Travelling the Wicked Highways from Johannesburg (15 Aug 2010) to Cape Town (9 Sept 2010)
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Well, my time in SA started last night with the flight landing at 18H15 from OZ. I was so buggered coming out of the terminal but was relieved to see that the Wicked shuttle was waiting for me – didn’t have to hang around. They took me on a 10 minute drive back to their depot, but not to pickup my van, but to stay over at Shoestrings Airport Lodge for 2 nights.
Got to the place and was warmly greeted by Rob at Shoestrings and shown where my sleeping place was. I took a dorm bed and shared with 2 other mates. Had a nice warm meal – pasta and mince. I sat and watched a bit of tv and went to sleep at about 21H00 as I started feeling like a zombie walking around.
Today I’ll be making my way on the Gautrain to Mandela Square in Sandton and then see if I can get to the Apartheid Museum, not sure where this is so I hope I don’t get lost – will let you know what happens.
Taking a little break at Nandos from all the walking around in Sandton and I have to say that this place may be for rich folks but it is an awesome place to walk around in. For those of you with a laptop: bring it with and buy a 3G Modem on prepaid and get connected anywhere you are, as these things run on the cell network so coverage is good the whole time.
The Gautrain was fast as hell. I was told by a security guard on the train that this trip took 15 mins and normally by car takes about an hour – talk about speed and sooooo smooth ride.
The weather today has been wonderful so far – sunny with a slight wind, so very comfortable.
Putting a quick photo of the statue of Nelson Mandela here to see the sheer size of it. In a few minutes I’ll be trying to find my way to the Apartheid Museum. Till then…
After getting back to Shoestrings and having a warm shower and filling meal I gotta share this…
After Mandela Square I made a few enquiries and found that the Apartheid Museum was south of JHB near Gold Reef City Casino – casino’s are one of my favourite hangouts, but this will have to wait until another day.
Caught a bus all the way there, easier done than said this time and made my way to the entrance.
Upon entry, you are classified as white or non-white, given documents according to your classification and you then proceed into the museum. This made me feel as though I was in SA in the 70’s, with all the weird stuff that went on between the races – so glad it’s gone.
Once through the entrance with your “passport”, I was greeted by tall cages with blown-up copies of the Apartheid ID cards, ID books and those pass books that made Apartheid seem like hell on earth.
I even got to see the SA Police Casspir, which was used for the police patrols in the townships. There was even a cage full of weapons used by the security forces to enforce the Apartheid rule.
One of the most frightening areas of the museum was the room with the 121 nooses dangling from the roof, which represented the political prisoners hanged during the Apartheid.
Footage of a remarkable 1961 BBC interview with Nelson Mandela when he was in hiding from the authorities; footage of prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd addressing a crowd in English, explaining how the country can be happily ruled only when the races are separated
At times you feel overwhelmed by the screens and the sound and the powerful images they are projecting. The Museum leads you through room after room, some looking through to other images behind bars or cages that make it clear that apartheid was not only immoral, but evil.
I was so on my nerves and excited when I woke up yesterday morning; going to get my Wicked van at 10am, so I had to get some coffee and have something to eat – 2 pieces of toast.
Got all my stuff together and walked over to the Wicked depot to get the van. Got greeted by Harvey (typical South African) but cool to talk too and very friendly. He pointed out which van was allocated to me and what a beauty: Marley – the rasta man.
Harvey took me through a full check of the van; stock, damages and basics that I needed to know. Even though Harvey was effecient with all we were finished within 15 mins, which included the paperwork. He even told me where to go to fill up with fuel and which roads to take to get on my way.
I went and filled up with fuel and got a Steers burger and chips for the road. After this I hit the highway towards Middelburg for my first stop at an old Mission Station called Botshebelo. Got there at about 12H30 and first had a bite to eat at Wimpy before heading on to Botshabelo. It was like going into a Game reserve as there was just bush and animals along the road, but eventually got into the old town. I found that in the 1860’s Botshabelo Mission Station was originally a place of refuge for Christians and grew into an important and rather influential centre where the Gospel was widely proclaimed among the black people. It became a place where both black and white people received education and training and even where commerce and industry were practised. The name Botshabelo means ‘Place of Refuge or sanctuary‘. In order to protect the settlement a fort was also built called Fort Wilhelm. This fort has been so well preserved that it doesn’t look that old. Normally you see old forts broken down into it’s foundation, but not this one. Soon, a small town developed around the mission and even included a 2300ha nature reserve.
