South Africa, Lesotho and Mozambique

First of all, thank you to everyone who posts/emails me comments! I am amazed that so many people are following my journey and love hearing what you have to say.


The more adventurous part of my trip began when I reached Durban. I came to see a friend from camp, Matt Orchard. In fact, the whole point of my South African tour was intended to reconnect with people from Ceder Lake that I haven’t seen in about 10 years. My intention was to use these 2.5 weeks to rejuvenate and reenergize before my big safari. When I arrived in Durban, however, Matt was set on making sure that I did as much as possible and had a schedule set that began between 4 and 5:30 am most mornings!

Day 1: Wake up 5:30 am

The day began with a visit to the Inada Dam, which is located at the bottom of the Valley of a Thousand Hills. I thought it was strange to have a valley with hills in it, but I don’t even think I can describe its beauty! It was so green and lush. It was also where I first saw the smaller local communities which I described in my previous blog.

When we arrived at the dam, I saw 3 zebras. My friends all encouraged me to go take pictures. As a good tourist, I decided to stand back from the animals and take the pictures from a distance. Sarah, Matt’s girlfriend, was more confident and suggested that I go closer to them and she’ll take a picture of me close to them. She said that these zebras are used to people and are very tame. Apparently, one zebra was not in agreement! (We found out later that one of the others was pregnant, which might explain the rest of the story) As we walked closer to them (and everyone in the parking area was watching us), the zebra turned and looked at us. It then began to walk towards me. I kept walking towards it, until it started to walk a little faster. I looked at Sarah who just said “he’s coming to say hi!” I decided that it would be a better idea to take a few steps back. When he put his head down and started to run towards us, I decided to run too! Apparently, Sarah was scared, but wanted to act tough and she wasn’t running. I, on the other hand, dodged right and headed towards a truck that I was planning to hide behind. As I approached the truck, I turned around to see where the zebra was. It had almost caught up to Sarah, who had turned around but was only jogging away cause she didn’t want to look scared. When she saw my face, she realized that it must be close behind and went into full speed (she didn’t actually see how close it was). As she sped up, the zebra stopped, turned around and walked away (which Sarah didn’t realize and kept running). It was one of the funniest experiences ever! If you don’t believe me, you can ask anyone of the 10 spectators who were also in stitches. We all wish there was a video of it, but you’ll just have to take my word that I was charged by a zebra.

By the time that was over, the boys had gotten the boat into the water and we were ready for some wake boarding. It was my first time wake boarding and I was able to get up from the first try. I even started to learn how to move the board a little. It was super fun! I wasn’t as good as my friends who were doing 360 turns in the air and jumping over the wake, but I think I did pretty well for my first time :) After that success, we went to The Cliff (insert suspense music here). This is kind of an embarrassing story, because the cliff beat me:( It was 8 meters high and I could not bring myself to jump off it. It was totally safe to jump there and so many people jumped off while we were there...but I just couldn’t do it. Sarah and I stood up there for way too long trying to convince each other to go, but we both ended up climbing down. I figured that a day of being chased by zebras and learning to wake board was enough firsts for one day. I can accept the fact that jumping 8 meters into water was a boundary that I’m just not prepared to cross.

That was all before 11:00 am.

The rest of the day was spent driving around Durban and walking along the beach front. It was very beautiful and relaxing.

Day 2: Wake up 5:00 am

Matt, Sarah, Melissa (Matt’s sister), and three of Matt’s friends (Gareth, Sass and Rex) and I went to Lesotho. This is a very small country in the middle of South Africa. It also has the highest point in southern Africa. This may actually be harder to describe than the Valley of a Thousand Hills, so bare with me.

Once we crossed the border into Lesotho, there were no more paved roads. In fact, the route we took to Sani Pass was only one road, a very narrow, rocky road curving up mountain terrain. We drove through streams and up steep hills. Everything was super green and super bumpy! I’m posting a picture that I found online, but I’m pretty sure that I took the same one...just without the other cars.

When we got to the top, we had a drink in the highest pub in Africa. We walked around the top and then drove to a field to have a picnic lunch. As we ate, there were shepherds tending to their sheep. I tried to get close to take a picture with the sheep, a little weary that I might have a sheep start chasing me, but they ran away from me.

It was a stunning day and I don’t think I will ever see landscape like that again!

