The Eastern Cape Roadtrip

So, after getting the blog out on Friday, Magdel and Greg got out of work for the afternoon and we all set out for a 5 day 4 night road trip in Central and Eastern South Africa. With so many sights seen over the past 7 weeks, I have gotten a bit lazy about needing to know the specifics of where I am going and what I am doing, so I just asked them about what kind of clothes to pack, grabbed my ipod and book, and I was good to go.

We started off with another stop at the Badenhorst's to drop off the doggies and then set along the coast to Mossel Bay. It was about a 5 hour drive when we arrived at the house of another gracious host who went to school with Magdel.

Alex and Myrna live on the Indian Ocean in a little vacation town in between Mossel Bay and George. New Zealand has a good arraignment with South Africa for dual citizenship. They actually have a point system based on your education, profession and income that prioritizes your citizenship application. number. They allow 50,000 SAins in each year and give you a probability for gaining entry based on your points. Alex owns his own software company and Myrna is an MD, so they got in pretty easily and enjoyed it there. About 3 years ago they moved from New Zealand and built house on land that the family has had for a long time so they could be near Alex's parents. They have 2 boys and a newborn, so having granny access is nice.

After meeting them and having some drinks, I was set for my first official South African Braai (BBQ). The Braai the biggest social institution the Afrikaaners have. I could spend the next 2000 words describing all that I have learned about the Braai, but needless to say, there are some simple rules.

First, you have to drink, seriously, drink. You may think that just because I am happy to drink that I would point this out, but I am being subjective here. When Magdel and Greg moved here after their year long travels, they were trying to cut down on their alcohol intake. They would arrive at a Braai and, when asked what they would like to drink, were received with a harsh silence when they said they would like a water or juice. Since the beer kinda stinks here (they drink MGD as a good import), you generally are drinking SA wine. So, step one, rule one, grab a glass a wine.

The next thing is, make yourself comfortable. There are no charcoal briquettes and don't even think about gas, this is a wood only BBQ country. They use specific woods (see braai wood seller below) and discuss and debate which ones are best. After "Sundowners", the Braai wood goes up into a campfire where people chat. Then the process of cooking down to coals takes place. Then the meat is put on ONLY after the Braai cook says so. Then, while the meat rests, Braai Broodjies (grilled cheeses with fresh onions and tomatoes) are toasted over the coals. If you show up at a 7:00 Braai, don't expect to really eat until 10:00.

As you can tell, during this whole process, leadership is important. That (and I am sorry about this one ladies) is handled by the Man of the house. Now, as the (often hungry) woman wait for the ceremony to run it's course, there are some doubts that are cast in the kitchen. Usually they worry that the men will get too drunk telling stories around the braai and the meat will get over cooked. I ducked into the lady zone a couple of times to observe this rhetoric. But, back to the Braai leader. He (and only he) makes the decisions of when to put on the Fleis and Broodjies. No matter what you think justifies it, nobody touches the meat other than him, NOBODY. I learned pretty quick about the wine, wait and no touch rules.

Alex and Myrna went all out for us. Normally a Braai has some steaks and wors, but these guys got tenderloin fillets. They were the whole strip that normally makes up a Fillet Mignon. They were cooked to perfection, next to fresh made roles on the braai. Back in the kitchen, they had made up salad, oven veggies and a peppercorn mushroom sauce. I sat in ecstasy eating this great dinner as we watched the Rugby World Cup 3rd place match between Argentina and France.

After dinner I nearly passed out on the couch while everyone was talking. I made myself a gentle escape to one of the boys rooms that I had for the evening and crashed. The next morning we sat on the porch, watched the waves roll in and ate a breakfast of yogurt, fresh fruit and cereal. It was such a nice stay.

During the drive up to the Addo Elephant Park it was clear that Rugby Fever was in full bloom. South Africa was playing England for the World Cup that evening and everyone was wearing Springbok green and talking about the game. There was an added undertone of South Africa/England rivalry from the Boer Wars. The term Concentration Camp was coined during these wars where the English improsoned the Afrikaaners during the war and they haven't forgotten. We even got stick pins at the gas station for the fill up.

We were all keen on the Rugby, but we first had the drive to complete and Elephants to see. On the way up we stopped at a harbor vacation spot for a late coffee and then a couple hours later, stocked up at a gas station with groceries and pies.

