Granny Goes to South Africa

It is a GLORIOUS day today.  I’m in Cape Town, in a hotel right across from the ocean, and the sun is beaming down.  It’s really welcome and so energizing.  Unfortunately, my hotel room doesn’t look out on the ocean, but onto another building next door, but if I really crane my head when I’m on my balcony, I can see the ocean between the buildings, and after the traffic dies down at night I can hear it.  It really roars around here.

I’m trying to book some tours, as Cape Town is too large and spread out to find my way around in the time I have, and most things are way outside the city with no public transport.  I don’t want to drive in town as it’s just too confusing and too easy to get really lost in a strange city.

I’ve got a winelands tour booked for this afternoon, and the city tour and the whale tour are both full today and tomorrow, so might not see too much while I’m here – but I’ll try.

Another spectacular trip through more mountains yesterday, though it was raining again, so the views were more gloomy than I’d have liked.

The bus station arrival was the usual chaos – Lise you’ll know about that.  You literally get swarmed by taxi drivers, people wanting to carry your luggage, vendors, beggars – all those and more – and it can be really intimidating if you’re not prepared to deal with it.  I just chase everyone away – and you really have to be firm – and then when it has settled down I’ll approach someone who looks reliable – usually a taxi driver -  and ask for hotel recommendations if I don’t have one booked, or whatever else I need.

This is really the first time I didn’t have something booked, though the booking did fall through in Grahamstown.  It’s so damp and/or humid in most parts of SA that it seems that it’s really hard for hotels and such to keep the musty smells away, so I’m having to put up with that a lot.  You can tell that they try hard, and the places are very clean, just a very difficult task here.

Anyway, got to go look at my flight options for Polokwane.  I’m pretty excited about getting up there and seeing that territory, so more later.  Would be lovely if this place was open evenings – I’ll have to check.

Well, thanks for the good weather wishes, MT, but no such luck.  It has rained every day since Sept 24th, or whatever day I left Tembe.  And it just gets worse.  It rained so hard today, that it was almost impossible to see the road when I was driving.  Of course, the locals are dancing in the streets, after 2 ‘rainy seasons’ with no rain.

I stayed in Tsitsikamma Lodge after I left Grahamstown, as it seemed a good jump off point for what I wanted to see.  Really nice place, and great staff.  It sometimes pays to just show up with no reservation (and of course, sometimes not . . ) since the only thing Tsitsikamma had left was a 6 bed cabin, which I’ve had for the last two nights.  Wait until you see the pics and video – *so* much nicer than the web photos.

There was a whole tree full of weaver birds, and many other kinds of birdlife there too.  So you know I was happy.  I also went to Birds of Eden, I think it’s called.  It’s a huge acreage under *very* high netting, where all the birds fly (relatively) free.  There is a no touching, no feeding policy there, except at the cafe, where of course it could never be enforced, given that birds are world champion moochers.  So sitting at the cafe, having a sandwich, and this big cockatoo starts calling ‘Hello’ to me.  As soon as my food came, a grey flew down to the table, followed by a pair of louries.  The grey had learned how to get the plate covers off the food, and the louries were along to get the left-overs.  So many birds came down to try and beg, it was just a hoot.

Meanwhile the cockatoo was still sitting on the branch, mournfully calling hello, so I went over and picked him up, and as cockatoos do, he immediately snuggled up for a scratch.  Then, as cockatoos also do, he refused to get down, so he rode on my shoulder for the next half hour while I looked at more birds.

They had a huge number of species represented there.  It was great, since I haven’t had a bird fix since the bird park in Durban.

Then I went to Monkey World, which is right next door, and is a sanctuary for all sorts of monkeys, apes and lemurs. Well, the monkeys are not mooches, they are outright thieves.  We were warned to take all our jewellery off and to have nothing in our pockets as they even jump you and search your pockets for food or shiny things.  I didn’t see to many different kinds of things there as it had darkened down and was threatening rain, but those I saw were pretty interesting.  Spider monkeys, capuchins, vervets and three kinds of lemurs.  The guide was really interesting though, and I learned lots about several different facets of monkey-dom.

