Johannesburg, South Africa: Last Stop in Africa!

Johannesburg was the last stop of our South African road trip extravaganza adventure. *cries*

Prior to arriving, we'd heard a lot about the city - more notably, people warned us that it was dangerous, and that there was a lot of crime and not so much to do. All I can say is, Jo'burg (everything in SA has an abbreviated form) really took us pleasantly by surprise. We spent 5 days in the city, which is incredibly long, but we chose to spend some extra days recharging - especially since Jesse was heading back home to Australia afterwards, and I still had no idea where I was headed next.

What It's All About:

Johannesburg is South Africa's largest city - located on the east side of the country, it's South Africa's financial and entertainment capital.  The city was originally founded due to discovery of gold in the area, but grew from there despite the fact that it's not located anywhere near a water source or anywhere that makes sense geographically.

View over Johannesburg at sunset

The city is known for being sketchy, yes - there is still high crime and the city suffered a lot from decay and decline over the past decades. However, it is slowly emerging from this and a lot of the neighborhoods have experienced a resurgence - there are areas that are super cute and trendy that you would swear were right out of SoCal or NYC.  Some parts of the city are still a no-go, but knowing that, some other parts are positively charming, with interesting things to see.  We actually really loved our time in Johannesburg.  We stayed in an upscale-ish neighborhood called Melrose, in Rosebank.

Our little home away from home for the week, a B&B called Blackheath Manor House. It was the BEST PLACE EVER, and we loved coming back to it.

I'm going to do my best to summarize our five days in Johannesburg in one efficient swoop - we truly took things easy and spent equal times relaxing at our amazing hotel (and watching late night movies) with some sightseeing, side trips, and local activities. You truly need these times when you travel.

Cliffnotes of the Day:

• Took a hop-on, hop-off red city bus tour of downtown Johannesburg and some of its neighborhoods.

View of Jo'burg from the Red Bus Tour!

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Vibrant streets of the Inner City

A terrible shot of Downtown

You still see a lot of this - abandoned buildings with the doors/windows bricked up. As business moved out of downtown Jo'burg, squatters moved into the empty buildings and created gangs demanding money from tenants. So landlords had to brick up their buildings, and wait it out for better times.

Jess and I got off at a stop called Gold Reef City with the intention of visiting a former gold mine - it's a megacomplex that's made up of a fancy hotel/casino/theme park.

Inside the casino, it's just like Vegas!  We may have promptly lost $7 on the slots and then spent an hour in the arcade playing Skee-ball and Whack-a-mole.

Back on track, we then headed to the famous Apartheid Museum.

The museum was crazy. It's crazy to think how recent apartheid was, how long it went on even when it clearly wasn't working, and all the things that were happening at a time when most of us were alive. Apartheid was basically started because the white minority in power feared being taken over by the black majority.

People were forced to carry around documents that stated their race 24/7 - this would allow them into certain places or not. All the blacks were moved out of the city center of Johannesburg and into their own suburbs far away.

Even when apartheid was clearly tearing the country apart and was being condemned by other countries, the South African leaders refused to give it up - instead they jailed, tortured, or killed protestors.

• As a quick personal side tangent, the thing that is the craziest to me is that the effects of apartheid are still very evident today, even though it ended in the 90's.  Even when apartheid ended, it wasn't like people just picked up and moved from their segregated neighborhoods - they stayed in their neighborhoods and communities.  This means that today, white people still grow up with other white people, and black people still grow up with other black people.  The groups don't really ever interact with each other until they reach the workplace - by which time, their upbringing and who they're used to hanging out with is pretty ingrained. So you rarely, rarely ever see mixed groups of people, or people of different races hanging out. Groups of people are so homogenous that you can't help but notice how they don't mingle with each other, really ever.  It's insane to see.

After the Apartheid Museum, we took the Red Bus to the artsy, cool neighborhood of Braamfontein for a drink (and to wait out a rainstorm).

And capped off the night at a steakhouse our B&B host recommended near home. It was so delicious, and the huge plates of delicious steaks, fries, etc. were less than $10. 

• Watched the sunset from a nearby hilltop in our neighborhood. Our guesthouse sits in a beautiful neighborhood at the foot of a hill - we literally ordered an Uber, and pointed to the top of the hill and said "We want to go there, please."

