On Leaving South Africa

The day before the wedding.

Our real reason for being in South Africa is to attend the wedding of our two young friends who have been our house-sitters during our travels over the last few years. The bride has also been our daughter, Elizabeth's, friend since they were six. More than fifty Australians have 'invaded' the Western Cape for this event so it is bound to be a time for serious partying.

South Africa – a Review

Africa. Africa is the real key for us trying to understand what we have experienced in this diverse, beautiful, engaging, puzzling and, in many ways, contradictory country.

Africa is new for us. We have experienced Morocco, up close and personal, but it is a different Africa. This was to be the Africa of our school books, a place of wild animals teeming across the open veldt, colonial splendour and high tea as the sun set over the plains. What a lot of romantic 19^th century rot!

In many ways, we have thought of South Africa as much like home - Australia. They play rugby, cricket and they speak English. The South Africans we know are just like us. Their land is big and dry and green and gold. Our sporting colours are even the same. More rot.

So what is South Africa?

It is like nowhere else we have ever been. It is vibrant. It is complex. It is troubled. It has great potential. It has enormous problems. It is proudly democratic. It has serious inequities yet it fervently espouses human rights. It is young and self-conscious as a nation. It has a long history of bloody struggle. Its surgeons performed the world's first heart transplant, yet its male citizens have a life expectancy of 53.

This is not an academic treatise, but an attempt to present our views of what we have seen and experienced here. We know our many South African friends are interested in what we think of their country. We just hope we don't offend them with our honest (and potentially ill-informed thoughts).

South Africa is a sometimes troubled place. It is not hard for us to see this from the high walls and electronic security that protects many of the more affluent homes in South African cities. We just aren't familiar with this sort of security. We are told it is necessary, but we have not felt unsafe anywhere we have been in South Africa and in smaller towns and cities it is common for houses to have very little security. This includes towns that are totally 'black', towns where we have wandered un-molested - where people smile and respond pleasantly to us. Nevertheless, there is no escaping the fact that South Africa has the highest murder rate in the world. Just short of twice the number of murders occur here every year as in the United States and the population of South Africa is one sixth of that of the US.

Lesson one for the traveller here: be careful, but don't be paranoid. To us, security has been no more of a problem than in southern Europe eg. Spain! However, we realise that the dangers are present. We have heard the stories of our SA friends and we know that situations that are seemingly innocuous can suddenly turn nasty.

Emerging countries now have their own 'club' called the BRICS. Previously known as the BRIC, (Brazil, Russia, India and China) South Africa has recently joined the group at the invitation of China - which is an interesting fact in itself. South Africa deserves its place amongst these rapidly developing nations. It has great infrastructure, a rapidly growing manufacturing sector, strong agricultural sector and mineral and energy resources. It is a country going places. But just who is gaining from all this? Income inequality is near the highest in the world. Well less than 10% of the population control more than 50% of the country's wealth. More than 40% of the population have no, or near no income. There is no prize for guessing which part of the population predominates at the poorer end of this scale.

Now this is the hardest part!

Positive discrimination has been employed to address these inequalities. These policies aren't new. They have been used in the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Malaysia, to mention just a few. This is incredibly hard on those who have worked so hard to build this country over many generations. But as long as the current income inequalities persist, South Africa will remain 'troubled'. Many people we have talked to about the problems of poverty amongst the black population believe that as long as things keep 'moving forward' all will be well. The simple fact of the matter is that fewer than 4 million people cannot continue to live at the standard they do, while so many of the 50 million others citizens of their country live in poverty.

Politics in South Africa seem dominated by race issues. Political parties are predominantly race- based and the 'race card' is constantly played openly in political debate. Legislation perpetuates racial divides through the use of old racial tags like, black, coloured, Indian and white. Yet the South African Constitution is internationally recognised as the model, modern, democratic constitution. Democracy works here and, at least on the surface, the strong principles of equality espoused in the Constitution prevail. The real question is, just how long can the actual inequalities continue before the frustrations and outright desperation felt by the poor majority find some sort of expression?

At the start of our trip, we put an early observation to some friends. It was that the notion of a Rainbow Nation was a far less realistic notion at the moment than the fine lines that distinguish the colours on the South African flag. We still stick to that view. On the whole, the merging of the rainbow hasn't happened yet. The sharp lines of the flag are more the reality. BUT 'things (really) are moving forward.'

As we end our trip, we are spending a week in Cape Town. Here, it must be said, there is a blurring at the edges of the race divide. Here, the white and coloured, (those of Indian and South-East Asian origin) are in the majority. There seems to be some real progress being made here, even for the (still seriously disadvantaged) African population. Walk up the street on a working day in Cape Town and you'll see people of all races mixing and talking together. Every now and then you may even see a multi-racial couple holding hands on the street. But take a drive up the coast in either direction to the wealthy white and coloured suburbs and see how many Africans live there. Then turn inland and drive through the Cape Flats townships and see how many whites and coloured people live there. Compare the multi-million Rand houses and the hovels.