Pies are a staple of South Africa and available just about everywhere you turn. They are generally beef or chicken, but there are some Indian influences with the lentil curry pies and traditional offerings such as the kidney pies. During my time here, I have tried everything and have yet to find one I didn't like. I think my favorite is the Sausage Roll, which reminds me of the Pig in a Blankets they serve at Russ' back in Holland Michigan. So, Pies are Good!

We rolled into the Addo Park at 4:00 or so, which gave us time to check into our hut and take a pre-sundowner nap. We were scheduled for a Game Drive (drinks included) at 6:00 and we wanted to be rested. We slept in a little to long and almost missed it, but alas with a little jog we made it before they drove off.

We climbed in the back of a Land Rover truck with 4 rows of seats and drove into the Game Park. We were all searching the brush for wildlife and not seeing much, then, as we rounded a corner, there were 2 bulls eating on the side of the path. One started walking toward us, veered around the truck and walked past us into the sunset. It was pretty awesome. He walked so softly as he passed by close enough that I could have reached out and touch him. I was too busy being a chicken and taking pictures to do so, but it was slick.

We drove on and saw Water Buffalo, Jackals, Monkeys, Baboons, Warthogs, Antelope and Dung Beetles. The viewing was a bit sparse since the winds were just howling at this point. We stopped for sundowners in this big field and enjoyed drinks and snacks. They make their own style of beef jerky here called Biltong. It is dried with salt and hung to cure and man o man is it good stuff.

After the game drive we go a table at the restaurant in view of the TV so we could have dinner and watch the Rugby. It was a bit of a boring game actually, but the Springboks won and everyone was ecstatic. Another great day.

The next morning we got up at 6 for our own game drive through the park. We didn't see any new animals, but we stumbles onto this large watering hole surrounded by elephants. The must have been close to 100, and among them was the teeniest tiniest little baby elephant. He was being protected by the adults, but if you looked between their legs you could see him.

Then, as they got close to the water, the little one ran off from the pack toward to water. His mom roared and he spun around, but in his clumsy baby way, he lost control of his rear legs and they went sliding down the bank and into the water. It wasn't long and he lost his struggle to stay on dry land. The pack erupted into roars and trumpets as the baby paddled to stay afloat.

After what seemed to be a long wait, the adults started going in to get him. Then, they didn't really whisk him out quick. The little guy struggled for quite a while before finally getting shoved out. We all interpreted this as a lesson for the little snot. The trumpets in the beginning were more of a reprimand than a panic.

From there we changed our original plan (can't quite remember what it was) and decided to do a 6 hour long 4X4 trek through the wilderness. It ran through a number of the sights of battles of the Boer Wars, and was a chance to see more nature. 6 hours of bumping around was a little hard on the well traveled body I have these days, but it was well worth it.
We popped out on the other side coming through a Rhino Park. We were still technically in the Addo Park and thought about finding a place to stay from the places listed in the guide. They seemed to all be closed up and we were looking at another 2 hours of driving to get to a town when we came upon a ranger changing his tire.

We popped out and helped him change it and inquired about places to stay. He had the paperwork to set us up at a place we didn't notice along the way, but was still open. We found it easy enough and settled in for another braai. This time it was Greg's turn, he has the patience. We had a good braai with lamb chops and boerwors and I keeled off to bed again.
I woke up a few hours later and couldn't fall asleep. This is actually something that happens to me pretty normally about once a month or so. I actually get too much sleep and then have a night of twiddling my thumbs. Fortunately I had about 12 hours of NPR podcasts on my ipod, so I just lay there and chilled out.

In the middle of the night it was really stuffy in the room. I decided to brave the mosquitoes and open the windows. There are no screens in South Africa for some reason and as I lay there swatting off mosquitoes, I got to worrying about monkeys and baboons crawling in and what I would do. There are tons of them in these parks and they like to raid you food and belonging.

So I lay there half paranoid the whole time looking at the window and thinking I was going to get a visitor. Then, I hear a crunch outside like someone walking around the hut. I sprung up to look out the window and there were 3 huge Kudu. There was a female and two males with these magnificent corkscrew like antlers. The sky was also one of these clear dark night skies with sheets of stars. The Kudu glowed in the moonlight and I had memory of beauty that I will never forget.

