The Great Escapade

And so to Africa -the fourth and final continent of The Great Escapade.

We landed in Jo'burg on 21 February and were met at the airport by my parents and Auntie Janet which was really nice after 9 months away from home. After all the airports we have been to it was lovely to see some friendly faces. We stayed with my Auntie Cynthia and Uncle Peter who have lived in SA for over four decades and managed to see some of the rest of the family and also to get out and about near Jo'burg to see some of the sights.

We visited Pretoria, the capital, to gaze at the beautiful parliament building and stunning gardens - looking almost Italian in style, and went on to learn about the Great Trek at the Voortrekker Monument - and inspiring monument to celebrate the trek that the Boers went on to gain more freedom for themselves after the British arrival in the Cape.

Soweto was also somewhere that we wanted to see so we took a day trip into the township - with an interesting diversion through central Jo'burg - not somewhere we would probably have gone by ourselves. The safety of central Jo'burg is apparently improving, although I am not sure how relaxing it would be to stroll about the centre. It may be improving but it doesn't sound too great still. In Soweto we saw both ends of the scale in terms of lifestyle - from the rich houses which look like any white suberb, to the shanty towns full of corrugated iron houses. The thing that stood out to me was the cleanliness of the areas. All around the corrugated iron shacks was well swept and excessively tidy. There was also barbed wire around a lot of the properties so even though they have little they want to protect what they do have. The very interesting Hector Pietersen museum is well worth a few hours of anyone's time. It is dedicated to the first student killed in the Soweto uprising of 1976 - he was shot by police while taking part in a student protest about learning Afrikaans in school. He was 13. It is a very moving and inspirational place about the struggle against apartheid from all sections of black society.

Now for the cool animals - we hired a car for the next 6 weeks of travel about South Africa and our first destination was the Kruger Park. On the way there from Jo'burg we stopped in the Blyde River Canyon which has some interesting rock formations and stunning vistas across the canyon itself and the low veld in the distance.

We had 5 nights in the Kruger which was just about enough, but we could probably have spent more as we just had the best time there. We stayed in 3 different rest camps and travelled from the centre of the park down to the south which gave us a good look at the different areas and habitats. I think we were pretty lucky with what we saw and we managed to mix up our time with a couple of organised game drives, a superb walk through the bush and a lot of doing-it-ourselves game driving. We saw lions 3 times - the best of these was on the way to our bush walk when we passed a dead wildebeest disturbing a lioness having brekkie. Two more lionesses decided to stroll over to investigate, coming within a couple of metres of our vehicle. Just hearing their breathing and staring into their big yellow eyes was so awesome. One lay down in front of the jeep as if posing for photos! We also saw hyennas in 4 packs of 4 very close up, giraffes, elephants, hippos, crocs, buffalo, wildebeest, antelopes galore, white rhino, and some great bird life including vultures, ostriches, eagles and many more. At one waterhole there were a group of about 20 elephants taking their daily bath - one large elephant totally submerged himself in the water so that only the tip of his trunk was visible as a snorkel! A superb few days that will be hard to beat elsewhere.

After only 2 days of having our car we got a flat tyre - inconveniently enough in the middle of the Kruger. We had to change the tyre in the most densely populated lion area of the park - which was a little hair-raising but funny to look back on. Managed to get a nice SA couple to stop and look out for lions so we could change the tyre in safety!!

The tyre safely fixed, and we were off to Swaziland for a few days. Swaziland is one of only 2 kingdoms remaining in southern Africa (the other being Lesotho). The King is very popular in Swaziland as the royal family were instrumental in fighting for the independence of the Swazis from a variety of threats - Zulus, Boers, Brits etc. The present King seems to be doing an OK job, but his father Sobhuza II is still revered in society. He had 120 wives and well over 200 children!! He also was the longest reigning monach of any country and oversaw the handover from the British to regain Swaziland's independence.

Swaziland is tiny and very beautiful country with a lot of mountainous scenery, some good game parks and interesting little villages and markets. We had a couple of days in a very sweet (but very basic) A-frame hut in the Malalotja Nature Reserve in the north-west of the country. The surrounding countryside was spectacular, great for hiking and just totally deserted. Or little A-frame felt like being in the middle of absolutely nowhere. And the pasta by candlelight (there was no electricity) looking out on a sunset with a herd of blesbok chewing the cud just outside was pretty romantic (until we discovered the mice inside our hut!!).

From here we bypassed Mbabane (the capital) and went east to the Royal Valley (Ezulwini) where the Royal Family live. There is a lovely national park there called Mlilwane with a good little hostel affording superb views of the scenery from the pool and our little rodavel. After some craft shopping, pottering in a market or two and a bit of lazing by the pool we ran out of energy for all the walking we were going to do, so just sat back and enjoyed some local cuisine - impala stew - very cute animals, but oh so tasty!

