Paddling Down the Home Stretch

My timing is off on this final post, but part of the delay comes from the fact that it does not feel possible that my time in Cape Town is over. My last couple of weeks in Africa were quite amazing, with time to see more of Cape Town as well as a hastily planned trip to Victoria Falls.

I got to take a day trip with a couple of friends to Kalk Bay, were we hiked around and attempted to find a cave we had been told about. 

 View at the top of our hike

We did find one cave, but lack of a good flashlight (and fear) prevented us from exploring too deep into it. 

 The roof of the cave

 Tom's theater class put to use in this 'falling' shot

We stopped in Muizenberg on our way back and I saw this cool Beetle with matching surfboard:

 

That night I saw a play called The Brother Size at the Baxter Theater. The show actually originally played in Syracuse. It was quite entertaining and was apparently laden with references to African mythology, which would have made it even more interesting if I better understood the mythology.

Kevin and I made a trip to the aquarium, since I had not yet been. We were lucky enough to see both the penguin feeding and the feeding of the big fish in the aquarium’s huge tank. The penguins were funny because they are fed whole fish, some of which end up slipping away, so they waddle away, chasing after the evasive fish.

Jellyfishing Jellyfishing

 The turtles get fed on a separate day because they are too slow 

to beat the big fish, but this one tried anyways

On the Friday of our first exam week, Kevin and I made the impulsive decision to take a trip to Victoria Falls. We had been hoping to take a trip between exams, and even previously found a planned trip that fit perfectly into our schedule, but there had not been anyone else signed up, so the company was not running it. After finding that out, we sort of faded in our efforts and were distracted by exams. We ended up finding a somewhat reasonable flight, however, and hastily booked it two days before it was scheduled to leave. We expedited our Yellow Fever vaccinations, packed up, and left Sunday morning. While we had begun to get used to some of the inefficient frustrations of South Africa, we were shocked when we got to the airport for our 6AM flight. Less than an hour before our flight, with a line rapidly building in front of the South African Airways check-in area, there was not an employee in sight. Eventually, employees made their way into work, and we did make it through South African ‘security’ and to our gate. 

We flew to Johannesburg and then into Livingstone, Zambia. We arrived by early afternoon and got a ride to the backpackers we were staying at, called Jollyboys. The place was really nice with a pool and a travel agent desk set up to book different activities by the falls. 

 A nice lounge area at Jollyboys

Monday we had a packed day with touristy, but fun, activities. We first took a helicopter ride over the falls. It was somewhat unlike helicopter rides as I’ve been taught to imagine them from the Bachelor/Bachelorette. There was another couple on the ride, which may have contributed to this. Kevin, another woman, and I sat in the back, with the woman’s husband and the driver in the front. I think the woman had a similar romantic idea of helicopters as me, evidenced by her trying to hold her husband’s hand as he reached it behind his seat. He had a different intention, however, as he evaded her grasp and grabbed for a different camera lens behind his seat. The views were truly incredible and I was sad that the ride seemed to end in the blink of an eye. 

Vic Falls from the helicopter

After the ride we made our way to the falls and walked around for a while along the paths. There is a point of no return after which it is impossible to keep walking without getting soaked. We had on rain gear, but still ended up pretty wet. There is an awesome bridge that we got to walk across and the way the water emanates from below, there seemed to be rainbows all around us. Having been to Niagara Falls many times in my life, I can definitely say that Vic Falls is winning. We wound up back at Jollyboys to relax for a short time, then onto a sunset cruise. I am not sure if there were code words that we missed in the description (perhaps the words ‘slow’ or ‘mature?’) but I think we somehow checked the box for ‘old people cruise.’ We were by far the youngest people on the boat, but we had a great time. I did not anticipate that we would see animals, but we saw a group of hippos and a bunch of birds, too. 

 Hungry, hungry hippos

Nice sunset view from the boat

Tuesday we got to go white-water rafting on the Zambezi River, probably our favorite part of the trip. There was quite a hike down from where we were dropped off to actually get into the water. Eventually, we were in the boat and on our way, with our guide in the back of the boat named Potato, to keep us safe. 

Prepped for rafting

One of the first things Potato had us do was jump off the boat, climb up some a little cliff, and jump off into the water. 

