Wandering thru Southern Africa, 1986-87

  The 116 stories currently posted on my Southern Africa blog cover the four months from April through July 1986 – from the time I left Colorado for South Africa up to, but not including, the start of my job as a lecturer in the Environmental Science Department at the University of Botswana.   I still have another 50 or so stories to post which will cover my experiences working in Botswana as well as three more trips to South Africa during school vacations.     I have to pause these postings for a few weeks as I’m getting ready for a 19-day trip to Cuba.  While there, I plan to write and take lots of photos covering Cuban geography, people, and politics as well as my travel experiences, good and bad.  Whether I’ll be able to actually post anything to my “Perspectives of a Wandering Geographer” blog until I get back to Colorado is problematic as I don’t know how functional the internet is in Cuba or whether government censorship will block access to my blo...

The Trans-Karoo Express left Cape Town promptly at 9:00AM for Johannesburg, and I bid adieu to a city I’d learned to love in the space of four short days.  It was another sunny day so I busied myself with taking pictures as the train followed a circular route through the vineyards of Paarl, Wellington, Tulbagh, Wolseley, and Worcester.  As we climbed up the Hex River valley and over the pass, I was eating lunch – a very small bowl of mushroom soup and skimpy dessert which cost me R3.95.  As much as I like South African trains, their food sucks and is overpriced.  I kept jumping from my dining car table to run down to an open window for photos as new vistas appeared.  The old Afrikaner steward seemed pleased that I was so eager to photograph the spectacular countryside.  He probably doesn’t meet many foreign travelers with enthusiasm for South Africa landscapes these days. View west from my train window of a vineyard and landscape near Tulbagh, northeast of ...

  I met Barend Toerien early Wednesday at his flat on Queen Victoria Street.   With rucksacks, hiking boots, and my full array of camera gear, we headed up the road from the city to the lower cableway station.   The 1244 meter cable car ride takes six minutes.   There are two large cars which hold about 25 people each.   One goes up while the other is coming down on a separate line.   Although much older, the system is reminiscent of the Lion’s Head Gondola in Vail, Colorado minus the ski racks, of course.   Most people ride both ways as the hike down is long and steep.   Because we were there early on a weekday, there was no long queue for the ride, and we were up on top in a flash.  It was a bit on the touristy side with coin-op binoculars, railings at the edge of the cliffs, picnic tables and a restaurant.  Nonetheless, the stone buildings were unobtrusive, and the view was wonderful.  To the north, the city of Cape Town spread...

Sunday, August 17, 10:15AM, Mafeking train station.   The tour bus to the Cape of Good Hope was actually better than I’d expected.   It cost R28 (US$11.20) and left a little after 9:00AM   There were 18 people on the brand new luxury bus, less than half capacity but not surprising considering it was the middle of winter and given the current paucity of tourists in South Africa.   Fred, the driver, was full of interesting information through his attempts at humor often fell flat. As we started down Adderley Street, one of the main streets of Cape Town, Fred said it was named for a British politician who had talked his government out of turning Cape Town into a penal colony back in the early days.   I’m glad the guy had good taste!   Fred said that 800 trains per day go in and out of the Cape Town station.   This city has the best commuter rail system in the country.   Signal Hill, which I visited two days earlier, was named for the canon which ...

After a long evening of beer guzzling with a group of South Korean sailors at a Cape Town dive, I awoke on Monday morning with a pounding brain which felt about three sizes too big for my skull.  Needless to say, I accomplished little that day other than doing my laundry and cashing some traveler’s checks.  I did visit the local tourist bureau and learned that there was no public transportation down to the tip of the Cape of Good Hope.  If I wanted to see much of the Cape peninsula, my choice would be to rent a car or take a tour bus.  As much as I don’t like tours, the bus was cheaper.  Since my trip to the Cape Town was a reconnaissance, the tour could provide me with a quick overview.  I could figure out the most appealing areas of the cape and spend more time at them on a subsequent trip.  So I planned on doing the tour the following day. Cape Town is jam-packed with examples of classic Cape architecture such as Tuynhuys, which houses the South A...

Sunday, August 17, Mafeking train station waiting for my train to Botswana   I arrived in Cape Town by train on Sunday morning, July 27.  After finding a clean, centrally-located, cheap hotel (called the Café Royal - US$6.72/night including bed, breakfast and sales tax), I phoned a company which does boat tours of the harbor.  They told me to get over to Pier 5 at Victoria Basin by 2:45PM for a trip out toward Robbin Island where a large ship is grounded.   It turned out that the Sunday trips are Rotary Club fundraisers.  As soon as I got on the old boat, I longed for U.S. Coast Guard regulations.   There were no life jackets; only a few large seat pads that looked like they might float.  Nevertheless, as soon as the boat was out beyond the breakwater, there was a great view of Cape Town and Table Mountain.  With the exception of Rio, I can’t think of any city with as beautiful a natural setting as this one.  And a boat in Table B...

Riversdale, 90 kms west of Mossel Bay, en route to Cape Town at long last!   This is not exactly the best time of the year to visit Cape Town.  It’s the dead of winter, after all.  And that means a good chance of cold rainy weather in the southwestern Cape.  But I figured I might as well get there now in case I get thrown out of the country, the revolution comes, or if for some reason, I can’t get there for Christmas.  Besides, if I do plan to come back with friends, it wouldn’t hurt to do a little recon work now. In contrast to yesterday, today was beautiful.  Sunny, high around 70°F.  Took a long walk with cameras along the beach from Hartenbos to Mossel Bay.  Uneventful but I had some nice photo opportunities. July 26, 1986:  Sunrise over the Indian Ocean from the beach at Hartenbos. Mossel Bay, a small city with a lovely setting on the Indian Ocean. Another spectacular train ride this afternoon.  There was a rugged mountain range...

I’m on the Port Elizabeth-Cape Town train bound for Hartenbos, a seaside resort where I plan to spend the night before continuing on to Cape Town tomorrow.    I get up before 7 hoping to get some sunrise photos, but it’s rather cloudy today.   The landscape is very dry here in the Olifants river valley east of Oudtshoorn.   Given the shitty light, it’s hardly worth wasting the celluloid on landscape photos.   There is considerable irrigated agriculture in this valley.   Most of the water must come from bore hole (wells) because the river is almost dry.   I notice a number of sheep and ostrich farms as well.   To the north and south of the valley are rugged, bush-covered mountains with grey or red rock outcrops.    The mountains tower about 2500 feet above the valley.   As we leave the station at Stompdrift, a crazy ostrich decides to chase us.   He keeps up for several hundred yards moving along at a good 25 mph.   As we g...