Garden route is a stretch along the coast. LP - "Within a few hundred kilometers, the range of topography, vegetation, wildlife and outdoor activity is breathtaking".
Arrived at Wilderness which is a very cute little green village with never-ending beach, which unfortunately is impossible to swim in due to the very strong waves and currents. That's the first time when I felt alright going out of the hostel by myself. Even though all the houses still had fences with high security around them, the local in the hostel said that it's all the paranoid people from neighboring towns who bought property there, meanwhile he lived there for 20 years and never locked the house door. Sounded good enough for me. So I set off for a walk, and there was a tunnel that went under the highway, suddenly, I didn't feel very secure. I waited for a bit until some people showed up, and crossed the tunnel with them.
Then I went for a walk along the beach, and I'll tell you that if your eyes were closed and somebody had put you on that beach, you'd have no idea that you're in Africa. Those houses are ones of the most expensive that I've ever seen. All of them having a price range of over $1M.
The hostel was one of the worst hostels I've ever stayed in. The downstairs dorm had 17 beds! There was only 1 washroom, no place in the shower to put the dry cloths, and upstairs, you had to go through the dorm to get into the kitchen! And I don't think anybody there could get any sleep when a group of 20 teenagers were having breakfast at 6:30 am.
In Wilderness I met Helena and Jecki - 2 British girls whom I travelled with for 4 days.
Next was Knysna which is a must stop on the garden route. I didn't see any must things in there. It didn't even have a beach. The girls got drunk and didn't want to do anything else, and I couldn't get out of the hostel by myself, so I was pretty much waiting for the time to move on to another place. The whole day I was watching TV, which wasn't too bad. I laughed a lot while watching some local drama. The quality is so bad, the acting, the content, the shooting, the everything. One guy was crying, and they shot this scene from all the angles, through the flowers, from right, left, above for 2 minutes (no joking), while absolutely nothing happened, he only cried in one position :) Half on the script was written with metaphors, I wonder if it's like that in regular life. But the program guide is excellent. You can choose by genre, like movies, entertainment, then by more categories, like action, comedy. The best I've ever seen!
We walked to the waterfront area which was a mini version of Cape Town, and also the hostel took us to "the heads". Those are some tall rocks between which the water passes through, which makes the little bay of Knysna. Daily due to the tides there is a quantity of 20 million elephants walking through these heads in 6 hours. That's how much water is passing through.
There was land for sale beside the view which was going for $800,000. After the heads, the driver asked us if we want to go to a short township tour. And since they often go for $50, and he was willing to take us there for $5, of course we agreed. When we got there, and got out of the car, all the kids run towards us, jumped at us, yelled, took our hands, pulled our cloths, fought between each other for who's gonna jump on us or get our attention, pretty much acted like monkeys. You could not get away from them, there was so much activity. Everything around looked very broken down, dirty, and shady. Everybody looked at us while we were examining everything around us. Still felt a little bit dangerous, but the guide comes there every day, so he knows the place. All the kids were kinda dirty, with ripped cloths, bare feet, but they looked happy, although they were very aggressive towards each other, constantly fighting, lighting matches close to faces, throwing stones, non stop action.
During the Apartheid Era blacks were evicted from properties that were in areas designated as "white only" and forced to move into segregated townships. Separate townships were established for each of the three designated non-white race groups (blacks, coloureds and Indians). Most South African towns and cities will have at least one township associated with them.
In most of the townships the people live free of charge. The government builds concrete houses, with running water, electricity, garden, garbage collection, doctors and schools. While other people wait for their houses, they build these shacks just on the border that are made out of anything that they could find, which would be either wood or sheets of metal with big rocks holding the roof. Townships could be huge, with thousands of people living there, and they would not be on the map, which provides some confusion for lost tourists who end up there and have no idea where they are. People who make it, usually don't move out of townships, because they don't want to be surrounded by whites, and prefer to have their own people around. I've been here a while, and this country is crazy. Everybody is so racist towards everybody else. White to Black, colored to white and black, black to colored. I think this is the country with the biggest economic gap I've ever seen. Normally the percentage of people with HIV is greater in townships because there are a lot of misconceptions about it. They think that condoms are made to stop the black people from having babies. And recently the president of South Africa raped some woman, when they were interviewing him, they asked him if he used a condom, he said no. They asked him if he knew if the woman was HIV free, he said no, but not to worry about it, because right after the intercourse he took a shower. And that's the president! So what can you ask from the regular population?
After we got back to the hostel, we all immediately took showers and changed cloths, just felt so dirty. I don't know, I didn't have this feeling when 5 monkeys jumped on me.
