Hey kids, I'm here writing from a computer at the Lovely Wild Spirit Backpackers lodge in The Craggs on the Garden route in South Africa.
Since tearing ourselves from the wild party that is Cape Town we have been to a few wicked places along the Garden Route on our quest across the coast of South Africa.
We stayed at Mossel Bay Backpackers where we linked up with a couple people that we actually spent an entire week travelling with. Martin Rabensteiner from Italy, Leo Cahenzli from France and Lynne Howells from Wales. We have become quite the little family, however, a lot of alcohol and shenanigans had a large part to play in that. We went on quite the tear at the Mossel Bay backpackers, drinking ourselves into oblivion playing Kings and game after game of Ride the bus. We got some great shots and it was a fantastic beginning to our week long adventure.
The day after we all woke up super hungover and lazy, but one of the other girl's we met at the backpackers knew how to surf and offered up some free lessons, so Marting, Leo, Tracey, Sandra (the teacher) and myself headed to the beach with wetsuits and surf boards and played in the water. I wasn't as successful as my first lesson in Bali a couple years ago, but the boards were a little different and I don't think I had the full spirit in me, but I almost stood up a couple times which was sweet. After our beach adventure we headed to the local pick n' pay to grab some spaghetti and Ostrich to make a pasta dish with an Amarula cream sauce. Amarula for those of you who don't know is an amazing South African liqueur that can rival baley's. We bought some wine and had a nice romantic group meal on the veranda at the backpackers. A little after dinner wine and some card games (minus the booze) was all we needed before some shut eye.
The following day Tracey and I hit up the flea market to try and exchange some reading materials before hopping on the bus to Wilderness.
In Wilderness we had planned to stay at the Wild Farm, which is an amazingly beautiful place with lots of hiking that you can do around there and great views of the ocean. Unfortunately the day we got there was dark, gloomy, rainy and WINDY!!! It was so windy I thought the bar was going to blow away. The place was cool though, separate buildings for beds, bar, ect. We ended up spending our night in the bar drinking, eating and eventually watched the South Africa vs. England Rugby match that a couple men that are putting on log house building seminars had taped. Instead of getting wasted on a Saturday night we were entranced by this Rugby game until there was 3 minutes left and the power went out for the second time!! We tried to wait it out hoping it was going to come back on, but our fire burned out and the inside of the bar was starting to feel like the outside... which was cold and WINDY!
The next day our little family decided to move down to Fairy Knowe Backpackers because it's a little closer to town, we thought there would be more people and it would be nicer weather. Oh and we were right. To spend our day, Martin, Leo, Tracey and I rented kayaks and kayaked down the Touws River. We paddled for about an hour before we got to a rope that came across the river. We beached our kayaks and pulled ourselves across the river on this floating raft with the rope tow. There was a beautiful little walk that we did for about an hour before we strolled up to a couple of waterfalls. We sat down and ate our packed sandwich lunch before exploring the areas around the waterfalls. The boys were like monkeys! Climbing all over the places, trying to get to unreachable places, but we ended up with some great photos. It was a relaxing paddle back to where we put in and a little walk down a trail to get back to the backpackers.
We had a steak braii with baked potatoes and squash, but not before a bunch of beers and pool games. After dinner we got on a serious tear, drinking with about 12 other people that we met at the place. Before we knew it pretty much everyone at the place was in the bar singing and dancing and carrying on well into the wee hours of the morning. Leo, Martin and I were having such a great night we took our party to the kitchen making late night snacks and having a ball... until some of the other people came down and told us to shut up. At that point we figured it'd be a good time to go jump on Tracey, wake Lynne up and take some group photos!!!
The next morning, although we all wanted to lay in bed, we had to make the most of our time in Wilderness, so Martin, Leo and I hike from Wilderness to Victoria Bay! We took an old railroad line the whole way, and actually ran into this man that has built a hostel into a cave!!! 10 beds, kitchen, bible study area (very important), and sitting rooms. He was quite the weirdo, but still super cool to check out.
At Victoria Bay we thought we should try some more surfing. The guy we rented the baords from said "yah for sure go have a great time it's fine that you're beginners". So of course we grabbed our boards and went straight in. It was fun for the first few minutes, until we realized we were just getting pulled out to see. Martin and I had to actually swim for our lives to the rocks so that we could get out of the water. Everytime I tried to swim in, I would be taken out further. I think I needed a couple more lessons before Victoria Bay. Oh well you live and learn.
That night we headed to Plettenberg Bay, staying at this little Plett Backpackers. It was right in the heart of the town by all the bars and the grocery store. There wasn't much to it, but that's alright we had everything we needed right close, and the place had a gorgeous view of the ocean. It was a Full Moon while we were there and there weren't any clouds so you could see the reflection from the Moon off the ocean. Priceless!
Some of the highlights of Plett Bay was doing a 5 hour hike around the peninsula to go see hundreds of seals. 5 years ago there weren't any seals there, but since they've made the area a national park they have started to come back. The only problem is when you have seals you get Great White Sharks. There have been 2 attacks in the past 5 years, but still it's cool.
It was varying terrain on the hike, some flat, some rock climbing type terrain, some beach, and some great views. Again we packed a sweet sandwich lunch and sat on the rocks watching the crazy waves come in and smash against them. We had a crazy party night in Plett because it was the start of the South African Spring Break type party that they called "Schoolies". We did a great bar hop that night and met some cool people. The last day we just relaxed and went out for dinner, rented the Dark Knight Rises and planned our next move.
