Crossing the Equator

Back to the developed world, after our remote adventure called Mozambique. The river border crossing was a hell of an experience, but still very pleasant. When we crossed the river we asked the boats man if there were any accidents with cars crossing on the three small boats in the past. “None” they replied. But in Tanzania a white travel agency guy said that there were boats sinking with cars on it in the past. So good that we made it with our Beast. Good roads (with the occasional %$#& speed bump), full markets and stores full of products lacking in Mozambique were waiting for us.
Still 2 weeks left of our 2 months journey until our internship started on the first of September in M a g o, Kenya.
We were traveling with our German friend Martin who was traveling across Africa with his motorbike and after relaxing in a nice guesthouse we moved on to a place called Kilwa Masoko.
Close to this small village there were some islands which we visited the next day. Many old ruins from the ages of the Sultans and Portuguese were scattered over the island. Hardly any tourists visit these Unesco World Heritage sites as it is not on many mass tourists’ lists. A night out with Martin ended in a nice bar with a stage with sing and dance performances from local artists, really nice to see.

Zanzibar was next on our program, this island 70 km offshore of Tanzania with some form of independence from the mainland is the highlight of many tourists itinerary, and so we had also some expectation of being amazing.
Took of early in the morning and soon we were lost in the chaos of Dar es Salaam. Near the southern beaches we found a guesthouse/restaurant where we could park our car for 2 euro a day, as we were not able to get the car on the island.

Finally bought a ferry ticket for the 16:00 o’clock boat to Zanzibar. After 2 hours we arrived in Stone Town, Zanzibar where a dozen touts were waiting for us. Everyone trying to sell a ride to their hotel or a tour on the island. Zanzibar is known for these people who annoy tourists all over the island.
After a night in a hotel near the docks we started thinking about our car and the place where we parked it on the mainland. Before we parked it we checked some other places where parking was more expensive but we decided to park at the place which looked more remote but cheaper.
As Beast is our most valuable possession we decided to park the car in a safer place. This took me a whole day, 2 hours back on the ferry then a taxi then another short ride on another ferry then a tuktuk and after parking the car at a resort, a taxi, ferry, taxi and the big ferry back to Zanzibar. Maybe a waste of money but better safe then sorry. Linda spent her day on the island visiting sites in Stone Town.

Zanzibar is known for its culture, white beaches and clear blue water. In the north, packed with hotels and resorts, we found a bungalow close to the beach for a reasonable price. In the 3 days we stayed here we visited a turtle aquarium where you could swim with huge turtles and spent days swimming in the sea.
As this is a major attraction in Africa we thought that the development of the island would be progressive. The opposite is true. After talking to some people we found out that the President of the island (which is the vice president of Tanzania) is as corrupt as can be and one of the richest persons in Africa.
Many villages don’t have enough water pumps, garbage is found everywhere, education facilities are hardly found and many people are illiterate. This all to keep the population dumb and any form of political resistance is crushed by the police. The opposition is said to have won the last elections but major fraud helped the current president to stay for another term. These situations are not uncommon in Africa and we heard about these scandals in several countries on the continent.
Zanzibar was nice but not amazing, this came mainly through our expectations. Better to have none as I did with Africa so then there can never be disappointment.

After a few days on Zanzibar we took the cheaper night ferry back which took 9 hours instead of 2 with the fast one, sometimes woken up by people throwing up onboard. Our beloved Beast waiting for us in Dar es Salaam and that morning we left to the Usambara mountains to the small village of Lushoto. The roads in Tanzania are well tarred but close to villages, speed bumps sometimes appear without warning which is extremely annoying. At a certain point Joost was stopped again by police for speeding, driving 76 were 30 was allowed. Ai! as we thought but the fine was just 20.000 shilling (which is just about 10 euro!) and as I got a look in the officer’s ticket/fine book all the people stopped were given a 20.000 shilling fine didn’t matter if you were a resident or tourist or if you were driving 5 km or 70 km to fast.
After a night camping we were recommended to do a hike around the villages and in the rainforest nearby.
A really nice walk and we saw that day 2 cameleons, really nice rare animals with their freak eyes looking at every direction. We slept in a small banda (type of bungalow) on a viewpoint just on the cliff of a huge mountain.
Driving further to Moshi, where our plans were to spend the night there just to see the highest mountain of Africa, Kilimanjaro in the distance. As it was to cloudy to see the mountain we moved to Arusha 80 km further to a nicer campsite. Arusha is the Safari capital of Tanzania and many tours can be booked here to different parks in the region. As we thought Zanzibar was bad with people who bother you, Arusha is worse.

The back of our car already has many stickers of countries where we have been and we found a new one in Arusha. We changed the sticker “I have climbed Mount Kilimanjaro” into “I have NOT climbed Mount Kilimanjaro because it costs US $ 1000” This ridiculous price for entering a park and climbing it yourself is considered by many tourist not worth to pay.

Crossing into Kenya, stopping in Nairobi just to get some Kenyan Shilling and driving further to Naivasha.
A few National parks were nearby and we decided to visit Hells Gate NP. This year the Kenya Wildlife Service raised their prices for all the national parks in the country. For $ 25,- per person per day we could enter the park. The first half of the park looked really nice with huge cliffs and many animals. Buffaloes, giraffes, zebras, antelopes could be seen everywhere. The second half of the park had some geysers but as we wanted to see them we noticed suddenly in the middle of the park a huge power station getting the electricity out of the hot steam. That night we slept in the park on a beautiful viewpoint on a mountain overlooking the savanna.
On our last day we wanted to relax and spent our day at a campsite with swimming pool before driving to M a g o, our home for the next 6 months.

As we already experienced in southern Kenya the extreme drought, crossing the equator and arriving in M a g o and surroundings everything looks green here. As it is on about 1400 m above sea level it has a nice climate of +/- 25 degrees every day and hardly any mosquitoes are found.

Arrived on the school compound of M a g o Polytechnic / Guesthouse we met the volunteers Renske and Pepijn our supervisors for our internship time here.
As Linda and I both study Tourism Management we got a task to promote and write a marketing plan for the guest house in Kenya and Europe. The school is specifically for the poorest students in the region and many courses can be followed like: carpentry, masonry, sewing, mechanics, hospitality and computer skills. The guest house acts also as a hotel school for the students studying on the compound.
All the money that is generated in the guesthouse goes to the school and the students. And as there are hardly any guests staying we are brought in to change that.

