The Heart of Africa T.I.A.

Monday, August 30, 2010
Farmington Hills Michigan, Michigan, United States
  August 1 - August 24 2010



Route traveled

South Africa
    Durban - Underberg

Lesotho
    Mokhotlong - Maseru

South Africa
    Sterkspruit - Coffee Bay - Port Elizabeth - Jeffrey's Bay - Cape Town


And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same”    Nelson Mandela




I awoke to the mystical sounds of the gospel choir singing inside the Banana backpackers this morning in the coastal city of Durban. I cant ever remember a time when I had a choir singing to me while I was brushing my teeth or taking the first piss in the morning, but it definitely added a certain ambience to the morning. Today I ventured off to take a stroll down the beach, which in Durban is set up as a main attraction as the boardwalk goes on for miles, with kids playing, families walking and numerous sand castle artists trying to attract tourists to look at their master pieces and to make some money out of their interests in them. The sand castles were quite impressive, and with so much detail, they had things like soccer stadiums, animals, and life size cars. I also saw some teenagers playing a game that I had never seen before. It was an organized sport but I couldn’t figure it out. It was a mix between rugby football and dodge ball. As I wandered down the boardwalk, I thru my speakers on the top of my backpack and slowly strolled along to the tunes of lucky dube and bob marley. I stopped off at one of the sand castle artists place and put out the speakers and sat there for what seemed like an hour, watching the people go by and just listening to music, as the castle artists danced to my music as they perfected their crafts.


As the sun was creeping behind the horizon I made my way back to the backpackers, I hung out with an older guy from new jersey who came to Africa to help start a Capoeira association, and to help budding authors publish books. He was a goofy guy, and was sleeping in the same dorm as me. Last night as I was just going to sleep, I suddenly heard someone yelling, and what he said was “Get the fuck out of my bed!, get in your own bed!” Apparently someone extremely drunk had stumbled into the wrong room and thought that his bed was new jersey’s bed and tried to get in and new jersey flipped out. It was hilarious and in the morning I was sure that I dreamed it, but when I asked jersey he admitted to this outburst. That drunk guy ended up losing his pants in the morning and jersey found them with the guys wallet passport and phone inside. The drunk guy had no idea as he was blacked out and since he had to leave early in the morning and convinced he would never locate his pants, actually left the city in defeat, but I doubt he would get to far without his passport and debit cards.


The next day I checked out of Banana’s and was on my way to the drakensberg mountains to a city called Underberg. I got directions to the bus station from the guy at the hotel, and walked about 2 miles to the station. When I got there, there was no bus to be found that would take me where I wanted to go, so wandering around I found some cops to ask for help to find a bus. They were kind enough to walk with me to another bus stop, but with no luck there were no buses there either. So frustrated and finding it difficult to find my bus, I continued to walk around searching and asking. Seemingly getting nowhere after at least an hour, I took a look at the map and found another city to go to in the right direction that would most likely be a place where I could find a connecting to Underberg. So after I had a bus worker escort me to the bus to Pietermaritzburg and tipping the worker I stuffed myself into the crammed bus and we were on our way. Pietermaritzburg was really close by and only took about an hour. Once arriving there I walked thru the center of the city and found happily a bus that would take me to Underberg. A couple of hours we arrived and after dropping all the other riders off, the bus driver took me to the spot where I could pick up another bus to take me down the road to the backpackers on the farm where I was heading to called Khotso. The wait for the bus to leave was about two hours, so knowing that I was going to a farm out in the middle of nowhere, I went across the street to the grocery store and stocked up and some food to cook up for the next couple of nights.


