Hogsback Via East London

Okay so last I wrote I was on my way to natures valley, since then I have spent time in Natures valley, Stormsriver, Port Elisibeth, and East london. Natures Valley is a really small town in the titsikama(sic?) National Park I woke up and decided to walk to the store to grab some stuff for breakfast. Hmm nobody told me it was a good mile and a half over there. Anyway I got some things for breakfast lunch and dinner, then after dropping those off I went for a nice hike. My jaunt took me up a mountain to a great viewpoint, then around to a tidal river mouth, once again no one told me that I need to possess knowledge of when high tide was to complete the hike. I seem to have a failure in communication. So I ended up getting my feet a tad wet while hopping from boulder to boulder in between the waves. the next day I hike around the lagoon and the first part of the otter trail. I didn't have the permit or the supplies for the full 5 day hike. My next stop was Stormsriver where, Ian I think I beat your 200 ft bungy jump with my 216 meter one, yes I got a video of it. Mom you will really love it. The jump was possibly the most traumatic thing I have ever willingly put myself through but my God, the rush was intense. When they pulled me up I had some serious shakes going on, and even when that ended I didn't come down off the adrenaline for over 6 hours. in the afternoon I went for a hike, probably about 10km total with an english lady, seriously the differances in pronounciation and general terminology between the brits, SAs and americans is hilarious. For example, when the brits say something is brilliant, that means fantastic. The following morning I went into the Titsikamma National Park and hiked to see a waterfall and its accompianing pool. I had seriously high expectations and the scummy water and treacherous trail amounted to one hell of a let down. I had even hiked in my swimming trunks to facilitate the fun I was so sure was awaiting me. While I was at the park, I had my laundry washed. Man it feels good to put on clean clothes, I had forgotten what it felt like. The next day, the 28th of may possibly? I went for a 22km bike ride, even now it feels like I have been beaten accross the behind with a fraternity paddle. The hostel in Stormsriver was my favorite of all the ones I've stayed in thus far. The staff was awsome, and the food they prepared was superb. I decided to eat what they were cooking every night I was there, because I realised that I've been travelling for 3 weeks now and I had yet to sample any authentic South African food. Last night I spent the evening in Port Elisibeth, a gritty industrial city. I was glad to spend a grand total of 10 hours there. The bus ride there is another story in and of itself. For most of the journy my only fellow passanger was a very bookish heavy woman of about 50, who continued to express interest in seeing the ocean. I had to break it very gently that traveling by highway at night was not the best way to enjoy the scenic views the ocean affords. Now I am in East London in a very surfer friendly hostel, my stay here is just so I can get free passage to Hogsback tomorrow. Suposedly the terrain there allows for some spectacular day hikes in the jungle. I'm taking lots of pictures, but I still can't host any to post them on here. I am getting close to the Transkei(sic) and Sanskei(sic), both former home states, part of the complex system of government under the apratheid. As a result I am moving into the poorest areas that I will go through in SA. the internet has been sketchy up till now so if you don't here from me for the next while i'll try to write something when I get to Durban if not before. I love you all.


