So it appears I need to update you on a few bits and pieces
Luke, who I have been travelling for the last 7 weeks with, left about an hour ago in a cab destined for the airport and is flying home tonight.
The injury he sustained bungy jumping, which I told you was just a sprained ankle, turned out to be a little more serious. He broke his foot and will now be spending the next 3 months on crutches. It wasn't until we reached Cape Town (and a proper doctor) that we found out it had been completely mis-diagnosed in Zambia and Zimbabwe and he had been hobbling around for 3 weeks (and abseiling table mountain) on a broken foot.
Unfortunately for him it has meant he has had to cut his trip short by 3 weeks and it means that I will be travelling to Jo'burg alone.
When thinking of things that I will miss about the big man, what comes to mind first is not being able to sing "One leg, you've only got one leg" to him anymore. I will genuinely miss being able to sing that song- it amused me for at least a week. Perhaps I should scout out the local hospital and find someone with actually just one leg, so that they can enjoy my song. Hmmm. Perhaps not.
One thing I wont miss however is when walking down the street with Luke every second person would ask how his injury occurred and consequently Luke would have to explain (and I would have to listen to) the same damn story. The conversation would typically take this format:
"Ahhh shit bruu, what happened to your leg"
"I broke my foot"
"Ahhh shame shame. How did it happen?"
"Bungy jumpinh in Vic Fals."
*Shocked Expression* "Ahhh no way bruu. Shame, shame. So what actually happened?"
"They didnt strap my left foot tight enough and on the first rebound, the bone broke and the surrounding tendons tore." *Cue illustration of bone breaking using hands*
There were a couple of funny reactions to Luke's foot, such as one lady asking if he hit the floor (she genuinely asked that) and one guy saying "well, some people come to Africa and just don't understand how tough it is." Yeah, ok mate.
But enough about Luke, this is my blog!
For our last night in Cape Town we headed to Green Point Stadium for a clash of two of South Africa's footballing heavyweights. Ajax Cape Town Vs The Platinum Stars! Yeah, those two well known teams. The stadium was impressive- its a 64,000 seater and it was host to one of the World Cup semi finals. It would have been even more impressive if there had been 64,000 people in the stadium. In truth, there was probably only 3,000. The standard of football was poor- probably league two standard. It was like watching Southend play Gillingham. With vuvuzelas. Bloody vuvuzelas.
From Cape Town we embarked upon our first Baz Bus journey. The Baz Bus is a hop on, hop off bus company which stops off at numerous towns and hostels , making it very easy to travel around South Africa. For Luke, it was quite literally hop on, hop off.
Since then, the main highlight of the trip is without doubt riding (and almost killing) an ostrich. At the ostrich farm we went to there was the option of riding an ostrich, so without hestiation I planted myself firmly on the back of the big bird. As I held on to its wings tightly, two guys pushed the ostrich so that it would run around the enclosure. They then told me to jump off, and after I gracefully dismounted, the ostrich just collapsed. It was as if the weight of my backside had been to much for it to handle. There was a moment where I thought that maybe I did in fact exceed the 75kg limit and that maybe, because of that, I had broken the ostrich's back! Luckily it got to it's feet fairly quickly. However, whether or not it will be heading to a chiropractor soon, I do not know.
Last night was Luke's last night. We went out for Chinese, which we both thought was rather fitting for his last night in Africa. Afterwards we watched the film "Its Complicated". It wasnt complicated, it was shit.
So that brings you up to speed. I'll be heading off to Port Elizabeth in a few hours time, but beofre I leave I must inform you of the two missions that I have undertaken.
The first mission is to source out the best chocolate muffin in Africa. I have had several already, although none have truly stood out.
The second mission is to donate as many shower gels to the people of Africa as I can. I am already on my fourth shower gel after leaving the previous 3 (on purpose of course) in various hostels. Screw you Geldof, I'm saving this continent - one wash at a time.
Lots of love to all
Jonny x x x
Friday, 24 September 2010
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
Back in South Africa - Loving Cape Town
Hello loved ones.
Its been almost two weeks since we last spoke, and thus I have a fair bit to catch you up on.
I last left you in Swakopmund - an old Germany colonial town in Namibia. Aside from the sandboarding in Swakopmund, we also spent a couple of days exploring the town. Swakopmund is a pretty seaside town with some impressive buildings and enticing bakeries. There was only one problem with Swakopmund, and it is a problem that is shared by Germany. There were just too many Germans. Luckily, we didn't go to the beach and therefore avoided any possible towel-on-sunbed related incidents.
From Swakopmund to Cape Town we stopped off at various different places, although none of them interesting enough to warrant their own paragraph. The first was Fish River Canyon- allegedly the second largest canyon in the world. It was massive. Another stopover was in Stellenbosch- a town that exists primarily for its production of wine. Its wine-tasting tours are world-famous. I didn't do the tour though.
