South America and South Africa

Dear all,

As the internet access in my hostel was on strike yesterday night belated X-Mas greetings to all of you around the world. May all your wishes become true!

I had a very pleasant X-Mas eve yesterday (remember, the important day for the Germans is the 24th) as we started our day with a visit of the Old Biscuit Mill food market in Woodstock. This is a market similar to the Borough Market in London, maybe somewhat more international then there, where you get all kinds of food for very reasonable prices. I started my X-Mas eve with a dozen of oysters for EUR 10 and a glass of sparkling wine for EUR 1,50 – nice! Thereafter chilling at the beach for a couple of hours and in the evening a very memorable stay on Table Mountain until sunset. Awesome! There is a meteorogical phenomenon that the top of Table Mountain is often covered with a thin layer of clouds in the evening. It appears as if one is walking in heaven as the clouds are below. Nevertheless the regions around the mountain are still visible (e.g. the city below, the harbor, the winelands in the East and the mountain range behind). It was really, really beautiful. Make sure that if you visit Table Mountain do it in the evening (or stay until dusk).

All the best to you all!!!

The five days before X-Mas Claire, Roberto and I did an excursion to the Garden Route along the coastline East to Cape Town and back on the Route 62, which is in the hinterland of the coast leading through a more mountainous area. The final half day we spent in the Wine Country of Stellenbosch having two wine tastings before the wineries closed. On our way to the Garden Route we visited the towns of Hermanus, Whale Watching capital of South Africa and Mossel Bay, which is a good place for Great White Shark encounters. However, we skipped both of the activities and were also not too excited about both towns. The whole region appears to be overly developed and I had the feeling it would have been good to be there 20ish years ago.

We made our first and second overnight stop in the decent little town of Wilderness, where I could do some paragliding. I didn’t know before about the flying sites here and close by and when about it I was eager to fly the next day. (Now Africa is the fourth continent I did paragliding.) I rented the equipment and went to the flying site “Map of Africa”, a soaring ridge with a landing zone right at the beach. The first flight was about 90 minutes and it was actually more difficult to get down than staying in the air but considering the 25plus other gliders in the air in a smallish site and that I didn’t have a reserve it was clearly safer to land than risking a collision.The day thereafter we went to Storm’s River Mouth where the strong breaking of waves impressed me a lot. I watched it for hours and didn’t get tired of the ever changing play of the water.

We chose to get back via the Route 62, a route that is considerable less popular  than the Garden Route but with a very different and according to my mind nicer appeal. I preferred it to the Garden Route as it is less developed and some of the towns had simply a friendly somewhat sleepy atmosphere. The night we spent in Oudtshoorn closer to Cape Town followed by an excursion over the Swartberg Pass and through the Swartberg Canyon the next morning. The strangely shaped rock formations reminded me of the lines of finger prints. We ended up in Montagu in a hostel where the units were former horse-boxes in a barn.

After traveling to Stellenbosch, the biggest and best known wine-producing region of South Africa we were there right in time for the wine tastings before the wineries closed. In the first one we had an interesting conversation with young winemaker about his philosophy of winemaking, what he would do differently than his boss, his view on the wines of the Old World and the New World, where he would like to travel to learn more about the wines, etc. I think we benefited from being the last customers of the days and that nobody else was around anymore. The other winery was one of the big ones called “Delheim” led by a German immigrant who was coming in the 1950’s to South Africa.

To summarize the excursion I must say these were some very pleasant days and the “backyards” of the country are also well worth visiting.

About 30 miles south of Cape Town is the Cape of Good Hope which we visited yesterday. Roberto from Spain was joining Claire and me and we had picked a very fine day with cloudless sky. Albeit the Cape of Good Hope is not the southern-most point of the African continent it really has something special, mainly also because of the many sunken ships close by. The “Cape Point” with the lighthouse is on a steep cliff and the seabirds were soaring in the wind that constantly blowed from the South. It was awesome to see with which speed they approached the sheer cliff, how they  slowed down the very last metres to finally safely land under the overhangs. True artists of the air.