View from the top of the hill

We maybe also brought a bottle of wine to enjoy the sunset with

Gorgeous. This neighborhood is incredibly ritzy and the people up here literally look down on all the others.  Another thing to get used to in Jo'burg - all the houses have HUGE fences/gates that obscure the entire house (you seriously can't see any of the houses because the concrete walls are so high around them), and ridiculous security systems. It's just what you have to do when you live in this city.

Sunset colors

The view at dark

• Visited the Cradle of Humankind, which is about an hour's drive outside of Jo'burg.  This means we rented another adorable car for a couple days. The Cradle of Humankind is a series of limestone caves/sites where 40% of all hominid fossils in the world have been discovered (super important, given it helps explain the origin of humans and how we evolved). The fossils discovered here date back millions of years. MILLIONS.  It is obvi a World Heritage Site.

First, we went to the Sterkfontein Caves, where some of the most famous fossils from the Cradle of Humankind were discovered. Jesse is too tall for the caves.

Here at Sterkfontein, they discovered "Little Foot," an almost-complete skeleton of a super-early human ape-man called Australopithecus. He accidentally fell into the cave and died instantly, but it preserved his skeleton below ground for over 3 million years. Again, MILLION.

Evolution of the Australopithecus

The caves were dark

They are below ground with little hole openings. A hole like this is how Little Foot probably accidentally fell into the cave in the first place, preserving him forever.

Some parts involved crawling.

And there were crazy formations of dolomite that were again, millions of years old. 

Outside the caves is a statue of Dr. Robert Broom, the paleontologist who responsible for a lot of the discoveries in the Cradle of Humankind, most notably a skull from a hominid named Ms. Ples. You are supposed to rub the skull he's holding for wisdom

And you rub his nose for good luck. You can only choose one to rub. Jesse and I obviously chose opposite ones.

After the caves, we went to Maropeng, where they have a super-amazing, awesome state-of-the-art museum you can visit about the Cradle of Humankind.  I've seriously never loved a museum so much before.

The museum started with a timeline from the beginning of how humans developed from nothing.

AND THEN THERE WAS A BOAT RIDE THAT TOOK YOU THROUGH THE VARIOUS CLIMATES SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME.  This is obviously the ice age.

Floating through the ice age

AND THEN THE FIRE AGE. Yes, I'm sure that's what it was called.

There were all kinds of amazing, interactive exhibits at the museum.  I think the point of this was to marvel at how humans developed over so many billions of years of evolution, but I liked the tripp-y mirror effect.

• And more additional miscellaneous activities we did over our time in Jo'burg:

Went and had lunch in another super-trendy, successful urban renewal neighborhood project called Maponeng

Went shopping at the insane Rosebank African Craft Market, a series of shops and stalls under the ridiculously fancy and huge Rosebank Mall complex.

Adventure Golf!  

• And with that, five days were over in the blink of an eye, and thus came the end of my African adventures.  It was a lot of sad events together: saying goodbye to Africa (I spent 3 months in Africa in total, which is so much longer than I thought I'd be there - and I loved so, so many things about this leg), saying goodbye to Jesse (who is now back home in Australia, but was an amazing travel partner), and having to make my next move (I was crippled with indecision at the location).  I am still very sad to not be in Africa anymore, but it was one of the best adventures of my life.  Bye, Africa!  I will be back.  I say that every time but I don't care. 

Fun Facts of the Day:

• South Africans love their song covers - we kept listening to the Top 40 station in the car (Ok, ok I maybe insisted on this), and a lot of their Top 40 are new, hip young people covering old school songs. Super old-school songs, like Sting and Simon + Garfunkel and such.
• Stores close super super early in South Africa (and really, all of Southern Africa). The mall stores/grocery stores don't really stay open later than 6 or 7pm - it becomes a ghost town after then. It's so weird. How do working people do their shopping?  Many establishments are also closed on Mondays.  It was impossible finding a restaurant to eat at on a Monday.
• In SA, tons of people act as unofficial parking attendants - it's pretty regular when you park on the side of a road (especially downtown), or in a parking lot, for a civilian in a beat-up fluorescent vest to approach you after you get back to your car. Their claim is that they've watched your car the whole time you were gone, or they'll try and help you navigate out of the space - and hope for tips. However, we heard from Jesse's friend Johan that a friends of his once they got back to his car, and the car had been broken into, but the parking guy still asked for a tip. Also, these people are insane. I don't know how they have such ridiculous hawk vision, but no matter how stealthy you are going back to your car, they will spot you and they will run over within seconds. 