Today we rented a car and drove to the highest bridge bungee jump in the world. 213m!!! No, I didn't jump, but Tracey and I bought bridge passes so we could go with Leo and Martin to cheer them on. It was a great vibe, loud music, the workers getting everyone pumped up and they had a nice TV under the bridge to watch your friends while they are hanging. On the way back to Plett, the boys dropped Tracey, Lynne and I off in The Craggs at the Wild Spirit Backpackers. We had to say goodbye to Leo because he is on a time crunch trying to get to Durban. Martin on the other hand, we might see tomorrow in Storm's River, we will see!!!
As for me right now, I'm digesting my spinach and feta lasagna and hanging out reading the second installment of Game of Thrones.
Until the next blog
Cheers,
EmJ
Thursday 29 November 2012
Saturday 24 November 2012
South Africa - The Beginning
Well I was only waiting to come to South Africa for about 15 years, since as long as I can remember I have had a fascination for Africa, and especially wanted to have the opportunity to check out South Africa. After having a great opportunity to work and live in Malawi, I could scoot down to see what SA has to offer. But of course before you can get something great, there is usually a hard time that has to come before it.
Unfortunately, our fiasco was on the Intercape Bus that left from Windhoek in Namibia and came all the way down to Cape Town. We were supposed to leave at 5:30pm on a Monday and get there at 3:00pm on Tuesday. Well just to start off with, we didn't manage to get into Cape Town until afte 4:00am on Wednesday morning, with a total Intercape experience of close to 40hrs. Our bus broke down outside Keetmanshoop in Namibia and we were stranded in the Namibian desert for over 12 hrs. They sent a new bus from Upington in South Africa that met us where we were stranded. We got on that bus and went about 5km before the fan belt of that bus broke. Causing another layover in the desert. At this point they were sending a bus from Cape Town which was over 12 hrs away, so people on the bus started to get pretty antsy. What the bus driver decided to do was fix the fan belt, and only use a couple of the gears, making the top speed of the bus 60km an hour.
People were irate and hungry so the company ended up buying us lunch and dinner at Wimpy's. Easily the most disgusting fast food burgers I have ever had in my life. You couldn't pay me a million dollars to eat there again. We also managed to get a free night's stay in Cape Town at the Carnival Backpackers for the wednesday night. But now starts the fun part.
We had finally made it to Cape Town and we wanted to get in as much as possible, so Tracey and I woke up bright and early around 8:30am on Wednesday and bought a two day ticket on the city sightseeing bus that took us all around the city to check out some of the places that we would like to go during our stay. The first day we took the Red Bus Line which was pretty much a city tour just taking you to the beaches, showing you the bottom of the Table Mountain climb, where there is a Cable Car (or Gondola for us Canadians) that took you to the top. We also got a free night tour with our two day ticket so that night we ran to the bus, almost missing it by literally a minute, and it took us up to signal hill to watch the sunset.
After that tour we decided to go check out another backpackers than the one we were staying at. We moved from the Carnival Court to the Cat and Moose which is at the end of Long street where all the parties are, but it's enough out of the way that the drunken fools won't keep you up all night. Anyway, we had heard about a cool spot called the Longstreet Backpackers and we went in to see what all the hype was about. It lived up to the standard for sure. We only had to buy one beer and start talking to all the people who worked there before the drinks starting flowing....fast and free! We got on a good tear that night and it was only a Wednesday. That night we checked out some of the bars on the street too. The Dubliner had some good live music, Jo'Burg had the dancing and I can't even remember the other bar we went to, but we weren't in bed until after 4am. We almost regretted that late night decision the next morning when we woke up and realized we had paid for the two day bus ticket and had to go check out the Blue Line Route. Little did we know it was going to take us to wineries where it was 30 Rand (about 3 dollars) to try 5 different wines. So we mended our hangovers with some delicious red wines. Well Tracey tried a few whites, but I'm a red wine kinda girl.
That night we just wanted to hang out, so we didn't really party too hard because the next day we climbed Table Mountain. Man was that a feat. We both didn't realize that it was going to be as intense as it was. Not only were we so impressed that we made it, but after 2 and a half hours of pretty much walking up natural staircases, we realized we took the hard route. You could actually walk on the road to get to the beginning of the gorge, but we didn't know that and trecked the whole gorge like terrain from the bottom. But that's ok, it made us feel even better at the top. We didn't really get great views from the top because we were in the clouds and it was freezing, but we had a nice coffee before shelling out over a hundred rand to take the cable car down. There was no way we were doing that climb backwards when we didn't have to! The climb took a lot out of us, so we didn't do much that night either.
The next day we walked around and ate some delicious Thai food and had a Thai massage which was great, gave a good relaxing afternoon before visiting the Longstreet Backpackers to pretty much have another night as good as the first, with the drinks flowing fast and free!
While we were hung over the next day we went to check out the beaches of Clifton Hill basking in the sun and actually went into the Atlantic Ocean when the temperature was about 14 degrees Celsius. That was cooold!!!
Our last big tour in Cape Town was the Cape Point Baz Bus tour where we got to got to Hout Bay, Simon's Town, Cape of Good Hope and did some biking through a National Park. Simon's Town was super cool to and see the African Penguins. There were so awkward and cute and we go to get super close to them. I hadn't been on a bike since Ryan and I had our fiasco in the Gilli Islands in Indonesia, so I was a bit nervous, but it was actually super fun and we only had to ride about 6km so it was very leisurely. The picnic lunch was great and it was cool to go to the most South Western part of Africa. The views are spectacular from the mountains, watching the waves smack into the rocks and looking out into the vast Atlantic Ocean. We even got to go to the spot where the Atlantic Ocean ends and the Indian Ocean begins. I get the understanding of the wine company Two Oceans from South Africa now. I mean it makes sense, but I never thought that much into it.