We are staying in of the luxurious rooms and currently have the whole guesthouse for us alone incl. the giant restaurant kitchen and we are welcomed by 7 small puppies born a few days before we arrived.
The first week we spent finding our way in the region, arranging phone numbers and internet and looking at the facilities we have to promote. This week school starts here after a week of holidays, and we slowly get to know all the staff members.

We are really looking forward to our stay here and making a change in the lives of this community and showing my parents around who are visiting us in less then 3 weeks.

So travelling through 7 countries and driving more then 10.000 km from Cape Town our car did amazing with only 1 flat tyre. We experienced so many amazing things and saw incredible places. Now our time here we will be seeing Kenya’s attractions and in our free time Uganda, the gorillas in Rwanda and probably Ethiopia. And there is a change that we have to drive back to South Africa in March to sell our car.

Some counters of indication

Dead dogs along the road: 20
Dogs peeing against our beast: 7
Albinos: we stopped counting but at least a few dozen
Linda scarred from animals: 14
People asking 'You sleep in the back of the car?': 9

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.nl/jcopray

Hope you all enjoyed our adventures, in a few weeks I will write again about our progress here.

Greets from
Claus, Clark, Yawn and Hast (these are the names people pronounce for Joost)
Belinda, Lucinda, Cinda (for Linda)
Hilarious!!

For contacting us:

My Kenya number is 00254 733211727. Linda’s 00254 733211733 (her birthday is the 12th this month)

And the post address:

M a g o Youth Polytechnic School / Guesthouse
P.O. Box 1
50325 M a g o
Kenya

Rough, Remote, Rewarding Mozambique

This post is dedicated to the country of Mozambique. What a rough ride it was the last 3 weeks after we left Blantyre, Malawi. Linda felt a bit sick during our 3 days in Blantyre especially because she took a Malaria 3 day treatment. However the Malaria test was negative but later on we found out that she did have it, later in this blog I will come back to it.

What we heard of Mozambique is that it would be rough to cross it but well worth it. The infrastructure in the country would be bad and time should be taken for getting to places. Also the poverty would be more visible than in the places we have seen so far. Our plan: straight to the white beach and from the border this was about 350km. We crossed the first 200 km in more then 4 hours, thanks to the shitty dirt roads and broken up tar roads. Arrived in Quelimane late in the afternoon and we experienced our first big Mozambican city. Many of the buildings were collapsed or stripped from anything useful, this in combination with tarred streets with potholes the size of golf bunkers and up to sometimes a meter deep. An image of a war zone.
As we learned more about the history of the country, we found out about the once so pretty Colonial houses of the Portuguese era. About 40 years ago many Portuguese had to leave almost over night after the Independence and fleeing for the civil war that followed. Their houses were never renovated but left to decade for the next decades to come.

The next day we got to feel the Caribbean like style of Mozambican life. Strange to suddenly hear Portuguese instead of English in the countries that we crossed already. The diesel price was less then a dollar, the Coco nuts 2,5 € cent and the Pao (small bread) amazing.
After asking around about nice places to stay at the coast we heard about a small fishing village called Penbane, where we could camp. Six hours driving brought us at this nice small place, and with luck a white guy stopped behind us and recognized the South African car. He told us that the camp site was not operating at the time but we could stay at his lodge at the beach.
We happily accepted his offer and we could use a beach lodge's bathroom next to our camping spot. The lodge was especially for people who flew in with small planes and stayed in the luxurious lodge for a few days, when we were there nobody else was. Five days of relaxing on an huge empty beach began. The managers Chris and Lyn were very helpful and made our stay unforgettable.

Our next destination Ilha de Mozambique about 400 km north of Penbane and as this is northern remote Mozambique it took us 3 days to get there. From Chris we heard that crossing it driving parallel to the coast wouldn't be possible as a bridge was missing at one point. From others we heard that it was possible so we just went and see. At night we camped in the wild as we couldn't find a campsite, a nice experience I thought, Linda hated it. At the river crossing we heard that it was not possible but with a small detour of a kilometre we would be able to, 2 guys came with us in the car and showed us the way through a forest of palm trees on a small footpath (and this all with our Beast, you should have seen it) We ended up at the river mouth with many people crossing the river by foot. As the 2 guys showed me the way through the water I drove about 150 meters through water sometimes almost a meter deep, Linda recording everything on video. Incredible experience!

In Angoche we planned to stay a night. Life here in Mozambique goes really slowly, not much happens in the villages we crossed. If the infrastructure wouldn't be so bad, many lives of the people here would look much different then it is now.
About Africa... as very few have a car or bike, you see many people walk or cycle. Huge distances are crossed and many women carry the most remarkable things on their head. From buckets of water, boxes of eggs, to meters of fire wood just anything! In Angoche we saw a guy walking with a tv on his head (and I ain't talking about a small one, check the photos!)

Arrived at the bridge of Ilha de Mozambique we camped at a nice spot next to it. The island has much history as the Portuguese landed here about 200 years ago. As I thought that the island would be a bit more developed and houses renovated, it looked just like the other cities in the country with some big buildings in better condition then the rest but many falling apart. Still an impression could be sketched of how it looked like 40 years ago.

