Drakensburg - Balito - Namibia

It has been a while since we have found internet cheap enough to update the blog. Sorry folks but lots to tell!

After a spot of relaxing in Johannesburg, we headed for the Drakensburg mountains. We found a great hostel called the Ampithetre in the middle of absolutly nowhere. Although we had everything we desired bar, hot tub in the bar and some great people to drink with.... the only downside of this hostel being that everything goes on a tab and after the 4th large bottle of cider, one begins to loose count! Another downside of the place was the awful food, and the fact there is no alternative....unless like us you are prepared to cycle 8km in a thunderstorm to the nearest shop, that sells very little for a lot.

On to our activities to Al's excitment, we signed up for a gentle hike up the Tugella waterfalls. What they didn't tell you was the verticle scramble over boulders to get up there, the thunderstorm didn't help either! Al the activity jumkie that he is, was less then pleased as his makeshift poncho court on the rocks leaving a trail of green plastic up the mountain face, his fear of heights wasn't helping too. When we finally summited, it was me that was feeling green, the milk that 'hadn't looked right' at breakfast kicked in... we had to rename the place the 'Poogella' falls... I'll say no more! The next challenge of the day was the decent down verticle ladders, Al opted for the rope support just incase his natral defense of passing out when too scared kicked in. Fortunatley it didn't and it was pretty plain sailing down to the base, where a welcoming cold beer and steaming hot tub were waiting.

We had ago at yet another hike with some nice Swedish and Aussie people we met in the bar of course. We walked yet another 5hrs upwards looking for the mouth of the falls that we never found. Nice scenery however, and we had a good laugh at the Swedes slipping over in the mud on the way down, although they weren't seeing the funny sides themselvs!!

Having hiked ourselvs silly in the Drakensburg we hoped backed on the baz bus to Pietermaritzburg where we camped in a nice blokes garden (supposidly a hostel!). The town itself can only be described as a dive, and the best part was leaving it. We hired a car and drove to the nearby town of Howick where we didn't have to hike to see the waterfall (yay!) and had some really good food at last! We then took a paddle in the lake Al used to swim across in Mudmar, then we pressed on to Balito.

Balito was a bit like the posh area of South Africa, plenty of money around there, so we stuck out of course! We stayed in a very nice apartment belonging to some friends that have been amazingly generous to us. It gave us a bit of a break from travelling really, as we could cook, have a shower and sleep all in 1 unit! Got to say it was nice to have the delights of telly again to and yeah we slobbed out generally, and chasing monkeys away, little b*****s!

While we were there we headed up and down to Durban a few times in our complimentary car :). We saw the delights of Shaka Marine world, where the best thing apart from the dolphins was the waterslides where we were like a pair of 7yr olds, although boobs falling out your bikini top wasn't such a problem then! We also braved the surf down there trying not to think too much about sharks, was pretty exhausting going with the current though oh and we got soooo burned we spent the next day walking like John Wayne doing the robot! The last night we went to see the local Sharks rugby side play the cheetahs, great atmosphere and a great party afterwards.

So next stop after yet another stop off in Johanesburg was Namibia. We flew in to Windhoek and climbed straight into our 4x4 ready for some extereme off road adventure...unfortunatley the bloody rental company had left road tires on it and even more unfortunatley we're in the rainy season! We spent the first night in the 'cardboard box' in Windhoek and tried to gather supplies for our trip up to Etosha, which is a massive national park with nothing apart from wild animals and ant hills for miles.

We tried to get on the road nice and early next morning but due to a few more 'navigational issues" we took a while to find a camping stove, but 3rd time lucky and we were on the road and made the gate in time to set up camp. We were up at the crack of dawn the next day on the hunt for wildlife, primarily the the big and fury kind, although Al was mostly looking forward to the warthogs!

Etosha itself had had loads of rain and it kept on coming while we wer there, every bloody morning and afternoon infact! This meant that the park itself was really green, and the animals didn't really need to come out of hiding to get water. However the first morning we were lucky and saw heards and heards of Zebby the zebra, Gerry the giraffe, and all kinds of boks, that weren't even classed as a spot after a while! That afternoon we struck gold where we saw a cheetah and a cub (quite rare) on the prowl. Then right after three lions right up close, one preparing to rip apart a jackal. A little further down the track we caught sight of a big horny Rhino, a bit far away for a decent shot (with a camera) but wouldn't miss those horns anywhere!

