The Mountain Kingdom, The Monarchy and Mozambique

The final leg

Through the Karoo and into the Kingdom

Departing Port Elizabeth we had a good 9 hour drive ahead of us through the remote Karoo desert and into Lesotho; 'The Mountain Kingdom.' The journey moved from the industrialised city to smaller towns (eerily like Ballarat) to remote desert villages lined with humble shanty's and strewn with litter. Strangely enough, the dynamic seemed vastly different to the towns along the garden route like Storms River Village. People scarcely smiled and seemed strangely standoff'ish and, having been used to strangers greeting strangers in the street in most outer-city areas, I found it really odd. ..

The moment we crossed into Lesotho the dynamic changed. White-man was clearly  more of a rarity, which excited many of the locals and we were warmly welcomed indeed. Whilst South Africa is not the 'real' Africa in many respects, the scenery and culture of Lesotho the moment you cross the border tells you you've found the 'real' Africa again. 

We headed to Malealea lodge, a community-conscious venture established 26 years ago, starting with old settlement buildings as much as 100+ years old and situated in the lowlands; framed by mountains. The scenery was so absolutely stunning that none of our photos really do it justice. 

The day after we arrived we hired mountain bikes to go explore the area, but in the middle of our trip were trapped in a storm with lightning, thunder and hail that pelted down so badly it HURT. So we huddled under the closest vegetation -- a small bush -- until we puckered up the courage to scoot to a nearby hut with our local guide. The owners of the hut were extremely hospitable. Although communication was limited (they only spoke Sotho) they had a warm manner offering us what food they had (rice with ketchup) and tea. Sotho is quite closely related to Setswana so I at least managed to communicate the basic thanks/compliments to the hosts.

When the storm eased a bit, we headed back to Malealea, only to have the sunshine come out again once we returned the bikes. Trust.
Nonetheless I took the opportunity to explore on foot instead whilst my brothers lazed, taking a local guide to find the nearby Gorge and learn a bit more about the Basotho people. Some fun-facts:
--Much like Botswana, the concept of 'Bride price' still exists; where the grooms family pays the brides family in the form of livestock (often cows).
--Men or Women can be chiefs of a village
--Most Basotho operate on subsistence farming (ie they don't sell produce) whereby they trade different crops amongst each other.
--Come a special occasion (ie the naming of a child) the slaughter of an animal (ie a lamb) is still customary
--Some Basotho men undergo initiations where they must go into the mountains for 6 months (it does get cold and snow in Lesotho) and what they do is a secret that only those that have been part of the initiation are privvy too. On our Mountain Bike ride we did pass the older men, marching and singing on-route to collect those who had completed their initiation. Much more fun than gimicky songs/dances put on for tourists.

Following Malealea, we took our fierce 2x2 bubble car rental to the even more remote Semonkgong village; driving the poor little thing to places it wasn't designed to go (but remarkably scratch free!). The scenery was simply stunning again. We left the low-lands as the car climbed dirt-and-gravel roads into the more spectacular high-lands, pausing frequently just to gawk and marvel at our surrounds.

Our destination, Semonkgong lodge, was nestled beautifully in a small gorge with a gurgling stream nearby. Food at the lodge seemed predominantly local and absolutely fresh -- even better I encountered phaphatha once again! (A locally made wholewheat bread, also made in Botswana, that is somewhat reminiscent of English-muffins). I'm not normally a bread person, but that, served warm with melting butter.... *insert drool here*

But the real reason for our long trip to Semonkgong was the nearby Maletsunyane falls -- the highest in Africa and second largest in the world. It more than exceeded expectations. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life. 

After trekking there with just Gavin and James from the lodge and through small villages we virtually had the whole place to ourselves and there was no-such-thing as an entrance fee. At Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe) you pay a good USD $30 for the privilege of seeing the falls and whilst there are more waterfalls and the scenery is gorgeous, there was something about the peace, serenity and other-worldliness at Maletsunyane that far surpassed Victoria Falls. The only thing I could really parallel it to would be the infamous 'Avatar' movie. The one other soul we encountered contemplating its magnificence, was an expat photographer who claims to have been visiting the waterfall over 6 years, still in a quest to properly capture the majestic scenery. In fact, he had been a visitor to Lesotho over the last 16 years and claims that he keeps coming back with so much left to explore. Lesotho extends to only 248/181 km at its widest/longest points,  but I don't doubt his claim at all. 

We hung at the falls for much longer than we originally intended, but eventually dragged ourselves away, lamenting over the end of our brief visit to the country. If Gavin didn't have to get to J'burg for a flight, we would have stayed longer for sure and we're all still pretty keen to return one day. Indeed, on route out of the country when I saw a sign indicating on-going engineering works by Aurecon, I must admit my imagination wandered a little in the realms of 'what I want to be when I grow up….and where...'  ..Lesotho?

