Lesotho, One Year Later

Last year, during our stay in the Drakensberg, we made a day trip to the Kingdom of Lesotho.  We had been without a camera for a few weeks due our canoe accident on the Wild Coast, but an Irishwoman named Sarah offered to email us all the pictures she took.  After a few months passed, I just figured she lost our address, but I woke up this morning to a number of emails with her Lesotho pictures attached.  Without further comment, here's Lesotho, one year later.

Jeff's Post-Trip Rankings

Before we left, I put together a list of the places and things to which I was looking most forward.  Here's how reality stacked up against expectations.

Countries - Surprisingly, all five countries from the pre-trip ranking remain in the post-trip one; only the order is different.

1. New Zealand - Previous: 1.  Should be at the top of the list for anyone who loves the outdoors.

2. Chile - Previous: 3.  If you had asked me a few years ago about Chile, I couldn't have told you much about it besides that it is very long.  After doing more research prior to the trip, my expectations were pretty high, and Chile managed to exceed them.  Another must-visit for outdoor enthusiasts.

3. South Africa - Previous: 4.  Essentially tied with Chile.

4. France - Previous: 2.  Our initial plan was to tour the country, but a few months into the trip we decided to rent an apartment in Paris for a month instead.  Because we spent nearly the entire time in one city, I nearly left France off this list, but I figured the few days in Normandy justifies its inclusion.

5. Vietnam - Previous: 5.  We didn't do as much as we wanted to in Vietnam because we were both tired from our bouts with dengue fever, skipping over the central part of the country and the northern highlands.  We'll have to go back.

Cities

1. Paris - Previous: 1.  Renting an apartment here for a month was absolutely the right decision.  The traditional sights are great, but getting to know the neighborhoods and exploring were even better.  I could live here.
2. Cape Town - Previous: Unranked.  In the pre-trip rankings, I only had Cape Town under "natural attractions" but it deserves to be here instead.  It fights with Vancouver for the title of most beautiful city I've seen.
3. Hanoi - Previous: 3.  Liked it so much that I wrote two separate entries (here and here).  I'm craving some bún bò right now.

4. Rome - Previous: Unranked.  I could have definitely have used more time in Rome.  It seems like most tourists rank Rome below other Italian cities, but I loved its character.
5. Seville - Previous: Unranked.  Relaxed city with a great vibe.  The tapas scene was a little overrated, though.

Dropped out:
Cusco - Previous: 2.  The city I wanted to love but didn't.
Split/Dubrovnik - Previous: 4.  Incredibly beautiful cities, but their souls have been 'touristed' away.  I have moved them to the man-made attractions list.
Barcelona - Previous: 5.   I think this was a case of having too high expectations.  Many people we've talked to have raved about Barcelona, but I just wasn't blown away.  Perhaps it's one of those cities where you need to stay a while to appreciate.

Attractions: Man-made Division

1. Petra, Jordan - Previous: 1.  The history, architecture and surroundings are combine for an overwhelming experience.

2. Angkor, Cambodia - Previous: Unranked.  We had not initially planned on visiting Cambodia, but I am really glad we did.  The size of this site is astounding, and there's a great mix of temples that have been restored and those that have been left to nature and are great to explore.
3. Easter Island, Chile - Previous: 3.  You might think that once you've seen one "Easter Island Head" you've seen them all, but there's something just eerily captivating about this place.  Sure, this small island is naturally beautiful, but it's the scattered statues and the history that really make this place interesting.  Ranu Raraku, the quarry where dozens of statues have been left in various stages of completion or have been abandoned in transit, is the highlight.

4. Split/Dubrovnik - Previous: Unranked.  Beautiful walled cities.
5. Mont Saint-Michel - Previous: 4.  Although the town is the typical Euro-kitsch tourist trap, Mont Saint-Michel is still an incredible site.  The mountain-island-abbey, rising up from the tidal flats, doesn't even look real as you approach it in your car.  The audio tour is very well done.

Dropped out:
Machu Picchu - Previous: 2.  Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the trip.  I still don't even feel like rehashing our day there.  Bad weather, bad crowds, let's just forget about it.
Củ Chi tunnels, Vietnam - Previous: 5.  The tunnels were definitely interesting and I liked our time there, but it had a bit too much of a circus feel to crack the top 5.

Attractions: Nature Division - This ranking got shaken up, mostly because we visited places that we hadn't planned to prior to leaving for the trip.

1. Torres del Paine National Park, Chile - Previous: Unranked.  If I had to pick my favorite single spot from the entire trip, it would be the lookout point in the French Valley in this park.

