Ezulwini

Sharman whom I met in Maputo works in Swaziland to prevent HIV from spreading. Swaziland has the highest percentage of HIV in the world - 40%. She told me about Lidwala lodge in Ezulwini Valley. In this valley the Swazi monarchy is based. During my stay the government was running out of money 3 months into the year and couldn’t pay there officials and nurses anymore. They were taking their anger to the street - peacefully.

Volunteering is big in Swaziland and people are willing to pay for it. The average price is something like 600 Euros per week, accommodation and food included. On top of that they pay a lot for tours, alcohol and random stuff. The NGO’s are run like business and are big money for the owners. I got to know Marie from Denmark, who is working there in conservation. We spent three weeks together laughing and holding hands.

During the day she was working so I had nothing to do. That’s why I made a giant nutcracker with some spare wood from the back and my Swiss Army Knife. It took me 4 days to finish it. The inspiration for the nutcracker I got from Sapa, Vietnam. There they use it to crack the rice seeds out of the void. Since rice is not big around here Marie brought up the idea of a nutcracker.

Marie’s mother was visiting her for a week and I wanted to leave, so we said goodbye. My plan was to go to Durban. But this has been the plan for the last 3 days and I am still in Swaziland - Swaziland Backpackers which dangerously resembles Mombasa Backpackers. I have to catch my flight.
Eventually I went back to Lidwala for a couple days until I definitly had to leave and run to Cape Town - my last stop in Africa for now.

Tofo

A bit short on time and fearful of too much backtracking I decided to go only as far north as Tofo/ Inhambane. A beautiful place in paradise. Friendly locals, a lot of good parties, the perfect beach, a true bungalow style backpackers and good people made my stay there very special. The nearest ATM is reached in 3 hours and I had to do that twice.

Tofo consists out of the market, some low key restaurants around it, 2 dive schools, and a dozen bars. The barkeeper at Fatima has been working there since 15 months. I met him in Maputo because he has overstayed his visa for 3 months and now wanted to walk past the Mozambique border officials to the South African side. South Africa has to accept any South African - even if he does not have an exit stamp from another country. He did that successfully and we met up in Tofo again. We were wingmen’s for 2 weeks and had the best time. We sipped away each afternoon on the sundeck drinking Tipo (rum, 500ml, 1.60$). The coolest people came through and the parties were a great fusion of cultures. One night Michael got a gun to his head because of rivalry between the different nightclubs. He lost is mojo afterwords and became an asshole. He had a 4 minutes fist fight with his best friend. The next morning both of them didn’t know the reason for it. The owner kicked him out of the hostel because of excessive partying, but first he had to settle his 3’500$ tab. Paradise turned to hell and I left.

During my stay I had an arty phase. I painted, I drew faces into the vast beach that corrected the perspective from the beach, I mutilated a pineapple and I built a house. Good times.

Maputo

I was in Maputo for 6 days and managed to stay in 3 different hostels and get harassed by the corrupt police 3 times and was asked to come to the police station twice. Twice I agreed that we should go right know and that I am ready and twice I was released without charges. The corrupt police stop everybody who looks foreign and try to frighten them with all kind of shit if they can’t produce any papers. It’s so common that everybody has a story to tell after visiting Mozambique. Especially if you have a car you are bound to get in trouble.

After crossing the border we tried to get to Punto d’Ouro. On the sandy road everybody told us that we will not be able to pass the last stretch. We believed into are drivers ability and luck. We got stuck. Some guys helped us to take the car out of the sand, after greeting us with “Where do you guys think you are - fucking Miami?” . We drove back to Maputo, now knowing about the ferry service across the bay of Maputo. We arrived late on Saturday in Fatima’s, after 10 hours of useless driving in South Mozambique.

There we got drunk instantly and joined up with Sharman and an Australian girl. We went to the train station, which was built by the Portuguese some 100 plus years ago. The bar is where the ticket counter used to be. The dance floor is next to the tracks. It is really cool and expensive.

