Final Day in South Africa

Posted on by
Reply

27 July

We wake in the patient room in Elna’s clinic this morning having slept downstairs instead of in her bedroom because she had been sleeping the evening away before she came to fetch us and wants us to take over her bedroom tomorrow with all of our packing. However, with the clinic opening we get everything upstairs fairly early, and both Alisa and I shower since leaving Cape Town two days ago.

Alisa starts to unpack everything, and get her stuff that she needs washed organized while I post all of our Botswana reports and start to organize Alisa’s electronics for Kenya. She has decided to take the iPad to Kenya instead of her Macbook Pro, as she hopes that she’ll be able to get a 3G Sim card from either Safaricom or Zain, whoever has a shop at the airport. Both seem to have reasonable prices for data bundles, and Safaricom recently extended the life of a bundle to 90 days, just in time for Alisa’s stay of three months!!

In trying to figure out which bag Alisa should take, we check SA’s baggage policies to Kenya, and find that she’s allowed 30kg. We call SA to confirm and they do so. However, we realize that the website doesn’t specify how many pieces of luggage, so Alisa calls back to inquire, Continue reading →

Derailment Slows Shosholoza, But Not Our Enjoyment

Posted on by
1

26 July

We woke to the sound of someone yelling “TEA, COFFEE” early this morning on the Shosholoza Train. I thought it was insanely early for tea or coffee, and when we had a knock on our compartment’s door I pulled myself out of the cocoon of my sleeping bag which I had slept in on the bench with my backpack as my pillow. This would have been a fine set up, except that I had tried to sleep on my side and destroyed both of my shoulders. I find this out as I rise and move to unlatch the door. I find the Train’s conductor standing there, the same stout woman who was kind enough to upgrade us to the 4 person compartment yesterday. She calmly tells me that we are on the Orange River and that there has been a derailment ahead of us Continue reading →

Shosholoza: The Train to Joburg

Posted on by
1

25 July

At 8AM we awoke to the buzzing of my cellphone alarm. I greatly enjoyed naturally waking up the last several days, but today we were on a schedule. The overnight Shosholoza train to Joburg departed at 12:30 PM, but we needed to pack, grocery shop, check out of our room and be at the station an hour before departure.

over the past four days we had taken full advantage of the space in our room by spreading the contents of our backpacks all about. As a result I expected it to take us some time to pack, but it went rather quick and we managed to fit all our souvenirs into our backpacks, except for my kelp art.

Finished with packing we walked around the corner to Woolworth’s Food on Long Street to get snacks and lunch/dinner for our trip because we did not know if there was a dining car on the Shosholoza train. We thought it would be logical for them to have a dining car since it was the sleeper train, but we have learned when traveling in the 3rd world to never fully rely on what we consider logical. With sandwiches, fruit, water and chocolate in hand Alex and I strolled back to our backpackers to check out.

Believing that check out for Cape Town Backpackers was 10AM, we were ready to leave before having breakfast. However, upon further investigation we discovered that check out was an hour later at 11AM, so we were able to eat. Alex was tired of traditional ZA breakfast so he chose to eat a donut on our patio before going upstairs with me to the cafe where I had eggs and toast.

Just before 11 we gathered up all our bags. Alex carried the big blue backpack on his back with the Timbuk2 electronics bag over his shoulder. I carried my daypack on my back, Alex’s daypack on my front, the food bag in one hand and my kelp art in the other. Good thing we were only walking upstairs to checkout and catch a cab because I would not have wanted to walk to the train station like that.

Upon arrival at the train station we observed that the Shosholoza ticket offices were closed and wondered where we needed to go in order to get our car and coup assignment. Continue reading →