Shattered after 30 hours of travel including waiting times for planes. Gonna take a few days (weeks?) to shake off the jet lag. Its wierd being back in lil Petone...feels small....however makes you appreciate your house, surrounds, the safety etc of NZ a hell of lot more.
But what an amazing trip, lots to reflect on and hopefully take foward into our 'normal' lives.
Manfred
Monday, May 19, 2008
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Sniff Last Day
Doh, Sat night had a temperature alternating with chills a sure sign of food poisoning (I blame the cold pieces of the godawful pizza I created I still compelled to chew). Nevertheless I tried to get out and about, hung out in a mall in Cavendish, went to the waterfront etc. Awesome merimba, drum and tribal dance bands playing on the streets. Francoise went home as I hung around and stupidly wearin a Vic Falls tee shirt ie scrreaming tourist attracted the attention of every down and out person in the vicinity. I had an articulate Zimbabwean approach me in a bookstore and tell me his life story. It was either a very convincing con or very upsetting. Then there were the two emaciated women who ran off with my drink bottle. Lots of street kids and homeless in Cape Town, the darker side of its tourist town image.
After getting in a taxi that needed to be push started, got back to Francoise and we went to an Ethiopian Resterant. So tasty and filling yet I was a bit too queasy to really enjoy..
Its Sun and I still feel ill but gotta get back to some NZ Docs back home. On a plane in a few hours.
See you all when we see you!
Manfred
After getting in a taxi that needed to be push started, got back to Francoise and we went to an Ethiopian Resterant. So tasty and filling yet I was a bit too queasy to really enjoy..
Its Sun and I still feel ill but gotta get back to some NZ Docs back home. On a plane in a few hours.
See you all when we see you!
Manfred
Friday, May 16, 2008
The (almost) End of the World
Today with our mate Peter (who we toured with down the Garden Route and took us to meet his folks) we travelled to Cape Point AKA the Cape of Good Hope AKA the South-Western most part of Africa. We drove the cliffs of Chapman's Drive past Camps bay to get to the Cape.
Here the Indian and Atlantic oceans fully merge (although Cape Alguas 80km away takes the prize as the most Southern point of Africa and where the oceans 'officially' first meet)
The Cape is a key point for salty dogs in the know with its historic importance on the sea trade route to India. Still an important shipping lane for things too big to fit through the Suez Canal and littered with historic shipwrecks. The place the Flying Dutchman the ghost ship is reputed to haunt (though try as I might I saw nothing).
We were touring with an older couple of ex-university professors from Conneticut, so we had soem interesting discussions over lunch in Simon's Bay. We checked out the local African penguin colony, the naval base before driving to the bayside town of Fish Hoek for a pleasant surprise-seeing 2-3 southern right whales cavorting/mating in the Bay. No cool photos of them leaping out of the water though despite my yelling at them.
A quick stop in the Kirsten Bosch National Gardens then home with an offer of a place to stay in Conneticut if I make it there. Bye bye Peter till we come back :-(
I had a chance to get dropped off at the huge Casino here but im pretty pooped so i might give it a miss tonight...maybe tomorrow on our last day/night in South Africa.
Manfred
Here the Indian and Atlantic oceans fully merge (although Cape Alguas 80km away takes the prize as the most Southern point of Africa and where the oceans 'officially' first meet)
The Cape is a key point for salty dogs in the know with its historic importance on the sea trade route to India. Still an important shipping lane for things too big to fit through the Suez Canal and littered with historic shipwrecks. The place the Flying Dutchman the ghost ship is reputed to haunt (though try as I might I saw nothing).
We were touring with an older couple of ex-university professors from Conneticut, so we had soem interesting discussions over lunch in Simon's Bay. We checked out the local African penguin colony, the naval base before driving to the bayside town of Fish Hoek for a pleasant surprise-seeing 2-3 southern right whales cavorting/mating in the Bay. No cool photos of them leaping out of the water though despite my yelling at them.
A quick stop in the Kirsten Bosch National Gardens then home with an offer of a place to stay in Conneticut if I make it there. Bye bye Peter till we come back :-(
I had a chance to get dropped off at the huge Casino here but im pretty pooped so i might give it a miss tonight...maybe tomorrow on our last day/night in South Africa.
