South African road trip (Cape Town to East London)

After our wonderful time exploring Cape Town, Boxing Day saw us heading off us east across South Africa. Rachel had finished her stint at the University of Cape Town and was heading to the Eastern Cape to begin her PhD fieldwork, while I had to be in Johannesburg by mid January for my flight to South America, giving us almost three weeks to explore the southern coast of South Africa. So we loaded up Rachel’s small car with our bags and headed east. I wasn’t insured to drive the car so could sit back and enjoy being driven around for the next few weeks!

Our first stop was Oudtshoorn, a town 400km east of Cape Town, famous for its ostrich farms. Despite 40 degree heat we combined a mountain bike ride with a visit to the Cango Caves (an extensive network of caves in the mountains above Oudtshoorn) and a visit to an ostrich farm. At the farm we were given a guided tour and the opportunity to feed ostriches, stand on ostrich eggs and even ride a blindfolded ostrich (something we declined!).

40 degrees in the shade!

Our next stop was Tsitsikamma National Park, a lush green forested area further along the coast, where we stayed at a hostel near the mouth of the imposingly titled Storms River. Here we visited Monkey Land, which as the name suggests is home to a vast array of primates, both native to Africa and from elsewhere in the world.

Ring-tailed lemurs

The following day we went for a fantastic walk around the mouth of Storms River. The river mouth is traversed by two suspension footbridges which allow you to get really close to the water where the river flows out into the Indian Ocean. We then walked further along the coast following the first part of the Otter Trail (a multi-day walking trail) to a spectacular waterfall which came down over the cliffs to a plunge pool just metres from the sea.

Storms River mouth

Fancy panoramic shot

See if you can spot me in this photo!

Doing my Peter Andre impression

We then headed further inland to spend a night at the Addo Elephant Park, a game reserve which as the name suggests is home to over 500 elephants, along with an array of other wildlife. Unlike other game reserves I’d visited elsewhere in Africa, here we were able to drive ourselves through the park – quite an experience in a small car when most others were in large 4wds. As a big fan of warthogs, Rachel was particularly excited to see a mummy warthog with three babies on our drive, while we also saw hartebeest, kudu, waterbuck, zebras and a male lion lazing in the grass. That evening we went on a more formal evening game drive in a 4wd drive vehicle, on which we were able to get very close to some elephants, some of which nearly interrupted our sunset drink stop as they ambled past towards their water hole.

Warthog mother and babies

The next morning, as we drove out of the elephant park, we suddenly found ourselves even closer to an elephant when we encountered a large adult elephant on the road ahead of us. Rather than doing a panicy u-turn we decided it would be safer to sit tight and let the elephant walk past us, which it promptly did passing only a foot or two away from our tiny car! Unfortunately we were both too terrified to get a picture, but it was quite an experience.

Elephants square up at Addo

For New Year’s Eve we headed further inland again to the picturesque village of Hogsback in the Amathole Mountains. After spending New Year’s Eve in the hostel bar playing cards with some fellow travellers, we then spent a further two days in Hogsback walking in the mountains, where walking trails took us through deep undergrowth to a number of spectacular waterfalls.

Drying off our boots after a walk in Hogsback

Time for another waterfall swim

Our next stop was back on the coast at the village of Cinsta, just outside the town of East London, where South Africa’s ‘Wild Coast’ begins. It was good to be back by the sea again, with more opportunities for swimming in the sea and walking along the long, empty beaches of the Wild Coast. I took the opportunity to try a new activity by signing up for a three hour surfing lesson, which proved to be a fun, but very tiring activity. I was not exactly surfing like a pro by the end, but I did manage to stand up a few times, although I did fall off far more often!