I was scared

We went though the second half of the rapids. While no one fell out and the boat did not tip over naturally, Potato sought to ensure that we experienced all of these things- having us jump out of the boat and hold on during some of the rapids, and directing us how to flip the boat over on ourselves. Overall it was a ton of fun and we were excited to learn that there was a cable car to take us back up at the end. 

Ducking

Morale-boosting paddle high five

Wednesday we toured Livingstone with one of the guys from the backpackers. It is a relatively small town, but it was neat to see the markets and different places, including a really old run-down hotel where royalty used to stay. We also went to a museum right near where we were staying that had exhibits on archeological finds, David Livingstone. as well as the history of the town named after him, and general history of Zambia. Walking around Livingstone, some people were very aggressive about trying to sell different items, such as necklaces with Nyami Nyami, the Zambezi River God, a snakelike figure. We noted that unlike in Cape Town, no one seemed to be begging for money, however.

Next we made our way to Chobe National Park in Botswana. We took a boat across the Zambezi to enter the country. I was confused when a person at the border directed me toward a dirty towel on the ground. I later learned that the towel had disinfectant on it, so visitors must step on it to kill anything that may be brought in on the bottom of shoes. We got to go one two safari adventures, first on a boat to see animals by water, and after that we went into a safari vehicle to enter the park on land. We saw a lot of elephants, giraffe, antelope, crocodiles, monkeys, and hippos, among other animals. One of the craziest things we saw was an elephant that had died on the shore and was being picked apart by hundreds of vultures:

 

Eat up

We got dropped off at the border to Zimbabwe after the safari. We were glad we had set up transport from there, because we did not see any taxis around, despite what one of the workers at Jollyboys had told us. The transport we set up even made me a little wary. There was just a man with a van, with no signage indicating he was any sort of official taxi driver. We got in and so did his extremely large friend, apparently along for the ride. When the car did not start, they tried to jump it using their friends’ car that looked to be many hours of repair away from running itself. When that did not work, they just swapped out the battery and we were off. We made it to the backpackers just fine. The next day we got to see the falls from the Zimbabwean side, which most people say is the better side to see the falls from, and I agree. We ended up soaked once more from the water of the falls, but the sun popped out just as we were done walking around, which dried us off perfectly. There seemed to be less to do in Vic Falls, with the town itself more geared exclusively toward very touristy things. We explored some, though. At the backpackers we met a guy named Dexter, who created an amazing work of art that is meant to represent all different countries of the world and is run by pulleys, which move the different people in his set up. The Americans were having a BBQ.

Just a small portion of Dexter's huge masterpiece

Saturday we made our way back to South Africa, getting home just in time for the last group dinner at Kevin’s house. All of his housemates had made different dishes and they even had a cake and sang ‘Happy Birthday’ for my upcoming birthday.

The next couple of days were spent studying, despite some beautiful weather. At 7 PM Tuesday I finally had all of my exams finished, and popped a bottle of (cheap) champagne to celebrate. Unfortunately, my last few days in Cape Town were slightly rainy. I did get in some souvenir shopping as well as a trip to Stellenbosh. We made it an Afrikaaner day, wandering Stellenbosh and visiting ‘Taalmonument,’ a monument in Paarl built to celebrate the declaration of Afrikaans as an official language. 

 

Taalmonument in Paarl

We even stopped for a quick wine tasting on the way home at this beautiful vineyard

On our last day in Cape Town we squeezed in some last minute errands and got a chance to visit St. Georges Home for Girls, an orphanage in Wynberg. Kevin’s cousin had volunteered there when she studied abroad a few years ago at UCT, and she had wanted us to come visit. It was fun to get to play with the girls for a little. They gave us a tour of the home, which has a cheery look with each room painted a different bright color. We went outside and jumped on the trampoline. Some of the little ones were especially interested in playing with our phones; one even snuck off and made a call to our friend Andile from Kevin’s phone. We wished we had visited the home earlier in our trip, because it would have been a nice place to come and visit and to get to know the girls better. I suppose that is just evidence that there are always opportunities missed regardless of how long you spend in a place.