Cape Town has made a special effort to maintain the viability of the city centre. It has worked. The city centre is a vibrant, working, commercial and retail hub which is safe, clean and productive. The few remaining derelict buildings that harbour the drug dealers and other criminal elements are being cleaned out and refurbished.

The country is working hard to address the enormous gap in income and living standards. Employment creation and public housing are high priority. The big challenge is how to effectively address the abject poverty of the majority in the face of the highly conspicuous wealth of the minority, while the political power in the hands of that majority is in conflict with the economic power in the hands of the rich minority. We think they will make it, but it won't be easy and it won't happen tomorrow. We just hope that all South Africans and those who support them around the world are patient enough to allow change to continue to progress peacefully.

In short we have loved our time here. We have been well treated wherever we have been.

We will return!

West Coast Drive

21 March, Cape Town

Weather here is a little like Melbourne. Unpredictable! From 33C and sunny two days ago, it has been low 20s C for the past couple of days. Not complaining about the temperature- it is just right for us, but the clouds roll in in the morning and don't burn off until after lunch. Today we escaped the city because it was South African Human Rights Day and a public holiday. Last night, the band setting up in the square just below us did a sound check that almost blew us out of our apartment! From early morning, thousands of school kids in uniform began filing into the square. It was going to be big and LOUD, so we headed for the “West Coast”, the area of beaches to the north-west of the city. The date of Human Rights Day is, in fact, the anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, 21 March 1960, when police in the Sharpeville Township fired on a peaceful demonstration against the 'Pass Laws”. Sixty-nine protesters were killed and more than 180 seriously injured.

Cape Town has a population of about 3.5 million, but more than half of them live in the sprawling, crowded Cape Town Flats township. The rest of the city is strung out along the coast on either side of Table Mountain. Leafy suburbs merge into the wine belt to the inland eastern side of the city while Mediterranean/Californian beach-centred suburbs dominate on the coasts. These are affluent areas, but houses here are much more affordable than in Australia and so the quality of a normal middle to upper middle class home seems much higher than at home. Either that or there are one hell of a lot of very rich people in the Western Cape!

We headed for the 'quaint fishing village' of Paternoster. Quaint no more! The small cluster of whitewashed fisherman's huts has become more like a Greek Island, with pure white cottages

stretching for a couple of kilometres along the coast. Not what we expected, but very nice! Locals gather mussels from the rocky outcrops and sell them by the bag full on the roadside. We would have loved a couple of kilos, but who knows what 'fresh today' really means?

A bit of a boring route through the hinterland brought us home again. Boring, mainly because of its similarity to areas at home. It must be a southern hemisphere thing? Or the omnipresent eucalyptus trees, but as soon as we hit drier parts of SA, it looks just like Australia.

Good news was that the ear splitting concert that we had expected to last into the night was all packed up by the time we got home.

Into Cape Town

17 March, Montagu

“Into each life a little rain must fall” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Both figuratively and literally, a little rain fell today. We have been blessed with great weather for most of our time in SA. Today started and ended well, but most of our travel time, it was glum, grey and rainy. The weather may have accounted for our disappointment in our trip down the 'world-renowned' Route 62, marketing rip-off of the truly world-renowned Route 66 in the USA.

With the exception of a couple of quite spectacular mountain passes, most of our journey was just so-so. We don't like to criticise, but to do justice to the places that have been really fantastic, we do need to be honest about those that just don't do it for us. The three major towns we passed through were Calitzdorp, Ladysmith and Barrydale. They are just small country towns that are trying to make it in the booming tourist industry. As we often find when we finally arrive at some obscure landmark, dead tree, or dusty monument that has been built up in the guide books and travel brochures as a 'not to be missed site', it has all been just a bit of a beat-up!

Make no mistake, though, about Montagu. It is “the goods”, a fantastic little town settled amongst towering mountains with country inns that could have been lifted from the Cotswalds and houses that retain the old Dutch influence of the early Afrikaner settlers. The town is the start of the winelands part of Route 62, so perhaps we will have more positive news tomorrow. Cape Town, here we come!

18 March, Cape Town

About 3.5 million people live in Cape Town, but it is a very manageable city. Traffic is reasonable and the central city is busy, but not difficult to negotiate. We found a street parking right in front of our building in minutes and drove down to the V&A Waterfront area with consummate ease. The V&A is a little like Darling Harbour in Sydney, bustling with busy restaurants and drinking holes as well as a big shopping centre and apartment blocks, all encircling a lovely harbour.

Our trip through the Western Cape has been extremely pleasant and easy going. For anybody looking for a real holiday in South Africa with minimum hassle, just do the Western Cape with a side trip by plane to the Kruger National Park. This is a very civilized and safe part of South Africa and it contains some spectacular scenery and great holiday resorts, both beach and game. But this is not the full story of this fantastic country. If this is all you do, you'll miss out on the 'real Africa'. Gauteng ( Johannesburg area) is 'edgy', KwaZulu-Natal and the Transkei are places where the real South Africa can be experienced. All are safe - with care. We would also suggest a trip through Swaziland to get a feel for some old African traditions.