Maputo itself is quite nice for an African city - as modern as Nairobi. Some colonial buildings still exist, but there are still many houses in a decaying condition in the middle of the city. The markets are all over the sidewalks. People speak mostly Portuguese and understand Spanish pretty good. Poverty is visible throughout the country.

At weekends people drive their cars to the Costa del Sol just north of the center and park at the beach and use their hut as a bar. A spectacle in it self.

It was time to say bye to Michael and George with whom I had a great time. I hope you guys come to Switzerland one day.

Krueger National Park

George’s parents have a time sharing business so we were allowed to stay at this lodge for 4 days. But since we came a day late we were there only for 3 days. The ride from Coffee Bay to Komatipoort took us 20 hours. The Swiss guy without a driving license in the back and the South African and New Zealander sharing the burden of driving through the RSA. During the night we ended up on really small roads with owls instead of tarmac. At 2 o’clock in the night we arrived and checked into the wonderful bungalow with air-condition, modern kitchen, braai place and with direct view of the Krueger Park. Rhinos, elephants and impalas showed up to drink.

We drank goon and ate as good as possible. The black people who work there live outside the lodge in a compound. We brought wine and love and they thanked us with their best hospitality. They even played us some songs with there funny instruments made out of plastic bottles and wood.

The phantom like two young American girls we never met and the rest of the people who hang out there are middle aged or older, mostly white but also some black people. George who has been in England for the last few years couldn’t believe how much South Africa has changed in recent years. He had never seen black people playing tennis in a posh place like that. He liked it a lot.

The next day we went into Krueger NP. George has been there about 30 times before. He knows it very well and was good at spotting. Once again I saw the Big Five with the exception of the leopard. I am staring to doubt that this animal actually exists. Krueger is nice, but I still think that the savanna National Parks of East Africa are in a different league. The bush of South Africa allows you to see 20 meter in both directions, while in the Masai Mara you can see a kilometer. You just constantly pass game without seeing it.

The next day we were of to Mozambique.

Coffee Bay

Some ship back in the days once sank in the bay of Coffee Bay. The ship was loaded with coffee beans. The boxes were found by settlers at the beach and they decided to name this bay Coffee Bay. This laid back, low key place is in the province of Transkei. Transkei used to be reserve for the black people during Apartheid. Basically there are no white people around. It is a hilly area which is difficult to use for farming. But the views are phenomenal and the dramatic cliffs at the shore overwhelming. We camped at the water, drank goon, bought mussels from the local fisherman (after not finding any ourselves) and hiked around the area. The grassy hills with a healthy green go as far as you can see. The houses are very scattered and built in the distinctively African style - round with straw on top. One house sadly burned down one day. About 5kg of mussels cost about 6$ to buy. To prepare them you put a little water into a huge pot, a lot of garlic and butter. Then you steam the mussels until all of them have opened aka died. Delicious!

Chintsa

By mouth propaganda the nicest backpacker in South Africa is quite cool. Each bungalow has a kitchen on the lower side and the dorm on the second floor. That’s where we drank the first time and then we went with Stacey to the main bar where we got hammered. Hung-over we woke up, fixed ourselves an Aromat toast, realizing that we haven’t seen the dunes and the beach - we took a short stroll down. Only to return 15 minutes later with another 400km ahead of us.

Addo Elephant National Park

The village of Addo is just big enough to call it a village. We found a butchery, a bit of liquor and a nice hostel with a cozy living room with TV. So we watched "The Dude" and "American Beauty".

The next morning we headed into the Park - at South African prices. Lions, kudus, zebras, ostriches, turtles, a jackal are also there, but they will always be in the shadow of the 2'000 elephants living here. At one point we could see about 300 elephants at the same time taking a bath. I never saw anything like it. The park used to be 10% of the current size, but the government is buying up land around the park to expand it. It now stretches all the way from the sea to the steep plateau. An aerial view of the park shows the patchy shape of the park.

After our nice, little safari we still had to drive 300km to Chintsa, since it seemed impossible to reach Coffee Bay before we would have turned into complete lunatics.

