Once we got Chico back on the road we drove out of Upington and just as sun was setting we found a beautiful country lodge in a wee small town called Griquatown that offered campers space on their lovely lawns. We had such a nice welcome from the owners who offered us dinner from their braai, and after hot showers we had one of the best night’s sleeps in a while.
From Griquatown it was a couple of hours to Kimberley where we were planning on learning a bit more about the history of South Africa – the diamond diggings, Cecil Rhodes and the Anglo-Boer war, etc. But when we camped up and headed for the museum we were so disappointed to find it was closed for renovations. All we could do was have a look at the ‘big hole‘ – a massive hand dug chasm by the diamond miners of old. So the next day we planned on going underground on a diamond tour, but when we arrived at the mine were told they no longer conducted the tours.
Diamond Mine Kimberley
By this stage we were a bit despondent with Kimberley, with the things we wanted to do being impossible, combined with the fact that the campground was infested with ants and Shaz meeting a couple of scorpions during a late night toilet visit, we decided there was no point hanging around. Also since buying any diamonds on a volunteers allowance was out of the question we couldn’t see the point of staying. So off we went to De Aar, the distance paragliding capital of SA.
It wasn’t us choking in the Kalahari, but Chico the car, more on that later…
We managed to leave Namibia without having to pay the fine from way back near Windhoek, and after about 6,000kms of driving we arrived back safely into South Africa. Our last night in Namibia we heard the sad news that George Best, a hero from both our childhoods had died. We were gutted not to be anywhere near a TV so we could watch some of the coverage that no doubt filled the news in the UK. The best we could do was over a week later log onto the web and read about his homecoming to Belfast, all very moving.
First up Upington
Our first stop back in SA was a Saturday afternoon in Upington, a reasonably sized town in the northern Cape, but astoundingly that did not have a single bookshop! A sad reflection on the literacy rate of it’s approx 28,000 local population. With pretty much everything closed from noon on a Saturday we camped up at the local municipal camp site Die Eisland. After camping in quiet national parks we soon realised we could be in for a hot and noisy night. Since we were back in a town it was time to eat out and we had a beautiful meal with wine at Le Must restaurant for the equivalent of about 20 quid or NZ$50, bargain! We were in for a pleasant surprise when we got back to the campsite as the majority of people seemed only to be day visitors and were all on their way home, so we had a peaceful night’s sleep after all.
Since there really wasn’t a lot to do in Upington on a Saturday, you can imagine there was even less on a Sunday so we decided to head out of town to Augrabies Falls National Park. We were looking forward to seeing natural running water again, although saying that the Falls were pretty dry at this time of year. We were really starting to feel the heat and couldn’t face doing any of the hikes in the park so decided to book a rafting trip on the Orange River for the next day. Again because there wasn’t a lot of water, the rafting was very tame, in fact it was more like drifting, but at least we were cooler in the water rather than on land. By the time we finished the river trip it was getting very hot and we decided not to stay another night in the park, but headed back to Upington – not sure if that was the right decision as they recorded 48 degrees that day!
Kalahari Desert
We stocked up with supplies again and headed north into the Kalahari Desert region. The down side was we were going back on to the dirt roads. We stopped on the approach to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (SA & Botswana owned) at a nature reserve. The build up of heat was now bringing in a storm and we thought better of trying to put the tent up in the thunder and lightning, so for the first time in 5 or so weeks we slept indoors – Dave badly and Shaz not so badly. The Kalahari Trails Nature Reserve was run by a lady professor of desert ecology originally from the UK who took us on a very informative guided drive.
From here we went north into the park on the search for ‘cats’ – the place is famed for its predators, but with the storm and rain arriving we thought some of our game viewing may be hampered. We headed for Mata-Mata camp and just after arriving and getting the tent set up another huge storm came through, but only lasted half an hour or so. The game was not bountiful, but we did see some animals that we hadn’t previously – giant eagle owl, white faced owls, bat eared fox, and red hartebeest, plus loads of birds that neither of us had any clue about!
The next day we went further north to Nossob camp and it was the next morning that we had our reward – we managed to spot a male and female lion (on the Botswana side of the river bed) and after watching them for a few minutes realised they also had two cute little cubs! We were now content to leave the park as the driving on the combination of gravel and sand was hard work.
