Stuck in Swaziland

Well, here is a phrase I never thought would exit my mouth:  “I’m stuck in Swaziland”.  I didn’t even know where Swaziland was until a few weeks ago. I also didn’t know it was a separate country.  I thought it was a province of South Africa.  Lesson learned.  Here is the story.

As many of you may remember, before I left the States for Africa I went to stay at my friend Judy’s place in California.  Judy loves to travel but unfortunately for her, her husband does not.  She thought maybe at the end of all of my volunteering she could meet me in South Africa and we could do an organized of South Africa.  I said sure thinking that would be a nice way to end my trip and it would nice to have someone with me that I knew for a change.  Judy had to make all the arrangements because I was in Botswana at the time and my internet wasn’t great.  So, she made the arrangements and we were all set.  I was to meet her in Cape Town on February 13th.  Got it.

February 13th comes around and I meet Judy at the hotel.  Just that day I received the itinerary and figured out this Swaziland thing may be a problem.  I had inadvertently overstayed my South African visitor visa  and didn’t realize this fact until just about a week before this tour.  I tried VERY hard to get it worked out in that week’s time but I could not.  It is impossible to get an answer from anyone in South Africa.  I called every agency and all I could get is a recording.  No voicemail.  No option to speak to a real person.  I went to agency after agency, waiting in very long lines, only to be told when I talked to someone that I was in the wrong place.  They would send me to another place and guess what……that place was not the right place either.  So frustrating!!  I emailed every agency and got no answer.  I made an appointment for one office and that alone took 3 days if that tells you anything how this country operates.  Anyway, I show up for my appointment and they turned me away because I didn’t have some paperwork printed out from the internet that didn’t even pertain to what I needed.  Ugh…..  

I finally just figured it would be no big deal.  I would get it worked out when I left South Africa 14 days later.  Worse case scenario I get a fine, an “undesirable” designation on my passport and I wouldn’t be allowed to return to South Africa for a period of time (usually 1-3 years).  OK.  I can handle that.  Here is where Swaziland comes in.  I realized we were going to this place so I looked it up on the internet and it hit me that it was a separate country.  Houston, we have a problem.  The reason we were to go through Swaziland as it’s the most direct route to get to Kruger National Park which was our next destination.  That means into Swaziland, out of Swaziland and then back into South Africa.  I immediately tell the tour guide, Shaun, about my issue.  He blew me off and said don’t worry about it.  It’s not a big deal. You are with an organized tour group. It’s OK.  I took his word for it.  He’s South African. He must know.  He deals with the tour things all the time.  Right?  Wrong!

We piddled around South Africa for a few days and then caught a flight from Cape Town to Durban.  I used my passport which is obviously stamped that I was to leave the country by February 9th and no one said anything.  That was domestic flight though and apparently no one cares if you fly within the country on an overstayed visa but don’t try to leave the country????  I don’t understand it.  Why didn’t they just catch me there and send me home?  I cannot figure out Africa. There is a saying here: “T.I.A.”  which means “This is Africa”.  It really fits just about every scenario you can think of.  My translation: “Oh well, it is what it is”.

We arrive in Durban after noon and then drive a few hours north.  We go on a river cruise to see hippos and crocs, stay at a nice hotel and the next morning we go on a game drive.  All is well.  Then we try to exit South Africa and into Swaziland.  Problem.  All is not well.  I get flagged at the South African border.  They tell me that I have now overstayed 9 days and they need to declare me “undesirable”. I have to leave the country right away.  After probably 20 phone calls and bantering back and forth between the border agents they decide this is what has to be done.  They fill out this form that says I’m “undesirable”, stamp my passport and tell me I have 10 days to appeal it.  Well, I am leaving the entire continent in about 5 days so that isn’t helpful.  They recommended that once I get into Swaziland I go the South African embassy and see if they can do anything for me right away.  HA! That’s hilarious!  Everything here takes SO FREAKING LONG to get done. Them doing something for me now is NOT going to happen.  Shaun said we would do that so they let me leave.  

Now I have to get into Swaziland. Well, they didn’t want to let me in because they scanned my passport and I was flagged as undesirable.   WTF.  I thought I was going to get stranded between the two borders in no man’s land.  Shaun told them we were going straight to the embassy which is the only reason they eventually let me in.  So, now I’ve held up the tour by about 1.5 hours. Sorry guys.  All my tour mates were amazingly sympathetic and not upset with me at all.  They all know I tried to tell Shaun about the issue and he blew it off so they were angry at him.

