Week 14: South African Road Trip- “Cape Town to Durban”

Beaded Leaves

Aloe along the Garden Route

Cris and I made one last stop in Cape Town before heading out on the Garden Route to Camp’s Bay where we met up with John, my bead artist. I had commissioned him to make leaves out of beads and wire (see picture). The Garden Route is the stretch of coast in southeastern South Africa that begins in Heidelberg and ends at the Storms River. We made a quick-ish (service is rarely that quick in SA) in Swellendam for a quiche, another at the aloe factory, and took a longer break in Mossel Bay. Mossel Bay has a museum and a postal tree. The postal tree actually still functions as an official post office- sailors used to leave their mail in the tree as an informal way to communicate with their loved ones. The museum has a table with all of the plants you can find on the garden route. 

Museum's display of
Garden Route Plants

Famous "Mail Tree"

After our Mossel Bay stop, we continued to drive to Knysna (pronounced Nice-z-Nah). My friend Niki’s parents live there and they offered to host us for the night. We arrived in the afternoon and Niki’s mom took us down to an island in the bay so Cris could go for a run. She was able to enjoy a run and a sunset. Niki’s mom also made a wonderful dinner. Knysna seems to be an upper class Afrikaan’s town hosting tourists and summer homes.

We got up early the next morning so we could get on the road. Our plan for the road trip was to drive and do some sort of activity each day. We drove to an elephant sanctuary, but decided we had both ridden elephants before and so we left and found Storms River Mouth. There were two short hikes we decided to take. The first was across the suspension bridge and up to the viewpoint (or point of view, as Cris called it). The second was to a waterfall along the Otter Trail. The Otter Trail is 42.5 km long and people usually hike it in 4.5 days. We hiked out to the Waterfall, which is about 3 km along the coast. Actually, this was my favorite hike in South Africa. One portion of the hike was through these huge rocks- it reminded me of rock climbing (chimneys) because I could use balance and pressure to get through the maze of rocks. I loved it. At the “end” was the waterfall.  

The suspension bridge hike

At the Waterfall

My favorite section

We left Storms River and drove the rest of the way to Port Elizabeth (PE). The city was hosting Iron Man, so the hotels and roads were packed with people. We met up with Cris’ colleague, Donovan, for dinner at the Casino area (South Africa loves their malls and casinos). He was participating in the Iron Man competition.

On Saturday we got up and tried to do a morning hike in PE, but due to lack of addresses, Iron Man street closures, and overall confusing information, we never found the trailhead, so we decided to just drive out of town. We made it to Port Alfred and once again looked for a trailhead without luck. I called a travel activity organization and they offered to rent us a canoe to take out onto the inlet. We got to the rental place, and slowly but surely, the guy working there was able to fill out the paperwork and help us get the canoe in the water (I believe he was extremely stoned and we were the only customers for the day). We canoed around the inlet to the marina. 

Notice the mansion in the back...

Now, Port Alfred is an example of the drastic difference in income level in SA. We had just driven out of the city and into farmland…to this town with mansions on the waterfront. We joked about spotting humans (evidently, we were there in the off season) and which house we would claim if we were in Venezuela (Hugo Chavez said his people if they found unclaimed property, they could move into the house).

After our time on the water, we got back into the car to drive to East London. I booked the room on a website- it has good overall reviews and claimed to be 4-Stars. We arrived and the stench caught me off guard at first, but we had been driving all day so we moved into the room. The website said there were panoramic views of the ocean- we saw a dirty pool. There was a faucet sticking out of the wall by one of the beds. It was weird and gross…we changed and went to dinner. Cris had a colleague living in East London who was meeting friends at a restaurant on the water called Bora Bora. The group was there to celebrate a wedding, but invited us to join their evening.  

Why is this faucet by the bed???

We had an interesting conversation about Lil Wayne, art, leadership, and civic responsibility.  I said my students find Lil Wayne to be a prolific lyricist, however, the lyrics seemed to lack artistic expression to me- they were more about being provocative. One of the women disagreed and said he was an artist and an inspiration. I mentioned that by being famous, he has the power others don’t have and I am saddened that he uses it to be disrespectful towards women and the civil rights movement (I was referring to his lyrics about beating a woman like Emmett Till). Emmett Till was a 14-year-old African American who was killed in Mississippi in 1955 for making what was deemed as inappropriate interest in a white woman. He was taken from his uncle’s home, beaten, dragged, and had a cotton gin tied to his body with barbed wire to sink his body in the river. His body was found days later and his mother made the decision to have an open casket and publish pictures of what they had done to her son in the newspapers and magazines. This event was horrific, but also put a face to the civil rights movement. I related the Emmett Till story to Hector Pieterson’s death in Soweto in 1976. He was a 13-year-old boy who was shot by the police when the students were marching for their education. She said Lil Wayne inspired this conversation and mini-history lesson so maybe that was his intention. I doubt it, but there is some truth to that, it is just a shame that he has to “inspire” conversations about history by being disrespectful to the story rather than promote the ideals of the movement.  

The ladies in East London

Sunday was our longest drive and we were excited to get out of the room in East London. We drove up the Wild Coast through Umtata to Durban. The roads were under construction in places and we had to watch out for random people, chickens, cows, and potholes. And as any good co-pilot would do, I  spent a significant amount of time calling to make appointments for massages in Durban...I did finally find a place open until 5:30 (we expected to arrive about 4pm). Also, I worked on learning the lyrics to a Brazilian song called, “O Que E o Amor” by Maria Rita (a famous Brazilian singer- her mother was also famous and passed away quite some time ago), The countryside was beautiful and we went through the hillside villages with brightly colored houses.

 

Construction=Streetside Mall

After dinner, I took Cris to the airport and returned to my room next to the ocean- so peaceful I had a hard time motivating myself to get to Richard’s Bay where I was meeting my contacts from the University of Zululand…but I made it. Actually, I really enjoyed the more humid, tropical weather and being surround with the lush green trees as I drove out of Durban. 

Good Morning Dubra

Cris makes collages of trips...