It's been a while since I last updated these English pages and now I am back in Holland I figured I'd better do it soon or it won't happen anymore. So, here it is, a new diary entry :-)!

Studies

It was about three months ago that I wrote for the last time, so that means there is a lot to catch up with. At the time I wrote that entry, most of my classes were nearly over and it was clear exams were coming closer. Everybody was finishing last assignments, writing essays, studying for exams and international students who realized studying abroad was nearly over threw some more parties. It gave me kind of an ambiguous feeling: while at the one hand it meant that I would be travelling in a few weeks, which was something I had been looking forward to all semester, it would on the other hand be the end to a splendid time in Stellenbosch. As a result I tried to make most of the last weeks in Stellenbosch: I went to the beach to go surfing several times a week, went to parties, went out in town, met up with lots of people...and conseqeuently didn't get to study much. However I somehow managed to get some nice marks for essays and a UN rolplay - even for the essays I wrote late at night.

Jeffrey's Bay

When classes were eventually over I decided to go to Jeffrey's Bay for a week. People wondered if I shouldn't study for my exams, but I couldn't really see myself studying for two weeks, so I took a bus and went to South Africa's surf mecca. Got off the nightbus early in the morning and put up my tent during sunrise. Island Vibe, the hostel where I camped at was super: great garden, hammocks all over, excellent 170° views over the ocean and a great bunch of guests and staff Jeffrey's Bay is a laid-back, but messy town that grew a bit too fast under the influx of tourists and surfers. The surf beaches Supertubes, Boneyards, Kitchen Windows and others are world famous in the surf scene. As commercial as sports can be, the town is dominated by Billabong and Quiksilver signs and shops as there is fierce competition. The great advantage of travelling alone was obvious once again: I got to know lots of people in the hostel. Although the waves weren't very good I got to do some bodyboarding and surfing, and even some sandboarding on the dunes. I saw quite a few bottlenose dolphins frolicking through the waves and even an orca passing by! The nights at the bar in the hostel were good, especially as the coloured owner (!) often brought along some friends and the staff was also fun and friendly.

Last days in Stellenbosch

Back in Stellenbosch I inevitably had to study. In the weekend before my exams we celebrated the birthdays of some flatmates in a very cool way: we had a 'braai' (bbq) and slept outside at Koeelsbay, a magnificent beach surrounded by 1000m high mountains. There were meteor showers forecasted, making this a most amazing night to sleep outside. With the breaking waves as soundtrack we had some good wine and watched the shooting stars. Sometimes life can be perfect. The next morning I woke up because of some strange sounds: it appeared to be a baboon, ransacking the dustbins.

In the next week I had my exams, which went OK. Many South African students already left Stellenbosch to spent their holidays at parents' or friends' places. Stellenbosch was getting quiet as everybody had gone already or was just about to leave. I made the most of my last weekend in Stellenbosch. Had some seafood and watched sunset at the beach with some friends, had a relaxed braai with a great atmosphere and we went out in Observatory twice. "Obz" is an extremely cool suburb of Cape Town where many artists, musicians and students live. It dates from the beginning of the last century and has many Georgian and Victorian style houses with balconies and galleries. It reminded me a bit of Newtown in Sydney. On Saturday we went to some pubs and to a party in a student house organized by some South Africans studying at the University of Cape Town. It was interesting to meet some coloured and black students, something which is still uncommon at Stellenbosch University. Unfortunately someone broke in and stole the stereo (which provided the dance music at that moment!) and a mobile phone and this kind of ended the party. (Obz is also known for its crime..) On Sunday we went to the Independent Armchair Theatre, a very cosy little theatre with nice bean bags and sofas where we saw some stand-up comedy. Brilliant.