We did a lot of walking in Cape Town and a lot of drinking. On our last night we actually met up with one of my friends from High School, Claire Gemmill who is actually living in Cape Town volunteering. She met us at the Dubliner before going to The Waiting Room to watch some local bands. It was a really nice and relaxing last night and a great chance to catch up with an old friend.
We were on the bus the next morning by 8 o'clock, making our way to Mossel Bay where I am actually writing this blog. Mossel Bay has been great to us, with some good stories to come. I'm just killing time before we skip over to Wilderness to see the next stop on our journey.
Cheers from the South,
Em J
Unfortunately, our fiasco was on the Intercape Bus that left from Windhoek in Namibia and came all the way down to Cape Town. We were supposed to leave at 5:30pm on a Monday and get there at 3:00pm on Tuesday. Well just to start off with, we didn't manage to get into Cape Town until afte 4:00am on Wednesday morning, with a total Intercape experience of close to 40hrs. Our bus broke down outside Keetmanshoop in Namibia and we were stranded in the Namibian desert for over 12 hrs. They sent a new bus from Upington in South Africa that met us where we were stranded. We got on that bus and went about 5km before the fan belt of that bus broke. Causing another layover in the desert. At this point they were sending a bus from Cape Town which was over 12 hrs away, so people on the bus started to get pretty antsy. What the bus driver decided to do was fix the fan belt, and only use a couple of the gears, making the top speed of the bus 60km an hour.
People were irate and hungry so the company ended up buying us lunch and dinner at Wimpy's. Easily the most disgusting fast food burgers I have ever had in my life. You couldn't pay me a million dollars to eat there again. We also managed to get a free night's stay in Cape Town at the Carnival Backpackers for the wednesday night. But now starts the fun part.
We had finally made it to Cape Town and we wanted to get in as much as possible, so Tracey and I woke up bright and early around 8:30am on Wednesday and bought a two day ticket on the city sightseeing bus that took us all around the city to check out some of the places that we would like to go during our stay. The first day we took the Red Bus Line which was pretty much a city tour just taking you to the beaches, showing you the bottom of the Table Mountain climb, where there is a Cable Car (or Gondola for us Canadians) that took you to the top. We also got a free night tour with our two day ticket so that night we ran to the bus, almost missing it by literally a minute, and it took us up to signal hill to watch the sunset.
After that tour we decided to go check out another backpackers than the one we were staying at. We moved from the Carnival Court to the Cat and Moose which is at the end of Long street where all the parties are, but it's enough out of the way that the drunken fools won't keep you up all night. Anyway, we had heard about a cool spot called the Longstreet Backpackers and we went in to see what all the hype was about. It lived up to the standard for sure. We only had to buy one beer and start talking to all the people who worked there before the drinks starting flowing....fast and free! We got on a good tear that night and it was only a Wednesday. That night we checked out some of the bars on the street too. The Dubliner had some good live music, Jo'Burg had the dancing and I can't even remember the other bar we went to, but we weren't in bed until after 4am. We almost regretted that late night decision the next morning when we woke up and realized we had paid for the two day bus ticket and had to go check out the Blue Line Route. Little did we know it was going to take us to wineries where it was 30 Rand (about 3 dollars) to try 5 different wines. So we mended our hangovers with some delicious red wines. Well Tracey tried a few whites, but I'm a red wine kinda girl.
That night we just wanted to hang out, so we didn't really party too hard because the next day we climbed Table Mountain. Man was that a feat. We both didn't realize that it was going to be as intense as it was. Not only were we so impressed that we made it, but after 2 and a half hours of pretty much walking up natural staircases, we realized we took the hard route. You could actually walk on the road to get to the beginning of the gorge, but we didn't know that and trecked the whole gorge like terrain from the bottom. But that's ok, it made us feel even better at the top. We didn't really get great views from the top because we were in the clouds and it was freezing, but we had a nice coffee before shelling out over a hundred rand to take the cable car down. There was no way we were doing that climb backwards when we didn't have to! The climb took a lot out of us, so we didn't do much that night either.
The next day we walked around and ate some delicious Thai food and had a Thai massage which was great, gave a good relaxing afternoon before visiting the Longstreet Backpackers to pretty much have another night as good as the first, with the drinks flowing fast and free!
While we were hung over the next day we went to check out the beaches of Clifton Hill basking in the sun and actually went into the Atlantic Ocean when the temperature was about 14 degrees Celsius. That was cooold!!!
Our last big tour in Cape Town was the Cape Point Baz Bus tour where we got to got to Hout Bay, Simon's Town, Cape of Good Hope and did some biking through a National Park. Simon's Town was super cool to and see the African Penguins. There were so awkward and cute and we go to get super close to them. I hadn't been on a bike since Ryan and I had our fiasco in the Gilli Islands in Indonesia, so I was a bit nervous, but it was actually super fun and we only had to ride about 6km so it was very leisurely. The picnic lunch was great and it was cool to go to the most South Western part of Africa. The views are spectacular from the mountains, watching the waves smack into the rocks and looking out into the vast Atlantic Ocean. We even got to go to the spot where the Atlantic Ocean ends and the Indian Ocean begins. I get the understanding of the wine company Two Oceans from South Africa now. I mean it makes sense, but I never thought that much into it.
We did a lot of walking in Cape Town and a lot of drinking. On our last night we actually met up with one of my friends from High School, Claire Gemmill who is actually living in Cape Town volunteering. She met us at the Dubliner before going to The Waiting Room to watch some local bands. It was a really nice and relaxing last night and a great chance to catch up with an old friend.