After 2 days we travelled further north to Pemba, a nice beach village were Linda got here Open Water diving certificate in 4 days. I did 2 dives as well and it was already 5 years ago when I did my last dive in Australia. A nice quiet camp site accommodated us for the time being. Linda felt a fever coming up and for precaution she took a blood test, after 15 minutes waiting the receptionist told us with a smile on her face ''Yeah you have it'' (like it would be strange if she wouldn't have it), Linda almost panicking asking her 3 times ''I have it!!??'' After consultation with the doctor there and 2 more precise test the doctor told her that she had it in Malawi 2 weeks ago but now the blood test just showed that it was still in her blood but not harming her and she would be Malaria free for the next 3 months to come he said, a relief.
We asked many people about the border crossing possibilities with Tanzania as it could be a challenge to get over the river Ruvuma with a car. This was the situation: there are 3 border crossings which we considered; 1 bridge close to Malawi (as we were at the coast it was 800 km from us on shitty roads), 1 bridge was being build 200 km from the coast (but from some we heard that the bridge wouldn't be operating yet so we decided to take option number 3. The closest one was a ferry crossing but because the ferry sunk 1,5 years ago we heard about that it was possible to put the car on 3 small boats tied together and they would take us across the half a kilometre wide river for around 200$ !!!.
In Ilha de Mozambique we met a German guy on a motor bike who also wanted to take that crossing so we decided to risk it. The ride to the border was sometimes rough, with quite some sand paths and we saw our friend Martin fall 3 times with his bike, harmless but hilarious. We arrived too late to cross that day because the tide was to low so we camped next to the border police of Mozambique, after bribing the cops for about 35 euro (as it was officially not possible to get the car over) our bargaining began for getting across to Tanzania. The boats men started with a ridiculous price of 650$ for the bike and car. We got it down to 220$ and left finally after waiting for 5 hours that next day on the most remarkable crossing I have ever seen. Three small fishing boats tied together with 2 motors bringing us with the car on top with many detours avoiding sandbanks and islands in the river, in the half an hour journey we saw many hippos swimming by. Check out the photos and movie on my photo site.
An amazing end to our Mozambique adventure.

Photo: http://picasaweb.google.nl/jcopray

At the moment I am already close to the border of Kenya and the last 2 weeks in Tanzania I will write in my next post.

Hope everything is fine with you all.

Malawi: More than just a lake

Let me tell you all more about life here in Afrika. As we have been travelling now together for more then 3 weeks things are still very good. We have been in Malawi now for more then a week of which we chilled at Lake Malawi for most of the time.

What can I tell you so you all get a better picture of how things go here. Regarding travelling the main roads (so far) in Zambia and Malawi are paved, smaller roads are dirt roads. The dirt roads are the most fun as our car is really tested on these classic African roads.
The people here are (not) surprisingly all black but in the places interesting for tourists you see white people working at NGO’s or travelling like us. We met already quite some westerners who are doing similar trips like ours. Some drive it all the way back to Europe or come down from Europe, motorbikes no exemption. I am already creating plans for getting my motorbike licence and drive from Holland down south along the west coast of Africa which also suppose to be amazing, Anybody interesting to come with?
As driving around you see allot of poverty and people are really trying to do anything to get some money, when we need some sugar cane or vegetables we drive around to find exactly that woman with some kids around and buy what we need from here, giving some extra as we know that it will be spend wisely in the family. I expected actually more people begging for money or food but mainly children are asking for that empty bottle, pens or a little bit of money when you are passing by.
We are taking care who to trust and we always look twice if the car is locked but in general so many people we meet are really friendly and of course in the places where tourists come the market people ask for more money when they see that you are not African but we get better in bargaining every day.

As we have a certain budget per day we camp in our car as often possible, this costs us on average US 5$ per night, we sleep once a week in an hostel which is a real treat sleeping in a normal sized bed compared to our 1.20m / 1.50m bed. Diesel here in Africa costs us around a US dollar per litter, sometimes more like here in Malawi sometimes less like in South Africa.
For cutting costs we eat meat once/twice a week (also because our Cool box isn’t the best) and the rest of the days lots of cheap vegetables prepared in nice garlic or spicy sauce.
We found a nice name for our dish; CoErdish. Ok so we met this German/South African couple who were driving their Jeep to Germany and they had “Manic trip” on the side of their car, this standing for Marvin and Nicole. Mocking their idea we came up with Co(pray)Er(nst) dish an oath to my good friend Mirko’s background (Kurdish)

Arrived in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe we got our car checked (as this is normally to prevent breakage) and we renewed the oil filter which is recommended to do every 5000km. We were relieved that we finally could get some money with our normal bankcards from the ATM’s instead of going into banks and get it from our credit cards.
We planned a week or so at the lake, first 3 days in Senga bay and then Cape Maclear. Nice blue water, camping just 2 meters from the lake and chilling in our hammock. After a day of kayaking to a remote island and some snorkelling Linda got a bit sick.
With some fever and of recommendation of some volunteers of the clinic nearby Linda started a Malaria medicine course of 3 days. The next day we went to the hospital to get her blood tested to see if she has Malaria, the test was negative but the days after she still felt a bit sick, with today doing already much better, her sick days resting in a proper bed in an hostel in Blantyre. To this day we don’t know yet if it was a minor form of Malaria or something else.
At the moment we are in the city of Blantyre waiting to get our Mozambique visa tomorrow, this is because we can’t get the visa at the border crossing we want to use.
Getting some groceries and Dollars before our Mozambique adventure, northern Mozambique supposed to be quite remote, wild but also beautiful with white beaches and crystal clear water.
Our plan is to stay 2 or 3 weeks in Mozambique and then following Zanzibar in Tanzania for a week.

Hope your summer is just as good as mine.
greets

This is real Africa

Hello people

At the moment I am in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. In the last 2 weeks Linda and I have been crossing Botswana and Zambia and what a ride it was!!!

After my return in Port Alfred from Cape Town with Hans and the Toyota Hilux 4x4 D/C aka “The Beast” I had 3 days to buy some last things for the car like a jack for lifting the car, 2 new tyres, a bed in the back and some other things. It felt good being back and to see my fellow students again. Many of the Humanitarian group left already travelling through South Africa but all of the other Dutch and South Africa students were there and everybody was planning to leave on that Thursday the 2^nd of July just like me.

Erik a friend of mine was also planning to go to Johannesburg and he would be driving with me the 1200 km in 2 days time. Said goodbye that morning to some people on the campus and thanked the coordinators for the awesome stay at their campus. For many students these 10 or 20 weeks were their highlight of South Africa but mine it was just the early breakfast of the huge dinner called Africa. ;)

That night we slept in a small town called Windburg just passed Bloemfontein and the day after we drove to Johannesburg where I would stay at Kas a friend I met 2 months earlier while travelling near Lesotho. But first I had to go to the AA (Automobile Association) to pick up my Carnet de Passage, this 10 page documents has all the details of the car on it and it helps with crossing borders and for some it is even necessary to have or else a South African car is not allowed in that country.

