Coast of South Africa

We drove from St. Lucia on the eastern coast (near the Mozambique border) across the Western and Southern Cape to Cape Town.  Overall, we drove 7,000+ km (over 4,000 miles) across Botswana and South Africa in six weeks.  It looked a lot smaller on a map!

A few things we learned about South Africa

(or, just scroll down for the pictures!)

As we traveled across South Africa, there was a distinct change from Afrikaners (Dutch) influence on the East side to English influence as we approached Cape Town.  We largely followed (in reverse) Die Groot Trek ("The Great Trek") of the 1830's, which was a fascinating parallel to U.S. history.  Like the Western pioneers, the Voortrekkers crossed vast distances of difficult country in covered wagons, with bloody conflicts with the African tribes that already lived in those areas.  This migration was driven by the Dutch settlers (Boers) wanting to escape the rule of the English occupying Cape Town, and particularly, English laws banning slavery (which the Boers relied on for their plantations).  This makes an interesting amalgram of three different aspects of U.S. history all wrapped together:  The Western pioneers, the American Revolution against England, and the Confederate South support of slavery.

Die Groot Trek regained significance in the 1940's, when the Afrikaner descendants of the Boers used Die Groot Trek celebrations to build nationalist sentiment, and resulted in the Nationalist Party coming to power in 1948.  It was the Nationalist Party, which retained power until 1994, that implemented Apartheid as government policy.  Throughout our visit, the enduring results of Apartheid remain apparent.  While South Africa has eliminated Apartheid and corrected many of the indefensible policies of the prior Nationalist government, the land ownership, education, power, wealth, and other advantages remain largely with the white minority and inequality in South Africa continues to grow (the World Bank cites South Africa as having the greatest income inequality in the world).  

South African benefits from having one of the two strongest economies in Africa (along with Nigeria).  As a result, we met many immigrants from other African countries who came to South Africa for better opportunities.  This is also causing immigration tensions to increase.  

It was quite surprising to see how much of South Africa's land is used for forestry.  Tree farms account for nearly 10% of all of South Africa's land usage.  There is also a lot of goat, sheep, and cattle ranching, and farming for avocados, oranges, sugar cane, macadamia nuts, and other crops.  This agricultural economy contributes to one of the most divisive issues in South Africa - land ownership reform.  I had heard about this issue even before we left the states, and was surprised to find that despite all of the headlines, it's not actually a policy yet, and no land ownership has changed.  I was also surprised to find that the discussion is really about redistribution of land, and affects black as well as white landowners.

Despite the challenge South Africa faces, we found the people in South Africa to be extremely friendly and welcoming.  We met Nick and Catherine (and cute Daniel) Du Plooy in Knysna and Nick was gracious enough to arrange for us to spend our last day sailing in Cape Town! He also gave us a tour of the yacht he was preparing to sail that afternoon. Thank you Nick!

Here are few of the highlights of our trip along the coast:

iSimangaliso Wetland National Park (St. Lucia)

The endangered Samango Monkey (and the second kind of monkey to steal Katie's lunch in South Africa!)

Another boring day in a National Park

Beach dunes at Point Vidal

It's tough to wake up in the morning!

African Terns are a lot prettier than our seagulls

Foam party!

Mission Rocks local

Katie is mostly excited about the warning signs

Creature from the blue lagoon!

Plettenberg Bay / Knysna

East towards Cape St. Francis

Beautiful and scary surf at Robberg Nature Reserve

Robberg Nature Reserve

We stayed near Solar / Sanctuary Beach, which was so covered in sea shells that you couldn't walk along the beach without crushing them nearly every step

Robberg Nature Reserve

The seals didn't have any concerns about the rough surf and rocks

Seals (no, not dolphins) surfing Plettenberg Bay

The scale is difficult to capture; the rock is probably 100 feet high

Dolphins (this time) in Plettenberg Bay

The final elephant we saw in South Africa (in Knysna)

Whale (and Dassie) sightings at Hermanus (Walker Bay)

We made a slight detour on our drive to see if there were whales at Hermanus, and it took us just moments after walking to the point to see two right whales

Dassies (rock hyrax) are also called "rock rabbits," but whoever named them didn't notice they don't have bunny ears or tails.

Penguin Colony at Boulders Beach

As we walked through these boulders, penguins kept waddling by us!

The first guy that walked up to us

Waddling down the granite rocks

Abalone diver

Baby penguins!

Molting penguin getting ready for summer

Covered pathway at Boulder Beach

Maximum fuzziness

Look at me!

Cape of Good Hope / Cape Town

Really strong winds at Cape Point

The view from the top of Table Mountain

Cape Town from the base of Table Mountain

Sailing in Cape Town

What's Next

Our next destinations are Reunion Island and Madagascar.