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South Africa South Africa Part 1 – The Cape Town Experience Cape Town is the first stop of our Cape Town to London adventure. We initially thought we would be here for two weeks getting the car cleared, but have found out that Truckasaurus is a little further off than we were initially led to believe. The shipping times that we were given in Australia were to Durban, not Cape Town as we were assured. This means that we have to wait another couple of weeks here in Cape Town until we can hit the road. This is not a bad thing as it has given us time to relax a bit and sort out a few things with the car. Having given careful consideration to the terrain we will be travelling through (both political and physical), we came to the conclusion that my ‘I have two days until I ship the car so I will build some wooden storage’ system would probably not be sufficient. Upon reaching this conclusion we decided to have a series of storage draws installed instead. The time it will take is more than offset by the cost saving on similar systems back in Australia. South Africa has a good range of equipment for overland travel at prices that we cannot match in Australia. So hopefully we will end up with a system that is lockable, rugged and can actually fit more gear in it. Jacinda always finds ways to keep me entertained. As we were packing to get on the plane, Dad was busy packing up our stuff into boxes around us. Of course once we got to Cape Town, Jacinda could not find her camera anywhere. She rummaged through her stuff muttering “your dad probably packed it…I bet he just picked it up and put it in a box”. Of course closer scrutiny of the contents of her backpack revealed the camera packed in a safe place where it would not get lost – packed in a shoe. Still, we are thankful that we had a smooth flight without lost luggage this time. Arriving in South Africa was a little different to what we expected. Johannesburg airport uses the tried and true ‘walk down the ramp and get on a bus’ method of getting from the plane to the terminal. You know when you are in South Africa when you have a sign pointing you to both baggage check in and “Firearms/Weapon” check in at the airport. South Africans (or “Seth Effreecens” as they say over here) seem to be fascinated with razor wire and electric fences; they are everywhere although Cape Town being a little safer than most places I am sure some of it would be classed as ‘contemporary ornamental razor chic’ design. That said the people here are incredibly friendly. Cape Town itself has changed a lot since I was last here eight years ago. It is a lot more cosmopolitan and you would not think that you are even in Africa at times. There are an incredible number of prestige motor vehicles such as Porsche, BMW, Mercedes etc. the local Ferrari dealership has seven vehicles on display (that’s about AUD 5M worth of stock). Unfortunately, all this wealth is offset by millions of people living below the poverty line in haphazard townships. Being a tourist it is hard not to observe other tourists and draw conclusions on what has been called the ‘tourist experience’. It does not take long before you witness cases of compulsive shutter syndrome. You all know what I mean. You go and see something, something in retrospect that is somewhat uninspiring, but because you have been told it is part of the tourist experience, you take a photo of it. A case in point was our trip over to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for a number of years. A few years after he was released, as President, he was back there addressing some twelve hundred or so former political prisoners. After he was finished speaking, as he was walking away he placed a stone on the ground. Everyone else did the same and the result was a mound of some twelve hundred stones or so that have not been touched since. Yes it is symbolic of many things, but it is a photo of a pile of stones. That’s the thing about the tourist experience; you are willing to consume anything that is presented in front of you. Where is the discerning tourist? It was immediately clear that the Rugby World Cup will be huge here in South Africa and equally clear is the dislike of the All-Blacks. Many Capetownians have expressed their desire that they would rather Australia win the World Cup if the Springboks cant, so long as the Kiwi’s don’t. I suppose the enemy of my enemy is my friend. It is hard to be in South Africa and not get some grasp of the impact of Apartheid on the country. If you visit Robben Island, go into a township and speak to people here it is clear that the cruel and barbaric repression perpetrated during the Apartheid years still has and will for some time have lasting effects on millions of people. What is incredible is the positiveness and sense of forgiveness expressed by the vast majority of the black and coloured population. Their ability to forgive and get on with the task of forging a truly tolerant and multicultural nation is truly incredible. Over the years, many were forcibly removed from their homes, relocated to outlying townships and their homes and businesses demolished. By being relocated out of