People who only visit the Western Cape and Kruger may not believe a word of what we write in the final review if our visit to South Africa. But this area is quite different to much of the more rural parts of the country.

19 March, Cape Town

It's always great to stay right in the middle of a big city. Here in Cape Town, we are one block off the main street and we have a beautiful view of Table Mountain. The only draw back is that it is HOT at the moment and humid just like home. Worse still, our apartment isn't air-conditioned! Never mind, the forecast is for the temperature to drop from the low to mid 30s now to the low 20s by mid week.

Despite the heat – mad dogs and Australians – we spent most of the day strolling around the centre of the city, ducking in and out of air-conditioned museums and shops to keep comfortable. The find of the day was the Company Gardens, also just a block from our digs! Splendid colonial buildings set in lush tropical and sub-tropical gardens and people everywhere! What a truly cosmopolitan place. Whites, Africans, Coloureds and Indians (how we hate those tags!) all out enjoying themselves. Despite our strong feelings that the true 'Rainbow Nation' is still a long way off, we did see it here for the first time in 5 weeks.

The Karoo

16 March, Oudtshoorn

The Garden Route is one of SA's most popular tourist and holiday areas.

It is very nice...and very white. Excuse us, but this black-white thing is becoming really interesting.

More isolated beaches are fantastic, the hinterland ranges are out of this world, but the holiday meccas are 'Western-White-Anywhere World' beach resorts. Don't get us wrong. Many people will love places like Plettenberg Bay, Knysna and the mis-named Wilderness National Park, but we preferred Buffalo Bay and other, less-developed spots.

Today we hit the dirt again and climbed up and through the Swartberg Pass, then down to the historical town of Prince Albert. The road was just as you would expect of an old mountain pass. Rough as - and that's part of the attraction. Fantastic scenery had us stopping at every corner for a photo, but it is almost impossible to capture the real beauty of this place! This is the edge of the Karoo region, one of the real wilderness areas of SA. Mountains here are on a scale that we just don't have at home. On a beautiful day like today, we had yet another 'oh wow!' experience.

Garden Route 1

15 March, Knysna Garden Route

Just downed a few Knysna oysters. We only got the 'medium' cultivated ones They were huge! At least three times the size of a normal oyster at home and so-o-o good! And at $4 a half dozen, who could ask for more? Apparently the big coastal oysters have to be eaten with a knife and fork, so there IS something better.

Knysna is tourist central and so not our usual fare, but we took a ferry trip across the lagoon that has formed at the mouth of the Knysna river to one of the headlands and had a nice walk through the indigenous forest. The views up the coast were just spectacular.

As we have come further south into the Western Cape Province, we have moved more into what we (probably disrespectfully) call “whitie-world”. Knysna and other towns on this beautiful coast could well be in the South of France, Florida, the Gold Coast or the Costa Brava, normally playgrounds for the rich and famous, but in this, the off-season, very reasonable for travellers like us. We have a nice, lagoon-fronting, self-catering unit for $55 a night. On the outskirts of this paradise, though, is the 'Old Place' Township, a totally different world and less than 2 km from the centre of Knysna. But more about this later in our review of our travels in South Africa. Enough to say for now is that we , like all the other “whities”, are safe and comfortable in beautiful Knysna.

Toyota vs Bull Elephant

12 March, Addo Elephant Park, Eastern Cape

Our chalet here over looks a scrubby valley with a waterhole at one end. Kudus wander in and out of view and little Duiker deer graze cautiously in the thickets just the other side of the elephant-proof fence that is just 2 metres from our balcony. Just a great place to spend the late afternoon after a tough day on safari.

We had a rather frustrating morning searching for some of the 500 elephants that call Addo home. We did spot a few Kudus and several smaller beasties including a black-backed jackal, but no elephant and NO lion. In the early afternoon though, we came across a large herd of elephants grazing along one of the dirt tracks. This was a real 'close encounter'. Elephants 5 times the weight of our car ambled past, a mere arm's distance from our window. But once the juveniles started “elephanting” about near our car, pushing and shoving and generally playing argy-bargy, we slipped into reverse and headed off the other way.

Several hours later, we had done full circle and returned to the other side of the track to where the herd had been. We had assumed that they would have moved on and we could get past their 'road block'. But no. As we came close to where we had encountered them before, a large bull elephant blocked our path. Just 20 metres away, he decided to stand his ground. Ears flapped, not a good sign we had been told, head shook from side to side – even worse – then the stamping of the front foot – worst of all!

So it was Toyota Corolla Vs Bull Elephant. The Corolla valiantly stood her ground, but she was in reverse with the engine running, just in case! Eyeball to eyeball and outweighed by 5 to one, anything could happen! After several tense minutes, with a puff of dust from his trunk, the elephant retired gracefully to the scrub beside the road. Toyota one, Bull Elephant zero. And how were we......?

We now have the greatest respect for wild elephants in open spaces, and lucky its washing day tomorrow!