We had our final dinner at Pancho’s, a Mexican place we all adore in Observatory. I do agree that it is a little absurd that one of our favorite restaurants in Cape Town is Mexican. We ended the night seeing a band we saw early on in the trip called Sixgun Gospel. They were releasing an LP, so the crowd was larger this time, but they sounded just as great. It was quite a neat way to end our time in Cape Town.

The flight home went relatively smoothly, with a delay taking off from Johannesburg. We ended up missing our connection in Washington, but luckily there was another flight to Buffalo just a couple of hours later. It has been nice being home so far. The weather has really been timed well- just as it was beginning to cool off in Cape Town I am now home for summer. Some things about being home feel quite strange. We are back on the other side of the road again, everything feels much more spread out, there is much less traffic, and I don’t have to use three keys to get in and out of the house. I do not know how to end this all in an epic way, but perhaps I don’t have to because I am confident that I will be back in South Africa again some day.

Sunsets and the Symphony

Yesterday between 8 and 14:30 (they love their military time here) I ‘wrote’ two tests that together will account for about one third of all the grades I will get at UCT. Final exams here make up at least 40-50% of course grades, and sometimes more, so they are quite nerve wracking. Having two in one day did not help. I think my exams went fine, though, although it is tricky to tell given the grading system here.

Straight after the exam, I joined a few friends and hiked Devil’s Peak for the first time. I was quite exhausted, but it was a really nice hike. At the top it was so windy I thought I might fall over, but the view was spectacular. As we hiked down we saw an amazing sunset just behind Lion’s Head.  

I have also checked off another item on my Cape Town to-do list by having a picnic at sunset on Signal Hill. Kevin, Levi, Bri and I packed some snacks and wine and made our way up last week, just in time to enjoy the sun setting behind a perfect view of the city.  

Bri and me as the sun was about to disappear

A random woman directed us to pose like this and took our picture

Last Thursday marked the last day of classes. It is hard to believe the semester could already be over. Exams are so spread out, though, that I will not truly be finished for two more weeks. We made the evening after our last day of classes an exciting one. First we had a great dinner at Sevruga, a restaurant at the waterfront. The waterfront is actually kind of boring and touristy, with a ton of expensive stores, but the restaurants make up for that. Next we headed to the symphony, which played in City Hall. The Cape Philharmonic Orchestra was great, playing Haydn, Mozart and Shostakovich. The violinist Olivier Charlier, who was apparently quite the music prodigy based on the bio in the program, played with the orchestra for a Mozart concerto and was truly amazing.  

Kevin and I took an awesome day trip downtown to visit museums a couple of weeks ago. We went to the District Six museum, which depicts the forced removal of people from District Six, an area within Cape Town’s city bowl, during apartheid. The museum does a good job of reconstructing some of the past and personalizing the stories of people whose lives were drastically altered because they were forced from their homes. The area, including people's homes, was bulldozed during apartheid and is mainly barren still today, despite the fact that it is in a prime location near the city. A huge map on floor of the first level of the museum shows where roads were and people who lived there have come and visited the museum, writing in where their homes were.

This mural is on the wall of the District Six museum

Later, we had lunch at our favorite restaurant, Addis, a delicious Ethiopian restaurant. 

 Kevin is impatient that this picture is preventing him from digging in

Inside Addis, note the cool umbrellas on the ceiling

Our last stop that day was the South African National Gallery. The National Gallery is really neat, with an especially intriguing sculpture in the first room of the Gallery. The sculpture, Butcher Boys, by Jane Alexander, has three life size figures with human bodies but animal features including broken horns. The art is interpreted as a reference to the way apartheid dehumanized South Africans.  I was not allowed to take pictures in the museum, but here is a link to a picture on pbs.org: Butcher Boys 

There was also a huge exhibit by a man named Peter Clarke, called Listening to Distant Thunder. Clarke actually lives in Ocean View, where I did my homestay. His work is really interesting because it spans a wide variety of styles and medias. One entire wall contains a huge photograph he took of Ocean View, which was really neat to see and to try to identify different places I had been there.

That same weekend  I got to go back to Ocean View with my friend Hannah and make dinner for the family that hosted us during our homestay. It was really fun to make them dinner and to see them again. Our host mom made the most delicious food, so it was exciting to be able to make food for her, which she either enjoyed or was really good at pretending to enjoy it. We had a slight debacle making our way back home, having missed the last train, but we ended up making it fine and even trying out a new method of transport here, the bus. 