I eventually made it to the farm just as the sun was setting, and was most grateful to be here, after the struggles of finding the buses throughout the day. I was greeted by the barking dogs and was shown to my room, where I got to sleep alone in the dorm for the first night. The owner of the farm is a guy named Steve, who is infamous around these parts for his amazing skills of endurance. He was champion of many long distant races such as running and rowing and biking. These weren’t just marathons or that sort, but races that lasted for days and crossed hundreds of miles. After cooking up some pasta met Tase, who is from South Africa and is working on the farm helping to build a water processing plant right on the far. He’s the kind of guy that always seems stoned all the time, and when he gets to drinking he comes alive with thoughts and stories that will leave your brain twisted in circles, as well as leaving your mind to wonder what else and how. The farm was empty that night and it was only Tase and I so I joined him to watch some movies. While watching introduced himself to me and asked me if I wanted to go on a hike tomorrow in the mountains. Since this is what I was planning on doing, I agreed. However I was warned that it would be an intense hike and that if I didn’t think I could handle that I should not go. I told him that I would try my best and I thought that I would be able to handle it. So in the morning I woke up around 7am cooked up some ramen noodles and laced up my hiking shoes. At this point I hadn’t worn shoes probably in over two months and before that may two months before that time, so needless to say my feet weren’t used to the confines on being snuffled into a shoe. With sandwiches in bag, and 4.5 liters of water, Steve and I headed off. The plan for the day was to walk about 5k to meet up with a group of about 10 high school students from England and their teacher and guide. Steve was doing them a favor and guiding them to the site to look at bushman paintings on the side of the cliffs that are thousands of years old. Since Steve knows these mountains inside out, he agreed to be the guide for this group.


We wanted to get to the group in a very short time, so we were basically speed walking and I was huffing and puffing along the way. At one point Steve asked me if I wanted to run, and hesitantly I agreed, but thankfully it was only down a hill and lasted for 5 minutes. We covered the distance very quickly and when we arrived at the groups camp site lodge, we found that they weren’t even ready to go. I introduced myself to the crew, and what I noticed was that half of them had their large backpacks with them and planned to walk the entire hike with them on their backs. I don’t even like carrying my big bag with me for more than 15 minutes let alone an all day hike thru the mountains. The girls had these huge bags and not to sound sexist or anything, but I had a feeling that there would be some troubles with them along the way. So we headed off, the hike was beautiful and the mountains had wonderful views. I kind of felt like I was on a field trip but I didn’t have to listen to the teachers. When Steve guided us to our first rest by the river, one of the girls was extremely tired, and everyone was saying that she didn’t eat dinner last night or breakfast this morning. She was carrying a big bag and when we continued on she collapsed. We ended waiting about 30 minutes to get her going again and Steve being the endurance athlete that he is, carried the bag for the girl. This was an interesting group of kids, they had chosen to do a trip that consisted mainly of big hikes, and I have never heard so many people complaining and bitching about walking so much in my life. I was getting a kick out of it however, and found it quite entertaining. There was one girl that had the typical rude sarcastic british humor, who would bitch nonstop, but in a funny way, and she was in terrible shape. But we trucked on and as everyone was dragging with their bags, I and another student went at our own pace up to the bushman paintings. The paintings were basically stickmen and pics of simply drawn animals, but it wasn’t the artistic quality that made them so important, they told a story of how life was back in those days, and how the early humans survived the harsh conditions of the times.