But then, a monkey peed on me from high in a tree.  The guide, a lovely French-African from Congo, the type of gentleman who always carries a handkerchief, tried wiping me down, but it didn’t do much good.  Then to top it off, when we went back to the seating area where everyone gathers before they take the tour, I sat down to rest, right in a pile of monkey-poo, which is just a perfect match for the shade of the wooden seating.  Man, did I ever need a shower and some clean clothes!!   At least monkey-poo scrapes off more easily than bird-poo.

I took the ’scenic route’ to get there, as advised by the hotel staff, (Hwy 102 MT – do you know it?  It’s called Bloukrans Pass) and it was so breathtakingly beautiful it was hard to drive.  And the changes in elevation were so large and so frequent that you were popping your ears like a hip-hop star pops his limbs.

I had to go home after the monkey park as it had started to rain, so I was glad I’d taken the scenic route to get there – but I missed several other things I wanted to do in the area.

Last night it started pouring, a real tropical downpour, and it hasn’t stopped.  I’m cold and wet, but I did stop at the elephant sanctuary today, even though it was raining.  The elephants were inside as they apparently don’t much like the rain, and they let visitors take a tour of the barns, and feed the elephants a pail of mixed veg and fruit.  The baby was so cute, and really played on his ability to charm folks to get a more than fair share of the goodies.  One of the elephants wasn’t happy with just taking one piece at a time with his trunk – he just opened his mouth wide and wanted his food shoveled right in.  I get the feeling that they see more of tourists than they want to though.  It’s hard to justify putting animals through that even if it leads to so much more awareness of their situation and having their lives saved.  But who am I to talk – if it’s an animal or bird place, I’ll be the first one in line.

Got to go and find the bus schedule info, and the info about where I have to catch it and drop the car off.   If I can’t get it today, as Sundays seem to be run at less than half-speed here, I my stay another day, and at least have a chance to go out and see the whales before I head to Cape Town.

Hope you all had good turkey . . . I’m just giving thanks over my Steer burger for all kinds of things.

Tomorrow, that’s where I’ll be.

Just got out of ILAM, and am absolutely cross-eared – if that makes any sense at all. But you know what I mean. Also got video of the Kalimba group practising for tomorrow night’s performance. Wish I could be here to see it, but have to move on.

I’ll hit the highway tomorrow and plan to see Smith River, Plett and Kynsna by Monday, and will turn the car in at Knysna and then take the bus to Cape Town. I may not get to a computer until Cape town, but you all are going to be so busy fixing turkey, then so lazy from eating it that you’ll probably not visit until then anyway, eh?? Happy Thanksgiving to you all anyway.

There is a monkey park, a bird park, a sanctuary for orphaned elephants and a possibility of a whale/dolphin cruise on the list of “Things To Do” for this leg of the journey. There is a canopy tour available apparently, where you tour the forest by sliding along cables up in the tree-tops, but I’m not sure I’m up for that. We’ll see . . . Meanwhile . . .

and I hope the kids all save their postcards, so I can figure out the names of these birds again.

See you all soon.

The place I’m staying now is so beautiful. This part of the country is so peaceful and quiet compared to the big city, and it’s very foot-hilly, not like the savannah and sand forest of the park and area where I was.

I’ve spent all day at ILAM (International Library of African Music) and it’s the most amazing place!! Gonna spend all day tomorrow there too. I’m working my way through sampling – and sometimes getting lost in – all of Hugh Tracy’s collections that have been digitized.

Only problem is, it’s winter again here, and I’m really unprepared, clothes wise, so freezing my butt off. The weather is totally unpredictable, and doesn’t even wait for a 24 hour cycle to go from freezing to frying. Not sure how people keep up with this, but I guess if you live here and have all your layers in your closet, it wouldn’t be too bad.

Sad news about Rhodes U here. It’s just gained the world’s notice as being the Uni with the top consumption of alcohol per student capita (can I say that?) in the world. Residents here say that it’s pretty bad, and they hope that more will be done to educate the young folks about how much harm they can do themselves and others.

I’m still pretty lost in the music I heard today. Can’t think about too much else. Actually, I do remember the donkey I saw walking past the police station yesterday, and wondered if he was on his way to work, or on his way home <G> Only animal I’ve seen in town here, except for the usual cats and dogs.