After driving around Johannesburg to find it we got stuck in some serious traffic jams but finally I managed to drop Erik of at his girlfriend’s place and I made my way to Kas his place inside a huge gate were my car would be safe. Quite necessary in one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

Linda had a delay of an hour and a half so I could sleep a bit more, she finally arrived around 11:30 at Johannesburg International Airport. After only seeing each other on web cam with shitty connection it felt good to have her back for our huge Africa trip.

The next 2 days we stayed in the northern province of Limpopo to rest and buy some camping equipment before crossing into Botswana were we stayed at a Rhino Sanctuary seeing about 8 rhinos and other wild animals.

As you might ask how can we sleep in the back of our car when it is only 1.20m by 1.50m and 0.50m high but diagonal it is about 1.85m and when you zip 2 sleeping bags together you manage.

When we headed up more north we experienced the mosquito’s so I created a net inside the back to prevent us from being bitten. We are not taking any malaria pills as a few doctors told us that it is very bad for your health when being in malaria region for 9 months. It is safer to get malaria and then treat it with medicines which takes 3 days which we carry with us, this way you build up some resistance against the disease.

Botswana is an enormous country with less then 2 million people in it, we found that the people were not that friendly and the prices were almost European and the amazing Victoria Waterfalls in Zambia were waiting for us. In general the roads in Botswana were really good. The last 80 km we encountered the pothole roads which make Africa so infamous for.

As the South Africa-Botswana border was hassle free the Zambia border wasn’t. This 750m crossing over the Zambezi river on a small ferry was extraordinary and when we reached the Zambia side we had to visit 5 counters to get all of our paper work done. 208 dollars in total; 50$ for a visa each, 20$ for the ferry, 20$ for road tax, then carbon tax, then third party insurance. But with the friendly Zambians on our side it took us less then an hour. Arrived in the small city Livingstone we checked in a nice hostel where we stayed for 3 nights. The following day the Victoria waterfalls were on our list. Just like the waterfalls between Brazil and Argentina, these falls are amazing. Raincoats were really necessary as we both got soaked wet even wearing them. A month has passed since my last two bungee jumps in south Africa. But the bridge jump between Zambia and Zimbabwe was yet on my list. What an amazing jump this was with a spectacular view over the Zambezi gorge.

Of course I heard of the sad news of Michael’s tragic death but amazingly I found in a cinema a live concert which they showed on a huge screen. Just amazing. After resting for 3 days in Livingstone we made our way to the north-east of Zambia.

Zambia is the real Africa: friendly people, dusty cities and friendly police officers. After overtaking a few cars on a part were I wasn’t really allowed to, the police stopped us, and we got a fine of 270 000 Kwacha equal to 50 euros. But with the least amount of hassling I got it for 50 000 Kwacha (about 7 Euro). Who says corruption is bad??? Changing our plan from first visiting the south Luanga national park which would cost us 75$, we headed to Malawi where we are staying now. After walking around a small market we bought some nice shirts and food. And some specific moments in life you buy the best things; and what did Linda find?.... an official McDonalds shirt for 13.000 kwacha not even 2 euros (check the photo with my white/red stripped shirt) How sweet is that and that in a country where there are no McDonalds!

The main difference between Botswana and here are the warmer nights, especially recognisable of the condense in our car the next morning, the friendlier people, the mosquitoes which are still hated really badly by Linda and the natural candies of cold sugar cane (type of bamboo stick were you suck the sugar water right out of).

Just been in Malawi for a day this country is easily classified as one of the poorest and most populated of Africa. Of the 12 million people, half of the population is under the age of 15. The car is still doing amazing and many people look back to see the German and Dutch flag shining in the front of our car.

Today the amazing Lake Malawi is waiting for us and we will chill out on the beach, doing completely nothing.

Again for photos check http://picasaweb.google.nl/jcopray/

Greets from amazing Africa.

Bungee Shark Beast

Ok I know it has been awhile since my last post. Many things happened here in South Africa; good things and now I am spending my last few days in Port Alfred before my departure up north to KENYA baby!!!

So what happened the last weeks on the campus in Port Alfred... The computer literacy classes went smoothly and in the last week of our project we created a final test so we could measure how our students performed after 8 weeks of basic computer classes. Of the 27 teachers, 23 made the test and everybody passed, the majority even above 80 %. This in mind that many of the teachers first didn't know how to select a sentence and never heard of Excel. The test had questions about how to make a graph in Excel or insert a photo in Word. We based the result on the questions they asked and their Word and Excel file with their answers. As promised we held an Internet class at our campus for them to experience what the internet is and what you can do with it, afterwards we gave our students the diploma they all deserved. Everybody was so happy when we handed it over, and we got some really heart warming speeches from them about how we helped them so much and our patience. Was really touching to see that we really made a difference at the school and in the community. I couldn't have done it without my amazing group (special thanks to Esther, Doutsje, Ellis, Anke & Annerie) Thanks to the smooth group work we finished the final report and manual we made for the teachers easily and on time.
This module was really relax just like Africa is but what we have achieved is so much, just amazing what Humanitarian work can do.

In between weekdays we have weekends and what are weekends for.... Partying and trips to nice places in the country ofcourse!!
A few weekends ago I left to Plettenberg bay with Tim, Lidwine, Daisy, Jildau, Daphne and Theresa; our mission the highest bungee jump in the world! 216 meters of which you fall about 170 meters. As many of you know I have jumped before about 11 times in Australia, New Zealand and Thailand and as I can be considered a fan of Bungee I decided to jump twice!! (also because the second jump was cheaper ;)) What a rush again after 4 years of not jumping!! Especcialy the second jump a backwards elevator for the fellow jumpers among us a hell of a scary jump! That weekend we also visited Monkeyland and a Snake sanctuary and at saturday night me and Tim heard about a Goa party we attended, which was just amazing!
The weekend after another Goa party was planned near Jeffreys bay about 3 hours from Port Alfred, it ook us more then 5 hours to find the place but the party was insane! Really nice.

On Friday the 19th of June Hans and I left to Cape Town, the days before it was hard to say goodbye to the Humanitarian Group and the party on wednesday was great. On saturday we had a shark dive planned and to save fuel we picked up a friend in Port Elisabeth; Ilse who Hans and I met in Hogsback wanted to do the shark dive as well so together we drove to Gansbaai the White Shark Capital of the world.