Second day was a wet and uninspiring start but we packed up and headed from Natomi to Halali which was about half way across the park. We were in luck again though and saw about 5 young lions mucking around one took offence to the camera so we got a good angry lion shot and got out of there! A few more Gerry's and Zebby's along the way but nothing to write home about! For the next couple of days our luck was on the decrease it got wetter and wetter so the animals got less and less, and our bar bill got more and more!

On our final full day in the park while staying at the Okikhauja camp, after the rain had finally stopped we decided to take an evening drive. There was still a massive area to explore in this region of the park, we were still in hope of seeing maybe just one Elephant maybe even a warthog! So we took a turn of the main strip of dirt road into a place named 'Lion's look out' and of course as luck would have it we got proper stuck in the mud! I sent my navigator out push, and collect rocks etc... no luck though. Eventually I was ordered to get out and help to carrying massive rocks with killer ants crawling up my arms to stick in the mud to give those bloody road tires somthing to grip! Alas Dawn (the car's name after Dawn French) was having none of it, the day was dawning in and I had to admit even I was "getting a little bit scared" while Al wasn't even his normal verbal self... it was bad!

So to drastic measures our camping mats, backpacks, anything denim was stuffed under the car hoping big fat dawn would catch on, Al had to drive for a change to get some muscle behind the car (mine pushing!). Dawn was having none of it still and we were starting to feel more and more like lions dinner! We were saved however by the miracle of Al's normally usless knowledge coming useful (for once), he had read in a National Geographic once about how to rock your car free from the mud by reving the engine to the point of stalling then hitting the clutch eventually fat old Dawn rocked free then got stuck again, and finally, eventually, thank bloody jesus we were out!

The car was caked in mud both inside and out, it took us a good few hours of scrubbing then 5 Namibians another 2 hours of scrubbing to get the worst of it out. We got a few funny looks when we got back to the campsite to say the least!

So that bought Etosha to a close for us, deciding not to try our luck again and head for drier pastures! Next morning we took our mud filled wagon to the deserts of Swakopmund. A good 5hr non stop drive, well we did stop for a bite at the town of Karib, where it took 5 Africans 20 mins to heat up a pre made hot dog, and make the worst toasted sandwich in history! I know I'm a picky chef etc but that was the epitamy of incompitance!! Even the local Aficans were getting annoyed!

Swakopmund was a really hot but nice place, with massive sand dunes right by the sea. The place had grown massivly since Al's last visit twenty odd years ago, and still growing looks like a lot of money going into it for anyone looking to invest somewhere!

We stayed in a basic hostel but were delighted by the luxury of a real bed after a week in the tent with busted sleeping mats! Firstly we had to try sandboarding to see how it compares to the real stuff(snow). Its quite a bit slower and you have to repolish the base of the board after each run which you really have to flat line or you loose speed. Al seemed to prefer it to snowboarding as he didn't call our instructor an "old witch"! Also he managed to stop without going balls first into a snow canon, unlike our previous trips!! We finished off with taking a piece of MDF down the steepest dune available, hitting speeds of 70mph, bloody terrifying but a good kick of adrenalin!

Later we took a little trip to Walvis Bay which is a little further down the coast. For some reason the stench of millions of seals didn't appeal, so we found a nice pub called the Raft. After a few too many and a sample of local culinary delight of 'Bushman Dim sum' :S odd but nice! We headed back stopping only assult some statues!

It was harder than we thought to leave Swakopmund. The hours of jet washing seemed to have knocked Dawns wheels out of kilter. We then had to spend the next 2 hrs getting the wheels rebalanced!

Overall we really liked Namibia apart from the mud, oh and bloody Germans of course!

Well thats all the gory details of the last stretch up to now, tomorrow we face our next challenge of India! Having not a clue how to speak the language, how there train system works or how to ride an elephant.... I'm sure it will be an interesting time. Hopefully the internet will be cheaper there too so I can update a bit more regularly, well hopefully everything will be cheaper so we don't run out of money!!

Cheers folks, Haze and Al/Greg xxx