Traveling Cat

Guess what I did today?

Wohoo!! I may not look cool in the seated position, but I sure felt super cool!

My first time sky diving was a great success! The stats: 10,000 ft altitude, 220/kph, and 35 seconds free fall. Full amount of time from throwing myself out of the plane, somersaulting towards earth (he agreed to let me do it, fun eh?), free fall, steering, spinning in circles, and snapping pics in the air: 5 very fun minutes!

Also tried sand boarding for the first time, both standing (like snow boarding) and laying down (like sledding). Both were super fun, though my one and only big crash left me glad to be wearing a helmet and sad I hadn’t thought in advance about butt padding. Needless to say I’ve got sore tailbone today which makes sitting/bending amazingly painful. But it was super fun, crash and all, and I’ve got some pics to post once we get back to civilization. Today we’re off to Spitzkoppe to the sacred site of the San people for some bush camping – should be great!

Only have a few minutes to post, but wanted to get some photos online if nothing else and add more later. We took the world’s best bus to Namibia on Thursday and have had a great time. Am fortunate to continue to meet lots and lots of excellent people traveling (Brett from New Zealand, Knut from Norway, Johannes and Sue from Germany, Mike from Atlanta, etc). Always inspiring to see people who’ve been on the road five years like Brett or 17 months like Mike or doing nursing school abroad like Knut. Makes me believe the world is full of possibilities!

This weekend, for instance, even with all of the rentals in Namibia full, we managed to find two South African guys who’d take us to Sesrium to the famous dunes… just amazing! Clive and Jasper were good guys, Brett came along for the trip too, and we all had a great time on our quick trip. Today we leave for a 14 day trek from Namibia to Botswana ending in Vic Falls in Zimbabwe. Brett’s joining us for the next few weeks and I think we’ll continue to meet lots of great travelers along the way. For now, here are some pics from the dunes.

The red dunes were amazing… no wonder they’re famous! Definitely worth the long trip out there on sandy roads!

Me and Susie at sunrise on Dune 45. Quite a good workout climbing to the top and so worth it!

One of the many oryx we passed in the national park

Me and Brett on the summit

We’re now finishing up week four in South Africa and the good times continue to roll. We returned our rental car in Cape Town and have been bussing on public transit (super slow, but it’s gotten us door to door). Cape Town is amazing and we’ve been staying at another free place – right on the beach. There are cool sand dunes and tons of surfers, kite surfers, and wind surfers making the most of the cold and windy Atlantic side of the ocean. This free place to stay also stems from Megan, the nice woman we met in Joburg. Her friend Nicole has welcomed us with open arms and we get our own bedroom, keys to the house, and access to anything (including the computer I’m using to type these entries and resize pictures). Stand on the balcony and we’ve got views of Table Mountain, the Atlantic Ocean, and famous Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners spent years of their lives behind bars during apartheid). Our hostess Nicole is pretty funny and very open, and more than a wee bit eccentric. (Guess you’d have to be to open your home to complete strangers). Megan says Nicole has a “heart of gold” and we think we’d have to agree. She spent her only free day last week taking us on a driving tour around the cape and now I’ve been up north in Cairo, out east in Kenya, and now all the way to the southern tip of Africa on the Cape. What a gorgeous drive!

We’ve had a lovely time at Pride, at a Robben Island tour, on the beach, wandering Long Street and Green Market Square, shopping, eating, etc. We even got to meet up yesterday and today with Rob, Susie’s big sister’s husband’s best friend. He’s a fun and generous guy and it was great getting dinner and drinks last night. He just flew here from Kenya and a trip to Lamu, so it was fun looking at his pictures and reliving my fond Lamu memories. Today he joined us again and we met up to go hike at Table Mountain. Even the “easiest” routes are supposed to be ‘difficult and hair raising’ and the guard at the bottom told us it can be full of bandits who jump out of the bushes and mug you at knife point (they apparently can’t use guns because guns cause rock slides). Most recent mugging was Thursday, but happily no one was killed. Anyway, today we had a great time… no muggings, no baboon attacks, not even sore muscles (not yet, at least). The views were gorgeous and the other people hiking were super fun and social. The fact that we got passed by two guys hiking in Crocs while smoking cigarettes didn’t even phase me… they were super fun each time we passed them, and soon I’ll post their picture smoking their way up the mountain. We even had a new friend Andy join us for the hike, a 60+ year old Brit who’s here in SA backpacking around for a month. The hike was a bit harder than he initially expected, but he did great and even bought us drinks at the top to thank us for “taking care of him.”