As we were walking, I noticed the sides of my feet starting to hurt and also my to big toe nails. I knew for sure that blisters were forming. Towards the end of the hike, about every 2 minutes a different student would ask when we were going to be finished. And when we arrived at the camp for the group, we arrived to find that in their lodge that there were no mattresses on their beds. So Steve told them that they could stay at the farm that night instead for free. The only thing was that they had to walk about another hour more, with Steve and I back to the spot where we were to be picked up. Along the way we spotted a spitting cobra, and Steve told us that it sprayed us in the eyes we could go blind. Also at this point everyone was extremely tired, along with myself but not nearly as bad as the kids with the big bags. We walked thru terrain that had huge grass, and also thorns and everyones legs were getting cut up, but nothing to bad. When I saw the truck in the distant that was to take us back to the farm, I pulled away from the group and went on my own. I had to cross a river and climb under a barbwire fence to get to the truck, but the strange this was how long everyone was taking to get there after me. I found out later that the girl with the biggest bag had a panic attack not long after I left them, and she had to be calmed down in order to continue. She ended up relaxing and she was fine, however when I took my shoes off I saw the most narly and biggest blisters I have ever seen in my life. They were puffed up and ready to blow. When I got back to the farm, there was nothing I could do but to pop them, and when I did it was kaboom. It also seemed that I had formed blisters under the nails of my two big toes, that were caused from scraping on the top of my shoes. More about that later in the show. We ended up walking about 25km according to Steve, and when we got back we were shot. Spent the rest of the night watching movies and smoking out by the campfire with Tase laughing at his lyrical insights,


which was the major theme of the rest of my stay at the farm. It got really cold at night, and it was unbearable to stay outside unless posted up by the campfire.


The next day I figured this would be a nice place to stay and relax for a few days, so I caught a ride into town and stocked up on some food to cook up for the next week. At this point I knew that I wouldn’t be able to walk very far for a few days while my blisters were healing, but that didn’t bother me, because I was in the perfect place to study and practice the art of chilling, that Ive been perfecting ever since the start of my trip in Africa. I ended up staying at the farm another 4 nights, and my stay consisted of cooking up food, watching movies, and at night hanging out with whatever guests were on the farm, and mostly smoking some Lesotho buds. Tase would always be there with me, and for three nights there was a group of wonderful dutch people who were nice to hang out with. There was also a couple of Swiss guys there, who hung out with us. Each night I would give my mp3 player over to someone to be d.j. and we would listen to music all night, with the stars shining oh so brightly in the sky. This place felt more like a cottage in the country than a hostel. Before I left I shared a bunch of my music with everyone at the farm. There was also a zebra on the farm and it was pregnant. However there weren’t any other ones, only horses so Steve told me the baby would most likely turn out to be horse on top and zebra from the legs down. While on the farm I even managed to put in a little reading and even some exercise. I read the book “Three Cups of Tea” which is about a guy who goes climbing on K2 in Pakistan, gets lost and stranded and is taken in by a village. In order to thank them he promised to build a school for the girls of the village to study in. Having no money he managed to scrap together the funds, and to this day he has built hundreds of schools throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan. A true hero and an inspiration. It really shows how much just one man really can do!


When it was time to leave, I caught a ride into town to the bus station, and hopped on a bus to a place called Good Hope. I was on my way into the country of Lesotho, which is surrounded completely by South Africa and has the highest low point of any country in the world. Which means that it is basically a country built in the mountains. From good hope I caught another bus that would take me over the Sani Pass and into Lesotho. The views were breathtaking as we creeped thru the mountains, it seemed at times the bus wasn’t fit for this type of drive, but we kept on climbing and eventually made it thru immigration and into the country. As the sun went down it got really cold, and the people of Lesotho all walk around with huge wool blankets wrapped around their entire bodies. Almost everyone in the countryside has one of these blankets to stay warm. We arrived a couple hours later in the city of Mokhotlong, and to my surprise the driver dropped everyone off at their doorsteps. The driver didn’t speak English so not sure what to do with me he took me to the police station. I was rather confused as why we were there, but the officer spoke English and I asked him where a hotel called Grow was and he told the driver how to get there. The hotel was an agricultural project that also let travelers stay at in which I had read about in the lonely planet. I got my own room there, and settled into a quiet night to myself.