We were on the bus the next morning by 8 o'clock, making our way to Mossel Bay where I am actually writing this blog. Mossel Bay has been great to us, with some good stories to come. I'm just killing time before we skip over to Wilderness to see the next stop on our journey.
Cheers from the South,
Em J
Friday 23 November 2012
Swakopmund and Sossusvlei
Well hello again, blogging again from South Africa (you'll hear about SA a little later). I'm giving everyone an update on some of the cool craziness that Tracey and I got up to in Namibia!
We left Livingstone and good friends behind in Zambia to head on a Namibian adventure. We started in Windhoek, which is the capital of the country. It was interesting to get to see some high rise buildings, paved roads and working street lights! We only stayed in Windhoek as a hub to get to other places around the country.
Our first stop was Swakopmund, which is a little German-like town right on the ocean. We stayed a quaint little backpackers called Desert Sky which was right downtown, close to the bars, movie theatre and restaurants. We had some nice relaxing beers at the Brauhaus, where a lot of the locals like to go after a long day at work. There we even indulged in some 2 litre German boot beers. DAS BOOT!
One of the highlights of Swakopmund was definitely the sandboarding. I had been looking forward to trying to snowboard down some sand dunes. Boy do you have to work for your fun on this excursion. In order to minimize the environmental impact of this great activity, there were no dune buggies or ATV's to take us up to the top of the dune. Instead we march with our snowboards in our snowboard boots up to the top, strap in and glide down and repeat. It was so much fun, and I was actually pretty good at it, thanks to my Snowboarding background. It felt like a different type of powder snow, and just a bit slower. We also tried lie down boarding, where you litterally lie head first on this hard slippery mat and go down as fast as you can. They even have a speed gun to clock you. The fastest they have seen I think was 84 km/hr. I only got up to 68 and I was dragging my toes in the sand to slow myself down. It was definitely a weird feeling throwing yourself down a sandy dune as fast as you can. They even have a jump set up for the stand up boarding run, but I couldn't build the courage to try it. After we were finished we had a great picnic lunch with free beer!!! I even took a couple for the road.
We opted for a tour to go to Sossuvlei, which is quite difficult to get there because there are no public transport to get there and we are way to cheap to rent a vehicle, let alone guiding it throw all the sand where you need a 4x4. Our guide's name was Morne, and we went with a company called Chameleon Safari's which was super cool. On the way we saw some Oryx, which is one of the most beautiful animals that I have ever seen. I even spotted some Giraffe's hanging out which was cool.
We stayed at Desert camp where there are little huts that have been placed there in the middle of the desert and there is literally nothing around you. It was amazing. At night the ENTIRE sky was covered in stars and you could see shooting star after shooting star. Sossusvlei was amazing too, we got to see where a river had been cut off millions of years ago because massive sand dunes got blown in and circled around the river cutting it off. The first one we saw was called Deadvlei, and there is also Sossusvlei. We walked around the old lake bed and checked out all of the dead trees. That day Tracey and I actually walked up and around a Sand Dune for an hour, before we had to go back to the car to keep going. One of the best things about our tour is that our guide was awesome, but there was also only one other Japanese lady on our tour, so it was really small.
After Sossusvlei we headed back to Windhoek for a night to hang out with our guide and his buddy. They took us around to all of the local bars that they go to and took us on a tour of the city. We took the bus ride from hell to get to Cape Town, but again, that's another story for another blog.
Cheers,
EmJ
We left Livingstone and good friends behind in Zambia to head on a Namibian adventure. We started in Windhoek, which is the capital of the country. It was interesting to get to see some high rise buildings, paved roads and working street lights! We only stayed in Windhoek as a hub to get to other places around the country.
Our first stop was Swakopmund, which is a little German-like town right on the ocean. We stayed a quaint little backpackers called Desert Sky which was right downtown, close to the bars, movie theatre and restaurants. We had some nice relaxing beers at the Brauhaus, where a lot of the locals like to go after a long day at work. There we even indulged in some 2 litre German boot beers. DAS BOOT!
One of the highlights of Swakopmund was definitely the sandboarding. I had been looking forward to trying to snowboard down some sand dunes. Boy do you have to work for your fun on this excursion. In order to minimize the environmental impact of this great activity, there were no dune buggies or ATV's to take us up to the top of the dune. Instead we march with our snowboards in our snowboard boots up to the top, strap in and glide down and repeat. It was so much fun, and I was actually pretty good at it, thanks to my Snowboarding background. It felt like a different type of powder snow, and just a bit slower. We also tried lie down boarding, where you litterally lie head first on this hard slippery mat and go down as fast as you can. They even have a speed gun to clock you. The fastest they have seen I think was 84 km/hr. I only got up to 68 and I was dragging my toes in the sand to slow myself down. It was definitely a weird feeling throwing yourself down a sandy dune as fast as you can. They even have a jump set up for the stand up boarding run, but I couldn't build the courage to try it. After we were finished we had a great picnic lunch with free beer!!! I even took a couple for the road.
We opted for a tour to go to Sossuvlei, which is quite difficult to get there because there are no public transport to get there and we are way to cheap to rent a vehicle, let alone guiding it throw all the sand where you need a 4x4. Our guide's name was Morne, and we went with a company called Chameleon Safari's which was super cool. On the way we saw some Oryx, which is one of the most beautiful animals that I have ever seen. I even spotted some Giraffe's hanging out which was cool.
