Summary South Africa

We shouldn’t do a summary of a country we hardly have seen. We just would like to say that Cape Town is definitely worth a trip. We didn’t expect to see so many mountains and were a bit shocked over these huge monocultures. We didn’t like the high voltage fences and it was a remarkable feeling when all the black workers on their way to the “whites” crossed our way while we went in the morning to the local bus stop. At some places you can totally forget that you are in Africa while at other places you will be well reminded. The fact that white people accept or tolerate the different lifestyle of the black people is also noteworthy. Would be nice if some Europeans bear at least a bit of this tolerance inside.

We learnt that Woolworth in South Africa is not comparable with the European Woolworth as here we found a great food store with a lot of products from organic farming.

And we learnt that the South Africans love their dried meat stripes, which they call biltong, what nearly sounds for us as biltång what could be translated from Swedish into car pliers.

At last we have to comment the Afrikaans language. For us it sounded like Dutch or as if somebody was talking with a fist in his mouth. We tried to understand some words as it is close to the german language but it was nearly impossible. The most used word was “Jaaaaa” but we were not able to pronounce it in the same way as the Afrikaners do.

We surely will come back but we are not in a hurry. According to a South African tour guide we still can discover South Africa at the age of 85 🙂

Rainy game drive

For us it was completely new. When we checked in at the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park at a quarter to 4 on a Saturday afternoon we had to book two nights in advance, as you have to stay at least two nights in the park, if you want to leave the park towards Namibia. Crazy rules and for us a kind of a challenge as we never plan in advance. How do you know where it is nice if you haven´t been there before? So we booked Twee Rivieren Camp and as we were not able to book any camps on the Botswana site, as they do not make bookings on the weekend, we booked one night at Nossob – a campsite somewhere in the middle of the park. We passed the barrier, they took the park “passport” paper and said: “Tomorrow morning you can come and get it back!” That´s the way they make sure that no one leaves the camp earlier than 5.30 and has safely arrived at the camp at night. We talked to a Swiss couple that is travelling since 3 years, already stayed in the park for 8 days and told us enthusing about the park and all the animals.
We went early to bed, the whole camp at 10pm is like dead anyway, and got up at 4.30am. We packed quietly and tired our roof top tent. 10 minutes later the tent neighbours did the same and suddenly the run towards the gate started. Everybody wanted to be the first on the game drive. We got our papers and had a map that showed us the way to the first waterhole. But there is just one track you can drive anyway. But somehow the other cars disappeared and we had at least the feeling of driving lonesome somewhere in the dawn.
Then it started:
“Look there is a gemsbok.”
“Oh look over there, do you see the springbok.”
“Wow, no, that’s not real! What was that? A leopard or a cheetah?
“And there is a wildebeest coming and some more…”
Then we reached the first waterhole. 5 cars were already standing in front of it and everybody tried to catch the best picture of the ten lions that were lying around. The others were equipped like professionals and when Alexander opened the door to make a better picture (as the Land Rover windows are so tiny), we got bad views. All of a sudden the whole spectacle finished, the lions moved slowly back into the bush. That was it. Everybody started the car and went on. We stayed another couple of minutes and were lucky to see a young male lion approaching the waterhole. After that even we continued on the track through the park towards the next waterhole. We had breakfast on a special distinguished place. A car stopped beside us, for having breakfast as well, turned out to be a couple from Sweden.
We kept on driving through the park and were torn if we like this kind of game driving or not. We saw some more lions, a hyena, lots of gemsbok, springbok and jackals. In the evening we surprisingly met Caroline & Hendrik and the Swiss couple at the camp again. Together we watched some owls and jackals from a shelter at the camps waterhole before we went to bed.
Next morning it was the same procedure. Everybody rushed towards the gate. We were the second party who left and at the first waterhole we just had to wait
5 minutes as a female lion approached the waterhole. We were sitting quietly in our car and the lion passed my window within a distance of 3 meters. That was close!
Unfortunately the weather god was not on our side. The Kgalagadi is supposed to be the driest part of the Kalahari but it started raining. We couldn´t believe it, rain in the desert. Again! You remember, we had this once in Morocco. Anyway we watched more animals and later on we saw our first giraffe and observed a cheetah with her babies. We were just a bit disappointed about the bad photo conditions.
While having a lunch break Alexander had a quick look at Hendriks car and found out that the rear shaft was not sitting properly. Of course they thought it would be the best to fix it right now – and they did J
In the afternoon we arrived at Mata Mata Camp where we stayed another night. This time it was a challenge for the guy in the office as we didn´t had a booking in advance and he had to get a booking through the computer. But it worked out. We put the last meat chops on the braai and watched a jackal searching for food in the rubbish bins.
It was nice to see all these animals in reality but we still struggle with the feeling that in those parks we are the animals in the cage.
Next morning it was raining cats and dogs. Caroline & Hendrik drove towards Windhoek so we said farewell and after an easy border crossing next to the campsite including getting a stamp in the passport, a stamp in the carnet for the car and paying a road tax, we were allowed to enter Namibia.

