Stellenbosch

The wine region and university town just an hour with the commuter train north of Cape Town lays Stellenbosch. I met Jacques Kratz in Windhoek who studies here and I met him here again. I was there one week before Uni starts and all the kids arrived one week early to get organized and to party. South Africans like to drink in general but in Stellenbosch there are no checks because the kids are on a loose leach for the first time. Fraternities and normal clubs and bars offer everything students want. Boxed half liter wines for 2.5$ and everything from pizza to foam parties.

I camped at an interesting backpackers which is also frequented by overlanders heading to the northern countries. Wine is the obvious beverage and the owners were exceptionally relaxed. I met farting Stacey from Canada, Jacques Kratz’s gang, South African gypsies and the average people from London.

The vineyards are scattered throughout the region and public transport is bad. All white people are rich or studying and all the black people live in the township next door and try to get a slice of the money cake parents give to their loved ones. Most poor people walk wherever they want to go so local public transport sucks. So I hiked from vineyard to vineyard. Fences cut of paths all the time, high walls hinder you to see the magic landscape. It’ s difficult to be a pedestrian in an area where white folks want to feel secure.

The museums gave some insight about how live looked here during the last 300 years. Slavery, horses, rural life and business opportunities have been the driving forces behind this now wonderful region. But in the past a lot of things went wrong here and you can still see it.

I met a guy from Whales who gave me a lift to Mussels Bay. He is a basest and played in front of 30’ 000 people in Glasbury, England.

Cape Town

After the 20 hours haul from Windhoek to “The Mother City” , I was delighted by a place that proved to be the nicest city I have seen in Africa. Initially a Dutch settlement to cut the journey from Rotterdam to Jakarta in half, it turned British and grew larger while the Dutch moved on to “The Great Trek”. Colonial houses remain largely in tact and are major tourist attractions. Surrounded by the “Table Mountain” and “Lions Head” the city center is at the most south-eastern point of Africa. Basically a European city with an African twist. Long Street is the cheapest and hippest place for young people. Bars, clubs, boutiques, Kebab take always and liquor shops are everywhere, while dealers, parking safety “officials”, drunken people and thieves hanging on the street below.

The “Waterfront” is the posh shopping area for privileged citizens and tourists. It was completely reshaped for the World Cup and is only a short walk away from the famous Cape Town Stadium which is now home to the Kaizer Chiefs. Old Dutch style houses are responsible for the charm the Waterfront has. Smart restaurants make it sophisticated and the lack of traffic enjoyable. Cruise ships, whole oil rigs, plenty of fishing trawlers and yachts are scattered all over. There is a ship yard in the middle of the pedestrian area which allows unusual insight.

The whole southern coast of Cape Town is a big waterfront with smelly seaweed, nice parks and smart mansions. You pass the Stadium you walk through a beautiful golf park with lakes and neat gardens and end up a Sea point. If you would walk all the way you’ d end up at the actual “Cap of Good Hope” where penguin’s seals and baboons live.

I walked up the Table Mountain all the way from Long Street and all the way back. It took me 7 hours and was very hot. The sun is out most of the times and a wind is always present. The view from on top is astonishing and took the last breath I had left.

A cosmopolitan city at the end of the world (the closest industrialized country is about a 10 hours flight away) reminded me a lot of Buenos Aires. I love the two cities equally.

Windhoek

Windhoek has had a turbulent history. Apartheid was sort off also introduced here. Black people had to live in certain areas and were moved with force several times throughout history. Black people are still very poor and live in townships outside the city. It is here where some guy threatened to kill me - that is a first timer for me. The city it self is not to bad. The commercial area has taking over. Shops and malls litter the place. The colonial buildings are quite nice and look similar to the north coast of Germany.
We gave the car back and tried to settle the bill among each other and sort of succeeded - but alcohol was necessary. After a short stroll around the city we retreated to the hostel and joined each other for our last night together. The next day C&C flew back to Switzerland. I had a really nice time with you guys. I experienced more than I usually experience in a time frame of two months in one month. Thank you.
Later on I spent a whole week in the card board box and got drunk with the Jaques Kratz (Namibian) and chilled in the pool. Needed a break. I decided to skip the south of Namibia and the west of South Africa due to a lack of public transport and interest. Cape Town was next.

Swakopmund

On the way down to Swakopmund we stopped at Seal Point. Here 100'000 seals live throughout the year. They stink because some of them died and rot in the sun and because they shit where they live. They regularly head out to the sea to fish and surf the waves. There is a constant noise level because they fight for the "best" spots. An amazing truly breathtaking place.
We thought about staying at Henties Bay, but decided otherwise and went all the way to Swakopmund. Apparently the Mallorca of Namibia. But the thing with Namibia is that everything always seems to be deserted. 2 million people live on a piece of land that is double the size of Germany. Swakopmund has some colonial buildings, but the main attraction is the sea, the waves and the beach. The water is too cold to bath, with the exception of apparently some Finish people.
We ate good at a nice restaurant and chilled most of the time in our "REKA home". We tried to explore the crazy nightlife of Swako, but we only encountered some teenagers with pimples. So we played some pool while Carla was fighting of the men - women seem to be scarce in this town.
In the morning we took a look at the dunes that are just south of the Swako and then headed to the capitol city of Windhoek.

