Chapter 43 - South Africa

Chuck's World Journal is back!
Don't you have something better to do?

Anyhow, this is the sequel to the eight month epic journey that kept my 6 viewers captivated throughout last year as I traveled around the world. This time I hired the beautiful Sarah Van Dyke from Stockton, California, to play the role of Chuck's sidekick, "Freedom-Girl."

Actually, this trip was Sarah's idea. After I returned from my last trip, I was a good boy. I began touching up my resume and looking for a job, a condo, a hybrid vehicle, and a good retirement fund so that I could start that fabulous march toward 65. I could see my whole life ahead of me, right up to the point where I'm put in a box. Then I randomly ran into Sarah in San Diego. The very first thing she says is "I'm going to Africa, wanna come with me." This was a no-brainer. So here we go...

Johannesburg

My local mechanic in San Diego is from South Africa, and he had some helpful advice for me before my trip. He said "keep your head down, or you'll get shot." This is the first thing anyone will hear about when going to South Africa. I thought it was blown out of proportion until we started to see Johannesburg. Every acre of property is sealed in by 12 foot walls with barbed wire. They have huge guard dogs, and signs on the front of their house advertising which private security contractor they've hired to protect their castle in case of a home invasion. Carjacking is another big problem, as well as mugging tourists who have been foolish enough to walk around by themselves. This is the only picture I have of Johannesburg, but it's pretty representative. Joburg is a city under siege from crime. Sarah and I didn't stick around very long. We'd rather take our chances with the lions and hyenas in Kruger Park.

Kruger Park

Sarah and I agreed that in case we were attacked by any wild animals in Kruger Park, we would want a third person to kick to the ground, which would give us a chance to get away. This nice young man from Italy (or Spain), Mr. Marco Margola, agreed to take this role and drive us around Kruger in a rented car. We saw our fair share of animals, but also tons of nothing. We would drive for an hour and see nothing, and just when were were about to give in to the boredom, we'd see something crazy like a giraffe or rhino. They really are impressive animals, especially when they aren't in a zoo. Kruger park is the size of Israel, so I got the feeling that I was visiting their world, not the other way around.

Pumba: "He could clear the savannah after every meal"

Impala: They are everywhere and have the honor of being prey to everything else in the park.

Hippo: Its rare to see them out of the water like this. They are also considered dangerous despite their pudgy cheeks.

Hyena (just as ugly in person)

Can anybody name this bird from the Lion King? I forget, but I remember he had an English accent.


Kudu: Its a type a giant antelope nearly the size of a horse. In South Africa they turn them into a type of dried meat they called biltong.


This Rhino was screwed in the head. It kept rubbing up against this tree and its face was bleeding. Then it charged our little car and scared the crap out of us.

If you like this picture, right click on it, and then choose "set as wallpaper".


A momma elephant and a baby hiding behind. This was scary to be so close to an Elephant. They can knock down trees and even crush a car.

Where vultures gather, something is up.

This was the best part of Kruger. We came upon these two lions that had just killed a water buffalo about 50 feet from the road. They were just resting near the kill when this one started to stroll off and walk down an embankment to our rear, presumably to get a drink of water. We were enthusiastically viewing the other lion to out left for about 10 minutes. Our windows were open on the right side and the car was turned off. Sarah look away from the feeding lion and toward the right side of the car, and lets out a frightened gasp. To out right, about 5 feet from the car, (open windows) the drinking lion had silently snuck up and was staring at us with these huge gold eyes. He seemed to be saying "Are you after my food? I willl KILL you if you make a move at my food." My hands were shaking and I barely got these pictures as it walked past the car. It was a one in a thousand chance encounter, and we felt really lucky to have almost died that day.

Swaziland

Swaziland is a tiny little country that is mostly just farms. Very quiet. Not much to say.

These cultural Swazi dances are pretty entertaining. I wasn't bold enough to start dancing in the circle, but Sarah was.

Swaziland should stick to the country life, because the capital city, Mbabane, is pretty ugly.

Mozambique

Mozambique is another world compared with South Africa. Crossing the border is similar to crossing from San Diego into Tijuana. Mozambique is much poorer, transportation is hell, malaria is everywhere, and they are slowly rebuilding after having 20 years of civil war. People clamor outside your bus window trying to sell stuff. Its colorful chaos. But there is a tiny little beach town near Inhambane, called Tofo, that I thought was paradise. It is so far away from the working world that all you have to do is look at the waves, and the most important decision is when to eat lunch.

The biggest draw for Tofo is the scuba diving. They have several scuba companies that go out to all type of coral reef that is some of the best in the world. I saw none of it, because I have a phobia of drowning. I know I gotta die someday, but drowning is at the bottom of my list. More amazing than the coral, are the whale sharks. They are seriously an amazing sight. I went on a snorkel trip to swim with them. They move slow so you can get right alongside them. This picture is stolen from the net, but it accurately shows what we did.

Beach Football was the big event of most days

Sweet sunset over this marsh with palm trees

Coffee Bay

Coffee Bay is in the area between Durban and Port Elizabeth, known as the Wild Coast. It is very green. Probably because it rained 2 out of 3 days. The most memorable moment was hanging out in the neighborhood bar, called a Shebeen, with all the locals. Getting a chance to interact with actual Africans is a rare thing when on the backpacker circuit. I'll try to get some pictures from Sarah. Sarah got a real kick out of playfully slapping me in front of the town elders, demonstrating how American men don't beat American women, no matter how much they are provoked. Funny girl.

