Northern Cape

So, there isn't much to do there... Its dessert. Beautiful open aired dessert.

We stopped and slept over at a small bed and breakfast, paid R150 per person, loved that little place.

So, we went to Kimberley. Small, crappy, run down town, filled with filth and roads that don't work. It was such a mission driving around there. We stopped at one monument, it has a canon... Then we went to the "Groot Gat".



Beautiful.

Only thing that irritated me was that they took away my favorite museum... The one with the old dresses and suits and fans and hats and pretty antique accessories. Its gone. The moths ate it.

Then back to Pretoria, screaming with road rage as we entered Gauteng.

I swear I'm moving down to Cape Town.

Wine Route, Western Cape

Well, we did the Wine Route in 2 days, mainly because I don't plan trips, I just make it happen.

The wine route is quite large, and you would have to drive around a lot. Here's a map, because I'm too lazy to write everything.



There's a lot of hooha about Stellenbosch, although it is really beautiful, there's much more to the whole wine route than you would think. Like Butterfly World in Paarl, its filled with amazing animals, not just butterflies, there are iguanas, birds, tortoises, crocodiles, and I can't remember the rest. If you do photography as a hobby, like my German friend, you'll have a blast. You'll have a blast anyway!



Then there was a few monuments we visited. The first on my list is the Afrikaanse Taal Monument. I am extremely passionate about this monument, because the people that worked there made me extremely mad. The food we ate was awesome! We had pancakes. Nice, traditional, South African pancakes. What upset me was the fact that the government is trying to brainwash the youth into thinking black people created Afrikaans. I'm not racist, I just hate liars. So, Afrikaans is actually known as the kitchen language of Europe, the poor slaves used to speak it, and some of them came to South Africa for better opportunities. Although the settlers were from France, Portugal, Holland, Spain, etc. Afrikaans still came from Europe. The brochure at the Afrikaanse Taal Monument actually say that the Afrikaans language originated in South Africa so that blacks and whites could understand each other. The minister of "let's create a new culture" must not have had history in high school, or primary school for that matter. Anyway, all my anger aside, I am glad to have been there.



The next monument on my list is the Huguenot Monument in Franschhoek. The funny thing about going there is that they charged us to go and see the damn thing, although the fences around it was as tall as my knees. Idiots. So, we paid, went in, and about 10 minutes later, the grandpa that stole our money, and probably had to go to bed at four in the afternoon, shouted at us, telling us the monument is closed. Again. Idiots. I love this monument. The detail and everything that its made of, just screams amazing! A must see. And if you go there and you can speak a foreign language, please give the old fart my regards. Oh, see if you can find Waldo. Grin.



Then, the last monument we went to go see, we found by accident. I got confused with the Huguenot Monument and a childhood memory, so, I never agree that I'm wrong and I decided that we we're going to look for it. I typed "monument" into the GPS, and we followed this ghost monument. We found the extremely small Dirkie Uys Monument in Somerset West. Its dirty, unprotected, and is in dire need of a relaunch or something. Dirkie Uys is one of the bravest little kids in our history. He died at the age of 15, against the Zulus. Someone needs to fix that place. Note the little "Hip Hop" graffiti.



Right, now to the fun stuff. Wine! We'll we didn't get as drunk as I was hoping, but we had fun, we went wine tasting at a little unknown something wine farm. They had two wines for us to taste. So, we left.



We went to the best place. Rhebokskloof Wine Estate in Paarl, we tasted wine, had lunch wile they saddled up the horses (oh, by the way, please book in advance, we didn't), went horse riding. So, the big boom in this story? The horse riding instructor's name is Michelle Mazurkiewicz. She works with horses in movies. She's worked with Samuel L. Jackson, and a few others. She worked with the horses in Racing Stripes, 300, The Ring, etc. Amazing. She had this saying when we didn't book the horse riding in advance: "horses, aren't like cars, you can't just start them and go. We need to catch them and saddle them up first." I like her.



It was good, I'll do it again...

I am Somebody's Stalker?

My life these days go like this: I sleep the whole day, wake up, get ready for work, go to work, go drinking, go home, spend time on the internet, sleep the whole day... And once a week I plan on changing my routine to study, exercise, diet, see friends, and do something worth writing of in this "nobody cares" blog.



So, on Tuesday (February 15th) life changed a bit. I met a new somebody, I don't call him somebody for privacy reasons, but because I can't remember his name for the life of me. His number is saved as "Dude" on my cellphone, and I remember his last name, but I don't know which spelling to use. I don't have him on Facebook, but I know where he lives.

