As we promised here are some more photos.


In Soweto, outside Johannesburg.


After quad biking.


Quad biking.


Canoeing.


The great white shark.


Wine tasting in Stellenbosch.


View along the south coast.


Cape of Good Hope in the background.


This is the cell on Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was kept for 17 years.

As we said before many more photos will be available on www.linushemsida.com some time soon.

/Anne & Linus

We got home yesterday and haven't had time yet to write about the three last days that we spent in the Kruger National Park doing safari.

We were picked up at 5 in the morning on Friday and six hours later we reached the camp inside the national park. Our group consisted of the two of us, one New Zealand guy, a German girl and a Swiss girl and then our two guides Douglas and Ellison. The camping area we stayed at was surrounded by a high fence to keep the animals out as it is located inside the Kruger National Park. The camping had good facilities with a big kitchen tent, proper toilets and hot showers.



The first day we did six hours of driving around in an open vehicle, from about 2 pm to 8 in the evening, so the last hour or so was in complete darkness, which was pretty cool. We saw quite a number of elephants, antelopes, zebras and giraffes. When we got back to the camp the guides did not close the gates to the camping area immediately and when we sat in the dining tent we saw something dog-like walk by. After a few seconds we realized it had to be a hyena so we told the guides and they started looking for it. They couldn't find it and didn't seem to like the situation. There were several other families camping without guides and they had probably not seen it. The guide told us that a single hyena would not attack us if it didn't feel threatened by us but that we should not walk alone if we had to go up at night and that it's good to carry something to throw at it in case it is aggressive. Suddenly we had a bit more adventure that we had asked for :) .. The guide told us that we did not want to be bitten by a hyena as it has the strongest jaws of all the African predators. Apparently it eats bones and has the ability to digest it too. According to the guide the feces is totally white because of this.



The following day was a long one. We woke up at 5 am and spent 12 hours driving in the park looking for animals. We saw a lot of animals including hippos, buffalos and wild dogs and it was a really nice day, but we did unfortunately not see any lions or leopards, not any cats at all :(


Buffalo


Wild dog


Hippos


Sunrise in Kruger National Park


Breakfast stop in the park

The last day we went up at 5 am again and did a three our drive in the park, desperately looking for the remaining animals of "the big five", which consists of elephants, buffalos, rhinos, lions and leopards. We saw the first two but unfortunately not the rest. The closest we got to a cat was this lion footprint.



Although we didn't see all the animals we had hoped for we had three great days with great weather, nature and guides.

As a conclusion we really liked South Africa and all the stuff we did. It is really easy to get around and most things are cheap. But most importantly the people are extremely friendly and helpful and South Africa has plenty to offer most people.

We'll probably write one more post here within a couple of days with some more photos, but complete albums will be available on www.linushemsida.com sometime in the future.

Thanks for reading... :)
Anne & Linus

We have 8 minutes to write something here. So it will be quick. We arrived in Johannesburg this morning after a long and cold (aircon) night bus trip. We did some laundry and had some proper breakfast before taking a tour to Soweto.

Soweto is a township area of Johannesburg and it stands for South Western Townships. What we expected was what probably most people would expect... Poverty, shacks and misery. But it was actually something totally different. The townships in South Africa has always been housing for the black people but the shacks you expect was never allowed during the apartheid. Shacks have appeared recently but they are very few. Soweto today contains only blacks, but both poor and quite rich people. It felt very safe and we walked around, camera in hand, with no worries what so ever. We also visited the street where both Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu lived (Desmond Tutu still lives there).

It was a great trip and we'll have to write more later.

Tomorrow off to safari...

We are now killing some time in Port Elizabeth after having left the car this morning. Yesterday we went on a boat cruise in the Knysna Lagoon, which was nice but very touristy. The afternoon was more exciting, we went quad biking (4 wheel motor cycle) in the nature reserve with stunning views over the lagoon. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to look at the view as we raced through the narrow paths at high speed :)

We have a few funny pictures of us dirty and wearing helmets and goggles, but we can't post them here so you'll have to see them later when we get home.

Tonight we'll take the night bus to Johannesburg. Hopefully we'll go on a township tour tomorrow and see "the other side" of South Africa. As Jo'burg is one of the most dangerous cities in the world our primary goal will be to stay safe. But these two travellers that grew up in the rough town(ship)s of Lonsboda and Ronneby aren't to be messed with ;)

Hopefully we have time to make one more post here tomorrow before we go on the 3-day safari, which will be directly followed by our flight home.

Au revoir!

We spent two nights in the cousy village of Wilderness and today we arrived in Knysna, about 40 km to the east of Wilderness. We have decided that we are going to leave the car in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday and we have booked a night bus to Johannesburg that same day.

Wilderness was really cool and our hostel had a bonfire every night and cooked food for the ones who wanted it. One night we had pizza baked in their wood oven. 40 kr for the pizza and 45 kr for a bottle of nice South African wine. All in front of the bonfire and to the sound of the ocean, really nice :)

Today we rented a canoe and went paddled along the river in Wilderness Nature Reserve for about 40 minutes (one way) and then hiked for about 1.5 hours to and from a waterfall. Very nice :) .. So now we are starting to get a nice tan too.. :) .. We have had great weather every day here except the shark day :( and strangely the sun isn't that strong. We have hardly used any sun screen at all..

