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December 31, 2004

Calling all campanologists

Managed to make an arse of myself at the beach yesterday with an agile leap into the kayak we hired and promptly capsizing the thing. Never mind though. It’s been a cool week in Sedgefield and many thanks to Mike for making us very welcome on our stay here.

Hit the road today with a 5 hour drive to Grahamstown where we will bring in the New Year. Now I’m not sure if this will be the usual ‘drink too much, talk shite and throw up’ kind of New Year.

We’re staying at a cool little farmstead on the outskirts of town, downside is it’s a cool little farmstead on the outskirts of town so no pubs or off license to be seen either. Don’t panic though - we have been reliably informed that there will be singing after dinner. Plan is to then head to the local cathedral with a bunch of bellringers and ring in the New Year. Let the bell ends ring. Let’s get the party started!!

Happy New Year to all our readers.

Posted by jon jack at 4:41 PM

December 28, 2004

Montague Pass and Prince Alfred Pass

Did a bit of driving around the Garden Route area, taking in Montague Pass. It’s a single track dirt road with vertigo inducing drops that winds high up into the Outeniqua Mountains. We continued for about 70km before we came to the pass that would take us back towards the coast. A sign said ‘road closed’ but after having consulted with a local who’d approached us swaying slightly and rolling his eyes and reliably giving us the thumbs up, we decided to follow his advice and carry on over the pass anyway.

We ended up Knsyia for lunch, where we saw … a man wearing a Celtic top. What’s the world coming to? Eh Frank! Yesterday, Mike (our host in Sedgefield who also used to be the mayor) took us for a look around the local township “Smuttsville”. It’s quite hard to get your head round the contrast in standards of living between the ethnic groups. Mike seemed to know quite a few people there and explained that in the last 10 years things have definitely been improving. It seems odd to us to be relaxing on the beach and boarding one minute and then driving around groups of shacks the next.

Posted by jon jack at 8:27 AM | Comments (2)

December 25, 2004

Day one. Cape Town and the Garden Route

7am and we shambled off the plane after 13 hours. The flight was cool - big thumbs up to Virgin Atlantic for keeping us entertained all the way over with loads of movies and TV etc on your TV screen (even if you’re flying back with the cattle in economy). We tried for an upgrade (again) but even offering a bottle of champagne didn’t seem to work. If anyone knows the trick to getting complimentary upgrades please let us in on it.

Roger met us as soon as we got through an unusually friendly passport control; normally these guys give you so much grief. We loaded up the jeep and headed off. Now the first thing you see when you leave Cape Town Airport is a massive sprawling Township (I think it’s called Crossroads). This place is huge. I was totally taken by surprise by this; not by the size but because it was right there as soon as you enter the country and it’s apparent that there is still a long way to go to bridge the gap between the haves and the have nots. Worryingly on the plane one of our fellow passengers was giving us the low-down on things to do in Cape Town and she told us “Just ignore it when you get out of the airport, it’s not the real Cape Town”. Seemed pretty real to me. I can see where that would come from though as my in flight guide to Cape Town didn’t mention this aspect of the city, only the jazz clubs and night time hotspots.

We weren’t actually going to Cape Town though, we were heading straight to Sedgefield, a little coastal town backing onto the Indian ocean. So we had an extra 5 ½ drive on top of our overnight flight. It’s good to be here and to be able to relax at last. Spent a fantastic afternoon on the local beach watching fishermen pull hammerhead sharks out of the sea.

Posted by jon jack at 9:46 AM

December 15, 2004

Which book to take travelling?

Here’s a shortlist of selected books, one of which will be going with me travelling. "The odyssey" has already made it through to the next round, thanks to Charlie for making my mind up on that one. Now I'm not sure which of these would be the ideal choice from the list of 'must read' books. Maybe anyone out there has an idea or is there one on the list I should take but have not listed.

• One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Our Man in Havana, Graham Greene
• The name of the rose, Umberto Eco
• The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
• A passage to India, E.M. Forster
• The tin drum, Günter Grass
• Ulysses, James Joyce

I have to say One Hundred Years of Solitude is the favourite just now, but my mind could be easily changed.

Posted by jon jack at 2:51 PM | Comments (5)

December 7, 2004

Travel itinerary for Africa

No yellow fever for me woohoo, I’ve had enough of jabs for now although another thing is Bilhartzia. No doubt we will go swimming in Lake Malawi and as a precaution we have to de-worm ourselves - one dose of tablets 6 months after exposure.

I heard from roger today regarding our overland trip from Capetown to Malawi.

“So - a week on the garden route, long but fast haul through South Africa, Zimbabwe (maybe stop to see the great Zimbabwe national monument - an ancient sophisticated city ruin), and Mozambique and then a week in Malawi. Give you both more time to see Malawi - Vwasa (elephants and hippos), Lake ( I went diving last week end and thought you might like to do the same). Livingstonia (beautiful views and an exciting drive) and the village we visit (promised them a visit just after Christmas) and a look round Mzuzu an all that.”

Posted by jon jack at 2:37 PM | Comments (3)

December 1, 2004

Yellow Fever Jab do I need it?

Another day another travel jab, today was to be the last of my inoculations. A double whammy to finish it off with typhoid and my final Hep B Jab ( typhoid is supposed to make you fell pretty dodgy) anyways it seems I may need Yellow Fever, it appears that even though i will not be at risk from Yellow Fever, it could cause trouble crossing borders in Mozambique without one,Border guards maybe tempted to bribe you if you dont have it, although im sure if they are going to try and bribe you they will do it anyway.

You need a yellow fever certificate if travelling from an infected country. Although I won’t be, still need to check with my doctor. The last thing you want is being refused access in my case to Malawi and having to drive a few thousand miles back to South Africa across Mozambique. I’m sure my travel companions would love me for that.

Related Links
World Health Organization Yellow fever information
Travel Jabs, do i need them?
BBC resource on travel Jabs
WHO page on yellow fever

Posted by jon jack at 2:46 PM