The Atlantic Ocean had clear blue water and the beach right at the Cape was one of the finest I have ever seen. Albeit the water was quite cold due to the Benguela Current we were actually managing to splash around carefully avoiding to loose the ground below our feet as the surge and the rip curls were very strong. In fact swimming on that beach is not permitted and there are also no lifeguards. However, others were following our example and suddenly an entirely empty beach was “filled” with twenty people.

Yesterday night Claire and I and two others from the hostel were at an event that most likely I wouldn’t have visited if I had been in Europe: it was the “Christmas Carols and Candlelights” event in the Botanical Garden of Cape Town organized by the Rotary Club. It is a series of three concerts were families and friends gather for a picknick and after sunset sing christmas carols supported by a choir and a narrator reading parts of the nativity play while children are performing it. The organizers provide candles and the lyrics of the carols so that everybody is able to sing (guess who wasn’t). It was such a peaceful atmosphere with  these thousands of people sitting on a big lawn in the beautiful botanical garden, from some families several generations came together, the kids were playing around, and when the sun came down the only lights were those from the candles and the far away suburbs of Cape Town.

Driving through the Namib Desert was one of the most rewarding experiences of my trip to the South of Africa so far. The openness of the country with its slowly changing scenery was truly amazing. Flat dry yellow grassland that is colliding with a pale blue sky to red sanddunes and a contrasting deep blue sky where the low evening sun models sharp edges on the dunes to hilly or even mountainous areas where crossing a pass opens up new and very different views to deep canyons that are only visible when one is right in front of it. It strongly reminded me of driving through the Southwest of the United States, a trip which I still treasure as one of the greatest trips I ever made.

For hours we didn’t see any other car and when one was approaching it was already visible miles away due to its dust trail on the dirt roads. The drivers were greeting each other as in case of an emergency or breakdown this could be the only help available until the next day. We helped one dutch couple to change the flat tire of their car and received help from two south-african guys who were fixing our flat (then spare-)tire we encountered the next day preventing a detour of approx. 50 miles. While we were driving I was thinking how the road alignment is planned and designed given that there are no curves for 40 miles or so. I guess in the Department of Transport and Infrastructure they bend over their maps drawing a straight line with a ruler.

After Zambia we went to the Etosha Nationalpark in the North of Namibia crossing the Caprivi Strip even further North and squeezed between Botswana in the South, Zamiba in the East and Northeast and Angola in the North. It is bordered by the Okavango, Chobe, Kwando and Zambezi River contrary to the rest of Namibia fertile and lush. The scenery was very much alike to Zambia and also the villages were made of little round thatch covered huts like in Zambia and Botswana.

Regarding the Etosha NP I reckon that we were clearly there at the wrong time of the year. The rainy season had already started so that the game does not use the waterholes close to the camps but stays deeper in the park with its more than 20,000 sqkm. The Etosha Park is dominated by a salt pan desert which is about 130 km long and as wide as 50 km in some places. Other than anything I have read before we could not see huge herds of game populating the park. Given what we had seen just a few days ago in Chobe NP I was somewhat disappointed from seeing “just” bigger groups of zebras and ostriches. My personal highlights were the two chameleons crossing the road in front of our car. It was amazing to see how slowly they moved needing for one step of one leg maybe 30 seconds.

After Etosha NP we went to Swakopmund, which is a city with about 40,000 inhabitants located at the coast approximately 170 miles west of the Namibian capital Windhoek. It was founded by the Germans at the end of the 19th century and its colonial heritage is still visible in its architecture, the restaurants, bakeries and “Konditoreien” and also audible as a bigger part of the population still speaks German and this with only a slight accent if any at all. For me it was awkward speaking German to the locals albeit being more than 7,000 miles away from home. And since I am now away for more than four months it was really great to eat some real German food (Marinierte Heringe mit Pellkartoffeln – Pickled herring with oven-potatoe for those who are interested). Swakopmund is located between the Atlantic Ocean and the Namib Desert and could potentially have wonderful beaches. As the cold Benguela Current coming from the Antarctis flows by swimming without a wetsuit is more or less impossible as the water rarely gets warmer than 15 degrees centigrade which is a shame given the perfectly fine sand they have here.