Skeleton Coast

There is nothing here. It is the end of the world. There are only some welwitschia plants left, but they also disappear after a while. We entered the "Skeleton Cost National Park" where sand and stone dominates. Animals are not visible. We descended the long way to the Atlantic Ocean on a dirt road. On the cost itself their are many shipwrecks off the many unfortunate explorers and merchants that underestimated the "Humboldt Stream" that brings cold water from the Antarctica. It is a scene that could be on the moon. I enjoyed this place very much and felt small compared with this vast desert. Occasionally you see old rusting oil rigs or cranes that have been washed many kilometers inland over time. The water is terribly cold and currents can be expected. It is astonishingly unfriendly to life and special because of that. Nobody could survive here. After about 6 hours in this desert we left the Skeleton Coast National Park and entered the Skeleton Cost Recreational Area which is more suited for tourists. We found a camping place in the middle of nowhere where mostly Afrikaans people from the RSA go for fishing holiday. Fog is constantly covering the scene close to the ocean and it can get quite cold during the night. We ate a rather shitty meal and made fun of the culture less Afrikaner who where drinking all the time and apparently tried to look stupid while listening to horrible pop music. We thought of it as a cultural soap opera. C&C&T agreed that we should get out of here first thing in the morning.

Damaraland

The Damaraland is the gateway to the Skeleton coast. Life is really though here. Hardly any people manage to survive in this environment anymore. There are still free living animals around outside any National Parks. We saw baboons, antelopes and heard about elephants patrolling the area. Otherwise the only way to make money is to sell stuff to the tourists who occasionally pass by in their rented Toyota Hillux. Fake ancient stone paintings are advertised throughout the road. We lost one tyre on the way and managed to fix it more or less among ourselves. Even though one guy helped us a bit and at the end wanted some petrol for his services. We only had diesel. We found a lodge hidden in a small valley where campers mostly stop. The river beds are dry and there is hardly any vegetation left. We stopped here for two nights two rest from all the driving and chill at the pool and sip some beer with an occasional stroll up some hills to enjoy the views.
It is the kind of area spiritual people would refer to as being spiritual. Only wind makes noise otherwise there is nothing. It is close to the end of the world - but this should be are next stop.

Etosha National Park

We arrived in the posh Ongava lodge in the afternoon. We were let in and had to drive through their own little private game park. Where we saw the first wild animals since the lower Zambezi. But this time in abundance. The lodge was beautiful with a view of a waterhole, swimming pool and a bar that was up to the expectations of my Swiss co-travellers. We camped in the back, basically behind a fence that was separating us from the cats outside. Pretty cool.
The next two day we drove around in the Etosha National Park. Full of giraffes, some cats and small game. We had a good time safariing on ourselves. For C&C in was their first game experience and their enthusiasm made me enjoy it even a bit more than expected.
We spent New Years Eve at the lodge and ate from the buffet. The food was quite average - eventually we went to bed before twelve to leave early bird in the morning to drive to the other side of the park. There we slept one more night at another road side hotel. Carla was understandingly quite tired from all the driving behind us and the many kilometres ahead of us didn't help. Next place of interest was the Damaraland.

Grootfontein

Racism is big in Namibia. The whites and the blacks mutually hate each other. A veterinarian fence cuts the country in two. The northern "black" part is much smaller than the big, more fertile "white" part in the south, even though there are many more black people than white. The veterinarian fence makes it impossible for the northerners to sell cattle to the port cities in the south because they don't have the refrigeration chain in place. But only from the southern part it is possible to tab the lucrative European meat market. In general the northern part is full of disenfranchised blacks and the south is full of white farmers with huge lands.
Why do I write about that. Because the first man we got to know on the southern side was a German racist talking shit about black people all the time with a silly accent from Saxony. He annoyed us with a persistence that only was exceeded by his ignorance.
The place it self was more or less a farm/ butchery/ game park/ hostel. We were the only guests. We bought some game meat from him (zebra) and braid in the evening after a rough ride through the pampas. In the morning we ate breakfast on top of a little tower he built. He was snooping around and found us and started to annoy us even more. We packed our stuff and got out of this place.
Grootfontein (according to the map a big city) was small and boring. After spending too much time in the bank we were off to the "Etosha Park".