Transkei Adventures

11 March, Addo Elephant Park, Eastern Cape

The Transkei is an enormous tract of land stretching from the southern parts of KwaZulu-Natal into the northern parts of the Eastern Cape Province. The Transkei was one of a number of 'homelands' established for black Africans under the Apartheid regime. The homelands were supposedly self-governing areas where traditional lifestyles were to be preserved. As with most other elements of Apartheid, it simply segregated black Africans into large, extremely poor, rural ghettos.

Today the Transkei is one of the poorest areas of South Africa. For hundreds of kilometres, the rolling hills are covered with densely-settled villages and large family compounds, many without power or reticulated water supply. Women milling around a hand-operated pump, with wheelbarrows loaded with water containers, are a common sight.

The few towns and cities are crowded and run down, their main streets clogged with people, trucks, goats, cattle and the ever-present 'Taxis' (mini-buses). We had intended devoting a full day to tackling the long and difficult drive through the Transkei. Our timing was all off and we found ourselves heading off in the early afternoon, knowing that we would have to drive the last couple of hours in the dark - something we had been warned several times not to do! It must be said that at no time did we feel threatened by the press of people in the towns or the thousands strung out along the road, walking, walking, walking.... What was a challenge was the condition of the roads and the constant incursions of animals. After dark, all this became much worse and we were slowed significantly by road works and dodging on-coming cars and trucks with no lights!

All ended well. We arrived in East London about 8:30pm and grabbed a room in a nice chain hotel, The Road Lodge. A couple of cool-ish beers, a room service pizza and a good night's sleep and we were good as new.

Hogsback is not an internationally known destination in SA, but the father of a friend in Australia lives there and we had been invited to stay. What an amazing place - a little piece of England transplanted into Southern Africa. Terry, our host, is an artist who has lived in this small community for several years. Meeting some of the locals at a great little restaurant capped off a relaxing day for us after the strain of our 900km drive the previous day.

Moving further south in the Eastern Cape today, the scattered villages that had covered the hillsides since we left the Drakensberg region suddenly disappeared. We were entering a much 'whiter' world. Grahamstown was the first town of any size we have come across that had a distinctive 'European' feel to it. Sure there were poor townships on the fringes of the town, but much of the central area could have been in southern England or even some of the older settled parts of Australia. Beautiful old colonial buildings lined the main streets, grand old houses hid behind century old oak and maple trees and elite private schools with more grand old houses transformed into Administration Blocks, lay tucked away behind the main square. It was a very different world!

We now have two days in the Addo Elephant Park with a chance to spot more animals and perhaps tick off our last remaining BIG Five sighting - the elusive leopard.

Drakensberg Escarpment

6 March, Champagne Valley, KwaZulu-Natal

Our accommodations are again excellent. Champagne Cottages are at the head of the valley adjacent to Bell Park Dam in the Drakensberg Ranges.

We have probably become a bit demanding in terms of what we expect of 'spectacular scenery'. For us, breath-taking means just that. Even some of the sights raved about at home in Australia have not hit the 'breath-taking' mark for us. The Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, most of the Southern Island of New Zealand are some of the overseas sights that have stopped us in our tracks. Now we can add the Drakensberg area!

Today we drove to the northern area of the escarpment to visit Royal Natal National Park. At almost every bend, we pulled over for a photo. None of them of course will do the landscape justice.

Not having walked further than a few hundred metres in the past couple of weeks, we thought the hike to Tiger Falls would be just what we needed. The track started off as more like a bike path than a hiking trail, but that all changed as we strode up the escarpment to the falls. It was so steep that we almost grazed our foreheads leaning into the slope as we climbed. It was a tough climb, but well worth the effort. Fantastic views and sore legs!

8 March, Champagne Valley, KwaZulu-Natal

Most of our time over the last couple of days has been spent hiking in the various National Parks of the Drakensberg Mountains. We'll let a few photos tell most of this story, except for just one more 'little ripper' of a story from the Imperial days of the late 19^th century.

On our way back from the San rock-art caves of the Giant's Castle, we came across a location on the path called Rock 75. In fact there were just four large boulders in the middle of a small clearing near a crystal clear mountain stream that bubbled quietly out of the rugged mountains near Langalibalele Ridge.

Spooky how things come together sometimes.

Those who struggled through our rather long treatise on the Anglo-Zulu Wars and, in particular, the tragic Battle of Isandhlwana, may remember the famous last stand of the Regiment, formed in a fighting square, bayonets fixed, around their Colonel. At that stage we didn't add all the names of the characters, but that valiant leader was one Colonel Durnford and that Regiment was the 75^th. Durnford's place in history was guaranteed by a contemporary illustration in a London newspaper and one of the scenes in the movie “Zulu”. The newspaper featured Durnford's last stand with the famous caption, “Fix bayonets boys and prepare to die like British soldiers do.” And they all did.

