David's adventures: Part II

After a number of rich experiences (including several typical David misadventures), I moved on from the Wild Coast, eager to arrive in Durban, a major milestone I had been anticipating since beginning this trip (and in another sense, since I first began to learn about South Africa). As the 3rd largest city in South Africa, I hadn’t seen anything remotely like Durban since I left Cape Town, and yet Cape Town is nothing like this city. Durban bustles, with Indian influences rubbing shoulders with Zulu culture and Xhosa influences, all on top of crumbling British colonial architecture lined with palm trees and creeping vines. The Golden Mile Beachfront and Sun Coast Casino are kitsch as hell, like a theme park version of Miami Beach’s Art Deco style. I was told crocodiles live in the river that cuts through the city, and to avoid Mahatma Gandhi Road at all times- especially after dark. I went on a tour of the city’s sprawling Berea market- a vast accumulation of market spaces winding under, above, within, beside, and between the tracks and highway overpasses of the Berea transport interchange. This was a place where you could buy Indian spices by the kilo, eat cooked meat off a cow’s face, buy bags of muti(traditional medicines), marvel at dried animal carcasses and skulls, buy pirated DVDs of children’s shows, bushels of dried herbs (imphepho) to burn in ceremonies, and just about anything else one could want. It was sunny and beautiful at the beach on Saturday (and I watched a bunch of fully dressed Zulu women roll around in the surf, it must have been a religious thing), the aquarium was stocked with ridiculous looking fish, morays, and ferocious crabs (Japanese Spider Crab, anyone?), and the food, Indian and otherwise, was damn good. I can’t wait to go back.

Herb/Muti Market, Durban (Sourced from internet)

Totally convincing smile as I prepare to descend a 25m chain ladder
off a sheer cliff face while wearing size 14 US hiking boots
that are too big for me to consistently fit my feet onto each ladder rung.

I left Durban after a week and headed to Pietermaritzburg, where I took a typically crowded minibus taxi to a town called Underberg, not far from the Drakensberg Mountains and the Sani Pass. From here I took a 4x4 trip up the Sani Pass into Lesotho, the highest country in the world, and also one of the poorest. This trip was by turns beautiful, surprising, and humbling. Also, the hike we undertook to Hodgson’s Peak South (AKA the Giant’s Cup), at an elevation of over 3,200 meters, was my first experience in high-altitude hiking. The highlands of Lesotho and the Drakensberg put the Appalachian to shame. I spent the next few days in the Berg as well, gradually heading north towards the Amphitheatre, stopping to hike and see San rock art, beautifully preserved for as many as 5,000 years. From a backpackers in the Northern Drakensberg we hiked along the top of the Ampitheatre and visited the top of Tugela falls, the 2nd highest waterfall in the world. We also descended down a sheer cliff face on a series of ladders that were over 100 feet long, one of the tensest experiences of my life. I also visited Lesotho again, this time the northeast of the country, and spent a day exploring Royal Natal Park.

Visiting a village in Eastern Lesotho, near the Sani Pass

From the Drakensberg, it was only a short jaunt to Johannesburg, the big city at the end of my journey. Johannesburg has reputation in spades, more so than any other African city I can name. It took a few days, but once I got used to Jozi and got over my fears, I was seeing silver linings all over and feeling the vibe that infuses this city. If Durban makes Cape Town look like a European outpost, Joburg makes Cape Town look like a playground.  After a night or two my traveling mate and I decided to relocate from the staid northern suburbs to the heart of dangerous, deadly, downtown Jozi; we ended up in a hilariously sketchy hostel in Braamfontein, an emerging area within Joburg’s CBD. While in Joburg I revisited the Apartheid Museum and Constitution Hill, and found even more to savor and discover in these rich historical sites. I took a daytrip to Pretoria and discovered the inspirational Freedom Park museum complex, and then trekked up the largest hill in town to visit the imposing and intimidating Voortrekker Monument. My other favorite experiences in Joburg included a visit to the Origins Centre museum at Wits University, and an adventure into the depths of Johannesburg’s massive Park Station as my traveling companion sought to find a guy about a minibus taxi to Zimbabwe. Ever get that uneasy sense that you’re being looked at? You should try visiting the Johannesburg minibus taxi ranks (sarcasm).

A view of Johannesburg, City of Gold, from Carlton Centre.

The end of my trip came surprisingly fast. I was able to find a dirt-cheap rate for a flight back to Cape Town, and booked it only 1 day in advance. Like that, I had my ticket “home”. I had entertained ideas about traveling beyond South Africa to Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana or Namibia, but my visa problems wouldn’t allow this. And the fact of the matter is, that although I had taken over five weeks to make this journey, there were still many places I passed up on visiting, entire areas I had not yet been able to explore within South Africa, and that a trip out to South Africa’s neighboring countries would require time, resources, and money that I simply didn’t have to do the right way. And so, my trip came to an end. It amazed me how it only took a two-hour plan ride to return me to the place I had spent five weeks traveling from. I returned to a Cape Town that was very differently from the one I had left, not just because of the passing of seasons and the changing of people, but because of how I myself had changed, and how my perceptions had changed.

Cape Town has been my home for the past two and a half weeks, and it will be my home until I return to the states, possibly in as few as ten or so days. It seems strange that such a long journey is coming to an end now. This trip, my entire experience in South Africa has completely and thoroughly trumped and tricked my expectations at all stages. This is what the future holds in spades, and I look forward to it excitedly.