The last days it has been more difficult to access the internet so that I could not update my blog as soon as I would  have wished. Anyway, now I am back and actually already in Cape Town after crossing the amazing Namibia.

We continued our trip from Livingstone, Zambia and encountered our first flat tire still in Zambia when we oversaw a huge pothole in the otherwise (quite) good roads. The rim was completely crooked and I was absolutely convinced that there is no other way than buying a new wheel after we have replaced it with the spare wheel. When we finally found a garage looking reliable enough we were more than surprised when the guy said that it can be easily repaired. The crooked rim was hammered until the tire was airtight again. And my eyes got even bigger when the guy charged 20 Namibian dollars which are the equivalent of about 2 (!) USD.

The other two incidents were attributable to Namibia’s dirt roads, which are in general in a good condition and are maintained regularly. However, we experienced a little adventure when we had to change the wheel in the Etosha Nationalpark with lions and leopards watching us (ok, at least potentially watching us). Claire and I decided that one of us is changing the tire while the other one keeps a watch so that we wouldn’t have unexpected visitors. Another car stopped and the driver explained to us that it is dangerous to exit the car and that we should have called the park rangers. However, he and his wife disembarked their car as well to help us keep a look out. Claire and I were happy when we were finally safely back in our car. Later in the camp we could see how “normal” punctures are repaired: with a pricker the little hole is widened to create space for a sticky strip of rubber that get stuffed into the hole. Thereafter both ends are cut off to have no loose ends flapping around in the wind. Simple but efficient.

Ommmmmmm

After being in Chobe Nationalpark we continued our trip to the Victoria Falls on the Zambian side. Before we could do this we had to cross the border from Botswana to Zambia which was a major undertaking for our rental-car. All in all it took Claire two hours to get all docs signed  while I was waiting in the car. We decided that one of us should stay in the car when the other goes through the border formalities as there were a number of dodgy people around and we didn’t want to leave the car alone. You must imagine this situation – I am sitting in a 170 degrees fahrenheit (60 degrees celsius) hot car with windows closed and doors locked to avoid any interaction with people outside. The sweat was literally running down my face and my legs until I finally dared to open one window after I lost the attention of the people outside.

The next day we crossed the border again, this time from Zambia to Zimbabwe, to see the Victoria Falls from the opposite side. At the moment it is the end of the dry season so that the Falls have considerably less water than in the wet season. The Main Falls were still impressive and when standing at the rim to get a view in the gorge I felt slightly dizzy as always when I look down from greater heights (strangely not when I am flying though).

Anyway, the next day we did the one-day whitewater-rafting trip I was looking forward to since the guys from Omega-Tours in Honduras told me about it. The tour on the Zambezi river is considered as one of the best rafting trips in the world and  indeed, I think it was the best one-day tour I ever did. We were well equipped with life-jackets, our guide had an experience of twelve years doing these trips on the Zambezi and we always had three kayaks accompanying us to help to safe us. Nevertheless we were wiped off once from the raft and flipped it twice. Since the river is deep and there are in general no boulders anywhere near the surface the risk  appeared to be manageable and we popped up to the surface very quickly after falling into the water. On our trip we encountered rapids up to grade five while the one grade six rapid we avoided (seeing this rapid I would not go down for any money in the world).

Below are the six grades of difficulty in white water rafting. They range from simple to very dangerous and potential death or serious injuries.