the city centre, not only was their sense of community destroyed, but also they then had to commute to work usually by bus or train instead of walking. This extra cost was a huge burden on them given the minimal wage that many were earning. You take a walk through the District 6 museum, one such area that was relocated, and you see all the photos of what life was like. What strikes you is the realisation that these people were not living in some slum. They had homes, businesses, thriving communities, sporting teams and extended families. It is hard not to see this and have tears of sadness in the corner of ones eye. They were ordinary, normal people who had a sense of pride and community. They had friends and possessions, many of which could not fit into the tiny homes they were forced into in the outlying townships. Their lives were destroyed because of the colour of their skin. They were denied education and other basic services that most of us take for granted. The repression was never more severe than on Robben Island. Political prisoners, those that were black, could only wear shorts and shirts; no socks, no shoes no coats, even in the cold winter. They were forced to work in limestone quarries where the glare from the sun damaged their eyes. They had no toilets or hot water for showers. They were in two-metre by two-metre cells, yet the prison dogs on the island had three-metre kennels. They would only see their family (no children under fifteen) for thirty minutes every six months. These visits had to be approved, but many were not. Families would apply to visit and receive a date and time but were not told if their visit was approved or not. They would often make the long trip and be told at the last moment that their visit was not approved. It is hard to understand how fellow human beings could be treated so inhumanely. They were labelled terrorists and this somehow gave the regime of the day the justification to treat them worse than animals. It makes you question how modern ‘political prisoners’ are being treated in this wonderful war on terror that the West is currently engaged in. To me travel is more than getting cheap drinks in the hostel bar (beers are around R10 or R7 during happy hour by-the-way; that’s around $1.15 AUD). It is important to try to get some cultural perspective on how people in other countries live. I hope that we can share some of this with people along with tales of our adventures. We were reading an article of a car that travelled a similar route to ours (but in reverse) and had a total of seventeen punctures. We are hoping that our mighty Cooper STT’s will hold up a little better than that. Even so we will be investing in a high lift jack. In order to let you know the relative costs of living in each country we travel through, I have devised the RBI or the Relative Beer Index. There will be a page on the website giving the relative cost of a beer in each country, the RBI. There will be much research that will have to go into such a project, but I think that Jacinda and I are up to the challenge. Jacinda wants to also have a RBI, but hers is the Relative Banana Index. Bananas here in Cape Town is around $1.15 AUD/Kg. We have decided that we will be changing our planed route a little. We will see a bit of South Africa and then head into Namibia instead of the east coast of South Africa. We are keen to get out and start camping and seeing the wide-open spaces. South Africa – Part Two will be added when we can. In the meantime, tell people about us and make sure you register your email address on our mailing list so that you can know when we have updated the site. Truckasaurus Has Arrived Our shipping saga is complete; Truckasaurus is now in Africa. Our ship was supposed to be in Cape Town by Friday, but for reasons not known to us due to a disturbance in the force, it did not arrive in port until late Sunday afternoon (we know this because we were having a beer at the water front and saw the bugger slip into port). T.I.A. – This Is Africa. Our shipping agent here in South Africa ensured us that we would have our car on Monday. With the ship arriving almost three days late we thought there was no way we would get our car two days early, that’s effectively five days before we could reasonably expect it. Monday morning we received a call from Clive, our super-human shipping agent, to say that the custom inspection was scheduled for noon as promised and that he would drive us there. We arrived at his office to be told that we would be riding with his off-sider while he picked up the customs officer. Our ride was a Mercedes Kompressor, which got us thinking that maybe this shipping thing would go better than we expected. We arrived at the depot just after noon and waited while they brought the container over to us. [Fresh off the ship] [The wait is almost over] [Daylight at last] As we waited, Clive was telling us a story about a car he had cleared recently that had not been packed correctly and came out looking like it had a podium finish in a demolition derby. With shaking hands and weak knees I muttered something about “I am sure we will be ok”. I then recalled stories that dad had told me about all