It took me two weeks and R400 to find out that his name is Shaun. On St. Patric's Day he called me, he was looking for me. We went to go visit his mother in hospital on her death bed. Cute. He took me to meet his mother, because he knew she wouldn't live long. On Sunday, 20 March, his mother died. He borrowed money to bury her, and my car to get to work. Shhhh! Don't tell my dad.

He's not rich. He has intimacy and trust issues. I phone him when I'm drunk.

But I like him.

And St. Patric's Day was awesome!

A new year, starting off slow

First post of the year, and its February already. To recap on what has been going on, I failed one of my modules from last year, so, I'm not getting my certificate, funny thing is that it was the module I knew the best, I write so slow, that is why I failed, I didn't even get half way on the paper.

I enrolled for my next certificate: Anti Corruption and Commercial Crime Investigation, I started reading some of the books, and I have to say, it is the most interesting books to have. It includes crime scenes, how to investigate crime, how to interrogate suspects, collection of evidence, processing of evidence, court structures, laws, and my favorite, everything about ballistics and violent crimes.

More exciting news, I saw Rammstein on the 11th of February. It was awesome! I couldn't see much, and we decided to move to the back, I saw a little bit, the lights and flames were satisfying enough, so I am happy!


I am still single, although I am interested in a few horses. All of them just live too far away.

What I am more interested in is the "end of days" stories that are flooding the internet. I am a full blown atheist now, but I would love to have an ice age or some large scale catastrophe in my life time. There has to be something, there was the black plague, then the crusade murders, then all the hundreds of wars that killed thousands, and I think, in my life time, something huge has to happen, and I want to survive it.

Just my imagination...

OK, back to earth. I have new ambitions in life. I want to become an air hostess, or try for the police or army again. Because apparently, when the army says they don't accept applicants older than 23, it doesn't mean that they don't accept applicants older than 23.

And I STILL need to post more about my road trip.

Aye! Time flies...

Cape Town, Western Cape

I can't remember the dates anymore, and this is what happens when your telephone lines decide to break, and it takes the telephone company weeks to come and repair it. I had no Internet for a while, my apologies.

The main thing to do when traveling is going on a tour buss. You listen to the audio, it drives you around so you won't get lost, saves gas, and its not expensive. All the most important travel locations are discussed, the history is told, and you can find out where the hot spots are.

Nicole and I saw everything on the tour bus, but only visited a few places.

The District Six Museum is extremely interesting, mainly because I saw District 9, the movie. History is much more interesting to me than fiction, but both intrigue me. The most exciting part about going to the District Six Museum is the little details placed everywhere in the museum. All along the walls pieces of everyday items are plastered into the walls, there are also little stories about people who lived in District Six written on papers on the walls. Beautiful. When entering the museum, there is a large map of District Six on the floor. Photos of what circumstances the people had to live in is actually quite devastating, but also very interesting. Its like watching a documentary on the Holocaust. Best thing that happened there was that we got in for free because we got there 30 minutes before the museum closed, and I bought a book (that I still haven't read) that was written by the man that opened the museum, Ismail Noordien, or so "he said".



The Castle of Good Hope is my dream house, a bit big, but I'll adopt hundreds of children and inhabit all of it. Smiley face. Its an extraordinary building named a castle, but is in fact a fort. They have a few museums in there, the one is about Cape Town culture and features the "Kaapse Klopse", the other is preserved as the lord of the house furnished it, and the last one, my favorite, is all about military. They have loads of old naval/army uniforms, weapons, etc. After walking through one of the museums, I told a lady that works there "Its a bit big, but I'll take it". Stunned. Oh, and of my favorite spots, if you walk through the castle, there's a pond with a fountain. I want to live there. Sad face.



Table Mountain Cableway, its expensive. To me it was a waste of time and money, although the view is great, the view at God's Window was better. I'm just not a beach person. Food and drink is expensive, so stop somewhere before you go. Another crappy thing is that students only get discount on Fridays, so, I know we weren't there on a Friday. There is a memorial thing at the top which I thought was very neat. Oh, and the cable-car rotates, scary as hell.



We had lunch in some garden thing, right next to the Aquarium... There's a big, fat, very slow squirrel there. He wants food. Oh, and the post cards aren't protected or well looked after. Grin. Food was good, way too much, made me sleepy. But the garden was beautiful. And there's a monument of some important guy that I took a photo with. Wish I could remember who.



