As long as you are in Kruger, there is hope

As long as you are in Kruger, there is hope. That’s a phrase our driver in Kruger always said. Hope for what? Probably to see some of the more special animals. Because we saw EVERYTHING. Buffalos, giraffes, elephants, birds, hippos,… We saw everything BUT the big cats. We started to think that they were on strike. But as long as you are in Kruger, there is hope.

We realized that our Vic Falls to Johannesburg tour with Nomads was over, when everybody was saying goodbye and we had to organize a taxi for ourselves to get to the hostel. The high prices made us wish that we could hop back on our tour truck.

Finally, we arrived at the Sleek hostel, which was quite cool but clearly, they were not prepared for winter. The rooms were freezing!!! At least the shower was hot. Since it wasn’t advisable to walk outside as females after dark, we ordered some pizzas with help from the guy at the reception. At least an hour later, they finally arrived cold but you know; this is Africa.

Luckily, we survived the cold night and tried to organize an Uber to the mall in Sandton the next day. Unfortunately, the app just didn’t work for us and so we had the choice of being ripped off by another taxi driver or take a minibus cab from the nearby taxi rank. We opted for the later, as it was only R11 and should be safe in the bright daylight. So, 10min later, we were on our way to the mall in a car full of black people.

Sandton City reminded me of Las Vegas with lots of big buildings, where all the life is going on inside. We spent the day shopping for clothes and souvenirs and enjoyed a delicious chocolate fondue from Haagen-Dazs. We needed that, after 3 weeks with hardly any sweets. We were getting a little worried about how we would get back to the hostel, when we met a guy from our hostel at the supermarket. What a lucky coincidence. It’s just safer to have a male person with you here (that’s what the guy at the reception told us). We wanted to take a bus with him but unfortunately, they just stopped running (at 8pm) but we could then actually haggle a taxi down to R150.

That was a good day in Josie and we didn’t feel like we had missed out on anything. I hadn’t particularly liked what I had seen of Johannesburg. Therefore, we were excited that our safari to Kruger would start the next day.

It began with a lot of driving. First, all the tourists in our area of Johannesburg were collected by Viva Safaris and then we started heading up to Kruger. We stopped for lunch in a restaurant with delicious food. An Italian couple even ordered the garlic snails. However, they hadn’t known what snails are, so in the end, they didn’t want to eat them. My chance to try one as I always said that they are disgusting and I don’t want to eat one. Well, now I can confirm my opinion; I won’t eat one again if I can avoid it. Other than that we pretty much just drove the whole day. We reached Balule game reserve (which joins together with Kruger) shortly after 4pm and noticed that this safari was a class higher. First of all, we had a room and not tents and the beds were so comfortable and everything in the lodge so nicely put together, that we could just relax for once. Then, they had an animal spotting terrace where we saw some baboons, warthogs and big elephant bulls. The elephants were as big as the safari vehicle we boarded afterwards and they came so close that we could be glad that they were feeling friendly.

When that excitement was over, we climbed into the safari car and went for a sunset drive. Somehow, we just don’t get lucky with night drives. Again, we only saw a few and very general animals like impalas, giraffes and luckily a few genets. When it was dark, we stopped somewhere in the bush, where the staff had set up dinner with tables and lots of candles. It was very romantic and the star spangled sky amazing. We had another South African specialty called pap (?). I had heard a lot about it. Mostly that it doesn’t taste like anything, you can compare it to polenta and it’s so thick that you could kill somebody with it. Luckily, it did not taste like polenta and i actually liked it with the tomato sauce and chicken they served it with. After dinner, they drove us back to our nice room. Unfortunately, not even the hyena that usually comes by showed up.

The next morning, a different safari jeep picked us up and we entered Kruger at Open Gate. We spent the WHOLE day driving around Kruger, spotting animals. Our driver, Dominic, had amazing eyes. Sometimes, he’d stop the car, leaving us all wondering what had happened until he would say: well, don’t you see the rhinos? And even then it took us a moment to find them. How could he have concentrated on the roads, the cows and impalas next to the road and still see the cool animals? If anyone would find us a leopard, it was him. But at 2pm, still no cat had showed up. We stopped for lunch at Satura camp, where they had a pizza place and Mugg and Beans. If you go to Kruger, you don’t have to be worried about the infrastructure.