As we finished lunch, we saw a storm approaching and decided to go back down. We got down just in time. I wouldn’t have liked to be caught there on the slippery slopes! We did hit a hail storm at the bottom. I couldn’t believe that it was hailing and so hot outside. They explained how the water keep descending from the clouds and evaporating until it’s too dense and heavy to stay up in the air. The hail was huge, so we tried to hide under a tree. 4 other cars liked our idea and joined us. We saw some poor guy going by on a motorbike...that must have been painful!

Day 3: Wake up 8:00 am (let the sleep ins begin!)

Matt had to work while I was here so Gareth (aka Gazza) became my tour guide. This day was kind of mellow. We went to a cute cafe in the morning (my first time being back at a cafe that served coffee and not chapatti!) We then drove past a game park. Gazza promised that there would be lots of animals that you could see through the fence, so there was no need to entre. For the first few minutes, there was nothing...then we saw ZEBRAS! Of all animals to see. Luckily, this was behind a fence and couldn’t run after me (I seem to have developed a little complex around zebras). We then started to see impalas and lots of other animals.

From there we went to the mall and I met up with Jocelyn (a friend from camp in ‘01) who was on her way back to her rural placement for her physio community service. We only had about an hour, but it turns out that her placement was right near Mozambique. We managed to find a way to have Jos come join us for a day over the weekend.

Day 4: Wake up 8:00 am

This morning, Gazza and I went to uShaka Marine World (this is where the Marine Land song gets stuck in my head). We saw a dolphin and seal show. Apparently they have the largest dolphin in the world. Gandalf has apparently been at the aquarium since the 70’s and is massive! They need to feed him double the fish per trick than the other dolphins get and he can’t get nearly as high (but that might also be due to age). We also saw lots and lots of sharks. One sharks, even took out his teeth and put them back in! I swear, I was watching his mouth cause his teeth were so big and he kinda looked like he was smiling and then it looked like he adjusted his dentures! I am so happy he was behind glass.

From Marine World, we tried to go up the lift in the new stadium built for the World Cup. It’s a beautiful stadium and apparently has the largest arc on any stadium. Unfortunately, the lift didn’t meet international standards that day wasn’t running again whenever we tried to go back. We decided to check out a bird sanctuary...but that too closed its doors in December. However, the birds were still there, so I enjoyed more animal watching through a fence.

Day 5: Wake up 8:00

Today we went to Phezulu, a Zulu cultural centre. We (and about 200 high school students) learned about some of the tools that the Zulu people use at home and got to watch a courtship ritual. This involved the man expressing his interest to a woman. She says no, so the man has to prove his worthiness. He offered her lots of cows (apparently it costs 11 cows per wife). She agreed to marry him and they showed us the engagement ceremonial dance. It involves a lot of very high kicks! Once she is married, a red hat is woven into her hair. That is used instead of a wedding b and. To sleep, she must put a block under her head, like the geishas use not to ruin their hair.

There was a reptile park there. We saw a crocodile feeding. Holy moly! There were A LOT of crocks! They just kept coming out of the water. They were given huge pieces of meat and you could hear them crunching through the bone. Some would catch the meat and then freeze for a while, then start eating. Once the food was in their mouth, the others did not try to take it from them. Apparently crocks only need 6 oz of meat a day to survive (2 tablespoons). A 60kg man, could feed them for 16 years! YEESH!

We enjoyed our lunch looking out at the Valley of a Thousand Hills. I think the view made the food taste better.

Day 6-9: Wake up 4:00 am

We drove to Mozambique this morning. I went with Gazza, Garth (Matt’s friend) and Melissa. Paul (another CLC friend), Matt, Sarah, Sarah’s mom and sister (Mrs. Lockyer and Kate) and Lizzy (Matt’s friend) came up later in the evening. We arrived at 10 am.

Like in Lesotho, as soon as you cross the border, the paved roads ended. We drove on sand roads the rest of the way. Mozam is Gazza’s home away from home, so he knows his way around (there are no street signs) and many locals. We stopped at one of his friend’s Baracca’s, which is a small pub, and had some early morning R&Rs (rum and raspberry, the only thing you really drink in Mozam). We then went to find our house.

Our house was amazing! It was right on the beach. It was perfect. The next few days were spent enjoying some R&R (both meanings), swimming in the ocean, snorkelling (Jos joined us for that day) and enjoying the sun. My new experiences in Mozam included trying Barracuda for dinner and seeing pods of dolphins swimming past us, while we sat on our deck.

Day 10: Wake up 6:00 am

Got up early this morning today goodbye to Matt and catch up on my blog. I’ll head to the airport and be off to Cape Town just now. (Just now means apparently means soon in South Africa)

Happy Passover!