Walking around the town in the morning, I got a feeling that this place reminded me of Tibet but without the spiritual ambience. It has the same cool chill in the air, it had the same smiling red faced children walking around, it had of course the same brown fluffy like mountain ranges, with snowcaps on some, and it had the life hasn’t changed in 100 of years kind of feeling. I didn’t have any other aspirations for this day than to walk to the grocery store, pick up enough food to cook for the day, and to sit outside my hotel room, listen to music and stare off into the mountains. And that’s exactly what I did. I watched as kids played out across the way, and as locals strolled past me in their warm comfort blankets. I watched as the shadows gleaming off the mountains shifted throughout the day, and how when the wind blew a gust knocked off the laundry that I had placed on the line after washing in the sink. When it got dark I read for the rest of the night.


I wasn’t planning on staying in Lesotho very long, only to make a loop thru it and head back south to South Africa. So in order to get back down I had to go to the capital city called Maseru. I was able to catch a normal size bus that took me directly there. The bus ride was pleasant as I took the backseat and slowly viewed the life of Lesotho as we cruised and swerved and zig zagged thru the mountains. Funnily, I saw a self made ski hill, that if skied go only have lasted for about 4 minutes. It was the first skiing I had seen in Africa, and it didn’t look very exciting but it was a valiant effort at least. In Maseru I stayed at a Anglican church that doubled as a hotel. It was probably the cheapest place in town but from my experiences, churches are usually a pleasant and peaceful place to stay at. This was no exception, and for dinner I walked into town up and down hills and ate some fast food. The town was pretty modern, considering the rest of the country. I had another quiet night to myself in which I passed by reading.


The next day I was ready to leave the country after a short three day visit. It was to be an interesting day of mini bus, that would surely be record breaking. I walked into town and while looking for a bus to take me to the border town of Quthing, I was directed to another bus that would take me to the bus station to catch the actual bus. At the bus station I got in a bus that filled up and just as we were ready to go, we were told to get in another bus. So that bus left and just as we got down the street out of the bus station for some reason the bus turned around and went back to the bus station. Confused I was shown to another bus where we all piled into. Eventually we left and made our way south. ¾ of the trip to the border, my bus stopped and I was told to get out and boarded another bus going in the other direction. This bus took me to the border town, but it was really at the border. So I had to get another bus that would take me to immigration. This bus turned out to be one of the shittiest buses I had been on during my trip, and that really says a lot. It had to be push started and that took many tries. We got going but a little ways down the drivers door wouldn’t stay shut and after about 25 tries of slamming the door, someone had to hold it closed as we drove. It wasn’t a long drive but it was taking over an hour. A little while later the bus stalled and they tried to fix it, they got it moving for a bit, but it stalled again. Not to much later another bus came whizzing towards us and we piled in the replacement and taken to the border post. Got thru immigration smoothly, walked across a bridge and found a Suv taxi with bench seats in the back to take me to the next town which was Sterkspruit South Africa. I wasn’t planning on staying here, and amazingly after all these buses and delays it was only 330pm. I wanted to make it that day to a place called Coffee bay, but I would have settled for the closer main town of Mthatha. The only problem was that the buses to there had stopped for the day and I was to stay in this city tonight. It wasn’t a big deal, I was in no hurry, so I asked around for a cheap hotel. It turned out that there were only 3 and they were all B & B’s. So a nice bus driver offered to take me to these places for a small fee, I finally had to settle on the cheapest of the three, and I ended up paying for the most expensive hotel room that night of my trip, which was $41. The room was fancy and decorative, but wasn’t what I needed, however I did appreciate it and slept well in my bed made for kings. At the end of the day I laughed as I recapped the day. I counted how many buses that I had been in and it was an astonishing 9! Easily the most in one day.