We finally board the bus and head into Swaziland.  We stop for lunch at a cute cafe - the food wasn’t stellar but it was OK.  It’s now 3pm and I know all the government offices close around 4pm so making it to the embassy seemed very unlikely since we still had another hour’s drive to the hotel.  Oh well.  Now what?

We get to the Mountain Inn hotel in Mbabane which was to be our hotel for the night.  Nice place with an amazing view!  The southern part of Swaziland is very flat and arid but the northern part is mountainous and very green. Such a beautiful place!

I was the main topic of discussion at dinner that night.  Everyone was trying to come up with solutions.  Such an amazing bunch of people I was with!  It was thrown out there that I should just hide in the bathroom of the bus when we try to cross the borders the next day.  Shaun says they never search the bus.  I don’t trust Shaun at all at this point but I did consider it.  Just for a moment though.  Have you ever watched the show Locked Up Abroad?  I didn’t want to be featured on an episode. With my luck that would be the one time they search the bus.  Then I’m really screwed.  I will be arrested for sure.  I also thought if I do that and I manage to make it through, what happens in Johannesburg when I try to leave South Africa to get home? They are going to wonder how I got out of Swaziland without a stamp on my passport and most of all they are going to wonder how I got back into South Africa without passing through immigration.  Now I’ve done a really bad thing because I re-entered South Africa knowing I wasn’t allowed and I snuck in instead of going through a border crossing.  Not a good idea.  Not a good idea at all.  

So, now I’m stuck in Swaziland while my bus and all my friends leave.  What was I supposed to do now?  The owner of the Mountain Inn, Mark, came to my rescue. He told me not to worry I could stay at the hotel at a reduced rate and he would take care of me.  All I needed to do was secure a flight from Swaziland to Johannesburg for Monday, February 23rd so I could then catch my original flights back home.  Being “in transit” in South Africa at the airport is OK.  Entering illegally in a bus bathroom is not OK.

To be continued……

The Garden Route

Here is a synopsis of my time on the Garden Route.  As with anything there was too much to see and not enough time.  What I did see was incredible and the experience was even more amazing as I got to share it with some new special friends!

Day One:

I left Kwantu on Tuesday, Jan 27th along with Dave (Welsh), Ally (English), Emily (Welsh) and Tom (English).  Our driver and tour guide was Jeff, a native South African that speaks like 8 languages!  We loaded ourselves and all our luggage into a van and we were off.  I rode up front with Jeff since I have a tendency to get motion sickness.  Jeff and I got along great!  He has some road rage issues just like me :)

The first stop was Port Elizabeth.  We got there late in the afternoon and walked down to the seaside where they have a Boardwalk with shops and restaurants.  We then went to the Oceanarium for a couple hours.  It is not the nicest or biggest aquarium I’ve been to but it was good for a change of pace.  It was a bit odd I must say.  They had a  “reptile park” with a couple of crocs, some snakes, some outdoor habitats with lizards and tortoises and then the next habitat over had rabbits in it???  Last time I checked rabbits were mammals.  I’m thinking this was the food source for the actual reptiles……

After the aquarium we went to our lodge and had a shower.  We took a taxi down to the Boardwalk for a nice dinner at a Chinese restaurant.  After that we had some drinks and watched the dancing fountains (like the Bellagio in Vegas but on a much smaller scale).  My new friends and I got to know each other better and had a really nice time!

Emily, Dave, Me, Tom and Ally

Day Two:

We woke up early and took off for Jeffrey’s Bay about an hour's drive southwest of Port Elizabeth.  It is named after the senior partner of the firm Jeffrey & Glendinnings that opened a store in 1849 on the location where the town is today.  Jeffrey is believed to be the first person to have settled there.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Jeffreys Bay was known as a hippie hangout, where the now-burgeoning surf community originated.  Jeffreys Bay has grown from a sleepy little fishing town over the past few years and is one of the fastest expanding urban areas in the country.  Jeffrey's Bay is now one of the five most famous surfing destinations in the world. It hosts the annual Billabong Pro ASP World Tour surfing event where spectators and surfing pros from all over the world flock.

We stayed at Island Vibe Backpackers right on the ocean.  Emily, Tom and Dave opted for a surfing lesson that morning so Ally and I walked to town and found a quaint cafe to sit and have a snack and some coffee.

