Easter holiday

For two and a half weeks I have been travelling around S. Africa with my dearest friend Kristina, who flew all the way from Scotland (26h 40 min) to spend the Easter holiday with me:)

I waited a whole day to get a car (rented from a friend here) that I could drive to Durban with to meet Kristina. The car I rented was an Isuzu pick-up, a buckie, that would be our means of getting around through out the easter holiday. We named it Double D Badness (DD). Along our travels we found a swedish flag to decorate our black beauty with, this flag was unfort. stolen when we parked DD by the Mozambiquan border.

Thats right we even made it to Mozambique. We started in Durban where we spent several days waiting for our LOVE- Akon, who came to perform at the International Conference Center in Durban. The wait was worthwhile, and for the first time in my life I got close to being a groupie. The day after the concert, Kristinas back was hurting so bad so we tried to get her a massage, ending up at Akons hotel (not knowing it was his hotel) and having a cup of coffee next to his "crew" hoping HE would turn up, which he didnt. Upset, but still excited, we left to Drakensberg, where we climbed the amazing amphitheatre, reaching 3120 meters above sealevel. The views from up there were fantastic, mountains and sky as far as the eye could reach. We also soaked our feet in the second highest waterfall in the world. From Drakensberg we drove of to the border of Mozambique, passing by amazing landscapes with our pick-up, having loaded our bags in bin bags at the back, cause it was raining. We reached the border to Moz. 10 min before they closed. Being stressed the immigration quickly gave Kristina our 2 visas (with my name printed in her passport and vice verca), whilst I parked the car. We got a lift to Ponta de Ouro just across the border. The next day we hit the beach and improved our tans. In Moz, since it was Easter we were only given 2 nights accomdation and everywhere else was fully booked. Lucky we made friends that took care of us and offered us to stay at their place after those 2 nights. We moved our bags to their place and that evening we went out dancing, starting by a bar at the beach, then moving onto Pintos place where they played a nice mix of house, learned so many new dancemoves from our friends :) That night we decided we needed to see Maputo, since we didnt really have a place to stay, but in order to do so we had to catch the first mini bus leaving at 4 am. We stayed out till 4 am and then convinced our new friends that we had to leave and got into the mini bus. Kristina describes this as the bus from hell. We were put at the very back of the bus, where there were no windows and pitchdark. I felt claustrophobic, and it was worse for Kris who suffered from motion sickness and was close to throwing up the whole time. After 1 and half hour on our horrible journey on the non-existing road to Maputo, filled with potholes EVERYWHERE, the car broke down. There was no reception in this middle of nowhere so the driver took of to find signal. We waited for an hour, Kristina still sick and me sleeping whilst standing, then we stopped a car and got a lift back to the border to S. Africa.

After this adventure I brought Kristina back to my "ends", Hluhluwe, where we spento spend 3 nights in my hut, experiencing the refreshing cold outdoor shower and the darkness of the night. In Hluhluwe we took DD Badness and drove to the game park, after 20 min we spotted 20 elephants Kristina kept urging me to drive closer to them. In Hluhluwe our car broke down, which to us was hurtful. But soon enough DD was fixed and we drove of to Durban, with a connecting flight to C. Town the following day. We decided not to take into a hostel since we had to check in at 4.30 in the morning. Instead we drove to a shopping mall and went to the movies. When the cinema ended around 1 am, we drove to the airport and slept in DD till check in time. In Cape Town we rented the smallest car, a VOLKSWAGON City Sport and named it Double A Sadness. Although she stayed faitful throughout our time in Cape T. Since we had a car we took into a hostel in the suburbs (10 min drive from city) at a "eco village", which was nothing like what you would picture an "ecological village". For those who have been to Christiania in Copenhagen this was something like that.

In Cape Town we visited the Waterfront, Robben Island and the Table Mountain. From Cape Town we drove to Stellenbosch for wine tasting. Driving from one beautifully set wine farm to the other, tasting and tasting amazing wines!!! Cape Town was very different from Kwa Zulu Natal, it was colder and whiter, when I write white I mean that the population was mostly white and also the enviroment was very "white", felt like you could be anywhere in Europe.

Our time travelling around South Africa was truly amazing and we've had weird, funny and exciting encounters.Its been a different "backpacking", since we did a road trip for the first time, seeing amazing landscapes and meeting different people. Also experiencing the contrasts in this country. The people we've met have all been extremly friendly and warm, offering us free food, shelter, gudiance, tours etc. The only trouble was that we ran out of money too SOOON. But that didnt stop us, as we found our ways of surviving in style, like we always do.

Now Im back in Hluhluwe and have exactly one month left before I leave this warm continent. Stay put for my remaining stories!