In the morning I slowly made my way towards the bus station in order to go to Coffee Bay. I was told that the bus to Mthatha left at 10am. I asked the hotel owner if he could drive me to the bus station, since my feet were still hurting and I didn’t really want to walk that far. He agreed and when I got to the bus there were only 2 other people there. We had to wait either until the bus filled up or until 2pm, whichever came first. 2pm came first. So I had a few hours to kill at the bus station. I did what any normal person waiting for a bus would do, and got out my speakers and put on the jams. I sat back and waited while listening to the fan favorites of lucky dube and bob marley. Later on I walked into a shack where there was a lady cooking food. I met a guy in there that had great insights on the beautiful struggle of Africans and he told me about his strain of everyday life. He ordered some food and I ordered the same plate, a massive portion that even I couldn’t finish. Afterwards we both agreed that it was great to meet each other. After that as I was wandering around the bus station I met a Pakistani guy who was building a building complex. We talked about how life is for a foreigner like him in south Africa, and he kept on hinting to me that he wanted me to help him get to the usa. Not a uncommon thing to happen on this trip at all. I told him he seemed to be doing pretty good for himself here, but he just had his eyes on america.


2pm came around and we boarded the bus on our way to Mthatha, but we switched buses in a town I cant remember. When we got to Mthatha luckily I was helped by a local guy who helped me find a bus towards Coffee Bay. There wasn’t actually a direct bus there, but the guy thought I would probably be able to catch a bus from Cantuli. When I got to Cantuli, it turned out to be a really isolated place with what seemed like only a gas station and I was left off. It was already 8pm, and I asked a few people and they said I could probably catch a bus to coffee bay but weren’t really sure and just told me to wait by the side of the road. So I waited and waited and as buses stopped, they all said the same thing, which was no. I was starting to think I would have to sleep in this town, I even contemplated sleeping outside or in the police station or knocking on someone’s door. It was also getting pretty cold outside and I wasn’t getting anywhere. There was however a taxi driver willing to drive me for a relatively large amount of money. I said no at first but after waiting I finally gave in and he took me to Coffee Bay. We rolled into Bomvu which is the backpackers at around 10pm, and I was rewarded for my patience. I arrived to drums playing and people singing, where I joined in an attempted to play my harmonica with the others. Shortly after that I spotted a fire and walked over where I met a couple guys from cape town and a girl from France. There I was treated to shots of tequila and a smoke. What more could I have asked for at that point. One of the guys turned out to be the Muy Thai champion of South Africa, and had a school in Cape town. The other was a chef for movie productions. It was a very good first night there at Coffee Bay which is on the ocean. Bomvu is set upon a large compound surrounded by lush plants and trees with a river running thru it and a view of the ocean. A tranquil and relaxin place to spend a few days. I was on the Wild Coast and the people here were called Xhosa. And when they spoke they used clicks, and every time I heard a click I found myself also clicking, noone seemed to notice however. Coffee Bay was very isolated, it only had a few shops and the rest was backpacker hostels, that seemed to run the area. I ended up staying 4 nights here and really made myself at home. I hung out mostly with the workers at the hotel and also there was a volunteer there named Amanda who was there to counsel the owner on how to properly run a business. I hung out with her most of the time. There was also a guy named Kevin from South Africa who really loved acid, and talked about it very often. Also was the owner who had a gypsy like girlfriend with that he took in when her car broke down in the town. She had an adorable daughter who was about 3 who I became friends with. We played many silly games and had many laughs together. During my stay I basically just lounged around the bomvu area listening to music and beating on the drums that they had. One night the hotel put on a drum show for us that was a good time. That night I went with other guests at the hotel and Amanda across to Coffee shack and had a party, and then later went to another backpackers to finish off the night. I ended having my favorite meal of the whole trip at this place, it was crayfish and it was amazing. I was cooking my own food every other day but when I saw this on the menu I knew I had to splurge and eat it and it was worth it. This hotel even had a stage set up for music festivals. At the end of my stay I shared a bunch of music and movies with some of the staff who were so grateful for the new entertainment. There was even a wolf running around the hotel that was a pet just like a dog but it was harmless.