The Botshabelo Mission Station also incorporates an Ndebele village. This village comprises of an open-air museum established to successfully preserve the interesting tribal culture. This well known tribe is famous for its colourful huts, cultural garb and brilliant arts and crafts. There are also stores that sell their fascinating arts and crafts, where I bought a few items to take home.
There is even a hiking trail called “Broodboom” (directly translated “Bread Tree”) but better known as Cycad Tree. Spending time in the nature reserve is also a must where bird watching and game viewing can be enjoyed. I will be making my way back here to do the hiking trail, just need a little more time.
I got back on the road and headed East and even though some the road was arid, it was just so peaceful and relaxing. I pulled over at Waterval-Boven to get a little fuel (as I was told by Harvey to not let the fuel gauge drop below ¼ as some fuel stations are far from each other and I didn’t want to run outta fuel). At the fuel station there were notices of a tunnel built for a railway line in 1883 by President Kruger. One of his greatest ideals was for the land-locked ZAR to have a free passage to the sea, without having to pass through British territory. This was the railway line between Pretoria and Delagoa Bay. What makes this tunnel so interesting is that because of the 208 metre rise along the 7 kilometres of railway line between Waterval Boven and Waterval Onder, it was decided to cut a tunnel through the Elandsberg and employ just over 3 km of rack railway to the Riggenbach system. The stone with which the tunnel is lined was cut in Italy and merely placed in position here. The rack railway remained in use until 1908 when more sophisticated equipment rendered it obsolete.
I did got to the tunnel and boy oh boy, even though it looks shitty and old, it is a site to behold. Not much more to see there so it’s just a quick stop and look.
From here I took a detour to Krugerhof to the house that President Kruger stayed in (1900). Krugerhof was the last residence of President Kruger in the South African Republic before going to Lorenzo Marques before being evacuated to Europe. From Kruger leaving Pretoria to ending up in Europe was because of the advancing British Forces. The British did eventually get their asses whipped by the Zulus later on.
I carried on this detour road where I got to see some paintings done by the San and Khoisan. They managed to paint various figures of animals and hunters onto the rock faces and it still stands their to this day – over 25000 years. I mean, paint used on my roof at home doesn’t last even 5 years and that’s some of the expensive stuff. Apparently it’s the mixture of various minerals from the rocks that keep it this long.
After seeing these paintings I had to go to one more place, a little north then get to my final destination for the day.
Just north of Nelspruit is the Sudwala caves. This is a place I really had to go see. I love caves and seeing caves with history in is part of my blood. I used to study archaeology but dropped out due to being mislead by my friends – dumb twats.
It took me about 40 mins to get their from the rock paintings. The first thing to greet you is a heard of dinosaurs that look very life-like. Even though they’re just statues, the size makes you hesitate in standing too close. After checking these monsters out I headed into the caves – what a site to see.
I made it my mission to go around, over and under every rock formation: stalactites and stalagmites. The lights that they shine onto these wonders makes you feel like you’re on another planet. To think that such beauty exists under our feet, okay a few hundred or thousand feet below us, just makes you wonder what lives down in the ones we haven’t discovered yet. All those movies about the caves gives me the creeps but makes you think. After a walf and a half through the caves I finally got out and found the nearest place to have something to eat and drink before finishing today’s trip.
I got back onto the N4 and headed straight on to Malelane without a stop or rest. It was only another 1 ½ hours drive to the campsite at Malelane. Getting there I went to Spar and bought some sausages, potatoes, sauce and a dozen beers. At the campsite I unpacked the gas stove in the camper and made myself a really good sausages and mash and beer for dessert.
Sitting here in the van with the laptop going I’m really getting sleepy and I know that tomorrow I’ll be up way after the sun comes up – I’m buggered as I believe that today was a good trip and I did enough for 1 day.
Today I’ll be heading into the Kruger Park to see how many of the Big 5 I’ll get to see.
This post is a little late but that has been due to the fact that I’ve been having an awesome time in the Kruger National Park.
Last time I left off I arrived at Malelane Camp, right on the southern border of the Kruger Park. The world seems to change when you go through the gate into the Kruger Park. You get a heightened sense of excitement as you know somewhere along the next few hundred k’s you’ll be spotting various wild animals.
I stayed over at the Malelane camp due to the camp being small and homey. The next day I took a drive to Berg-n-Dal to do a bush tour along the Wolhuter Trail – known for it’s wild animals of Rhinos, Elephants, Sable, Zebra, Giraffe and various other buck.
I did a 2 hour and got to see a few warthogs (or Pumbas from Lion King), a mother and baby Giraffe, and a herd of elephants from a distance. It was magical seeing these animals right in front of me. I could only compare this feeling to the time I finished school – pure joy.
