SENSATIONAL SOUTH AFRICA!

For the past two weeks I have been travelling around South Africa for the holiday of a lifetime! I experienced so many adventures including safaris around Kruger National Park; whale watching in Hermanus (the world’s best on shore whale watching location); wine tasting in Stellenbosch; meeting ancestors of Zulu warriors to riding on the back of a real African elephant! (But more about that later). In order to properly divulge each detail and story properly I’m going to release a day-by-day account of my travels to give you a true feel for South Africa. Hope you enjoy!

Day 1 – Arrival to Johannesburg

After the exhausting 11 and a half hour flight from Heathrow, we finally arrived at Johannesburg Airport. Unfortunately we didn’t have much time to investigate the country’s capital as we went straight to the Apartheid museum. In hindsight this could have been a bit heavy for a first day but was so emotional that we hardly noticed the fatigue. The museum created a fantastic interactive experience as each ticket separated guests as either “white” or “non-white” which segregated you and your other party members as it would have done in the terrible Apartheid years. A person’s ‘race’ in those days seemed to be as changeable as this random ticket allocation – a person could change from “black” to “coloured” (mixed-race), “white” to “black” not only because of race (which was what was used to determine your style of life and social status) but also took into account your job; wages; size of your family; where you lived; medical health and even your social circles could leave you one day as being “coloured” and the next “black”.

 The Nelson Mandela exhibit also proved fascinating – particularly due to recent events. We walked round and saw how he battled for equality – peaceful then violent, patient (beyond belief!) until finally negotiating the equality he’d fought for for so long. As we continued through the Apartheid exhibits we were all shocked by the animalistic viewpoints of horrible early European settlers. They treated natives as not even inferiors – almost “animals” to “train” – as we watched (horrified) speeches from European politicians as they brought in the disgusting Apartheid regime. The regime turned the country into one of signs as everything from housing estates; banks; shops to public bathrooms was segregated. The museum also hosted a long wall of protest posters – one of the most shocking things I felt was how long it took to get rid of Apartheid (not until the 1990’s) – it absolutely disgusted me. One thing that did please me however was the museum’s slogan: “Apartheid is exactly where it belongs – in a museum” – I couldn’t agree more!

After a quick relax and freshen up in our hotel suites we went to the local restaurant for dinner – “Chief Bomma’s”. We were absolutely delighted by the plentiful buffet filled with intriguing local cuisine.

From wildebeest to warthog and even kudu (a type of large antelope), as well as plenty of salad and spicy stews, the buffet was sensational particularly as the meat was cooked on a hot stone right in front of us.

 I found wildebeest a bit tough but had a very similar flavour to beef and warthog to be more tender but a bit too fatty to go back for more. However, the kudu was absolutely delicious – it had a wonderfully smoky flavour and was very tasty. To compliment the beautiful food, we were delighted by some local musicians who truly set in the African fever making it the perfect first night in South Africa.