Went on to Platenberg bay, and in there finally did something useful and went for a hike. The hike was good, only 4 hours, and all plain, just the way I like it :) The scenery was beautiful with green mountain, ocean, orange rocks, waves crushing, seen a snake who caught a lizard, that was cool, and the lizard was still breathing. Then saw dolphins and seals hunting and surfing waves and that's pretty much it. Although this hike is the most beautiful on the garden route. For me the most beautiful scenery is tall snowcapped mountains with forests on the bottom, blue lagoons and wild flowers, just like in the Andes :)
Wikipidia - Apartheid was a system of legal racial segregation enforced by the National Party government of South Africa between 1948 and 1993, under which the rights of the majority 'non-white' inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and minority rule by white people was maintained. Racial segregation in South Africa began in colonial times. However, apartheid as an official policy was introduced following the general election of 1948. New legislation classified inhabitants into racial groups ("black", "white", "coloured", and "Indian"), and residential areas were segregated, sometimes by means of forced removals. From 1958, black people were deprived of their citizenship, legally becoming citizens of one of ten tribally based self-governing homelands. The government segregated education, medical care, and other public services, and provided black people with services inferior to those of white people. Apartheid sparked significant internal resistance and violence as well as a long trade embargo against South Africa. Since the 1980s, a series of popular uprisings and protests were met with the banning of opposition and imprisoning of anti-apartheid leaders. As unrest spread and became more violent, state organizations responded with increasing repression and state-sponsored violence.
Black people were not allowed onto the streets of towns in the Cape Colony and Natal after dark and had to carry their passes at all times. They were denied the vote altogether and were not allowed to sit in parliament.
https://picasaweb.google.com/evadikushin501/GardenRoute#
Friday, February 18, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Hermanus & Oudtshoorn
Came to Hermanus to do shark cage diving. The hostel offered free accommodation with the tour, so I thought why not? But before I'll tell you about sharks, let me tell you about the weird couples that I met recently. So these couples, unless they tell you that they are, you'd have no clue! There is no physical contact, no compliments, flirting going on ... absolutely nothing. So I might act differently, like get to close or say not very appropriate things in front of the girlfriend, only to find out 3 hours later that they actually are together! And it's strange because when I see a guy and a girl, I don't automatically assume that they're a couple, unlike most other people. For instance, when I took a bus to Buenos Aires, there was another male backpacker in the bus station and me, so when I got in the bus, the fair was double. I thought that it was strange, paid it, but said that I thought it was lower. And the bus driver replied, oh that's for 2 people! So the other backpacker had to give me money back. And we haven't even talked! Or ... when I'd get to a hostel with some guy that I met on the way to the hostel, we'd get there, ask if there is space, and they would reply no. Why no? It's a low season. At the end it turned out that they don't have any more double room! Who said that we want a double room? I only know him for the last 5 minutes, give us a dorm! Sooo ... long story short, while travelling, do not assume that a guy and a girl are a couple!
During the briefing, the instructor said a phrase that I still remember "Cold and fear are temporary, regret is forever!", that got us all going! :) I knew that it was a low season and we weren't expected to see many sharks, we even got an 85% chance of seeing them, well that would've sucked! The boats attract the sharks by throwing fish parts and blood into the water, and since sharks can sense blood from kilometers away, we throw and wait. They also use fish heads as bait to attract the shark closer to the cage. The industry cannot feed the sharks because otherwise they would associate food with humans, some think that they already do. Also, because it's not allowed to kill big fish for the sharks, it will not attract large sharks, only small ones (large sharks are drawn to large fish, small sharks to small fish). So our great white was only 3.5 meters long. After a while our shark appeared. There was too much excitement going around the boat, and the cage was put into the water. First people started jumping in, and just as fast as they were put into the cage, they were taken out of the cage. The shark was gone only 5 minutes later. We were waiting and waiting, and an hour later, another shark showed up. There were enough masks only for 5 people which were in the cage, I was waiting for the first person to get out, and he was just casually standing on the boat, I almost yelled, "Get your mask off!!!". I put it on, sat on the edge so they would put me in. The instructor, again very slowly, let me see how your mask fits, while there was a shark making another loop. I thought to myself "Screw the mask, just get me into the water". When I jumped in, the temperature almost got me paralyzed. It was only 12 degrees. Now I know what 12 degrees feel like! I saw the shark making 3 loops around the boat, and it was gone again. I wouldn't say that it was very scary, because it was relatively small, but although it was only 1 meter away from me, I felt the security of the cage, so no adrenaline pumping for me :) After me, there was only 1 more person who saw the shark, so about half of the people on the boat didn't even get into the cage. We then waited for another hour until maybe the shark will show up again, but it didn't. I'd say that it felt like being outside in regular jeans in about -20C, I couldn't feel my feet or my fingers. Although we've seen it only 3 times, it turns out that some boats didn't see them at all, so we were "lucky".