On saturday morning we left with a small group of 10 people to the open sea close to an island full of seals. Big tuna fishes were soaking in big buckets of water and by pouring that water in the sea; huge freaking sharks soon swam around the boat. The cage was hanging next to the boat and with just a thick weatsuit and diving goggles we were as bait in an open can of fish ;).
Each group of 5 people made 2 dives that day which was fortunate as some boats have more then 20 people on it which can result in only 1 dive per person. As you can see on the photos the sharks look pretty small but still a few were almost 4 meters long. Bought a nice DVD from that day which I will show when I am back.
The day after we made our way to Cape Town. My mission in Cape Town besides visting Table Mountain and RobbenIsland to find a nice car for Linda and I to drive to Kenya.
As I talked to many people here in South Africa what would be the most suitable car for that sort of trips because in many countries they know these cars. Everybody reccommended a Toyota Bakkie (South Africa's name for a pickup) and soon I found an advertisement on Gumtree (kind of Ebay) and a guy wanted to sell his 4x4 Toyota for 52.500 rand about (4.700 euros), on monday I was on his doorstep, made a test drive, and bargained it down till 48.000 rand and he would arrange the Roadworthy (APK). Thanks to my parents who borrowed me some money and part of Linda I just had to have this car. And as I could only withdraw 750 € per day Hans helped me allot with paying the full amount in 3 days and on Saturday the car was registered on my name and in my posession. My third shared own car after the Skunk Van in New Zealand and the station wagen in Australia with my buddies Freek and Dennis.
In the mean time in Cape Town Hans and I went to the District 6 museum, Robben Island, Table Mountain, Cape point and the Castle of Cape Town, and my first Rugby match between the second teams of the Lions and the Springboks and 5 times to the cinema as a ticket was only €2,50.
Cape Town is a really beautifull city and quite safe for South African standards. See the photo site for pictures, For the people who know the famous Dutch designer M.C. Baumgarten (aka Pappielauw formerly known as Michiel) I found his creation Jolli which he made and won a designer contest in Holland and in South Africa I bought it; a photo shoot was the result.
After registration of the car on saturday we went to RobbenIsland as the previous days it was sold out or cancelled during bad weather. After the interessting tour through the island we left Cape Town that afternoon to go to Hermanus a popular spot where you can see whales from the shore. That night we met felllow humanitarians Sabrina, Lidwine, Rebecca and Anna in the same restaurant as they were making their way to Cape Town. Nice to see them again for the last time. On sunday we left early after spotting one whale in the distance and planned to go the Cape Agulhas, the most southern point of Africa and then continue another 800 km to Port Alfred.
Just 200 km from Port Alfred we suddenly got a flat tyre on the highway in the dark and as we didn't had a jack to lift the car we were lucky that we were near an exit of the highway and we knocked at a farmhouse's door and the people there helped us with changing the tyre. Lucky us!!
First thing to do on monday get a jack, and 2 new good tyres. I also got a piece of wood in the back of the Bakkie to make a bed inside. Ooh and the Car has a new name The Beast!

My plan for this week is to buy the last things neccesary for the trip to Johannesburg. On thursday I drive with Erik to Jo-burg in 2 days to stay with a friend there and then I will pick up my girl the next day on saturday morning to continue to Botswana. Really can't wait, 4 days left!!! Then 2 months of propper African travelling will begin to Kenya. YEAHH!!!

For photos go to http://picasaweb.google.nl/jcopray/

Weeks tick by as a Humanitarian

Today exactly 2 months ago I left home, the longest time since my South America trip in 2005. So what happened the last 3 weeks you might ask. Well... not much in the sense of going places but still things happened in these weeks which went by so quickly.

After the last post I mentioned that Hans and I were looking for a safer accommodation after the break-ins in the house we were living. The dean gave us a choice where we could stay; or back to Villa de Mer (living like rockstars in a huge house with fast internet, with swimmingpool but on 15 minutes walking distance from the campus and only 2 other fellow students in that house) or live on the campus and have a social life (on 2o meters from the lunch room with internet but with extreme thin walls) Our choice was easily made; campus here we come!
Life at the campus is not bad, we have more interacting with the south african students and breakfast on bed hasn't become a rare sight.

The computer literacy project I am working on is still going smoothly. Progress is definetly made and today and tomorrow we give the final test to our teachers, and then next week we can give them a diploma and we invite them for an internet workshop at the campus. The only drawback we have sometimes is that the teachers are very busy with marking the exams of their students so we had a few days that there were no teachers coming. But ''hey... TIA'' is a widely used expression here on the campus, which stands for This Is Africa.

Often in the weekends students make trips to other cities and beautiful locations but in the last 3 weekends I only went out the last weekend which I will describe in a new post later this week.
Life here in Port Alfred is not that bad; food is quite good, people are friendly and the parties are great. On the photosite you can see photos of the A-party (everybody dressed up like someone who starts with an A; like Amy Winehouse, Actionman, Atorney, As myself. I was dressed up as Aladdin recognisable with a lightbulb as a lamp.
And of the student awards with the Nerds & Nurses party afterwards. The student awards is an award show held every year where all the students can vote for who is the hottest guy/girl, best smile, best technician, best sitdown comedian, mattras award, biggest wannabe, so you think you can dance etc. In total 38 awards and almost everybody on campus was dressed up like a nerd or nurse. I got a nomination for best technician but didn't win it. The party afterwards was amazing. This was also the case with the Tug of War competition, a competition where teams pull a rope. Various teams from the campus participated but as I didn't want to risk my rib injury to become more serious I did not join. A strong men competition was held the same day where Hans participated in, Jason a student from our campus won the title for the second time.

Time flies here. Next week is our last week where we have to do our presentation and finish the manual and report and then I will drive with Hans to Cape Town, where I will buy a car.
There has been a change in plan for the next 2 months. My original plan was to travel with Jelke from South Africa to Kenya, but as he is not coming anymore I always had the plan to travel with my girlfriend Linda before our internship starts in september. Now she is coming 2 months earlier then planned, flying in on the 4th of july to Johannesburg. From there we will travel by car to Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya; I am so much looking forward to that especcially because I want to show Linda what travelling really is.