We finally arrived in Cape Town on Saturday and that marked the end of our 5 week trip with Kumuka, and the beginning of our 5 week independent travel through South Africa.
In the 4 days that we have been in Cape Town we have packed a lot in. We reached the summit of Table Mountain- aided in only the slightest by a cable car- on Saturday afternoon.
On Sunday we jumped in a hire care with a couple of friends and drove around the peninsula to the Cape of Good Hope - the most south westerly point on the African continent. I've now done the big two: Ive reached the highest point in Africa and the most south-westerly point. What else is there to do?
We also stopped off to visit a penguin colony. Apparently, this species of penguins used to be called "Jackass penguins". I didn't understand why though, as I didn't catch them doing any death defying stunts - they couldn't even fly!
On Monday we travelled to a small town called Gansbrai with the sole purpose of going shark cage diving. Thats right, we only bloody swam with Great White Sharks! As we floated in a cage, just over the side of the boat, the crew attracted the sharks to the boat. When they approached, someone would shout "Down!" and you would have to pull yourself underwater to see a 5m long Great White swim right next to you! On a couple of occasions they even attacked the cage, which was a little scary to say the least.
I thought it was ironic that normally it is humans seeing animals in their cages but this time it was as if the sharks were coming to see us in our cage. I reckoned the sharks would have been thinking how sad it was to see humans in captivity and not in the wild. I thought that was a pretty humorous observation. Apparently I was just being silly.
Yesterday we took the short ferry trip over to Robben Island. Robben Island was used as a prison during the days of apartheid and was where they kept the political prisoners such as Nelson Mandela. Despite popular belief, the island is not named after the Dutch winger and nor is it the sidekick of a bigger and more popular island callled Batman Island. That joke wasnt well recieved first time round, so hopefully its wit will come across better over the internet.
As for today, Im having a pretty Jewish day. I had a shawarma for lunch and will be heading off any minute now to have a look round the biggest synagogue in South Africa and the holocaust museum. Bet you're jealous.
Lots of love
Jonny x
Its been almost two weeks since we last spoke, and thus I have a fair bit to catch you up on.
I last left you in Swakopmund - an old Germany colonial town in Namibia. Aside from the sandboarding in Swakopmund, we also spent a couple of days exploring the town. Swakopmund is a pretty seaside town with some impressive buildings and enticing bakeries. There was only one problem with Swakopmund, and it is a problem that is shared by Germany. There were just too many Germans. Luckily, we didn't go to the beach and therefore avoided any possible towel-on-sunbed related incidents.
From Swakopmund to Cape Town we stopped off at various different places, although none of them interesting enough to warrant their own paragraph. The first was Fish River Canyon- allegedly the second largest canyon in the world. It was massive. Another stopover was in Stellenbosch- a town that exists primarily for its production of wine. Its wine-tasting tours are world-famous. I didn't do the tour though.
We finally arrived in Cape Town on Saturday and that marked the end of our 5 week trip with Kumuka, and the beginning of our 5 week independent travel through South Africa.
In the 4 days that we have been in Cape Town we have packed a lot in. We reached the summit of Table Mountain- aided in only the slightest by a cable car- on Saturday afternoon.
On Sunday we jumped in a hire care with a couple of friends and drove around the peninsula to the Cape of Good Hope - the most south westerly point on the African continent. I've now done the big two: Ive reached the highest point in Africa and the most south-westerly point. What else is there to do?
We also stopped off to visit a penguin colony. Apparently, this species of penguins used to be called "Jackass penguins". I didn't understand why though, as I didn't catch them doing any death defying stunts - they couldn't even fly!
On Monday we travelled to a small town called Gansbrai with the sole purpose of going shark cage diving. Thats right, we only bloody swam with Great White Sharks! As we floated in a cage, just over the side of the boat, the crew attracted the sharks to the boat. When they approached, someone would shout "Down!" and you would have to pull yourself underwater to see a 5m long Great White swim right next to you! On a couple of occasions they even attacked the cage, which was a little scary to say the least.
I thought it was ironic that normally it is humans seeing animals in their cages but this time it was as if the sharks were coming to see us in our cage. I reckoned the sharks would have been thinking how sad it was to see humans in captivity and not in the wild. I thought that was a pretty humorous observation. Apparently I was just being silly.
Yesterday we took the short ferry trip over to Robben Island. Robben Island was used as a prison during the days of apartheid and was where they kept the political prisoners such as Nelson Mandela. Despite popular belief, the island is not named after the Dutch winger and nor is it the sidekick of a bigger and more popular island callled Batman Island. That joke wasnt well recieved first time round, so hopefully its wit will come across better over the internet.
As for today, Im having a pretty Jewish day. I had a shawarma for lunch and will be heading off any minute now to have a look round the biggest synagogue in South Africa and the holocaust museum. Bet you're jealous.
Lots of love
Jonny x
Thursday, 2 September 2010
Bungee Jump to Sand Boarding and Everything in Between
So, where did I leave you? Oh, thats right at Victoria Falls.
