Mama Africa
Hey hey hey!
I thought I’d make you all happy by writing another blog entry even though everybody must’ve thought I gave it up. The truth is, I didn’t forget to write this, it’s just that it seems to have gotten a deal way harder to get on a computer with a proper internet in Africa. Granted, had I put enough effort in this, I could’ve posted one every now and then. But as it was hard to find an internet cafe and especially one where everything works, I postponed everything. A lot has happened since Vietnam and even more time has passed since I was there but I’ll try to give you a summary of what I have been doing and what I have seen.
I spent roughly two weeks in Thailand after Vietnam. A part of it in Bangkok and the majority of it in Koh Lanta, which was awesome. It was fairly low season and there weren’t that many people around so the prices were cheaper as well. I got a nice bungalow close to the beach with a few friends and did nothing but chilled, relaxed and drove around the island with scooters. By the way, if you’ve ever seen Jurassic Park (the original one), Koh Lanta looks exactly the same as the island in the movie! I could picture the dinosaurs roaming around the jungle while driving.
Anyways, around Easter on the 7th of April it was time to dust off the sand of Southeast Asian beaches and hop on a plane which would take me all the way to South Africa via Addis Ababa (in Ethiopia). It was fairly exciting as it was going to be my first time ever in Africa! The plan was to meet up with Olli in Johannesburg, do a little touring around South Africa, then move on to Botswana, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania and finally fly out of Africa from Nairobi in Kenya. Of course our plan/itinerary was wide open so we could pretty much do anything we wanted to. For those of you planning to visit Johannesburg and staying in a hostel, be aware that they are rather expensive (especially if you come from Asia). And there is no similar backpacker culture there either. We (aka I) had contacted this one guy from Couchsurfing and had asked if we could stay over at his place for a couple of nights. He wasn’t able to host us as he had exams and all but he invited us to his family’s beach house in Southbroom (on the coast) for a weekend of surfing, partying and chilling. Of course we accepted the invitation gladly. So the weekend came and we were picked up for a day of driving to the coast (the trip usually takes like 8 hours), which to me is a bit too much if you’re only staying there for the weekend. But anyway, there we were. Three cars full of people we just met but hey, this is Africa. It was a long day full of stops and distractions and detours but we finally made it to the coast. However, it was fairly late and everybody was a bit tired so no parties hahaha. We also met these two Belgian girls at the beach house who wanted to rent a car and drive to Cape Town and they were looking for people to join in on the costs. WE thought to ourselves; a road trip to Cape Town, sounds awesome. So after a weekend of swimming, playing rugby, football, eating, sleeping etc we rented a car and started the trip (by they way, it’s really cheap, like 25e/day). The distance to Cape Town was a looong one and we had maybe like four days to complete it. And we only had two CD’s; The Best of R.Kelly and a dance mix from South African Dj’s. It was interesting to say the least. We made a few stops along the way in Coffee Bay and Storm’s River. It was nice driving around and didn’t even take that much time getting used to driving on the left side. The views were also spectacular as the road went up and down with altitudes changing constantly. We also met a lot of cool people along the way and went National Parking with them. In our last hostel of the trip there was also a pet goat called Bez. She was cool, really social on her own terms. She wanted to be close to you but you could not touch her, otherwise she got mad.
We finally reached Cape Town and we were staying a friend’s place in the suburbs (a guy who I met in Cambodia). Learned how to use the local train and local buses which run surprisingly well (compared to Johannesburg). Cape Town was cool as a place, it has so many things to do. I hiked up the Table Mountain and took the shortest route, which I also think is the steepest. It was no fun and games hahaha. Especially since I took too little water with me. The view from the Table Mountain was amazing. The picture does not do it justice but hopefully you get the idea.
One of the things I also wanted to do was go see the penguins at the Boulders Beach and go Shark Cage Diving as I have always wanted to see a great white up close. Luckily I got to do both those things even though we did not have that many days in Cape Town. I love penguins so it was great to be able to actually walk amongst them when they’re just hanging out, sleeping or swimming. It cost a few euros to get to the area but totally worth it. If you want to see them properly, you have to climb over some rocks to get to the most secluded parts of the beach where there’s practically no people. Shark Cage diving was also a memorable experience, a bit expensive yes but worth the price. You go in really early to the place where the boat leaves and there’s a small briefing about sharks and what to do and what not do to. Then you take the boat some ways to the sea and they start luring the sharks out. Not with food though, but a mixture of something (an aroma, a scent), which brings out the sharks. We had to wait for a while before they started appearing but when they did it was great. We were lowered in a steel cage just a bit below the surface and there they were. A bunch of big, scary sharks with big teeth. Thrilling! The fun lasted quite a bit as well. I wasn’t left with a feeling that you only saw a glimpse and then it was over. Only downside was that the water was freezing, even in a wet suit. It was like 10 degrees or so.