We stayed at Desert camp where there are little huts that have been placed there in the middle of the desert and there is literally nothing around you. It was amazing. At night the ENTIRE sky was covered in stars and you could see shooting star after shooting star. Sossusvlei was amazing too, we got to see where a river had been cut off millions of years ago because massive sand dunes got blown in and circled around the river cutting it off. The first one we saw was called Deadvlei, and there is also Sossusvlei. We walked around the old lake bed and checked out all of the dead trees. That day Tracey and I actually walked up and around a Sand Dune for an hour, before we had to go back to the car to keep going. One of the best things about our tour is that our guide was awesome, but there was also only one other Japanese lady on our tour, so it was really small.
After Sossusvlei we headed back to Windhoek for a night to hang out with our guide and his buddy. They took us around to all of the local bars that they go to and took us on a tour of the city. We took the bus ride from hell to get to Cape Town, but again, that's another story for another blog.
Cheers,
EmJ
Monday 5 November 2012
Livingstone and Victoria Falls - With a little Zambezi River Rafting
So far we have been spending a lot of time on buses in between places that we have been visiting, but all that time spent on buses it completely worth it once we get to a new stop.
Livingstone was not only a highlight of Zambia, but also of my time here in Africa. After we arrived from Lusaka close to midnight on Monday, we got up bright and early on Tuesday to tackle some White Water Rafting down the mighty Zambezi. This was easily one of the scariest days of my life, but I am so happy that I did it. We ran 24 sets of class IV and V rapids in a big yellow raft with Zambian guides. We had three major flips on the river that set you whirling down these rapids, wave and wave taken you under for some down time. The only thing I kept thinking to myself was, the guide said I'll come back up, so I just had to let the water take me for a ride before I managed to sneak in a breathe before the next wave took me back under.
I have never been so scared in my life, but we had such a good boat and a great guide that I knew I'd be fine. I don't really know how, but our boat managed to be the EXTREME boat, taking the hardest lines every rapid, causing us to have the most spills and the funniest footage of the day.
Other than feeling like I was going to die and not doing so, we met some fantastic locals guys that were on the river with us. We had planned to stay in Livingstone for 2 nights and stayed 7 because of how much fun we were having.
Our friends Golden and Leonard took us to their village (Mukuni) one day and we got to meet their families and the chiefs in the village. Tracey and I also got to spend some time in the Mukuni jail. Of course for picture purposes, but it was still pretty funny.
When we were at Golden's sister's place we had some traditional Zigolo (water and sugar) with some bread. A classic meal that a lot of people have at the start of their days to get energy to go to school and pay attention.
Another highlight was knocking mangoes off the tree at Golden's mom's house and biting into the juicy goodness of a fresh ripe mango.
We spent a lot of nights at the bars, drinking way too much Mosi and Castle beer, staying out until the wee hours of the morning, trying to send the boys to bed so they could work the next day!!!
Our other friend Phil took us to his house one day to meet his roommate Peter, and we got to hang out with all the local kids and they made us traditional Nshima (in Malawi we call is Nsima) which is a porridge like mashed potato type dish, which totally does not taste like Potatoes! Accompanied with it was some nice eggs with Tomato and Rape (I believe in Canada we call it Rapini).
The kids even put on a show for us, dressing one of the boys up in sweat pants and sweat shirts and filled it with others clothes and he danced for us while all the other kids sang. It was actually extremely funny, and I wish I had video footage.
One of the not so highlights of Livingstone was Victoria Falls. I knew we were going in the dry season, but I didn't realize that meant there were NO falls on the Zambian side. We could've paid 50 US to cross the Zimbabwe border to check out that side, but we just stood on a bridge and leaned out to kind of see it. It's always a toss up though, because if you go in the wet season you can't White Water Raft. I guess you can't have it all!
I was really sad to leave, but I gave all of our new friends my contacts, and a couple of them were actually planning to come to Malawi in the next couple months, so we might get to link up then.
Currently, I am sitting at the Cardboard Box backpackers in Windhoek, Namibia. We got in this morning around 9am after taking a 20 hour bus ride from Livingstone. We decided to skip over Botswana because we are on a tight budget, but we are planning to go to Lesotho and Swaziland during our South Africa tour.
Here in Windhoek, we are planning to hit up Swakopmund to see some sand dunes and try sandboarding, as well as go to Soussuvlei to go on a safari, and a tour of the beautiful scenery around there.
It's different travelling in Africa than some of the other places I have been. Things aren't as easy to get to, transportation is expensive and limited, however, we are on an adventure so we will work it out!!
I'm glad to be back blogging, and hope to share some more crazy stories with my readers!
EmJ
Livingstone was not only a highlight of Zambia, but also of my time here in Africa. After we arrived from Lusaka close to midnight on Monday, we got up bright and early on Tuesday to tackle some White Water Rafting down the mighty Zambezi. This was easily one of the scariest days of my life, but I am so happy that I did it. We ran 24 sets of class IV and V rapids in a big yellow raft with Zambian guides. We had three major flips on the river that set you whirling down these rapids, wave and wave taken you under for some down time. The only thing I kept thinking to myself was, the guide said I'll come back up, so I just had to let the water take me for a ride before I managed to sneak in a breathe before the next wave took me back under.
I have never been so scared in my life, but we had such a good boat and a great guide that I knew I'd be fine. I don't really know how, but our boat managed to be the EXTREME boat, taking the hardest lines every rapid, causing us to have the most spills and the funniest footage of the day.
Other than feeling like I was going to die and not doing so, we met some fantastic locals guys that were on the river with us. We had planned to stay in Livingstone for 2 nights and stayed 7 because of how much fun we were having.
