Estrela's African Land Adventure Journal

Estrela's African Land Adventure Journal

Estrela's African Land Adventure Journal. Day 1. 6/1/08

Knysna, South Africa. June 1, 2008.

We said goodbye to our good ship Estrela (see attached photo of her in our Knysna Quays Marina slip), jammed into our land yacht, a borrowed twenty-two year old Mercedes sedan, and began a two-month tour of southern Africa. We'll drive counter-clockwise through South Africa,

Botswana, Namibia and Lesotho, returning to Knysna around August 1. Then August 4 Estrela gets hauled out for bottom painting, routine maintenance and a new survey.

We had sailed through the infamous Knysna Heads on April 14, after a short but exhilarating passage down the treacherous east coast of SA, riding the Mozambique/Agulhas Current like a (lumpy) magic carpet. It took us three days to get from Richard's Bay, our port of entry, to Port Elizabeth. We sailed right past Durban and East London, as the usually changeable weather held in our favor. Estrela literally surfed into Port Elizabeth in an easterly gale, the 40 plus knots of wind ripping our staysail while I desperately fought to furl the flogging mess. THAT WAS INTENSE! Ten days later, having weathered another gale triple tied in our slip (60 kts recorded by our anemometer), we sailed overnight to Knysna. The nail biting experience of passing through the Heads deserves a whole separate entry. Suffice to say that we made it safely and are the stronger for it.

Enough of the sea for a while, it's time to trek Africa!!!

-- Kyle

Estrela's African Land Adventure Journal. Day 2. 6/2/08

Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. June 2, 2008.

Meet Noel and Grahame Perry (see attached pic), our SA surrogate grandparents and the generous owners of our borrowed car. In Richard's Bay we had met their sailor son John aboard his Indian Ocean-bound catamaran, Stingo II. John gave us his parents' Port Elizabeth (PE) phone number, called to warn them about us, and then extracted our promise we would look them up. "They'll take care of you . . . really,"

he said. John wasn't kidding.

While we Estrelans were waiting out gales in PE, the Perrys took us under their wing. First they led us on a hunt for abalone shells and red-beaked Oystercatcher birds along the wind-sculpted beach by Cape Recife lighthouse. Then after an outdoor lunch at the Sacramento restaurant, named for a wrecked 17th century Portuguese ship whose remains were discovered a few meters away, we all hiked a wild stretch of coast protected by a nature reserve. The next day they rented a comfortable mini-van and took us to Addo Elephant National Park. By Eliza and Abigail's count we saw 90 warthogs, 11 ostriches, 2 cape buffalo, 2 red hartebeests, 1 fiscal shrike (bird), 1 bokmakierie (also bird), 14 kudu (2 in the later stage of courting), 1 vervet monkey, 1 secretary bird, 1 black-headed heron, countless guineafowl and cape wagtail (birds), and 50 African elephants in two major groups. After two days together we were hooked on South African wildlife and habitat and the Perrys were family.

We sailed into Knysna on April 14 and the Perrys stole us away for a short holiday at their second home in Plettenberg Bay. Four days later, after an unforgettable hike on the rocky coast of Robberg Peninsula, a SA National Park, we drove home to Knysna as the temporary custodians of the Perry's 1986 Mercedes 230E sedan. They were about to take over John's car and will sell their old "Merc" when we return it in November.

Are we the lucky sailors or what!

So it was only fitting that we spent the first two nights of our African Land Adventure with Noel and Grahame at their PE home. We had made a few upgrades to the car, including new rear springs and a Thule rack/carrier, and it passed Grahame's inspection. Meanwhile Noel not only plied us with delicious food, but also took over my mending pile and performed miracles with her sewing machine. While I was doing laundry and repacking, Doug went out with Grahame to find those last crucial additions to our car camping rig. Eliza was trying to finish a school paper. Abigail finished her schoolwork early and made lunch for her hard-working companions. It was a very busy day.

-- Kyle and Doug

Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. June 3, 2008.

By 10:30 AM we were all packed (see first picture)

and so with goodbyes to the Perrys, we finally started driving. We drove from PE to Cradock

(N2 to N10), where we stopped for fuel, having passed a typical large outlying settlement of government-built houses (see second picture).