Drakensberg, South Africa: Hiking the Dragon Mountains and I Teach A 6th Grade Class

From the coast of Coffee Bay, our road trip continued inland to a region of South Africa called Drakensberg.  

What It's All About:

Drakensberg is a region in the eastern plateau of South Africa (means "dragon mountains" in Afrikaans) - it's a series of ridiculous amazing mountains, with some of the most breathtaking landscapes I've ever seen in my entire life.  The region is divided into North and South Drakensberg - Drakensberg is huge, so you can spend weeks exploring this area and not even see a fraction of all it has to offer.  The area's best known for hiking and camping, but you can also do so many other cool things - ride horses, venture into Lesotho (a small country surrounded by South Africa that borders Drakensberg!), or simply enjoy the amazing serenity and peacefulness the area has.

This view courtesy of 10 minutes into our first hike. Photos don't do the scenery justice. 

We spent 4 days in Southern Drakensberg, just near a charming little town called Underberg. Seriously, we kept meaning to leave, but kept extending because we had time and were so in love with the area.  I am wildly obsessed with Drakensberg; it is definitely one of the most naturally beautiful (and peaceful) places I've ever been in my entire life.

Cliffnotes of the Day:

• Arrived in Drakensberg and our charming little hostel, called Sani Pass Backpackers. Jess and I spent the evening poring over our hostel's huge wall of suggested hikes, and randomly chose a full-day one that sounded amazing.  
• The next morning, armed with a random highlighted map, a sheet of instructions, and copious amounts of water, Jesse and I set out for what was promised to be a 6-7 hour hike. 

We seriously walked for 15 minutes past the lodge and it felt like we were in the middle of pure, unspoiled wilderness

Oh, just a stunning crystal-blue lake on the other side

I can't get over these mountain ranges

Oh god, we've already gone to photo overload 20 minutes into our 6 hour hike

• So the path itself was kind of tenuous - there were places where huge grasses hid it partly, and parts where it disappeared completely or branched off in different faint directions. It was really kind of hard to follow. Not to mention our sheet of instructions literally had sentences like "Walk 15 minutes through the grass past the big rock. Turn off on the trail that branches to the left of the trees, but make sure to cross back over the rocks to find the trail as it slopes up. Do not take the path that is sloping up too much; take the other one."  WHAT ARE THESE INSTRUCTIONS.  
• Soooo I'm only making these excuses because we may have missed the turnoff for the trail we intended (to the top of the mountain), and by the time we realized our mistake, we were too far past. So we continued on the trail we were on, which was a fun water-filled hike down into the canyon with tons of waterfalls and rivers and pools.  No regrets because it was AMAZING.

Walking into the horizon. 

Some of the ridiculously gorgeous valleys. These mountains go out as far as the eye can see.

The most stunning part was how alone we were. We seriously saw one couple early in the morning, and for the rest of the 8.5 hours, did not see a single soul.

I hope you've already realized that this post will be photo overload

And then we found a mini splashy waterfall 

Hiking down into the canyon

And then we found our own private wading pool to swim in!  

Jess and our personal tiny waterfall

First we had the lunch our hostel had packed for us. Noms.

Then swimming time!

Jess super-jumping in. The water was super cold but ridiculously clear and pristine. The mountain spring water here is all drinkable, and is rumored to be better than bottled water (I say "rumored" because I'm a weenie American who was too skeeved out to drink any because we've been taught to be terrified of dirt and waterborne diseases). (This may just be a "me" thing).  Jesse, however, slurped it all up and said it was delicious - ice-cold and dirt-free. 

My body went numb

• We continued hiking afterwards - the trail got super crazy and we had to zig and zag across the river a couple times.  This trail was so remote that it was basically impossible to follow. It seemed like no one had hiked it in 5 years - there were parts where it would disappear entirely and we would just make up where we thought we were supposed to go (aka where the branches and trees looked like they were maybe open enough to let a person through).  I may or may not have had visions of that show "I Shouldn't Be Alive" on this trek.