After lunch, we kept hoping. We still awed at the cute elephant and hippo babies but it would have been nice to see some predators. So, when we saw a lot of cars stopping at one spot, we knew there had to be something. And there was. A giraffe only had a hole where its head and neck used to be with two big female lions and four cubs enjoying the rest of its body as a meal. You could really see that their mouths were red from the blood! That was something!

Then it already was almost sunset time again and we had to drive to our camp for the night. It was called Marc’s Treehouse Lodge and when we arrived there, we wished that we could stay longer. We really slept in a treehouse with our own bathroom. There are no fences around the camp and so there is the chance of seeing an animal.

After dinner we went straight to bed, as we were exhausted from all that driving around in the dry heat and we had to get up at 5.30am for our bushwalk. The bush walk was okay. We learned some more things about plants and termites. After an hour, we were glad that a good breakfast was waiting for us and then we unfortunately had to start our journey back to Johannesburg, as our flights were leaving the next day.

What an awesome time these past four weeks has been. What an adventure! I feel so lucky that I could experience all that (and on top I always had such nice company). And I had no problems with Malarone at all. Not more than the usual dizziness anyways. Neither did Michèle. I guess all the foods and drinks we had were clean as well, since our stomachs never bothered us! So, everything was a success and I’ll definitely come back to Africa to see some more of this continent.

This is not a holiday, it’s an adventure (Okavango Delta, road trips)

We really felt like we had arrived in Africa, when our big truck had to roll onto what looked like a hand-crafted and way to small ferry, that then brought us to the other side of a river. But the boat made it and our journey into the Okavango Delta continued, now pretty much off-road – they called that an African massage- to our camp at Jambo Junction. That was a like a resort campground with permanent tents. We finally had the sausage rolls for lunch and afterwards were scheduled for our first mokoro ride. A mokoro is a boat made out of a tree trunk and its engine is a person with a long stick to push away from the ground like in Venice. We were pretty unsure whether it was safe to bring the camera as these things were incredibly wobbly but after two minutes, we felt completely at ease with our skilled pole man and could enjoy the BEAUTIFUL ride. It’s such a peaceful way of transport, as you glide over the surface of the water almost noiselessly and sit on the same level as the water. I could have done that all day! How lovely! But we got off on an island and took a short walk with a guy named Nature, reading elephant tracks and other signs the animals left behind.

The ride back in the mokoro was even better, as we could observe some hippos that were really close by. Plus, the sun was just setting and I witnessed one of my most special sunsets. By then, we were starving again and could hardly await our dinner (potato salad, coleslaw and braaied chicken).

The next morning started with another wonderful mokoro ride until we reached another island, where we went for a longer walk. We learned more about animals and their behavior but unfortunately only saw a few birds, shit loads of elephant poo and cows. But no elephants 😦

Our pole men drove us back, where a nice brunch awaited us. Then, we had some time to relax, read, play darts (the group of my exchange student friend was there as well) until at 2.30pm it was our turn to try steering a mokoro. We were pretty sure that we would fall in but I actually found it easier than SUP to balance. Steering was a different story and there was a lot of laughter when boats would disappear in the high grass again. But I guess we had a talented group because afterwards, they let us pole ourselves to a swimming area in the delta, although that wasn’t really planned into the schedule. Our whole group came swimming, even our 70 year old grandmother, which proofed again, what an awesome group we have! By the way, that 70 year old lady did everything we did too with just as much energy as us. I can only hope that I will still be as fit and as adventurous as her, when I reach that age.

After the refreshing bath in the clear water, it was time for another sunset mokoro ride with our poler. It doesn’t get boring. To watch the sunset, we sat down on an island and then, just as we were putting the correct killer to jail, a whole group of elephants (including super cute babies) came to the water to drink. Wow, what a nice surprise! I almost missed the sunset because I was so mesmerized by them.

Unfortunately, we then had to go back before it became completely dark and when we reached the camp, our mokoro riding days were over.

For dinner we had bean soup, lamb meat, sausages and vegetables with potatoes and afterwards we played a game next to the fire under the full moon. The chance of seeing lots of stars had gone astray but at least we could find the path to our tents without a problem.

On Friday morning, it was time to pack up again and then board an army truck, that transported us to a different boat landing place. From there we took a boat through the delta for 2,5 hours. It was beautiful but freezing! So, we were glad when we finally spotted Nina and Gerhard waiting for us. We quickly made some tuna sandwiches for the road and then drove towards Maun, where the people who wanted could catch a scenic flight over the delta. The pictures showed that it was an experience worth doing but since I don’t like flying that much, I preferred walking into town to buy some supplies for the long road trips ahead and then get an iced coffee with the others who remained on the ground. They even had wifi there and I got a quick chance to talk to my family.