P.S. I'm working on a wicked tan

In Plattenburg Bay off to Natures Valley

Woah okay so it's been a while since I posted last. Soooo much has happend. The Baz Bus was pretty fun there were only 4 other people on board at first, it's about the size of one of those "Special Access" RTD buses you see cruising around boulder, pretty comfortable cause there weren't many people but it could get crazy if it was packed. The driver of the bus had some seriously rocking tunes going. Most I didn't recognize but there were some jamin oldies that I knew. The music was a mix of old school, house beats, and downtempo stuff, quite the groove salad. I was really surprised at the mountains once we got out of cape town. I expected that S. Africa would be mostly flat but there have been hills and mountains virtually everywhere I've been. The drive over took a long time, like 6 hours, but it wasn't bad. i read, slept, talked with some Brits etc. The Hostel in Wilderness was awesome, the only description I can think of is if you took a nice house say in vail and made it a hostel that was what this was like. The two brits that I had spoken with on the baz bus where in wilderness as well at the same hostel so it was cool hanging out with them. They were Welsh, not british, as they would say. They left the following day, I think that was two days ago? So I linked up with a German couple, the guy was a surfer staying in capetown for a few months and his girlfriend had flown down for a few weeks. We went on a hike to a waterfall probably about 2 miles on the trail, but it seemed much longer. One it was really hot, two really humid, and three the germans smoke like chimneys and though I wasn't moving fast they had some difficulty keeping up. Ha, flatlanders. The whole hike we were conversing in german and they were correcting my german, at my request. That evening we cooked dinner together had a nice red wine and some pasta with homemade sauce. We ate on the balcony with four girls, also from Germany so the conversations in german continueed. Anyhow as it ends up I caught a ride with them from wilderness to Plattenburg Bay, where after checking in at the hostel which was actually a really nice B and B that we got cheap, we went Canoing up a river. I must confess I've never seen "canoes" like those before. Think of a kayak crossed with a canoe and what you get is a very little single man craft that is open on the top , very unstable, but a double bladed paddle. I was in the single, the girls all paired up and were in doubles. We went probably 2-3 miles upriver against the wind which mos def I feel today. Dad, I was reminiscing about being in Alaska, and cruising around the bay there. needless to say it took us probably 1.5-2 hours to get up there and about 30-40 min to come back down. I took some pretty good pics. I still haven't been able to host those online yet. And so you have heard my tale up until now. for the next couple hours I'm just going to chill cause it's raining here but them I catch the baz bus over to natures valley where I will hopefully do more swimming in the ocean, hiking etc. The german girls are on their way back to cape town but I am supposed to email them before I got back so we can chill. Likewise with the surfer, he has offered to put me up for a few days. Oh yeah one last thing, last night I had my first braai, or barbeque. It was over a wood fire, we had butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and ostrich steaks. Okay sorry to rewrite the Illiad here. I'll catch you all later. Happy trails.
W.

Simonstaad part 2

Funny how plans change in a hurry. I'm still here about to go on a walk up to a waterfall which should be fantastic cause it rained the past few days so lotta water flowing through. Last night I saw possibly the funniest thing I've ever seen. kinda inside joke but for all of you who have seen the video of the fat guy dancing and singing along to that Numa numa ye song. I saw a fat lady in the pub dancing in the exact same manner. Well if you had seen it you would've laughed too. So instead of going to hermanus I'm going straight to Wilderness. Everyone I've talked to said that hermanus is great when the whales are passing through but that is not anytime soon. The social situation here is pretty strange, what I mean by that is that more often than not black people refer to me as Massa, and it's kinda creeping me out. It's almost like being submissive has been bred in. Just an observation. As far as my personal mental situation I'm doing much better I think I just needed a couple days to get on my feet. Okay a new thing I'm adding to this blog is the daily quote. In most hostels there is a wall or a room where people write things on the walls and some of them are pretty funny. So when I feel I have found a good one I will post it.

"Transvestites are men who like to eat, drink, and be Mary."
For those who have never seen them look up Springboks they're very cute and I want one as a pet. I was speaking with this couple from holland last night and we got to talking about scotch. The guy started talking about how we probably have never had the same kinds because they are out of my price range. So without saying a word I walked into my room and brought out a bottle nicer than the stuff he was drinking. His demeaner changed almost instantly. Ha, score one for me, arogant dutch. Let me have my little pleasures. So now i'm off to have more fun with my bank account.

Simon's Town

Yesterday I arrived in Simon's town on a bus from Cape Town with two people I met in the hostel there. After securing lodgings at the hostel here, we hired the owner to take us by car on a tour to Cape point, where we hiked up the mountain with sheer cliffs on either side. Some brilliant planner built a train-like thing to take lazy people up to the top. Personally i think that's wack and that if you can't make it, you shouldn't be able to see it. After hiking to the second, and newest, lighthouse I went on a hike from cape point to the cape of good hope. It wasn't that far, but the views were amazing, I'll try to post a pic here shortly. The only thing I can compare it to in Colorado is the high country above timberline in the summer, short shrubs, high winds, etc. All the cliffs we made a slight detour and hiked down to what was possibly the most picturesque beach I've ever seen. the downside was that once we were on the beach, the same high winds picked up grains of sand and proceeded to give me the harshest scouring of my life. I still managed to get some sweet pics though. The waves were incredible, long tubes maybe 20-25 ft high. Really really cool to see, hopefully the pictures do it justice. After beating a hasty retreat to the semi-shelter of the cliffs we took lunch. I had been carrying a loaf of bread purchased in Simons Town at a bakery you could smell from a block away. i think I'll go back there and try to scrounge some pastries. After finishing the hike, Kevin the hostel owner drove us around the park there so we could get a chance to maybe see some wildlife, and the changing terrain. I was amazed at how quickly the plants changed, driving along flanked by towering bushes suddenly giving way to low almost tundra-like shrubs, with virtually no buffer. You could look back and it seemed like a wall of bushes just ending. Supposedly there are zebra in the park there, but we didn't see them, we did see ostriches though. I had seen pictures of them before but they are even more impressive up close. They are pretty big probably about 7-8 ft tall, they were grazing so it was hard to tell for sure, but very awkward looking, and I would have to saw the dumbest animals I've ever come across. Back towards town i got dropped off just south of town so I could go to Boulder's Beach, a combination penguin conservatory and public beach. No I didn't go swimming, bit too nippy for that, but i did see penguin couples and chicks/jouveniles. A nice jaunt back to the hostel after procuring some fish and chips for dinner. I'm really sore today from hiking yesterday, probably the most physical thing I've done in a month, so I'm using the rest of the day for planning my next step, and just chilling. Hope all is well, I'll probably write to you from Hermanus.

