Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
7 countries later, thousands of miles and two exhausted (but excited) little girls travel onto the next continent. woowho- we get to see our daddy and Zo, oh and i suppose Jakey! New Zealand here we come!
We've really enjoyed our time in Africa, everyone has been lovely, we've met some great people and seen some amazing things. These last few weeks we've been equally as busy travelling from Cape Town to Jo'burg (that's alot of miles and travelled through 6 provinces). Our first stop was Hermanus (known for it's Whales, they heard we were around so decided to steer clear), from there we headed to the forests of Storms River. There we hauled on our hiking boots (well flipflops-Bridgey can't fit her foot into her boots because of her sexy blisters) and trundled through the Tsitsikamma forests, home to the Yellow Wood tree (massive trees, it takes 8 people hand to hand to fit around some of these trees). In the evening we got there we got to see some local children perform the gum boot dance traditionally done by miners, this involved slapping and tapping their wellies.
After a day of walking we were ready to head to surfers paradise- Jeffery's Bay (home to the Super Tubes sufing competition). All the surfers seemed to be in the bar though rather than on the waves. We then made our way onto Port Elizabeth for Josie's birthday. There we treated ourselves to a nice birthday meal then watched Kite surfing at the beach-it was amazing. After a few days in the city we were ready to head back to the wilderness- Hogsback our next destination was seemingly the inspiration for J.R Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings'. you can understand why as it was like a fairy land, all mystical.
The next day we headed through the Transkei which was at the struggle for democracy when South Africa was divided, it was the birth place of Nelson MAndela and many other influential political figures, it is still home to Nelson Mandela today (we drove past his house- Ground Force did his garden). We rolled into Port Edward where we spent Bridgey's birthday at the beach and had jelly and passionfruit (in honour of all the birthdays and parties where aunty Shirley made us jelly). Whilst in Port Edward we went to a Sangoma's house which is a spiritual healer, we got to see them call upon their ancestors in a welcome dance. Whilst there we also got to try the traditional bean and mealie maize. We also saw where the new Leonardo DiCaprio film 'Black Diamond' was filmed.
Then we headed East along the Wild Coast (so called because so many ships sank along that stretch of coast) to Durban. Whilst in Durban we visited a maratine museum and had lots of fun scrambling aboard big tug boats (Uncle Don you would have liked it), art galleries, science and natural history museum and also went to the African/Asian market and tried 'Bunnychow'- it's yummy, it's half a loaf of bread with a hole in the middle and curry poured in - try it!
After a few days in Durban we headed off to Zululand-Eshowe, from there we visited Isandlwana where the Britsh fought the Zulu's-it was one of the first times a tribal army won against the British, We then visited Rorke's Drift where the British drove 4,000 Zulu's from behind biscuit box barracades. I think this was partly due to the fact that the Zulu's gave up and stole the cows instead. It was a really haunting place.
We decided to visit Swaziland and get another stamp in our passport. There we spent a night in the Ezulwini valley which is home to the KIng. On the day we left we saw Swazi's in their traditional skins heading to an actual ceremony- that was spectacular to see that it was not a show put on for the tourists. We did also see traditional Swazi dancing which consisted of alot of leg kicking and jumping on the ground.
Last stop, our final destination was Jo'burg (from where we are writing this email before we go and jump on a plane later on). We thought it fitting that we spent our last day at the Apartheid museum which was extremely well done-at the start you had to walk through a gate either for whites only or for non-Europeans, that in itself was moving and the scenes inside the museum horrific, it gave us a real appreciation of what people have gone through and fought in order to be treated some where close to equals.
We've learnt alot about Africa, the different cultures and the history but yet there's so much left to learn-looks like we'll have to come back one day. So it's over an out from Africa but we'll soon be saying 'Good'ay mate from Oz'.
Take care everyone, sending you all big hugs and kisses (even if you don't want them Jake and Luke).
Love Jo and Bridge
XXX
- comments