My stay at coffee bay was relaxing and pleasant, however at this point my trip was almost coming to an end, and it was about time to make it to cape town. After saying goodbye to everyone at the hotel I got a bus back to Mthatha, where I got another bus to Port Elizabeth. My only stop before cape town was to be in Jeffrey’s Bay which is supposed to have the most perfect surfing wave in the world. I decided to break up the journey in Port Elizabeth however, and had one of the more strange bus ride arrivals in a city. The strange thing was that the driver took everyone to their doorstep, however it seemed like nobody knew where they were going and it also seemed that the bus driver had never been in this city before. In stead of just being dropped off at a bus station that I normally do we drove around for an extra hour and a half taking people to their homes. We must have stopped to ask for directions at least 6 times and that’s before I was the last one in the bus. I kept trying to get the driver to take me to a backpackers and I gave him a address but he had no clue, and we drove around stopping at every gas station asking for directions, until luckily I saw a backpackers on the road and I told him to let me off. I arrived at about midnight at the hostel, and was shown happily to my dorm. A couple hours later as I was sleeping a heard the most annoying voice yelling at some guy who was passed out on a couch in the lobby area. I guess he was gay and had snuck into the hotel and peed on the couch cuz he was so drunk. I say that he was gay only because the lady seemed to have a big problem with this and kept yelling at the guy. I guess then a little bit later she was yelling at her husband about the incident and she wouldn’t shut up. The lady and her husband were the owners and she was handling the situation very poorly. In the morning I heard the same screeching voice saying the same thing and when I came out to see what happened, she explained to me how she had to go to court because some drunk gay guys broke into her hotel and peed on her couch, she then said if I wanted I could stay again at her hotel another night and she told me that nothing was going to mess up the classy hotel that she had worked so hard to gain a reputation for. All I could do was laugh and went back into my dorm. Luckily I was only staying one night, then a few minutes later I met the girl in my dorm who had been beaten by a south African guy and was going to meet the guys ex girlfriend who had also been beaten to compare notes or so she says. It was in interesting night in Port Elizabeth, but it was time to head on. I got a bus that took me the short ride to Jeffrey’s bay however the bus didn’t stop in the center and since I thought jeffreys bay was the final stop I didn’t get off thinking that we would stop at a bus station as usual. But we kept driving and by the time I realized the driver wasn’t stopping we were outside of the city. So I had to jump off, at the mall, a nice lady helped me find a taxi and the taxi dropped me off about 2km away from my hotel saying something about he didn’t go in that direction. So I walked the rest of the way to Ubuntu Backpackers. It was a really cool house overlooking the ocean. This place reminded me so much of Florida. I settled in my dorm, and first thing went and bought my bus ticket for cape town which left the next day. I then went to eat some thai food that wasn’t up to my standards. I walked around the city looking for a travel agent in order to by a ticket back to the united states. The travel agent turned out to be way to much. I then went looking for this famous wave that I had heard of called super tube. But it wasn’t going off that day, and wasn’t what it usually was. After walking the beach for an hour I went back to Ubuntu where they were having a Braii which is a bbq in south Africa. I bought a steak baked potatoes and broccoli at the store and had myself a feast .


I enjoyed a nice night at jeffreys bay but it was time to make it to my final destination: Cape town. I managed to barely miss my bus by a few minutes. The drive along the garden route was awesome as we drove parallel to the ocean, with rolling green hills with farms and wineries and the opposite side. Made it to Cape town and that was that, I had made it from the very top of Africa to the very bottom. I felt a little emotional once I had arrived, I just thought back to the places I had come to get to this point. I got a taxi that took me to a part of cape town called Observatory, and I ended up staying in a backpackers called The Green Elephant. First thing I did was put my bags in my dorm and rolled up to the bar and ordered a shot of tequila to celebrate my arrival in cape town. The staff at the green elephant were really laid back and made me feel at home, and I ended up staying there six nights. I had bought my plane ticket back to Detroit in jeffreys bay on the internet, and my flight left on Sunday, today was Tuesday so I had some time to kill.