Slang Section:

Bru = Bro

Lekker = cool/great

Chips = French fries

Soapie = soap opera. One soapie, called Generations, is really popular here. It can be tricky to follow all of the intrigue as the actors and actresses rapidly switch from English to Afrikaans. 

This is not slang, but still peculiar. They write dates backwards from us, so today is 23-5-12. Seeing cheese in the grocery store that expired 1-6-12 at first really grossed me out. Now I have finally gotten used to this, just in time to come home.

Setting Africa Ablaze

I cannot believe it has been so long since I last wrote. I can partially explain this by the fact that Cape Town now feels more like home than a travel destination about which I should write. Nevertheless, I apologize to my devoted followers (hi Mom and Dad!)

The weekend after our Easter break, we had a day trip for my archeology class. We drove to see a ‘shell midden,’ which is just a big pile of discarded shells left behind after people ate shellfish. After that we drove on to Smitswinkelbaai cave (nice name, right?) Researchers have already excavated part of the cave, notably finding sheep and seal bones, but there isn’t really anything to see now. This trip made it even more clear that archeology is slightly more boring than Indiana Jones makes it appear. Most excitingly, a few clever baboons swarmed our buses at one of the stops, thwarting our plans to eat lunch outside.

I got to see my first real ‘football’ game, Santos vs. the Kaizer Chiefs. It was hard to keep track of everything because more fans were rooting for the Kaizer Chiefs, who are from Johannesburg, than the home team, Santos. Apparently the Kaizer Chiefs are a beloved team for all of South Africa, probably because they are the most successful team. Maybe Buffalo sports fans should take a cue from South Africans… Nonetheless, Santos actually won, which displeased much of the crowd.

Perhaps a record breaking Vuvuzela 

We have gotten to celebrate birthdays for a few of our friends at UCT, including a failed surprise party for our friend Andile. It is tricky when the birthday boy arrives before the majority of the guests.

 Andile enjoying cake

Also, yesterday, we celebrated our friend Emma’s birthday at an area by campus that used to be a zoo. Now there is a lot of grass overgrowing everything, but the brick structures of the cages are still there. Emma set up a huge tent and we chilled at the lion cage. No awesome pictures of this, but hopefully I will go back and get some. The whole ancient zoo is almost a little eerie, but definitely a good place for a birthday.

The main exciting event of the last couple of weeks was our venture to AfrikaBurn, which is sometimes compared to Burning Man. The event takes place every year in the Tankwa Karoo, which is about five hours from Cape Town. Seven of us rented a big van, filled it with what we hoped would allow us to survive the weekend, and took off on April 27. Slightly more than halfway through the drive there were only dirt roads. Our van was quite the trooper, making it up dirt hills and through some big mud puddles.

We arrived and a couple of costumed girls approached our van asking the driver, “are you virgins?” While this question felt slightly intrusive from a stranger, we quickly realized she meant “are you virgins to AfrikaBurn.” Our affirmative response meant we had to jump out of the van and hit a set of massive chimes with a heavy bat, thus marking our arrival. We drove on and found a spot to camp, setting up our tents and realizing that everyone around us had much more elaborate accommodations.

 

Our neighbor's flags were quite helpful when trying to relocate our spot

The place was set up in a semi-circle, with all the tents on the inner circle having themes, such as the ‘Land of Soft Things…’

One tent had magic, others music, one served tea every morning, among many other interesting themes. A main component of Afrikaburn is that it is a gift economy. You are not allowed to buy, sell or trade anything (except of course your purchase of a R700 ticket, an interesting contradiction). Each person brings enough for himself, as well as a gift contribution for others. Our group decided to go gold for the weekend (yes, I have some shiny gold leggings now) so we tried to think of something gold to give out. While it was somewhat of a stretch, we decided on popcorn. We made a massive quantity on the stove before leaving, packaged it in small bags, and handed them out throughout the weekend. 

