The Final Chapter (Sort of..) – South Africa 18th June 2010

Date: Saturday 21st August, 2010 | Country: South Africa | Tags: africa, blogsherpa, Capetown, Drakensberg, Port Elizabeth, Pretoria, South Africa | 5 Comments »

It is with great pleasure that I am able to write this post, to get across the continent and achieve my intended goal of getting to South Africa is something that I am very proud of and I felt a great sense of elation when I reached the border.  Reka burst out in tears at the same moment and so with her sobbing while I was grinning like a Cheshire cat we entered African country # 19. 

History

I would rather you read the following http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_South_Africa rather than me bastardise the read for the sake of a concise blog!

Luisa & Scott, Pretoria

I had met Luisa 7 years ago now when I volunteered in South Africa when I was based in the Kruger national park, since then we have seen each other on the few occasions back in Europe even though Luisa has been in South Africa for the last 10 odd years.  She is a good friend of mine and I was looking forward to seeing her the first night of entering South Africa.  That night we drove on the superhighways to meet her, her boyfriend Scott and some of their friends, getting lost on a few occasions as we tried to find our way through Johannesburg a massive city.  Eventually we made it and found my friends, it was a nice moment, I had mentioned to Luisa a good year ago that I was planning to do this journey and we kept in touch throughout the journey so she had an idea of when I’ll be there.  It was cool to meet Scott as I had heard a lot about him and we got on very easily, he speaks his mind and conversation flowed.  That night we all got very drunk with their friends Beatrice and Mirijam who were filming a documentary during the world cup.

Above Left: Beatrice, Scott, Luisa, Mirijam

It definitely wouldn’t be the last time that I would see these guys and so I’ll say thanks now even though I’ll be seeing you soon (at the time of writing I have already returned twice since!).  Oh I forgot to mention their beautiful border collie Eli, an absolutely crazy but lovable dog that spends half his life in water of some shape or form.

Eng vs Solvenia @ Port Elizabeth

While in Botswana, I had found some reasonable priced tickets to go and watch England’s last qualification game over in Port Elizabeth.  I remember saying to myself that if I made South Africa in time that I would get to go and see a game come hell or high water so the cherry on top of this already amazing cake was to go and soak up the world cup atmosphere.  The drive from Pretoria to Port Elizabeth was quite stunning on occasions, South Africa is the kind of country that you must visit and take many driving trips throughout the land as the epic scenery that you see along the way is mind blowing. 

The day of the Eng game was a long day indeed, Port Elizabeth like many of the host cities in South Africa for the world cup had undergone major transformations to make the cities tourist friendly, roads had been updated, in some cases new stadiums built and transportation provided to take people to and from the stadiums for free.  Port Elizabeth had become a mini England for the day as the majority of people walking the streets had England flags draped across them and the odd Slovenian would appear out of no where singing at the top of their voice to be overheard! There was a buzz on the streets a feeling of excitement and apprehension that if England failed here our world cup could be over before it ever really got going, the stadium itself was well built and the viewpoints amazing from wherever you were as it only seated thirty odd thousand people.  FIFA had marked their territory all over the stadium as drinks were only Budweiser and food was supplied by another blundering giant but without being too cynical the whole operation of getting people in and out was done well and the atmosphere was special being surrounded by English fans the songs and the elation of everyone being there was unforgettable.  We won the game 1-0 through a Defoe shot and the majority of the stadium left a happy bunny.

Above: The added bonus of being part of this amazing atmosphere    

Cape town

It is here that Reka and I parted company, she has a friend Daniel that she would be staying with and for me I needed to continue this journey by myself.  So after a couple of days soaking up the beautiful costal areas surrounding Cape town and seeing our boys get stuffed by the Germans it was time to move on.  Thanks to Daniel for putting me up in his flat during that time.

I wish Reka the best in her future and over the period of this journey I hope that her memories and life skills that she (like I) have learnt throughout this adventure take her onto bigger and better things.

Above: Cape town & my favourite beach at Llandudno

The Drakensberg Mountains

After going back to Botswana for another month my visa was about to expire to my friends Luisa and Scott told me that they were planning to go hiking in the Drakensberg mountains.  Its one of a few major areas of South Africa that I have yet to see and have heard much about the epic nature of this area from friends in the past.  The Drakensberg, "the Dragon Mountains") is the highest mountain range in Southern Africa, rising to 3,482 metres (11,424 ft) in height.

The great thing about where Luisa and Scott live in Pretoria is that the drive to part of the Drakensberg is only a 4 hour drive to be in a place of great beauty.  We were all booked in over the weekend by a couple of their friends that unfortunately couldn’t come with us due to illness, the Swiss like village that we went to is a place called Clarens that sits at the foot of one of the mountains and that evening we did the round of all the bars that were open in this quiet little place and after going through the contents of what bars were open we ended up in a place called ‘Friends’ where a fight broke out amongst some drunken blokes and led to Scott getting a glancing blow in the process of avoiding the fight, so not the friendliest place in the world but at 3am in the morning these things happen!  Feeling quite sorry for ourselves the next morning we had the slowest served breakfast in the world and then went on a hike which would lead to a prehistoric cave (including rock art) that we were able to sleep in that night.  The cave itself was magnificent and quite breathtaking once you were standing inside it’s mouth and looking out to what the same view cavemen that inhabited this place would have done possibly 10,000 years ago.  Things had changed slightly since then including the fact that we didn’t have to hunt for our meal that evening and warmth was provided by cut pieces of wood that would last most of the whole night, but apart from that we were back to basics!  A highly recommended place to get away for the weekend and the hike that we did was varied and takes you to another cave along the way which has cave art as seen in the photos below.

 

Above: Going back to basics                 

Conclusion

South Africa will always have a special meaning to me as it was the place that I spent one of the most amazing years I will never forget seven years ago so everything I will say about this country is done though rose tinted glasses, during the world cup the country was visited by millions of tourists that no doubt will go back with big smiles on their faces after having one hell of an experience and I can only say that if you ever get a chance to see this country then do it, you will not regret it! 

Look forward to hearing from you and I have one final post to put up on this amazing journey.

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