Then the highlight for me was a day visit to the Mkhana Game Reserve which is famous for its black and white rhinos, amongst other things. The reserve is a lot more rustic than the Kruger and felt like a real safari even though the park is a lot smaller. The entrance is just by a car junk yard and could be easily missed. The game driving itself was great fun - even without the game. Just riding on the back of a big 4x4 through the bush was hilarious fun. But fortunately we saw lots of cool animals too. We started with a big herd of elephants who surrounded our jeep and one who was getting a little aggressive did a real Tarzan call in order to get rid of us. I thought he was going to charge, but he relaxed a bit as we reversed pretty swiftly.

Lots of girraffe, some hippos, crocs, sable, eland, zebras, and then the real highlights of the white and black rhino. We got to within touching distance of 2 groups of white rhino and a solitary black rhino. The black rhino are endangered and we were very lucky to see one, even in this park. Wonderful creatures who look like their skin is just too big for their bodies so that it sags around them. Poaching of rhinos in Swaziland had pretty much been stopped due to the policies of the parks and the King. But poaching is still prevelant in other southern African countries including Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia and Botswana.

Swaziland was well worth a visit - you don't need to spend a long time there to get a feel for the place. It seemed friendly to us and the racial tensions which are still painfully obvious in South Africa do not seem as obvious in Swaziland. It is poorer than SA and the villages look a little more dilapidated than in SA. Swaziland has one of the world's worst HIV infection rates at about 35% of the population. The life expectancy is just 33 !!!! But the country does seem to be trying to do something to stem the tide. There is a huge amount of advertising about HIV and AIDS there (we noticed it in Swaziland far more than we have in SA). The problem is the culture is not very condusive to stopping the spread of HIV. Men can have as many wives as they can afford. If a women's husband dies then she is inherited by her husband's brother. Many of the men work away from home for many weeks/months and use prostitutes while they are away. Swaziland has a big struggle ahead just to keep itself level really. It is not clear which way it will go at all. The King has just declared that the people of Swaziland are not ready for democracy and the land ownership and business laws are archaic and need reforming so another country to watch over the next few years.

Oz seems a dim and distant memory now - but PCs are hard to come by here so a little late on the update for Australia (we are nearly 4 weeks into our Africa bit now).

We left Kiwi land for a few days fling in the Red Centre as neither of us had visited that part of Oz before. I was having second thoughts about going here as was Ayers Rock really going to be that interesting? I mean it is just a red rock in a red desert isn't it? Well - sort of, but it was all far more impressive and enjoyable than I had imagined.

We stepped off the plane into the oven of the outback, but the heat was pleasant as the humidity was low. The unpleasant aspect was the vast numbers of little flies that liked to congregate around any exposed skin, including the eyeballs, nostrils, ears and mouth which was pretty grim at times, but you sort of got used to it after a while.

We decided to walk around Uluru due to the cultural requests of the Aborigine people. The walk around took about 3 hours and has to be done early to avoid the heat. It is a spectacular walk and involves wlking into a couple of gorged and waterholes, close ups to the surface of the rock - which is very different from the photo portrayals - much more ridged and corrugated, and even some indiginous cave paintings. We were surprised at how many people chose to walk up the rock (mostly the Japanese tourists) given the clear signs of the cultural wishes of the local people that you do not walk on the rock. When we arrived to walk round, the rock was already people with a steady stream of walkers scaling it.

The other interesting sight nearby is The Olgas - another red rock formation - but this tiem consisting of 36 individual rocks sticking out of the desert. The Aborigines have a legend which says that these heads are those of their deities buried so that only their heads stick out of the ground. It is possible to walk around these "heads" and they are every bit as wonderful as Uluru itself. I have no idea why this sight is not publicised as well as Uluru as it is well worth supending some time here.

After 3 days of soaring heat, we pootled back to Sydney to see friends and explore a little (very little) up the east coast. It was great to catch up with Alicja (who I worked with in London), her husband Iain and their son William who was very entertaining. We also managed to fit in the obligatory Circular Quay to Manly ferry trip, Woolloomaloo, Manly, the centre etc.

We then descended upon the Stobos who gave us some cracking hospitality as we spent some time playing in the big waves on the Northern Beaches and learning to body surf which was just the best fun.

Nick and I hired a car for a few days and popped up to Hunter Valley to try some of the Aussie wines. We stayed in a lovely B&B (thanks to Kate for a great rec), had a delicious dinner and stopped at various vineyards for a taste. Semillon and Verdelho is what the area is known for, and although the Verdelho proved a hit with me, the Semillons just we not great at all. However, we persisted and found a few good reds as well. From the Hunter Valley we sped up north a little way to Forster where we stayed overnight and looked around the Booti Booti national park and played int he waves once again on the beaches there. Totally deserted beaches, very unspoilt and very beautiful - only a few hours from Sydney.

Then back to Sydney for the final fling before departing Oz - some good meals out and some more beaches, then off for the next leg of our trip - Africa. Less than 2 months to go now - so we are making the very most of every moment remaining.