My cabin actually sleeps 6 people and I have it all to myself still for tonight, then have to move to another room as a family is coming in to take it over. *sigh* It was really great.

sorry, guys.  I gotta go and get warm in my cabin.  It’s truly freezing here.

Well, it’s been a wild ride.

Had to be up at 4:30 yesterday morning in order to finish packing and get a taxi to the bus station for 6 a.m. when I had to pick up my ticket. So no breakfast. The bus left at 6:30 and we had only 3 stops for 10 minutes on a 13 hr bus ride. As my bus and a big double decker seemed to be traveling together, when we would arrive at a rest stop, you had to make your choice between bathroom and food, as the line-ups were really bad. So I’d choose bathroom of course, as there was none on the bus, not even the ‘emergency toilet’ of my previous bus trip. I managed to score some potato chips, cookies and juice at one stop, which I shared with Fi-fi, a small child of about 5 who was traveling with her mother and an approximately year old cousin.

I had tried to contact the B&B the previous day when I was sure I could get a bus ticket, but I had not gotten a reply. I had tried to phone them from the bus when business hours arrived, but only got a message that no one was there, so SMS’d them with my info and phone number, but didn’t hear from them.

Consequently, I arrived in Grahamstown dead tired, after dark, in the rain, with nowhere to stay. I had asked Fifi’s mother if the hotel across from the bus stop was OK, and she seemed doubtful. She said she would ask the person who was picking her up, who knew the downtown better. Said woman said ‘no way’ to the hotel, and offered to drive me to a B&B that she knew.

You have to picture 3 heavy women and two children packed into the front seat of a pickup truck that is smaller than anything I’ve seen at home. The pickup truck also had a shattered windshield with two bullet holes in it.

I got to the B&B, and the only room they had left, while clean, was so small that I couldn’t open my suitcase in it. The people that ran it though were really nice too, and phoned the next B&B I had booked to find out if I could come a day early. They also fixed up a rental car for me, and offered to call me if they were doing a horseback tour this week. They do a night time mountain ride on the full moon, which has just passed, and sounds absolutely incredible. That place was Oak Lodge.

Also when I got to the bus stop there was this big older gentleman who was quite intoxicated, who insisted he was going to help me with my luggage, and kept trying to wrest it from me. I had to get quite DEFINITE with him before he would fade away, and then I ran into him again on my way to KFC.

I was so starved when I got to the B&B that I asked the young night clerk where I could get some food, and he directed me to KFC, which was right back across the street from the bus station. When I got there, they had just locked up the doors 5 minutes ago, and I literally got down on my knees begging for any left overs, as all the cookers had been turned off. One of the girls inside told the security guard to let me in when she heard the circumstances, and said she could make me a wrap with what was left, and there were some cold chips and a can of orange juice. Can you imagine KFC tasting that good??? Generally my opinion of their food is that I’d only eat it if I was starving and there was nothing else. Well that day arrived and I was grateful for it, for sure, and for the kindness of the young lady that let me in.

Today so far, I have rented my car, as there are many things in the outlying area that I want to see. Also, I found a music store and got a couple discs. Ran into this new artist here called Ayo. . You have to put a period after her name or else it means ‘onion’ . With the period, it means ‘Joyful’. Heard her on the TV here, a big hour long thing and she is spectacular!! Also read A Act of Terror by Andre Brink, a SA author – it was brilliant!! And another good book that I think Kayleigh would like, or anyone else who likes Dan Brown type stuff was called The Righteous Men, and I can’t remember the author. Rhonda, you might like that one too, as takes place a lot in a Hassidic community and some good Kabbalistic lore in the plot.

MT, don’t despair of me – a shower, some clean clothes and a good night’s sleep and I’ll be back to my old self.

Pictures tomorrow, I think – or maybe today, we’ll see.

Alaric at the Video Store and Internet Cafe at the mall is another kind person who has given me phone numbers and contacts for himself and his mom in case I run into problems again, and he has kindly allowed me to download the software that will allow me to get pics to you all.

The kindness of strangers here has amazed me.

This doesn’t seem to be working right – again.  But I’ll try.

Getting runtime errors again, means it’s going to crash any minute.  Also still have to pack, and have to be up at 4:30 a.m. to get to the bus on time.  See ya . . .