Bay’s Elephant Sanctuary where we were able to meet the elephants up close. It would have been nice to do this before running into them in the wild with our dinky little car. We learnt a little about the elephants and their behaviour, touch the elephants (all over) and then feed them as a thank you for spending the morning with us. The best part was leading the elephants by the trunk through the forest. It was super neat despite our hands being covered in elephant snot but this was an obvious reaction due to the fact the elephants trunk is its nose, water vacuum tool and spray tool. The elephant doesn’t actually drink through its nose because then the water would enter the lungs and it would suffocate. It sprays the vacuumed water into its mouth to drink it. After the thank you’s we realized that they weren’t exactly as gracious and left us feeling used (although we used them for our pleasure) because they knew when the food was all gone and at that point just walked away without even saying goodbye.
From the Sanctuary we bee lined it to Knysna for lunch at Fat Susi’s Cafe which was famed for great food and one of the top ten places to eat on the garden route. I foolishly chose a sandwich that had anchovies (smelt like dead fish) while Katie feasted on one of the best chicken burgers we had ever been fortunate enough to sample – yum yum!
We jumped back on the highway and headed on our way to Ootshornd (Out’d Shorn –as in Out with a D rather than a T). For some reason, still not yet understood, our GPS took us off the major highway and into a rather hellish winding road thru the mountains but it was of no concern because it was quite a nice scenic view. After struggling with road construction, detours and my (Jeremy) driving, we managed to get to back on the highway but decided that we could easily still see the Ostrich farm, knock off a couple of items in Outshornd and make it to Mossel Bay by nightfall. It was obvious by now that we were in Ostrich country as the farms went from cattle to endless herds of the largest bird...and to our surprise we must have hit the only pocket of nice weather and sunshine.
#13) If you want to physically understand the diversity and the segregation that still remains in this country, all you have to do is drive and you can and will see it. We are not only taking about diversity in the geography but about the country in general. For example, there was no longer domestic animals venturing across the roads and villagers walking from town to town but rather well defined farms and extremely large houses and well manicured yards and acreages. This diversity continues to greaten as you head further down the coast.
The Ostrich farm was very informative and unique. We learned that the male ostrich is a player/stud (requires at least three females to remain satisfied), is plucked every nine months while quite alive and is extremely deadly while being terrified of thorn bushes (used as a means to scare off the ostriches when entering their territory). We witnessed this as one of the guards led us into ‘Jack the ripper’ and ‘Susie the stripper’s pen to observe the nest and to stand on one of their eggs. It sounds horrible but we actually stood on one of their eggs without ever fearing that it would break. Anyways as we were leaving the nest, Jack decided he wanted us out and to take a charge at us (amazing how fast he could accelerate) but stopped dead in his tracks when the guide lifted the branch of thorns she was carrying. I am glad because that one single claw on their foot could easily rip a wide open gouge from chest to feet. A tip that we feel should be passed on to everyone is that If you ever run into an Ostrich in the wild just lay down because they won’t be able to strike you or at least they will have a lot more trouble doing so. And when feeding them lay, your hand perfectly flat or you may just come up a finger short. This was probably one of the scariest animals to feed because they move around so erratically and strike like a bullet when they pick food from your hand. Too fast to even really capture it in a picture well at least the adults...the little ones were easier to approach. A kind woman in our group held Katie’s hand (as per Katie’s instruction) close enough that the birds could feed (she did not want to do it on her own but after watching I wasn’t sure that I wanted to either).
Next we were herded to a pen of Ostrich’s where some of the tourees sat face to face with the birds as we were given a breakdown of their anatomy by the guide. Literally face to face as there were maybe six inches between those giant eyes and these people’s faces...much braver than I. We then mounted an Ostrich to take a picture and a chance to ride the Ostrich’s. We had decided not to but Katie literally didn’t have much of a choice as when she went to get off its back (for picture purposes) the guide simply asked if she was ready and before receiving a response slapped the Ostrich’s ass and had her ripping around the pen. It was hilarious to watch her doing circle’s around the cage as she had no idea that the guide was still following her to make sure she would be ok. They thought it was pretty hilarious and had no qualms about riding the Ostrich’s because shortly after we watched them doing a running jump onto an Ostrich and race each other down a small horse track.