Our friends Golden and Leonard took us to their village (Mukuni) one day and we got to meet their families and the chiefs in the village. Tracey and I also got to spend some time in the Mukuni jail. Of course for picture purposes, but it was still pretty funny.
When we were at Golden's sister's place we had some traditional Zigolo (water and sugar) with some bread. A classic meal that a lot of people have at the start of their days to get energy to go to school and pay attention.
Another highlight was knocking mangoes off the tree at Golden's mom's house and biting into the juicy goodness of a fresh ripe mango.
We spent a lot of nights at the bars, drinking way too much Mosi and Castle beer, staying out until the wee hours of the morning, trying to send the boys to bed so they could work the next day!!!
Our other friend Phil took us to his house one day to meet his roommate Peter, and we got to hang out with all the local kids and they made us traditional Nshima (in Malawi we call is Nsima) which is a porridge like mashed potato type dish, which totally does not taste like Potatoes! Accompanied with it was some nice eggs with Tomato and Rape (I believe in Canada we call it Rapini).
The kids even put on a show for us, dressing one of the boys up in sweat pants and sweat shirts and filled it with others clothes and he danced for us while all the other kids sang. It was actually extremely funny, and I wish I had video footage.
One of the not so highlights of Livingstone was Victoria Falls. I knew we were going in the dry season, but I didn't realize that meant there were NO falls on the Zambian side. We could've paid 50 US to cross the Zimbabwe border to check out that side, but we just stood on a bridge and leaned out to kind of see it. It's always a toss up though, because if you go in the wet season you can't White Water Raft. I guess you can't have it all!
I was really sad to leave, but I gave all of our new friends my contacts, and a couple of them were actually planning to come to Malawi in the next couple months, so we might get to link up then.
Currently, I am sitting at the Cardboard Box backpackers in Windhoek, Namibia. We got in this morning around 9am after taking a 20 hour bus ride from Livingstone. We decided to skip over Botswana because we are on a tight budget, but we are planning to go to Lesotho and Swaziland during our South Africa tour.
Here in Windhoek, we are planning to hit up Swakopmund to see some sand dunes and try sandboarding, as well as go to Soussuvlei to go on a safari, and a tour of the beautiful scenery around there.
It's different travelling in Africa than some of the other places I have been. Things aren't as easy to get to, transportation is expensive and limited, however, we are on an adventure so we will work it out!!
I'm glad to be back blogging, and hope to share some more crazy stories with my readers!
EmJ
African Adventure Begins
Wow! I can't believe that I have already been in Africa for 5 months now. I have just finished the school semester at Mzuni, and I am happy to report that all my students did fantastic! I'm so proud of them as well as myself. It has been such an experience to be able to live in Mzuzu and challenge myself teaching University courses, as well as creating borehole maps for the Centre of Excellence at the University.
Now I am off on my two month adventure through the Southern African countries with my roommate and good friend Tracey!
We started off in Zambia, which has been absolutely unreal. Tracey, Nicole, Kelly, Kat and I all headed from Mzuzu to Lilongwe so we could catch a mini bus to the Mchinji border over to Zambia! From there we all shared a taxi to get to Chipata to pick up some Zambian kwachas and then convinced our driver to take us all the way to Croc Valley just outside of South Luangwa National Park for a Safari Adventure. The Zambian kwacha is 5200 ZK to 1 CAD. It gets a little crazy when you're paying for things in hundreds of thousands of kwacha, but it just adds to the experience!
When we were at Croc Valley we all camped in the camping area, where Hippos and Elephants would walk around our tents at night looking for little snacks that fall off the trees. During our stay at Croc Valley we headed out on one morning Safari and one evening Safari to go and check out some of the African animals I have always dreamed about seeing.
We were up bright and early at 530am to catch the truck at six. On the day Safari we were extremely lucky to see a lot of animals. Some of the highlights of course were ZEBRAS!, Elephants, Hippos, Crocodiles, Baboons, Impala, Koudu, Puku, Pelicans, Sawbill Storks, Giraffes, but especially the Lions. They had made a kill the night before so we pulled up where about six other trucks were looking at the Alpha male keeping an eye on the kill.
When everyone else had left, our truck stayed and we noticed a large amount of Vultures had come to take a go at the Cape Buffalo that had been killed. The Lion was quick to scare them away, and then he proceeded to start dragging the carcass across the road RIGHT IN FRONT OF US! I have some great video clips of him dragging the Buffalo. We was dragging it through the bushes when one of the tusks got stuck, so we stayed to watch him work at that for a while. After we continued just a few feet down the road we saw 5 other Lions all lazing about digesting their food. One of the females was pregnant as well so that was a cool experience to see.
On our night Safari, we were really trying to see some Leopards, but unfortunately our truck was a little out of luck, however, we did manage to see a bunch of Hyenas which was a good consolation! After the Safaris were over, of course we came back to the campsite and had some beers before heading into the town of Mfuwe to go to the local Obama Club. It's always nice to party with the locals!
We only stayed for two nights at Luangwa, but I felt like I got a very good Safari experience and I was ready to tackle the next stop on our journey. Lusaka, and Livingstone (Victoria Falls).
EmJ
Now I am off on my two month adventure through the Southern African countries with my roommate and good friend Tracey!
We started off in Zambia, which has been absolutely unreal. Tracey, Nicole, Kelly, Kat and I all headed from Mzuzu to Lilongwe so we could catch a mini bus to the Mchinji border over to Zambia! From there we all shared a taxi to get to Chipata to pick up some Zambian kwachas and then convinced our driver to take us all the way to Croc Valley just outside of South Luangwa National Park for a Safari Adventure. The Zambian kwacha is 5200 ZK to 1 CAD. It gets a little crazy when you're paying for things in hundreds of thousands of kwacha, but it just adds to the experience!