The next day was off to Oudtshoorn, which is another wine town, but more known for it's Ostrich Farms. We were staying with Morkel, who is another college friend of Magdel's. Morkel grew up on an Ostrich/Wine farm and has spent his career starting and selling Ostrich Farms around the world in places such as New Zeeland, Saudi Arabia and Hurricane Utah. He bought this beautiful old house and is in the process of making it into a B&B. Oh, and he is very very gay, hotpants and all.

I am not sure if I just give gay dudes more credit for interior decorating or weather there is a genuine advantage there, but Morkels house, although not super fancy, was so cool. All of his choices of where to put what were just perfect. After sundowners, it was then time for a braai (do you see a pattern developing here?).

Morkel got help from William and Sebastian (his platonic roommates) in preparing the braai. William took the lead on making the fire, which was all done in an antique metal wheel barrow. Sebastian made the veggies, salad and assembled the broodjies, which this time included heirloom tomatoes and english chutney.

We had beef, lamb and ostrich steaks and of course boerwors. Once William had the meat resting, Morkel declared the coals too hot for the broodjies, so there was an added wait, but in the end, everything was done to perfection. We ate too much food, drank too much wine and told too many stories.

The next day, after breakfast, we were off for the long ride back to Capetown. It started with a river canyon dirt road that led to a beautiful switchback mountain pass on dirt roads. We stopped and took many photos.

Eventually we were back onto normal paved highway roads. Half way back we stopped in a small English village for coffee and scones with decadent rich cream and jam. We swung through Strand to pick up the doggies and then it was back home. Such a great time.

I have another day or so here and then it is off to the big flight home. I am thinking of playing golf at one of the premier courses here tomorrow and then we are all going out for one last celebratory dinner. I must say it has been a great decision to come here. I couldn't have asked for a better time.

DMW

Howzit!

Travel Blog……I hardly knew ye L

It has been FAR too long since my last update and the gap has started to overtake the urge, so it is time to act, lest I never blog again!

There have been so many great times over the past 3 weeks, from the send off in Guate, to the beautiful wedding in Seattle, then to Portland, San Francisco and LA. Friends and family were great and Nuffy (“Peach” according to Uncle Jim) was the best road trip partner I have ever had. We closed out the trip with a night in Las Vegas including a Penn & Teller show. Totally killer time!

I would love to write reams of detail on the past two weeks, but here I sit in Cape Town, South Africa with a ton of new stories to tell. So, onto the latest chapter.

On October 10th, I left Albuquerque for a full day of sitting on planes. It promised to be quite a long day of travel, but the first leg of my travel went real smooth to Washington Dulles. Something very odd comes over me on a plane. I completely dig everything presented to me (with the exception of the seats). I eat every crumb of the in-flight meal, cry at the stupidest movies (in this case Evan Almighty) and cherish every trip to the little bathroom.

I am not sure why this is. I can be a picky little snot about food, entertainment and toilets, but for some reason that all melts away. I am serious about the movie thing. Action movies are more thrilling, comedies produce belly laughs and I cry to every romantic comedy. I have literally cried a half dozen in planes at movies I wouldn’t even rent. I have even been caught a couple of times and had to lie and say I had allergies.

Ah well, now that that’s off my chest. I finally got down to Cape Town in a semi zombie like state and my friend Greg greeted me with the standard “Howzit” greeting and escorted me off to the bukie (pickup truck) to drive me to their house. Magdel and Greg are close friends that used to live in Albuquerque. I met Magdel through work and we have been good friends since. About a year and a half ago, they quit their jobs in Albuquerque and went traveling through Asia and Australia for a year or so rock climbing. They are both lean and energetic types with endless fuel in the tank for adventure and laughs. They have been wonderful hosts.

When I got to their place, Magdel had a bottle of wine open and some lasagna in the oven. I didn’t think I was hungry, but I ended up having 3 rounds of food. I was really out of it and since I hadn’t seen them for so long, I wanted to talk about life and times, but words were not easy. Odd for me. I went off to bed and slept like a rock.