the cars he had unpacked that were damaged. These only had a few straps holding them in place and I then remembered something about making sure that it was packed with wood down the side of the tyres and nailed to the floor to stop the car sliding from side to side in heavy seas. Not being allowed to be present when it was packed we had no idea how well it was secured. As the door was opened, my legs went to jelly. There was no bracing down the side, just a few straps holding it in place. I ran into the container and inspected the sides of Truckasaurus for damage. Thankfully, not a scratch – I almost fainted. I think I will chalk that one up to good luck and calm seas rather than to sturdy packaging. [Paul looks for damage] [Thumbs up] [On African soil] The only drama we encountered was that in Perth the wrong battery had been disconnected (the second battery was disconnected and the main starter battery was left to run low). After much pushing we got it undercover, reconnected the dual battery and fired up the Td5. It roared to life and I had the first smile I had had all day. We re-attached the rooftop tent, secured the spare wheel and within three hours we were on the road. [Paul reconnecting power] [Paul fitting the tyre] [Jacinda ready for the road] We cannot express how highly we would recommend Clive to anybody who is shipping something through Cape Town. He was so efficient and knows how to grease the wheels to get things happening. How he manages to get us cleared and on the road less than twenty-four hours after the ship was in sight of Table Mountain is unbelievable. We have his contact details on the Trip Preparation page and would highly recommend him to anyone in a similar position. Cape Town Part 2 Our last week or so in Cape Town has been mainly focused on two things – chasing down Ewan and Charlie from Long Way Down/Long Way Round fame and getting Truckasaurus ready for the journey ahead. We ran all over town trying to chase a glimpse of Ewan and Charlie, the inspiration for this trip, but know one seemed to know who they were or where they were hiding. Ewan must have been using a few tricks he had learned from playing Obi-Wan; “These are not the actors you are looking for, move along”. The first step for Truckasaurus was to get an anti smash & grab film fitted to the windows. This acts as both a dark tint and also stops anyone from smashing the window to get into the car. They offered bulletproof film for a few Rand more, something that Jacinda considered for a while. I told her that we were driving a Land Rover and that we were bullet proof enough as it was. She settled for buying a pepper spray instead. [The cable car to Table Mountain] [Jacinda at the Museum] Next on the list was a trip out to the 1st Alignment Centre to organise for the Staun Bead locks to be installed. We were warmly welcomed by Johann, a burly and extremely friendly Afrikaans bloke, who had been warned of our arrival. While he was sorting out our tyre situation, he began showing us photos of his weekend trip up to the snow (yes it snows here in South Africa), telling us tales of his mighty 80-series Cruiser and laughing at our choice of GPS systems (Garmin is the choice over here, not Magellan). He then asked us if we had had a traditional South African Braai yet. Of course we had not, so seeing as it was lunch time or there-abouts, he drove off to his butcher for some meat, organised the fire and cooking utensils and proceeded to cook us some traditional Afrikaans food while still managing to run his very busy business – phone in one hand and tongs in the other. While we waited he introduced a few of his friends to us who had competed in the Outback Challenge in Australia. When customers came to pick up their vehicles we were introduced as his friends from Australia (well we don’t actually know this for sure, all we heard was something in Afrikaans that sounded like “blah blah blah Australians blah blah blah” and they would then smile at us). Back in Australia we are pretty handy with our BBQ’s, but Johann is a world class BBQ chef by any standards. So here we were, in an industrial section of Cape Town, air guns rattling in the background, out the front of Johann’s tyre place eating some of the best food we had had for a long time. The surreal nature of this is hard to explain, you had to be there I suppose. [Solid meat] [Johann at work] [Good enough to eat] We organised a draw storage system from The Safari Centre here in Cape Town. We ordered roller draws plus a draw system to go around our fridge. Monday turned into Friday and a few hours into the install we were told that they could not do the side storage around the fridge. Incompetence was taken to new levels by this mob and it took a lot of self-control and Jedi training to remain calm. There is no way we could in good faith recommend them after the way they stuffed us around, so if you use them you have been warned.  