It wasn't a "must do" experience for me, I think I was much more shocked in Galapagos, where you swim and there is no cage and 10 sharks circling you. Although they are much smaller and presumably harmless, the brain refuses to process that information, and all you think "OH SHIT ... SHAAAAAARKKKK !!!!! ".
On the baz bus I met a guy who did it in another place, which was much much better than ours. First of all, the water was 10 degrees warmer! Also, they had 4 sharks, and 2 of them didn't leave the cage for a whole hour. Above that, half of the people on the boat got sea sick, so he was in the cage for the whole duration of the trip! Now that must have been a completely different experience!
After Hermanus, I went to Oudtshoorn. The problem in South Africa is getting places. There is no way to get anywhere you want, so you always have to arrange the hostel to drive you which often costs a fortune. There are so many activities that I want to do that I don't. For example there was a monkey and bird land which cost $30, but the transportation there costs $50!
I thought to stay in that town for 2 days, but that's until I got out of the hostel only to find out that absolutely everything (expect few restaurants) closes at 5! What kind of place is that??? Went in the search of internet, couldn't find anything, but saw some store which was half open that said computers something on it, I went there to check just in case. Turns out that they fix computers, but the owner still let me in, and allowed me to use their office computer :) That was very nice of him :)) After that I went to a restaurant to eat an ostrich. They had some special, but the price was cheap, I asked why, and they said that it's a starter portion. I didn't want to spend any more money, and just ordered that. Let me tell you, this is no starter portion at all! I barely finished it! Although I couldn't really tell any difference between beef and an ostrich, nevertheless it was very very good, just as I'd expect from a South African restaurant!
In the morning we had an ostrich egg for breakfast, it tasks like a chicken egg, but a little bit lighter.
In the morning we went for a tour of the Cango caves which hold the largest formations of stalactites and stalagmites in the world. I didn't really want to go at first because I've seen way too many of these kinds of caves, but it was cheap and we could climb through them. So how can I say no to that??! :) I was very very impressed by these caves. It has 2 huge spaces of with so many formations all around. They even had concerts in there which could fit up to 1500 people. But they don't run them anymore because the amount of carbon dioxide affected the growth of the formations. We did an adventure tour which included climbing and going through very narrow spaces. One of them was a tunnel of love because it squeezes you from all the sides :) And another one was the devils chimney which was the best one of all. It can fit only the size of an average person, and it goes up for about 4 meters with a 75 degree inclination. I felt just a tiny bit claustrophobic because there was almost no light, not much to grab or even a space to grab or maneuver yourself. So that was cool :)
Afterwards went to an ostrich farm. The tour was short but very interesting. The farm produces eggs, meat, feathers and leather products from ostriches. Currently the feather demand is very low, so they only ship the feathers to Paris or Las Vegas, and the major export are the leather products.
The eggs are held in the incubator, and then the chicks are given to the male ostrich as his own babies. And he wouldn't even know the difference because ostriches are stupid :) We've seen a dwarf ostrich which is the smallest one in the world. Then we stood on the eggs which can support a weight up to 120 kgs because that's how heavy the parent is. We were given a bucket of food, and stood with back to them, and the ostriches gave us a shoulder massage :) And we got to ride one !!! It takes a while to catch one, but after it's caught they put a sac over its head and then you could do anything you want with it because according to ostrich’s theory, if he can't see you, you can't see him (remember, stupid!). Then I got on it, sat comfortably, crossed my legs below him, and held the base of the wings, then the hat was taken off, and the hell it went running. I started falling off of it when it was turning, but fell off gracefully. It was a very short but hectic ride J Overall 3 bruises, and a small scratch on the hand from when he was maniacally trying to escape the enclosure, but I think it's a good sacrifice for an ostrich ride :)
http://picasaweb.google.com/evadikushin501/HermanusOudtshoorn#
During the briefing, the instructor said a phrase that I still remember "Cold and fear are temporary, regret is forever!", that got us all going! :) I knew that it was a low season and we weren't expected to see many sharks, we even got an 85% chance of seeing them, well that would've sucked! The boats attract the sharks by throwing fish parts and blood into the water, and since sharks can sense blood from kilometers away, we throw and wait. They also use fish heads as bait to attract the shark closer to the cage. The industry cannot feed the sharks because otherwise they would associate food with humans, some think that they already do. Also, because it's not allowed to kill big fish for the sharks, it will not attract large sharks, only small ones (large sharks are drawn to large fish, small sharks to small fish). So our great white was only 3.5 meters long. After a while our shark appeared. There was too much excitement going around the boat, and the cage was put into the water. First people started jumping in, and just as fast as they were put into the cage, they were taken out of the cage. The shark was gone only 5 minutes later. We were waiting and waiting, and an hour later, another shark showed up. There were enough masks only for 5 people which were in the cage, I was waiting for the first person to get out, and he was just casually standing on the boat, I almost yelled, "Get your mask off!!!". I put it on, sat on the edge so they would put me in. The instructor, again very slowly, let me see how your mask fits, while there was a shark making another loop. I thought to myself "Screw the mask, just get me into the water". When I jumped in, the temperature almost got me paralyzed. It was only 12 degrees. Now I know what 12 degrees feel like! I saw the shark making 3 loops around the boat, and it was gone again. I wouldn't say that it was very scary, because it was relatively small, but although it was only 1 meter away from me, I felt the security of the cage, so no adrenaline pumping for me :) After me, there was only 1 more person who saw the shark, so about half of the people on the boat didn't even get into the cage. We then waited for another hour until maybe the shark will show up again, but it didn't. I'd say that it felt like being outside in regular jeans in about -20C, I couldn't feel my feet or my fingers. Although we've seen it only 3 times, it turns out that some boats didn't see them at all, so we were "lucky".
