It was a bit of shock traveling from the Tanzanian bush into the metropolis of Johannesburg, South Africa, but we were so excited to start our adventure in this beautiful country. For the past five months, we had largely depended on any and every form of public transportation we could find. Although this took the stress off of us finding our way through the chaotic streets of all these foreign places, we were ready for a bit of freedom to explore on our own terms! We proceeded to rent a car and do a massive 3,100 mile loop covering many of the stunning hotspots of the country over our three week visit.
We decided the most appropriate way to start our experience of South Africa would be to get a dose of the history that has shaped and is still shaping the country today. As we drove into the Sophiatown neighborhood of Johannesburg, which experienced the worst of apartheid back in the 1960s, we were a bit apprehensive about our safety. We had been warned to avoid these neighborhoods, but also had been told you really haven't experienced South Africa unless you have experienced these communities. So, we booked a tour and ventured into Sophiatown. As we were pulling up to the museum, our car was instantaneously surrounded by about twenty men all yelling in at us...about what, we couldn't tell. We freaked out. I told Blair to gun it, and he sped down the street as some of the men jumped out of the way to avoid getting hit. We called the museum to tell them what happened and to figure out what we should do. With a chuckle, the lady told us it was no problem, they weren't trying to rob us, they were just asking us for work so they could earn a bit of money. Brilliant sales technique, guys...brilliant.
Once our hearts stopped racing, the rest of the morning proceeded without a hitch. We toured the museum (that was once political leader, Dr. A.B. Xuma's home) and walked around the neighborhood where the guide pointed out significant locations of this central black community. One night, during the start of the Apartheid movement, the whites came in and hauled every black and coloured person living in the community to a new community of shanty homes outside the city so that they could bulldoze Sophiatown and make it into a middle class, white neighborhood. The black community lost their epicenter of life, business and culture in one night and were displaced without jobs and with barely a home to live in. Hearing about the history of Sophiatown was harrowing experience, but with everything being torn down during apartheid, there wasn't much to look at besides spots of land where Mandela used to live or the theater where opposition leaders used to meet to discuss their next moves. These sites now house nothing more than insignificant suburban homes.
That same afternoon we headed across town to the Apartheid Museum. The museum was HUGE and we probably only made it 2/3 the way through, but the content and display was really well done and incredibly informative. The apartheid was bad enough, but we were quickly learning just how prominent the racial segregation and discrimination still is--the fight is most certainly not over for the South African people.
The following morning we decided to head out of town to start our journey south towards the coast. Before leaving, we were able to meet up with a friend of Blair's from his college internship in Washington D.C. who is living and working in Joburg with his wife. Devang and his wife, Kate brought us to this adorable neighborhood near their home for an amazing brunch al fresco. We might as well have been brunching in the heart of Lincoln Park with all the wealthy, white young adults that dominated the scene. The main difference? Black parking attendants and security guards marked every corner and every street to protect us and our cars against attacks...at 11am on a Sunday morning.
The rest of our Sunday was spent driving through Free State, the rolling farmland of the country where miles and miles of sunflowers and corn lined the highway. We decided last minute to take a two day detour into Lesoto because we had heard so many good things about the beauty of the country and particularly about a world record braking abseiling trip down the massive Maletsunyane Falls in Semonkong. It was a long, out of the way journey, but it did NOT disappoint. Per Blair, the drive was one of the most stunning and fun drives he has ever done--driving along a perfectly flat, brand new, road, we wound through endless mountains blanketed in vibrant green.
We rolled into the dusty village of Semonkong at late afternoon and wondered if we had landed in the right place. There were no hotels, hostels or tourists to be seen. The streets were lined with villagers who had walked or ridden their horses for miles over rolling hills from outlying communities to stock up on supplies. Apprehensively, we followed our very rough map in our tiny car down a rutted out dirt track that took us through a proper river crossing the road and finally landed at the adorable lodge where we would be staying.
The next morning we were trained on how to abseil on a cliff near the lodge that was about 40' high. We rappelled three times...which was scary enough as it was. A couple hours later we were headed off to do our fourth rappel--this time at 670'. Since the rope was already very heavy to manage due to its length, I was told that I would have to be the first to go since I was the only female in the group and the rope would only get heavier as it got saturated with water from the falls. It took me a bit of time to gather up the courage and focus my energy before I was able to lean back, putting all my weight on a few ropes that were screwed into what seemed like pretty flimsy rock, but I finally did it. What a rush!! The coolest part about the whole experience was that I had been rappelling down for about 5 minutes--which seemed like an eternity at that height. I had been looking at the wall and over at the powerful waterfall cascading down the cliff next to me, but I had not yet looked down. I stopped and willed myself to gaze around the massive canyon, expecting to be nearing the bottom by this time. When I glanced down, I realized I had an eternity to go. I ended up rappelling for another 10 minutes to reach the bottom, all the while appreciating the magnitude and beauty of the canyon.
