Holiday in SA (re-edited the morning after the night before...)

After our dodgy deal in the black market in Bulawayo we had the money to leave the country. Upon dissolving into the crowd and slipping into the bus station I queued for the bus out of Zimbabwe. In the queue I met a delightful old granny telling me about her day and the amount of times she had to queue for this ticket. She asked where I was going and when I said we were going to catch the cheap bus out of town, "No!" she said, "Not that bus". The rest of the queue overheard her exclamation and promptly dived in telling me to avoid the cheap bus as that one is always stripped at the border of SA as the bus is full of smugglers. After being cornered by a pack of kind hearted Zimbabweans, full of honest advice, I decided to buy the expensive tickets and skip the torment of being searched at the SA border. The border between Zimbabwe and South Africa is much much more strict that other borders with a lot more checks and distrust, but the plus side of this is you get very little hassle from the touts. The difference is also marked when crossing the border, the change is massively significant, all of a sudden you are in the western world, with streets full of electric lights and cars and road signs and smooth roads and shops. We eventually arrived in Pretoria at 4am. Now South Africa is not known for its safety record, so upon arriving in the middle of the night we were a little worried. Luckily we managed to spot a taxi very quickly and after discovering our first option of camp was closed, went to another camp within the city where we moved to the top 10 most popular people on camp by stamping around the camp site in the wee hours putting our tent up. Again we had not slept for days and passed out in an instant, so sod'em. "We'd Made it!", "We'd done it!", it was this morning when we had realised we had done it. It suddenly hit us we had crossed half of Africa using local minibuses (matatus, dala dalas, matolas, tutus etc), ferries(2), trains (2), planes (1) and automobiles (1). We were two weeks early but had finished. It was a strange feeling, we had come such a long way and had such fun, we could not believe it was over. We wanted to go back, re-experience places, talked about ways we could have done it easier or faster or cheaper. The important thing was though we were two weeks early...so for a treat after the public transport...was to hire a car and be posh travellers and see parts of SA we had not been to before. We decided to make a circular route from Pretoria, to Zululand, down to Durban and then throught the Drakensburg back to Johannesburg and home. Our first destination is Sodwana Bay on the extreme north coast very near Mozambique. The drive was too far, so we stopped on the Piet Retief a very dull town. We found a place to stay, in a spooky house run buy a spooky grey cobwebbed woman. The house was dark, and full of old photos of ancestors. Jo and I argued who was going to risk their soul talking to her next. With great relief we escaped early the next morning (Jo writes, 'She was actually a very nice helpful lady, he's got a vivid imagination'.). We made a dash for the coast, it had the be the hottest day in SA so far (38C), and as Jo and I were so cheap we had not ordered aircon for the car and hence suffered. We found the place relatively easily, and after some confusion with the park officials found a camp site, albeit in the middle of an ant city (which found their way into the car and stayed for the next 2 weeks), and the local dive club. Sodwana Bay is one of the best dive sites in the world which was why we were there and we did a couple of magnificent dives. Jo got to see her first wild turtle and we had fun in some wonderful caves and saw some stunning nudibranchs, groovy colourful little sea slugs. The next day we got up as early as possible to avoid the mid morning heat and drove south down the coast to Durban. We had planned to stop off at a couple of places but the places we looked for were either non-existant or had no accomodation. We ended up giving up on the north coast and instead headed straight into Durban. We found a great backpackers near Brighton beach in south Durban. The owner was a complete surfer dude, and apparently the surf here was "lekker", to be honest the malls were "lekker", the area was "lekker", we were "lekker", I think his vocabulary consisted of "lekker" and "dude". We spent a great few days in Durban, enjoying the surf, the malls and bars. Durban was not all sun sun sun. One day we headed to Brighton beach which lived up to its name and pee'ed it down all night. Jo and I took the only sensible course of action open to us and hid in a bar. The rain did not let up and by the end of the night ended up having a shandy too many, yet the rain had not let up so we walked the last few miles in a tropical storm, dove in the pool (well the clothes were soaked any way) and continued the revelry with more booze and less clothes. We were basically indulging our western needs, restaurants, bars, shopping and bars....we had earned it. For the second part of our holiday we drove into the Drakensberg mountains. The Drakensberg mountains are absolutely stunning. The lowlands are gently rolling hills and then as you approach Lesotho the mountains tear out of the ground vertical to 3000ft. Magnificent. On a clear day you can see the tops but most days the tops are lost in mist. We spent a few days in the Southern Drakensberg enoying a private golf course and walks. Actually the golf took up most of the time as we were so pants it took us most of the day to get around a nine hole course. The central Drakensberg at the base of Champagne Castle is exceptional walking country and we spent the next few days hiking into the mountains searching out waterfalls and lost trails, generally enjoying the magnificent scenery. We also took the time to see the world famous Drakensburg Boys Choir. The show was held in the foothills of the central Drakensburg, where we were treated to some wonderful Mozart and a few fun Movie songs. The second half consisted of a medlee of traditional African folk songs and dances. Another good day out was to see the San(i) cave paintings in the northern Drakensburg. Unfortunately on the way we hit a little birdy with a mighty thump with the car. Jo was upset most of the way,not the best start to our day. The paintings were worth the climb in the midday heat. Painted on the side of a cliff overlooking the lowlands by the Drakensburg, unchanged in a thousand years. The paintings are very clear and quite detailed showing hunting and other cultural events. I like to imagine the painters, looking over the lands seeing the same sight as we see today looking for food and enjoying the sun. I like to think of him as Terry...ged'it? Sani-Terry....oh well it tickled me pink at the time. Finally, we made the final trek to Jo'burg. One of the most dangerous cities in the world and Jo and I stroll through, lost and no idea where we were going to go. Cut a long story short, we got lost, we (Dave) worried and then we found a safe place to stay. This final installment may seem rushed but to us the journey was complete the time we arrived in Pretoria, we had achieved what we had set out to do, the fact we arrived early and spent a couple of weeks on "holiday" is outside the scope of our travels, and seems more a private indulgence, a treat/bonus for success. So the first part of the journey is complete and now we are excited for the next part of our travels. Next stop, Philadelphia, Guatemala, Honduras and Belize.