It took us another couple of hours to reach Mossel Bay and we were disappointed that as soon as we had left Outstornd and headed back to cross the mountains (the mountains shield the inland from the coast) we were back in cloudiness and rain. What made it worse is that the mountain passes that we were heading through were also listed as some of the nicest drives and the top hundred things to see while on the Garden Route. We couldn’t complain because we had had such nice weather and this area was hoping to be relieved of the worst drought they had in the last 150 years. Rather than stop in Mossel Bay we actually stayed in a small town called the Little Brak River about ten minutes away. It was not a backpacker as we had expected but turned out to be a comfy and clean place to sleep and not to mention had free internet.
14) When here if you wish to use skype make sure that you either ask or hide in a corner because although it says free internet the people here pay through the roof for it and just like airtime you have to buy data packages that are prepaid and once they run out they run out until you purchase more. I only say this because we had no idea and after the six guests all used Skype (everyone was there for the free internet) and multiple times we had maxed out the internet. Nothing here is free, even local calls at a tourist information office will be charged to you otherwise the staff will have to pay. Unfortunately, they just don’t say anything and you find out the hard way and then feel bad about it.
We met two nice couples from France and America (not typical Americans or at least we felt that they wouldn’t be judged that way) and we all headed down to the museum the next day followed by lunch at another top ten spot to stop at on the Garden Route. At the Bartholomew Dias museum, we increased our geographical knowledge (something we are realizing was worse than we thought) and learned a great deal about how the Portuguese really were the ones to explore the world first. They were some of the first to discover South America, Africa, India (with the exception of the local people).
#15) So everyone has heard the advice that if you are traveling abroad that you should declare that you are Canadian rather than be thought of as an American (despite to the French who don’t care) but you don’t really realize how true it is. After speaking only two words most people stop to ask where we are from. Although, they may just be asking for interest sakes it seems not so because our answer is almost followed by: fortunately not American, thank god or another hundred versions of something similar. Although, we feel that we declare it subtlety through our Canadian sweaters and shirts with large print, most people seem to not notice. And in some cases they just don’t believe you (supposedly some of our neighbours disguise themselves to appear Canadian) and you may need to carry a passport strictly to prove that you are truly Canadian.
From Mossel Bay we decided to try and drive to L’Auguluas to see the most Southern point of Africa and the point where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet (don’t they meet everywhere?). After staying much later than we should have in Mossel Bay, we figured it was going to be difficult detour. However, we made it just before the last remaining sunlight disappeared (althgouh there really wasn’t any sunlight because it had not stopped raining along the coast since we left Storm’s river). We did manage to get to take a few pics and dip our feet in the ocean before we were thoroughly drenched. After debating for some time whether we dared to venture a further three hours in the rain and dark to Cape Town, we decided to try and find accommodation in what looked like a past castle. Unfortunately, it was full and was obviously expensive because they would only inform us that the price was in the high end. We settled on a backpackers (our ideal price range) and tried to dry out our belongings.
The next morning we headed to Cape Town to try and discover what everyone described as one of the must see’s of South Africa. We were a little confused as to why another city could be so miraculous but I guess we were soon to find out.
`Fear is momentary, Regret is Forever!’
BLOUKRAN BUNGEE JUMP – WORLD`S HIGHEST
`Fear is momentary, Regret is Forever!’
After a very spur of the moment decision to go for the bungee jump now rather than hoping for the weather cooperation the following day, we jumped into the car and headed the 24km to the Bloukran’s bridge (world’s highest SA bridge) which stands a whopping 216m off of the ground. Before we backed out, we immediately paid the $650 Rands (each) which was non refundable. Because it was the end of the day, we were the last jumpers – jumper 41 and 42. We were immediately escorted to the underside of the bridge where we walked to the center of the bridge on a very ‘shanty’ catwalk that had grating (which means it is see through i.e. no looking down!)
