Lesotho

We spent the past three days in Lesotho (pronounced Le-soo-too), a tiny mountainous country which has only one border (it is surrounded by South Africa on all sides). The country is a combination of 20th century technology and 10th century traditions. I believe that we were the only car going across the border at the time. Everyone else walked across and someone lifted the gate boom to let our little Volkswagen through. We arrived in a thunderstorm and were right in the middle of the lightning. I watched a bolt strike the ground about 25 metres in front of me. Another bolt was so close that we were debating whether or not we'd been hit. What does it feel like to be in a vehicle struck by lightning? I don't know but since the electrical system seemed to be working fine, we decided that it must have been just "close".

Two hours later we crossed through a mountain pass on a dirt road seemingly in the middle of nowhere and arrived at our destination, the Malealea Lodge. This tourist lodge supports the local community by employing them as tour guides and helps build schools in the community & things like wells & HIV/AIDS Projects. Lesotho has one of the highest incident rates of HIV/AIDS in the world (like Namibia) & this is evident only in the copious graveyards & the nice funeral signs & buildings (some of the nicest buildings in the country, although the HIV centres also seemed nice too). It's also the only place I've visited so far that encouraged visitors to offset the carbon they used to reach the village by helping to plant trees in the community. Most of the locals are already carbon-neutral since donkeys/horses produce no GHG and the lodge is the only place in town with electricity (from 5PM to 10PM only). We watched the local choir perform and saw the homemade instruments used by the local band (oil cans, string, and scrap wood). A five-hour horseback ride through the countryside gave us a pretty good impression of how the locals live: farming and shepherding.

We helped a girl who'd broken her ankle and I was not envious of the trip she was going to be taking to the nearest hospital: four hours back to Bloomfontein in South Africa would not be pleasant. We were pretty careful with our footing after that.
In general, a beautiful place to visit but I was happy to be back in the "safety" of South Africa last night.

The Driekoppe Trail

As mentioned in the last posting we were immediately off hiking in Camdboo National Park to an overnight hut in the mountains. Well, it turned out to be quite the adventure and a definite lesson in African backpacking. First of all, we were given very little information by the park--a map, a set of keys for the hut & the gates & when I pressed them, details about freshwater & the actual distance. Everything started out just fine...we packed our backpacks, loaded up about 5 litres of water & everything we needed for a night & left our car hidden behind some trees in the park (it was very open grassland).

For about 1-2km everything looked good--we followed a road & little zebra signs which pointed us along the trail. Suddenly however, they stopped & there was no indication of where to go. Our map did have the route marked & showed topography so we guessed at the mountains & started heading up, hoping to reintercept with the trail. There were lots of animal paths so walking was reasonable for bush-whacking, although in dry areas there are some mighty thorny plants...ouch! We saw the rare Black Wildebeast & many other "bok" on our way. Up we began to climb, and following a river bed, started to ascend quickly up the dry peak. Suddently a voice, "Jump" or perhaps "Help"! Were there other people? No, it turned out to be the alarm call of the baboons--a very awesome but alarming sound as you climb as it sounds almost human. Up & Up we climbed, fooling ourselves somehow that the trail interception was nearby--we were just taking the "steep" route. Eventually we reached a plateau & could see for miles--but no trail or hut was visible. We wandered around for awhile, looking at the map & through binoculars. Eventually, we decided, we were never going to find the trail & we needed to head back before it got dark & before our water supply was depleted. But...we couldn't get down! It was so steep where we climbed that it was very dangerous to go back down again...so instead we hiked one valley, then two trying to find a way down. Just as we had decided it was too far to go back & we were going to have to go thirsty & sleep out in the open we popped our heads over a valley & starring at us was...the trail--an old road! We were one valley over the whole time! We decided, that although it would soon be dark, our best bet would still be to climb down the valley (about 1/2hr of bushwacking) & follow the trail to the hut so we could obtain water & a good night's rest.
We made it down to the road as the light faded & then had an apple, a sip of water & continued on for 3km or so in the dark & finally as we were just about wiped (having been quite dehydrated and only having eaten an apple for all of the 6hrs of hiking we had done) when we found the rondavlea (round hut). And inside this hut were bunks 6, fresh water and even electricity!

We arrived at 8:30pm, had a guzzle of water then slept for 11hrs before we awoke, had a small meal of porridge (we still weren't hungry) & trekked back to our car--an uneventful hike which was much quicker (although we never did find a connecting trail). In the end, all ended well & although we found our car covered with baboon poo & hand-prints, everything intact.
It was both a good lesson on the "African way" of information, park maintenance & our own preparedness & a test of our endurance & our bodies to endure physical strife. Next time, hopefully we'll have a better trail, & I"ll remember to bring my compass! (It was left in the car...)

Baby "kangaroos" & lions making whoopie

We've just come from Addo Elephant Park, one of the big parks near the South Coast of S. Africa--one which they've slowly been reintroducing animals too & now successfully have hundreds of elephants, and lions, etc.