For more photos check the site; http://picasaweb.google.nl/jcopray/
In a few days I will post a new story about my bungee jumps last weekend!

Ciao

Let's go Surfing... Surfing Jefreys Bay!

For the people who are saying "I thought Joost went to South Africa for Humanitarian work and not only for holidays" I will dedicate this blogpost to my first 2 weeks of real working and of course to Surfing and Partying!
After 10 days of travelling through Lesotho and Swaziland our first humanitarian workday started.
Ok lets explain the project I choose for with 5 other fellow students. The following 7 weeks we are teaching about 30 teachers computer skills at a school in the township of Port Alfred. Two hours a day we teach how to work with windows, Word, Excel and some Internet. Our working day; we spend 2 or 3 hours in the morning preparing the lesson for that day. From 14:00 till 16:00 we have the class and at the end of the module we have to hand in a manual so they can eventually work more efficient and teach their students the skills they learned.
Our first week we wanted to find out what the level was of the teachers regarding computer skills. We created an exercise in word and excel; very basic like how to make something bolt, change font, insert a picture or table. This way we could distinguish who worked with Word or Excel before and the people who never did.
Patience is one of the key competences you have to have as what looks simple for us like selecting a word or sentence but for people who never touched a mouse before it can be quite a struggle. The week after we started our classes with basic Word. On monday and wednesday we have the beginners group and tuesday and thursday the more advanced group. The enthousiasm of these teachers in our class is amazing to see. The reactions when they manage to insert a photo without help of us is great to see and some are really fast learners. Other people will take ages to type a sentence but we give them extra attention in class.
We are with 6 in our project group and everything goes really smooth. No problems or discussions which is the case with some other project groups.

Ok now a dedication to my weekend experiences. On friday the 8th of May we (I and my harem of 13 girls) decided to go to Jeffreys Bay to surf. Rented some cars and drove for about 2 hours to one of the best surf spots on the planet. When arrived there were zero waves so we hoped that the lessons of tomorrow would bring us more luck. Checked in a nice hostel, played some volleyball and some frisbee (ofcourse!) For the loyal fans you might remember the post of last year "hitchhiking is getting easier and easier" of july 16 2008, where I got a frisbee injury, this was also the case today. During playing long distance frisbee I dove to a frisbee, hit the sand pretty hard a bruised my ribs. That night the pain was terrible; still enjoyed a nice party in the hostel. This party was called Cross dressing party which means all the guys had to wear girls clothes and all the girls guys clothes. These disturbing photos of joost in a dress, bra and makeup between all girls dressed up like guys I will spare untill I come back as these photos could be used against me ;)
I have never tried surfing before and it has been on my list for some time now, saturday morning a 2 hour lesson began. As my rib hurted like hell I wasn't able to stand, but on sunday we rented a board and wetsuit I performed better after taking a reasonable quantity of painkillers. Surfing rules and I will definetly want to become better in it. When back in Port Alfred I went to a doctor to check the status of my injury, after going to the hospital for xray photos to check if they were broken, the doctor said that they just were bruised and not broken and she gave me some strong painkillers.

Last weekend I decided to go to Hodgeback with a smaller group. Hans, Eva and Tim were my travel compagnions. This small village close to indigenous forests, mountains and waterfalls were recommended by various people and it's been said that Tolkien got his inspiration for the Lord of the Rings movies right here in this amazing place. The hostel we stayed in was called "Away with the Ferries" and at night we found out why. In the bushes around the hostel hundreds of fireflies made it look like ferries; stunning. At night we chilled at the fire near the bar on some couches with some beer, making conversations with fellow travellers. At 22:00 an english girl said to everybody that we had to take our shirts of at 22:30 as every friday it was 22:30 topless. What started with an nice housy feeling close to the fire ended up in everybody taking their shirts off incl the bardude (girls were still wearing their bra) dancing on the bar, loud good music, beer showers and having just an amazing insane time together. Yes people photo's have been taken and published on my photo site thanks to Hans the horny motherf......
A big hangover was the result the morning after but after resting in the garden for another hour with monkeys eating some berries a few metres away from us we got up and spend some hours hiking through the forrest and visiting a beautiful waterfall called Madonna and Child. Took some photos incl my famous Yippie-Ka-Jee photo shoot which I made as my Africa trade mark and many more will be taken the same way across the continent.
A nice relax weekend chilling with some nice folks was created.
At this moment we are developing some Excel exercises for our class today and thinking about what to do next weekend. This depends on my rib as in the morning it still hurts quite a bit but with medication it is ok as I want to do some bungee jumps (incl the highest one 216 meter;)) But this maybe has to wait for the weekend after.

And a small update of my accommodation here in Port Alfred; The first 2 weeks we stayed in a nice villa but then had to move to a house with 8 other guys. Nice house, big and a relax living room but in the last few weeks several laptops, camera, ipods were stolen from inside the house. An alarm system was installed 2 weeks ago but last weekend another laptop was stolen and ipod from a guy in our house. A window was smashed in and at the moment we have 24/7 security walking around our house. Also other houses of students were targetted and valuable stuff were stolen. Four guys incl me and Hans are leaving that house and the dean here is looking for another accommodation which is safer for our valuables. Still life is good here so don't worry to much.

For photos; http://picasaweb.google.nl/jcopray/

Hope everything is well.
greets joost

The mighty kingdoms of Africa

What a trip!! Added 2 more countries on my country list, and what kind of countries? The kingdoms of Lesotho and Swaziland; just amazing!!

Our trip started on friday 24th of April with 3 VW golfs, 10 students and 700 km infront of us the Mountain kingdom of Lesotho. Left pretty early and arrived just after dark at the border and then drove on bad roads and dirt roads through Malealea; a nice hostel like place in the middle of Lesotho. As it was night and the concept of streetlight is unknown in Lesotho, we didn't have any idea how the scenery looked like around our huts. The following day we were enlightened by the beauty of the mountains of more then 2000 meters high and heavy rains. Six of our group decided to do a horse ride through the mountains, I imagined that the day would bring only rain so the rest jumped in my car and crossed the country to enjoy spectacular views in the sun as the rain stopped pretty soon as we left. Lesotho is incredible, we heard from several that it looks like a big township and that it is not that special but I loved it. You do see allot of poverty and people with tored up clothes but many wave back when you drive by and the friendlyness of the Lesothie is just immens. Our second day we spent a short trip on horses to fully enjoy the beauty of the country, at night a nice band with homemade instruments filled our night with some good quality African music. 3 nights passed by and the decision for visiting the Dragonsmountain in the north-east of Lesotho on the South African side was easily made.