The next morning Magdel drove me to the Green Market area of downtown. Both her and Greg are now working, Magdel as a Chemical Engineer at Chevron and Greg as a Geosomethinorother Engineer at a large construction company. Magdel had a meeting in the Green Market area and so it was convenient to drop me off to explore.
I was still in zombie mode from the travels, so I wandered around in a confused state taking in the sights. I basically started my process of understanding the place. Cape Town, as we all know, has a recent history of conflict in race and culture. There are 4 main ethic groups here, English, Afrikaans, Coloured and Black. The Afrikaans are the Dutch dissent people who fought for control of South Africa against the English for many years. They have their own language, which Magdel spoke growing up here. The Coloureds are a lighter skinned people who are a mix of Asian and African decent. The Blacks are the indigenous people of the area, as we would say.

I will not attempt too much insight on race relations here since I am deeply under qualified. I will say though, that it is different. That thought kept coming into my head as Magdel and Greg explained the country to me. I tried to impose my US liberal white WASP guilt onto the society here and it just doesn’t compute. There is clearly a class struggle taking place, with DEEP feelings on all sides, but there is no direct comparison to the US. Maybe at the end of the trip I can put some thoughts together, but for now, let’s just leave it at “different”.

After my expiration of downtown, I hung out at their house for a while. Taking a nap or two. Then we set off for the wine country after work. It was a Friday and we were off to Stellenbosch for the weekend. Stellenbosch reminds me of Napa Valley and it is the home of the University that Magdel attended. She has some friends from school that live up there and they own a Guest House.

After checking in, we went out for to a gourmet pizza place and met up with some more of her friends. I got a pizza with anchovies and wild mushrooms that really hit the spot. After that feast, I took my first real deep sleep.

Waking up, I flipped on the TV in the room to check out what the programming was like, and let me say, it is just the worst TV. This was a nice hotel with “Satellite TV” in the rooms, and there were just 3 channels. I found it interesting that there seemed to be a Black station, Coloured station and White station. So, the TV falls into my first good/bad declaration of things South Africa. I declare TV is bad!, but hey, what the heck am I doing watching TV anyway.

When we all got sorted (one of my fav new SA words), we set off to The Strand, which is a beach town where Magdel parents live. We needed to drop off the doggies for the balance of the weekend. The Badenhorscht’s are in there 80’s and still living with a bunch of vitality. Dad was mowing the lawn when we arrived and he didn’t come talk until the job was done.

Mom was inside cooking us my first “Farmer’s Breakfast”, which contained my first exposure to Boerewors (farmer’s sausage), which is an icon of the Afrikaans people. You can’t go too far in Cape Town without being exposed to the Boerewors. Mom was delighted to pile our plates with food and asked me questions about the US’s perceptions of South Africa. In her sweet little voice she asked me if she thought there would be Elephants in her back yard.

After breakfast, we set out for wine tasting. I declare Wine is good! There are just TON’s of “Wine Farms” in all areas of Cape Town that make outstanding wines of all varieties. They are “Beating the French at their own game” with Bordeaux wines, which turned out to be my favorite. The other part of all of this is the affordability of wine. There was a big feather ruffling about 5 years ago where a vineyard started selling bottles of wine above the R100 barrier (R6.5 to $1). Now, the Wine Farms seem to straddle the R100 mark, but I tasted a bunch of blends in the R40-R50 range that were pretty darn good.

We went to about 6 places, where they make generous portions for tasting. Greg was dumping the balance of his tastes in the jug on the bar, until I let him know in no uncertain terms, to not waste the wine and I would give it a good home. After the third Wine Farm though, but clean up activities were leading to a mighty buzz and I backed out of our new policy, but I did keep draining mine to the bottom (as to not insult).

These wine farms were all beautiful, with old farm houses and thatched roof buildings. At the last place we met up with more of Magdel’s friends, where we had a snack of cheese plates to soak up some of the wine. Magdel was the DD for the event, and after the meetup, we were on our way back to the guest house for a much needed nap.

We went out for a nice dinner that evening at a big table of friends and the talk was around the semifinals of the World Cup Rugby, which was down to France, England, Argentina and South Africa. The Sprinkboks (SA nickname) are an international powerhouse in Rugby and they were all looking past Argentina for who they would play in the final. England beat France (host city) and that made for a good rivalry in the finals, if SA won the next night of course.