All in all, it’s been a great month here in South Africa, home of the world’s nicest people. I’m a little sad to leave, but am very excited to head to Namibia tomorrow. Can’t wait to see the dunes and visit the San people (bushmen).

Here are some photos from December I’m just now getting around to posting. Many thanks to Nix for use of her computer and to Cape Town for fast, cheap internet!

What’d we do for Christmas? We played Christmas music on the iPod, ate some local snacks and imported candy canes, and went to a Muslim wedding with a new friend. The wedding was, in a word, gorgeous!

“Nelson Mandela’s new constitution, when he swept away Apartheid and ushered in South African democracy in 1994, included the all important “freedom of sexual orientation” clause. Cape Town Pride is one of the many gay & lesbian events that started soon after.”

This weekend we went to some Cape Town Pride celebrations. The parade was on Saturday and to sum it up, it was “short but sweet.” The entire thing only took about 10-15 minutes to pass us, but the crowds were energetic and the floats were full of greased up dancing men and trannies so that’s always fun.

More fun than the parade was the street party. They had lots of great people watching, performances by drag queens, live music including hip hop, dance, dive, and more. All in all a fun day and we were sad to tear ourselves away at 7pm. However, last bus of the day ran at 8pm so we needed to haul ourselves back to the terminus on Strand Street and get back “home” to Nicole’s gorgeous house on the beach.

I know I should’ve taken a picture of the claim form, but it’s too late for that now. To make it up to you, I’ve taken a picture of captioning Susie drew on a postcard. It is sheep related so it should count for something.

Our next stop was Stellenbosch, the heart of South Africa’s wine country. Stellenbosch is actually SA’s second oldest city and vineyards were first planted there in the 1600s. We stayed at the Stumble Inn, a packed hostel right in the middle of town. All of the beds and rooms were sold out, but we had Susie’s tent and they still had room for us. Yay tent! With our luck we not only arrived on a Wednesday (the most happening day of the week), it was also Valentine’s Day, so we decided we should go out and have a night on the town. However, we quickly realized it was a college town and the bars’ clienteles were mostly drunk 18 year olds (lower drinking age + 17,000 college students + wine country = party time in Stellenbosch). While my old college roomie Meg and I used to joke about turning 30 and dating 18 year olds, it really holds no actual appeal to me. We decided to skip the crowded recommended bars and dance clubs and headed instead to a coffee shop for live music. We enjoyed covers of Jeff Buckley, Coldplay, Johnny Cash, and Simon and Garfunkle, and after a few hours we wandered onward to a pub back near our hostel. The pub was packed with a friendly, diverse crowd and it turned out to be one of the three oldest pubs in South Africa. The night was packed with entertaining conversation, great people watching, and lots of pithy fashion police comments. (South Africa is highly fashionable, and 18 year olds seem to embrace this atrocious neon fishnet leggings with short skirts 1980s look).

The next day in Stellenbosch we got out and explored wine country. We did a cellar tour at Die Bergkelder, an interesting place that goes through 25 tons of grapes each year and has cellars tunneled into the slopes of the Papegaaiberg mountain. Some of their wines and vineyards have been around since the 1600s and many are sold around the world. We did all of the tour’s samplings there and both ended up tipsy before 11am. (I rarely drink, so getting tipsy wasn’t too surprising to me). My favorites, by far, were their Nobel Late Harvest (a sweet desert wine) and the Pinotage (a blend that was just fantastic). Most wines, and beers and alcohol in general, aren’t too exciting to me, but the Nobel Late Harvest and the Pinotage were surprisingly impressive.

We also visited two more wineries during the day and did more tastings… Jordan in Stellenbosch and Vrede en Lust in Franschhoek. Jordan was very laid back, much like you’d find in Washington’s wine country near Seattle or near Walla Walla (it’s sold in the States under the Jardin label). Vrede en Lust, on the other hand, was the classiest winery I’ve ever been to, fancier than anything I’ve seen in the Napa Valley. (They apparently started hosting weddings in recent years and cater almost entirely to a rich foreign clientele). We picked Vrede en Lust because they also hosted a cheese and olive products shop onsite, as well as beautiful grounds and guest cottages. Little did we know the woman behind the counter would be so amazing… from advice on wines and local history to tattoo shops in Cape Town and gourmet dinner recommendations in nearby Paarl town.