2. Milford Sound, New Zealand - Previous: Unranked.  The drive to Milford Sound is amazing enough, but it just gets better once you arrive.
3. Halong Bay, Vietnam - Previous: 3.  I wish there were a better way to explore this amazing area other than taking the same type of boat tour that everyone else takes, but it is worth seeing no matter what.
4. Sipadan, Malaysia - Previous: Unranked.  Easily the best diving we've done in our short diving careers.

5. Moorea, French Polynesia - Previous: 4.  Tropical paradise exemplified.

Dropped out:
Great Barrier Reef - Previous: 1.  We didn't make it all the way up to the Great Barrier Reef.  We dove around the Whitsunday Islands, but those are technically fringe reefs and not really part of the Great Barrier Reef.
Grand Traverse - Previous: 3.  We did a day hike on part of the Grand Traverse, but just didn't have the time to tackle the four-to-five day trail.
Cape Town - Previous: 5.  Moved Cape Town to #2 city.

Experiences - I didn't have a pre-trip ranking for this category, but I'm leaving out too much if I don't create it.  I initially did a top 5, but that was just too difficult.  So here's my top 10, which could easily have turned into a top 50.  This ranking does not include our time spent volunteering at Baphumelele Children's Home outside of Cape Town or with the Bruce Peru Organization in Trujillo, which stand out on their own.

1. The Lost World cave exploration in New Zealand.

2. Driving up and down the coast of Queensland in a minivan converted into a camper with our friend Lorena.  We hit the highlights - Whitsunday Islands and Frazer Island - but the small things like swimming in waterfalls at Little Crystal Creek, stumbling across wallabies on a mountaintop, and trying nearly every single flavor of Tim Tams stand out just as much.

3. Climbing Villarica volcano in Pucon, Chile.

4. Lunch with my family at Fattoria Poggio Allora during the Best of Tuscany tour.
5. Biking through Valle de la Luna in the Atacama Desert, Chile.

6. D-Day Beaches.  These are worth seeing on their own, but excellent guide put the day over the top.
7. Staying at Llanganuco Lodge in the Cordillera Blanca in Peru.  I told Charlie, the owner, that I was going to go back and I meant it.
8. Great white shark cage diving in South Africa.
9. Swimming with sharks and rays in Moorea.

10. Hiking up to top of Tugela Falls in the Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa.

20 Countries 20 Pictures

I'm ripping this idea off the travel blog of Brook Silva-Braga, who directed A Map for Saturday, a documentary that started me thinking about taking a trip like this.  Pictures in the full post.

Final Facts and Figures

This is way overdue.  Part of the reason for the delay is that I've been busy, but part of it is that I haven't wanted closure.  I'll have some other wrap-up type posts over the next few days, including my final rankings, but for now here are the final facts and figures.

Length: 405 days

Miles Traveled: 66,000 (obviously the mileage in the logo is laughably wrong - I just didn't put enough thought into it.  Our round-the-world plane ticket was for 34,000 miles, so I just slapped that number into the logo without accounting for any other travel.)

Countries Visited: 20 - Ecuador, Peru, Chile, French Polynesia, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Jordan, Greece, Macedonia, Croatia, Italy, France, Spain, United Kingdom and South Africa.  These are the countries in which we spent at least a few nights, but we also made a day trip to Lesotho and drove through Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro.

Flights Taken: 20 (ignoring connections)

Intercity Buses Taken: 38

Trains Taken: 16

Cars Rented: 4

Accommodations: 100 (counting all our nights in the Jucy Choppa as 1 and not counting nights slept in transit on trains, planes or buses).  We mostly stayed in hostels, but we also stayed in people's homes, tents, lodges, a few nice hotels and on a couple of boats.

South Africa and London (Part 2) Wrap-Up

At last, our final country wrap-up.  South Africa exceeded both of our expectations, which were already high.  It was easily one of our favorite countries and we want to go back there some day.


Facts and Figures
Length of Stay: 65 Days
Miles Traveled: 14,800 by plane from and to London (via Dubai) + 800 by plane from Johannesburg to Cape Town + 2,400 by car = 18,000 (59,870 since landing in Quito)
Places Visited: Johannesburg, Cape Town, Storms River Mouth, Nqileni, Coffee Bay, Bergville, Graskop, Kruger National Park, Pretoria, day-trip to the Kingdom of Lesotho, London
Flights Taken: 5
Times We Sang "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" at Baphumelele Children's Home: 33

Rankings in the full post.