The other amazing thing, we drove around for 30 minutes trying to find these houses, and now for the love of me I can't remember what they're called, and that's perhaps why the locals gave us evil eyes.



Keep coming back, I should be uploading a lot more soon.

Oops, almost forgot:



:P

Pretoria, Gauteng

I just realized that I haven't put the blogs in order... Ok, so the day after Nicole landed (Tuesday), we went to see Pretoria, Church Square, Paul Kruger Museum, and the day after that (Wednesday) the Voortrekker Monument.

Church Square's architecture is amazing. I love the feeling of being surrounded by old buildings. The only downside of going there is the fact that its over crowded, surrounded by homeless people, its dirty, and the doves, like in Central Park, have become pests. A nice place to visit is Cafe Riche, the oldest cafe in Pretoria. They have imported beers from all over the world, traditional South African food, and Oom Paul coffee. Oom Paul coffee is served in what looks like a soup bowl. Its brilliant!



The Paul Kruger Museum is all about our first president. The museum was his house, and as far as I know, all of the objects are original. I love the old things, as I've said before, and it was a must see. Nicole wasn't that impressed, probably because she's not into museums. But as always, I do what I want to do.



The Voortrekker Monument is HUGE! Its has a lot of information about the pioneers that migrated throughout South Africa. Be prepared to walk a lot, climb stairs, see amazing views, and be blown away when you look down from the very top onto the "empty grave" that reads "ONS VIR JOU SUID-AFRIKA".



I LOVE MY HERITAGE!

Pure Venom Reptile Park, KwaZulu Natal

We went on Tuesday, it was raining, but absolutely worth it. The advertisements say that its the biggest reptile park in Africa... Its not! It still has a lot of amazing snakes, crocodiles, alligators, and a few other reptiles. Nicole and I also got to take photos with an Burmese Python. Awesome!



Touted as the biggest reptile farm in Africa, Pure Venom Reptile Park lies just inland from Shelly Beach on a beautiful, old estate in Izotsha, surrounded by huge wild olive trees that date back to the 1800s. The reptile park, as its name suggests, has an incredible collection of indigenous and exotic reptiles and it’s an ideal way to get up close and personal with a series of snakes, iguanas and crocodiles on the Hibiscus Coast.



At the Pure Venom Reptile Park one comes face to face with a whole range of interesting snake facts about which one knew little before, including the fact that egg-eating snakes have teeth in their necks and mole snakes have up to ninety five babies! You can have a photo taken holding a python, mamba, cobra or a viper (if you’re brave enough) and the park includes nine species of rattlesnake, the largest variation of this species outside of America, as well as five species of crocodile.



Pure Venom Reptile Park just happens to be set on the part of the country’s coast that supports the most unique live reptile collection in South Africa. At the park you’re also able to get a bird’s eye view of the mating and courtship rituals of gaboon vipers, boomslang and mambas, and, despite their reputation for not breeding easily in captivity, the park has bred the highly threatened giant sungazer lizard. There are guided tours, daily snake demonstrations and on Sundays the highly fascinating crocodile and alligator feeding, should you enjoy such enormous displays of appetite.

Kruger National Park

Well, Saturday became pantsless Saturday in the Kruger National Park, it was about 42 degrees Celcius. HOT!

Kruger National Park is one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers 18,989 square kilometres (7,332 sq mi) and extends 360 kilometres (220 mi) from north to south and 65 kilometres (40 mi) from east to west.



To the west and south of the Kruger National Park are the two South African provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga. In the north is Zimbabwe, and to the east is Mozambique. It is now part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, a peace park that links Kruger National Park with the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe, and with the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique.



The park is part of the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere, an area designated by the United Nations Education and Scientific Organisation (UNESCO) as an International Man and Biosphere Reserve (the "Biosphere").



The park has 9 main gates that allow entrance to the different camps. The names of these gates are Paul Kruger Gate, Numbi Gate, Malelane Gate, Crocodile Bridge Gate, Punda Maria Gate, Orpen Gate, Phalaborwa Gate, Phabeni Gate and Pafuri Gate.



We went in by Malelane Gate, came out at Crocodile Bridge Gate. We had to speed to get out, it was raining heavily, and there is a certain time you need to be out... If I remember correctly it was 19:00.

Traveller's note: just say you're South African, they only check the driver's ID, otherwise you're going to pay R180 per day instead of local rates of R45.

