The Truck
The alarm went off at 6:30am and we were up up up!!! It's still quite chilly and it's cloudy as well... we're hoping it will warm up a bit (we're in Africa...right?)
We organized and packed the bags the previous evening so all we had to do was get dressed, grab the bags and head to the truck. We're hitting the road at 7:30 so we need to catch breakfast in the bar quickly.
Yogurt, honey, muesili and fruit in a parfait glass... how yummy!
The truck is quite the machine. (And it's a truck... not a bus or van or motor home... it's a truck - so says Steph, our guide). The bottom of the truck is all storage for tents, poles, washing up gear, tables, cooking gear, camp chairs, food, jeri cans with water, etc... With all that under truck storage, the first step up into the back of the truck is quite a doozy! Any shorter and I'd need a boost! Once you get into the passenger compartment, the rear wall of the truck is all lockers. Each locker will hold one person's luggage and can be locked with a small luggage lock. They're pretty roomy actually. Our info told us we would be able to fit only a 70L pack in each but I think Brad and I could fit both our luggage into one locker if we tried. Maybe its just because we don't tend to carry much. Behind the seats there is a battery powered freezer and two coolers for keeping cold stuff on ice. The truck has two by two bucket seats and nice big windows for photo taking. The bus seats about 24 people but there are only 20 on the tour so lots of room. The back two rows are set facing each other with a table between for card playing or whatever. This is where Brad and I end up sitting. The bus was pretty full when we got on so we just took the seats at the very back. Everything is loaded onto the truck but we're not leaving Cape Town just yet.
We load into two small vans and are going on a township tour. Our first stop is District 6 Museum. I know that if I'd thought about it that I would have realized how recent apartheid really was but I hadn't thought about it and somehow I couldn't fathom that it had actually taken place during my lifetime. I guess I thought that it had to have been something from a long time ago when people weren't so open minded and educated... or maybe that's my rose-coloured glasses view of the world. I guess if I think about it, that kind of thing is still going on even today and even in our own country. The world has a long way to go still... and that sucks.
District 6 was a mixed neighbourhood before apartheid. It was one of the areas where they removed all the "non-white" to the townships and then knocked most of the buildings down. People were segregated by colour. Blacks, coloured (not black and not white) and whites. Apparantly one of the very scientific tests they used to determine what ID card you carried was a pencil test. If they put a pencil in your hair and it fell out, you were white. If it did not fall out, you were not white.
Our guide for the tour was Richard and our driver was Titus. After the museum we headed into one of the townships where the people were relocated to once segregation started. He headed to Langa township which is the oldest of the townships. When we reached the township to walk around and into some of the homes, it started to pour down rain. There were a couple of different types of township housing. Families were put into small two room "houses" and young men were housed in more of a dormatory style apartment building. There were 4 bedrooms for each common room and there were 3 beds in each bedroom. These buildings only housed men and only those who were working in the hopes of controlling population growth.
At some point they decided to let men have their families with them in these buildings but they didn't give them any more space... so now you have entire families living in one bed in a room with potentially two other families. Richard said you could end up with upwards of 90 people sharing one common area. The spaces reminded me a bit of Delhi except it didn't smell as much.
It was pouring down rain so much that an old man invited us into his home to stay dry. He had two small crowded rooms and a TV was blaring away up on a shelf. When the vans arrived, we made a run for it to head off for lunch.
We had lunch at Moritz Meat... a local spot to catch some gossip and food. BBQ chicken, pork, something that looked and tasted like polenta, salsa and ginger beer. It was pretty good actually!
After lunch we visited one of the "illegal" townships. These were not the ones sanctioned by the government and originally they had no roads or power. The buildings are made from whatever they could find - old scrap lumber and tin mostly - and the floors are dirt. We got to enter one of the home to drink some homemade beer from a big tin bucket. They called it a Shabeen which they said was the Scottish word for an illegal drinking establishment. Cool! The beer was made from sorghum and something I didn't quite get and tasted rather sweetish. Kind of beery aftertaste but not as fizzy. It wasn't all that bad really but I don't think I could drink all that much of it.
Back to the vans who dropped us back at Shangani (the truck). We were off on our adventure. We stopped in a mall to pick up supplies... water, snacks, etc. We were shopping in something called a Pik'n'Pay which was rather like a big Walmart. We only had 40 minutes to get anything we wanted and get back to the truck. Melissa's bag was still missing from their flight and it was becoming a bit stressful so we decided that we should give them more time to find a camp store and get her some clothes. The weather is rainy quite cool and she didn't have that much with her on the flight and was only wearing sandals. We left around 3pm and drove to our first camp site.
We arrived at our first camp around 6:30 pm. It's called Highlander. Arusha the dog was the first to greet us - a damn cute little pit bull terrier. We set up camp in the dark and it was cold (around 10 C) but atleast its not raining! As soon as the tents were set up I dove into my long underwear, fleecy hat, vest, jacket AND socks!
The campground has toilets, showers and a bar! It's a small campsite really, seems like there are only two or so large plots for Overland trucks that come in. We are uphill to the toilets and Intrepid is downhill on this night.
Dinner was in the bar - chicken stew for meat eaters, roasted butternut squash for veggies. There was some great homemade bread and apple crumble for dessert. After dinner we had a wine tasting. Highlander is part of a wine co-op in South Africa. We ended up buying a couple of bottles... they were so cheap!!