That was January 1879. In 1874, Durnford led the 75^th Regiment into the very valley we walked through this morning. From June to September, they camped around these three rocks on this small grassy clearing while engaged in actions against Zulu rebels. Clearly emblazoned on one of the rocks is '75' the regimental number. We had to wonder whether the soldier who carved the number in the rock, died with his old Colonel at Isandhlwana?

Ripping Yarns of Empire

4-5 March, Champagne Valley, Drakensberg Mountains KwaZulu-Natal

If you aren't into 'Ripping Yarns' of late 19^th century colonial folly, blood and guts, high drama, human heroism, all set in darkest Africa, skip this section!

To fully appreciate the grandeur of this tale, we need a quick history lesson. Condensing several hundred years of South African history into a few sentences is a bit of an ask, but here we go.

When the early Dutch first settled around the Cape of Good Hope in the 1650s, the locals were various groups of Bantu-speaking people who had begun migrating into southern Africa around 500AD. By 1700 the Dutch (Boers) had begun to expand north, looking for suitable farming land. Dutch power was declining internationally by the early 19^th century and so guess who slipped into Cape Town to fill the power vacuum? Yep, the British.

About the same time as the British began to assert their presence in the Cape, a chieftain by the name of Shaka began to create a militaristic Zulu state in the north. Under Shaka, the Zulu began to expand their territory through violent conquest, leading to the virtual depopulation of large areas of north and north-east South Africa. This was around the 1830s when, coincidentally, the Boers, who had had enough of the British, began their Great Trek north into what they thought was 'vacant land'.

So it was that three great forces came into play - the rugged, pioneering Boers, the fiercely territorial Zulu and the greatest empire since the Romans, the British - in the the rolling hills and craggy peaks of what is today KwaZulu-Natal.

Hmm... three paragraphs. Not bad for 300 years of history. In comparison, Australian history of the same period could be summarised as: Convicts arrived, squatters took up land, gold was discovered, we became a nation. Everybody prospered.

Yesterday we stayed in the town of Dundee, in the very nice Royal Country Inn. The room we slept in was in the old part of the Inn that survived a fire in the 1920s. In the Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1902, this part of the Inn was used at various times by both the British and the Boers as their headquarters. Our very room would have been an office in this command post! Well, we were excited!

But we've jumped ahead.

Blood River was the site, in 1838, of the first serious clash between the Boers and the Zulu. It was a retaliation for the slaughter by the Zulu of a Boer group led by Piet Retief, who sought land concessions from the Zulu. So here's the start of the gruesome bits. The Zulu executed the Boers by impaling then on stakes, from the bottom up, and then disembowelling them, excising their gall bladders and eating those gall bladders. You were warned!

Today there are two monuments at Blood River. We only visited the Zulu one. More than 1000 Zulu were killed for no losses by the Boers.

Not far away from Blood River is the site of the Battle of Isandhlwana, 1879. In the 40 years between Blood River and Isandhlwana, the British had taken a serious interest in South Africa. Oh, did we mention the gold??

So, yesterday we found ourselves beside the sphinx-like hill that dominates the scattered village compounds of the modern day descendants of the warriors who, on 22 January 1879. slaughtered over 1300 British soldiers, inflicting a defeat that shattered the Empire's view of itself and brought down the government. Up to 25,000 Zulu ran down from the hill in their classic 'horns of the buffalo' formation. We could almost hear the swish of their assegai (stabbing spears) and their war cries as we walked around the stone cairns that marked the graves of the British soldiers.

The classic movie, ”Zulu”, captured the final scenes of the battle as the few remaining soldiers formed a fighting square with fixed bayonets and fought to the death.

Leaving the battlefield we, of course, got lost on the rough dirt tracks that led to these rather underdeveloped battle sites. But, for once, it wasn't a frustrating disorientation. We drove through some of the poorer areas of the Zulu homelands. Traditional homesteads, with their rough sapling kraals and circular huts, were scattered as far as the eye could see. Some of the very few old men who walked by the road as we drove by, would probably have heard stories of this battle from their fathers, who may well have sat as children in the smoky cattle kraals listening to the stories of their fathers who survived the battle.

There was no power to most of these homes and water was still being drawn from hand pumps. But everywhere along the rough country tracks, people waved and smiled as we bumped and rattled past. These are probably some of the poorest people in South Africa, but still the proud descendants of the Zulu kings and still living in KwaZulu (the Zulu's Place).

Next morning, (5 March) we were back on the battlefields at Rorke's Drift, the site of what might be seen as a face saver for the British army following the crushing defeat of Isandhlwana. Queen Victoria, “The Great White Queen” to the Zulu, awarded 11 Victoria Crosses to the defenders of Rorke's Drift, the most ever awarded in any single engagement.

This is where the Ripping Yarns of 'derring-do' come into play.

Just hours after Isandhlwana, a bare 139 able-bodied British soldiers fought off over 4000 Zulu. There were characters, heroes and doers of derring-do aplenty at Rorke's Drift. In their red serge coats and pith helmets, armed with their single-shot, breech-loading, Martini-Henry rifles, in the heat of mid-summer, these plucky (mostly Welsh) soldiers, epitomised the British Empire at its zenith.