First week travelling

The next morning I left Stellenbosch with three others in a rental car. I travelled with two Germans and a Dutch girl. Departure was a bit of a hassle, but in the end we had all the luggage packed and off we were. We spent the first night in Riversdale, close to Still Bay. James, a South African flatmate of Christian had a little, old house in the middle of nowhere. Good wine, 'potjiekos' (some kind of Afrikaans goulash), hubbly bubbly and midnight skinny dipping. Excellent. Next day we drove to Wilderness via Mossel Bay and Victoria Bay (a bautiful little inlet with rocky cliffs, a small beach and big waves). We could stay with James' parents who gave us a warm and friendly welcome. We stayed two nigths in this awesome house on the forested hills, overlooking the oceans. We hiked to waterfalls, watched sunset and drank beer on the beach, had nice meals and enjoyed the South African hospitality. It's great to stay with locals instead of in hostels now and then!

As the weather turned bad we skipped the rest of the garden route and only stopped in Nature's Valley where we stayed for the night. This green valley with a beautiful lagoon looked mystical and eerie in the fog. The reflecting water in the lagoon, the green forest, the long yellow beach and the rocks in the little creek looked amazing. The next morning we left for Port Elizabeth. Port Elizabeth is not really an interesting city but the relaxed atmosphere in the city centre struck us: unlike in the Western Cape the city centre is not at all whites-only. That night we went to an African Jazz Pub. At first we felt kind of lost in this black pub, but soon we got some contact and in the end the whole pub knew us and we had some real good conversations. They were clearly not used to whites in this pub, but the fact that we came there was very much appreciated. Had a good time.

Lesotho

From PE we drove through the Karoo towards Lesotho. The Karoo consists of large flat, and empty landscapes and while there is nothing there I loved it. The few cactus farms and stop-over towns were the only alternation from the wide landscapes and the mountain ranges at the horizon. After two days we arrived in Lesotho where we stayed at a small lodge in the mountains. Lesotho is very different from South Africa and feels more like the "real Africa". Poverty is enormous, but people are friendly and smile and wave at you all the time. The country is not very developed, but many people are relatively happy (compared to much of the black South African population) as they pretty much still live there simple, traditional lives. All of Lesotho is over 1000 meters in altitude and most people live in traditional round, thatched huts in small villages. On the mountain slopes small shepherd boys, dressed in traditional Basotho blankets, walk with their cows or sheep. On the fields people plough the land with oxes. Don't expect shopping malls and western-style towns here (except maybe to some extent in Maseru, the capital). From the Malealea lodge where we stayed we hiked to the impressive scenery of Pitseng Gorge. An apparently this is just one of those spots here. The eroded landscape is impressive. The next two nigths we stayed in Roma, Lesotho's only university town. Well, town, basically a campus with some shops ans shacks around it. We stayed at the old trading post and got a villa with big garden and swimming pool for ourselves for just R50 a night while the people across the road lived with whole families in one-room huts ... one of those incongruities of Africa.

The last day in lesotho we wanted to drive through the central highlands. Someone had told us that it would take us a couple of hours with a conventional car to do the 200 k's. It took us 10 hours. The roads included several passes over 3000m and crossed stunning landscape. Even though these roads are considered major roads in Lesotho, the dirt roads were of lower quality than we had ever encountered in South Africa. However, the traditional villages, winding passes and magnificent views were definitely worth it. We nearly burned our breaks when coming down the steep pass on the Katse Highlands Water Project road. Late at night we arrived in Clarens, a small town in the Free Sate, South Africa.

Drakensberg

The next destination was the Drakensberg, the 1000 km long Mountain Range which is the natural border between eastern Lesotho and South Africa. We stayed in a hostel with one of the best views I have ever seen: on top of a pass, overlooking a valley with at 50 or 60 kilometers away the mountain ranges. We went hiking in Royal Natal National Park, in the northern Drakensberg. The Mont-Aux-Sources here is 3282 meter high and is one of the major scenic sites here to visit. We climbed the mountain and stood on top of the majestic Amphitheatre, an 8km long and 900m high cliff face, from where Tugela Falls drop 850 meter. Standing on top you feel awfully small and if you don't have vertigo yet you will get it there. Unbelievably beautiful. We had bad weather, but the fog made it look mysterious. On the way down a big thunderstorm came down upon us and at a certain moment lightning struck some hundred meters in front of us. Pretty scary, but it is impressive to see nature's forces at work like that. The following day we drove down to Durban and stopped on the way at Giant's Castle in the Central Drakensberg to do a short walk to the Khoisan rock paintings. The caves there contain some of the world's most famous rockart sites. In the evening we arrived in Durban.