Great White Cage Diving Video

After nearly four months, I got around to uploading our great white cage diving video to YouTube.  It would have been more exciting if there had been an underwater camera, but it's better than nothing.

Some highlights:

• 0:00 - 3:20 Our group gets into the cage and we have a handful of close encounters.
• 1:40 Our young friend Will is trying to push his self-made chum away from us.
• 6:15 This is me right after I threw up.
• 7:23 You can barely see the splash from a great white jumping out of the water, followed by birds scavenging leftover seal pieces.  We had a much better view of this in person, and I screamed in excitement like a nine year old getting a Wii for Christmas.

Warning: Unless you're a twenty-year-old European, you probably want turn off the sound.

Kruger: 1,500 Impalas and a Leopard

As you might remember, we lost our camera in a canoeing accident.

Does this thing even work anymore?  Is there anyone out there besides my mom who still checks this website?  I've been waiting on Magge for a month a half to write this post about our time in Kruger National Park, but if it hasn't happened yet, then it probably won't happen.  In her defense, she has kept herself busy since we've been back, but she repeatedly said all year that she couldn't wait to go on a safari, and then afterwards she repeatedly said she'd write about it.  In the interest of finally wrapping up our thirteen month odyssey, I'm taking the reins, even though my memory is already a little foggy.

I Laugh in the Face of Bad Weather

We are now back in the US, but we have a few more posts on South Africa before we can wrap up the trip.  I may even badger Magge into contributing one last time.

One of our last stops in South Africa was in the Drakensberg region.  The country's highest mountain range, it has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site for both its natural value and its cultural value as home to San rock paintings.  I took in some of both, doing the Sentinel Peak hike and seeing some rock paintings in Lesotho.  Thanks to Marcus from Stuttgart, I have pictures of the hike, so that's what I'm posting today.  If Sarah from Ireland sends me pictures of our Lesotho day trip as promised, a post of those pictures will be forthcoming.

Two Wild Coasts

From the Bulungula Lodge website

Magge and I had never heard of South Africa's Wild Coast before coming to this country, but after reading about it we were eager to visit.  Located on the southeast in a section formerly known as the Transkei, this rural and poor area receives far fewer tourists and backpackers than the more famed Garden Route.  This lack of British and German 19 year olds was actually a drawing card.  After a little research, we decided to stay in two places: Bulungula Lodge in the small village of Nqileni, and the Coffee Shack in Coffee Bay.  They ended up providing very different experiences.

Like Oregon, but with Baboons

Note: Due to a boating mishap, our camera and memory card are no longer working, so we will no longer be able to post any of our pictures for the remainder of this trip.  Hopefully, we'll be able to guilt other travelers into sharing their pictures with us so we have some to post.  This picture was taken from Wikipedia.

Storms River mouth / courtesy of Wikipedia

We stopped in Tsisikamma National Park because it was a convenient resting point on the way to the Wild Coast, not because we had any real particular interest in seeing it.  It is located in South Africa's "Garden Route", a heavily promoted and popular stretch of coastline east of Cape Town.  Although the Garden Route is part of the standard backpacker circuit in South Africa, we decided to largely skip it because the guidebooks make it sound like merely a collection of upscale, vacation beach towns.  We figured we could do that scene back in the US in places where the water is actually warm.  Driving past Knysna and Plettenberg Bay, two of the most popular stops on the route, we felt confident that we made the right decision.  Sure, the environs were pretty, but the areas were overdeveloped.  However, as we neared Tsisikamma, we could see what drew visitors to the Garden Route in the first place.

Nature's Vibrant Colors

"My profession is always to be alert, to find God in nature, to know God's lurking places, to attend to all the oratorios and the operas in nature." Henry David Thoreau

Picture taken on St. James beach, on Cape Town's False Bay. This picture was a team effort: Jeff, knowing my love of taking macro pictures of animals, spotted this bug and pointed it out to me as we were walking on the beach.

Goodbye, Cape Town

Cape Town's weather the last few days we were in the city was the worst it had been the entire six weeks we spent there, with Table Mountain constantly wrapped in thick, low-lying clouds.  On our last day, just as we were about to leave for our township tour, the clouds lifted just long enough for us to get one last glimpse of the mountain.

Township Tour, or Human Safari?

Walking through one of the poorer parts of Langa

If you've been reading our posts since we've been in South Africa, you know that we have been volunteering in the township of Khayelitsha.  However, due to safety concerns, we had to stay within the Baphumelele complex for the duration of our three day shifts, so we were not able to see much of Khayelitsha.  We signed up for a township tour to get closer, even though I was somewhat apprehensive about taking a tour that whisks tourists around to see how the less fortunate live.  That uneasy feeling didn't abate throughout the tour and I left with mixed emotions.