Cinsta

Cinsta is really not a town, but the location of a huge resort built for backpackers. There is a pool, bar, beach, and everything you could want. We had a good time, but it was so isolated that we could have been anywhere in the world. A good time, but an experiential zero.
Sarah did laundry and this is the color of the leftover water.

Jeffrey's Bay

After partying our way through Coffee Bay and Cinsta, we came to J-Bay, the biggest party of them all.

This is Freedom-Girl, Maria, and Amy. Maria was funny. She is from Denmark. She rode to Africa on a sleigh with reindeer. Her shoes are wooden. She personally knew Hansel and Gretel, and knew a witch in her neighborhood when she was growing up. She also insists that Denmark is an actual country, and not a breakaway province of Germany. Silly Denmarkanian.

My turn to do laundry

Bloukrans Bridge

I hadn't planned on doing the bungy jump, but I'm sure glad I did. This thing is so tall it's unreal. Guiness record it as the highest one in the world at 216 meters, which is 708 feet.

At this point at the edge, I was just concentrating on not looking down at the ground. I knew if I did that, I'd be standing up there for an extra 30 minutes.

In most bungy jumps, the person leans forward and does a nice head first dive. But I was caught by surprise with how fast they counted down from five. Instead of leaning forward and pushing off, I just threw my legs over the edge and started falling feet first.
At this point I started waving my arms like a bird, instinctively thinking that I could slow down my fall.

At this point I started to look out sideways, instead of down, and it became more exhilerating and fun.

Finally here I'm straightening out, and look down at the trees far below me. A really nice feeling is when the bungy straps tighten around my legs and I can feel the equipment saving my life. Then the bungy pulls you back up again to nearly as high as the bridge, and it all happens again.

This is the smile that comes from the strange combination of fear and fun. I had tons of adrenaline swishing around in the my brain that I couldn't even speak. This thing was worth every penny.

Oudtshoorn

Oudtshoorn is like most farming communities, but instead of herds of cattle, there are are herds of Ostrich walking around the fields. They are sold for meat and leather. Its a very tasty bird that makes a lean red meat.

They let the tourists climb on top of the Ostrichs and ride them around, like Sarah is doing here.
Maria is holding on for dear life while the Ostrich is running like hell.

Gaansbai

Diving with great white sharks is one of the big attraction for South Africa. It was Sarah's birthday, so we splurged and took the trip.

I was trying to smile here, but the water was incredibly cold. In truth, I didn't give a damn about sharks, I just wanted them to hurry up and show themselves so that I could get out of the water. No never showed while we were in the cages.

On the bright side, we did se about 4 great whites while we were standing in the boat. They are silent and quick, so this is the only decent picture I caught. It was fun, but not worth the $135 bucks to do it. If anybody wants to try this, go during our summer months, because the sharks are supposed to be more active and more water visibility.

Cape Town

Cape Town at last. This was the final destination and worthy of a victory dance. The place is reallly beautiful. Better than San Diego. That's right, I said it. Cape Town is a much better looking than "America's finest city." The cliffs of Table and Lion's Head mountains rise up to airplane altitude, and the city sits between these cliffs and the sea. There are hiking trails going up the mountain so that somebody can see any point in the city at any time.

These are taken from Lion's Head, with a view of Table Mountain. That's our old friend Marco from Kruger Park standing with Sarah.

The is also Lion's Head, and in the distance you can see Robben Island, where they held Nelson Mandela for so many years.
This is a sunset view taken from the top of Table Montain.This is the view of Lion's Head taken from Table Montain. On the far right you can see Robben Island again. This is an AIDS march that went right past our hotel. I couldn't blog South Africa unless I mentioned this topic. The HIV rate in South Africa is a scary 25-30%. When those people die, their children become orphans, which adds to the crime problem. Its a very bad cycle that is South Africa's biggest threat. This is the prison yard on Robben Island where Nelson Mandela and others broke rocks all day.

I thought one of the most "real" experiences that we had in South Africa was here. We spent a night at a B&B out in the Cape Flats township. In the Apartheid days, blacks were forced to live here, and couldn't go outside without government passes. It's still poor, but I think conditions have improved considerably. We took a walk around and there are new schools and libraries being built. The atmosphere is very relaxed and most people just hang out and laugh. There are tons of children too. At least 5 children for each adult. Sarah and I had a good time hanging out with them. In this picture she was showing off her gymnastics skills. It was a big hit.

A cute kid. What is he? Black? White?

In Cape Town, there are a great many people who are so multi-racial that they call themselves Coloured. Now that the legal walls have fallen, this trend will inevitably continue. In my view, this is one of the great strengths of South African culture. For so many years they were rigidly classified by race, giving rise to tension and conflict. In 2006, it seems like the forward thinking South Africans don't give a damn anymore about race. They are more concerned with solving their crime problem, and getting ready for the World Cup in 2010. (I've learned that this is some kind of soccer competition that is popular outside of America)

Here are the two beautiful women who let me tag along through South Africa. They are at home now. Good luck you two.

That's the sunset on South Africa. Next I'm going into Botswana, then hopefully, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda, and who know next. It's going to take a while.

-Thanks for Reading-