Choking in the Kalahari
All was going well until about 130kms from the park exit and Shaz realised that Chico was starting to lose power and chug along. There was not much other traffic around and no phone signal so the only option was to go for it and try and get to the exit. Eventually after over three very nerve-wracking hours we made it, but only just. Chico pretty much conked out in the car park and to top it all had his first flat tyre. We phoned the AA, had a cool drink, and a huge sigh of relief that we were at least in a camp site with facilities.
Tow Truck Time
Choking in the Kalahari – Chico back on the tow truck
So for the second time in 8 weeks Chico ended up on the back of another tow truck! (Read about the first time here.) This time for a 300km drive back to guess where… Upington! And to make matters worse it was a Saturday afternoon. But we cannot complain, the AA garage had the best service ever. Apart from the fact that the mechanic fixed Chico within 5 seconds of him getting off the tow truck (all he had to do was pull the choke out and that cleared his blockage!!!), he got us 2 new tyres and fully serviced the car and cleaned the carburetor (to prevent future blockages) all by 4pm. It meant we didn’t have to endure another night in this bookshop-less town, but instead we could start our journey to Kimberley (home of the diamond!).
That was a slip of the tongue from Sharon as we crossed the border from South Africa into Botswana! What she really meant to say was ‘look at the baboons in Botswana’. And to emphasise she in no way was talking about the cross-border and customs officials. There were actual baboons crossing the road in front of us.
We managed to leave Johannesburg last Thursday, a bit later than we had wanted to. We had to wait for a border letter from the car insurance company, which as it turned out we were never asked to produce! Chico, our car, got a clean bill of health that morning and let’s hope it stays that way. The drive was easy and the roads were in pretty good condition. We just had to watch out for the animals – mostly baboons, donkeys, goats, cattle and loads of ostrich.
We were only crossing through Botswana to get to Namibia so we only stayed there one night in a place called Kanya. We had no idea of where to stay before we arrived. We had found two hotel names listed on an obscure website, so stopped and asked a Kenyan lady where they were. One was no longer operating, but she very kindly led us to the other one which turned out to be fine.
The first palaver we had was with paying on credit card. The receptionist didn’t really know how the ‘chip & pin’ type cards worked. It looked like the card got swiped twice, but it was hard to tell as there was no paper in the machine!
The second palaver was dinner. The meat was a bit tough and Sharon had a choking attack in the dining room, but the locals were concerned and all willing to help. Thankfully the Heimlich (not sure how to spell) manoeuvre was not necessary.
Friday was to be our long day of driving so we wanted an early start. First stop was the ATM machine for some cash where the machine swallowed Dave’s bank card!!! The bank was not open and the security guard said it would be another hour or so before we could get help. But we were in luck this time, a very nice gentleman from the bank came out about 10 minutes later with Dave’s card so we were able to get a move on.
Considering we were only in Botswana for less than 24 hours, we haven’t got much room to comment, but the people we did met were more than helpful. In fact the customs/border officials on the way out of Botswana were the nicest either of us have ever come across! When Dave signed the form as the Customs official instead of the tourist they even joked about it!
We will keep Botswana on our ‘list’ and will try and get back there some day.
What a difference a day can make! We are happy to say that our second welcome to South Africa was a much more hospitable one.
The day after we last wrote our blog, our friends Michelle & Peter picked us up from the Basecamp Backpackers in Port Elizabeth. They drove us to St Francis Bay where they had booked us into the most luxurious place either of us have ever stayed. The Beach House was the ultimate in laid back luxury for the next three nights. We felt thoroughly spoiled and enjoyed every minute – sumptuous breakfasts, walks on the beach, and candle lit baths with sea views.
The Beach House DeckThe Beach House BedroomSea Views!Peter and Michelle
This was in stark contrast to the previous two nights we spent at the backpackers hostel with the craziest hosts we have ever met. Franzie and Monica were ‘Basil and Sybil’ to a tee! Franzie was completley interfering and Moncia constantly nagging him, but they did want their guests to have a good time.
We have also had our first experience of a Fair Trade in Tourism accredited operator – we took a city and township tour with Calabash Tours in Port Elizabeth which gave us an insight on how things work; it was a little disappointing, but worthwhile all the same.
We unfortunately had some very sad news in the last two weeks. Sharon’s sister phoned to say that Avis (a good friend and sister-in-law) had lost her mother in the fight against cancer. Then two days later just as we were getting ready to leave St Francis Bay, Sharon’s Dad phoned with the dreaded phone call that wee Eileen (who had been part of the Brunt family for more than forty five years) had died.
