Babes (and Dudes) in Backpackerland

Leaving Andrea and Adam, we caught a ride with the bride and groom to Kimberley, with another man in the front seat so Rachel, the bride and I sat in the back seat of the small car, us holding our luggage and she holding wedding presents on our laps. Our train wasn't scheduled to depart until later that night, so we walked to The Big Hole. No surprises here--it is a very big hole, the largest open pit diamond mine in the world. We went through the museum, which did an ok job of telling the story of how the discovery of diamonds in 1867 helped shape South Africa's history. Eventually the English imperialist Cecil Rhodes won out in the struggle to control the diamond mines.

We didn't have the best feeling waiting at the Kimberley train station, after hearing so many stories about crime in South Africa, and with the circumstances being similar to the night in Palenque (Mexico) when we had to sit on the floor for a long time at night in an overcrowded station, and then our camera ended up being stolen on the ride. But, while the train ride certainly wasn't the most comfortable, fortunately that's where the similarities to our Palenque experience ended. We'd booked third class tickets (the first class was full), and the waiting area was packed with families: kids first playing/sliding across, and then sleeping on blankets spread out on the floor. After about an hour's delay we finally boarded the train, uncomfortably trying to sleep on top of our big packs in order to decrease the possibilities of having something stolen. When we tried to squeeze ourselves into the seat a man said it was no problem to put the bags on the luggage racks, and he was probably right: it seemed to be what everyone else did, and, with babies and kids all around us, the family atmosphere continued for the entire trip. Creeping along the tracks through the barren Karoo desert, the train was extremely cold at night and then very hot during the day. The trip was scheduled to take 18 hours; fortunately we were able to get off before Cape Town and catch a commuter train to our destination, Stellenbosch, arriving there about 5pm.

From Stellenbosch until Durban (in between staying with Servas hosts and Manyeding village), we were a part of the "backpacker scene" (hostels, as well as the individuals carrying the backpacks, are called "Backpackers" in South Africa). Although some of the Backpackers made us feel a little older, for the most part they were well set up for budget travel: more amenities like kitchens, swimming pools, and bars than we were used to, as well as being nicer overall than Egypt and Ghana's budget offerings, and of course more social.

Stellenbosch is the second oldest town in South Africa, in the heart of the wine region. There is a university but the term had just ended and students gone home, so the town felt quiet and relaxed. After settling in to the "Stumble Inn," we sat around their backyard fire pit, went out to a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant, and were happy to catch up on some sleep. The next day we took a wine tour: 4 vineyards with 5 tastings at each, in addition to one cheese tasting and lunch. A beautiful sunny day, it was a fun tour--we learned a little about wine and enjoyed hanging out with everyone on the tour.

Trying to rest and prepare dinner back at the backpackers, we were a little annoyed by loud music and voices. While we were eating we were glad to talk with Betty and Carla, professors from a small college in Nebraska (whose students we had been annoyed at earlier) who were leading a semester in Africa for 15 students. The students read several books, traveled together on public transport through multiple countries, and did a one week apprenticeship in Malawi. It was really inspiring to talk with them, one of those conversations that happened at the perfect time to lift our spirits. Betty actually has a book coming out in Feb. about her experiences called "Africa on Six Wheels: A Semester on Safari" (BettyLevitov, check out www.doane.edu for more info).

Leaving Stellenbosch, we boarded the hop on/hop off Baz Bus for the first time. South Africa has pretty terrible public transport (probably the worst we've seen actually, maybe rivalled by Egypt), so although the Baz Bus was expensive and had some restrictions on what days we could travel (and was sometimes late etc.), the fact that it not only got us from place to place, but also took us door to door to the Backpackers was a definite plus. It was also a nice way to socialize with people, and to see them again during different legs of our trip. On this day we spent the entire day on the bus, made a little more tolerable by watching "Shrek" and the scenery of the Western Cape coast: first rolling farmland and then beautiful coastline. Around 8pm we finally arrived at our destination, Hikers Haven in Nature's Valley.

Hiker's Haven is a converted vacation home, and with the owners' old books and decorations around it still had that feel--a very nice place. Nature'sValley is a small community (no bank but one all purpose grocery/restaurant/pub) in Tsitsikama National Park, a gorgeous location.The next day we went for a hike with an English and a German woman. The variety of scenery was incredible: we started along the coast, first on sand and then on jagged black rocks, then climbed up through the trees to the mouth of Salt River. From there we ascended again until we reached an open meadow plateau, and finally descended into the valley, following a stream through rain forest. Rachel (barely) overcame her fear of snakes to trail blaze off the path to the road, where we hitched a ride back to town to get out of the rain. As we were making dinner and planning an early bedtime, we got a call from the pub from the people who drove us back to town: Kathy, originally from Minnesota, and her husband Henny, an Afrikaaner. We had a very interesting conversation with them on race (more on that in an upcoming blog).

The next day we walked a little more along the beach, before catching the Baz Bus that evening and making a required stop in Port Elizabeth. Crossing into the Eastern Cape, we moved from the tourism-designated Garden Route to the Wild Coast, and also into the former Ciskei (one of the segregated "Homelands" for Blacks). Back on the road next morning, we arrived around midday at Buccaneers Backpackers in Cintsa, dubbed by the travel guide as the best in South Africa. As the clouds cleared and the sun came out, we tried our luck with a free canoe on a shallow lagoon, before participating in the daily "free activity" and more importantly, the free boxed wine that accompanied it. After a little rag-tag ping-pong and a lot of boxed wine, I was ready to call it a night (at 6:30) but Rachel was up for more socializing and a game of "Killer Pool" (billiards where everyone takes turns).

Buccaneers was really well set up: what started with a grassy hillside back in the '80s now has trees everywhere, with the main building on the hill and accomodations stretching down to the pool and the beach. We had bunk beads in the dorm with a fantastic view over the water. The next day of lounging on the beach unfortunately didn't prepare me for that day's activity, where instead of the wine doing me in, this time it was the sumo wrestling competition that left me with what seems to be a bruised rib muscle that is gradually healing (let the record show that I did win the match). After dinner we hung out a little, and I was only barely able to outlast Rachel, staying up to the late hour of about 10:30.

The next day we enjoyed a little more time by the pool before getting on the Baz Bus around noon for the long ride to Durban. They usually have a trailer for the big backpacks, but today it was broken so for a stretch of the ride we had to cram our packs into the aisle of the bus, which feels ok when taking the local minibuses (like from Kimberley to Kuruman), but not when we're paying what we are for Baz. Arriving in Durban at 11:30 p.m., our Servas host Alec picked us up, and Tracey had dinner waiting for us. Back with the adult crowd, we stayed up talking until around 2 a.m.--later than any night during our adventures in Backpackerland!