The group decided I would be the first jumper after they looked at my terror stricken face. The rest happened so quickly but I can honestly say that it was the scariest but coolest thing I have ever done in my entire life. Within minutes, they had strapped me in and were helping me ‘inch’ towards the edge. I tried so hard to do the jump on my own but after three attempts of not jumping and losing control of my legs (shaking uncontrollably) they had to give me a little nudge to make that final plunge – I mean...there is nothing normal about jumping off of a perfectly good bridge. The rush and the adrenaline that you feel while falling is out of this world...I loved every moment of it and I would do it a hundred times over if only I did not have to go through the ordeal of jumping off. This experience was very neat because you got a total of three falls – the first one was ~200m, taking a total time of 5 seconds to free fall (travelling a speed of 120km/hr) and the second fall was~160m (i.e. 80%) and the third was ~120m. The worst part of the experience (other than the jump itself) was that when it was over, you had to hang there for a few minutes before being rescued by a man on a cable. Once my feet landed back on the bridge, I was greeted by cheers and high fives! The workers were so great...they were really supportive and did an excellent job of distracting you the entire time leading up to the jump.
Next up was Jeremy! I had absolutely no doubt in my mind that Jeremy would jump on the first shot. Within minutes, he was completely strapped in and was inching towards the edge. The workers started their countdown, “Five-Four-Three-Two-One-BUNGEE` and before you knew it, Jeremy was over the edge making his first of three falls. Jeremy felt the same way that I did...only I truly think if given another chance, he would be first in line but this time, he would be stepping it up and jumping backwards (crazy-crazy-crazy!!!). We headed to the gift shop and bought 2 T-Shirts, our DVD`s and our Pics because after all...we need proof to show our loved ones back home that we actually did it!!!
`Fear is momentary, Regret is Forever!’
After a very spur of the moment decision to go for the bungee jump now rather than hoping for the weather cooperation the following day, we jumped into the car and headed the 24km to the Bloukran’s bridge (world’s highest SA bridge) which stands a whopping 216m off of the ground. Before we backed out, we immediately paid the $650 Rands (each) which was non refundable. Because it was the end of the day, we were the last jumpers – jumper 41 and 42. We were immediately escorted to the underside of the bridge where we walked to the center of the bridge on a very ‘shanty’ catwalk that had grating (which means it is see through i.e. no looking down!)
The group decided I would be the first jumper after they looked at my terror stricken face. The rest happened so quickly but I can honestly say that it was the scariest but coolest thing I have ever done in my entire life. Within minutes, they had strapped me in and were helping me ‘inch’ towards the edge. I tried so hard to do the jump on my own but after three attempts of not jumping and losing control of my legs (shaking uncontrollably) they had to give me a little nudge to make that final plunge – I mean...there is nothing normal about jumping off of a perfectly good bridge. The rush and the adrenaline that you feel while falling is out of this world...I loved every moment of it and I would do it a hundred times over if only I did not have to go through the ordeal of jumping off. This experience was very neat because you got a total of three falls – the first one was ~200m, taking a total time of 5 seconds to free fall (travelling a speed of 120km/hr) and the second fall was~160m (i.e. 80%) and the third was ~120m. The worst part of the experience (other than the jump itself) was that when it was over, you had to hang there for a few minutes before being rescued by a man on a cable. Once my feet landed back on the bridge, I was greeted by cheers and high fives! The workers were so great...they were really supportive and did an excellent job of distracting you the entire time leading up to the jump.
Next up was Jeremy! I had absolutely no doubt in my mind that Jeremy would jump on the first shot. Within minutes, he was completely strapped in and was inching towards the edge. The workers started their countdown, “Five-Four-Three-Two-One-BUNGEE` and before you knew it, Jeremy was over the edge making his first of three falls. Jeremy felt the same way that I did...only I truly think if given another chance, he would be first in line but this time, he would be stepping it up and jumping backwards (crazy-crazy-crazy!!!). We headed to the gift shop and bought 2 T-Shirts, our DVD`s and our Pics because after all...we need proof to show our loved ones back home that we actually did it!!!