Divundu

We got our car, checked the equipment and started to drive through the "Capriri Strip". This strip used to be really dangerous because the Angolan civil war spilled into this region. Today it is demilitarised but the people haven't come back yet. Every 50-100km there is a very small village on the side. The road is pretty much straight and can get slightly boring. Carla confidently drove along the road, where signs warning of elephants and other cars are the main attractions. After arriving in Divundu we took the turn off to drive to a hostel in the bush.
The world famous Okavango passes through Divundu into Botswana where it forms the delta. We camped on top of the Hillux and cooked our own food with the provided gas cooker and ate with the Okavango at our feet.
The hostel itself is pretty cool with lovely features. The toilet seats are as big as the throne of Queen Elisabeth with a open view of the river. Hippos in the background.
I enjoyed it very much there, but we had to go on and kill some kilometers. Another grueling 600km were waiting for us the next day.

Katima Mulilo

Splashing time. Katima Mullilo has nothing to offer besides big supermarkets, gas stations and ATM's. We bought what we needed and decided to head twoards a lodge on the Zambezi which would be listed under 'upper class" in the LP. It was a truly nice place with swimming pool, restaurant, air-con bungalows and a huge, fat warthog called Wally. Wally weighs approximately 100kg and thinks it weighs 10kg. Spoiled like a puppy it wants to play with customers all the time. Customers obviously get frightened and back off. Wally then charges and then you better hide because it has big teeth. It hit Christian once in the leg which made him make a scream of fear and panic. It chased me as well. I ran as fast as possible, but I couldn't get rid of Wally. I ran around the restaurant table several times before admitting that this vicious beast is as fast as me. I knocked down chairs in his way and took refuge in the reception. I told the receptionist that I couldn't deal with this shit. She shrugged of any concerns of paying customers and told me that I just have to show Wally some love. Afterwords Wally attacked a wedding ceremony which dispersed in all directions.
The rest of our stay we barricaded us away from the beast and enjoyed the tranquility off the place and the luxury of C&C room.
The next day we collected our fully equipped Toyota Hillux, that would take us around Namibia.

Sesheke

The last outpost of Zambia before Namibia's "Capriri Strip" begins, this little village lives of the fact that they are the gateway to Namibia. The hotel was alright, but the weather was rather grey. The advertised hippos were neither visible nore audible. We played cards and drank beer. The friendly hotel owner of Dutch descend cooked a wonderful meal for us and a Zambian business man who has spent Christmas in this place alone away from his family because he was waiting for spare parts for a gas station which has been broken for 3 months. He was really kind and we had a good chat with him.
I was desperate because I was out of cigarettes. I found a young doctor at the bar and hired him to drive to the center for me and buy me some cigarettes, He did so and I paid him with a prolonged conversation about Africa, Europe and the differences.
The Dutch owner constantly complained that the real boss around this place is his Zambian wife. "you better do what she says!".
The next day we were off to Namibia. Basically we went to the other side of the Zambezi river.

Livingston

Home of the mighty Victoria Falls, Livingston is a major tourist place throughout Africa. The falls can be viewed from Zam or Zim, but even though the falls are better seen from the Zimbabwean side, we settled with the Zambian side. Visa cost are out of control in Zim and you have to buy a new one for Zam if you come back.
Anyway, the falls were beautiful anyway, even though there is not much water during December. We spent Christmas at the falls and went to a fantastic Indian restaurant in the evening.
The backpackers was OK, providing some good meals, cerveza, pool, ping pong and some other convenient stuff. Just to splash a bit we went to a 4-5 star hotel and drank a beer. The pool was bigger, the place nicer and the staff politer - but it missed character.

Lower Zambezi

The Zambezi River comes all the way from Angola to the Indian Ocean in Mozambique. We visited it at the Zim-Zam border and set up our tent at the shore with the hippos in sight. Actually Christian and Carla (C+C) rented a tent which was more a house with toilet, shower, two double beds and a roof on top of the tent. I set up my weekender just next to it - the servants quarter.
We stared out at the nature a lot, occasionally went to the pool, drank all day, talked about the last two years and played Janisch. Joking about the Afrikaans tourists with their apparent lack of culture and a river safari rounded it up for us. Elephants and hippos outside the water were the major attractions.
Good times

Lusaka

After an eight hour bus journey I arrived in Lusaka, the capitol of Zambia. There is Cairo street where all the high rises are and the businesses. West of the center the townships start. East are the "smart" white neighbor hoods and two shopping malls. White people are almost never walking. They use their Toyota Hillux to get from their mansion to the shopping mall and back. Most of them are South African, but there are also British and other random settlers around. I had to wait for my brother and his girlfriend for 10 days. So I updated my blog, bought some necessary gear and spent most of the time in the hostel. It had a pool and a bar which suited me very well. After playing chess, reading books, cooking and sleeping in the tent for 10 days Christian and Carla finally arrived. I never saw Carla before since I have left Switzerland before she met Christian. So we got to know us in Lusaka, which is not the best setting. I took them for a walk around with a visit at the National History Museum and told them what I knew about street wisdom in Africa.
Eventually I was happy to leave Lusaka, because it is a rather messy place with little to see.