A little later I met Johanna from Berlin who was cooking some veggie curry and I joined in on the meal. Later Johanna and I went to play some pool and have a few drinks on lower main st. which is the main drag in observatory. It consists of maybe 6 bars and a bunch of cafes and funky shops. The next day I started the day off wanting to climb table mountain. The weather was rather crappy but I wasn’t gonna let it deter me. I got a minibus to the city center, where I asked direction on how to get to the mountain. I asked a bunch of people along the way and they kept telling me to go up and pointed. It was so hazy and cloudy out that I couldn’t even see the mountain, and just was walking towards the fog. After walking up insanely steep streets, I made it to a place called Noon gun on signal hill where they blast off a canon everyday to signal 12pm. I was no where near the trail for table mountain, and the weather was getting nasty. It was cold and raining so I decided to head back into the city and go home to the green elephant. I made it to long st. ate some street food around the corner and scouted out some of the market. I caught the train back to Observatory, got out of my wet clothes and plopped down on the couch for the rest of the afternoon. It started to get nicer as the sun went down, and out on the balcony I met a guy from south Africa named Rowan, we had a smoke as the sun went down, talking and listening to music. Later that night I went with Johanna to meet her friend. We went to Obz café, it turned out they had a Shakespeare poetry show going on so I decided to check it out. It was interesting for sure, and something different, however not really my style. The only saving feature of the show for me was the cute girl with dreadlocks who was in the show.


When I woke up in the morning the sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I headed off to climb table mountain. I got a taxi all the way to the start of the trail and hiked up. It was a fairly tiring climb but only lasted a couple of hours. The views however made up for any type of strain I had from the climb. I was rewarded with views of all of cape town and robben island in the distance. And on the other side of mountain cliffs overlooking the ocean. To me getting to the top of table mountain truly symbolized the completion of my trip, and I always knew that this would be the last thing I would do on my journey. Needless to say I felt some emotions at the top that thru me in a flashback of my entire trip. I then climbed back down the mountain. I didn’t really want to pay for another taxi into town, so I hitchhiked down the mountain. I got a ride from a a guy who was showing his father the mountain and was getting married in a couple days. They were nice enough to drive me in their pickup all the way down to long st. When I got to long st I went into the green sq. market and bought a drum to take home with me. Then headed back to Obz.


A strange thing that I have been noticing was what has been happening my big toes. My toes nails on them had turned green and were almost falling off completely. I didn’t really know what was wrong with them, but as Im writing this I can say that two days ago I had to amputate both my toe nails, because they were both completely rotten. Luckily my blisters are healing up but it took them a long time, because I was still walking on them.


Anyway, enough of that talk. That night I wanted to celebrate the climbing of the mountain, so I stopped at the liquor store and picked up a bottle of cane spirit. I found rowan at the hostel and we split the bottle. We tried to go to a reggae show but apparently it was cancelled due to a reason I couldn’t remember. It was still a good time anyway.


That next day Rowan Johanna and I went to explore Cape town. Rowan was our tour guide and he took us to the waterfront. It was a nice touristy place with live music and entertaining shows, and a happy atmosphere. That night we hung out playing pool at the hostel and met some locals who came around. The next day Johanna invited me to go to a braii, but her friends canceled on her, however we did by the food which we cooked up that night. Before the dinner we went to visit Johannas old neighbors who were two old ladies and were very funny to have wine and cake with. And then the next day Johanna invited me to watch with some of her friends the twin cooling towers in cape town get blown up. It was a big event in cape town and we ended up watching it from the top of an unfinished building. Everyone had a camera and there were news reporters filming it. The towers came crashing down and then they were gone. That could have been symbolic for me in some way but im not really sure how. Hung around town the rest of the day and at the hostel. And this was to be my very last night staying in Africa other than on the airplane. I decided to have a quiet night since I had already celebrated a couple nights prior, and I really didn’t want to be hungover having to travel 35 hours of the next two days. The next day I woke and since I didn’t leave to 6pm I went to the city and the market to buy some gifts to take home with me, got a final look at the majestic city of cape town, went back to green elephant. Johanna asked how I felt in going home, and I said I had mixed emotions. I was sad to leave Africa, however I was ready to go home and to get off the road for awhile. I called a cab to the airport said goodbyes and just like that I was whisked off to the airport by a jolly fat guy, who summed up my Africa trip for me. I asked him how living in cape town was, and he said we’ve made it through a lot.