It wasn't a "must do" experience for me, I think I was much more shocked in Galapagos, where you swim and there is no cage and 10 sharks circling you. Although they are much smaller and presumably harmless, the brain refuses to process that information, and all you think "OH SHIT ... SHAAAAAARKKKK !!!!! ".
On the baz bus I met a guy who did it in another place, which was much much better than ours. First of all, the water was 10 degrees warmer! Also, they had 4 sharks, and 2 of them didn't leave the cage for a whole hour. Above that, half of the people on the boat got sea sick, so he was in the cage for the whole duration of the trip! Now that must have been a completely different experience!
After Hermanus, I went to Oudtshoorn. The problem in South Africa is getting places. There is no way to get anywhere you want, so you always have to arrange the hostel to drive you which often costs a fortune. There are so many activities that I want to do that I don't. For example there was a monkey and bird land which cost $30, but the transportation there costs $50!
I thought to stay in that town for 2 days, but that's until I got out of the hostel only to find out that absolutely everything (expect few restaurants) closes at 5! What kind of place is that??? Went in the search of internet, couldn't find anything, but saw some store which was half open that said computers something on it, I went there to check just in case. Turns out that they fix computers, but the owner still let me in, and allowed me to use their office computer :) That was very nice of him :)) After that I went to a restaurant to eat an ostrich. They had some special, but the price was cheap, I asked why, and they said that it's a starter portion. I didn't want to spend any more money, and just ordered that. Let me tell you, this is no starter portion at all! I barely finished it! Although I couldn't really tell any difference between beef and an ostrich, nevertheless it was very very good, just as I'd expect from a South African restaurant!
In the morning we had an ostrich egg for breakfast, it tasks like a chicken egg, but a little bit lighter.
In the morning we went for a tour of the Cango caves which hold the largest formations of stalactites and stalagmites in the world. I didn't really want to go at first because I've seen way too many of these kinds of caves, but it was cheap and we could climb through them. So how can I say no to that??! :) I was very very impressed by these caves. It has 2 huge spaces of with so many formations all around. They even had concerts in there which could fit up to 1500 people. But they don't run them anymore because the amount of carbon dioxide affected the growth of the formations. We did an adventure tour which included climbing and going through very narrow spaces. One of them was a tunnel of love because it squeezes you from all the sides :) And another one was the devils chimney which was the best one of all. It can fit only the size of an average person, and it goes up for about 4 meters with a 75 degree inclination. I felt just a tiny bit claustrophobic because there was almost no light, not much to grab or even a space to grab or maneuver yourself. So that was cool :)
Afterwards went to an ostrich farm. The tour was short but very interesting. The farm produces eggs, meat, feathers and leather products from ostriches. Currently the feather demand is very low, so they only ship the feathers to Paris or Las Vegas, and the major export are the leather products.
The eggs are held in the incubator, and then the chicks are given to the male ostrich as his own babies. And he wouldn't even know the difference because ostriches are stupid :) We've seen a dwarf ostrich which is the smallest one in the world. Then we stood on the eggs which can support a weight up to 120 kgs because that's how heavy the parent is. We were given a bucket of food, and stood with back to them, and the ostriches gave us a shoulder massage :) And we got to ride one !!! It takes a while to catch one, but after it's caught they put a sac over its head and then you could do anything you want with it because according to ostrich’s theory, if he can't see you, you can't see him (remember, stupid!). Then I got on it, sat comfortably, crossed my legs below him, and held the base of the wings, then the hat was taken off, and the hell it went running. I started falling off of it when it was turning, but fell off gracefully. It was a very short but hectic ride J Overall 3 bruises, and a small scratch on the hand from when he was maniacally trying to escape the enclosure, but I think it's a good sacrifice for an ostrich ride :)
http://picasaweb.google.com/evadikushin501/HermanusOudtshoorn#
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