Port Elizabeth and Garden Route Part 1
After playing another round of let’s dodge the potholes, we managed to get back onto the main highway without any problems (they should make a game based on this road because it was a lot of fun minus the fact that you are playing with your own life and a car which you could have to pay for...thank goodness for car insurance). Before leaving Coffee Bay we had found out from Lee and Thomas that we would be hard pressed to make it all the way to Tsitsikima National Park (Storm’s River) in one day without burning out. They had suggested that we spend the night in Port Elizabeth and take in a nice beer and a garlic mussel pot at Barney’s pub and stay at the Hornby Lodge. What really convinced us was the fact that Port Elizabeth had a cinema where we could catch Valentine’s day although it was a little overdue (Feb 18th rather than the true lover’s day). The drive to Port Liz was pretty chill with nothing crazy enough to mention (scenery always nice).
When we arrived in Port Elizabeth we were greeted with great scenes of the coast and large dunes surrounding the coast. Port Elizabeth was another big city so we just checked into our accommodation (which was a room that could easily sleep eight people with no complaints, and was the same price of our hostels) and headed to Barney’s. It was a nice place to catch a meal and a beer as it overlooked Shark Point. We were a little disappointed with the mussels after having been treated to the fresh ones in Port St. John’s. The Valentine’s Day movie was not what we had been expecting but it was nice to feel normal for two hours (normal because that is what Katie and I thoroughly enjoy...movies yeah!) so the night was a success.
The next morning we headed to Addo Elephant National Park for a day of elephants and in the hopes of seeing some cats. We weren’t fortunate enough to see any cats but we did get to leisurely drive and spot herd after herd of elephants. So many babies and even a little elephant playtime caused us to relive our early picture snapping habits in which we must have captured every angle of the elephants. We figure that the park should be named carcass safari because we encountered many dead animals. For the most part it wasn’t hard to pick out what the remains had been...we are becoming pros at animal spotting. All we need to work on now is how to identify the different types of spoor and we are set to become guides (okay a little over the top but I am just implying that we have been to a lot of game reserves).
After staying much too late in the game reserve we decided that we needed to get going. We had to fight with the GPS to guide us to Storm’s river (we didn’t realize that it was set to avoid freeways...and didn’t for the next week!!!) and kept rerouting us to a road that had been closed for almost four years We decided that because the pioneers could navigate with only the stars we should be able to do it without the GPS. However, while enroute, we spotted an exit to Jeffrey’s Bay (Jbay) and realized that we had almost forgot one of our most highly anticipated destinations. So we jetted off the highway and headed to Jbay which was a relief because it was getting real late and we still had hours to go. We had some difficulty finding accommodations but got lucky and landed a nice spot on the coast...little did we know at the time that we were at the Supertubes on Pepper St. (location of one of the biggest surfing competitions in the world). We booked our surf lessons for the morning, chowed down and passed out!!
Being the idiot I am (definitely Jeremy here) I managed to leave the lights on in the car for the evening and killed (I mean killed) the battery. In our haste to make our lesson I asked the receptionist at the place next to us if she knew if anyone had some booster cables. She called her ‘man’ (side note-people here refer to their hired help as man and lady...no names are used) to come and help us despite the fact that we weren’t staying in her lodge. It was easy to see that a boost was not going to work because the battery was flat out dead. Little to say we had to cancel our surf lesson and tag along with the ‘man’ to midas to get the battery tested to see if it had to be replaced. After finding out it was going to take a long time to charge (very dead) we went with the ‘man’ to check up on the shops he manages. We were to learn that the woman who owned the lodge that we were getting help from, was one of the first people to reside in Jbay (besides the locals) and now owned four lodges on Pepper St. and nearly an entire street in town which our man managed all of them including acting as her body guard (she had been attempted to be robbed and killed recently because of her wealth). We did a bit of shopping (quite a bit) while our man went about his rounds. Sheran (the owner) had at one point owned a billabong shop and a similar shop called Country Feeling, which is entirely local, that had been started before she had purchased billabong.
When our battery was finally brought back to life we headed back to pick it up and to make sure that we could get our car started. Everything turned out for the better because we got to learn a lot about Jbay from our ‘man’. We never revealed that we weren’t staying at one of Sheran’s places. Although we ended buying a greater amount of goods than we would have spent by staying more than a couple of nights, we didn’t want to get the receptionist in trouble as it was very kind of her to help us.