Mpumalanga

Ok, so the road trip started on Monday, we went to Mpumalanga on Thursday, and left on Saturday. Nicole and I went to:

Pinnacle Rock is a tall column of weathered quartzite littered with bright aloes. It rises 30m above the indigenous forest in the surrounding Driekop gorge. A source of the Ngwaritsana river cascades through the dark depths of the narrow cleft on the right at the head of the gorge.



God's Window at an altitude of 1730 m, offers magnificent views across the Lowveld, Kruger National Park and the Lebombo mountain range in the distance. The nature reserve at God’s Window includes a rain forest and beautiful Aloe gardens scattered with large outcrops of sandstone, weathered into haunting prehistoric shapes. A trail leads through the rain forest along the escarpment edge towards Wonder View affording panoramic views over a vast expanse of the Lowveld.



Bourke's Luck Potholes at the confluence of the Treur and Blyde rivers is one of the most remarkable geological phenomena in the country .Through millions of years, the swirling whirlpools which occur at the confluence, have caused water born sand and rocks to grind deep cylindrical potholes into the bedrock of the rivers.The potholes are named after Tom Burke who recognised the gold potential of the area. He became involved with the mining enterprise which owned the properly. However, there is an element of irony in the name, as the main find of gold was not on their ground but on the opposite side of the river.




Lisbon Falls are a spectacular 95m treble cascade that tumbles into the dark green pools far below. Lisbon creek is typical of the area where early diggers panned for gold.



Three Rondavels View Site affords magnificent views of the famous peaks of quartzite and shale, known as the three rondavels while the Blydepoort dam lies calm arid serene far below. The poort or mouth of the canyon lies between Swadini and Mariepskop, which was once the scene of a great battle between Swazi raiders from the south and local Bapedi and Mapulana tribesman, who used the flat crest of the mountain as a place of refuge and a fortress whenever they were attacked. The Bapedi and Mapulana tribes became tired of the continual Swazi raids and under the leadership of Chief Maripi Mashile, they climbed to the top of the mountain peak opposite Swadini and bombarded the Swazis with large boulders in what became known as the battle of Moholoholo, 'the great, great battle '. The Swazis were heavily defeated and thereafter the mountain was named Maripi in honour of the Mapulana chief.



The Echo Caves are some of the oldest caves in the world and were declared a Historical Monument. The caves are so called because the local people used one of the stalactites as a drum to warn of any approaching Swazi. As these caves extend for some 40 km, the sound travelled for surprisingly long distances and the people could take refuge in the caves. From an archaeological point of view, the caves are truly fascinating as finds here confirm the legend that strangers may years ago in long white robes came to look for gold and to barter with the inhabitants. Some of the finds are exhibited at the Museum of Man. One of the rooms of the cave has a height of 60m! There are guided tours through 2km of tunnels viewing impressive stalagmites and stalactites. New discoveries include the Madonna and the Crystal Palace. The Echo Caves are the least well known of the limestone caves. Therefore, the advantage is that fewer people visit them and you may be lucky enough to enjoy this amazing underworld with just your guide.



Blyde River Canyon. A scenic spectacle, the Blyde River Canyon lies within the 27,000 hectares of the Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve, a 57 km belt which runs north from Graskop along the escarpment. Owing to variations in altitude, temperature and-rainfall, a great diversity of vegetation occurs. On the high-lying southern section which has a high rainfall, extensive grassy slopes and dense areas of rain forest with yellow wood, boekenhout, forest silver trees, etc. and ferns are to be found. The central area has mixed Sour Bush veld and thorn trees, while the northern area and foothills are known as the Lowveld Sour Bush veld.



Ok, so I got the info off a website, but the pictures were taken by us. So when traveling through Mpumalanga, just remember, you have to pay to see everything, which is quite irritating, and its only cash accepted. Keep cash with you. Then also, there are little markets everywhere, and they are the cheapest places to buy souvenirs (if you bargain). And if you buy souvenirs, ask them if they make the items themselves or if they buy to sell. The people who make it themselves deserve the money, and the people who buy and sell won't bargain with you.

IT'S A MUST SEE!

Long time no blog

It's been a while since I wrote on here, and its about time that I start again. So many things have happened, so many things haven't happened yet.

Well, I went to the bush for 3 weeks to "study", then I wrote my tests, and then I worked for a little bit, and then my German friend visited me for our road trip for 21 days, and now I started working again, and my dad gave me a speech about how I need to look for a job, and I need to go to church or find myself a new place to live.

Here's what I think about it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rwioe1SGkQ&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL