Tour of Gondwana: South Africa

Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 (delayed)

To: touring@phred.org

From: “Michael Ayers” <michael@terminalia.org>

Subject: Gondwana - Skipping in, out, and Around South Africa

Dumela/Goeie Dag Phreds,

The end of my African Stage was dominated by the Republic of South Africa, which I entered on four separate occasions, a land with a pleasant environment that has come a long way, but still has a long way to go.

My very first Tour plan had me finishing the African Stage in Cape Town, which I thought would be a good place to end. Then, because of the ship that I had booked to go to South America, I changed that to Durban, a city on the Indian Ocean coast in the northern part of the nation. Because of that, I did not think that I would be able to see as much of the country as I would have liked. As luck, either good or bad, would have it, I ended up in Cape Town after all thanks to the cancellation of that ship. In the process, I must have revised my route though the country four or five times before I was finished, but in the end it turned out to be pretty close to what I first came up with years ago.

These days the RSA exhibits the feel of a very Westernized country, which, of course, is both good and bad from a touring perspective. The road network is extensive, and usually in very good condition, but often there is too much traffic, much of which drives too fast. Food is plentiful and mostly very good in supermarkets, though the selection is sometimes a little thin. Restaurants in small- and medium-sized towns tend to be either local places, with a wide range of quality, or American-style fast food places. There was even an American-themed steak and burger chain, the type of place that I would rarely visit at home, but did patronize numerous times while there, as they were one of the few places I’d seen since leaving home that made good burgers. Camping was possible sometimes, though never as easy as I would have liked, as the country has more fences than just about anyplace I’ve ever seen. Staying indoors was a reasonable option, though finding a good place could be a challenge. Away from the major tourist destinations, there were not as many mid-range hotels as I would have expected. I thought that may have been due to the much lower levels of tourism prior to 01994 in many parts of the country. To fill the gap, many people have converted their homes into guesthouses, which were usually reasonably priced. Most of those seemed to be a few levels of luxury higher than I really needed, and have been used to, and so I occasionally felt a little out of place. Costs in general were higher than the other places I visited in Africa, and approached those of Australia. The country was also one of the more linguistically confusing places that I’ve been. Most of the descendants of the Bantu peoples who inhabited the land for most of the past millennium speak at least one original language, such as Setswana, Zulu, or Sesotho, most speak some English and others also speak Afrikaans. The latter, together with English are the primary languages spoken by those of European decent, few of whom speak any of the African languages. The result was that while everyone around me seemed to be conversing quite readily, if they were not speaking English I was never really sure just what language was being used. One last thing that seemed a little perplexing, in this day and age, was the rather limited hours of operation for most businesses. Supermarkets often closed promptly at 6:00 P.M., which made finding an evening snack a little challenging sometimes. Internet cafes, which were reasonably abundant also exhibited this strange behavior, in one town the only one there closed at 1:30 PM, which is a big change from most places, especially Asia, where such establishments stay open until late in the night (though mostly to accommodate legions of adolescent boys playing multiplayer online games.)

Then, of course, there are the cultural and historical aspects that are well known to just about everyone. Today, 12 years after the change of government, everyone I observed seemed to be getting along quite well on a personal level, which was a very good thing. However, it seemed on several occasions that multiple worlds were still trying to exist in the same geographic space, with the result that I did not feel completely comfortable in any of them. None of that was any real trouble for me at all, though I suspect that it will take a couple of generations for that situation to fade completely. Another aspect, which I found to be even more prevalent than I had expected, was the general paranoia concerning “security” throughout the country. This was evident in many ways, from numerous signs, posted everywhere, of the type; “Use these toilets at your own risk,” to iron bars in front of the mini-mart checkout counters, to frequent conversations I had with locals about my tour, which usually included a question like; “Aren’t you worried that someone will sneak into your tent and kill you?” (to which my reply was always something like “don’t be silly,” said while laughing.) Crime seems to be the hot topic of the day, and private security guards the nation’s growth industry. Overall, I feel that all of the hype is completely out of proportion and the responses to it are generally overcompensations. I can honestly say that I did not meet one person, or find myself in one situation, that made me feel the slightest bit uneasy, even when leaving my bike and gear alone while I went into a shop for a short while. Of course, I didn’t spend any time walking around downtown Joberg after midnight, but from what I saw I didn’t feel the country was any more dangerous than the U.S., or anyplace else. Overall, the country had a quite different feel from the rest of east Africa, but that was sometimes a welcome thing.