Unlike music festivals, there was no set schedule of events, so we spent a lot of time just wandering around, meeting people and doing a lot of people watching. I kept thinking, ‘that is the strangest thing I have ever seen’, and then turning around to see something that made me repeat that thought. Everyone there was dressed in unconventional attire, and some, particularly a few older men, in no attire. 

Awesome lady on stilts

The main negative of the event was the constant thump of techno/trance music that went all through the night in the camps beside us, with a brief morning break to reggae. One of the coolest aspects, though, was the transportation people brought. A lot of people brought their own decked-out bikes or elaborately modified cars:

Pin-wheel bike!

The art structures, placed in the center of the circle, were the neatest part of AfrikaBurn. Mostly everything was made of wood and was extremely elaborate. 

This dragon shot out fire at night

I cannot even fathom how much time and thought went into all of the art that was made, which was truly amazing. But even more exciting, perhaps, was when they set these things on fire.

The nights were cold and we were not eating gourmet meals, but survival was quite easy. We left quite dirty and smelly, but definitely having experienced an interesting weekend.

I think we were trying to spell something, but I was busy
scrambling up the van to beat my camera's timer

This past week, I finished up my first double digit page length paper since freshman year. It was all about the presence of eland in rock art. I am so bored of eland that if I find one on a menu here I might consider ordering it.

Eland in San rock art

Tuesday we went on an awesome hike up Table Mountain taking the Skeleton’s Gorge route, which I have done before. This time, however, we walked to a nearby dam, which seems kind of random and appears to have little function atop the mountain. We took a route down Nursery’s Ravine. It was steep and slippery, so I’ll leave my stumbles to the imagination. A couple of weekends ago we also made a failed attempt to climb Devil’s Peak. Equipped with someone who had hiked it in the dark, which was confounded by some extreme cloud cover, we hiked a lot, but ultimately did not find the top. While we could not see much on our hike, the surroundings were quite incredible, resembling scenes from Jurassic Park. Apparently, we wound up at Minor Peak, so we accomplished something. We must conquer this peak some other day soon.

Planes, trains, and leopards

There have been quite a few memorable events since I last wrote. Having my parents here was a blast.

I unfortunately had a test and a few mandatory classes at the start of their time in Cape Town, so they drove to Cape Point the first full day while I was taking an exam in Jameson Hall. The parents really brought bad weather with them, as they were here for two of the three truly rainy days I’ve experienced since my arrival over two months ago. We squeezed in some other activities, including a walk up to Rhodes Memorial and a soaked trek back. Taking my dad’s brilliant route down we wound up perplexed and drenched in a fenced in field. After weaseling our way out of that predicament, we spent some time at the V & A waterfront and were obliged to visit the Royal Cape Yacht Club, which houses a massive amount of boats! It was certainly different than Buffalo’s yacht club, but we had a nice time.

Saturday we went to Old Biscuit Mill for delicious food and a little shopping. We very diplomatically split up on our ascents of Table Mountain, with Kevin joining my mom on the cable car and my dad and me hiking to the top. I think everyone wound up pleased with this arrangement, although I did hear a couple ‘are we there yet?’ comments from my climbing-loving father. The hike is not too long in distance, but is quite steep!

Dad pondering the meaning of life, or perhaps catching his breath

Sunday we checked out Companys Gardens, did some haggling at Green Market Square, and fit in a concert at Kirstenbosch.

The band, Hot Water, put on a fun show, even inviting a big group to dance on stage

The parents at Kirstenbosh

Monday morning we made our way to the train station to board the Rovos Rail, an old school train with the goals of both taking passengers back in time and prioritizing the importance of the journey. It was quite classy even from the start, as we made a grand entrance a half an hour late, greeted by a violinist playing in the lounge as we were provided drinks. After boarding the train, we were given a little tour of our rooms, during which the train began to chug along. We explored some on the train and had our first meal. Now, each meal on this train was extravagant, with three to four courses and a matching drink, all of which were incredible. I took this massive quantity of food presented to me as a personal challenge, in which I think I succeeded, while my stomach may not agree. We stopped late afternoon at sleepy Matjiesfontein, once a rest stop for train travelers, now more similar to a town transformed into a museum.

Yes, this is the lower half of a mannequin sitting on a Victorian toilet. No, I have no idea why this would be in a museum.