Anyway, Knysna seems really nice too and tonight we're gonna have dinner by the waterfront which is full of nice seafood restaurants. Tomorrow we're going to go on a tour with Quad bikes (fyrhjulingar) and hopefully see some nice nature and get some work done on our sun tan. :)

By the way, is anyone reading this except Ulrika and Johan (thank you for the comments :) ) .. We have not received one single e-mail (except spam) since we left so we're wondering if we still have family and friends ;)

We did not write here yesterday as promised, not because we were eaten by sharks but because we've not had the time. We don't have much time to write this either so we'll just summarize the last couple of days quickly.

Two days ago we drove to Stellenbosch and visited the vineyard Bergkelder, they make Fleur du Cap which is quite famous. We met a really nice guy who told us everything we wanted to know about wine and he had a lot of experience in the wine business and knew all about how the Swedish monopoly worked.. We also paid 20 kr for a 1 hour tour around the premises which included tasting of nine different wines. Very cheap we must say :)

In Stellenbosch we also had our first (and only so far) traffic incident. We might not have told you but they drive on the wrong side of the road here :) and I managed to get into the wrong two lanes after a turn. A few heads turned our way but we sorted it out :) .. Other than that it's gone very well, driving on the wrong side...

Yesterday was the big shark day. All the days so far had been very hot and sunny and we looked forward to a "nice day at sea" with jumping great white sharks and sun tanning. Instead we got cold, rain, winds and a really rough sea. Despite taking motion sickness pills that we were adviced, we both were sea sick. Anne felt sick a long time and I felt sick for five minutes, but it takes less than one minute to empty the breakfast into the sea :) .. But I was not alone, many onboard threw up...



So it was very cold, very windy and BIG waves. Unfortunately the great whites didn't like this either as just two of them showed up in the very beginning so no one had the time to get into the wet suites and down in the cage. We saw two or three sharks struggling with the bait which was quite cool. Then we waited for a couple of hours for more sharks (which didn't show up) before we went back. The afternoon trip was cancelled as the skipper said the sea was to rough and not safe.

Today we have driven almost all day and ended up in a small place called Wilderness which is just by the sea on the famous "Garden route" on the south coast of South Africa. The landscape here is very nice and the weather is back to sunny and hot so driving is quite pleasant.

We're now having pizza here at the backpacker's hostel. Tomorrow will probably be spent relaxing on the beach.

/Linus & Anne

Today we got the car and drove down to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. As you can see on the photo the car is not brand new but it has aircon and a radio :) We drove about 150 km and the coast was amazing with mountains and baboons along the way.



Tomorrow we are leaving Cape Town for a drive around Stellenbosch wine district. Unfortunately Linus will have to spit out the wine he's tasting since he's the designated driver :) But he will have to make up for that in the evening. Tomorrow night will be spent in Hermanus because on friday we will go cage diving with the Great White sharks . We will write again on friday evening... if we survive :)

(This blog is going to be in English as the previous ones that I (Linus) have written have been.)

We arrived in Cape Town yesterday afternoon, after 26 hours and three flights from Sweden. Yesterday we didn't do much, just checked out the neighbourhood and tasted some South African wine in the small cafe in our guesthouse. One glass (very full) costs 8 Kr and a beer is 9 Kr :)

It is great weather here, just like a perfect Swedish summer, around 25-30 degrees and blue sky :)

The food here seems to be very good. The dinner yesterday with Tapas (lots of food) was just great and not very expensive but not Asia-cheap either. We'll enjoy it here for sure and we won't loose any weight :)

We had been told that the trip to Robben Island had to be booked several days in advance because it's always fully booked. After some struggling at the ticket office we managed to get tickets anyway and happy we were. Robben Island is the island where Nelson Mandela was kept in prison together with other political prisoners. The guided tour involved a bus trip around the island in a very touristy way and we also got to see the cell where Mandela was held for 18 years (9 years were spent elsewhere).

After lunch at the waterfront, which is a really nice area in the harbour, we took the cable car up to the top of the Table Mountain (Taffelberget in Swedish), the mountain that lays in the background of Cape Town. The view up there was spectacular and you could see all the way to the Cape of Good Hope.

Now we're back at the hostel and we'll probably go back to Waterfront later for a seafood dinner. Tomorrow we plan to rent a car and drive down the coast to the Cape of Good Hope and we'll probably keep the car a couple of days, maybe even a week. There are a lot of interesting places to see along the coast towards Port Elizabeth (to the east). We might keep the car and drive to Port Elizabeth and leave it there in a week or so. It's very cheap to rent a car here. 200 Kr per day and the fuel is half the price in Sweden.

Almost all the photos we take are in RAW format and it will therefor be difficult to post them here. So you'll just have to wait :)

Linus & Anne