Manfred
Thursday, May 15, 2008
What lies beneath
While Francoise went shopping for lipstick mirrors or something I had booked a cage dive in Hans Bay (2 hours out of Cape Town) to see Great White Sharks! Its almost peak season for them as they prey on seal pups from the massive Seal Colony nearby on Dyer Island. Got picked up at 520am and bused out to the boat. Made friends with a nice honeymooning Latvian/German couple.
We sailed out in rolling waves and anchored near the seal island, lowered the 5 person cage and threw in the line with the bait made up of shark heads (GW's like eating other sharks)...immediately this brown and white thing came at it on its side under water...then more with tails and fins breaking the surface and slapping the cage as the bait line was pulled in and out (to lure them near the cage).
The Cage!
Everyone excitedly scrabbled for wetsuits. After a titanic effort I pulled mine on over my over Amarula-ed belly.
Quit teasing the shark
I was in the second rotation to go in and when the crew yell 'Down!' you hold your breath and duck under for a look....and i almost wet my wetsuit...to see this monster thing glide past the cage. Time and again sharks would make runs at the bait, come close to the cage and at one point one opened its mouth and moved in reaaal close....you pull your fingers and toes in when that happens. that cage looks like nothing compared to those big fishys. This engenders a great, fear induced comeraderie in the cage. We had in total about 3-4 sharks hanging around, the smallest 2 metres, the biggest 3.5 metres...he was a big one I tell ya. A couple of times the sharks were quick and in a flurry swallowed bait and line. A few times a face or front of the body would peek out of the water, but generally they were moving pretty sluggishly.
We were all starting to get a bit queasy from the swell so after a few hours we came back past the seal island, where pups cavort in the water near their impending sharkey doom.
But man that was cool and its nice to meet fellow travellers willing to throw themself into a potentially watery grave in the name of fun. I ordered a DVD taken of the hijinks so should be an amusing watch.
Manfred
We sailed out in rolling waves and anchored near the seal island, lowered the 5 person cage and threw in the line with the bait made up of shark heads (GW's like eating other sharks)...immediately this brown and white thing came at it on its side under water...then more with tails and fins breaking the surface and slapping the cage as the bait line was pulled in and out (to lure them near the cage).
The Cage!
Everyone excitedly scrabbled for wetsuits. After a titanic effort I pulled mine on over my over Amarula-ed belly.
Quit teasing the shark
I was in the second rotation to go in and when the crew yell 'Down!' you hold your breath and duck under for a look....and i almost wet my wetsuit...to see this monster thing glide past the cage. Time and again sharks would make runs at the bait, come close to the cage and at one point one opened its mouth and moved in reaaal close....you pull your fingers and toes in when that happens. that cage looks like nothing compared to those big fishys. This engenders a great, fear induced comeraderie in the cage. We had in total about 3-4 sharks hanging around, the smallest 2 metres, the biggest 3.5 metres...he was a big one I tell ya. A couple of times the sharks were quick and in a flurry swallowed bait and line. A few times a face or front of the body would peek out of the water, but generally they were moving pretty sluggishly.
We were all starting to get a bit queasy from the swell so after a few hours we came back past the seal island, where pups cavort in the water near their impending sharkey doom.
But man that was cool and its nice to meet fellow travellers willing to throw themself into a potentially watery grave in the name of fun. I ordered a DVD taken of the hijinks so should be an amusing watch.
Manfred
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
A Monster Pizza at my Table
Here's the update on our last couple of days. Tuesday we checked out the District Six Museum and in the afternoon the mist covering Table Mountain finally cleared. The Mountain did exist afterall! As soon as we saw it we decided it must be climbed immediately. We jumped in a cab and headed towards the Gorge which has got a popular walking track along it. I have to say the drive up to the staring point went for quite some time and I was wondering if there would actually be much mountain left to climb. It was a pretty tough hike but we made it up monstrous stone stairs in less than an hour and a half and the view from the top was amazing:
Wednesday:
Today we checked out the Bo Kaap area and a few shops then headed to the waterfront for a trip to Robben Island. It's a pretty desolate place. Our tour guide was an ex political prisoner who spent 6 years incarcerated at the prison. He told us about working in the lime mines and smashing up pieces of slate which prisoners did just to keep them busy. We also saw Nelson Mandela's tiny cell and walked through the same gates Mandela did when he was freed. There's about 150 people who actually live on the island now. I have to say I wouldn't want to be one of them it's not the nicest place. I suppose at least there's penguins there but it's really isolated and not very pretty (though we weren't allowed to go in the wildlife area of the reserve so maybe that looks a bit nicer).