(Just as reminder: Pictures are separately, see column Pictures)

Back on track – from Cape to Cape

We left Cape Town towards the South. The African penguin at Boulders Beach seemed to be worth seeing. But as we were a bit tired of all these commercial places, we stopped for a short while and kept on. For the night we had to find a campsite and for the first time on our journey we have been rejected. Somewhere around Millers Beach a nearly empty Camp pretended to be fully booked (probably of tours that never showed up). They didn´t want to let us in. So we just camped in front of the security guards. Next morning we arrived early at the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. At Cape Point (the real name) we nearly got blown away. I wouldn’t dare sailing in these oceans. After Alexander even got wheedled out of a baboon – the monkey clapped him at his lower leg by passing him – we kept on along the Chapman´s Peak Drive with the most photographed Bay called Hout Bay and went on along False Bay to get to the most southern point of Africa. The cape, called L’Agulhas, where officially the Indian and the Atlantic Ocean meet, is not as spectacular as Cape of Good Hope. The landscape is flat. A lot of monoculture, huge dry farmlands, its windy and there are no impressive mountains around. That’s probably why Cape of Good Hope is the more common tourist attraction.

But we were happy that our Land Rover and we made it that far and recognized that it took us 50 days from the most western point (in Dakar) to the southernmost point. From the top of the lighthouse nearby we enjoyed a fantastic view over the turquoise ocean without a lot of tourists.

As we were invited to join “The Cape Land Rover Club” meeting at Theewaterskloof dam, we took some small roads through the mountains to get there. In the middle of nowhere we stopped for the night. Next morning we made a nice walk and felt as if we were in the Alps. We had to remind ourselves that we are still in Africa and should be aware of snakes. Later on we tried to take a shortcut over a very steep mountain towards the dam. The track started on an apple plantation, like those you find in Tirol, some black workers resting in the shadow just looked at us doubtingly. After crawling up the hill with 20 km/h for about 45 minutes and finding yourself in front of a locked gate, you could lose your good manners…. But we didn’t and turned around.
We were warmly welcomed at the Club, enjoyed the Braai and talked a lot in front of the campfire. We were surprised that in Africa a drinking water reservoir even is used of motor or sailing boats, for fishing or fun activities as jet-driving or waterskiing. Next day, on the Kroonland4x4 trail, we had to accept that our Land Rover is not able to climb all hills – with nearly 3 tons we are lightly too heavy for having only 68hp – and the tipping point is closer than you can imagine. A big thanks to Bennie and Paul for your powerful help! Really scary was the ride back to the camp when we avoided a collision with a car, which was using our lane. Lucky that the Landy is so slow and Alexander had good reaction. Finally we got some good information about traveling in Namibia, so we were amped to get there.

We downloaded Tracks4Africa maps on our I-pad and started the off-road track into the wild towards the Cederberg. We were surrounded by high mountains, nice rock formations and found interesting rock paintings of the San people. We were positively surprised, as we didn’t meet anyone. During holidays or weekends it’s supposed to be crowded. At Nuwerns campsite we were the only guests, surrounded by mountains, stars, lots of satellites and the nature wildlife. We were in the middle of leopard territory.