When we were at Croc Valley we all camped in the camping area, where Hippos and Elephants would walk around our tents at night looking for little snacks that fall off the trees. During our stay at Croc Valley we headed out on one morning Safari and one evening Safari to go and check out some of the African animals I have always dreamed about seeing.
We were up bright and early at 530am to catch the truck at six. On the day Safari we were extremely lucky to see a lot of animals. Some of the highlights of course were ZEBRAS!, Elephants, Hippos, Crocodiles, Baboons, Impala, Koudu, Puku, Pelicans, Sawbill Storks, Giraffes, but especially the Lions. They had made a kill the night before so we pulled up where about six other trucks were looking at the Alpha male keeping an eye on the kill.
When everyone else had left, our truck stayed and we noticed a large amount of Vultures had come to take a go at the Cape Buffalo that had been killed. The Lion was quick to scare them away, and then he proceeded to start dragging the carcass across the road RIGHT IN FRONT OF US! I have some great video clips of him dragging the Buffalo. We was dragging it through the bushes when one of the tusks got stuck, so we stayed to watch him work at that for a while. After we continued just a few feet down the road we saw 5 other Lions all lazing about digesting their food. One of the females was pregnant as well so that was a cool experience to see.
On our night Safari, we were really trying to see some Leopards, but unfortunately our truck was a little out of luck, however, we did manage to see a bunch of Hyenas which was a good consolation! After the Safaris were over, of course we came back to the campsite and had some beers before heading into the town of Mfuwe to go to the local Obama Club. It's always nice to party with the locals!
We only stayed for two nights at Luangwa, but I felt like I got a very good Safari experience and I was ready to tackle the next stop on our journey. Lusaka, and Livingstone (Victoria Falls).
EmJ
Tuesday 18 September 2012
Malawi Update
Wow!! I am sorry, I haven't posted is almost two months!!
The largest reason is because I leant my second computer out to one of the students, and my primary computer wouldn't connect to a browser until I restored my computer to an earlier format, so I finally got that done.
August was a great month. In between teaching a third year Remote Sensing Course and a first year Remote Sensing course, I managed to get away a couple times, for some weekends away. Some of our Malawi friends along with Nicole, Tracey and I went to Nkhata Bay to have a relaxing weekend at the beach. Turned out the relaxation turned into quite the party, going to the local Yizo Yizo bar in town and eating delicious street meat from the road. It has been decided that Nkhata Bay has the best street meat that we have had so far.
The weekend of the 18th of August, we headed to Lilongwe to go and see some of the girls before they headed back to Canada at the end of August. They took us to some of their favourite restaurants, and showed us their favourite club called Zanzi's!! We were dancing up a storm until well into the early hours of the morning.
On the sunday we ended up going to an all day festival at the Lilongwe Golf and Country Club to watch a number of different bands and artists play. We were under the impression it was just an afternoon concert so we figured it won't go from 2pm-5pm, but we were there until at least 10:30pm!
Our ride back to Mzuzu was quite tedious, we weren't able to get any tickets on the AXA coach bus, so we had to take a local "coach" bus. It turns a 5 and a half hour journey into an 8 and a half hour journey and our ipods were dead.
After that we actually spent a few weekends in Mzuzu, trying to save a little cash. I'm trying not to spend to much these days, saving up for my backpacking trip that I'm going to be heading on once the exams are finished in October. I'm going with my roommate Tracey, but we can't decide if we should go north or south. Decisions, decisions
Last week, I administered my midterms, it was definitely different being on the other side. Normally I would be the one stressing out frantically writing, but instead I got to sit and read my book. It was quite lovely!!
Next up I have to finish my lectures and have my students present their research projects before the end of the semester. It turns our that the next semester might not start until March, which means we have to find some other volunteer options around Malawi. I'm going to try and find some GIS companies and get in there to help with projects
I'm currently working in the Water Resource Department as well as the Land Management Department, teaching one of the new employees the basics of ArcGIS, and I will be helping to create maps for their water quality project that is starting off. The project is working with the Centre of Excellence here on the campus.
I've been trying to keep busy, but also having some fun here and there. Good Times!
EmJ
The largest reason is because I leant my second computer out to one of the students, and my primary computer wouldn't connect to a browser until I restored my computer to an earlier format, so I finally got that done.
August was a great month. In between teaching a third year Remote Sensing Course and a first year Remote Sensing course, I managed to get away a couple times, for some weekends away. Some of our Malawi friends along with Nicole, Tracey and I went to Nkhata Bay to have a relaxing weekend at the beach. Turned out the relaxation turned into quite the party, going to the local Yizo Yizo bar in town and eating delicious street meat from the road. It has been decided that Nkhata Bay has the best street meat that we have had so far.
The weekend of the 18th of August, we headed to Lilongwe to go and see some of the girls before they headed back to Canada at the end of August. They took us to some of their favourite restaurants, and showed us their favourite club called Zanzi's!! We were dancing up a storm until well into the early hours of the morning.
On the sunday we ended up going to an all day festival at the Lilongwe Golf and Country Club to watch a number of different bands and artists play. We were under the impression it was just an afternoon concert so we figured it won't go from 2pm-5pm, but we were there until at least 10:30pm!
Our ride back to Mzuzu was quite tedious, we weren't able to get any tickets on the AXA coach bus, so we had to take a local "coach" bus. It turns a 5 and a half hour journey into an 8 and a half hour journey and our ipods were dead.