Jeffreys Bay

This is the best party place at the whole coast of SA. Filled with travelers from all over. Some pro surfers, a few hippies and overlanders make it a mix of everybody you can meet. I didn’t see many people surfing, but I saw many people with surf boards. I didn’t see many people at the bar, but many with boxed wine and the in South Africa ever present Swazi marijuana.

We stayed two nights and partied hard, didn’t visit the city at all, played sand golf on the beach and ended up with many stories I don’t want to share on this blog.

Next we were of for detoxing in Addo Elephant National Park.

Plettenberg Bay

Plet is a short minibus ride from Knysna. White people don’t know anything about minibuses and hardly ever use it. I never saw a white South African in a minibus. It took me a while to figure out that minibuses are not leaving from the taxi rank because they have to pay a fee to the owner of the rank. So you just go to the main road and hold a 10 Rand bill in your hand and wait. That is much cheaper than the BazBus most tourists use to get a around South Africa. It’s about 10% of the price.

Plet is a town in the hills next to an once more beautiful, endless beach. Nice houses surround the lagoon and try to get a clear view of the horizon. I stayed in the tent once more because South African hostel prices are ridiculously expensive (20$ for the dorm).

I had some really nice evenings at the braai fire and met cool people to hang out with. The last day I went to the National Park on the peninsula just 10km west of town. Seals live there among birds and smaller animals. A cave served the earliest inhabitants as a home and the ANC as a hideout during their struggle for power. The hike was quite cool with ever changing environments. Cliffs, bush lands, trees, dunes, clouds and the sea were playing with the colors and made this hidden jewel definitely worth visiting.

After a 10km walk back along the beach and playing with a tennis ball for 9.5km we met George and Michael again and the three of us were of to the surf city of Jeffrey’s Bay.

Knysna

Knysna is set in a bay area with a 100m wide gorge where the tide goes in and out all day long. Each cycle includes the equivalent of 20’000’000 elephants running in and out. As an engineer I was fantasizing about the potential of a tide power plant which could provide electricity to a lot of people and create jobs in a country with 30 percent unemployment. Increasing sea levels could be controlled and low lying properties saved. But the powerful yacht club is apparently against it and all rich decision takers in the city are yacht owners. The views from the heads east and west of the gorge allow you to see where Vasco de Gama sailed past and the whole lagoon inside, the smart neighborhoods and in the hills the townships. It was here where I met Michael and George. They know each other from England where they used to work in the same bar. Michael showed George is home country New Zealand and now George was returning the favor with taking him around South Africa. For the next two weeks I was traveling with them all the way up to Mozambique. There good guys with edges.

Wilderness

This is a village that used to be on the train line to Durban. The train lines have been covered by mudslides and vegetation. The amazing waves smashing in for a stretch of 30km is the main attraction. During low tide a lot of sand is exposed and the combination of wind and waves are steaming the waterfront. My hostel was elevated at the end of the village with a terrace overlooking the whole spectacle. A kitchen with sea view and the dorm bed just next to the terrace made me feel like living in a penthouse. I met a gay Spanish and South African couple who invited me to there house and took me to some nice bays. (Had to avoid a Spanish move)

I mostly chilled after all the hustle of Cape Town and Stellenbosch and spent some nights sober.

Mossel Bay

We arrived in the afternoon after enjoying the wonderful view throughout the coastal area, which sometimes looks similar to how you would imagine the “Yellowstone Park” to look like.

Mussels Bay is the first major city on the “Garden Route” which leads up to the “Wild Coast” . Mussels Bay may used to have charm but the refineries outside of town have had an impact. People are fishing less and working in big companies. The city itself is laid back and also clearly segregates rich whites from blacks. We took a dorm bed in a train that has been put to rest at the coast. Quite funny. Talking of which - burping Stacey was also there and after quickly checking the tourist attractions and the Sea we started drinking and kept it up till late. The bars were quite empty, but we encountered some characters like a sixty years old break-dancer.

But it is not a place where you stay more than one night. So we drove of to Wilderness, where he dropped me because he was in a time situation.