As if one vacation from our vacation was not enough...

We are excited to pick up Eric's parents tomorrow from the airport in Johannesburg. They are traveling here to celebrate Thanksgiving with us! This weekend and early next week we are going to travel in the Mpumalanga area which is famous for its waterfalls and good hiking. Then we will arrive just in time to prepare for a Thanksgiving meal. We surprisingly located a turkey in South Africa (turkey is not a staple food in South Africa or Swaziland). We have been able to locate everything else except canned pumpkin (for pumpkin pie) and french fried onions (for green bean casserole). We're going to share our US holiday with some South African and Swazi friends and there will likely be a fair amount of improvisation with dishes, but I am looking forward to the challenge. We'll update when we have internet access about how our trip goes!

Bulungula, Wild Coast

Our final destination on our epic trip through the southern part of the South Africa was brilliantly completed at a place called Bulungula, a very small village outside the electricity, mail, and telephone grids in a place untouched by western tourism. This place prides itself on using ones brains to come up with eco-friendly ways to conserve resources while still using the gifts of the earth. I know what you are thinking; “You are going to a place with no electricity, no hot water heaters, no connection to the outside world for our vacation destination? Are you Crazy?!” Well, yes we are crazy, but that’s beside the point. This place was spectacular! The Bulungula lodge was nothing more than a shack that has been turned into a haven for nature loving, free thinkers from around the globe. We were able to learn how some bright people have started using solar power for cooking, boiling water, providing hot water for showers, and providing a bit of light all while using nothing from the electricity grids of the world. Everything there is self-sustaining! While there we were able to speak to people from a dozen different nationalities about a plethora of topics. This place was more than the activities surrounding our visit, rather it was a place where movers and shakers from around the world could find a meeting place where internet, nice homes, an amenities of all sorts were not the priority.

Grace was able to get in on a group of people doing yoga while I had some great conversations around a big fire overlooking the ocean. Brad and Eric also met some interesting people; physiologists, surgeons, engineers, sociologists, economists, mathematicians, and all sorts of others all met here for the weekend. We were able to do some kayaking up an estuary where we found a beached whale that was decomposing on the beachside. We spoke to the owner of the lodge and he told us that after the spinal disks of the large blue whale stopped stinking he was going to turn them into chairs for around the fire. Now that’s a reclamation project!

-Ben

Garden Route Trip

Our trip to Knysna, a quaint vacationer’s town on the coast, gave us 4 days to relax, hike, and take in some great food. We stayed in a place called Brenton-on-Sea, a beachfront village just to the southwest of Knysna, at Chantalle Vorster’s (a new friend we met in Pretoria) holiday home. We spent 4 days at her house, but used this location as a home base for all the hiking and sight seeing we did in and around Kynsna. We hiked the Heads, two massive hills that constrict the water prior to entering into a large secluded bay, on our first day of our visit, which still gave us time to have dinner out. We have found that eating out in this country is not nearly as expensive as it would be in America. In fact, if we choose moderately priced restaurants we can eat out for the same price as eating in. Obviously, we have found ourselves eating out quite a lot lately!

We also had a great hike in the Tsitsikamma National Park. We hiked a 10 kilometer trail along the ocean called the Otter Trail, a widely renown trail worldwide. Along our hike we were able to see massive fissures in the rock where the power of the ocean has been eroding the ground for millions of years to create massive cave structures overlooking the ocean. Our hike came to an end at a 200+ foot waterfall falling into the ocean. This was a sight to behold! Please see the pictures for visual stimulation!

-Ben

Gondwana Game Reserve

We got to Gondwana Game Reserve on Saturday, November 6^th by the graciousness of Will’s parents who own a home in the private game reserve. This is a Big 5 game reserve close to the ocean in the middle of South Africa. The game reserve sits on 25,000 acres of pristine untouched parts of the countryside overlooking the ocean on one side and a great mountain range on the other. Our house sat in the middle of the reserve with no one within 5 miles of our location. The mountains in the distance provided picturesque views that have reminded me of places such as Colorado and Idaho yet has a character all its own. This place gave me a peace that I’ve only felt in 2 other places in my life. I definitely will not forget this place.

-Ben

More New Photos

More new photos are up of our trip through South Africa. We are finally to the end of our trip and it was amazing! More blogs are to come detailing our adventures. In the mean time, check out the slideshow on the side!

-Brad

New Photos!

Check out the new photos of our most recent adventures along the southern coast of South Africa! (Click on the slideshow on the left)

Cape Town!

We got to Cape Town on October 30th and boy were we astounded at its beauty! This trip to South Africa was brought on by a need to go to Human Affairs in Cape Town to get an extension on our travel visas. Since we had to drive so far to do all this, we decided to make a trip out of it! We stayed in Cape Town for 6 days and we filled up every day!
Day 1
First we went to a community market in the heart of the city. We picked up a few cool things and then met up with our good friend Stewart Jackson (met him in Swaziland, from Scotland) for a lunch and some beach time. We also traveled around to some of the famous wine estates in the valleys around Cape Town.
Day 2
we hiked the famous Skeleton Gorge up to the highest point on Table Mountain. This was quite a strenuous hike, but it was so worth it! We hiked up a waterfall for the majority of the trip which made it pretty slick, but provided awesome views. While coming down from the summit, we decided to jog down. This wasn't one of our finest ideas as our joints were hurting pretty bad by about the midpoint. We tried to do a bit of recovering by sitting in the Kirstenbosch Gardens on the side of Table Mountain. These gardens are considered the finest gardens in the whole of Africa. They span a massive area and provide excellent views of the mountain range while giving its visitors the fabulous sense of peace and tranquility. The flora and fauna of this place was breathtaking! We ended the night with a great meal in downtown Cape Town.
Day 3
We got up at 5am in to get to Human Affairs really early so it wouldn't kill the rest of our day. This was not fun! We waited from 6am till 7am until the doors opened got in at the front of the queue and after R450 in money spent to get a new visa we found out that we would have to come back in two days and do this all over again to get a paper that would let us travel legally throughout the country while we waited for our new visas. The rest of the day was spent driving down to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. This was an amazing trip just stopping by this little sleepy towns, getting coffee on the waterfront, and finally, getting to our destination at the bottom of the continent!

