Tuesday, November 18th
(Day 9)
We couldn’t leave Coffee Bay without going to
its famous beach. Again, we had a company there: A cow that was curiously
watching us. Sea was little bit rough but great. It was last time we could
enjoy the beach during our Baz Bus travelling.
Then it was time to take shuttle to Mthatha
from where we would continue to Durban by Baz Bus again. It was 100km to get there
but it took us almost two hours: the road was full of holes so we could not go
very fast. At least we had time to enjoy those beautiful landscapes of the
Wild Coast for the last time.
In Mthatha, we had to wait almost two hours for
Baz Bus, sitting in the middle of the parking lot with our backpacks.
We arrived to our backpackers in Durban at
22:30. This time they were luckily waiting for us.
Wednesday, November 19th
(Day 10)
After the countryside, it was eventually time
for the city life. We got to the centre of Durban by mini bus. First, we
decided to explore the Indian suburb. We visited the mosque (apparently the
largest one in the southern hemisphere) where we met a very kind woman who
explained us all rituals.
After having received an offer for the marriage
– an Indian man told us he would say to his son to marry both of us (one of
those I remember yet but I stopped counting all these offers quite soon because
my fingers would not be enough to count them all, especially after I moved to Cameroon) – we decided to visit the
Victoria Street Market.
First, we entered the meat section. Sheep heads were looking at us, lying just
next to sheep trotters. Yummy, isn’t it? Because we weren’t really hungry and
also we didn’t have place where to cook it, we decided to quit this place
and go rather to the African Art section.
Finally we got hungry. We discovered an Indian
restaurant hidden at the end of a very narrow passage. We paid only R20 for a
delicious Indian meal that filled us up for the rest of the day. (To compare,
in South Africa, the cheapest meal you can usually get in restaurant is about
R50).
Then, we moved to a more European-looking part
of the city: Workshop, City Hall and the harbour.
We realized that the beauty of Durban was
mainly about its vibe. It has few historical buildings but it’s above all
its vibe, dynamics, a cosmopolite population mixing Indians, Africans and only few
whites together that is so interesting here.
We got back to the backpackers by mini bus
again. We could see the highest efficiency of the use of a very single space in
the bus. People were sitting very close to each other, four (even pretty fat)
people on place you would expect only three of them. (However, after my
Cameroonian experience, it doesn’t seem so extraordinary to me anymore - but more about it in another article).
Thursday, November 20th
(Day 11)
We took the Baz Bus in the morning which
dropped us off in Amphitheatre Backpackers in Northern Drakensberg few hours
later. It was a five-stars backpackers (but for a normal prize) which we could notice
immediately: free Jacuzzi, sauna and an outside swimming pool, the camping site
was huge with a perfect grass and an amazing view on mountains.
It was a time for a chilling day at the pool, talking
to other backpacking people who arrived by Baz Bus with us, Jacuzzi in the
evening. When we remembered Wanda, our porter from Wild Coast, we realized how
full of contrasts South Africa was.
Friday, November 21th
(Day 12)
We signed up for a trip to Lesotho organized by
the backpackers. Waking up at 6:30 was a bit hard as we had stayed long time in
Jacuzzi the previous night. But we could sleep in the bus as the travel iwas
three-hours long. Even though we were quite close to the border, we had to go
around a national park and a huge dam that lied in between and therefore no
highway had been built there. Furthermore, the road was full of potholes so it
slowed us down as well.
Eventually we arrived to the border with
Lesotho. We had to go through the passport control to get the stamp we were
leaving South African territory. The employee was looking at my passport.. her expression
was changing little by little to an expression of an absolute surprise. She
asked me: “Where are you from?” after having studied my passport for at least
three minutes where the “Czech Republic” was written in Czech, ENGLISH and
French. I answered: “Czech Republic”. “Where?” I needed to repeat it one more
time. Finally she decided to check it on the computer where she discovered that
this country which I was talking about actually existed. She put the stamp and
I could go. Interesting that all that queue of Dutch people behind me was done
faster than me.
Finally in Lesotho! Our driver and guide in one
person told us that we might actually be considered as illegal immigrants to
Lesotho since the office on the Lesothian side of the border which we were
supposed go through was out of order since few weeks.
