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I’m working on the issue, thanks for your patience!

Saturday, September 23rd, 2006

I’ve been able to find a few of the blog entries that went missing.  It wasn’t easy work but I used my go-go gadget brain and tracked some of them down.  I posted a couple and I have more to post and I will hopefully have that done by the end of the day.  I’ll give you a quick update.  I’m leaving Africa tomorrow for London.  I’ll be staying with my friend Kevin up in Aberdeen for about 2 weeks or so for a little rest and relaxation.  I have alot of things that I want to update onto the blog and  if i don’t get that done today I will try to do it when I get to the U.K. sometime this weekend.  Thanks for being patiend and i’ll talk to you soon.

Brian

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Coasting Along in South Africa!

Wednesday, September 20th, 2006

Let’s get caught up people…are you ready? Are you? Drum Roll Please…..!

So from Cape Town back on the 3rd of September I jumped on the bus and headed north. I bought an open ended bus ticket that pretty much takes you to anywhere along the coast from Cape Town all the way up back to Johannesburg. This particular bus is a little more expensive than the ones the locals use but it drops you off and picks you up right at your hostel which is pretty convenient. What i’m going to do is just break down each of the places I stayed at and give you some of the highlights.

Wilderness – About 5 hours outisde of Cape Town lies the sleepy coastal town of Wilderness. What a beautiful place. It’s full of strip malls with hair salon places that have really catchy names like, “A Cut Above,” and “The Cuttinge Edge.” It has no trees or animals for that matter either. I spent days walking across long parking lots and spent my sunsets playing skeeball at the arcade…Ok, i’ll get serious, no of that is actually true. Wilderness is a small town and really does live up to it’s name. It has some of the oldest forests in South Africa. The lush green hillsides gently roll down towards the water where a few small streets lined with houses lie in it’s path. My guesthouse was situated in a tiny bluff overlooking the ocean. In the morning I would wake up and take a quick look just beyond the crashing waves to see Humpback Whales playing. It was amazing. You could see them flapping their fins down into the water as they would rise up and blast out of their blowhole. The town itself had a few shops and restaurants and was very welcoming. I really felt like this was a place I could stay at for a while and with a name like Wilderness how could you not like it? I was also offered a job at the guesthouse that I stayed at but due to visa’s and the fact that I wanted to keep on traveling I declined

Jeffrey’s Bay – This was my next stop after Wilderness. Jeffrey’s Bay lies a few hours up the coast from Wilderness and is known as the surfing capital of South Africa if not all of Africa. They hold a major tournament every year here with the best surfers in the world. Jeffrey’s Bay was discovered back in the 60’s as having some fantastic surf breaks and has grown ever since. It has a huge Billabong shop filled with surf gear, boards, clothes etc…It’s alot like a coastal town in California with all the surf shops and nice beaches. However unlike California you can’t walk around at nite in J’Bay. Welcome to Africa. I stayed two days here in Jeffrey’s Bay and due to the fact I was a little sick didnt’ do much more than some reading and a few walks on the beach.

Port Elizabeth – Port Elizabeth is a mandatory stopover on my bus ticket. I decided to stay two full days to catch up on some sleep as I was still feeling ill. Port Elizabeth is also not the safest place in the world either. It’s very hard to accept sometimes that when you arrive in these cities in Africa that you are pretty much confined to your guesthouse. During the day is somtimes ok. I took a chance and took the bus into town and went to the shopping center to have a look around. I watched a movie and got a bite to eat. As I was waiting at the bus station for the ride back I sat there and noticed that just on the other side of the mall parking lot were buses going by on a regular basis full of people, and picking up even more. I made eye contact with a lady standing next to me as I was observing this and she asked me where I was going. I told her where and she proudly announced she was waiting for the same bus as me. I asked here about the other buses and why they were only going to that side of the lot and not over here.

“Those are the buses for the black folks.” She said with a bitter look on her face. I didn’t understand what she meant though.

“You see how they pile them on.” She said. “White people don’t live where they live so we don’t need those buses. They are especially for them.”

I asked her why white people didn’t live there and then she said with a surprised look on her face:

“Well…probably because we’d get murdered?”

I thought this was a rather strange statement but it got better.

“I swear it’s like reverse Racism nowadays. We have less rights then they do but we can’t complain.”

I honestly didn’t know how to react or what to say, she seemed very willing and eager to vent some frustration over the fact that they had more buses than the white folks and somehow that wasn’t fair. I stood there and smiled, it was a very awkward situation. It was almost as awkard as being in grade school and taking a pee at a urinal when a kid walks in and uses the urinal next to you but instead of pulling down his zipper he pulls down his whole pants just to use a freaking urinal. What do you say? What do you do?

The second day I did a tour out to Addo Elephant Park and a private game reserve. The Park was stunning. Elephants were everywhere and would come right up close to the truck. In the afternoon after viewing the elephants we went and had lunch and then did our game drive in the private game reserve. I was talking to my guide about some of the racial issues and problems that people encounter and once again got someone very willing to vent frustration over some of the problems. I mentioned to him that I went to Zimbabwe and that I couldn’t believe some of the problems they had up there. He chuckled and said:

“Oh Zimbabwe, you mean, Zero, Intelligence, Mostly, Black, All, Best, Whites, Emigrated.”

