Africa Adventures, Day 7: Cape Agulhas

After a lovely breakfast (thanks to Jackie) we were off for the final leg of this round of driving: Cape Town! However we decided to make a slight detour (thanks to the recommendation of Jackie) and see the very southern tip of Africa. We drove through endless fields and a handful of tiny towns before arriving to a cold and rainy strip of rocky land called Cape Agulhas. It was a hike of a couple hundred meters before reaching the place where the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean meet, and we arrived cold and soaking wet but pleased!




Yours truly at the southernmost point in Africa. To the left is the Indian Ocean, to the right is the Atlantic Ocean.


There were lots of rolling hills in the Western Cape. It seemed a lot like parts of the midwest United States.

From there we drove up the west coast to Cape Town, which is a busy tourist and beach city. Very popular for vacationers, especially the Germans, English and to a lesser extent the Dutch. We had a three stay booked at a B&B, however due to some poor communications we were double-booked. We ended up at another place run by an retired soccer football player named Ferdinand Keller. He played for the German national team and had retired to Cape Town, running this B&B with his wife and daughter. It proved to be extremely popular with Germans - I was the only non-German speaking person in the whole place! Luckily we were going to be out-and-about the whole time.

Since this was New Years Eve we wanted to see what excitement was going on. We had heard about a fireworks show at the beach, so we wandered down to check it out. Around midnight some semi-impressive fireworks (think of the best fireworks you can get from Wyoming) started going off. It was obviously an amateur show but still enjoyable. Then ... the police showed up! Apparently not only was it an amateur show, but an illegal one too! The cops started chasing down everyone who looked like they had fireworks in their possession. We watched several people running down the beach with pyrotechnics in hand. We got out of there quickly before things escalated.

Some more photos from the drive can be found here.

Africa Adventures, Day 6: Garden Route

Well we've arrived to what we've been wanting to see - the Garden Route. A scenic route that runs along the southern coast of South Africa, it's supposed to be quite beautiful. And you know what - it was, but it was vastly overrated. The sights were nice, but there weren't any "must see" scenes, and there were all sorts of tourist trap places all along the route. Admittedly we left kind of disappointed.

It was still quite a ways to Cape Town, so we spent the night in a town called Heidelberg. We picked it on purpose because of the town in Germany with the same name. The town was tiny - maybe a couple hundred people at most, and the lone hotel in town had closed up shop. However we found the most charming little bed-and-breakfast joint, and their staff person Jackie was absolutely wonderful and adorable. Perhaps I will steal her from her boyfriend and kidnap her to the U.S.

This is the view from the back deck of the bed and breakfast. A nice river and empty fields as far as you could see.



This is the mosquito repellent of DOOM!!!

Africa Adventures, Day 5: Addo Elephant Park

Luckily our early bedtime led to waking up early. We got a good 7am start to our next destination: Addo Elephant Reserve! The reserve is about an hour and a half outside of Port Elizabeth. After a few adventures with the car involving poorly marked streets, hard-to-find gears and speed limits that seemed way too fast for this car we arrived safely.

Unfortunately the weather was rainy, and had been all morning. Rain causes most of the animals to go into hiding. Even the elephants don't care for it because it washes the mud off their skin, leaving them vulnerable to parasites. That said, we were still able to see several elephants.





We also managed to spot a few other animals, including a zebra, several antelope, a warthog, ostriches, and a rare dung beetle! The poor weather lead to horrible picture taking and I only got a few photos worth keeping.

We gave up on the park after a few hours as spotting was scarce (one of the guides said we were fortunate to see what we had!). We decided to set off toward Cape Town and find a place to stay on the way. After looking at a map we decided on a pleasant-sounding town called Oyster Bay. Sounds cozy, right?

After plugging it into the GPS we found ourselves driving nearly 20 miles on a dirt road to get there. And what do we find when we get there? A town of maybe 30 houses, one general store, and definitely no hotels to speak of. While we didn't feel unwelcome, it was pretty obvious there wouldn't be anywhere to stay. Instead we backtracked to Jeffery's Bay, a surfing town and popular vacation destination for South African locals. The town had a definite party atmosphere, as the hotel we stayed in had several bars across the street, and they were hopping well past 3 am. If the bars weren't keeping me awake it was the people in the room across from ours, who were making us well-aware of the paper-thin walls with their (remarkably short-lived) sexy time. Not to be too hard on the guy's stamina, but if you were to use them as an egg timer, your eggs would be done over VERY easy.

Africa Adventures, Day 3 & 4: More flying, Port Elizabeth

Time for the second long-haul flight of the trip! We dragged our butts out of bed at 3:30am to get to the airport in time for our flight to Johannesburg. This time we were flying KLM via Amsterdam, which is one of my favorite airports!

Unfortunately the flight was less than ideal. There was a box for the in-flight entertainment system directly under the seat in front of me, leaving very little foot room, and forcing my legs off to the side. Uncomfortable for an hour, and brutal on an eleven hour flight. I ended up with a really sore knee which took several days to recover. I can't say I recommend the aisle seats on the KLM 777s.