We had a great time there-finally escapin the rain & the booming drinking & partying of the coastal hostels I feel a bit more like we're in Africa--more outdoors & less tourists. And yes, the lions we saw were making whoopie. And the little kangaroos? They are something called Springhares (Springhaas in Afrikaans) and are rodents, unrelated to kangaroos or hares apparently.

And now, with the midday heat upon us we're in the town of Graaft-Reinet heading for a one day backpack trip into the hills before heading to Zebra National Park & into undeveloped Lesotho. We'll try & keep in touch but services are getting more & more sparse.

Omungwleume

Don't even try to say it, let alone find it on a map. But this is the village we're going to live in for the year. We will be living in the Ovambo region (not the region we were told we'd be in), but the region of the "5 O's". Actually, it's more like the 100 O's as about 98% of the towns start with O, including our village.

Omungwleume is about 40km North of Oshakati, which is the capital of that region...and has all the amenities there as our village. Our best guess is that we're right butt up against the Angola border somewhere as Oshakati is only about 50km away itself.

Chris will be working at Eengedjo SS teaching Grade 11& 12 English, Grade 11 & 12 Geography & maybe some math & computers. I, work in the middle school across the street (Grades 8-10) & will be teaching primarily 8-10 English & Geography & Math as well as apparently a training course on computers for teachers! A bit daunting but apparently the levels are lower than home. I'm feverently reading all the "how to teach math" texts WorldTeach sent us...

We're living on the grounds of Chris' school in a 2 bedroom flat (so come & visit as we have a spare bed & two thermarests!). Apparently it even includes a stove & oven & running water, although no hot water. Food doesn't seem to be too much of a problem & we're promised things like German bread & Black Forest Cake in even small towns.

Anyway, that's the story, but we've got more than a month's worth of parks to visit first if it will ever stop raining! Brr!

Shouldn't sunshine be less .... liquidy?

The sign on the tap says "This is a dry region. Please conserve water." That seems strange to me since when I look outside, there are buckets of rain coming down. One of the roads into town is closed due to extreme flooding and the rivers that we've been crossing have been at levels dangerously closed to the bridge. The windshield wipers on the car don't have a setting high enough for the amount of water that they need to remove. Our first night out of Cape Town was exciting due to extreme wind. Lawn furniture bounced by our tent and the roof of the hostel threatened to come off. Quite entertaining to watch from the kitchen... a little more intimidating from the confines of the tent.

The area we're in right now is known for ostrich farms. Apparently, 97% of the world's ostriches live within 20km of Oudtshoorn and based on what I've seen today, I believe it. They also make lovely omelettes and a single egg can feed more than a dozen people.

Now we're off to the Garden Route and, if the rain lets up, some camping in the parks.

4 days, 5 plane rides & 4 countries & we made it!

Well, it was quite the adventure with a few more unexpected travel hitches. We flew to Amsterdam the next day no problem, with a new flight itinerary for the following day. Had a great day in the heart of Amsterdam wandering through the cold cold mist wandering canals & visiting Annefrankhuis and the red light district & getting some sleep.

Next morning--the airport & we find out that the airline had re-booked us again without telling us the day before & we had missed our flight! Luckily we could prove to the airline that they had given us incorrect info, so the booked us on the next available flight to Cape Town--via another country--in which we spent several hours wandering around (UPDATE: The picture is up....name that city!)

Finally, a 1st class ticket & 13hrs more of flight time & we got to Cape Town! And its been warm (but not very, being the coolest part of SA), and we've had fun visiting & now hiking & driving around--we own a 2004 VW Citigolf (1980's style rabbit like VW )....today we went to the Cape of Good Hope and saw Baboons, Wild Ostrich, Afrikan Penguins & little marmot like creatures called "Dassies" which are apparenty related to elephants?! I'm overwhelmed by the flora & birdlife & am afraid I will fill up my camera with interesting Aloes & other succulents.

Cape town is very western & modern so its been ok adjusting & Chris is doing well driving on the left after 1 frightening morning. Tomorrow we're going up Table Mountain & then getting our camping gear all in order as we'll head to the wild on Tues.

Africa looks a lot like .... Portland?

We're in Portland, Oregon. After two short flights, we boarded a 747 that intended to head to Amsterdam but due to a mechanical problem, we never left the ground. We just sat on the tarmac for a couple hours while the plane tried to build up the courage to fly (kind of like in Disney's Dumbo!) Instead, we're spending the night at the Holiday Inn - Portland Airport until the plane tries again tomorrow afternoon. An unexpected start to the trip but we're not in any rush, c'est la vie!

Flying Out

So we fly out today--in 9 hours. To Seattle, Portland, then to Amsterdam to live it up for 26hours then off to Cape Town.

20hrs of flight time and we'll arrive there at around 10pm Cape Town time which we THINK is 9 hours ahead...but it could be 10 with this daylight savings thing. We're excited although we've much enjoyed home for the last week. It will bring good memories & entice us back...eventually.

While you wait in anticipation for exciting African stories, check out my new flikr account to view photos of our cycling trip (http://www.flickr.com/photos/31870881@N06/). It's basic right now, but there!

Have a good year everyone & stay tuned!