After white water rafting on the Zambezi I thought I would try to kill myself in an even more extreme and extravagant fashion- I jumped off the bridge that connects Zimbabwe to Zambia not once, but three times. We did the Flying fox (a zip line that was really just a warm up for the main event), a bungee jump and a bridge swing. The bungee jump was incredible, so exhilirating! Not once did I worry about the Zimbabwean health and safety conditions nor the quality of hospitals should anything unfortunate happen. The good news is that I survived the jumps. The less good news is that Luke did not.
Ok, that sounded a little dramatic. He didnt die or anything, simply sprained his ankle. To be honest, Im just glad he went after me, because if i had seen him do that, who knows whether I would have jumped or not.
Later that day, with Luke hobbling along we crossed over to Zambia for the day to do a Microlight flight over the Falls. The microlight is basically a golf buggy with a propellor, and so did not instill a great deal of confidence in me. The views were flippin spectacular.
Since then, we have travelled through Botswana and we are currently in Swakopmund, Namibia. Botswana was (unsuprisingly) noticeably more prosperous than Zimbabwe. Despite this, most of our time there was spent camping in the bush in the Okavango Delta. This meant a hole in the ground for a toilet and the Delta water (crocodiles and hippos included) as a bath tub.
As for Namibia, it has been by far the best country for Safari-ing. We spent two nights at Etosha National Park and were able to see the big 5 plus a lot more. The campsites were situated around floodlit waterholes and so at night we were able to sit, beer in hand, and watch the animals. On the first night we were even able to see a leopard which had previously eluded us.
As well as the leopard, the other main highlight was seeing a lion kill. We watched as a big male lion crept up on a sleeping/possibly injured/possibly deaf young hyena. It then proceeded to pounce and break its neck. We heard the neck snap- Gruesome but awesome.
Since then we also visited a cheetah farm where we were able to walk with, pet and see the feeding of the cheetahs. It all went by pretty quickly really.
As for today, we just got back from Sanboarding - this consisted of us pelting ourselves down 100m high sand dunes at 70kph+ on a fairly flimsy board - the Kalahari Ferrari, as our instructors called it. The speed was incredible, hiking back up the dunes and later removing the sand from every nook and cranny was less amusing.
So that brings me to now. Here I am in an internet cafe in Swapokmund, Namibia, with a painfully slow internet connection. I'd better go, got 7 minutes of internet left, and I need to find out how on earth Spurs were able to sign Van der Vaart!
Love to all x x x
After white water rafting on the Zambezi I thought I would try to kill myself in an even more extreme and extravagant fashion- I jumped off the bridge that connects Zimbabwe to Zambia not once, but three times. We did the Flying fox (a zip line that was really just a warm up for the main event), a bungee jump and a bridge swing. The bungee jump was incredible, so exhilirating! Not once did I worry about the Zimbabwean health and safety conditions nor the quality of hospitals should anything unfortunate happen. The good news is that I survived the jumps. The less good news is that Luke did not.
Ok, that sounded a little dramatic. He didnt die or anything, simply sprained his ankle. To be honest, Im just glad he went after me, because if i had seen him do that, who knows whether I would have jumped or not.
Later that day, with Luke hobbling along we crossed over to Zambia for the day to do a Microlight flight over the Falls. The microlight is basically a golf buggy with a propellor, and so did not instill a great deal of confidence in me. The views were flippin spectacular.
Since then, we have travelled through Botswana and we are currently in Swakopmund, Namibia. Botswana was (unsuprisingly) noticeably more prosperous than Zimbabwe. Despite this, most of our time there was spent camping in the bush in the Okavango Delta. This meant a hole in the ground for a toilet and the Delta water (crocodiles and hippos included) as a bath tub.
As for Namibia, it has been by far the best country for Safari-ing. We spent two nights at Etosha National Park and were able to see the big 5 plus a lot more. The campsites were situated around floodlit waterholes and so at night we were able to sit, beer in hand, and watch the animals. On the first night we were even able to see a leopard which had previously eluded us.
As well as the leopard, the other main highlight was seeing a lion kill. We watched as a big male lion crept up on a sleeping/possibly injured/possibly deaf young hyena. It then proceeded to pounce and break its neck. We heard the neck snap- Gruesome but awesome.
Since then we also visited a cheetah farm where we were able to walk with, pet and see the feeding of the cheetahs. It all went by pretty quickly really.
As for today, we just got back from Sanboarding - this consisted of us pelting ourselves down 100m high sand dunes at 70kph+ on a fairly flimsy board - the Kalahari Ferrari, as our instructors called it. The speed was incredible, hiking back up the dunes and later removing the sand from every nook and cranny was less amusing.
So that brings me to now. Here I am in an internet cafe in Swapokmund, Namibia, with a painfully slow internet connection. I'd better go, got 7 minutes of internet left, and I need to find out how on earth Spurs were able to sign Van der Vaart!
Love to all x x x
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