After that we actually spent a few weekends in Mzuzu, trying to save a little cash. I'm trying not to spend to much these days, saving up for my backpacking trip that I'm going to be heading on once the exams are finished in October. I'm going with my roommate Tracey, but we can't decide if we should go north or south. Decisions, decisions
Last week, I administered my midterms, it was definitely different being on the other side. Normally I would be the one stressing out frantically writing, but instead I got to sit and read my book. It was quite lovely!!
Next up I have to finish my lectures and have my students present their research projects before the end of the semester. It turns our that the next semester might not start until March, which means we have to find some other volunteer options around Malawi. I'm going to try and find some GIS companies and get in there to help with projects
I'm currently working in the Water Resource Department as well as the Land Management Department, teaching one of the new employees the basics of ArcGIS, and I will be helping to create maps for their water quality project that is starting off. The project is working with the Centre of Excellence here on the campus.
I've been trying to keep busy, but also having some fun here and there. Good Times!
EmJ
Monday 23 July 2012
Kande Beach
Well, I decided to do the entire journey back to Mzuzu in one go. I hopped on my first plane in Toronto, and went to JFK. I was getting a final boarding call when I finally go to the gate to get on my plane to go to Johannesburg. It was exciting when I found out that we weren't stopping off in Dakar to collect more passengers, we just went straight from JFK to Joburg! I was quickly running through the airport to catch my last plane from Joburg to Lilongwe. I arrived in Lilongwe and it was a madhouse in the airport. I had to jump over people to get my bags, and when I finally found my bag on the belt I had to take four other people's bags off of mine so I could grab it.
I finally made it outside with all my luggage, and started getting bombarded by the taxi drivers. They were trying to get me to pay MK 10,000, but I knew I was supposed to only pay 7,000. So I just discussed it with them until they agreed to take me for the normal price!
I knew I had already missed the AXA coach bus that leaves at noon, so I had to decide whether or not to take public transit or stay in Lilongwe for a night. I really just wanted to get home, so I took a chance and hopped on the National Bus Company. The bus took about 8 hours, but I managed to get on one that didn't break down or run out of gas, so that is always a plus here in Malawi.
I started teaching one of my classes the next day, and it was quite overwhelming to get up in front of the classroom and see all these people looking at me. I thought it was a little overwhelming the first day, but the second day seemed much better. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to start my Remote Sensing class, due to students not showing up, teacher's striking and then student's striking. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it actually starts soon!
I was so exhausted when the weekend came, I just wanted to stay in Mzuzu, but the entire house was heading to Kande Beach and I didn't want to miss that, so I decided to go with them.
We hired a driver to take us there for MK10,000, but we had to pay 12,000 on the way back. The beach there is lovely. Lots of sand and waves in the water. The dorm rooms were quite nice too. It was a bit pricey for my liking, running at about $10 per night for the dorm rooms. The beers were MK300 and the food at the cafe was terrible and quite expensive. Our friend Bjorn managed to talk to a local guy who offered to make us traditional Malawian cuisine for lunch and dinner on the Saturday for MK600 each. It was rice, beans, rape (rapini), eggs and at dinner we added a tomato soup. We stole some Nali from the Restaurant at the resort, but we brought it back when we were done.
We mostly just laid around the beach and I got extremely burnt on my back! On the Sunday, I just slept in and made my way down to the beach to hang out before we made out way back.
We woke up this morning thinking the Teacher strike was still on, but it wasn't so we thought we had class, but it turns out that some of the students had decided to strike, so no one showed up to any of the classes. Who know how long this will continue for. A couple days, a week? We'll see.
EmJ
I finally made it outside with all my luggage, and started getting bombarded by the taxi drivers. They were trying to get me to pay MK 10,000, but I knew I was supposed to only pay 7,000. So I just discussed it with them until they agreed to take me for the normal price!
I knew I had already missed the AXA coach bus that leaves at noon, so I had to decide whether or not to take public transit or stay in Lilongwe for a night. I really just wanted to get home, so I took a chance and hopped on the National Bus Company. The bus took about 8 hours, but I managed to get on one that didn't break down or run out of gas, so that is always a plus here in Malawi.
I started teaching one of my classes the next day, and it was quite overwhelming to get up in front of the classroom and see all these people looking at me. I thought it was a little overwhelming the first day, but the second day seemed much better. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to start my Remote Sensing class, due to students not showing up, teacher's striking and then student's striking. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it actually starts soon!
I was so exhausted when the weekend came, I just wanted to stay in Mzuzu, but the entire house was heading to Kande Beach and I didn't want to miss that, so I decided to go with them.
We hired a driver to take us there for MK10,000, but we had to pay 12,000 on the way back. The beach there is lovely. Lots of sand and waves in the water. The dorm rooms were quite nice too. It was a bit pricey for my liking, running at about $10 per night for the dorm rooms. The beers were MK300 and the food at the cafe was terrible and quite expensive. Our friend Bjorn managed to talk to a local guy who offered to make us traditional Malawian cuisine for lunch and dinner on the Saturday for MK600 each. It was rice, beans, rape (rapini), eggs and at dinner we added a tomato soup. We stole some Nali from the Restaurant at the resort, but we brought it back when we were done.
We mostly just laid around the beach and I got extremely burnt on my back! On the Sunday, I just slept in and made my way down to the beach to hang out before we made out way back.
We woke up this morning thinking the Teacher strike was still on, but it wasn't so we thought we had class, but it turns out that some of the students had decided to strike, so no one showed up to any of the classes. Who know how long this will continue for. A couple days, a week? We'll see.
EmJ
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