We eventually left well after closing hours and headed to the most amazing dinner I’ve had in recent YEARS. We ate at Noop, a tiny artsy gourmet restaurant connected to a coffee shop and florist (how cute!). The funky feel was very Seattle though the gourmet food quality was decidedly New York or Houston. Our bread, main meal, giant decadent dessert, coffee, and truffles only came to $11 each. Wow!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – the rand is a very undervalued currency. It means you can live quite well here with many amenities on minimal amounts of American dollars. Gourmet meals for $11, camping and beautiful hostels for $5, glass of local wine for $1, etc. It’s astounding to me sometimes how well we’ve lived and been treated here in SA.

In Oudtshoorn we stayed at “Backpackers Paradise” – it wins my vote hands down for the best hostel in all of South Africa. Well appointed place with great open space, multiple well stocked kitchens, multiple TV rooms, multiple sitting rooms with couches and chairs, free coffee and tea, internet café, prepared meals, braai nightly (aka BBQ), swimming pool, bar and pool table, amazing staff, book exchange, and even visitors books for offering advice to other travelers. Amazing! We were considering heading back to the Garden Route before heading up to wine country, but thankfully they convinced us otherwise.

Swartburg Pass

Ahhh… hot springs…

• First stop on route 62 was the winding gravel road of Swartburg Pass – one of the “most spectacular passes in Africa” with views of the Matjies River valley. Scary and impressive.
• From there we headed on back roads and more gravel to Ladismith. Not much there except a fabulous stop at a cheese and ice cream factory (yum!), but both of us were big Paul Simon fans and Ladysmith Black Mambazo fans, and that was enough to make excited about driving through the town of Ladysmith.
• Next we found the lithium hot springs between Barrydale and Ladismith at Warmwaterberg Spa. Germans apparently rate these among the top three hot springs in the world for their heat and mineral content… among other things they’ve got low levels of sulfur and high levels of lithium. (Lithium?! That’s my kind of hot springs!) We went to a cool old resort (established in 1886 with three outdoor “Roman bathing pools” overlooking the gorgeous surrounding mountains and valleys. The 41C hot mineral water was fabulous, the setting amazing, and my head spinning. Yes, something there made my head spin for a good long while… honestly not sure if it was dehydration or perhaps the lithium. I’ve spent much time in hot tubs, and have visited hot springs in Arkansas, Budapest, and Washington, and can tell you my head has never before spun like that. It was a different hot springs experience than any I’ve ever had before.
• Leaving the hot springs and heading towards wine country, we passed Ronnie’s Sex Shop and Pub in a rural area, along side a farm, with a tractor parked in their parking lot. I was curious to see what a shop like that was doing there, so Susie agreed to stop and let me explore. Joke was on us, apparently. When we went inside and asked about the sex shop, all of the farmers and bar patrons looked at us with blank faces. Apparently “everyone knows it’s just a bar,” they said. “Everyone knows the sign is just a joke,” they said. Ooops. Guess they don’t get too many foreign tourists on the back roads. Hmmm… Anyway. We chatted with Ronnie, the dirty old man who owns the place, turned down all of his advances, and then headed out a few minutes later. Oh rural humor, what a funny, disappointing thing.

A bit misleading…

Good ol’ Ronnie has a dirty tshirt (in Afrikaans)

Note from Cat: I don’t expect anyone really wants to read all about our hostels and daily travels, but I want to record my thoughts somewhere for my own memory’s sake. Feel free to skip down to meerkat stories or the tales of ostrich riding in Oudtshoorn.

Our most recent destination was South Africa’s famous wine country nestled into the most gorgeous purple hills imaginable. Our first stop was Robertson – a small town in the Breede River Valley with wine, roses, and race horses. Robertson has about 10% of SA’s vineyards, and also has amazing hiking opportunities. We spent a day at a local nature reserve and did a great, easy trail up to the edge of the mountains followed by an hour long rock scramble. Our goal was swimming in the many small rock pools and the bigger waterfall at the end. While the water was quite chilly, the dip in the pools was refreshing and the views and rock formations were gorgeous.

We heard about the hike courtesy of Robertson’s Backpackers – another in a line of very impressive hostels where we camped. Among its unique amenities included local wines, gorgeous bathrooms, eclectic original artwork around the house, and most interestingly a Moroccan lounge and hookah bar. We decided to peruse their video library and opted for a late night showing of the Breakfast Club on VHS. Apparently we weren’t the only fans… another lovely guest Gavin came to join us wearing only his underwear and a t-shirt.

