Cape Town

I'm going to apologise in advance for not putting up a blog of Cape Town immediately. Although I'd like to, Elsa and I have decided to go to Durban tomorrow until Monday, and I have an mini assignment to whip up tonight so you're going to have to wait! Hope y'all had a wonderful Easter break and didn't eat too much chocolate.....

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30/4: I'm going to attempt to delve into the depths of my memory to finally tell you about Cape Town.. finally..

We left at some hideous hour of the morning on Easter Sunday (3.30ish) for the airport, and our flight down south was smooth and I slept basically the whole time. I think the trick to sleeping on aeroplanes is just have the worst and shortest sleep beforehand so all you can do is sleep!!
After dropping our stuff off at Long Street Backpackers, we headed down to the Cape Town Waterfront to check out the sights. It was still morning, so we had fish & chips for lunch by the quay and had a bit of a wander around. Cape Town is so pretty! I just can't explain how much nicer it is than Joburg! It's kind of like Sydney, and Joburg is like.. Geelong- if it wasn't by the bay?!! Our hostel made us dinner tonight and we just relaxed to talking to other travellers before retiring to bed at 8:30!! Lame I know...

Kath & I by the waterfront

On Monday we did some major souvenir shopping and boy, did I shop. The stuff there was just so cool and I couldn't help myself... though it took me a while to get used to bartering. After a few hours, I got used to just being abrupt and saying 'no, thankyou' and walking away from annoying salespeople. That didn't stop me spending bazillions of rand and buying everything that jumped out at me! That afternoon we went to Robben Island, which is where Nelson Mandela and many other political prisoners were kept during the fight for Apartheid. Some pretty amazing people were there at some point, and it was just fascinating to think what discussions would have gone on. Our guide told us about the many ways they hid notes to eachother.. like cutting a slit in a tennis ball.. clever! Monday night we ate at 'Mama Africa', which serves 'game meat' ie African animals! I shared a game platter with Larissa, and made sure I wrote down the tastes in my diary for those of you who would immediately ask if everything tastes like chicken. The answer is no, by the way! Kudu and Springbok were my favourites: kind of like beef, but Kudu was probably like venison if I knew what that tasted like and Springbok was lighter like Kangaroo. Ostrich is really tough, and you're supposed to eat it rare but because we ordered medium, it wasn't that great, but I guess was like a really tough beef, or sandwich steak when the folks cook it to Kim & Scott's liking!! And finally, crocodile was a funny one. It had a fine texture like fish, but actually tasted like chicken. Trust me :)

Nelson Mandela's cell

Tuesday morning I woke up with bites, which was not very nice. At the time we thought it must have been bed bugs, but with a bit of google research, I'm pretty sure they were flea bites. And the hostel had cats, so it would make sense. In the morning, Lily, Ruth and I went up Table Mountain. We didnt hike it cos we're lazy, but took the cable car instead which was pretty cool. The view from up there was stunning, it basically looms over the whole city. And its flat on top, hence the name! In the arvo, the three of us plus Kath & Larissa went to Kalk Bay. It's supposed to be a hippy beach town, and it was nice to see beach but the hippy part was a bit of a let down. We saw just one hippy shop (the kind Mum would enjoy!) and the rest was basically antique shops. It was nevertheless cool to look at old photographs that people had left, and second hand books. They have that wonderful musty old smell! Fish & chips again, but this time we tried 'snoek', which is the local fish. It was MASSIVE and full of bones, but tasty anyway. Think I'll stick with my flake! Tonight we slept in a cloud of Aerogard :(

The view from Table Mountain

Here my diary writing ceases, so I'll just do what I can to remember. On Wednesday Lily, Ruth and I went to Stellenbosch, South Africa's major wine growing region, and did a wine tour. It was so much fun and I actually found myself appreciating wine for once! Why do we drink such cheap crap at home?? Oh right, cos it's cheap... but wine is reeeeally cheap here. We were at some of the best wineries in South Africa and the bottles were around the R50-70 mark (around 10 dollars!). I wouldn't spend more than 20 rand on a bottle (..of goon!) at the supermarket here! We made some friends throughout the day too, and went to dinner as a big group and out at night. It was a really good day, just frollicking about in the sunshine!!

"Nosing" a fruity white

Thursday we had a look at another market in Stellenbosch and then rejoined the others back in Cape Town. We caught the train, and I can't believe how good it felt to be able to use public transport again! We wouldn't dare here in Joburg. We had Mexican and margaritas for dinner, and crashed relatively early again at our new hostel Cat and Moose. No bed bugs there, just mozzies! Think I had over 10 bites by the end of this week..