We encountered all these giant rocks on the way. Exhibit A is tiny Jesse next to giant rock.

And then we came to the edge of a canyon with a giant waterfall!  I know it looks like a tiny baby waterfall.....but trust me, it's giant.  We then took a detour and hiked down into this canyon to try and access the pool at the base of the waterfall.

After hiking down a crazy slope for over half an hour, NAILED IT.

Another totally isolated private swimming hole with waterfall.  We swam in this one as well.

And then continued on our way

Our completely not-helpful list of hiking instructions said we had to cross the river 3 times for this hike.....and we crossed it 5. Which means we somehow accidentally added in 2 unnecessary river crossings. Oops.  MAYBE THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE MADE THE TRAIL SO IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND ALL THE TIME.

We finally made it to the highway. This part was a win. Because our instructions told us we were supposed to hit the highway and then walk 2.5km along it back to the hostel.  Jesse is celebrating by planking.

Halfway home along the (totally deserted) highway, there was a fancy lodge that advertised scones. So we obviously stopped there and had tea, scones and ice cream. Just a normal mid-afternoon snack.

•  Over 9 hours after we initially set out, we finally arrived back at the lodge.  Kind of close to the 6 hours it was supposed to take, except not at all.  I guess they don't factor in all the swimming/river crossing/ice cream detours, which is weird, because these are all completely necessary stops. We were exhausted, but it was, by far, my favorite hike I've ever been on in my entire life.
• The next day, I became a 6th grade teacher at a local school.  See "Moment of the Day" below.

Moment of the Day:

The next morning, Jess and I got a little bit of a late start to our day and had to change our plans to go to Lesotho at the last minute.  I had seen a flyer in our hostel the day before that there was a local elementary school where you could volunteer for a day, so I thought we could do that. We tried to call the school but no one answered the phone - seeing as it was so last-minute, our lodge host recommended we drive to the school directly to ask them about volunteering.

We seriously pulled into the school at 11:25AM - Jess and I found three ladies sitting in one of the classrooms (the kids were on lunch break). We asked about the volunteering thing, and one of the ladies goes "Yes. You can help today. Class starts at 11:30."  She escorted us to a 6th-grade classroom, goes "You have 5 minutes - you teach", and then vanished.  THERE WAS NO TEACHER. WE HAD TO TEACH THE CLASS.  And we were totally, completely unprepared.

The 6th grade class all came in 5 minutes later, giggling and super excited that these two strangers were standing in their class. Holy. panic. Imagine 15 faces just staring at you expectantly. Thank God Jesse is an English teacher, because we kind of just made up the lesson for the day.  Really, half the time was just spent trying to figure out what the heck these kids were supposed to be learning and how good their English skills were.

Sample convo with the kids:

Jess and I: "What textbook are you guys using?"

Kids: "This one!" *all pull out different textbooks*

Me: "Wait - which one of these textbooks have you been using in class though?"

Kids: "Yes!"

......
Seriously, something we've learned is that a lot of the locals here like to please foreigners, so their answer is always "yes" because they want to be agreeable, whether or not they understand what you're saying.  Cue mass confusion.

Long story short, Jesse and I spent the time doing a quick introduction game, then trying to get through the various lesson plans (the kids' English ability all varied wildly - some were amazing, and some were a little more nonexistent), then did some reading, and then just ended with a game of Pictionary, which the kids loved.

I'm fairly certain this class doesn't really have a teacher - the lady we talked to mumbled about the teacher being somewhere else, but the fact that we randomly showed up and there happened to be no teacher was so sad!  We met another backpacker at the lodge later who told us he had gone to the school the week before and had the exact same experience - he showed up, was thrown into a class with no teacher, and was expected right then and there to teach.  I think resources are fairly limited in this stretch of the world, so the kids kind of just make do with what they have.  The kids were adorable, eager, and incredibly charming.  The kids naturally broke into little groups when we did the lesson plans and the ones who were stronger in English helped the weaker ones. It's clear they've kind of formed their own little groups and structure with the lack of a teacher.

My new 6th grade class.  These kids love foreigners. It's incredibly rural out in this section of the world, so they're charmed by everything.

The kids are enthralled with their books, obviously.  I am apparently appalled by something.

True to form, I loved it. I wanted to go back every day.