Off to bed early - our wake up call is 6:30am.
We organized and packed the bags the previous evening so all we had to do was get dressed, grab the bags and head to the truck. We're hitting the road at 7:30 so we need to catch breakfast in the bar quickly.
Yogurt, honey, muesili and fruit in a parfait glass... how yummy!
The truck is quite the machine. (And it's a truck... not a bus or van or motor home... it's a truck - so says Steph, our guide). The bottom of the truck is all storage for tents, poles, washing up gear, tables, cooking gear, camp chairs, food, jeri cans with water, etc... With all that under truck storage, the first step up into the back of the truck is quite a doozy! Any shorter and I'd need a boost! Once you get into the passenger compartment, the rear wall of the truck is all lockers. Each locker will hold one person's luggage and can be locked with a small luggage lock. They're pretty roomy actually. Our info told us we would be able to fit only a 70L pack in each but I think Brad and I could fit both our luggage into one locker if we tried. Maybe its just because we don't tend to carry much. Behind the seats there is a battery powered freezer and two coolers for keeping cold stuff on ice. The truck has two by two bucket seats and nice big windows for photo taking. The bus seats about 24 people but there are only 20 on the tour so lots of room. The back two rows are set facing each other with a table between for card playing or whatever. This is where Brad and I end up sitting. The bus was pretty full when we got on so we just took the seats at the very back. Everything is loaded onto the truck but we're not leaving Cape Town just yet.
We load into two small vans and are going on a township tour. Our first stop is District 6 Museum. I know that if I'd thought about it that I would have realized how recent apartheid really was but I hadn't thought about it and somehow I couldn't fathom that it had actually taken place during my lifetime. I guess I thought that it had to have been something from a long time ago when people weren't so open minded and educated... or maybe that's my rose-coloured glasses view of the world. I guess if I think about it, that kind of thing is still going on even today and even in our own country. The world has a long way to go still... and that sucks.
District 6 was a mixed neighbourhood before apartheid. It was one of the areas where they removed all the "non-white" to the townships and then knocked most of the buildings down. People were segregated by colour. Blacks, coloured (not black and not white) and whites. Apparantly one of the very scientific tests they used to determine what ID card you carried was a pencil test. If they put a pencil in your hair and it fell out, you were white. If it did not fall out, you were not white.
Our guide for the tour was Richard and our driver was Titus. After the museum we headed into one of the townships where the people were relocated to once segregation started. He headed to Langa township which is the oldest of the townships. When we reached the township to walk around and into some of the homes, it started to pour down rain. There were a couple of different types of township housing. Families were put into small two room "houses" and young men were housed in more of a dormatory style apartment building. There were 4 bedrooms for each common room and there were 3 beds in each bedroom. These buildings only housed men and only those who were working in the hopes of controlling population growth.
At some point they decided to let men have their families with them in these buildings but they didn't give them any more space... so now you have entire families living in one bed in a room with potentially two other families. Richard said you could end up with upwards of 90 people sharing one common area. The spaces reminded me a bit of Delhi except it didn't smell as much.
It was pouring down rain so much that an old man invited us into his home to stay dry. He had two small crowded rooms and a TV was blaring away up on a shelf. When the vans arrived, we made a run for it to head off for lunch.
We had lunch at Moritz Meat... a local spot to catch some gossip and food. BBQ chicken, pork, something that looked and tasted like polenta, salsa and ginger beer. It was pretty good actually!
After lunch we visited one of the "illegal" townships. These were not the ones sanctioned by the government and originally they had no roads or power. The buildings are made from whatever they could find - old scrap lumber and tin mostly - and the floors are dirt. We got to enter one of the home to drink some homemade beer from a big tin bucket. They called it a Shabeen which they said was the Scottish word for an illegal drinking establishment. Cool! The beer was made from sorghum and something I didn't quite get and tasted rather sweetish. Kind of beery aftertaste but not as fizzy. It wasn't all that bad really but I don't think I could drink all that much of it.
Back to the vans who dropped us back at Shangani (the truck). We were off on our adventure. We stopped in a mall to pick up supplies... water, snacks, etc. We were shopping in something called a Pik'n'Pay which was rather like a big Walmart. We only had 40 minutes to get anything we wanted and get back to the truck. Melissa's bag was still missing from their flight and it was becoming a bit stressful so we decided that we should give them more time to find a camp store and get her some clothes. The weather is rainy quite cool and she didn't have that much with her on the flight and was only wearing sandals. We left around 3pm and drove to our first camp site.
We arrived at our first camp around 6:30 pm. It's called Highlander. Arusha the dog was the first to greet us - a damn cute little pit bull terrier. We set up camp in the dark and it was cold (around 10 C) but atleast its not raining! As soon as the tents were set up I dove into my long underwear, fleecy hat, vest, jacket AND socks!
The campground has toilets, showers and a bar! It's a small campsite really, seems like there are only two or so large plots for Overland trucks that come in. We are uphill to the toilets and Intrepid is downhill on this night.
Dinner was in the bar - chicken stew for meat eaters, roasted butternut squash for veggies. There was some great homemade bread and apple crumble for dessert. After dinner we had a wine tasting. Highlander is part of a wine co-op in South Africa. We ended up buying a couple of bottles... they were so cheap!!
Off to bed early - our wake up call is 6:30am.
posted by The Wild and Wonderful Adventures of Horse and Dog @ 9:34 AM
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