On our last day in Cape Town we thought we had better go to a museam, so we went to District Six. It's all about how the locals were shifted out of their homes when the white people decided they were on 'their land', and explains why the settlements in Cape Town are further out of town- in comparison to Joburg where the centre is the more dangerous area. We had cheese rolls in the Company Gardens for lunch and did a little more souveniring. Our last night was already upon us and we were completely buggered from the whole week, went out for some drinks but Elsa, Lily, Ruth and I had another early start coming. We were back at Monash before 11am on Saturday. I had come down with some disgusting cold and spent the rest of that day lying in bed and watching Gossip Girl!! It was a fabulous week though, and I absolutely ADORE Cape Town. As much as I love it here at Monash, it would be a much more glamorous and comfortable stay if I was staying in Cape Town! Sooooo beautiful!!!!!!!!

Sunset over the ocean

~Y

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone's having a wonderful break, we are off to Cape Town tomorrow (at 4am!!) until next Saturday.. bye for now :)

~Y

I don't like cricket-ah.. oh no..

Yesterday we went to the 2nd MTN One-Day International in Centurion (bout 40 mins away), South Africa vs Australia. It wasn't an especially good day for our Aussie boys, but was a fantastic day for us! It was just some of the Australian girls and our driver/friend Chippy, I know I'm not one to normally go to sporting events but I am proud to say I watched at least half an hour of the game, and could understand that the score meant we were doing terribly from the start!

It was funny being minority supporters, always a good source of entertainment for the South Africans and a fun way to make friends! We met a few Aussies, and lots of South Africans happy to rub in the score not that it really bothered us, not being the most competitive people around. People were happy to come up and talk to us about that they'd been to Australia, or knew someone who was there, or whose cousin's best friend's neighbour was thinking of going.....
But now I have to get back into study, got two assignments and a test this week, and my brain just doesn't want to get into gear. Probably a good idea to get off my blog now! Adios!

I believe that's a lot!

PS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM! ~Y

Botswana

After two crammed days of uni when we got back from the Drakensberg, on Thursday we were off again to Bots. Our friend Alex was taking us to his house in Gaborone and camping for a night. It was pretty crazy, having 10 Aussies plus our Dutch friend Tamar plus Alex all squished into two cars! It was about a 5 hour trip up, and I have to admit we got a bit car-o-phobic, especially those of us who had only just got back from an intensive weekend together.

Sunrise from atop the 4wd

When we got to Alex’s house, his mum was so surprised to see that most of us were girls! Apparently Alex had warned them that there were 11 people coming over, but failed to mention that 9 were female! They were so welcoming though, and we all found a place to sleep in various rooms and on various floors.

Me in my nest

Friday morning we were up at 5 to drive up to Khutse Game Reserve, where we camping that night. They had borrowed a four-wheel drive off a friend, and have one of their own, so there was a bit more space this time. Because we had Fred (Alex’s dad) as well, one of us had to sit in the back of the car, and of course I put my hand up! It was a nice spot to have a snooze after getting up so early...

Giraffe & springbok

That day we saw heaps of ‘bok’ (springbok, steenbok, gemsbok), some kudu, mini squirrels (which we swore were meerkats at the time and would make a much cooler story!!), a jackal (wild dog), vultures AND GIRAFFES!!!! That was most definitely the highlight! We had been looking for lions, giraffes or elephants and had pretty much given up until Lily just casually said “Hey, is that a giraffe?”... exciting!! That night we camped in tents at our campsite in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (cool huh?!), a bit nervous about the sign in the drop dunny warning not to leave food in tents in case jackals or HYENAS came around! But other than a freak half hour thunderstorm, everything was fine and the next morning we woke up to see the sunrise from on top of the 4wd. I even had a go at the wheel, which was exciting enough until we came across some other cars and had to go off road.. into the long grass like real four-wheel driving should be!! The others thought it was pretty funny, me being pretty small and at the wheel of the monster going through the grass!

Sunset over the Kalahari

Saturday night we went out to a bar in Gaborone, but got home pretty early because the new President there has laid down some pretty crazy laws about alcohol not being served after midnight! Bottle shops have to close at 7!!! SEVEN!!

Hartbeespoort Dam

On Sunday we were planning on going straight home, but Alex decided to take us back via Pretoria (the main capital city of South Africa) where his girlfriend lives. We saw Hartbeespoort Dam, probably one of the coolest dams around and had dinner out before retiring back at uni. It was a long weekend, and some of us were nearly ready to strangle each other, but all in all it was fantastic!! Finally I have seen some wildlife and that’s 3 countries now, hooray!!

The gang

~Y