The site of the battle that we walked around today is smaller than 5 tennis courts. On the grounds are marked the lines of defence that were hastily constructed from corn sacks (mealie bags) and boxes of biscuits. These simple defences didn't alone save the small garrison. It was the courage of the defenders that sent 4000 Zulu back across the Buffalo River.

After fighting through the moonless night, the defenders of Rorke's Drift were on their last legs when dawn came. On the terraces above them, the dark shadows of the Zulu army massed for what they thought would be the final attack. The defenders had less than 6 rounds of ammunition per man. Many had dislocated shoulders from the constant recoil of their rifles. They were spent. Then the unbelievable happened. Silently, the Zulu moved off the field in disciplined ranks, dragging their dead behind then on their great war shields. They had seen the British relief column of 2500 men moving across the valley from the killing fields of Isandhlwana.

One name sticks in our mind after walking the battle site. Corporal Hook (the cook). Fighting a retreating action through the burning hospital building, Hook dragged numerous injured comrades to the safety of the fortified area of the camp while under heavy Zulu attack. Hook survived the Zulu wars and died at home. He is buried in Churcham in Gloucester. We hope to visit his grave when we go to the UK in a month or so.

Another 'Ripper' is the story of the death of the heir to the Imperial throne of France, Louis Napoleon, the son of Emperor Napoleon III and grand-nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, in a less than heroic incident in an isolated cattle kraal. How this son of an Emperor of France came to be brewing tea on the veldt of South Africa in 1879 is most simply put as the adventurous folly of a young man caught up in the glory of colonial conquest. Zulu warriors ambushed the hapless Louis and his small party. Captain Carey, and the soldiers detailed to protect him, managed to escape the attack, believing Louis was right behind them. Unfortunately for all, Louis' saddle broke as he attempted to mount. He was speared through the eye with an assegai. His body was later recovered and you can visit his grave out on the veldt in an isolated corner of what was the once mighty British Empire. Captain Carey was court marshalled but, following the intercessions of Louis' mother, the Empress Eugenie, no penalty was imposed. He was, however, transferred in disgrace, to eventually die under mysterious circumstances in another isolated corner of the British Empire, the North-west Frontier in India.

Seeing how 'these savages armed with sticks' routed the British, the Boers began to revolt. In just over 10 years, the battlefields of KwaZulu-Natal were again alive with the bitter conflict between the Boers and the British. If you want to get a feel for these battles, book Room 35 at the Royal Country Inn in Dundee and spend some time looking at the history adorning the walls of this historic building.

We are grateful to our friends, Jenny and Les, who lent us the audio book of Day of the Dead Moon which so enlivened our visit to the battlefields.

6 March Champagne Valley, KwaZulu-Natal

Our accommodations are again excellent. Champagne Cottages are at the head of the valley adjacent to Bell Park Dam in the Drakensberg Ranges.

We have probably become a bit demanding in terms of what we expect of 'spectacular scenery'. For us, breath-taking means just that. Even some of the sights raved about at home in Australia have not hit the 'breath-taking' mark for us. The Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, most of the Southern Island of New Zealand are some of the overseas sights that have stopped us in our tracks. Now we can add the Drakensberg area!

Today we drove to the northern area of the escarpment to visit Royal Natal National Park. At almost every bend, we pulled over for a photo. None of them of course will do the landscape justice.

Not having walked further than a few hundred metres in the past couple of weeks, we thought the hike to Tiger Falls would be just what we needed. The track started off as more like a bike path than a hiking trail, but that all changed as we strode up the escarpment to the falls. It was so steep that we almost grazed our foreheads leaning into the slope as we climbed. It was a tough climb, but well worth the effort. Fantastic views and sore legs!

Adventures in Swaziland

27 February, Lower Sabie Camp, Kruger NP

Lion and leopard have eluded us to date. So, this morning we were up at 5 am (ouch!), ready for the camp gates to open at 5:30. We have spotted so many of three of the BIG Five that we are almost sick of the sight of them. Elephants, rhino and water buffalo are almost a traffic nuisance. Mind you, we still stop and fire off several photos every time we see them. Particularly the elephants! Today, though, it was an all-in effort to spot lion and leopard.

Our success was only partial. We spotted a lion high up on a rocky outcrop. Not a great sighting, but we'll count it! Leopard still is missing from our dance card. Oh well, we still have a month to go. In four days, we have driven over 500 km within the boundaries of the park in search of wildlife and this is only our first National Park!

While our aim has been to spot the Big Five, we have also been blessed with multiple sightings of giraffe, zebra, warthog, impala, waterbuck, baboon, kudu, even a couple of squabbling honey badgers, and a variety of other animals and birdlife, so we really can't complain. We even saw the legendary African dung beetle in action in a pile of elephant poop!

We leave Kruger tomorrow for Swaziland and hopefully more adventure?

Kruger has been a fantastic experience. We probably will be pinching ourselves in a few weeks , saying, “Were we really that close to so many wild animals?” This land is so rich in life, with birds by the million, hip-high grass as far as the eye can see - enough to sustain hundreds of thousands of large animals - and all in a strip of land 60km by 350km. What must it all have been like 200 years ago?