Once we got back from the waterfront we checked out a few shops and headed out to the Clay Oven for pizza. You can design your own and there were about 30 different ingredients to choose from. Doug created a God awful Chimera of a pizza which included salami, bacon, anchovies, (okay not really three animals but close enough) blue cheese, extra mozarella cheese, olives, bacon, olives, onions, garlic, mushrooms. I think it was quite disgusting and he got laughed at for requesting a doggy bag. Mine was much nicer. After that back to our room (we have a new room now - goodbye to the horrible astroturf carpet and prison toilet, but sadly the karaoke machine. our new room has a stereo in it - yay) to listen to the smooth sounds of Justin Timberlake (argh! I'm so ashamed I now know all the words) anyhoo,
L8rs!
Francoise
Monday, May 12, 2008
Cape Town Day 1
After some early morning kareoke of Wham's Club Tropicana (the mikes in our room work!) to pay back some loud Americans next door, we got nice breakfast at a Long St cafe then headed out exploring.
We firstly stumbled into Archbishop Desmond Tutu's St George Cathedral, then went to a slave museum housed ina former slave camp (Cape Town was buit on slave labour esp from South East Asia hence its melting pot quality today). Depressing. Lunch in the Company Gardens (where the first Dutch settlers grew veggies) watching squirrels race around. Then a zip round the Planetarium and Museum. Getting a bit museumed out at this stage. We then went to the Greenmarket market square to haggle over wooden hippos and table cloths (for a table we dont have). We walked to the waterfront to book tickets for later in the week to Robben Island (ie where Nelson was imprisoned) and stroll. People stuffing pamphlets in our hands for traditional healers cough witch doctors cough. Bought more touristy stuff then after a 'great' idea from me, I went to see Iron Man at a Waterfront Mall theatre while Francoise saw some period piece at an artsy theatre in same mall. We set out walking home at 10ish..hmmm Cape Town seems a bit less safe than Petone at night, dark figures waiting (or staggering) in car parks and far too deserted and unlit between the Waterfront and the central town. We managed to get a bit lost before jumping in a cab who agreed it was not wise to walk home as many homeless people and those drugged up lay in wait for unsuspecting Iron Man viewers. No more movies out at night methinks. There are some nice local jazz places I want to pop into some time this week...
More kareoke then bed I think.
Hope the weather clears soon so we can see/climb frikking Table Mountain. Its like Wellington weather here!
Manfred
We firstly stumbled into Archbishop Desmond Tutu's St George Cathedral, then went to a slave museum housed ina former slave camp (Cape Town was buit on slave labour esp from South East Asia hence its melting pot quality today). Depressing. Lunch in the Company Gardens (where the first Dutch settlers grew veggies) watching squirrels race around. Then a zip round the Planetarium and Museum. Getting a bit museumed out at this stage. We then went to the Greenmarket market square to haggle over wooden hippos and table cloths (for a table we dont have). We walked to the waterfront to book tickets for later in the week to Robben Island (ie where Nelson was imprisoned) and stroll. People stuffing pamphlets in our hands for traditional healers cough witch doctors cough. Bought more touristy stuff then after a 'great' idea from me, I went to see Iron Man at a Waterfront Mall theatre while Francoise saw some period piece at an artsy theatre in same mall. We set out walking home at 10ish..hmmm Cape Town seems a bit less safe than Petone at night, dark figures waiting (or staggering) in car parks and far too deserted and unlit between the Waterfront and the central town. We managed to get a bit lost before jumping in a cab who agreed it was not wise to walk home as many homeless people and those drugged up lay in wait for unsuspecting Iron Man viewers. No more movies out at night methinks. There are some nice local jazz places I want to pop into some time this week...
More kareoke then bed I think.
Hope the weather clears soon so we can see/climb frikking Table Mountain. Its like Wellington weather here!
Manfred
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Coffee in Napier et al (with photos!)
Friday:
After transcribing our millions of photos to CD, we took another look at the heads at Knyssa then took off to the Cango Wildlife Ranch for more creature encounters ie jaguar, oodles of crocs and annoying tourists 'In Bengal we have bigger tigers than THIS'
We went to an Ostrich Farm where I saw one of the funniest thing I have ever witnessed: Francoise riding an Ostrich screeching in terror (both her and the Ostrich).