We spoke more to Gavin in the morning and learned he’s a self described SNAG (sensitive new age guy). He hoped we were enjoying our VD (Valentine’s Day) and we talked literature (he actually had pretty great taste in books – Tom Robbins, Paulo Coelho), travel, spirituality, youth work (he teaches art to “disadvantaged black South African kids”), second hand shops, philosophy, Guns N Roses, and all kinds of random stuff. He didn’t seem that new agey to me… just had a healthy penchant for the likes of Rumi.

After Robertson and our relaxing day at the rock pools, we went further on the R62 wine route – the “longest wine route in the world.” The drive was hot (37C is about 106F) but we slathered on more sunscreen and enjoyed the stunning mountain views.

From far left: Susie, Cat, meerkats

I fell in love with meerkats after National Geographic published an amazing photo essay a few years back and have been a big fan ever since. As you know, meerkats are only found in one place in the world – sub Saharan Africa. And as I found out this week, there’s only one program in the world that lets you go out into their natural habitat with a conservation program – Meerkat Magic. It has to be a sunny day, and you have to put up with the somewhat crazy man who leads the tours, but I was more than happy to fork over hundreds of rand for the experience. I wanted to see them in person and wanted to learn more too.

Side note: While Grant the guide was a bit of a crazy man, you’ve got to respect his ideals and the program he works with. They’re the only meerkat conservation program worldwide that leaves the meerkats in their natural habitat and doesn’t domesticate them by handling them or feeding them.

We got up and drove to the meeting place at 4:45am, made it out to the conservation site by 5:15am, and then hiked out to one of the 60+ boroughs by 5:45am. Then our lessons began. Did you know the meerkat is a tiny rodent, just larger than a rat, and their closest relative is the mongoose? Did you know they dig with sharp claws into the ground to hunt for insects?

The scientists study the meerkats daily and always record which borough they go down in at night so they know where they’ll reappear in the morning. Sadly, we had to wait for a few hours for the little guys to pop their heads up out of their holes as it was a cold and cloudy morning in the desert. Apparently meerkats are a lot like people… see a cloudy day and they’d rather just stay in bed all day. (For us it’s just laziness, for them it’s a security thing. If they have overcast skies and can’t see predators like hawks or eagle coming at them, they’re putting themselves at risk).

When they finally dragged themselves out of bed, for the first time in four days, we were super excited but knew the rules. At first we couldn’t make eye contact, had to freeze, and kept a few meters between us. It was great to see them wake up one by one, pop their head out of their various holes, and then climb out to sun themselves. Each one turns to face the sun, stands on their two hind feet to expose their belly, and is careful to make sure their shadow isn’t affecting their friend’s sun. Considerate little creatures, eh? I think I can identify with meerkats… I’d love to begin my day lying in a puddle of sun, just hanging out and warming my belly. One of my two highlights of the trip out to the meerkats was seeing them wake up. They get so relaxed waking up and warming their belly in the sun that a few actually started to nod off and fall asleep while standing. So cute!

By the end of the morning when they were more comfortable with us following them at a distance, they let us watch them and follow them through the brush as they rooted around for insects to eat like grubs and millipedes. That’s when my other highlight of the day came – we got to see a kill.

When I was at Kenya’s Masai Mara for the world’s best rated safari, we got to see “a kill” – in our case a cheetah ripping into a live impala and eating it for dinner. It’s not like elephants or zebras who eat plant vegetation. Seeing a kill was very much a “National Geographic moment” and was so astounding to see that primal bit of raw nature. When we were at the meerkat site this week, we got to see another kill – the very rare moment of a larger animal hunting, killing, and eating their prey. In this case it was a small mama meerkat (about 1 ft long) sniff around, dig a deep hole, and tear out two live gerbils. The guide told us it was extremely rare to see meerkats eating small mammals as they usually stuck to insects like grubs and beetles. However, we were happy (if not a bit grossed out) to see the tiny meerkat tear up a live gerbil and attempt to eat it for breakfast, blood dripping down it’s cute meerkat face. It was also a bit ridiculous to realize wild gerbils lived below ground in holes in the desert. I’d never really thought much about where gerbils came from (besides second grade classrooms) and certainly never considered the possibility of wild gerbils existing in the first place. Oh nature…. what a funny, funny world.