28 February, Willows Cottages, Malkerns Valley, Swaziland

Is Good to be King

Swazi people are a single ethnic group who migrated south into the area that is modern day Swaziland in the middle of the 18^th century. The royal line of the Swazi Kings goes back to around 1550. Today, King Mswati III is the last absolute monarch in Africa. With his mother, Ngwenyama, (the she-elephant) Mswati (the lion) rules over a tiny, land-locked kingdom, wedged between South Africa and Mozambique. Still predominantly rural, our first impressions of Swaziland are very positive indeed! Villages and towns are clean and relatively (for Africa) tidy. The shanty town squalor that is a blight on many South African towns has yet to show itself here. Housing is basic, but people seem to take a great deal of pride in their homes. There are still some traditional, grass-thatched circular houses, but these often are adjacent to more substantial, block-constructed buildings. All this is set in spectacular mountain ranges and rolling valleys that, at the moment, are as green as can be. Sugar cane fields, mango and banana plantations and rich sub-tropical vegetation remind us of the Sunshine Coast hinterland in Queensland.

Our accommodation at the 'Willows Lodge' is situated halfway between the only cities of note in Swaziland, Mbabane and Manzini. Neither can be considered large, Manzini, the larger of the two, has a population of only 75,000. We are yet to visit either so we'll reserve comment.

Back to the King. While tradition (or the royal press corps) dictates that the King is loved by his subjects, there have been some rumblings over the years about the 'high life' that his majesty enjoys. Part of the problem seems to relate to the shopping habits of some of his wives (yes wives) who prefer to shop at Harrods rather than the local markets. Now, we are not sure whether his majesty has 13 wives and the last one he selected was 19 or if it is the other way around? Good old Mswati is allowed to select a wife during the annual Umhlanga or Reed dance, when up to 20,000 topless teenage maidens dance before him hoping to be selected for the free ride to Harrods with the rest of the wives. He doesn't have to select a wife every year, just as the mood takes him. - “Is Good to be King!”

1 March, Malkerns Valley, Swaziland

Swaziland grows on you. Rapidly! The scenery is one thing, but the people combined with the scenery is quite another. Crest any hill or ridge and you will see dozens of people working, selling, walking, waiting, chatting and just hanging about on the road side. Beyond them there will be a seemingly endless landscape of spectacular mountains and hills with rolling lush valleys in between.

Mass tourism hasn't hit here yet and this suits us just fine. First up this morning we visited the small Swaziland National Museum and the Royal Memorial Gardens. We were the only people at both venues. Small as it was, the museum gave us a nicely presented and brief history of the Swazi people and their road to nationhood.

The Mantenga Cultural Village might sound like a giant tourist trap and is the sort of place we usually avoid like the plague, but what a great experience! Again, we were the only people there, at least at the start. A French family joined us later in the morning. After the guided tour of the 'working village', we had the traditional song and dance display. It was a little strange at first, with just the six of us watching the 30+ dancers and drummers, but quickly became a fantastic and extremely intimate experience. A quick trip to the local waterfall for a light lunch and we were off to Mbabane, Swaziland's national capital.

We are fairly sure we are the only people we know who have actually been to Mbabane. Let us know if we are wrong. We had developed a fairly negative view of the city. Some of the guide book descriptions may have had something to do with it. The Lonely Planet uses codes to alert travellers of cities and towns that aren't worth a visit. Phrases like, 'a good place to change trains' or 'most tourists just pass through'. For Mbabane, the Planet's comment was ' a good place to get things done'.

Well the real story is... Mbabane is just fine. Not the prettiest city in the world - that's for sure - but lively, vibrant and, despite the new Mall on the edge of town, very African. Hawkers trade on the dusty fringes of the chaotic taxi (mini bus) terminal that adjoins the western style mall, men and women in smart business dress head off to lunch amongst rural workers in town for the markets. People on the streets are good humoured and, in a city this small, they all seem to know every second person. People are polite and considerate, even on the roads! A small city with a great feel to it!

A most important attractor for us is always the value for money in any country we visit. Yes, we always get to this point in our blogs! South Africa and Swaziland are both great value for travellers. On the 'beer index' they are somewhere between Vietnam and Germany. Strange parameters we know, but both these countries are close to the top of the beer index - that is, the best value. Less than 80c a can in Australian terms is extremely good value. Food and clothing are also great value, as is eating out. We shouted our hosts and a friend to dinner at a fantastic little restaurant in Johannesburg the other night for less than $20 a head. That included a tip and a fantastic three course meal, not to mention the super-friendly service.

To finish off our day today, we drove the long way back to our cottage through the Ezulwini and Malkerns Valleys. Small scattered villages dotted the hills, while the never-ending streams of kids walking home from school on the very edges of the narrow roads kept us on our toes.