I was er too muscly to ride the Ostrich I had to be content with a photo on its back as it sweated with the effort. We stayed at a french themed bed and breakfast (Ooo la la) after a nice dinner of ostrich for me and watery pasta for Francoise.
Francoise asking the guide somberly if the cemetary we saw on the Ostrich farm was an Ostrich Graveyard is the second funniest thing to happen that day.
Saturday:
We toured the huge caverns of the Cango Caves.
Like Fraggle Rock, us being tiny invaders in this creepy spotlit water formed weird shapes and columns. The local people believe their ancestors live down there, I can believe it. I chose not to cave dive through 25cm wide sections in the adventure cave tour.
Afternoon and evening was spent at the beaches and cliffs of Mossel Bay. A bit like Mt Maunganui. We to a interesting museum on Portugese explorers in the area and trade routes. I have many spices to trade here.
Our hotel was right on the waters edge, monstrous ocean waves thundering at its feet, great. We saved some 'dassies' ie rock rabbits from some stray dogs um and sped away from a cliff top shanty area we stumbled into.
We rang our respective mothers for Mothers Day then relaxed to the ocean roaring outside.
Sunday:
Our tour guide is from a town out of Cape Town called Napier (!) I know like me. Named for the father of the guy my Napier is named for. Once he found out where I was from he was ecstatic. Apparently there had been some past correspondence between the two Napiers. We went to his Napier, a rural little town like Waipukerau. He took Francoise and I home to meet his parents for coffee and muffins, nice change of pace.
We did a pop by to Hermanus a great land based whale watching town though we are in the wrong time of the year dammit. Not even a minnow.
Through rubbish weather we then drove to Cape Town. Couldnt see much in the poor weather, not even Table Mountain. The street we are staying on is like Cuba Street's older sister, its wierd. We are in a boutique ie eccentric backpackers. Each room is themed-ours is Kareoke with working machine and mikes...its fate.
ps there is also a 'Wellington' in SA, also near Cape Town. Cape Town beckons for the rest of the week!
Manfred
After transcribing our millions of photos to CD, we took another look at the heads at Knyssa then took off to the Cango Wildlife Ranch for more creature encounters ie jaguar, oodles of crocs and annoying tourists 'In Bengal we have bigger tigers than THIS'
We went to an Ostrich Farm where I saw one of the funniest thing I have ever witnessed: Francoise riding an Ostrich screeching in terror (both her and the Ostrich).
I was er too muscly to ride the Ostrich I had to be content with a photo on its back as it sweated with the effort. We stayed at a french themed bed and breakfast (Ooo la la) after a nice dinner of ostrich for me and watery pasta for Francoise.Francoise asking the guide somberly if the cemetary we saw on the Ostrich farm was an Ostrich Graveyard is the second funniest thing to happen that day.
Saturday:
We toured the huge caverns of the Cango Caves.
Like Fraggle Rock, us being tiny invaders in this creepy spotlit water formed weird shapes and columns. The local people believe their ancestors live down there, I can believe it. I chose not to cave dive through 25cm wide sections in the adventure cave tour.Afternoon and evening was spent at the beaches and cliffs of Mossel Bay. A bit like Mt Maunganui. We to a interesting museum on Portugese explorers in the area and trade routes. I have many spices to trade here.
Our hotel was right on the waters edge, monstrous ocean waves thundering at its feet, great. We saved some 'dassies' ie rock rabbits from some stray dogs um and sped away from a cliff top shanty area we stumbled into.
We rang our respective mothers for Mothers Day then relaxed to the ocean roaring outside.
Sunday:
Our tour guide is from a town out of Cape Town called Napier (!) I know like me. Named for the father of the guy my Napier is named for. Once he found out where I was from he was ecstatic. Apparently there had been some past correspondence between the two Napiers. We went to his Napier, a rural little town like Waipukerau. He took Francoise and I home to meet his parents for coffee and muffins, nice change of pace.
We did a pop by to Hermanus a great land based whale watching town though we are in the wrong time of the year dammit. Not even a minnow.
Through rubbish weather we then drove to Cape Town. Couldnt see much in the poor weather, not even Table Mountain. The street we are staying on is like Cuba Street's older sister, its wierd. We are in a boutique ie eccentric backpackers. Each room is themed-ours is Kareoke with working machine and mikes...its fate.
ps there is also a 'Wellington' in SA, also near Cape Town. Cape Town beckons for the rest of the week!
Manfred
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