Still in capetown me hearties

These past few days I've been a bit homesick, bit lonely, and a serisouly cynical bastard. that being said I've met a lot of people who rock. I went to Robbins island today, the place where Nelson Medela was incarcerated for 18 of his 37 years. Our guide through the prison was a former inmate himself, he spent 5 years there. Just hearing this man talk was incredible, he was short perhaps no taller than 5'5" but you could just feel the power eminating from him. he showed us his cell block Block F, and the notorious Cell block C. Block C was where the prisoners were sent as punishment, completely dark, no lights anywhere except where the guards tortured people, and yes i do mean tortured, I'll spare you the details, but I asked our guide after the tour how he feels coming back there. he said that it is hard for him even now 30 years afterwards to go in there. And yet he holds no ill feelings towards the jailors, as he explained to us they were a product of the system, and it was a case of 'forgive them, they know not what they do.' The rest of the tour by bus was a bit hocky, like the guides script had a "pause for effect" line written after everything. That being said we saw springboks, a small antelope looking thing, and penguins. man it's weird seeing penguins just waddling around hundreds of meters from the ocean. one thing the guide told us that i still smirk just thinking about. Supposedly the tours on the island demanded a new bus, and in the hast of getting it out there screwed up the cables securing it to the chopper. So somewhere in the bay between CapeTown and the island lies a bus. Tomorrow I plan on climbing table mountain and going to the Two Oceans aquarium. Tomorrow night i'm shooting to go down the cape to Simon's town. My time is growing short. Sorry for not posting more frequently. I'll try to be better about that. Cheers (I've been hanging out with too many limeys.)

Capetown 5/12

Well I'm here. 2 days in london doing all manner of fun things. I tried to do something nice for the people I was staying with and buy them all bagels with cream cheese. Well somehow there was a failure to communicate so I got a bunch of bagels with egg salad on them. Kinda sad considering both of us were speaking english. so 12 hours and no sleep later here I in cape town. I'm really really jet lagged right now so I don't think I'm going to do much for the next day or so. Just get on my feet and get adjusted to the time. I'll come back later and post some stories/musings from london.

Zero Hour

As I sit here I have a backpack packed to the gills, photocopies of various important documents, a couple sets of needles, syringes and suture kits, I hope I never have to break those out. 8 pairs of underwear, 2 pairs of pants, two pairs of shorts, 10 pairs of socks, probably 8 Tshirts, a sweater and of course the Pea Coat. Note: The pea coat came with me to europe against the advice of almost everyone and I ended up needing it hardcore. 2 MREs in case I get stuck out in the boonies with no food. 1 Nalgene, Medkit including the first items, and meds, malaria pills etc. and last but not least a sheet. Not sure what I'm going to use it for but I'm sure it'll come in handy for something. This is the last Post from the states, from here I go to London for a few days, so perhaps I'll drop a line from there.

Me eating dinner on the Rhone RIver in Avignon France.
I just posted that to double check that I can put pics on here.

4 days to go

With only 4 days to go and plenty which I haven't done yet. I've been keeping myself busy with studying for papers and finals to get them rapped up before I leave. As far as this blog is concered I'm not sure of the internet situation in all the places I'm going. I will try to post new stuff every couple days. For those who aren't sure what this is about I leave for Capetown south africa the 8th of May, from there I plan to travel around south africa and perhaps zimbabwe, botswana and Zambia. Comments are welcome and yes I will read them but keep it clean cause this is a public blog. But check back often dear reader cause you will be there for the good times and the bad times, Off the record on the QT and very, Hush hush. (note: Props if you know what that's from)