Day 4 We spent this day on the beach (or on quiet a few beaches actually) then for some awesome ice cream. This was our day spent nursing our aching bodies after our hike up Table Mountain.

Day 5 This day was used to visit some of the downtown areas including the District 6 Museum (famous for the struggles during Apartheid). At 4pm we met at the Cape Town Royal Yacht Club because we had been invited to crew a 42ft sailing yacht in an evening Competition Regatta in the Atlantic Ocean. This was so awesome! Our jobs included manning the ropes when tacking, watching for points on the horizon-line for positioning and directionality and moving from one side to the other to ballast the boat. We didn't come in first, but thankfully we didn't come in last! I haven't had so much fun in a long time! Grace, Stewart and I were on one boat while Brad and Eric were asked to help crew on another boat due the some of that boats crew missing a few members.

Day 6 We went back to the Human Affairs office to get some paperwork then we were off to Hermanus, a small town on the cliff sides overlooking the ocean. A great place for whale watching!

More to come soon!
Ben

Whale Watching in Hermanus

On our trip through South Africa we stopped over at Will Mapham's (friend from Swaziland) parents home. The house is on the side of a cliff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in a section of the country famous for its whale watching. Right Whales from the Antarctic come up to this area to breed and hang around for a couple months. We only had a couple of days here, but we tried to make the most of it. Walter Mapham (Will's dad) welcomed us so warmly and made it feel just like home! We walked around the town a bit and took in some whale watching with him then went back to have a great Pakistani-Curry meal before finishing the night off with some drinks around the fire watching the sun go down.
The next morning we woke up at 5:30am for a "Sunrise Swim" in a natural stone pool just beside the ocean. Cold is an understatement! Nonetheless, it was a great morning swim which woke us up for the rest of the day. We did some more sightseeing then headed out to our next destination; a private 5-star game reserve (also free due to our good friend Will Mapham!)

Ben

I call the backseat middle with my feet on the hump!

Friday, October 29, 2010


Currently, as I type, we are driving down to Cape Town! This exciting trip down to the Cape, along the Garden Route, and then back up the western coast of South Africa has been a long time in the making. Brad has sincerely researched, planned, and hooked us up with a great itinerary. We will keep you updated with all the adventures we encounter. Thankfully, Eric’s investment in a white Toyota Camry Gracia has made it possible for us to have a car for all our traveling. The car works great and it has a large boot (trunk), and we figured out how to stuff it full!
I have been truly excited about this foray into South Africa for a few reasons. First of all, I am so excited to see more of this beautiful country about which we have heard so much. Also, I am very excited about a change of pace. Though I am enjoying teaching and our lives are not very stressful in Swaziland, I am feeling the pangs of homesickness more and more and this will be a very welcome distraction.
I don’t know if you are interested in mundane details, but here goes. We left yesterday (Thursday the 28th) at 2:00 pm after Eric finished surgery. We made it to the border quickly and encountered some unfortunate news. Despite all our efforts to find out what we needed to get an extension for our visa and despite all our informants stating that we had to do nothing and would have no problem, we were only given a 7 day extension for our South African visa. We tried to talk with the border guard explaining our situation and that we would certainly be leaving their country in 1 ½ months. Though we were very calm and respectful we decided it was time for us to move on when the guard stated that we were asking her to do something illegal, her eyes started to bug out, and she started quoting immigration law (“Let me explain this very clearly, statute 94.7.01 in subsection B states that ….blah, blah, blah”). We thought we would just take the 7 days. Basically, this means that we have 7 days to either return to Swaziland or go to a South African Home Affairs office, pay R425 per person (about $60-$70), and apply for a visa extension. Obviously only having 7 days to return makes our 3 week stay in South Africa kind of tricky. So, we’re going with option #2 and hoping they’ll grant our extension!
Well, we made it into South Africa safely after only one joking comment from the guard patrolman saying that we were hiding 3 people in our trunk. We drove all evening and arrived at our Bed and Breakfast around 10:00 pm (in African time 10:00 pm feels more like 1:00am). It was a quaint and lovely place with extremely comfortable beds. Unfortunately, we only enjoyed them for less 5 ½ hours as we awoke at 3:30 am so that we could be on the road by 4:00 am for our 14-15 hour drive. The trunk was literally stuffed, so we had left our luggage in the car. We all slept in our clothes and had a quick morning departure. Thankfully, the B&B had some tea and homemade rusks (dry, dense scone-like food that you dip in hot tea—sounds unappetizing, but they are really quite delicious—Thanks to Vicki and Francois for introducing us to the delights!) that we enjoyed for our early morning pre-breakfast before leaving at 4:00 am.
This morning we were able to enjoy a stunning sunrise for the first leg of the trip. When we stopped for cereal at a rest stop at 7:30 am, it felt very satisfying to have already been on the road for 3 ½ hours. Now we have been traveling in beautiful country down through the Free State and the Karoo National Park. Here there are vast miles of undeveloped prairie and mountainous land. The blue skies combined with the golden land and green scrub make it feel very much like the American West, and it has been lovely. Except for some annoying construction stops and the hyper-vigilant border guard, our trip has been pleasingly uneventful. Well, enough for the mundane….I’ll fill you in when something interesting happens!

-Grace