Grade 1: Very small rough areas, might require slight maneuvering. (Skill Level: Very Basic)

Grade 2: Some rough water, maybe some rocks, might require some maneuvering. (Skill level: basic paddling skill)

Grade 3: Whitewater, small waves, maybe a small drop, but no considerable danger. May require significant maneuvering. (Skill level: experienced paddling skills)

Grade 4: Whitewater, medium waves, maybe rocks, maybe a considerable drop, sharp maneuvers may be needed. (Skill level: whitewater experience)

Grade 5: Whitewater, large waves, large volume, possibility of large rocks and hazards, possibility of a large drop, requires precise maneuvering. (Skill level: advanced whitewater experience)

Grade 6: Class 6 rapids are considered to be so dangerous as to be effectively unnavigable on a reliably safe basis. Rafters can expect to encounter substantial whitewater, huge waves, huge rocks and hazards, and/or substantial drops that will impart severe impacts beyond the structural capacities and impact ratings of almost all rafting equipment. Traversing a Class 6 rapid has a dramatically increased likelihood of ending in serious injury or death compared to lesser classes. (Skill level: successful completion of a Class 6 rapid without serious injury or death is widely considered to be a matter of great luck or extreme skill)

More spectacular 😉 photos see “Whitewater Rafting”

After having survived Petra’s and Thomas’ attempt to kill me ( 😉 )… No new beginning – After having saved Petra and Thomas from being caught for trying to poison the security staff on Cape Town International Airport… No new beginning –  After having prevented the accidental smuggle of a small scorpion in Petra’s and Thomas’ camera bag to Germany (numerous times I pulled out the camera and changed the lenses before I finally saw him) we had some fine days in the Moremi Game Reserve, which is part of the Okavango Delta, and particularly Chobe Nationalpark, which is adjacent to the MGR in the East and stretches out to the Botswanian and Zambian border. The two campsites were beautifully located close to the river while the campers are strongly advised to keep the tents closed at all times to minimize the risk of interference of wild animals. At the campsite of the MGR a lonesome hyena often shows up overnight and searches for leftovers to eat. We heard that hoarse laughing of the hyena in the early morning hours and together with seeing its footsteps it was quite an eerie experience.

On our first game drive (the animals are called “game” here and hence a “game drive” is a safari) we sunk the 4×4 car in a mud puddle and had to stay overnight in the car, as it was already too late to go to the ranger-station. Since it is low-season and the road we have chosen was apparently blocked due to bad road conditions (I swear, we couldn’t see it from the side we entered) and surrounded by meter-high grass there was no hope that the drivers of another car would see us. Luckily the ranger-station was only a five minute walk away but given that there are also lions, elephants, hyenas, etc. in the park, those five minutes felt quite intense. The ranger was very kind and didn’t let us feel like idiots, what we actually were, and together we made the walk back to the car. The car he had called to pull us out came about half an hour later and the second attempt to pull out our car with the help of six people pushing it was finally successful and all in all this episode had a happy ending.

As the highlight of our stay in the Moremi Game Reserve I consider seeing a pack of African wild dogs hunting for impalas given that these wild dogs are an endangered species (only 3,000 to 5,500 wild dogs are left in maybe only 15 countries) and the population in the MGR is considered as the largest remaining in the world. We also saw some giraffes, antilopes (kudus and impalas) and hippos but overall I was a little disappointed as I expected the big herds of animals, no, I mean game.