"Try Not To Get Too Attached" . . . Easier Said Than Done

Leaving a volunteer project is never easy for me. Perhaps it is the masochist in me, but I rarely leave with a feeling of upliftment or satisfaction in "a job well done". Instead, I generally leave in a state of frustration, knowing that there is so much more to be done. This project has been no exception. Only this time I am leaving with a huge hole in my heart as well.

After six weeks at the Baphamulele Children's Home, we have become very close to many of the children with whom we have been working. After days spent feeding, bathing, singing, dancing, and playing, you would have to have a heart of stone not to fall in love with all our kids. Yes, there were days when we were all ready to retreat up to our flat after listening to Nikita and Zam whine all day (all day) or after struggling with Lithemba to feed him his food, but most of the time I had a hard time leaving at the end of a shift.

While each child has earned a special place in my heart (even Nikita and Zam), one child has completely stolen it. His name is Litha, and even as I sit here typing his name my eyes are welling up with tears. I could go on and on for pages describing how special Litha is: how much I love his curiosity, his love of singing, his original dance moves, his intelligence (he is so bright), his kisses, and just the feeling of snuggling with him in my lap as we watched Barney at night, but I don't think that's necessary, and to be honest, I can't write too much about him without totally breaking down in tears.

Though both Jeff and I have agreed for some time (much to my mother's chagrin) that children are still a few years off for us, I would take Litha home with us in a heartbeat if I could. Unfortunately, South Africa's misguided adoption laws make it next to impossible for people from other countries to adopt any of the many, many children here that need homes. To even be considered, a person must be a resident of South Africa for at least two years. From what I have been told, this law was created with a desire to keep South African children "South African". While I have no problem with the spirit of this law, I find it to be incredibly unrealistic and downright irresponsible given the number of children that are parentless in this country. I wonder what these children would say if given a choice.

We are not permitted to publish pictures of the children in a public forum, such as a blog. We are, however, permitted to put them up in private areas, such as Facebook, so I am putting up a few of the many pictures that I have taken on Facebook, in case anyone is interested in seeing them.

False Bay

Here are some pictures from our recent day trip to the False Bay side (east side) of the Cape Peninsula.  We took the commuter train, which hugs the water's edge once it reaches the bay, down to Kalk Bay.  After I indulged Magge in browsing a few of the small town's boutiques, we walked two miles up the coast to Muizenberg to catch the train back to our house.  Just another beautiful side of Cape Town.

Views from the train

False Bay

The colorful changing houses of St. James beach

Boring Game, Great Time

I don't like soccer - it ranks somewhere between curling and the lumberjack games on my list of favorite sports to watch.  Every four years, I try to get into the World Cup, but my interest is spurred by patriotism rather than the game itself.  Given how much effort it takes to watch games that actually matter, I never thought I'd care to go to a game that doesn't matter, called "friendlies" by soccer fans.  However, when we found out that the USA squad was coming to Cape Town to face South Africa, we couldn't turn it down.  How many chances are we going to get to support our country (yeah, I'm actually Canadian, whatever) in a sporting event nearly 8,000 miles from home?

Nearly all the volunteers we live with also got tickets to the game, and we got into the mood by painting our faces.  Most of the other volunteers (who are from Canada, the UK or Norway) painted their faces with the South African flag, but the 3.5 Americans plus an Australian painted their faces with stars and stripes.  There would be no hiding from opposing fans.  We immediately mixed it up with the South Africans, chanting "USA! USA!" and getting booed off the shuttle bus to the stadium for singing the "Star-Spangled Banner".  Their fans were great, taking everything in stride and throwing it right back at us.  Many of them took our picture and we even got interviewed by the press (if you happen to see a clip of a late 20s male with the American flag painted on his face saying he thinks the US will win by one or two touchdowns, that's me).  Just outside the stadium, I heard everyone around us laughing, and I turned to see Magge engaged in a bizarre dance with a South African fan, where the two ladies were bumping butts.  I turned to the person next to me and said, "Yeah, that's my wife".

Yeah, that's my wife

Us with Will, one of the two other Americans, prior to the game

As usual in this sport, nothing happened for most of the game.  Once in a while the crowd would break out in huge cheers just because the ball entered the general vicinity of the American net, but other than that it was a long, real life game of Pong with a vuvuzela soundtrack.  When the US finally scored late in the game, I was more relieved that something had actually happened than excited that we took the lead.  The Americans hung on to win 1-0 (also known as the "standard soccer result"), but the South African fans were still great to us afterwards.  The game itself was boring, but the experience was fantastic and it was one of the most fun nights we've had over the past year.