I got a flight from cape town south Africa to Johannesburg south Africa to Cairo Egypt to new york to Philadelphia to Detroit. 5 planes and 35 hours later I arrived in Detroit and I was home.


 


 


 


I traveled thru Africa for 252 days. I passed thru 22 different countries, some I stayed in for a couple days, some I stayed in for a few weeks and some I stayed in for over a month. I rode on hundreds of buses and stayed in an uncountable amount of hotels. I got malaria and I got dirty. I met characters that cant even be explained. I let music enter my soul and uplift my spirits to the beat of the heart of each African. I became lazy, I became inspired, and I became grateful. Where ever there was a bad there was 50 goods. Its not possible to describe the feelings I had while in Africa, or all the things my two eyes had the honor of seeing. I saw heartbreak and I saw struggle beyond belief, but I also saw a laughter that would make the sun peek thru the clouds on the nastiest of days. What can I say about Africa except that I was treated with nothing but kindness, sure people did try to take advantage of me when they could, but what can you expect. Africa is a place where if your not constantly trying to survive than you wont, because life can be so difficult, that even a couple cents can make a huge difference in life or death. It is a continent full of lions, and I don’t mean the animal, these people are fighters, what they have overcome is unimaginable. At every turn I was helped out in the most hospitable way, and these weren’t the people who were trying to get my money. It was the unconditional act of kindness that so many people have lost and is taken granted for. Everyday I disappointed someone in someway. Whether it was someone asking me for money, trying to give me their daughter or asking me to help them get to the usa. And every time this happened and I had to say no, I felt bad, I felt useless, and I felt sorry for them.


I know what I know and that’s all I know, and one thing I do know is that the most important thing and which is universal all throughout the world, is that people just need to be kind to each other and take care of each other. I cant imagine a more important concept. There is no time for hatred or animosity. The world is run by love, and absolutely nothing more. Most people in Africa view fortune in a totally different way than other people view it. When you put things into perspective and really realize what is important to you than it comes down to the basics, what does a person really want. Ive found personally and in my opinion that people mostly want to be comfortable. Comfortable in their skin, comfortable inside their heads, comfortable in their surroundings, and I feel that if people are comfortable than they can be happy. Broken down to the most simple lifestyle, food in the belly, a roof over the head, a peaceful happy home, what else does a person really need to live. Life can be simple and life can be complex. Whats a life of only living to fill your stomach, shit and sleep. Whats a life of working to get a new car, or to get a new gadget to satisfy your craving for entertainment or status. A good majority of Africans only know one way and that is living to live. Walking miles and miles just to get clean water, painfully breaking their backs on their farms just to etch out enough food to keep the hunger pains at bay. Can you blame someone for doing what they have to do. I found that a person does things because mostly they have to, they cant be judged for doing these things, whether it comes from how they were raised or out of desperate situations. Can a man be blamed for stealing when they have no other choice in order to feed their families, or can a person be ridiculed for begging a tourist like myself in order to allow his child to attend school in order for the cycle of poverty to be broken. Were all earthlings, were all humans, what else is there, a country doesn’t matter, we all have the same goal, and that’s to be happy. We can be good to each other, we can stop judging and we can give.


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travelbug15
2010-09-04

Thanks for sharing your journey. I read all your posts and enjoyed living vicariously through you. Good luck with the transition back to "normality". I always find that to be the most difficult part of being a traveller. I'm sure you'll be back on the road again before you know it!

2025-02-18

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