The next couple of days for Sharon were by far the saddest she has ever experienced living away from family, feeling so isolated and not being at home where she was needed. It was not possible to get back to Ireland and very difficult to come to terms with the fact that she could not be there to support family and friends. This is certainly the down side of choosing our travelling lifestyle, but we were so thankful that at least we had each other and we were with supportive friends.
Volkswagen Chico
Since then we have bought a car and to be honest not had the best luck with it so far. Let’s face it, it just hasn’t been our week, but DV things can only get better. We bought our little 1995 VW Citi Golf on Friday from a distant referral, but after walking the streets of East London talking to used car salesman, we thought even a distant referral would be better than taking a chance with a complete stranger. One thing we found is that it is very difficult to buy a car without a car – walking from lot to lot is time consuming work!
We also managed to clear our remaining baggage through customs at the end of last week, a bit of a long winded process, but we got there in the end and now have our camping gear and Dave’s paraglider in tow.
Anyway on Saturday we packed up and hit the road at 7am for an early start – 70kms later the car conked out, fortunately at a Shell garage where there just happened to be two policeman shopping for doughnuts and who were willing to help. They tried their best as did another couple of kind motorists, but all to no avail, the little Chico was going nowhere. Eventually the AA towed us back to East London where the mechanic took 10 minutes to fix an apparent simple alternator/battery wiring problem!
At 1pm we decided to stick with our original plan and headed for Howick (Sharon lived here back in 1990!) in Kwa Zulu Natal. Everything was going well until about 150kms from Howick. Sunset followed by thick fog (no more than 2 metres visibility) accompanied by pedestrians, wild animals and vehicles with no lights on the road meant driving was far from a pleasure. All this accompanied by the oil light flashing on the dashboard with not a garage in sight. Needless to say we were more than relieved to arrive with Mr & Mrs de Jong at 8.30pm in two safe, but shattered pieces!
We had a very relaxing Sunday watching Michelle and her horse in an eventing competition followed by time walking with Mr & Mrs de Jong on the completed Sakabula Golf Coursewhich we first saw in it’s infancy some 9 years ago!
Monday ended up being a bit of a marathon drive from Howick to Pretoria – the car did not get off to a good start, but we did make it just in time for a 5pm appointment with Sharon’s new boss at Fair Trade in Tourism. It was good to put faces with names and she now has no shortage of reading and research material to digest before starting work in January.
Right now we are at Michelle & Peter’s home in between Johannesburg and Pretoria getting ready to re-start our road trip. And guess what? The Chico has had to go into the garage for another check up! All being well we will hit the road again tomorrow and aim to cross the border into Botswana. We don’t plan on stopping long in Botswana on this trip as the goal is to get to Namibia and travel there for the next few weeks.
Although we no longer have our lap top (see previous blog post), we are still able to update schindlersinsa.blogspot.com and check emails via internet cafes to keep in touch.
Our welcome to South Africa was not quite what we anticipated. We have now been in so called “sunny South Africa” for a week and it has rained for the past two days! But no problem, it has not dampened our spirits, and anyway the sun is out again today.
Our first couple of days we stayed at a B&B until one of the other VSA volunteers (Lindsay from Dunedin) kindly offered us a spare room at his place. We moved in there temporarily last Friday. He lives next door to another VSA volunteer (Lesley from Auckland) and we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of their accommodation. Who knows what standard of place we will get later on in December?
Sports Day
Lindsay took us along to a sports day organised by his church on Saturday and managed to rope us in to taking part in Pastor Roco’s team! It was mainly kids competing, with a few bigger kids like us as well. Dave competed in the football, touch rugby, and wheelbarrow races (using real wheelbarrows), and Sharon played volleyball and had to do the sack race. It was a great day out, just a bit too much sunshine for us and we really enjoyed watching the black kids dance, they were superb with unbelievable rhythm. (Oh by the way our team won!)
Sharon competing in the sack raceDave leading a real wheelbarrow race!
Familiarisation
On Saturday night we went out for dinner with a few VSA volunteers. There are currently 5 VSA volunteers in East London, and a few more scattered around South Africa.
Sunday was spent with two volunteers showing us around the area. We did a lot of walking on some beautiful beaches, something we hope to do a lot more of when we get our own place here.
We have also met our VSA field officer and have found out a wee bit more about Sharon’s actual assignment, not much more, but a little! He has also put me in touch with my soon to be boss in Fair Trade in Tourism in Pretoria so hopefully we will get up there to see her at some stage before I start work.