Durban

Durban is a great city. With over a million Indians and the subtropical climate, the city has an unmistakable Eastern feel to it. Especially in the Indian quarter and at the Indian markets you can feel the Indian influence, smell the nice aromas and wonder about the chaotic street scenes. Another attraction is the 6km long beachfront boulevard with very good surfbeaches. In Durban we met up with other students from Stellenbosch. A German girl, Antje, came over as well and we surfed twice at New Pier, a legendary city surfbeach. Especially the first day we had great waves - not too big, but nicely lined up and powerful. My surfing skills are improving!

Minibuses

After a couple of days in Durban I travelled on by myself, something I had already arranged with the others I travelled with. I wanted to meet some more people and to travel with minibuses, the transport of choice of the black population. White South Africans have a very poor opinion of minibuses and several people had warned me not to travel with them. Those people however have never traveled with these buses and have no idea what it's like. They think you'll be raped, robbed and killed on those buses and if not you'll get killed in a car accident. I haven't encountered any dangerous situations on the buses. It seemed like some buses where about to fall apart, but luckily they didn't. The minibus taxi ranks however are a different story. These stations are not always in the savest part of town as I noticed in Durban. Some other students gave me a lift to the station and when I got off there with my backpacks on back and front a car with four white men pulled up next to me. The driver ask what I was doing there, so I answered that I was going to take a minibus. "D' you wanna get killed or what?" was his reply. What followed was some preaching on how dangerous it was and that 'you can't trust those blacks.' I was just about to ignore them for the rest and said: "I'll be fine", when I had a closer look at them. Three of them appeared to have hand grenades in their vests, guns on their belts and uzi-like guns on their laps! And these guys were informing me about the dangers of minibuses. At that moment I figured being in a minibus was safer than standing there next to them! Nothing happened of course, but I must say I was a somewhat shocked. When I got on the minibus I got into a conversation with a guy and he told me they were probably from some drugs or protection gang. Hmm.

Anyway, I got my minibuses to Eshowe and the next day to St. Lucia, both in the Zululand region. They were fast and cheap and I got some nice reactions from the people on the buses: only rarely do they see white people on minibuses, so I was some kind of oddity. Also the people on the minibus stations who try to sell cold drinks, grilled corn, cheap watches and anything else that can be sold, seemed to be confused or amused when they saw me. Most of the Zulus on the buses didn't speak English very well, so there wasn't much conversation most of the time, but they were interested and the trip was interesting.

Zululand

I stayed several nights in St. Lucia, a small resort town in the wetlands, close by the sea. This place is lush green and tropically hot and humid. Not far behind the hostel was the river where hippos and crocs have their homes. I went on a boat trip on the river, which seemed to be aimed at 60-year-old bird watching German and Dutch people, but the views were good and it was great to see hippos in the wild at such close range. More dangerous than the hippos here are the mosquitoes; I was glad to take anti-malaria tablets. The hostel was paradise-like: a tropical garden where monkeys roamed, a nice rockpool, an outside bar and a thatched hostel. I met up with some other students again and also met some other nice people in the hostel. With some I went to Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserves, a well-known wildlife park. We saw a lot of animals including zebra, giraffe, elephant, rhino, buffalo, wildebeast and lots of antilopes.