From the bottom of the canyon, I was able to watch as Blair dominated the wall. Each jump he would fly a solid 15' off the wall and land an impressive distance down the cliff from where he had jumped off, making the rest of us look like a bunch of amateurs. At one point, he had the brilliant idea to stop, take his hands off the rope, pull his phone out of his pocket and out of the waterproof bag and attempt to film the scene he was seeing from 600' above ground. I didn't include the video here because the quality was so poor and his hands were shaking so badly that you can't even tell what you are looking at. But hey, A for effort...amiright?!
Here's a picture of our brave group. The guys we went with were working in the Peace Corp in Lesoto and had met up to spend the weekend in Semonkong. Coincidentally, most of the group were Michigan and Chicago natives, so we enjoyed hanging out with them and hearing all about their work in Lesoto!
From Lesoto, we headed back north over the border into South Africa and around the eastern border of Lesoto until we reached the Drakensburg mountain range. We were determined to do a day long hike into the mountains, and true to form, Blair picked one of the toughest mountains in the range. We started asking our lodge host, who was an avid climber back in the day, about Cathedral Peak the night before we planned to make the trek. He quickly discouraged us from attempting the trek, claiming that it was too long and hard to conquer in one day, especially without a guide to point the way. At this information, we took pause...for like one second...and then decided that we had received these warnings many times before and found them to be unjustified. We woke up the next morning and headed toward Cathedral Peak!
Turns out, the experienced hiker was right. We started the trek about two hours later than we should have and, only by the grace of God, there was a group with a hired tour guide that ended up starting around the same time as us. Numerous times during the hike, we had to inquire which was the correct way to go. Towards the top of the peak, there were multiple areas requiring us to scramble up a slippery rock face that we would also have to traverse on the way DOWN the mountain! Although our lodge host was right about the difficulty, it was one of the coolest experiences of our entire South African visit. We reached the top at hour six, had a quick lunch and took countless photos of the breathtaking, 360-degree views. It took us four more hours to reach the end of the trek and we could barely walk by the time we got to our car in near darkness, but it was worth every blister, aching knee and sore muscle!
After a long night's sleep and getting scolded for not telling our host where we were hiking, we departed for the Wild Coast. We had heard great things about Coffee Bay, so that was our target destination. Wild, indeed. It took us about two hours on horrendous dirt roads to reach the small, coastal village. We intended to spend a number of days there, but found it to be pretty dumpy. The main draw of the place was its hippie, drug scene--hordes of 20 year old backpackers journey there to party, do ´shrooms and get laid. Not exactly our scene, so we spent a day at the beach where Blair took a surf lesson and then moved along to greener pastures.
Our allotted days in Coffee Bay were replaced with an awesome few days in the Sunshine Coast at the famous town of Jeffrey's Bay. The town is world renowned for its epic surfing waves called the 'Supertubes'. Although we were there during the off season and surf aficionados we are not, it was impossible to miss the perfection of these waves. I just wish we could have experienced a pro competition while we were there!
Next stop, Mossel Bay in the Garden Route! We didn't spend as much time in the gorgeous coastal region as I would have liked, but the time we did spend there was pretty memorable! Our shark cage diving turned out to be a massive success. We had enough people on our boat to send the cage down three times to allow each person a turn. The first cage went down when the first shark was sited. The group got a nice show with the shark coming close by the cage to assess the fish heads being used to lure him in. Blair and I were in the second cage--by then a couple more Great Whites had come to see what all the fuss was about. One of them was a beautiful giant running about 15' long! Multiple times they swam within a foot of our heads as we watched them pass by the cage. I was the only one on the boat whimpy enough to put on a full body wetsuit. My fear of cold water turned out to play in my favor this time around! While everyone else jumped out of the water shivering, I felt toasty warm! There was an extra spot open in the last cage, so they offered that I stay in for a second round. This time the big lady was getting impatient. She started attacking the fish heads from below, just barely missing them as the deckhand pulled them just out of her reach. In a last ditch effort, she rocketed from the deep darkness below, straight up in front of our cage and latched on to the bait. As she writhed around trying to detach her kill from the fishing line, her tail smacked the side of our cage. All of us were tossed around and lost in a fog of churned up water. The girl next to me was screaming bloody murder at this point...it was AWESOME! Our group made it back onto the boat and were buzzing with excitement! Luckily, Blair had his camera ready and caught the whole thing on video from above the surface!
With all the excitement of the day before, we decided to hunt out a more tranquil setting to spend the next couple days. Our journey led us to Stellenbosch--the premier wine region of SA. Although not big wine connoisseurs, Blair and I found this wine region to be the most beautiful, best tasting and least intimidating we've ever experienced. The endless vineyards resting in the foothills of massive mountain ranges were drooping under the weight of a healthy harvest. The estates were buzzing with activity as farmers worked to harvest the abundant crop. It all made for a pretty idyllic experience!