The last few days we have been car shopping and doing a lot of walking. It is hard to buy a car without a car because it is a fair distance between car lots and private car sales! Hence no car yet!
We went to a drumming circle on Tuesday night – a group of people who get together weekly and play the African drums, great sound and maybe that is something else we will do when we get settled in East London.
Right now we are in Port Elizabeth (PE), two hours south of East London (EL), and although as we said earlier our spirits have not dampened we are fairly p!$$ed off .
The inevitable welcome to South Africa
Our welcome to South Africa has involved the inevitable, something we thought was likely to happen at some stage during our two years, but not anticipating it would happen in the first week.
You have probably guessed by now that we have been the victims of SA crime! The volunteer’s house we were staying at was broken into on Wednesday morning just after we left to go catch a bus to Port Elizabeth for a few days. The bad news is that we lost half our stuff. The good news is of course that we still have the other half!
It is just unfortunate that the missing stuff was our luxury stuff – the laptop and our trusty iPOD with all our music. Sharon’s backpack is gone, her clothes, our hiking boots and running shoes (great excuse to not have to go running anymore), and a few other bits and pieces. Note that none of Dave’s clothes were taken!!! Lindsay, our host, lost a few pairs of shoes and some pens!
After dealing with half the SA police force and completing a dozen forms to report the crime, we managed to change our bus time and still get to PE as planned.
One parting quote from Lindsay as we left the police stations was “we thought we were all coming to SA to help the poor, but it looks like the poor are quite happy to help themselves!!!”
We are meeting our SA friends (Michelle & Peter) tomorrow and really looking forward to spending the weekend with them.
One last thing – we have not managed to work out a way to make cheap international phone calls yet, and texting is also very expensive for us, so email and this blog will be our primary source of communication.
Wednesday 28th September 2005 is now ranked up there as the longest day we’ve ever had, but more about that later.
We are now in South Africa, and writing this at 5am from a bed & breakfast in East London!
Our last week or so in New Zealand was a wee bit strange, it was kind of like being in limbo because we had to move out of our house on the 18th to allow our tenants to move in, and our flights were not leaving Queenstown until the 27th. We are not sure what we would have done without the generosity of all our friends who housed and fed us during our homeless state. A big thank you to everyone we stayed with, and also thanks to all of you who so kindly offered, it was all very much appreciated.
Stewart Island
Since we had a few days to while away we took the opportunity to visit Stewart Island and it was a well needed break away from all our preparations. We had a lovely time relaxing – we spent our three days there reading, walking and eating some delicious fresh fish while admiring the stunning views. It is a beautiful little island and well worth a visit.
Halfmoon Bay Stewart IslandOban, Stewart Island
And so it was that we could no longer prolong the inevitable emotional departure from our home of the past four years. We had a bit of a farewell do in Queenstown on Saturday night, which had a knock on effect on how we, and a few of our friends, felt on Sunday morning!
If things go according to plan with our VSA assignment in South Africa, we will not return to our home in New Zealand with the views that we will no doubt miss, until the end of January 2008.
Farewell party with friends
Back to the longest day
Okay back to the longest day.
It started in a Christchurch airport motel with a very early morning (or rather middle of the night) wake up call at 3.30am! Our international flight left at 5.50am for Sydney where we had a few hours to kill before the 14 hour onward flight to Johannesburg.
There is no getting away from the fact that it was a very long flight all the while seeming to chase daylight, but the amazing views over the Antarctic made it all worthwhile. The pilot who had been flying for 30 years said he had never seen such impressive views of this unique continent. It all felt even more relevant due to the fact that we had just spent the previous afternoon in the very educational Antarctic Centre in Christchurch.
We arrived late afternoon in Johannesburg, and on the connecting flight to East London, we were relieved at last to see the sun set. We’d had 22 hours of daylight – it would soon be bed time and at this stage nothing else mattered!
The fact that Sharon’s backpack did not make it with us to East London was of no concern – we were in Africa now! We were met at the airport by two VSA volunteers who drove us to our B&B (The Gate House in Quigney). And the surprising news was that the missing back pack turned up at 9.30pm just as we turned down the sheets at the end of the longest day (about 28 hours after we got out off bed)!
Hi, we're Sharon & Dave an active and adventurous Irish & English couple who've been travelling together for more than 20 years. These posts are our travel stories and personal journeys. Follow our adventures to see where we've been and where we're going next!
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