Swaziland

From St. Lucia I went to Swaziland, again by minibuses. After two minibuses I was ropped of at a turn-off, 10 km before the Swazi border and there was nothing there. But when I put my thumb up, the first car that passed gave me a ride to the border!. Most of the car here are 'bakkies' (pick-ups or utes), so as a hitch hiker you sit on the back with your bags.These guys took me to the border which I crosses after expanding the stamp collection in my passport. On the other side of the border I put my thumb up as well and voilá, again the first car stopped and gave me a long ride (nearl 200 k's) to Manzini. Again I was sitting on the back, but this time I had some company: one guy from Swaziland and one from Mozambique. The whole trip was quite a hilarious experience as it turned out that the driver had a little business in those robotarm machines you see at fun fairs. He had dozens of them in take-aways all around the country and now had two pick up two of them that were broken. So we went to some small towns and in the end we were sitting at the back of the car with the three of us totally crammed in between the machines. In Manzini the driver invited me at his place and later on brought me to the minibus station from where I got a bus to Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary where I would stay the next three nights. And once more this was a very cool hostel in a great spot. The hostel was right in the reserve, had good views, a nice swimming pool and a friendly pet ostrich! I met up with some Israelis whom I had seen before in St. Lucia as well as some other nice people. Did some hiking, saw crocs, hippos, zebra and wildebeast and I went to a big craft market.

Swaziland is just like Lesotho a small independent kingdom, but looks way more developed. Although the country is poor, it has good infrastructure, modern - though very much westernized - cities and more modern industries. However, people seemed to be less happy than the people in Lesotho who still live their simple lives. Traditions are still strong in Swaziland. Some people still wear the traditional dress consisting of colourful cloths and animal skins, and old dances, songs and ceremonies are important.

The day I left Swaziland, I met a guy on the minibus. He was very friendly and showed me around Mbabane, told me about his polygamous father with five wives, the royal family, politics in Swaziland and much more. That was very interesting. He also helped me with the minibuses, which proved to be very helpful: I had to take four minibuses from there to Nelspruit. After two buses I crossed the border again and was back in South Africa. That nigth I arived in Nelspruit. I booked a tour to Kruger National Park for the enxt mornign and spent the rest of the night in their great garden bar which had been turned into some kind of Bob Marley altar.

Blyde River & Kruger National Park

The next day I got picked up from the tour. There were only five of us plus the tour guide and we were all from different natioanlities which made it even more interesting. That first day we went to Blyde River Canyon, the world's third biggest canyon. We only spent a little while there, but the views were incredible. It's a wide green canyone with some great rock formations and a big brown, winding river. After the canyon we drove to Kruger where we stayued for the enxt to nights. Camping in Kruger is great. ALthough it's very developed and luxurious it is still a bit of a wildlife experience in this park that is the same size as Whales. We camped in small tents and had campfires at night. Amzaing to sit at a campfire with a brandy and coke while you hear cycads, hyena's make thir typical oo-oop sounds and lions roar. The second day we were very lucky: in one day we saw all of the big 5 (elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion and leopard - so called because they were popular with hunters). This is rare, especially in summer when the grass is so high. We also did a night game drive the second day. The third day we left the park and drove to Jo-burg and Pretoria where I was dropped of. The tour was great and the group nice.

The way back

In Pretoria I met up with the others I had been travelling with before. Together we went to Pilanesberg National Park the next day (a extinct volcano area with lots of animals - we didn't see them). That nigth we celebrated Christmas Eve. The Germans even made glühwein. On Christmas Day we drove all the way to the mining town Kimberley. In Kimberley we visited the mining museum the next day and saw the Big Hole, the largest hole dug out by men in the world (150m wide, about 800m deep). From Kimberley we drove back the 900 k's to Stellenbosch. When we drove into the Winelands, with the characteristic mountains, the green winefields and the white Cape Dutch houses, near Worcester it really felt like coming home.

The last few days in South Africa I basically prepared to go home, home in Holland. Developing pictures, buying souvenirs, packing luggage, etc. It struck me how Stellenbosch changes in summer: suddenly it is a tourist town instead of a student town with some tourists. It was very quiet, which was a bit of an anti-climax. I went surfing for the last time at Strand and the next day I flew home from Cape Town. And here I am, back home and acclimatized again. All that's left now are pictures, memories and some tan...

Pff, that was a long story. I don't believe you if you say you've read it all, but if you have read some, I hope you enjoyed reading it!