The rest of the day was spent chilling out on the Supertubes beach reading and trying to spot some pro surfers or at least some fantastic locals but the waves were not willing to cooperate so we headed out to a local restaurant where we were treated with some awesome wood cooked pizza (delissio!!!).
The next morning we went for our surf lesson first thing in the morning. Our instructor Andrew was, as he had been praised, chill and a great teacher. Despite the whipping sand it was a lot of fun. Katie was by far the best of the group and managed to stand on her second try and continued to make the rest of the group look like goofs as we struggled to stay up even a tenth as long as her (which was great because Katie always complains that I am better at everything even if it isn’t true). I think only one other girl managed to stand up besides me and I was nowhere near staying on as long as Katie. After the lesson we decided to head out of Jbay although it would have been nice to stay in this laid back town and exceptionally clean room for another week.
Our next stop was Storm’s river. We were disappointed, that as we headed in the right direction, we began to encounter rain...something unfamiliar for the last few weeks we had been travelling. When we finally arrived in Storm’s river we were completely surrounded by rain clouds with what looked like no hope of clearing up. We had decided in Jbay that we should try and finally reach a plan as to what we would do along the Garden Route as we were quickly running out of time to spend in Cape Town. This was also a problem as we were really hoping to be able to hit up Zimbabwe on the 28th as it would be a full moon where we could catch the lunar rainbows at night in Vic falls (one of only two places in the world to see). No matter how we arranged it, it was hard to give ourselves really any time in Cape Town. We were extremely confused as to what we should do. The list comprised twenty tourist attractions planned into four days with each couple of hours being dedicated to one activity or another whether it was just eating at a renowned restaurant.
Despite the rain, Dijembe backpackers in Storm’s river was a four star hostel and was very unique. We managed to see about twenty very creative things that we would definitely want to do to our future home. After wandering around for some time we decided that we should put some thought and effort into booking Vic Falls. Despite our effort we discovered that getting to Vic Falls wasn’t going to be cheap but figured we only live once and needed to see the falls. We never made any head way and were almost more confused after sifting through endless combinations of flights. Although, we had considered doing the bungee our first night there, we had spent so much time trying to sort out flights to Vic falls and figured it would be too late. But when we called to book for the next morning the receptionist told us that if we left immediately we could make it before the end of the day...so we hoped in the car and felt our blood pressure rise.
When we arrived in Port Elizabeth we were greeted with great scenes of the coast and large dunes surrounding the coast. Port Elizabeth was another big city so we just checked into our accommodation (which was a room that could easily sleep eight people with no complaints, and was the same price of our hostels) and headed to Barney’s. It was a nice place to catch a meal and a beer as it overlooked Shark Point. We were a little disappointed with the mussels after having been treated to the fresh ones in Port St. John’s. The Valentine’s Day movie was not what we had been expecting but it was nice to feel normal for two hours (normal because that is what Katie and I thoroughly enjoy...movies yeah!) so the night was a success.
The next morning we headed to Addo Elephant National Park for a day of elephants and in the hopes of seeing some cats. We weren’t fortunate enough to see any cats but we did get to leisurely drive and spot herd after herd of elephants. So many babies and even a little elephant playtime caused us to relive our early picture snapping habits in which we must have captured every angle of the elephants. We figure that the park should be named carcass safari because we encountered many dead animals. For the most part it wasn’t hard to pick out what the remains had been...we are becoming pros at animal spotting. All we need to work on now is how to identify the different types of spoor and we are set to become guides (okay a little over the top but I am just implying that we have been to a lot of game reserves).
After staying much too late in the game reserve we decided that we needed to get going. We had to fight with the GPS to guide us to Storm’s river (we didn’t realize that it was set to avoid freeways...and didn’t for the next week!!!) and kept rerouting us to a road that had been closed for almost four years We decided that because the pioneers could navigate with only the stars we should be able to do it without the GPS. However, while enroute, we spotted an exit to Jeffrey’s Bay (Jbay) and realized that we had almost forgot one of our most highly anticipated destinations. So we jetted off the highway and headed to Jbay which was a relief because it was getting real late and we still had hours to go. We had some difficulty finding accommodations but got lucky and landed a nice spot on the coast...little did we know at the time that we were at the Supertubes on Pepper St. (location of one of the biggest surfing competitions in the world). We booked our surf lessons for the morning, chowed down and passed out!!