The first of my four visits was a rather short one, just long enough for me to get from the Botswanan border, at Mashatu, to Pretoria, for my transfer to Madagascar. Just across the border was Mapungubwe National Park, the site of an ancient capital city, and the first of the 7 World Heritage Sites that I would see (I made it to every one in the RSA.) However, that was not a very good visit, as I was not allowed to go into the park by bike, for some unknown reason. That was especially annoying since I had to detour off the main road for 25 kilometers just to get to the gate. I made up for that by convincing one of the laborers at the park to take me in his truck just far enough to get a photo of the hill where all of the artifacts were found, and then seeing what had been taken from the site at a museum in Pretoria. The rest of the way was pretty uneventful. There were many private game lodges in the area, and some, I think, still operated as hunting lodges. My only views of them were the huge fences that lined the road for most of the next day. I was not sure whether they were intended to keep “good animals” in or “bad animals” out, but some were elephant-sized, and others were electrified, which made the entire day feel a bit like riding around in a prison. I was worried that the entire country would be like that, but things opened up a little later on, which was welcome. When I reached the rather large town of Polokwane (re-named from Pietersburg), I learned that my next ship was cancelled, so all of the rushing that I had done over the previous two months in order to reach Durban on time was for nothing. I took an extra day off there to try and figure out a new plan, without any luck, then quickly rode down to Pretoria, over flat, wind-assisted terrain, in a day and a half instead of two, to continue that task, also without success. Also while in town, I bought some very nice 700c tires from a local bike shop that had been recommended by Piet, the man who ran the Mashatu Lodge in Botswana. Finally, for the first time since I discovered my defective Schwalbes in Ethiopia on the first day of the Stage, I could stop being concerned about the condition of my tires. Whew.

The second visit came after my return from Madagascar, while there I put the shipping problem out of my mind, but once back in Pretoria, I needed to deal with that again, as well as apply for a visa for Brazil (which was one of the most difficult ones I’ve had to get). After a couple of futile days, and just as I was about to leave town, I finally worked out a new plan. That was when I knew that I would be able to add Swaziland back to the route, and make it to Cape Town after all. So, with another revised route in mind, I headed next for Swaziland, but first looped around to the west and south of Pretoria and Johannesburg. There were some pretty farms in the area, of the type that I had not seen in a long time, and the whole area was rather fresh with the green of spring, but my main interests were the two World Heritage Sites in the area. The first, Sterkfontein Caves, is one of several in the area where many ancient hominid fossils, including Australopithicus, have been found, was quite interesting. The second, the Vredefort Dome, is the remains of a huge impact crater formed eons ago. That is the type of thing that always interests me, but all that is visible there today is a gently arcing range of low hills, which appear from ground-level just like hundreds of others I’ve ridden over, so that one was not so inspiring. After those two visits, I made best speed to Swaziland, and the closer I got to there, the nicer the riding conditions became, with less traffic, and some green, rolling hills. I did have to deal with some bad storms along the way, however, and that made things a little tougher. Unlike most of the places I’d been so far, South Africa borders on the zone of temperate climates. And instead of wet/dry seasons, the weather patterns are more similar to those of the U.S., with occasional weather fronts quickly passing by, bringing rains and usually a strong change in winds. That pattern took a little time for me to get used to again.

The third section was between Swaziland and Lesotho and this was a pleasant area to travel through. The start of the section involved a ride parallel to the Indian Ocean coast for several days, which involved generally good conditions, though views of the sea were not as frequent as I would have liked. My stop in that area was at St. Lucia Wetland Park, another World Heritage Site, however, the weather was not good enough for me to get the most out of that park. Most of the route in that section passed through the state of KwaZulu Natal, which was one of my favorite parts of the country. The people in the countryside live in communities which still had a more African feel, with traditional homes still easily seen, and the people in the area were more open and talkative than in some other areas. Eventually, I turned inland in order to reach Lesotho, and that involved a rather big gain in elevation, though nothing too difficult. The big destination in the area was the uKhalamaba-Drakensberg National Park, the next WHS on the route, in the Drakensberg range that forms the border with Lesotho. It is not easy to see many places in the park in a short time, since each interesting area is reached via a separate access road form the main highway, So, I only chose one, the Cathedral Peak area, which had some spectacular mountain scenery, and a few accessible San petroglyph sites. I was there over the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, and stayed at the rather expensive and luxurious lodge. The dinner was a big buffet, and after a few plates full I was just about to leave when I noticed some turkey slices hidden away on a separate table behind the salads. Of course I filled another plate with them, found some gravy, and had a real Thanksgiving dinner for the first time in years. It was delicious.