We phoned Johann to see what he could do, “I do storage, you should have come to me first”. Off we raced and he measured up the custom draws for us and assured us we would have them by the time we got back to Cape Town a few days later. True to his word, we now have a set of custom draws for extra storage. I am sure Johann has some doubts as to whether we will make it to London and he possibly has the impression that all Australians are a little crazy. You never know he might be probably right. We headed to Hermanis for a few days while we waited for the storage to be built. They say this is the best land-based place in the world to see whales. We had been in town for less than half an hour and we saw our first whale. Throughout the day we saw a dozen more – it is truly amazing. [There she blows] [Do we have a 'tale' to tell you] The real reason for visiting Hermanis was to do a cage dive with the Great White sharks. This area is reputed to be the best place in the world to see them. We were apprehensive at first, not of the sharks, but of the whole tourism and possible exploitation potential of the shark dive operators. Chumming the water and attracting them to boats does have its critics and we were mindful of the dilemma that we faced from a moral and ethical point of view. However it was decided that we would go along and judge it for ourselves. It would also make an interesting subject for a doco, so there was another angle to the whole experience. We ended up seeing seven individual Great Whites in the space of three or so hours with the largest being a solid 3.5 to 4.0m in length (I will be adding a small video clip to the video page shortly so look out for it). One thing that strikes you about these wonderful creatures is how shy they really are and how cautious they are even towards a half tuna that is dangled in front of them. As a surfer I would not want one swimming under my board, but they are a beautiful, misunderstood animal that deserves our protection and respect. They do not deserve the reputation that they have and I want my doco to show this other side to them and sharks in general. [The bait] [The hardware] [Perfect shark day] Jacinda didn’t end up getting in the water, but instead took some pretty good photos. The water is incredibly cold (you need a 7mm wetsuit) and spend a lot of time sitting in the water waiting. That said, it is an incredible experience. To see Seven Great Whites in one day is incredible considering most people go their whole lives without even seeing one. The dive itself is quite commercial, the boats and cages overcrowded, but seeing one underwater as it swims past is something pretty special. Also there is a case for the potential of these trips to produce a large number of people who will go away with respect and a desire to conserve these amazingly beautiful animals. [Paul enters the shark cage] [Big shark] [Bigger shark] We are heading back to Hermanis this weekend to film their shark festival for the doco and then we make a run for the Namibian boarder and hopefully fine, warm, sunny days. Then the adventure should really begin. South Africa is a great place. Sure, it has a grubby under-belly, as any country does, but it has a lot going for it. The soccer world cup in 2010 is already changing things and could really put this country on the map. We have met a lot of really friendly people and it is hard not to take on a little of the African spirit. I also really like their national flag as it symbolises the history and the future of the country. A few parting observations. “Howsit” is the equivalent greeting to G’day. I don’t fear trucks or mini van drivers on the motorways, rather the BMW driver. They seem to drive 30km faster than anyone else, never have working indicators and seem to think that they own the road and everyone else should get out of their way. Things happen slowly over here (except driving a BMW), but probably faster than we can expect in the rest of Africa. Biltong (dried sticks of meat) is highly addictive and will be a hard habit to shake. They call South Africa the rainbow nation and it has the potential to become a truly multi-cultural nation if people are prepared to give it a chance. The other thing that takes a little getting used to is the amount of service people think they need to give you, especially at restaurants and service stations. With the former your plates are whisked away as soon as you finish, four people on average ask you if you are ready to order within a standard three minute period of sitting down and as the food is delivered to your table there is the usual “so is everything ok with your meal”. At the service stations, there are a multitude of driveway attendants ready to pump your fuel and check under the bonnet (hood for those in the USA). I don’t know about you but this is one thing I like to do myself, especially with everything concerning the engine. I don’t really like another man handling my dipstick, that’s kind of personal, especially if you don’t even know the guy, if you know what I mean. This is probably a necessity over here, to provide some sort of a job for people. With a very high unemployment jobs such as these and the multitude of parking attendants on the street (no parking meters here) give thousands of people a job and a start in life. This is strange for us coming from a country with only around four percent unemployment. Anyway, it’s now on to Namibia with dunes and saltpans. Stay tuned…