In 7 hours we drove in our VW golf parade around the northern border close to the Dragonsmountain range back in South Africa. Our backpackers lodge came with a nice swimming pool and a tap at the bar for drinks. Which did inevitable lead to a high amount at the end of my stay as the cocktails and beers tasted very good. The following day we decided to do a hike upto 31000 meters which took the whole day. After driving for 2 hours and hiking up hill for 3 hours we arrived at the Ampitheatre; a 5 km long edge with a 1 kilometer deep valley next to it. Just stunning!! Our next attraction was the second highest waterfall in the world. Sounds spectacular huh?, well.... the water did fell about 930 meters but the water that fell was less then an average small street flushes daily through their toilets. Still the view was again amazing.
Late in the afternoon we arrived back at our hostel where we had our last drinks with the group as tomorrow we wanted to split up; the 8 girls to the coast and Hans and I to Swaziland.

Another 700 km were ahead of us and our destination; Mlilwane Sanctuary a small wildlife park with a Backpackers inside. Early in the evening we arrived in a nice and quiet place which we called our home for the next 3 days.
The hostel was literally located inside a wildlife park and sometimes you saw wharthogs, antilopes and often an ostrich walking around at the site. Walking around the hostel to the main camp 10 minutes away brought you zebra, wildebeast, crocs, hippos, springboks etc. just from a few meters away; sweeett!
That day, queensday we heard about the car attack in NL; insane huh! Still had a few beers that day and just chilled out at the pool, enjoyed a nice meal cooked for us above the camp fire. In our days in the hostel we met many nice fellow travellers who had travelled for longer around Africa. Allot more nice countries wait for me after South Africa.
On friday the first of May it was workers day and as we heard a reggae festival was close by. First our objective of that day was to go to a National park where white and the rare black rhinos could be spotted but after all we went to the festival with another car of whities. In first place we thought that we would be the only white people at the festival but when arrived we saw that a wide variety of people filled the festival ground.
Beautifully located in a valley with pretty mountains around it, friendly people, good music and atmosphere, cheap beer, good cheap food and that all for 120 rand (10€) entrance.
After 6 hours Hans wanted to leave and eventually we left again in a big group to continue the party around the campfire at our hostel. Life was good so we choose to spend saturdays as well in Swaziland (our first plan was to drive another 700 km to Port St. John) that day was all about chilling out at the pool, drinking beer and enjoying other people's company.
Somewhere in the afternoon something amazing happened; as the ostrich was just walking around drinking abit from the pool she sat down next to the pool moved her head and.... layed a huge egg. I SHIT YOU ALL NOT. Check the photos.
Exchanged with many email adresses and spend the night again at the pingpong table and campfire. Sunday was driving day. As Hans has his driverslicence just 6 weeks I drove again the whole day. Left at 7 in the morning and hoped to be in Port Alfred at 19:00 for dinner. We miss calculated the distance and the combination with bad weather (heavy rain and mist) it took us 17 hours!! to get back. One hour stop incl. I hear a new record of driving 16 hours, 1400km in one day. ;) My bed in our villa felt so good that night, but what a week we had!!

For photo's check again: http://picasaweb.google.nl/jcopray

greets joost

Sleeping between Lions and Crocs; literally!

Hey peoples,

How is everyone doing? Life on the campus is nice and quiet at the moment as many students are of this and next week. Only our group of 30 students and some other south african students who have a resit are here at the moment.

So let me tell you some about the evening in the township last thursday; Our community coordinator wanted to show us life in the township so we drove with two vans late in the afternoon to the township NeMaTo. This township has more then 20000 people and circumstances are harsh. Every week there are many stories about girls getting raped or people murdered and it is unsafe to walk around here at night. But as we all were in a group wearing our blue Humanitarian Shirts and with our guide Alroy we felt safe. We were dropped in the middle of the township and us was told to start walking in the direction where a bar was located. There were allot of people and kids in the streets mainly because the unemployment rate is very high and many people are rather outside then inside. Some people do know that we are here to help and improve education and facilities with our knowledge, so appreciation can be seen in their faces.
During our walking trip we visited a community hall where many people were singing and dancing and celebrating that the ANC leader Zuma was cleared of corruption charges. Later on we ended up in a bar where we payed for a 750 ml beer 9 rand (0,75€) and talked to the locals who mostly all speak english. A guy came in and told us that he was selling half a sheep head for 12 rand. Eventually everybody wanted to taste some of the meat inside the cheeks of the blackened-baked sheep skull. Not bad actually especially the eye which I shared with a classmate (see the bit blurry photo in the link below).

That saturday we booked a 2 day safari with 27 people of the group, a large number but we got allot of discount and eventually payed 600 rand (about 50€) for 2 tours, 2 meals and sleeping out in the open next to a campfire. My first safari (here they call it a game drive) and we saw so many animals; amazing. We were sitting in a 10 person open jeep and our ranger Scot was the best guide you could have. Some animals we saw, some really upclose; rhinos, hippos, girafes, antilopes, crocs and lions. In the evening we enjoyed a magnificant meal and a nice spot was picked between a pont with 2 crocs and a fenced house where the toilets were located. A nice campfire kept us all warm and 5 rangers kept the crocs away and kept a lookout for lions coming not to close. It felt quite safe but at a certain moment Schot shouted in a direction 5 meters from the tree where some people were sleeping; a giant male lion ran off, who was waiting for a person wundering of alone. Every body was suddenly awake and throughout the night many people couldn't sleep because of the hard growling of the 2 mail lions around the camps. The rangers said that this was the first time the lions and the crocs came so close; scarry moment but a great experience!
In the morning drove through the park one more to see some animals and at 10 in the morning we left the park all with a feeling we will never forget. Some groups headed of in their rental cars to see an elephant park nearby but Hans and I decided to go with 3 girls to a Cheetah breeding farm some 80 km away, slept only for 3 hours but driving there was all worth it. As you might know that I worked with Pumas in Bolivia some years ago my dream was ever since to see a Cheetah upclose. For 30 rand we got a small tour through a farm where they breed cheetahs to be released into national parks. We could pet 2 cheetahs who were just 9 months (still big animals doh when you sit next to them) and a full grown male of 2,5 years old. Such a great experience. But still the main surprise was still there for us to see and hold. Two 5 week old lion cubs we could hold and play around with. WHAT A WEEKEND!