We continued on extremely straight roads (see third picture)

to Hofmeyr, a very small, poor town; to Steynsburg (R390); and then on to Burgersdorp (see fourth picture),

where we got a bit lost and drove in circles for a while (R56 to R391). 488 kms and six hours after setting outh, we drove into Aliwal North, a town on the Orange River, the border between the Eastern Cape and Free State provinces.

This whole drive was spectacular with beautiful views of the rugged, stark Karoo landscape. The Karoo is very, very dry, sort of grassland dotted with little green bushes. There were rolling hills and it all was gorgeous. It's incredible to me that the early Dutch settlers, the Boers, could actually survive in this inhospitable land. I'm in awe of them, for that. While driving along we listened to an audiobook recording of African folk tales, which added to the atmosphere. When we finally arrived in Aliwal North, it was raining, getting dark, and thunder and lightning stormed all around us. I was glad we found a guesthouse instead of camping.

-- Eliza

Day 4. June 4, 2008. Aliwal North, Eastern Cape Province to Royal Natal National Park, KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa.

We had many kilometers to cover today to reach Royal Natal National Park

(RNNP) before the gate closed for the night. So we left Aliwal North in the dark, with just a quick coffee and tea from the electric pot to get us started.

The day was all about vistas. Around every corner and over every rise, there was a new inspiring view. I kept the camera in my lap and took hundreds of pictures right through the window. I won't win any photography awards for technique. But the beauty of the arid landscape was irresistible.

These four pictures are a sampling of what we saw. The last is of a rondeval, a traditional Zulu house, we passed just outside the park entrance.

Day 5. June 5, 2008. Royal Natal National Park, KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa.

We woke today within view of the legendary Amphitheatre of the Royal Natal National Park (see Amphitheatre in background of Pic 4).

Amazingly, we were the only overnight visitors -- except some wildlife that managed to enter over or around the 7' high electrified fence (more on this later). We had the campground to ourselves (see Pic 1 and the tiny blue dot - our tent - in lower center of the green patch in Pic 3).

Heading out for a hike to photograph the Amphitheatre, we ambled past the decrepit remains of what was until the mid 1990's a classic mountain retreat, the Royal Natal National Park Hotel. Noel Perry had spent her teenage years here. Her father and mother ran the hotel in the late 40's and early 50's. Noel recounted to us before we left PE her vivid recollections of the magical four days in 1947 when the King of England, his wife, and daughters Elizabeth and Margaret vacationed at the hotel seeking a respite from the paparazzi who had dogged their long tour of South Africa. Look at the second picture.

In the foreground you can make out a block of four rooms, now roofless. Later dubbed Royal Row, they were extravagantly renovated in anticipation of the royal family's visit. While at RNNP we learned the exciting news that a consortium of investors may soon restore the abandoned hotel, with plans to maintain its rustic mountain charm.

-- Doug

Day 6. June 6, 2008. Royal Natal National Park, KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa.

Big hike day . . . the Tugela River Canyon Trail into the heart of the Amphitheatre, a legendary hiking and technical mountaineering destination. From our lunch and turn-around spot we looked up at the towering escarpment (Pic 1).

Had we continued further to the base of Tugela Falls, the world's fourth highest waterfall, we would have had to ascend a chain ladder up a cliff (Pic 2).

On our descent we caught up to three Zulu women who had spent the day in high meadows gathering reeds to weave traditional baskets (Pic 3).

Back at camp we made plans for a lay-over school, journal writing and laundry day. In Pic 4 we're moving the tent to a new site with more shade and an electricity plug-in point.

-- Doug

Day 7. June 7, 2008. Royal Natal National Park, KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa.

Today a baboon took some food from our camp! I was just leaving the campsite to do the dishes in the camp kitchen when I saw a big baboon appear from behind the car. At first I was just surprised and then I got scared. "Mom?" I said, running back and putting down the dishes.

Mom turned and saw him. "Doug?" she said, and then, "DOUG!!" Dad came running. Eliza, who had been changing in the tent, heard the commotion and came out. Together we all stood and stared in shock. Then we realized what was happening. The baboon was looking through our grocery bags next to the cooler and stealing food. In the first picture, taken just before the baboon came, you can see how everything was laid out.