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As a matter of mere coincidence, the day and time we dropped Gavin off at the airport, Sachin, a friend we made whilst travelling SA was also at the airport. He had just visited Victoria Falls and was back in SA for <2 weeks and also coincidentally due to fly out from the continent the same day as James and I... So naturally we teamed up for the final leg of our journey; Swaziland and Mozambique.

Swaziland is situated pretty much smack-bang in South Africa, with a touch of its border to Mozambique. It is a monarchy where the king has something like 14 wives (not sure of the current tally, one ran away) and the HIV infection rate is 49% amongst adults (26% across the whole demographic) -- the highest in the world. It was a gorgeously green country with rolling hills, patches of lush vegetation, small boulder-like mountains and landscapes enshrouded by mist. Our time through Swaziland was short (overnighted in Elzuwini) with less than 200km driven through the small country, but our impression was that the place seemed far more developed than Lesotho and also lacked the crowded shanty's of South Africa.

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The beautiful scenery of our road trip  continued as we entered Mozambique, driving toward the coastline. We by-passed crowded Maputo and headed straight for Bilene -- a small lagoon-like beach area. Having been there once before, i was surprised to find it nearly deserted this time around with the whole place virtually to ourselves. After some good beach-bumming we headed to Tofo, one of the few backpacker'esque destinations in the country. Still far from a common 'backpacking route', Tofo seemed to receive the more 'intrepid' travellers and was a great place to meet interesting new people and spend some time with a huge range of activities on offer. Naturally I went scuba diving (anyone say Manta rays and reef sharks?), beach bumming, walking and lazing. 

When it finally came time for the long-haul home, it seemed that Africa didn't want to let us go easily. The day we had to drive the car back to SA, torrential rain started; the beginning of forecasted monsoonal rains set to last about a week. Wearing nothing but bathers and a raincoat we hurried about like headless chooks determined to get going before the roads got washed out and our ridiculous bubble car (Chevrolet Spark Lite) washed away with it. Getting past the border into South Africa was a relief to say the least. 

As the journey due to a close, each day I thought 'I don't want to go home, I don't want to go home, I don't want to go home….', simply because the last 7.5 months had been so amazing I wanted to hang on to them. Of course, I was also looking forward to my planned trip to Tassy, seeing good friends again, going back to the Australian bush and (dare I say it) real education. 

But to all those I met and befriended along the way, thanks for adding to the magnificent experiences we had -- the better and the worse! If you ever need a place to stay in Australia, you know where to go :) 

New Years in the 'not-Australia'

Journeying with the siblings! 

When I was first in Africa, I wanted to be out of Cape Town and South Africa as soon as I arrived; it was too much like Australia. I wanted  the 'real' Africa.  But the reason I initially rejected the country was largely what drew me back this time; it seemed like a strange parallel to my home country, only with much greater development difficulties, a different demoraphic, much higher poverty, a corrupt government and on-going racial tension. It was like that homely familiarity of Australia but with a much more complicated and challenging twist behind it and its people. I wanted, and would still like, to understand just what makes the county tick.
In some respects it almost seems to me that Australia represents what South Africa had the potential to be -- or might yet be. But the reasons I say this are extensive and require in-depth conversation far longer than this blog has room for. I'll skip to what we actually did.

After Christmas we flew to Cape Town -- perhaps one of the more beautiful cities of the world. Dramatic cliffs and coastline (like Great Ocean Road), the Table Mountain backdrop (a plateau-like mountain that sits behind the city), surf beaches, boutique to trendy cafes (with decent coffee!), food markets, amazing wine (like Australian wine..), produce and cheeses, an up-market waterfront (someone say 'Docklands'?) and some old-school colonial architechture. Of course, unlike Melbourne, you have a transition of amazing mansions and beautiful houses into... slums.

Everything is framed by barbed or razor wire and as you drive by some make-shift shanty towns complete with rusting corrogated iron, rubbish blowing in the breeze and poor sanitary systems, you simultaneously pity the people who live there and by the same token sincerely hope your car never breaks down in that area. It is these areas that South Africa's shockingly high crime statistics originate from.
We hung-about in the surf-suburb Muizenburg (sadly never went surfing) and during our time in the city climbed Table Mountain (it was admittedly stunning), explored long st once more, drove along Chapmans peak and surrounds etc.

New Years us 'kiddies' ran away from the parents to a somewhat hippy- festival; Rezonance. I'm ashamed to admit it was the first time in my life to go to a music festival too...but better late than never! There was much epic dancing (sensing a theme here...), sibling-bonding and miscellaneous friend making -- perfect way to start the new year! I'll let the photos do some talking.