That night we arrived at the camp in the dark and would leave it again by 5am, so it would be a rather short night. Since a girl wanted to also have the camping experience for one night, we switched and went into her room. Unfortunately, we took the night were they had the most basic accommodation of all and I thought it was even colder than in the tent. Good that I brought my lovely warm sleeping bag this time 🙂

Dinner that night was rice with some kind of chicken stew. Very tasty once again.

I was surprised that I was able to eat breakfast at 4.30am but maybe it’s being outdoors so much. We packed some sandwiches for lunch that we could eat on the bus when we wanted because what followed was 11 hours on the road with a few toilet stops.

At least, we arrived at Stevensford reserve when the sun was still up. It was a nice place to camp and the lodges looked really good as well. We quickly set up our tents and then boarded a game drive jeep. We saw a family of warthogs (Pumba) running around and some impalas jumping. And that was it then. All the other animals seemed to have disappeared 😦 But we knew they had to be somewhere, since we saw zebras, when we were coming with the truck. We finally did see some cute dwarf mongooses and then a single giraffe we first thought was a statue because he didn’t move for at least 2min. On our way back, it was dark night and therefore, we used a spotlight to find more animals. We saw a few rabbits and also an antbear crossing the road, which apparently is quite lucky.

By the time we arrived back at the camp, I was starving and therefore glad that a hot dinner was ready. Cardi had cooked a typical South African Bobodie (yellow rice with a meat and cheese sauce, a little bit like a good nachos dip and a dessert made out of custard cream and oreos). We enjoyed that around the warming campfire and grew slightly melancholic, as this would be our last night as a group. They then even sang happy birthday for Switzerland as it was 1. August, which was quite a special thing to do 🙂

The night was quite cold but the cool thing was, that we were right next to a river again and the shower was hidden behind a tree and wood and the only toilet was also just behind a wooden fence that was open towards the river, that you could enjoy the view.

We packed up our things for the last time and soon after that, crossed back into South Africa. We had rice salad and some leftovers at a gas station rest stop for lunch and then started the last hundred kilometers back to Johannesburg. What a fantastic week we’ve had on our Victoria Falls to Johannesburg overland safari. The memories I can keep are amazing. I can fully recommend this overland tour with Nomads. All the other groups we’ve met along the way seemed in high spirits as well. Maybe it’s just the same kind of people who decides to go on a safari in Africa. Or maybe, we were just really lucky, to have been thrown together with 18 really like minded people, who have made even the long hours on the truck really agreeable.

This is not a holiday, it’s an adventure (Vic Falls & Chobe NLP)

Johannesburg didn’t make a good impression on first sight. It looked like one big ghetto and right next to the streets there was always red mud and dirt. I didn’t feel too comfortable at Park Station either and therefore I took the Gautrain (R160!! Swiss price) directly to the airport. There were security guards patrolling all night and therefore I felt quite safe and there were enough soft benches to sleep on.
The next morning I was waiting for Michèle at the gate. She cut it really close since her plane from Zurich had been delayed but at last we sat on the plane together. What was more, we were seated right next to each other, although there were other empty rows left.
The visa to enter Zimbabwe cost us 30$ and it took us an eternity to receive it because they worked really slow. When the 15min taxi ride to our hostel also cost us 30$, we realized that this would be a tourist rip off place. Food/drink prices were almost Swiss everywhere.

The hostel was cool with people who played music, a pool and art chairs made out of bottle tops but again the employees were working on their own speed. In the evening a loud party was going on until the early morning hours but I was so exhausted, that I had no trouble sleeping.

The next day we met our 18 people travel group. Our first impression was that everybody was very relaxed and open and it stayed that way until the end. This was the perfect group 🙂 Our guides Gerhard and Cardi were awesome, too and contrary to my fears after some reviews I had read, we always received delicious and plenty of food that Cardi prepared for us.
For a short moment at the orientation I was reminded again how small the world is, because suddenly, there was this girl from Switzerland, who did an exchange in the US at the same time as me. We never met by chance in Switzerland but there we run into each other in Vic Falls. It turned out that she wasn’t on the same safari though.