He grabbed two pieces of bread and two packages of crackers. Mom started yelling and he got a little scared and ran around the hedge to the right of the cooler, still holding onto his stolen food. He jumped onto a stone wall and started to eat. He was big. I'm sure that if he stood on his legs, he would have been as tall as I am. Mom continued yelling things like, "Give me my crackers, you jerk," and, "I want my crackers!" But the baboon paid no attention. Dad was in a fog. He tried to take pictures, but the batteries died. Then he looked for new batteries to put in the camera. But he never got any pictures. Overall . . . useless; he admitted it himself. "Get the baboon horn," Mom called. (Mom said to explain that the "baboon horn" is actually a red plastic horn we use on Estrela to blow farewell to boats that are leaving an anchorage. It hardly makes any noise, but when it does, it sounds like a party favor.) Eliza opened the trunk and looked for the horn, but couldn't find it. I knew where it was, so I grabbed it and tried to make a sound. I couldn't make it work. So I gave it to Eliza, who made a small sound. Then Mom grabbed it from Eliza and made a bigger sound, which still wasn't that big. The baboon just looked at Mom in such a way that said, "Do you really think THAT'S going to scare me?"

Then all of a sudden, he spooked, jumped off the stone wall and scrambled away with the two pieces of bread in his stomach and one of the packs of crackers, half-eaten, in his hands. Then we saw what had scared him. Another baboon was climbing a tree on the other side of the so-called "baboon fence". This one was even bigger than the first. He would have been as tall as Mom! He jumped from a tree outside the fence to a tree inside the fence, swinging over the electrical wire on the top of the 7 foot high fence. First he climbed and then he jumped down the rest of the way and grabbed the crackers. Then Eliza and Mom stuffed everything else into the trunk and Mom and I jumped into the back seat.

We closed the door and waited. Eliza was brave enough to stay outside.

Then Dad called, "He's gone." Mom started to laugh as she got out. I opened the door shakily because I was still really scared and I didn't want to get out. Dad came and hugged me and said it was all right.

A little later Dad went to talk with a park security guard he saw using a sling-shot (in Zulu, a "Katy") to scare away some other baboons. When Dad came back he said that the guard had told him that a baboon will usually ignore women who try to shoo them away. Only an aggressive man can drive them off. So Dad and I spent the rest of the day whittling "baboon spears" and then hardening the tips in the fire (see the second picture).

It was an odd day.

-- Abigail C.

Days 8-10. June 8-10, 2008. Royal Natal National Park, KwaZulu-Natal Province, to Kruger National Park, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa.

We planned to take three days to travel to Kruger National Park from Royal Natal National Park. Before leaving RNNP, we stopped to purchase a few small baskets from local weavers. Remember the picture two days ago of the ladies carrying bundles of reeds from the high meadows?

Pic 1 above shows a reed basket in the making. You can see the distinctive way the weavers bind the reeds. They get the material for the colored strands by unraveling those loosely woven sacks in which onions and oranges are sold.

In anticipation of driving many kilometers on our two-month road trip, I packed school books for the girls to study in the car. What was I thinking??? On this leg we would be traveling through historically important lands in KwaZulu-Natal called the Battlefields, where Boer, English, Xhosa and Zulu clashed at different times in South Africa's turbulent history. I had just read Michener's "The Covenant." Whenever we passed a town or monument, or even a road sign, whose name I recognized from the book, I would find the relevant passage and read aloud to the family, trying to make these places along the roadside come alive: Dingaan's Kraal, Piet Retief's Grave, Blood River Battlesite, and Chrissiemeer. And when I wasn't reading out loud, we listened to music, the Soweto Gospel Choir and Ladysmith Black Mamboza, or to Harry Reasoner narrate a radio broadcast we'd downloaded entitled, "A History of South Africa." How could we even try to understand this complicated, tragic country? As we drove we observed this land of contrasts -- wealth (Pic 2-a polo club, where we had a picnic lunch)

and extreme poverty (Pics 3 & 4);

a huge coal-fired power plant in the middle of fertile grazing land; and highly productive, beautifully kept, lushly irrigated fruit farms across from the arid wilderness of Kruger National

Park (Pic 5).

And this is just one corner of South Africa!

--Kyle