The last section in South Africa, and Africa overall, was from the Lesotho border at Qacha’s Nek, down to the coast at East London, and then as fast as possible to Cape Town. The ride to the coast was much tougher than I needed it to be with many small climbs every day and some huge headwinds. So I was running a little behind when I reached East London, and did not get a full day off there as I’d hoped. The direct route to Cape Town was along the famous “Garden Route.” Originally, I had planned to go further inland as I thought the coast route would have too much traffic, but now with limited time, I went that way after all. The traffic was bad sometimes, and better others, and though there were a few occasions when I could use the “old road’ that was the original one before the larger highway was built, it was not always that much better than the main road. Without much time remaining, I didn’t really explore the area very much, which would have been necessary to get the most out of the route. Instead, I didn’t think the Garden Route was as nice as it might have been, though services were very good, as the area is more Westernized than the rest of the country.

As it turned out, my next ship was delayed by one day, which is often the case, so I didn’t need to push too hard at the very end, and that was much appreciated. Instead, for the first time, I was actually able to ride into the city which was to be the end of the Stage, instead of finding alternate transport. The approach to Cape Town was not as bad as I thought it might have been, though it is a rather large city with a lot of traffic. I stayed in a rather pricey place close to the port, and near the yuppiefied V&A Waterfront complex, to make it easy to catch the ship. While in town I saw the last two WHSs in the country, the infamous Robben Island prison, and the Cape Floral Kingdom, on Table Mountain, which contains a large group of beautiful plants and flowers, called Fynbos, that grow only on the southern coast of Africa. The final ride was out to the Cape of Good Hope, which is not far from the city. I thought that would be a good place to end the Stage, but the weather was not so good that day, so I only went as far as the Penguin colony at Boulders Beach, from where I could see the actual cape. Close Enough.

I had a great time in Africa, and I think more people should tour there. However, while everything I did myself worked out pretty well, all of the logistical, and other, assistance that I hoped to receive from home, and from other places, completely fell short and was no help at all, and in some cases made things worse. I hope that Stage Four will reverse that situation! We’ll see.

Ka a Leboha/Dankie,

Mike

The Tour of Gondwana

May 02005 - ???

http://www.terminalia.org/tour

Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2006

To: touring@phred.org

From: “Michael Ayers” <michael@terminalia.org>

Subject: Gondwana - Stage 3 Complete!

Hi Phreds,

Yes, the tour through Africa is finished after my Arrival in Cape Town on December 14 ‘06.

Total distance for the stage ended up being 14,281 km, a good bit longer than I had originally expected. That was mostly due to a change in my transfer plans to South America, which was a huge annoyance, but did allow me to ride to all of the places in Africa that I had wanted to see in the first place. Perhaps it was for the best.

Unfortunately, that, some other distracting events, and a general desire to sleep all the time, once again made me fall way behind in writing posts to the list. There are four more still in the pipeline and so they will have to come out of order, assuming I can get them done during the transfer.

I had a great time in Africa and I feel a lot better than I did at the end of the first two Stages, at least in terms of leg strength and other physical factors. However, though everything I did myself worked out just fine this time, seemingly everything that depended on someone else, supplies orders, shipments, transport booking, etc. was either screwed-up, messed-up or forgotten, and all that made the tour a little bit frustrating. Oh well. Hopefully that situation will not carry over to the next Stage.

Anyway, I think that Africa is a wonderful destination for touring, and it is sort of a shame that more people don’t do so here. Hakuna Matata!

Cheers,

Mike

The Tour of Gondwana

May 02005 - Oct 02007

http://www.terminalia.org/tour