That afternoon Tom, Emily, Ally, Jeff and I went horseback riding.  It was amazing!  The weather was perfect.  Not too hold.  Not too cold.  No rain.  No wind.  Just perfect! I rarely get excited about horseback riding anymore unless it’s a competition of some sort but this was just great.  We had a two hour ride.  The first 45-60 minutes was a relaxing trail through the fynbos (brush) and then……there it was!  The beach.  Pristine. Untouched except for horse's hooves.  Not a sole around.  It was magnificent!!

We rode over the dunes to the waters edge and spent the next hour racing each other and just having a blast.  I can’t tell you how fun it was!  After riding we went back to the hostel and got ready for dinner.  We actually found a Mexican restaurant and decided to go there. I was missing Mexican food from back home.  It is not that popular here.  The food was just OK but let me tell you, I have never had hotter jalepenos!  They were great!

Day Three:

Another early start to head for Tsitsikamma National Park.   The park is a protected area on the Garden Route, Western Cape and Eastern Cape, South Africa. It is a coastal reserve well known for its indigenous forests, dramatic coastline, and the Otter Trail.  The park covers a 50 mile long stretch of coastline. Near the park is the Bloukrans Bridge which boasts the world's highest bungee jump at 216 metres (709 ft)!

Bloukrans Bridge

Our first stop was a zip lining adventure for Ally.

Ally - ready to go!

The rest of us wanted to do the canopy tour closer to our hostel so we hiked around the park while she zip-lined.  Turns out our “canopy tour” was basically ziplining so Ally missed out doing this with us.  Jeff should have explained these activities better so we would have understood what each activity entailed.  Oh well, live and learn.  The canopy tour was really fun!  It involved traversing from one platform to another along a steel cable suspended up to 30 meters above the forest floor.  Most platforms are located in giant Outeniqua Yellowwood trees.  Some of the zip lines were long and fast. We saw some chameleons being that we were so high up in the trees.  It lasted about 2 hours.

After that we went to our hostel to drop our bags.  Next was a couple hours hike at Tsitsikamma National Park.  Emily and Ally opted not to go so Jeff, Dave, Tom and I went.  Such a beautiful place right on the ocean.  We hiked up to a suspension bridge and saw some amazing views!  There were actually two suspension bridges. The second was closed as they were doing some construction on it. That bridge would have taken us to the other side of the inlet to a "lookout". So, unfortunately, we couldn’t do that.  It was still a really beautiful area and a great time.

Jeff & Tom (back); Dave and me (front)

We also some rock hyrax (Procavia capensis).  Some people call them rock badgers or Cape Hyrax.  It  is one of the four living species of the order Hyracoidea, and the only living species in the genus Procavia. Like all hyraxes, it is a medium-sized (~4 kg) terrestrial mammal, superficially resembling a guinea pig with short ears and tail. The closest living relatives to hyraxes are the modern-day elephants and sirenians. The rock hyrax is found across Africa and the Middle East, in habitats with rock crevices in which to escape from predators. Hyraxes typically live in groups of 10–80 animals, and forage as a group. Cute but really fat and lazy!!

After showering we walked to town (one road with no traffic lights or stop signs) to look for a place to eat dinner.  It looked like a ghost town!  Nothing was open except for one little pizza place and there was NO ONE in it except the one lady working there.  We decided to eat there since we really had no choice.  Turned out to be the best decision!  They serve no alcohol so Tom went across the street to the hotel bar and purchased some beers and brought them over.  This is allowed in Africa.  We ordered our pizzas and she hand made each one and cooked it over an open flame.  It was super!  What a great find!

Day Four:

This morning we went for a 2 hour tubing tour on the Storms River.  Storms River is a river in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa with the river mouth located in the Tsitsikamma National Park. It sounds better than it was, unfortunately.  We all thought it was whitewater rafting.  It was fine that it was tubing it’s just that the water level was really low so we had to get out and walk over the rocks quite a bit and it wasn’t a rushing river so you had to paddle yourself with your arms which was quite hard work!  Our guides were funny and they kept flipping us out of our tubes.  The water was a little chilly but overall pretty nice.  There were a couple areas to jump from a cliff.  I only did one of them.  The second one was set back a bit and I was worried my short legs wouldn’t allow me to jump far enough out to clear the lower section!

We returned to the hostel to shower and change then we left for Knysna.  Knysna had the best rooms for us to stay in. It was actually a hotel and not a hostel.  The beds were really comfy!  I discovered a small scorpion in my luggage while I was unpacking.  I am not scared of them but it did surprise me!  He was really cute!  We named him Derek, captured him in a glass and released him outside.  Not sure where I picked him up!