The final stop of our road trip took us further along the Wild Coast and in to the former Transkei area (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transkei). Getting to our accomodation here proved something of a challenge, as the Bulungula lodge where we would be staying could only be reached by public transport with a three hour drive down a gravel road. ‘Public transport’, it turned out, meant cramming 14 people (and all their shopping!) in to the back of a ‘bakkie’ – a Toyota vehicle used extensively in South Africa as a means of public transport. Rachel had assured me that the place would be staying would be worth the journey, as she’d been several times before and it was one of her favourite places in the world. As I squeezed my six foot frame in to the back corner of the vehicle and on to the rudimentary seat and sat waiting for a whole hour before the bakkie even set off, I was growing sceptical that Bulungula could be quite so special. The next three hours were perhaps the least enjoyable (and certainly the least comfortable!) of my trip so far as the bakkie bounced down the gravel road and the Xhosa ladies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xhosa_people) around us speculated loudly (in Xhosa) about whether we were married or not!

The bakkie

When we finally arrived at our destination, I was delighted to find that we had reached a beautiful river mouth where the Bulungula lodge sits. Unlike most accommodation in this part of the world, the lodge exists as part of the Xhosa community, having been set up several years ago to attempt to create a new model of sustainable tourism that works with local communities in rural South Africa rather than in isolation from them (http://www.bulungula.com/). The scenery was stunning and the lodge had a brilliant chilled-out atmosphere, with home-cooked Xhosa food made onsite every day and a fire pit to sit round in the evening, where we were often accompanied by local children showing us their drumming skills. We stayed in ‘rondavels’ (traditional Xhosa houses) which were so close to the sea that we could hear the waves crashing against the shore and could swim in the sea twice every day.  

The Wild Coast at Bulungula

Sunrise at Bulungula

We also took part in a few activities while we were there including a fishing lesson from a local fisherman and an afternoon of horse riding around the local community. I had barely riden a horse before so was slightly nervous as I stepped up on to my horse, but by the end of the afternoon I was galloping along the beach on my horse! Rachel put my ‘galloping’ in to perspective by charging off down the beach at around twice the speed of my horse, but I didn’t do too bad for a beginner. We also stopped at the local ‘sheebeen’ (a pub/shop) where I was able to try the interesting taste of ‘African beer’, a brew made from maize and sold in 1 litre cartons for less than 50p!

Me on a horse - aagh!

A tasty brew...

...which is served in an old tin can!

After four fantastic days it was time to leave and head back to the nearby town with another long journey in a bakkie. Fortunately we were able to bag the front seats this time so the ride was marginally more comfortable, even if we did have to get up at 5am to ensure the best seats!

The very final leg of my travels in South Africa then saw Rachel take me to the community where she had worked back in 2006 when she first came to South Africa. This gave me an opportunity to meet the Xhosa family she had become a second daughter to during her time here. Meeting Nokopiwe (Rachel’s colleague from that time) and the four generations of her family that she lives with in the village of Niqeleni was a humbling experience and we had great fun playing with the youngest children in the family for a few hours with some toys we had brought them.

The contrast with the affluence and development in Cape Town where I had begun my journey four weeks ago was huge, reflecting the fact that South Africa has the second highest level of inequality in the world. The village of Niqeleni and the surrounding parts of the former Transkei we had visited continue to face serious problems with high unemployment, poor infrastructure and health problems including high rates of HIV and high infant mortality from basic illnesses like diahorrea.

Equally shocking to me has been the high death toll on South African roads that we have heard all about on the news during our time here and which has been at the forefront of our minds as we drive on South African roads. An estimated 1300 South Africans were killed on the roads over the festive period, a quite astonishing figure that is beginning to cause some real soul searching here (particularly with the death of Burry Stander, a popular South African Olympic mountain bike rider, among that number - http://mg.co.za/article/2013-01-08-standers-death-the-fruit-of-a-poisoned-society). So I should say a massive thank you to Rachel, mainly for organising such as awesome road trip, but also for driving us safely along South Africa’s rather treacherous roads for the last few weeks.

And so this brings me to the end of my travels in Africa which started back in Nairobi at the end of October, over ten weeks ago. I’ve had  a fantastic time throughout my travels in a continent I’d never visited before and will take a way lots of happy memories as well as (I hope) a greater understanding and awareness of the many challenges continuing to face the continent.

On Wednesday I fly to Buenos Aires to begin the South American leg of my journey where I have three and a half months to explore Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Brazil. I will be back in South Africa in May for a few weeks, but for now it’s goodbye to Africa and hola to South America!