Now we are talking… 🙂

Another nice camp to mention is the Organic Farm Jamaka (http://jamaka.co.za) where we stayed on the banks of the Rondegat River. The farm cultivates Mangoes and Rooibush tea and the friendly horses entertained us in the morning. We took a refreshing bath before we started driving at 40°C towards Calvinia through boring flat country and on gravel roads with corrugations. As we always had fences along the streets it was not possible to find a wild campsite. We had to go into the tiny little town called Calvinia, where we found a camp in the middle of the town without any guests. We had to call the owner to open up the showers and toilets for us. He charged us more than any campsite before, but at least we had a hot shower. Next morning we started early, drove through hilly scenery again with some vineyards and reached the Augrabies Falls Nature Park in the afternoon. We directly went into the swimming pool, as we had around 45°C. We had a look at the 56 m high waterfalls and went early to bed, as we wanted to start our first “game drive” next morning. We were told, to get up early if we want to see some wild animals, which the locals call “game”. It was a long time ago we heard the alarm clock ringing at 5.30am. Seeing our first Oryx, Springbok, Ostrich and Zebra in the middle of the nature rewarded us. At the same time we reached our 10.000 km mark when the milometer indicated 50802. When we returned to the camp and had a nice shower a thief broke into our car (through the open window) and stole all jelly bears. Guess what it was…
Then we really wanted to see some more wildlife and made up our mind with our new destination: The Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park, which is located between South Africa and Botswana along the Nossob River. On the long way towards the park we passed the railway station near the funny “village” Lutzputs, three houses and nothing around.
An amazing sky led us towards the Kalahari but the weather started changing…

Waiting for the Land Rover in Cape Town

As the blog is far behind our actual travel location here a short summary for Cape Town. Hope we will manage to catch up in the nearest future 🙂
When we arrived on the 25^th of December, we got picked up at the airport by Elley, a lovely South African lady and good friend to the family Riess. We were so happy to get some rest days in her summer flat at Cape Towns quarter called Woodbridge Island. We could clean up our backpack stuff (and ourselves), had a fantastic view on this magic Table Mountain and celebrated Christmas with a peaceful dinner. We explored the surrounding and were caught of the Table Mountain that could change its face a couple of times during a day. With or without clouds or fog,  during sunrise or sunset, at daytime and nighttime. This mountain is amazing to look at and we even climbed the 1086 meters to the top, by foot – not by cable car 🙂 And we can recommend this walk, just start from the Botanical gardens and after one hour steep climbing you are nearly on the top. We walked for another three hours with a fantastic view over Cape Town. It was just a bit windy. But we learnt that it is always windy in Cape Town.

The same excuse used the freight forwarder: because of the strong winds, our containership could not reach the harbour, could not be unloaded, the customs were not working between Christmas and New Year and so we had to wait until the 7^th of January to get our car out of the port.

But we had a good time anyway, walked in different surroundings a couple of times together with Elley and her dog Fricka and got an idea of how big Cape Town is. We tried to find a bit of the “real” Africa by taking the minibuses to get around. We discovered the touristic places like the Waterfront or some outdoor shops. We got lost in a street with high walls and high voltage fences but when we asked an elderly couple after the right way, they gave us a lift in her car, to drop us in front of Elleys house.
We tried to avoid these huge air-conditioned shopping malls as Conni didn´t feel very comfortable while having a cough and cold. Finally she went to the doctors again and got the frustrating answer: “You are allergic against Africa”! The doctor recommended taking nose spray and antihistaminic tablets for the rest of our journey – what would have meant for the next 8 months. She just took the antibiotic and some of the tablets but it didn´t help anyway.

We celebrated New Year near the Lions Head and had a fantastic view over Cape Town. We had a typical African Braai (barbecue) and were wondering why nobody started earlier than 12 o´clock with shooting up the rockets – as everyone in Germany does. Then we got told that only the organised firework at the Waterfront is allowed. We were impressed of the discipline.

When we got our Land Rover out of the port on the 7^th of January we mentioned that we already had spent 2 weeks in town. But the car needed an overhaul and we got the good contact of http://www.roverland.co.za. Alexander fixed the car with the help of their specialists in two days:

• New split relay for charging the second battery (the fridge didn´t work any more)
• Got finally a modified brake master cylinder and booster
• Changed all oils, seals, gaskets and filters (rear diff, engine, transferbox, mainbox)
• Changed the front steering relay oil seal.

At Christy Sports in Diepriver (www.cristys.co.za) we even got some new shoes, shirts and a new mattress for our South African Roof Top Tent “Howling Moon”.

We cleaned the car inside, packed again and got back on the road on the 13^th of January 2015.