On Sunday we all mounted up on mountain bikes for a ride overlooking Stellenbosch from the neighboring mountains. I was told that there was a bike for me to borrow, and sure enough they were able to find a big bike for me. It was an “American Classic” Diamondback CroMo tank from the early 90’s. The gears worked and the brake pads were not rubbing on the rims, so it was a worthy steed.

We set out for a couple of hours of riding that was a real treat. I had a little bit of a hard time keeping up with everyone since I was on a heavy old bike (my excuse and I am sticking to it!), but everyone was patient and pleasant. I think the bike got me some macho points, especially through the single track, where the fully rigid machine was quite a handful. After the ride, we all went over the Greta and Org’s (Inn Owner/Friend) for brunch. A super nice time.

It was back to town after that, with another nap before the big Rugby match of the Puma’s (Argentina) vs. Sprinkboks (SA). We were invite over to Jannis (Johnny’s) for a Poikey and an audience for the game on his 55” flat screen TV. Poikey is a diminutive for Pot (Poika) in Afrikaans. It is a stew cooked over an open flame, like a traditional campfire. Both the game (36-6) and the Poikey (Poikey is Good!)were big victories for the Afrikaaners. A big day for sure and I was able to see to much that day.

Monday, I went for my first round of golf at a local course called Mowbray. I got paired up with 2 Cape Towners and a Korean student at a local Golf University. Like schools in the US such as Ferris State, they have college programs here that are focused on running golf clubs. The group was a good match for each other, with T.S. (Korean dude) leading the charge with shooting a 76. I came in at 84, which I was very happy with.

Golf is good! There are tons of courses here and behind Rugby and maybe soccer, golf is a national passion. Ernie Els and Retief Goosen are national heroes. The courses are affordable and very well ran. They have this weird thing of splitting the round 8-10 with a stop at a restaurant after the 8th hole where most people sit down at a table for a snack. The other new think for me is playing to meters instead of yards. That took a little adjustment, especially with the huge winds that day. Wind is Bad!

After golf, there was another nap and then dinner at a pan-asian restaurant. Quite Good. On Tuesday, I milled around the house, read my book and cooked up an Indian Byriani dinner from a kit at the store. They live 2 blocks from a shopping area and I found this kit on the shelf and took joy in putting it together. I got stumped on some of the ingredients, but seeked out the help of Indian ladies in the grocery store for guidance. In Durban, there is a very large Indian population, and some of that populations has spread to Cape Town. That, and the fact that M&G live in an English area of town, lends to having good Indian food and references in the Pick and Pay.

The Byriani turned out good. You basically parboil lentils, potates, rice and marinate some meat (chicken this time) and layer them all in a pot and it simmers for a couple of hours to cook through. That was the even of Tuesday. Then on Wednesday Magdel dropped me off at Waterfront to explore.

The Waterfront here is a lot like Navy Pier in Chicago with tons of shops, restaurants and attractions. I had a great Sashimi lunch with Agadashi Tofu and a glass of wine, all for about $25. Then I strolled, drank espressos and read my book. Another groovy day.

Yesterday, I played another round of golf at Rondebosh, which is a little nicer than Mowbray and I talked myself into a affiliated guest discount J. I am a good little Neute-Kakker as they say here of the Dutch. After the war, many bombed out and poor Dutch took to a diet of eating only nuts (Naute) off the tree’s (I will leave the Kakker translation up to you). Later, many found it later a good way to save money on food, even though they had the means.

The Rondebosch round came in at an 88, which also was pretty good, since the wind was fierce. It was easily a 3 club wind at times and the putting was even effected buy the wind. My playing partner was an English fellow on Holiday taken as a preliminary arrangement with Occidental (Chem Company) before having an 8 month assignment in Dubai. He said they are paying him 4X his annual salary to do the inspections for a new refinery there. There sure is some crazy stuff going on in Dubai.

Last night we went to a great little fish restaurant in that same local shopping center and today is all in preparation for our big adventure! We are heading to Addo Park on the Eastern Cape for a 5 night adventure. This is where I am going to see Baboons, Elephants and all! Whoohoo! We are staying with some friends in the beginning and end of the trip, but the heart of it will be staying in bungalows in the park. Cool!

Well. I have to pack now. Quite the long catch up blog here, so thanks for hanging on this far. Until next post……

DMW