2 March, Malkerns Valley, Swaziland

Driving around is truly the only way to really see a country. Being herded like cattle through the 'must see' tourist sights and forking out for silly hats and carved fertility symbols that will only have to be surrendered to Customs at home, just isn't our thing. That's why we see ourselves as travellers. Not tourists. Travelling this way is definitely not a holiday. But we are not on holidays. This is 'work' for us, or as close to work as we ever intend to get from here on in. So, today we travelled fairly aimlessly through the Swazi countryside to just short of the Mozambique border and back.

Manzini, Swaziland's largest city, was our first stop for a walk about. Much like its sister city, Mbabane, just 30kms away, Manzini was a pleasant enough place. We headed off to the markets first and were amazed (and pleased) to see dress stalls where the shop owners were sewing away at the back of the stall, making all their own items with portable Singers, straight out of the 50's, complete with wooden covers!. Basket weavers worked with fantastic agility and speed , producing simple carry baskets of multi-coloured plastic. Yes we did buy one! The poorer Swazi shop here for almost everything they need, as do the small 'General Dealers' (corner shops) that dot the countryside and the street hawkers who peddle smaller quantities of the same items at every corner and village bus stop in Africa.. Up on the main street are the more entrepreneurial outlets, some locally owned, but also Indian, North African and Chinese owned. Most of their product is imported from Asia.

In Manzini, as in almost every town of size, here and in any developing country, there is a new Mall with a major chain like Pick-n-Pay, Super Spar or Shoprite as the anchor tenant. Here is the portal to 'western world', the look alike, sameness world of chain retailers that is invading every corner of the globe. Interestingly enough, the product they sell is also mostly sourced in Asia, probably from the same suppliers as their struggling competitors. They just make it look better, and make the 'shopping experience' more 'appealing'. But at a cost. Fast food outlets have also invaded this part of the world, notably KFC and Nandos, but, interestingly, not McDonalds.

Our ramble through the countryside took us through some areas where traditional Swazi homesteads still remain. Some even still have traditional cattle kraals and fenced compounds of woven reeds or saplings. In many areas though, more modern homes are replacing the traditional structures, albeit incorporating traditional shapes. Many of them are quite flash and more than a few, rather grand.

In the north of the country, large, company-owned sugar plantations dominate the landscape. One of the largest is the Royal Swazi Sugar Corporation. “Is Great to be King!”. These plantations seem to have their own company town complex attached, much like mining towns in Northern Australia. The one we visited was just like Jabiru in the Australian Northern Territory.

On the subject of road trips, the road system in Swaziland is generally good, with both single and double-lane major roads joining the bigger towns as well as secondary roads linking smaller towns. However, no matter where you go, you must remain alert as you will encounter many obstacles to impede your progress. The first is the many, many people walking, walking, walking – to work, to school, to shop and then back again, often carrying small and large articles on their heads (we saw a woman today with an esky (cooler box) atop hers!), or pushing wheelbarrows. These are not a major problem as they keep to their assigned areas. The second danger, is wildlife – cattle, donkeys, goats mostly. These are of more concern as they, in their minds, own the road and all vehicular traffic must give way to them. Once you accept this fact, all is well. The third is more insidious. Coming into towns, anywhere near schools, intersections, anywhere really, speed bumps can suddenly materialise under your wheels. These range from small warning bumps to suspension-busting hills. While they MAY have been signed about 100 metres away, there is no indication regarding which type you will encounter and their markings have often been worn away, so they have become almost invisible. These, combined with mega-potholes on the smaller roads present the driver with the greatest challenge.

3 March, Malkerns Valley, Swaziland

Our last day in Swaziland today and it was a very easy one indeed. We had heard that the nearby Mlilwane Wildlife Reserve wasn't up to much. The advice was good. Sadly, most of Swaziland's animals were hunted and/or poached out of existence in the 1950s and 1960s. It was all too late when reserves were established in the 1960s. Animals had to be captured from other parks in South Africa and Mozambique for release in Swazi's few reserves. Today's fare consisted of a few fairly domesticated wildebeest and the odd impala. We did see a crocodile, but he was so bored with it all that he just slipped under the water when he saw us. We actually saw more wildlife, in the form of a few giraffe on our drive around the northern part of the country yesterday.

To kill the rest of the day, we took ourselves off to the local multiplex cinema to see The Next 3 Days with Russell Crowe. An usher took us to our pre-selected seats. All for the princely sum of E56 ($8) for both of us! So modern was the complex that when we came out, we had to pinch ourselves to remind us that we actually were in Swaziland!

Our stay here has been a great experience and a real eye-opener. Swaziland is still a poor country by western standards with some enormous problems. HIV/AIDS rates are just behind those in South Africa, which are the highest in the world. Life expectancy here is just above 40 years. For all this though, one can feel a real buzz in this tiny country. Things are definitely on the improve, as demonstrated by rapidly improving housing standards and improved education standards. AND the number of BMWs and Mercedes on the roads!

This is a happy, scenic, peaceful place, where enormous efforts are being made to develop and improve living standards, while retaining the still vibrant Swazi culture.