The next day we made it to Kimberly to see the suitably named “Big Hole,” the largest hand-dug hole in the world, made by prospectors in search of diamonds.

Look, it's a big hole!

We toured the mine and a diamond museum. Outside, there was a genuine fake town, with a fake bar, shoe store, funeral home…

Looking out the window of the train always promised a wonderful view, but one of the neatest sights was Kamfers Dam, a breeding site of lesser flamingo. As we drove by we saw flocks of more flamingos than I can count.

To give you an idea, this picture is zoomed in to about 1/20th of the total flock

Tuesday night we were treated to another fabulous meal, after which my mom and I got in a few card games before being lulled to sleep by the train.

Hot couple at dinner

Wednesday we finally arrived in Pretoria.

Rovos steam engine

Ostrich wants a ride on the train. Or perhaps is upset that there is ostrich on the menu.

We made our way to Johannesburg and relaxed for the evening. Thursday we packed our day with tours, beginning with the Sterkfontein Caves, home of several important fossil finds including “Little Foot,” an over 3 million year old, nearly complete Australopithecus skeleton. Next we ventured to Maropeng (a Setswana word meaning ‘returning to the place of origin’), which is a somewhat over the top museum. We began by boarding a boat that led through the stages of the earth’s formation, with some very hot and cold areas, fog machines, snow, rain etc. The museum itself was interesting, with information on the archeological finds in the area, a history of human advances including the use of tools and fire, as well as a look at humans’ consumption today and the sustainability of this.

Maropeng

On to the next museum, we went to the Apartheid museum. While I thought I had a good foundation of knowledge, I was still quite overwhelmed by the museum. There is so much information to take in and a separate large exhibit exclusively on Nelson Mandela. While I worried that I missed various features of the museum, I know I learned a lot more from my time there.

Friday we made our way to the airport, flying to Hoedspruit, where we made our way to our lodge, Gomo Gomo. I was amazed upon arrival by how beautiful the place is. There is a large area where you can sit and enjoy the sun or shade and look out onto this:

Gomo Gomo

There were often animals around the watering hole, including elephants and warthogs. At four we had lunch and our first game drive. The first drive was the most incredible: we saw all of the big five! We began with the most elusive of the big five, the leopard. I thought that the guide, Danie, was just crazy, talking about how they were ‘tracking’ the leopard, but we actually managed to follow prints in the area and spotted the leopard. We watched it for a while, hoping it might go to work on the impala it was intently staring down, but alas, no carnage.

Leopard (the guides named her Cleo)

After that we tried tracking lion. While unsuccessful, we managed to see elephant and an enormous herd of buffalo. A call on the guide’s walkie-talkie generated a mad dash to see a lioness with her cubs. On the way there we spotted a rhino just beside us, rounding out our big five quest all in the first trip. Expectations were thus set quite high, and while they were not quite met each day, we saw plenty of other animals in the following days, including giraffe (a mother was milking a baby giraffe and it was so funny to see the baby bending its long neck down to reach), baboons, vervet monkeys right outside my hut, a hippo, and hyena, among others.

I got to hold this chameleon!

We saw a ton of elephants, including this guy munching away

Each day we woke up at an early five AM, consumed copious amounts of coffee, and went for our first ride from about six to nine. We then ate breakfast, could go on a walk with the guides, and relaxed. After lunch we embarked for the second ride of the day, from four to about seven thirty. Dinner took place outside, with everyone arranged in a circle around a big fire. One night as we chatted after dinner, one of the guides got a call that there was a pride of lions out by one of the paved roads. We quickly jumped into the Land Rovers, wrapped up in blankets. It was especially exciting to see a white lion, since there are supposedly only four in all of Kruger!

White lioness

We got to see two male lions walking down the middle of the road that night as well, apparently the road radiates some of the heat from the day’s sun. One of the coolest things about Kruger was the night sky. On our night rides we got to see the stars for the last hour or so of the drive and I could view more stars than I ever remember seeing in my life. It was neat to see some that we are unable to view from home, including the Southern Cross. Leaving on Monday morning was a bummer, but seeing a massive group of baboons descend from a tree beside us on our final drive left everything on a good note. Back to the airport, I parted ways with my parents in Joburg and we made our ways to our respective homes.