Surrounded by the enemy

The ubiquitous and terrible vuvuzelas

Action (or inaction?) on the field

South African Roadtrip

We finished up our work at Baphumelele Children's Home this morning (with lots of tears from Magge) and have a few more days in Cape Town before we tackle more of this country.  We will rent a car and drive roughly 4,000km over twenty days.  As opposed to our blitzkrieg style roadtrips in New Zealand and Australia, where we slept in a new location every other night, we decided to stay in fewer spots for longer periods of time.  Here's our tentative schedule, mostly for the benefit of our mothers since we'll often be without internet over the next three weeks.

November 22: Leave Cape Town, drive to Stormsriver in Tsitsikamma National Park.  We're stopping here mainly to break up a long drive, but there should be some nice hikes.
November 24: Nqileni village, Wild Coast.  A very rural area off the beaten trail.
November 29: Coffee Bay, Wild Coast.  More spectacular South African coastline.
December 2: Somewhere in the Drakensberg Mountains.  We haven't decided where we'll stay yet, but we know that we want to spend a few days in the mountains.
December 5: Graskop.  A small town that will make for a convenient base for a quick trip to the Blyde River Canyon before we head to Kruger.
December 6: Kruger National Park.  South Africa's best known game reserve.
December 11: Pretoria.  Probably just a bed for the night before our flight - I doubt we'll explore this city at all.
December 12: Fly to London.

Spain and London Wrap-Up

We are way behind on this wrap-up - as I wrote earlier, Spain didn't really inspire us.  Due to that and the length of time that has passed since we left Spain, we won't be doing rankings.  Just the facts.

Facts and Figures
Length of Stay: 15 Days
Miles Traveled to Enter: 515 by plane from Paris to Barcelona
Miles Traveled: 950 by train + 790 by plane =  1,740 (41,870 since landing in Quito)
Places Visited: Barcelona, Sevilla, Granada, Madrid, Toledo, London
Intercity Trains Taken: 5
Flights Taken: 1 (Madrid to London)
Major Strikes Encountered: 2 (a national strike in Spain that ruined our plans to visit the Alhambra, and an underground/subway strike in London that didn't affect us)

Lunch at the Saturday Market

One of the great parts about our volunteer schedule (three days at Bapaphumele, three days in Obs) is that we really get a chance to experience Cape Town. This includes getting to visit the chic Neighbourgoods Markets at the Old Biscuit Mill, held every Saturday and a popular day out for the locals (or the white locals, anyway).  This morning we went with some of our friends and had lunch. I enjoyed a gyro while Jeff, the meat-eating adventurer that he is, tried a kudu burger. For those wondering what in the world a kudu is, it's a close relative to the antelope... delicious! (or at least that's what Jeff would say.) We bought some double chocolate cookies for dessert with the intention of having some for lunch and then the rest for dinner, but of course none of them made it out of the market.

One of the best things about Cape Town, is that no matter where you go, there will always be a beautiful mountain view

It probably goes without saying that the entire time we were there I was thinking about how much fun it would be to bring Litha. I think I'm going to need counseling when we get home.

Touring the Cape Peninsula

On the Cape of Good Hope with Cape Point behind us

Another post, more Cape scenery.  We took a tour of the Cape Peninsula yesterday, from Cape Town all the way down to the Cape of Good Hope, and we liked it even more than the Winelands tour.  The weather did not cooperate at first, obscuring the mountains but by lunch it had cleared up and was a gorgeous day.

The Not-So-Beautiful Side of Cape Town

The last few posts focused on the visually stunning setting of the Cape Town area.  However, the city is not without its blemishes, and at least one book has stated that it is perhaps the most economically unequal city in the world.  We see this first hand every time we go on shift at the orphanage.  Our drive from the comfortable Cape Town suburb of Observatory to the Baphumelele Children's home takes us past miles and miles of the ramshackle shanties of the township of Khayelitsha.  The main road we take into the township is completely littered with trash; we've been told that this is the residents' way of protesting their living conditions to the government.  If you think this cutting-off-one's-nose behavior is drastic, you should see the road on its worst days.  In a more extreme form of protest, some Khalyelitsha residents will take to burning vehicles.  On our last shift, we drove past a city bus that had been stormed by protesters and then destroyed.

Driving through Khayelitsha