Many thanks to Grant for sharing pictures of the day. (Very sadly, guests are forbidden from taking pictures, so I guess sharing his is the least he can do. The organization needs the film revenue to help fund their conservation work and rely on BBC, National Geographic, etc, so while I was sad to leave my camera in the car, I was glad to know the money was going to a good cause).

It felt a bit silly to try, but I was able to successfully convince Susie that we wanted to visit Oudtshoorn, the capital of South Africa’s ostrich breeding business since the 1800s. I’d once read a passage in a book about “how to ride an ostrich” and decided seeing an ostrich farm would be one of the sillier “can’t miss” opportunities in life. Susie eventually relented and agreed we could go for a day trip, and maybe head out somewhere else before nightfall. Upon arrival in Oudtshoorn we learned more about the town and both realized there was a lot more than just ostriches. However, we realized too late that we probably could’ve spent 3 or more days just exploring all that it had to offer.

However, since the town’s famous for it’s ostrich farms, that’s where we decided to start. First thing we did was take a tour of the Safari Ostrich Farm. We learned the history (still active since the 1800s!), saw the farm, got a 75% discount from our hostel (only 24R!), and even got to see jockeys doing ostrich racing! Not only that, but they let 3-4 lucky participants each tour get a FREE OSTRICH RIDE! Yes, friends, I was crazy enough to ask, and lucky enough to be chosen, for a free ostrich ride! Did you know ostriches are the largest bird on earth and can live to be about 60 years old? Did you know they have elbows and knees and finger joints and toes? Did you know ostrich are fast enough to run 60mph and their toe/toenail is long enough to pierce a human right through from front to back and kill them in one kick? The guide taught us lots of great facts after I’d already volunteered to ride the crazy bird. How does one ride an ostrich? Bravely, though a bit awkwardly. You ride bareback on their feathers, lean way back till you’re almost parallel with the ground, tuck your feet in front of their legs, and then grab on tightly under their elbows (not so easy… finding the elbows between all of the feathers on the wings takes some work).

My bird was giant and quick and the ride around the corral ended safely. They can go 60mph, and while it was a fast trot, I don’t think we got going that fast. However, there was a real moment of fear when me and my ostrich were barreling around the corral and collided with another ostrich. (I didn’t attempt to aim the bird, I was just trying not to fall off). After colliding with a sheep in a car earlier in the week, the idea of an ostrich to ostrich collision wasn’t a pretty one. Happily, no fight ensued between the birds, I kept my balance and wasn’t trampled, and in the end managed (with the help of a stable hand) to make it one fast loop around before falling off sideways as the bird slowed down in front of the crowd. The ride was exhilarating and full of laughter and cheering, and I’m proud to say I didn’t get my shoe/leg stuck in his feathers or anything embarrassing like that. It wasn’t exactly graceful, but there’s very little graceful about ostriches in general. If you ever make it to South Africa, I highly recommend $3.50 for an ostrich tour and free ride. Quite worth the trip!

N/B: As a former vegetarian, I’m re-learning everything about meat after avoiding it for 10-15 years. Turns out ostrich meat is way leaner than beef and is supposed to be great for you. In my opinion, it actually tastes better than cow meat too. So if you haven’t tried an ostrich fillet lately, I highly recommend it.

I took the car into Budget to report the accident and it seems everyone in this area has a story about when they hit livestock roaming in the roads. Seems they all have stories about their friends whose accidents were even worse. After swapping stories, I had to fill out the claim form, including a great little section where you have to “sketch the scene of the accident.” I’m pretty sure the man behind the counter was highly amused with my stick figure drawing of the highway, a car, and a bad luck sheep. I was laughing too hard to continue drawing, but the man behind the counter insisted. The best part about filing the claim was when he suggested I draw “little stars around the sheep’s head.” Too great. And we even got switched to a new car, and a free upgrade at that. Glad he got a good laugh out of my drawing.

We’re now in lovely Stellenbosch, South Africa’s famous wine country. Was a bit tipsy by 11am after just one wine tour, so am taking a break now. Tonight we head off to Cape Town for the grand finale of our South African adventure. Amazingly, we have another FREE place to stay on the beach… another random contact of the woman we met at a Joburg gallery! Wow!! Life is good! I know our luck won’t continue for the next few months, but for now we’re having a great time and incredibly thankful for the kindness of strangers!