Observing those beautiful landscapes, we felt
like in the Tolkien’s world – He apparently got inspiration right here for his
Lord of the Rings.
Our minibus was riding on the narrow road full
of stones and we were “jumping” on our seats. I was really surprised we didn’t
lose any wheel. A man in traditional clothes riding on the horse passed around
us (indeed, this road is made rather for horses than for cars). Eventually we
stopped in front of a primary school.
A teacher from this school told us some information
about this country. About its political system, about education (most of children have to walk very long distances to the school and most of families cannot afford higher education), how people
were living there (basicaly farmers), about the fact it was one of the poorest countries in the
world. Then we went for a short walk where we could see very old paintings on
the rocks.
Our guide also explained us the local system of
flags. If somebody has a white flag on his house, it means he has a beer to
sell there. If somebody has a red flag, he has a meat. If green, some
vegetables are available there. So we stopped at one house with the white flag
so as we taste the local beer that had just been brewed in that house. Well,
nobody really appreciated it. It wasn’t that bad but it didn’t taste like a
beer we are used to. But an interesting experience.
That we visited sangoma – a traditional healer.
She told us her story (in Sotho, she didn’t speak English so the teacher from
the primary school translated for us) how she became a sangoma and how she was
helping to heal people in the village.
Before to leave we had to taste a traditional
food yet. We stopped at the teacher’s house where we tasted pup with spinach –
nothing new for us since we ate it quite a lot at the Wild Coast but never
mind, we love it!
It was just a short overview of this country. With
Mouna we decided we would come back during our April holidays to discover it
more because it is definitely worth it.
Saturday, November 22nd
(Day 13)
Today’s programme was to hike the Amphitheatre Mountain
and to see the waterfall. After our hike on Wild Coast with our heavy
backpacks, now, just with a small backpack, it was easy for us to “run up” the mountain
and to reach the top among the first. And the view was really worth it!
To get down, we had to climb down ladders.
There was a choice between a “ladder for men” and “normal ladder” where the
first one wasn’t that stable as the second one even though still pretty save
(the only thing was that it was fixed to the rocks only at the top so it was
moving little bit while climbing down). Since there was a long queue for the “normal
ladder”, we decided with Mouna to use the one “for men”, at least we had some
adventure!
The trip was organized by backpackers and in
the group, there was a group of South African and Slovak people working in
Pretoria. Since I have been in South Africa, I have met only two other Czech
people in Stellenbosch, but no other Slavic people. And now, suddenly one day I
meet a Polish guy working in the backpackers and another day four Slovak
people!
Sunday, November 23rd
(Day 14)
We woke up quite late this morning, at 9am: we
went sleep also quite late, almost at 4am, and furthermore it was raining
outside (and also little bit inside the tent since the hole in our tent was
becoming larger and larger… - now it wasn’t a tent for windy and rainy days
anymore… ). So we didn’t want to get out of the tent and we decided to have our
breakfast “in the bed” (= our sleeping bag).
Baz Bus was supposed to pick us up at 12:45 so
we had quite lot of time… and we were tired and the weather wasn’t nice so we
just had some rest doing nothing. Then it was time to begin to pack our tent so
we did so and we quickly had to prepare something for a lunch. I was in the
kitchen when Mouna ran in: “Quickly, bus is here!” What? It’s only 12:15!
Actually we got the wrong information, the bus
was indeed leaving 30 min earlier. So we packed up quickly everything (for
lunch, we just picked up some rest from the last dinner), put backpacks on our
back and ran to the bus.
Our very slow morning finished by such a rush…
followed by a sleep in the bus. So at least some excitement that day.
We thus got on the Baz Bus: last time for this
trip. Yes, we were finishing our Baz Bus trip. Next stop: Pretoria (the capital
of South Africa).
 |
| (We adopted the South African style: walking barefoot everywhere... our lunch break on the way to Pretoria) |
In Pretoria, we stayed at the university
residence where guys from our French university accommodated us. And in the
evening, we met our friend Alex! After one month of travelling when he went
through all neighbouring countries in the north while we were discovering the
Southern coast of South Africa, we all met in Pretoria.
Thus, we quit the beautiful South African
nature to spend few following days in Gauteng – the South African agglomeration
where we visited both Pretoria and Johannesburg. To be continued…
No comments:
Post a Comment