Being the idiot I am (definitely Jeremy here) I managed to leave the lights on in the car for the evening and killed (I mean killed) the battery. In our haste to make our lesson I asked the receptionist at the place next to us if she knew if anyone had some booster cables. She called her ‘man’ (side note-people here refer to their hired help as man and lady...no names are used) to come and help us despite the fact that we weren’t staying in her lodge. It was easy to see that a boost was not going to work because the battery was flat out dead. Little to say we had to cancel our surf lesson and tag along with the ‘man’ to midas to get the battery tested to see if it had to be replaced. After finding out it was going to take a long time to charge (very dead) we went with the ‘man’ to check up on the shops he manages. We were to learn that the woman who owned the lodge that we were getting help from, was one of the first people to reside in Jbay (besides the locals) and now owned four lodges on Pepper St. and nearly an entire street in town which our man managed all of them including acting as her body guard (she had been attempted to be robbed and killed recently because of her wealth). We did a bit of shopping (quite a bit) while our man went about his rounds. Sheran (the owner) had at one point owned a billabong shop and a similar shop called Country Feeling, which is entirely local, that had been started before she had purchased billabong.
When our battery was finally brought back to life we headed back to pick it up and to make sure that we could get our car started. Everything turned out for the better because we got to learn a lot about Jbay from our ‘man’. We never revealed that we weren’t staying at one of Sheran’s places. Although we ended buying a greater amount of goods than we would have spent by staying more than a couple of nights, we didn’t want to get the receptionist in trouble as it was very kind of her to help us.
The rest of the day was spent chilling out on the Supertubes beach reading and trying to spot some pro surfers or at least some fantastic locals but the waves were not willing to cooperate so we headed out to a local restaurant where we were treated with some awesome wood cooked pizza (delissio!!!).
The next morning we went for our surf lesson first thing in the morning. Our instructor Andrew was, as he had been praised, chill and a great teacher. Despite the whipping sand it was a lot of fun. Katie was by far the best of the group and managed to stand on her second try and continued to make the rest of the group look like goofs as we struggled to stay up even a tenth as long as her (which was great because Katie always complains that I am better at everything even if it isn’t true). I think only one other girl managed to stand up besides me and I was nowhere near staying on as long as Katie. After the lesson we decided to head out of Jbay although it would have been nice to stay in this laid back town and exceptionally clean room for another week.
Our next stop was Storm’s river. We were disappointed, that as we headed in the right direction, we began to encounter rain...something unfamiliar for the last few weeks we had been travelling. When we finally arrived in Storm’s river we were completely surrounded by rain clouds with what looked like no hope of clearing up. We had decided in Jbay that we should try and finally reach a plan as to what we would do along the Garden Route as we were quickly running out of time to spend in Cape Town. This was also a problem as we were really hoping to be able to hit up Zimbabwe on the 28th as it would be a full moon where we could catch the lunar rainbows at night in Vic falls (one of only two places in the world to see). No matter how we arranged it, it was hard to give ourselves really any time in Cape Town. We were extremely confused as to what we should do. The list comprised twenty tourist attractions planned into four days with each couple of hours being dedicated to one activity or another whether it was just eating at a renowned restaurant.
Despite the rain, Dijembe backpackers in Storm’s river was a four star hostel and was very unique. We managed to see about twenty very creative things that we would definitely want to do to our future home. After wandering around for some time we decided that we should put some thought and effort into booking Vic Falls. Despite our effort we discovered that getting to Vic Falls wasn’t going to be cheap but figured we only live once and needed to see the falls. We never made any head way and were almost more confused after sifting through endless combinations of flights. Although, we had considered doing the bungee our first night there, we had spent so much time trying to sort out flights to Vic falls and figured it would be too late. But when we called to book for the next morning the receptionist told us that if we left immediately we could make it before the end of the day...so we hoped in the car and felt our blood pressure rise.
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