This week we started with our projects; well... actually just an introduction because monday we still had a surroundings tour organised for us and wednesday was elections day. And we were told that it wouldn't be the safest day to enter the Township.

My project is called Computer Literacy, and it is about giving basic computer classes to 2 x 20 teachers of the school in the Township. With 5 other students we give basic Windows and Office training for 2 hours per day. As you might now i have studied IT for 4 years so now my knowledge will be usefull, my learning goal is to improve my teaching skills. All the teachers we met were very enthousiastic about our help and we are ready for making a difference.
The 20 computers will be prepared during our week off and so on we have planned a 10 days of trip to Lesotho and Swasiland starting tomorrow with 3 cars. Hans and I have one car and we will drive to Swasiland aswell the rest will visit places on the coast.

The link to some photos; http://picasaweb.google.nl/jcopray

have fun at Queensday I will celebrate it high in the mountains maybe even on skies, as we heard that there is snow in Lesotho ;)

greets joost

Walking through the slums of Port Alfred

Hello from sunny South Africa,

First of all, thanks for your reactions on my last post. So now you all must be wondering how life is in Port Alfred, the small town where my campus is located.

I flew last Friday the 10th of April after spending 2 nice days with my chica in Germany. After saying goodbye to my parents, brother and Linda my yearly trip to Africa began... YEAH!!!!
My flight mates of tourism were Sabrina, Lidwine and Daphne; 3 of the 30 students doing the same module as I. First a short flight at 16:40 to London Heathrow, waited 2 hours and then a long 11 hour flight to Cape Town, South Africa.
Bit of turbulence during a thunder storm in the middle of the night, but still slept a bit. No problem at customs and quickly arranged the car we booked. After some double espressos our 2 day road trip started to Port Alfred 800km further. Had to get use of driving on the left again especially with 3 hours sleep last night. The first impression of the landscape; very diverse and beautiful. In some cities the slums were visible from the road and a strange image in comparison with the huge houses of the white population with big fences and security.
Sabrina booked a hostel at mosselbay about 300 km east of Cape town so that was our destination before nightfall. On the way we looked for a bay where penguins were spotted so our first stop was there.

After a good night sleep and a good dinner at sea the night before. we continued another 500 km to Port Alfred. As we booked the car for 2 days we didn't see much the first 2 days in Africa but hey... I will be a year on the continent so no hurry.

Arrived on Sunday in the evening, and many of the students arrived around the same time. My roomy for the next 10 weeks Hans was already on the campus and we got our accommodation pointed out to us for at least the first 2 weeks. And you might not believe it but we are staying in a huge white villa with swimming pool and everything, this is because they have to many students to place on the campus so many are scattered in a walking distance of 10 minutes from the campus where we get breakfast,lunch and dinner every day. Easter Monday was spend doing not much; laying on the beach and meeting some of the about 180 students on the campus.

The campus is located about 10 minutes walk from the beach and 15 from the center. It is safe here around the campus and there is security driving around at night still you have to be careful that you have to lock everything when you leave. Since I arrived here a house with students was robbed twice because they didn't lock it properly. And at night you can't walk back to your house alone, always with 3 or 4 persons. This gives a bit of a strange feeling, but I will get used to it.

This week is an introduction week with some lectures and tours through out the city and campus. This also included a tour through the township of NeMaTo and an evening in a bar there. This was an amazing experience, such a difference with the western world. The people's lives are so much different, it is heart breaking to see the poverty and unemployment of these areas. The following weeks I will tell more about it, when I am in working at a school in the township with 5 other students on a really interesting project.

This weekend we (the whole group of 30 students) will go to my first National Park in Africa. We rented 6 cars for 3 days and we will do a tour this afternoon hoping to see the Big 5. And i have already plans for the holidays the week after to go to Lesotho and Swasiland.

Sorry for not posting some pictures yet but my adapter of my laptop blow up when i connected it. My laptop is OK and I will buy a new adapter this week so photos will come soon.

Have to go now. Hope you are all fine.

Greets Joost

It began in Africa

Dear Folks,

Tomorrow my trip starts to the continent where it al began... Africa. At the moment I am in Deutschland at my girlfriend Linda's place. I will fly from Dusseldorf in the afternoon, through London to Cape Town.
So you might want to know where is Joost ending up now and for how long? This my plan;

As I am studying Tourism Managment and choose my minor to be Humanitarian Managment I was able to do 10 weeks of the 20 weeks on a campus in Port Alfred, South Africa.
And ofcourse what is joost gonna do when he is dropped in the south of Africa ..... exactly TRAVEL!! After 10 weeks my good friend Jelke will arrive in Cape Town and we will travel for 2,5 months to Kenya. I experienced 3 months of travelling with him in South America in 2005 so this will be another major experience to do this with our own car and cross almost 10 countries; seeing the jungle, doing safaries, have some shark dives, bungee, see the gorillas etc.

And what would be better to start my fourth year of my international study doing my internship in Kenya with my girlfriend.
So we looked and we found a Dutch company in Kenya and we both got accepted for 7 months starting in September this year!!!

In total, being away for a year! For my study, travel and internship; a better combination is hard to find I would say ;)

The last weeks I have spend my time visiting my family & friends who are so dear to me. And ofcourse my girl who I will miss for 5 months untill she is joining me in September.
Arranged everything and packed my bag and tomorrow at 16:50 I fly with 3 classmates to Cape Town where I booked a car which will take us in 2 days 800km further to Port Alfred.

I wish you all a great year and keep my posted on your adventures I will certainly do that from Dark Africa.

Greets your buddy Joost.