That said, the flight had some enjoyable moments. Flying over the Sahara Desert was fascinating - sand dunes as far as the eye could see.



Also onboard our flight were the Soweto Spiritual Singers. They're a popular choir down in South Africa who performed, among other places, at the 2010 World Cup. They had just completed a successful European tour and were returning home. When we landed they provided us a few impromptu songs while we waited to deboard!



We arrived into Jo'burg around 10:30, had our luggage and was out of customs and into a crappy airport hotel by midnight. We slept for three hours, then back to the airport again for our final flight to Port Elizabeth, on the southern coast of South Africa.

Port Elizabeth is the fifth largest city in South Africa. There isn't a whole lot to do there, but they have some decent beaches. The airport is pretty small - no official gates, and just two baggage claims. I was grateful for this however, as this would be the starting point of one of my major adventures: driving on the left side of the road! We were stuck with a Kia Picanto - a tiny car (possibly smaller than a Geo Metro) with an ultra-sensitive gas pedal to make up for the zero horsepower it had.

Besides the crazy gas pedal, there were a few other things to get used to. The turn signal and windshield wiper stalks were reversed, so whenever I went to signal a turn I ended up with the windshield wipers on instead. Getting in the mindset of yielding when turning right took a bit of work too.

After spending a few minutes driving through some neighborhoods getting used to the new feel and new road rules to learn, we were off to find the beach! Luckily Port Elizabeth is a small city and it was not hard to find. We found a nice quiet patch of sand and relaxed for a bit - and then realized we were really tired! I guess only sleeping six hours in the last 48 does that to you. We found an inexpensive hotel on the beach and took a nap.



It was still light out when we woke up. There was a dock directly across the street from the hotel, and we wandered down it just in time to see a pod of dolphins swimming around!



We hit up some places across the street for dinner, then went walking down the beach. Along the way we came by a carnival that had set up show. I stopped to take a few photos before calling it a night.



A few more photos can be found here.

Africa Adventures, Day 1 & 2: Hamburg, Germany(?)

And we're off! After at Christmas Eve flight through Paris, I met my friend Saskia in Hamburg. The temperatures were even more frigid than Salt Lake City - about 10F, but with humidity! Even the slightest breeze cut right through whatever you were wearing.

We celebrated Christmas at her parents place with a tasty meal of pumpkin soup and roast beast. Their house is one of the most amazing houses I've ever seen. It's pretty decent sized, to start, but some of details are stuff I've never seen in the U.S. Stuff like having their ceilings adorned with wood. It was beautiful. I want it in my own house.

We had a day to kill before hitting up Jo'burg, so we drove around Hamburg a bit, visiting the docks and downtown.





This church was destroyed by a bomb in World War II but was still left standing, and left uncleaned on purpose. It's a bit eerie to see this damaged abandoned steeple sticking out among all the other buildings in the area.



The rest of today's photos can be found here.

Around the world around the world around the world around the world

Did any of you see the movie Up in the Air, where George Clooney's character has a goal of flying 10 million miles in his lifetime?

Admittedly, 10 million miles is more than I think I will ever manage, and I'm glad for that! However, the sick person I am, I think a cool million miles is perfectly feasible and reasonable.

On January 17th, somewhere in the skies above Manitoba, Canada, I will have reached the 25% mark of my lofty goal - 250,000 butt-in-seat miles. Slightly over the distance to the moon. That's a lot of sore ass time!

Some interesting facts about my flying time so far:

- I've spent a total of 588 hours (24.5 days) in the air.
- My longest flight in distance is 5,663 miles (Paris to Los Angeles)
- My shortest flight in distance was 106 miles (New York City to Hartford, Connecticut)
- My longest flight in duration was 11 hours and 50 minutes (Salt Lake City to Tokyo)
- My most frequented airports are Atlanta (26 flights) and Paris (16 flights)

(Almost) A Hero's Life

This evening while walking Goomba in penis-retracting temperatures, I noticed a house whose smoke alarms were going off. I blew it off as somebody burning Thanksgiving dinner and continued walking.

I went around the block where the house was beeping. While on the other side of the block, I could still very faintly make out the smoke alarms still. "Huh," I thought - I would have expected them to be off by now. A bit concerned, I decided to circle the block again.

I arrived at the house in question, and it was obvious there was no one home. I checked out the place and saw no signs of smoke or flames. However just to be sure I called a fire department. After describing the situation, they advised me to call 911 to have an engine sent out from the correct company.

I called 911 and they sent out a truck. I stood by as some fire fighters scoped out the building. They managed to open a window and ......... there was nothing. No smell of smoke. Just a false alarm.

They thanked me for being vigilant and headed off. I did not rescue a family from near death or save a building from destruction this time. But my day to be a hero will come eventually!