We had a few hours to nap and then we went down to the bay for a evening cruise.  We had some wine and tapas and enjoyed the sights.  We met Jeff back at the harbour and decided to go to a Thai restaurant for dinner.  Super good food!  We had an early night as it was up early the next morning.

Ally, Tom & Dave

Me & Emily

Day Five:

Wakeup call at 5am!  Had to get the others to Mossel Bay for great white shark cage diving.  Dave and I didn’t go with them on the boat.  I had already been at the beginning of my trip and Dave had no interest.  We had along for the ride anyway as it was on the way to our next tour stop.  After dropping them off Dave, Jeff and I went to McDonald’s as it was the only place open that early.  We had some coffee and chatted.  Once the mall opened at 9am I went over to the Mugg & Bean (my new favorite place) and had more coffee and a quiche. I did some work on the internet and waited for the others to come back and pick me up.   Luckily Tom, Emily and Ally got to see some great whites and had an amazing time!

After some lunch we continued on to Oudtshoorn (pronounced "outs warren").  Oudtshoorn is the "ostrich capital of the world".  The town's economy is primarily reliant on the ostrich farming and tourism industries.  Oudtshoorn is home to the world's largest ostrich population, with a number of specialized ostrich breeding farms.

We arrived late afternoon and went to the Cango Caves. The principal cave is one of the country's finest, best known, and most popular tourist caves, and attracts many visitors from overseas. Although the extensive system of tunnels and chambers go on for over four kilometers, only about a quarter of this is open to visitors, who may proceed into the cave only in groups supervised by a guide. Tours are conducted at regular intervals on most days—there is a "Standard Tour" which takes an hour and an "Adventure Tour" which takes an hour and a half. The "Adventure Tour" consists of crawling through narrow passages and climbing up steep rock formations guided by small lights. The caves contain halls and limestone formations (on both tours) as well as small passages on the Adventure Tour. The smallest passage that tourists will have to pass through on the Adventure Tour is just under 6 inches to exit.  We opted to do the "adventure tour", of course! We crawled around through all these tight cracks and crevices.  It was pretty fun!

After the caves we checked into our hostel and got ready for dinner.  We went to a fancy restaurant called the Black Swan.  That was the best meal I had in months! So good!  We had a really enjoyable time and then retired for the night back at the hostel.

Day Six: 

Took off early for our 5 hour drive to Cape Town.  Stopped and took some nice photos along the way.  Saw baboons on the side of the road just like we would see squirrels!  Kinda weird!

On our way we drove by the world famous Ronnie's Sex Shop.  It's not what you think so get your mind out of the gutter!  Ronnie painted the name Ronnie's Shop on this cottage planning to open a farm stall to sell fresh produce and fruit. His friends played a prank on him by changing the name to Ronnie's Sex Shop. Initially angry about the involuntary name change, Ronnie left the name and continued fixing the dilapidated building. His friends would stop by for a chat, having a few beers and throwing a couple of chops on the fire. During one of these evenings, someone suggested: "Why don't you just open a pub?"  So, he did!  Ronnie's Sex Shop has had visitors from all over the world and it has also become a regular pitstop for bikers, the local farmers and people traveling this road regularly.  It is literally in the middle of nothing.  There is absolutely not one thing for miles around it.  It's weird.  It was too early in the morning when we drove by so it wasn't open.

Arrived about 2pm to Table Mountain.  We were slated to take the cable car up to the top, walk around then head back down.  Unfortunately, it was too windy and the cable cars were closed.  Next we went to the hostel to check in after which, Jeff, Dave, Tom, Emily and Ally went to see if they could get tickets to go to Robben Island.  I stayed behind.  Last thing I wanted to do on a windy day was get on a boat!  They came back unable to get tickets as it was sold out.  We got ready for dinner and met three other friends from Kwantu that were in Cape Town: Elisabeth (from Norway) and Sara (from Canada), and Tiago (from Brazil).  We had a nice meal down at the Victoria Waterfront and then went to an Irish Pub for drinks.  Emily was leaving the next day for home and Tiago for Gansbaii for a great white shark volunteer program near to where I had been at the start of my journey.  The rest of us were staying in Cape Town a few more days.

So, that is the end of my Garden Route adventure.  Not sure what's next.  I have some time to kill before my friend Judy from California meets me here in Cape Town for more adventures.  I may fly up to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe for a few days.  We'll see.  More later!

"Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend - or a meaningful day." ~
Dalai Lama