You do the spelling. I couldn’t believe it. He shared a story to me about his son being robbed.

“The guys took his wallet and his cell phone and then cut him just cause they could. They are animals.”

When I hear people say things like that it makes me a little sad. There is so much anger and bitterness here, on both sides, it’s quite hard to get a grip on it. To be quite honest when you are walking down the street at night and a group of black guys is walking towards you, your heart jumps into your throat, sadly enough. If it’s a group of white guys you wouldn’t even think about it. I have alot to say about all of this so I won’t go into any more detail now but I will address it more in another entry.

So at the private game reserve I saw some of the same animals as i’d seen before. Giraffes, Wildebeast, Impala’s, Zebras, etc… but we got up close and personal with a group of about 8 Lions. We drove for a few hours to find them but no luck. Then, finnally, another truck spotted them and called our driver to tell us where they were. We drove over and saw a beautiful female with 3 baby cubs bouncing along behind here without a care in the world. They were playing with each other as mom cautiously looked on as the two trucks closed in on them. Eventually she walked around the trucks and off into the night but by then we found two huge males that seemed quite curious. I was sitting in the front seat of the game truck and the male went behind a bush and emerged to be no more than a giant leap into the front seat to rip my head off. He sat there for a few minutes and stared right at me. It was such an unbelievable moment. I had the window open and he honestly could have jumped right in at me if he wanted.

Hogsback – I left the coast for a few days and headed inland to the mountains and the tiny town of Hogsback. Hogsback is meant to have been the inspiration for the author of the Lord of the Rings and the Hobit, and i certainly can see why. The hills are filled with majestic waterfalls cascading over huge walls of rock. It is really stunning. I spent most of my time doing the hikes and seeing these waterfalls and it was heaven. The forests are really dense and filled with trees that are hundreds of years old. There was this one guy in the town who would always try to sell me these horses that he made out of clay and decorated. He always made it a point to tell me how hungry he was and that I needed to buy one. To be quite honest I didn’t want one of his horses. One day he corned me on my way to the shop and said he wanted bread. I said, you know what, I’m gonna get him some bread. The guy lives on the street and is probably hungry as I didn’t see anyone buying his horses. I figured I could boost my Karma stockpile and feel good about buying someone a loaf of bread. So I purchased the bread and walked back to meet him where he was. I figured I would be showered with Thank You’s and God Bless You’s but instead I was showered with:

“Where’s the Milk my friend.? He said with a look of utter confusion.

WTF? “Aaaaaaaah…I’m not getting you any milk.”

“Some Milk my friend, how about some milk?”

He kept saying this as I held the bread just out of his reach. This guy looked at me and honestly didn’t understand why i didn’t get him milk as well. Why don’t you make me a freaking list and i’ll get you whatever you need? This guy had hardly any teeth and was honestly so stoned that he probably thought this wasn’t even happening, I wish I had been as well. Ultimatley I gave him the bread and walked away. I got a good laugh out of it but still can’t believe what happened.

Coffee Bay – After Hogsback I headed back to the coast and a place called Coffee Bay. Coffee Bay is an absolutely beautiful place. The guesthouse was situated right at the mouth of a tiny river that made it’s way from the hills down into the ocean. At the guesthouse on the weekends it’s tradition to have all the kids from the village stay at the guesthouse. Since I was new I was in charge of getting up at 5 in the morning and delivering all of their newspapers to the villagers. Then, being that it is Coffee Bay, i got to go back to the guesthouse and drink 50 Gallons of High Test Coffee to get all juiced up. Then I got go and swing the ceremonial village golf club in the back of the house, keeping in mind it’s still dark out at this point. Then as the sun creeped up over the horizon i got to go and yell at the kids and make them get up. I wasn’t able to trip over their shoes and throw them at them because the kids in the Village don’t have shoes but that would have really made it special. If I can get my dad down to Coffee Bay he will have a blast. Honestly though it was a really great few days. On our last night we did go into the village and we got to see some traditional dancing and have a traditional local meal. Then I thought, What would we do with Africans if they came to visit us in America? Would they want to go see how the locals lived? Would they want traditional food? That could make for a very interesting journaly entry. A sad part to the journey to Coffee Bay is that all some of the guys in the Village want to do is sell you drugs. Marijuana and Mushrooms grow everywhere so it’s easy for them to go pick some and sell it to you. One girl at the hostel said she was asked by a young kid if she wanted drugs, now that’s bad. It dawned on me how bad this really was. These people in the village have lived here for years in peace. They have no electricity or running water, they live simple yet happy lifes. The white folks come in and realize how beautiful this place really is and open up a few small guesthouses and hotels. They have electricty, they have running water, they have indoor plumbing, what about the villagers? Why can’t they get it as well? I don’t know but that disturbed me a little and perhaps didn’t bother anyone else.

I hope this is good enough for now. There is more to come soon.

Posted in South Africa | 1 Comment »

Wine Tasting in Cape Town!

Saturday, September 2nd, 2006
I’m now in the City of Cape Town in South Africa. Cape Town has the look of the Bay Area in San Francisco with ... [Continue reading this entry]

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