After Cape Town we took a bus to Johannesburg and then onwards to Gaborone in Botswana. We had gotten a couchsurfing host from Gaborone and we were staying at her house for 4 nights. We met up with our host and some of her friends and then the next day we were taken out by another couchsurfer and we met some more locals which was great. All in all Gaborone was cool but there is pretty much nothing else to do than go out (which we did). On a Saturday we were taken to probably the dodgiest and shadiest nightclub in Gaborone and had a blast. Granted, we were the only mzungus there but it was to be expected! After Gaborone we wanted to go to the Okavango Delta which is a large lake/safari area in the north of Botswana. We stayed in the Old Bridge Backpackers and from there we booked a one night/two day Mokoro safari. A mokoro is a small dug out canoe which the locals use to get around the lake areas where they live. Some of them also work as tour guides and take people to see the animals living there which are abundant. So we took the mokoro to the wilderness, put up a few tents and went on some walking safaris around the area (me hoping that we will not encounter a lion as we had no weapons or anything). Saw some zebras, elephants, antilopes, warthogs etc. It was really cool to be walking around there with only wild animals surrounding you. We cooked some food on the fire and went to bed as soon as it got dark as you can’t really do anything. Fell asleep to the sounds of animals roaming around our camp.
Our camp
Next destination was the border crossing from Botswana to Zambia and there to Livingstone. We met some Slovenian doctors in Maun and they were going the same direction as us so we joined forces. So far, the bus transportation has been fairly efficient (despite the fact that our bus broke down twice on our way from Gaborone to Maun) with delays every time but that’s normal. During one of these stretches to the border we had to stand for four hours in a minibus because it was too full, but that’s fine too! Border crossing was straighforward, a lot of touts shouting at you to take their taxi anywhere and trying to exchange money but that’s also normal hahaha. We got a taxi for a good price from the border to Livingstone where we were gonna spend some days just chilling and taking in the Victoria Falls. I had thought that Livingstone would be a really touristic place because of the falls but surprisingly it wasn’t. It was pretty chilled with not much to do except safaris and the falls. Our hostel provided a free lift to the falls in the morning so we took it. Right upon exiting the car and starting walking, people started shouting from behind us. We freaked out a bit and suddenly something was grabbing Olli’s plastic bag with our snacks in it. He got scared and let go of the bag and we saw it was a huge baboon who wanted to steal some food. Unluckily for Olli, the baboon got a nice, juicy sandwich from Spar. My sandwich was spared though! Victoria Falls was amazing. Better than Niagara Falls. You also got so much closer to them. We hiked around the national park for a while and got really, really wet. There’s plenty of activities to do around the area if you have money for it. White water rafting, bungee jumping, ziplining etc. As we are poor, we did not do anything hahaha.
After Livingstone we took a bus to Lusaka, which is the capital of Zambia and we were planning to go to South Luangwa National Park from there to do a traditional safari. We met up with a Costa Rican guy at the backpackers and he was on his way there as well so we decided to do the trip together. There is a great place called Marula Lodge in South Luangwa, which also caters for backpackers. Usually safaris are really expensive resorts but this was one dorms as well. We paid 225 US dollars for two nights, two game drives and meals included, which is really not bad. The lodge itself is located in the buffer zone before the national park which means that most of the animals are free to roam around there. In the morning you saw hippos just bathing on the river right next to your dorms. There were also elephants looking for food and the other day a lion had stumbled upon the place. Game drives were also great, we pretty much saw everything a person could wish to see on a safari and quite up close too. We saw elephants playing in the water, lions chilling after eating, zebras, baby hippos having a race and even a leopard getting ready to jump on its prey.
After Zambia it was time to move on to Malawi and get to the lake finally!
Cheers,
-Jani