I got back to Berg-n-Dal at about 2pm and had a relaxing afternoon before the evenings barbeque ( braai as I keep getting told) and a lot of beers whilst having a good time chatting about various things with a German guy and an American couple. I don’t recall much of the chat as the beers were getting to me and I felt sleep deprived, so I headed off to bed and passed out.
I was awoken by the sounds of trumpeting and a lot of scuffling outside. With eyes half-open I slide open the door and 2 things shocked me: all my camping stuff was lying all over the place after the previous evening and a crowd had gathered about 100m away looking at an elephant pushing through the bush – luckily other side the camp fence. Well this got me up and a strong cup of coffee helped the headache; only after I cleaned up my stuff around the campervan.
After getting my stuff packed and my head relaxed, I started on my trip north to Skukuza. This camp makes for a really great stay as you’re right next to the Sabie River and the camp is ‘bushy’ so you find yourself so relaxed in this atmosphere. The sounds at night are electrifying – I’m not talking about people having it in the sack, but the animals next to the river. I do believe that I heard a lion roar or something that sounded a little pissed off.
My ‘turn-back’ stop was going to be Lower Sabie to see if the rumours I heard were true: that you can spot Rhino, Hippo and Lion. Got into the campervan at about 11am after a safari drive and an early lunch to get to Lower Sabie. The road is along the Sabie River but ends up around the Lebombo mountains, heavenly. Go to the camp and decided to relax the afternoon and have a local lunch called ‘pap and vleis’. Which is a maize dish with nice juicy meat, apparently wild meat which they weren’t going to tell me what. Nonetheless, it was a good meal. My evening was an early bed as I was still trying to get rid of the headache from the other night. It seems that getting pissed in the African heat is not such a good thing, it seems to aggravate it.
The following morning I took a drive around the camp to see what animals were out there waiting for me. I got to see a few Giraffes and a lot of jackals. It took a lot of time to find those animals everyone wants to see: the Rhino and Lion.
The Lion took a while but the cats were lying in the road showing off their size. Photos you see of Lions make them look so small, but they are huge. With one yawn I could probably have put my head into it’s mouth and it’s paws made my size 10 shoes look like a babies foot. Lovely and quite beasts – good thing I was in the camper or all hell would’ve broken loose. After a few photos I carried on to find more animals.
Got stopped after about 20 mins by cars parked along the side of the road, with peoples noses pushed against the windows looking to one side. I made an effort to see what they were looking at by stopping right next to them (I managed to piss a few people off, but I was a tourist so I was allowed to do this) Low and behold, the shy Rhino grazing in a clearing about 30 yards away. It didn’t seem fierce at all, just minding it’s own business and eating. I couldn’t tell if this was a white or black rhino, not from this distance, but rhino indeed.
I couldn’t stay too long as I had to get to Hoedspruit later today to meet up with some friends to go to the Snake park and Cheetah sanctuary. So I’m off in a few mins after I get a good meal, this time I want something I can recognize.
Thought I’d try and catch up on my blog whilst sitting waiting for a lift to the airport for my 11pm flight to Dubai, with a hop off and then on to Oz.
Last time I was on my way from the Kruger Park to Hoedspruit to see the conservation projects in the area.
I took a drive through Phalaborwa (South Africa has some weird names for places) and headed past the mines towards Hoedspruit. It is a very desolate area only due to the fact that most of the land is divided into Game reserves.
Once I got into Hoedspruit I headed on the main road south and about 10km out I got to the Cheetah Sanctuary. With knowledgable guides it was so peaceful between the Cheetahs, no fear.
Got to see a few cubs AND stroke one of the adult Cheetahs – lovely big cats. Pity they can’t be domesticated as I’d love to see a burglar get caught in the eyes of an advancing Cheetah.
The day went by fast and at 2pm I headed to the Swadini Reptile Park as I have heard that this is the place to be when wanting to see the best reptiles in South Africa.
They have a very wide range of reptiles from tortoise to every variety of snakes to a large crocodile. Apart from the excellent tour they provided a slideshow with more info in the amphitheatre which gave more insight into the lives of these reptiles. I always saw the majority of reptiles as nasty little beasts, but now I have a special place for them in me.
I didn’t want to leave but had to get back on the road as I had a stop-over at Pilgrims Rest and the Blyde River Canyon.
As soon as I get to Dubai I will carry on with my blog as I ‘m being asked to get my stuff together to get to the airport on time for check-in and then a few beers to get me relaxed for the flight.