           
Unfortunately come insane-o-clock (6am) New Years day, we had to leave as the parents and Clare had a flight back to Melb (Clare only returning for a visit). Leaving my sister, much like the last time I was in Africa, was nothing short of horrible! Despite being in the same country as her for 5 months, being 1000km away still made visits a difficult occurance and already it was time to be continents apart again.

So then there were four: me, James, Gavin and Maria (Gavin's gf). With less in tow, we headed eastwards to Hermanus. I'll just say; beautiful coast, quaint little town, wonderfully refreshing beach-cliff jogs and wine tasting. Incidentally, I've concluded I don't have the stamina for wine tasting, as I gave up near the end on account of almost-falling-asleep and opted for a good-ol' coffee instead. The trip ended nicely with some in-bus-boogie to The Beatles.

Next stop was the start of the garden route: Mossel bay. The town itself didn't grab me as it lacked the charm of Hermanus, but the surrounding beaches and activities were definitely worthwhile.

We sandboarded nearby sanddunes, made some new friends (Sachin and Sid) and skydived. It was my second tandem skydive and though I had vowed to never skydive again until I did my solo course due to the relatively high-cost of tandems, the beach scenery and beautiful day snagged me in once more. And boy there were NO regrets on that. Because it was my second time and I was apparently small-enough, the instructor decided to do something new; jump out of the plane with me backwards and, whilst I tucked up into a ball, do a series of somersaults/flips in the air. Despite the fact my brother was out of the plane a good 20 seconds before me, when they had opened the parachute we were still free-falling fast past them; aparently the speed we plummeted looked insane. Hell, when I saw my brother jump out it looked like he was vacuum-suctioned out.
The first time I ever sky-dived, I thought the experience was wicked. This was even better. The speed, the rush, the flips, the scenery, the gliding with the parachute... absolutely amazing. I swear I have to do my solo-course one day....

Following Mossel Bay, we headed towards Storms River village. We drove along 'The Garden Route through peaceful beach and lagoon scenery, dining in Kynsna harbour along the way.

At stormsriver we took a trip tubing in black waters (black due to natural tanins in the water) which largely consisted of jumping off rocks in deeper sections and floating through rocky shallows in others, sometimes awkwardly due to sections of low water. Of course it was obligatory to pounce on other people in their tube and dunk them in the water.
 The forest surrounding the stormsriver and village was absolutely lush and green and later that day I took a stroll through it, feeling strangely like I was but wasn't in Kinglake back home. In fact, in such a small and friendly village it was as though the crime-ridden troubles of SA cities was long-gone, scarcely a barbed wire in site and an altogether reassuring vibe from the people and area. The local-restaurant was perhaps what needed some work; an ostensibly American diner serving anything from sugar-fied sweet-chilli stir-fry to MSG intense vegetables...

Nighttime at Dijembe backpackers was great fun. Intrepid travellers, bongo drums, guitars, bonfires and (you guessed it) dancing! At one stage the owner seemed to appear out of nowhere with his horses and next thing you know there was a troupe of backpackers  and horses walking to a bar in the local township under an amazingly starry sky. Following a white horse, under a starry sky to a village bar... only in Africa.

The bar, although obviously simple, had a great feel to it. No sleazy men (and believe me, that's a rarity in bars globally... particularly Africa), no racial tension (not always the case in SA), an absolute mix of people and almost-instantaneous friends. Oh, and dancing, dancing, dancing.

The following day we ventured a trip to Tsitsikama NP where Stormsriver meets the sea and man am I so glad I didn't skip it. Definitely one of the more stunning coastlines I've ever seen with giant crashing waves, beautiful blue skies and a large gorge mouth where the blackriver merged into the blue sea. Something like cataract gorge in Tasmania meets Cape Schanck in Victoria...

We desperately wanted to linger at Stormsriver but figured we needed to get a move on (flights and such... deadlines = bad) so we headed to Jeffereys bay. Realistically we should have just stayed at Stormsriver for longer (oh.. hindsight). Jeffereys bay was really a surfing destination and, as our luck had it, the surf was terrible and near non-existant during our stay. Nonetheless, we did visit a pretty cool swimming/waterfall spot with ziplining (or 'foofing' in Afrikaans) slides into the water and large rock jumps for the brave, go swimming in the sea, jog along the beach and chill.

But this was where our 'Garden route' journey ended, dropping Maria at the airport in Port Elizabeth on the 10th before the next leg northward; Lesotho -- The Mountain Kingdom that has evaded me for too long!