Entry into Vic Falls National Park would cost another 30$ but at least that was included into our tour price. We walked along paved paths, heard the thunder of the falls and looked in awe at the masses of water that fell down. It was cool to see the falls from so many different angles from the viewing spots. We were lucky that there was hardly any wind and therefore, we hardly got sprayed by water and could make fun of all the yellow rain poncho groups.
On our way back, we were accompanied by many monkeys.

By lunch time it was really hot and therefore we jumped into the Rainbow Hotel pool. Yes, our first night on the safari we spend in a nice hotel.
Later, we took a taxi with some others to Safari Lodge to watch a beautiful sunset over a waterhole.
Then we had Chicken Curry for dinner with the group at Shearwater Café.
Early the next morning, we loaded our luggage into our truck Nina, and drove to Botswana. Along the road we already saw some elephants and giraffes which provoked excited screams from our side. To enter into Botswana, we had to step into some poisonous liquid to free us from possible germs of foot and mouth disease.
Then, we reached our camp for the first night and received a short demonstration of how to set up our spacious tent.
When we all had our little home, we jumped onto a safari vehicle with open sides, to start our first game drive in Chobe National Park. Our driver said that in a game you can win or lose, so it’s not guaranteed to see animals. The boarders of the park are open and the animals roam freely but we weren’t disappointed. We saw hordes of impalas, elephants, giraffes, hippos (only in the mud), buffalos and much more.
After lunch, we hopped onto a boat to go on a sunset cruise. We saw soooo many elephants and especially the babies were extremely cute. Furthermore, there were crocs, more deer like creatures and colorful birds. The things and places we had seen that day were spectacular!
When we returned to the camp, “lecka” dinner was already waiting for us (butternut apple soup/ pork steak with mashed potatoes, cabbage and carrots.) It was delicious! I’d call that a successful first day.
Everybody then retired early as the alarm clock would ring at 5am.

The next day was filled with a long stretch of driving and we were told that in order to keep the duration a minimum, we wouldn’t stop for anything general like “an elephant or a giraffe” (that would be like slowing down in the US to observe a deer). But still we saw rare wild dogs, a hyena, elephants, giraffes and different kinds of antelopes along the road.
The border-crossing into Namibia worked without any problems and after another few hours of driving, we stopped for lunch at a rest area along a 200km road without the slightest bend. Our truck Nina fully showed its functionality then, as it turned into a food truck and we cod enjoy a delicious pasta salad on our camping chairs in the shade.

Our camp was right next to a river. Since we arrived at 4pm, we still had two hours to shower with the warmth of the sun and then enjoy the view with a Savanna and good company. Dinner was a tasty spaghetti bolognaise and while we were eating, we could listen to some hippo noises.
Before going to bed, I saw the first spider in Africa that’s worth mentioning. It was a big black one and looked similar to the fake Halloween ones in Switzerland.

That night we got to sleep in until 7. After breakfast we hit a dirt road to make our way to the entrance to the Okawango Delta on Botswana’s side. We saw some animals again and then crossed the border again. There, we either had to leave our raw meat behind or cook it there on the spot, in order not to carry any germs to Botswana. So we cooked our sausages that the meat didn’t get wasted.
That was a good opportunity for the killer in our group to get rid of a few people. We are playing this game during our trip where everybody had to draw a card and there is one killer among all other civilians. In the evening we have to guess who the killer is and send someone to jail. It’s quite fun but apparently, I was an easy victim, as I was the first one who got murdered. Luckily, it’s only a game, otherwise, I feel very safe on this trip.