We were nearing Capetown at this point, and decided to take the long way into the city by heading down the east coast of the Cape Peninsula. We stayed for the night in the surf town of Muizenberg where we stumbled upon a back alley food and wine market bustling with locals and tourists enjoying the delicious, local recipes being served up. After, we took a stroll on the beach lined with the iconic, colorful changing huts.
The next day we rose early to continue our journey along the peninsula, stopping briefly at Boulder Beach to observe the thousands of adorable penguins dwelling there. Eventually, we reached Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope where we spent a few hours hiking along the beautiful coastline.
The rest of the day was spent in the car driving up the picturesque, western coast of the peninsula towards Capetown. The scenery was dramatic the entire way up, and the road ran along cliffs, through tunnels and along sugar sand beaches that alternated at every turn. We stopped off for a Valentine's Day sushi lunch on Hout Bay Harbor--a special treat since we were cooking most of our meals at our hostels in order to save some money!
Once in Capetown, we spent a number of days enjoying the city. Surprisingly, the city turned out to be one of my favorites I have ever visited. The metropolitan vibe paired with the awesome beaches, impressive mountain hikes, gorgeous weather and proximity to other unique attractions make it a very desirable city to dwell in. Blair wasn't as sold as I was--his ideal city was yet to come.
While in Capetown, we visited the Heart of Capetown Museum where the first heart transplant was performed by Dr. Cristiaan Barnard. Seeing as Blair works in transplants, it was an interesting tour to learn all about how the process got started with Dr. Barnard's ground breaking work!
Later, we explored the vibrant Bo-Kaap neighborhood where we took loads of photos in front of the colorful houses that line the streets.
One ambitious day, we spent the morning hiking up the (surprisingly difficult) path to the top of Table Mountain, which offered panoramic views of the coastal city. We headed to the beach at Camps Bay for a few hours to relax and catch some rays. On the way back to our hostel, Blair convinced my to climb Lion's Head, the peak next to table mountain, to watch the sunset from the top. By then, my legs were jello and my energy was sapped from laying in the sun all day, but the sunset was worth it!
As we neared the end of our South African visit, we made our way back towards Johannesburg with a quick detour through Hemel en Aarde Valley (Heaven on Earth Valley) for a bit more wine tasting.
We arrived back in Joburg with one extra day before our flight departed for South America. We had come full circle on our travels around South Africa and had seen the good and the bad of the country. Although we staying in countless beautiful places, we had also driven through and stopped in many villages where black and coloured Afrikkans were still living in a state of poverty, segregation and discrimination. There was no denying that South Africa has a long way to go in order to repair the damage done by the apartheid movement. We opted to spend our last day visiting Soweto, the community in which the Sophiatown refugees were forced to move to in the 60s. There we visited the homes of two greats--Nelson Mandala and Desmond Tutu. The homes were not more than 100 yards apart, and we were directed not to venture on foot outside this one prominent tourist street in the otherwise dangerous neighborhood.
Once we had toured through Soweto, we headed downtown to the heart of Johannesburg to meet up with Devang and Kate for one last dinner before we left. They had selected a restaurant in an urban renewal neighborhood (which was actually just a two block area) in an otherwise dilapidated and dangerous neighborhood. On our way there, we missed our turn and ended up in what looked like a war zone in the heart of Gary, Indiana. I was so freaked out, convinced that we were miles away from the nice neighborhood we expecting to have dinner in, that I was demanding that Blair get back on the highway as quickly as possible and skip out on dinner. We turned the corner, and it was like we had passed through a black hole and into another galaxy. We had found the trendy Maboneng neighborhood where hundreds of people were dining and drinking al fresco and exploring the trendy shops that lined the streets. It was pretty surreal to see, considering a block away, we would be advised not to be walking on the streets at night or even stop at stop signs for fear of being carjacked.
Another unique experience we had during our last couple nights in Joburg, was Couchsurfing. We ended up connecting with a young teacher from Canada who was working in an American school outside Joburg. He had ample space in the apartment that the school provided for him, so he opened up his second bedroom for travellers to stay for free as they passed through Joburg. It was a really fun experience staying with someone who lived in the city and could tell us all about his experiences there! A lot of people ask why anyone would choose to open their home to couchsurfers for free when you could make money by posting your home on airbnb, but after traveling for over six months, I understand why. Most people who host on couchsurfing.com have been backpackers themselves in the past. During their travels, they have encountered strangers performing altruistic acts of kindness to help them out in their times of need. This is their chance to return the favor. There really is a mutual understanding among travelers--when you are thousands of miles away from home and away from anyone you know, you see backpackers lean on each other for companionship, safety and support during difficult times. No questions asked, no explanations needed--they're simply and graciously 'paying it forward'.