When we entered Chobe Nationalpark a day later the picture changed completely. Already after five minutes we saw the first elephants when we were driving the River Side Loop. It was breathtaking – smaller groups of five to ten elephants were coming up the slopes and one of these groups was passing our car maybe in five meters distance. Since a thunderstorm was quickly eating up the scenery and the evening approached we decided to drive to our campsite, still about 45 minutes, to go. After the first raindrops fell the visibility reduced to almost zero and finally we thought we might have lost the road while we were driving in a riverbed. In front of us a river was crossing the route we considered before being our driveway, not being sure about that anymore, but given our experience of being stuck in the mud puddle just two days ago, we decided to be on the safe side. We stopped the car behind a bush were the terrain appeared to be flatter to avoid the risk of potential landslides or being dragged away from a forceful waterstream. Few bigger 4×4 cars from tour operators cautiously drove around and through the lake that appeared earlier to be a river while others were waiting on top of the opposing slope. When the rain got weaker we also tried our luck and eventually reached the other hillside. While we were making our way to the campsite the flooding of the road was so immense that we decided to wait in the car for the next day not risking to get stuck again. Given that we had our supplies for the next three days we opened a bottle of South African Pinotage and started our quiz about the world’s geography and economics with the help of the “factbook” on the itouch. About an hour later a convoy with soldiers and the campsite operator came to pick us and other campers up to bring us safely to the campsite were we arrived at about 1 a.m.

After relocating to our booked lot we started our first game drive and the assumption that Chobe has ample wildlife to offer became reality. While we were there we saw hundreds of elephants, some of them as close as three meters, hundreds of zebras, hippos, antelopes, thousands of buffaloes, many eagles and vultures, ONE SCORPION, and finally on our second last game drive – clearly the highlight of our stay – a pride of eight lions. Firstly we only saw a lioness and a young lion nibbling on a dead warthog’s head about hundred meters away in the open field but when a bad weather front approached it was clear that they will change their location. We waited patiently and indeed, when the rain started they returned to the bushland right next to where we parked and just 15 meters in front of us they passed to hide in the bushes. While we could still see them we could identify more lions than just those two and when the rain got weaker the entire pride came out – three lionesses and five cubs. The lions apparently enjoyed the attention of the people sitting in the security of the cars, meanwhile some more tour operators have showed up. These were truly special moments to see the lion cubs play, banter and caress each other from a distance of maybe 15 meters overseen by the three lionesses and I guess I will never forget these hours.

At the moment I cannot wait to see the photos on a big screen as the small display of the camera offers only the opportunity to check whether the photos are focused and not blurry. Likewise I am excited to share these photos with you via this blog upon my return to Germany end of December.

See more under photos “Botswana”

First many thanks to all the friends who read my posts in this blog and also those who enjoyed watching the photos. It was always fun for me to put this together and a great joy for me when I received your comments. Many thanks for this!

Unfortunately it will be much more difficult to continue this blog as I was robbed in my last seven hours in Buenos Aires before I wanted to go to the airport. I lost my camera, my laptop, my credit cards, all my money (however, it was not that much, but when you literally have not even a penny money gets a new dimension), my passport and my drivers license as well as several personal items. Fortunately I haven’t lost my health as when it happened (the classic – squeezing some liquid on me which looks like bird poo, handing tissues, creating hectic, bla, bla, bla, then another person grabbing the backpack, then the “helpful” women running away) I was more into trying to relocate my backpack instead of grabbing one of the “helpful” women. And if I would have grabbed one, who knows, they might have had a knife or somebody else would be around to protect them. Whatever…

After seven hours with the police and numerous phone calls with the German Embassy (German tourists on the street gave me some money so that I could call the Embassy, the police did not let me) I found a hostel which let me stay without paying in advance and without showing any proof of identity. The next day (Monday) I went to the German Consulate and within 70 minutes I got hold of a new passport which enables me to continue my trip. The next plane to Johannesburg, South Africa, went two days later so beside my possessions I “only” lost three days and actually a lot of trust and self esteem.

Since my friend Claire and I wanted to travel the South of Africa together in a rental car we changed the arrangements with the rental car company so that Claire is now the only driver. We picked up the car in Johannesburg, South Africa, at the airport and are meanwhile in Botswana and want to enter Chobe Nationalpark later today. I could also meet my friends Petra and Thomas at the airport (we wanted to meet in Kruger Nationalpak three days earlier if the theft wouldn’t have happened) and they kindly lent me their Canon dslr (I might not look as the most trustworthy person at this point in time but I always carry it around with me, promised!).

Though more difficult now and less colorful I try to keep you updated.