Encounters with sharks and lovely people

Durban beach front

So much has happened in the last days, this is going to be a long entry. The day I left the Umzumbe Surfhouse, I unfortunately couldn’t enjoy a last glance over the lovely green garden with the ocean behind it, as it was still pitch black when we got into the car. Therefore, while driving up to Umkomaas, I got to witness a sunrise and was able to observe the different tribal villages we passed. We reached the dive school by 7am, where I got handed all the gear I needed and after a short briefing, we hopped onto the back of a truck and were transported (including our speed boat) down to the ocean. Making it from the beach past the waves onto the open ocean was an adventure on its own but once that adrenaline rush was over, we could relax a little and try to spot whales (which we did again, far away at the horizon). Right before we rolled backwards into the water, a group of dolphins came to visit us as well. Every time I see dolphins here, it’s at least a group of ten and they are nice to watch. Our dive site was called Raggie’s Cave, since there was a big chance of encountering ragged teeth sharks. Aliwal Shoal is famous because you find the big fish here anyways. So, one of the rules I remembered from the briefing, was: keep at least 5m between you and the sharks and look down before you go down, so that you don’t float right on top of one of them. So, we slowly descended down into the blue. Visibility was great and it was easy to spot fish and the shape of the reef and once we were on the same level as the reef, there it was, our first shark. We kind of wanted to just wait behind a coral and watch him but apparently, he was a curious one and slowly started swimming towards us. I wanted to laugh and scream at the same time because I couldn’t decide between being overly excited and scared but since that wouldn’t have been of much use under water, I just floated there next to my dive buddy with a pounding heart, trying to keep breathing, as to keep breathing is the most important rule of diving, hoping that no sudden current would push us further towards the shark, whose nose was now about one meter from our faces. He then decided that we weren’t that interesting after all and moved away again, while I finally settled on laughing. Then, we could concentrate on the other parts of the beautiful world that surrounded us. We saw some more sharks, a big turtle and lots of colorful fish. Finally, I was in a group of divers who all knew what they were doing and so we could enjoy maximum underwater time. By the end, I was a bit cold and the winter air at the surface didn’t really help to change that. Furthermore, in our small boat, we felt every wave of the choppy water that passed through but in the end, we all managed to keep our breakfast inside and were happy to leave the boat for our second dive, after the necessary surface time. The water actually felt warmer now and so I could fully enjoy the dive again. We saw some more sharks, also a white tipped one, swam through caves, saw a huge grouper and other big fish and some big shrimps and in the end looked for lost shark teeth down in the sand, which were lying around like shells at the beach. So, it was definitely worth it to take a detour and come diving. I even wished that I had planned more days here. Plus, I received lots of good tips for dive sites in Mozambique from the other people in my dive group, so I guess I’ll have to add a dive trip to Africa onto my list.

One of the other couples on my boat had to head back up to Durban as well and offered me a ride but since I had already booked the shuttle and couldn’t cancel it, I spent some more hours close to the beach in Umkomaas and then took the shuttle later in the afternoon. However, Mishan and I stayed in touch and agreed on meeting again later in the evening. Lucky me, because the hostel I had reserved appeared quite sketchy to me, plus they also advised me not to leave the hostel alone after dark and so I would have had to spend the next three nights after 5pm in a place I didn’t like if it wasn’t for Mishan. He came to pick me up later in the evening and yes, then I wasn’t entirely convinced whether this was 100% safe but so far, I’ve always made good experiences with kind strangers and there was nothing odd about him, plus, he already had guests at home (the other girl he was diving with and her boyfriend and so as soon as I saw them again, my last doubt was gone as well). I mean, before couchsurfing and references, people had to go through the world with a little more trust as well and it would probably help if there were more positive stories like that on the news instead of always just he bad ones. But so, the house he lives in is amazing. You don’t really see into the life of a person when you see them in a wetsuit but I certainly did not expect this. I was more than happy to accept when he offered me that I could stay here and therefore could trade the charmless hostel with a hotel like room.

Shark teeth we found on the dive

During the day, they all had to work and so I went off exploring on my own again. Unfortunately, it rained like in a rainforest all day and so I pretty soon decided to make my way to Gateway Mall. A taxi would have been quite expensive, since they rip the tourists off anyways and so I tried to go there by public transport. Nobody could really tell me how that worked but after asking many people, I finally figured out that I had to get to the taxi stand, from where I could catch a minibus taxi. I didn’t really know how to get to the taxi stand but from what I had seen, you just wait alongside the road and the buses pull over and take you into the direction they are driving. After only a minute, a bus drove up to a traffic light, where he had to stop and since they are driving with open doors, I could easily ask, whether they were going to where I needed to go. The boy at the door nodded and I hopped on and was sitting in a bus full of black people. From there, it was no problem to find the right minibus to get to the mall but again I was the only white person on the bus.

Gateway is huge. I spent the whole day there and still hadn’t seen all the floors. But I did spend two hours at the cinema, when I went to watch Jurassic World in the IMAX theater. That was awesome and brought back some childhood memories and also felt somewhat familiar to my shark encounter :). In the evening, I met up with Mishan again and we went to a big family pre wedding dinner of his brother. Would I ever have dreamed of this two days ago? Nope. But I was so glad it worked all out like this and I got to meet this lovely family.

The next day, the sun was out again and I enjoyed a beautiful morning stroll along the beach promenade. Then, the next amazing thing happened. I was just thinking whether I should sit down and have a coffee somewhere, so I looked at one of the cafés and therefore remarked the only couple that was sitting outside. I thought, hm, that guy looks familiar and when I looked at the woman, a bell rang and at the same moment they recognized me, too. It was the people who were at the Surfhouse the first few days I was there. They were also really nice and I had been a bit sad to see them leave but now we got the chance to catch up again and not neglect exchanging our details this time.

Gateway Mall

Later, I made my way back to the mall. Now, finding my way around with the buses already worked flawlessly, so it’s kind of a pity that I am already leaving Durban, just as I get a little feel for the city. I wanted to go to the Virgin Active Gym, as one of the people there yesterday offered me a free trial day. Since it was too windy to swim in the ocean, I thought I’d go and use the pool there and maybe attend a class. They have everything in the gym!!! Even a sauna and curling irons next to the hair driers. But first I ate lunch and connected to wifi and that’s when my day took a turn for the worse. I wanted to check again, when my flight in Victoria Falls would arrive, so that I could tell Michèle what time we could meet. That’s when I noticed an e-mail from my ticket agency, that the airline had changed the time of my flight. At first I thought it was only a few hours, which would have been ok, but then I saw with fear that it was over a whole day. This would be too late for my safari. I tried to get in touch with them, which was a problem without a payphone and the number they wrote me obviously only working from inside Switzerland. Thank God that Michèle was reachable on Whatsapp and then tried to get me out of this mess (since I neither had more than 30min of internet nor enough battery on my phone to keep on searching for options). So, I just had to have faith. I tried to not be too stressed anymore and have a nice last evening in Durban. Then hugged Mishan and his family goodbye the next morning to board my bus to Johannesburg. Of course there was no wifi there either and not always cell reception along the way, so I still didn’t know how it looked like with my flight. Michèle told me that she’d write me a text message when she knew what was going on.

In the end, Michele managed to cancel the flight and hopefully, I’ll get my money back. But, I really felt like in the Amazing Race afterwards, when I went to buy a plane ticket directly at the British Airways counter.

The many forms of greetings

Have you ever had that problem in Europe that you don’t know whether you greet a new person with one, two or three kisses on the cheek? Or how low do you bow your head in Asia or where do you put your hands? It can lead to awkward situations and not even knowing how the correct way of saying hello or goodbye to somebody can prevent you from that.

Here in South Africa it’s different. For saying goodbye, people just hug you. No matter if you just spoke to them for the first time five minutes ago and they probably wouldn’t even dream of the idea that a hug might make some people uncomfortable. It’s such a normal and certain thing, that also if you don’t know how people say goodbye to each other here, you will know it once it happens because if somebody slowly approaches you with wide stretched arms, you just know what is about to happen. I haven’t received so many hugs from different people in a long time. Ever since I left the US after my High School year, I thought that Swiss people just don’t hug enough. Lots of my foreign friends in Switzerland lament about the same thing.

The funny thing here was that when I said that in Switzerland we greet people with three kisses on the cheek, they were shocked how you can just kiss somebody you’ve just met. Even when I underlined that these kisses feel very formal and it’s not like you actually kiss the person, they couldn’t stop shaking their heads.

 

Braai

The remaining days at the Surfhouse I spent trying to catch some waves in the morning and then just relaxing at the beach or in the hammock in the afternoons. Unfortunately only Saturday had good surfing conditions for me, therefore I next time better stay somewhere along the Atlantic with smaller- or in Indonesia with less messy waves. For the weekend, a big group of friends came down to Umzumbe and brought some life into our family-feeling beach house. Again, these people from Durban were so nice and just invited me along to Braais (bbq), birthday celebrations and surf sessions. When they left again, it also meant for me that my first week in South Africa was coming to an end. A few days were laying ahead of me, where I hadn’t made any plans yet. Since surfing hadn’t really worked out as well as I had wished for, I decided that there was no point in staying in Umzumbe any longer and try my luck up north in Durban. Also, I heard that the nearby reef Aliwal Shoal belonged to the top dive sites in the world and so I couldn’t resist to add in a dive day, although it would become very expensive with all the transport I needed there. Three things I’ve learned here during this past week are that I need to stay relaxed and just make the best of things as they come, even if they aren’t how I expected them. Owning a car would make life so much easier and, if you come to South Africa, you need to like dogs or start liking them because everybody has dogs here in all sizes and they will all come visit you while you are reading a book at the beach. But I have to say that every single dog was extremely well behaved. They interacted perfectly with known and unknown people and dogs.

Dock in Durban