Palapye, Botswana – Polokwane, South Africa, Africa 2017 – Day 10-11

12/09-10/17

12/09/17

We had a 6AM wake up call before hitting the road once again for a long haul drive. We switched up the seating in the truck. We traded and took over the smaller 4 person table and played cards. First time playing gin rummy for me. We literally played for 7-8 hours with only 2 stops. Frans needed to open the cabin and fix the the pipe as it became exposed. Our last pitstop was at a gas station with a newly opened Nando’s.

Arriving in Palapye, we stayed at Camp Itumela which probably had the best wifi spanning the entire campsite. The main reception area had a courtyard that held the main pool, tree top like patio and further in, the bar and more lounging areas as well as a playground.

This campsite also features a pig and 2 goats as well as roaming dogs, cats, chickens and peacocks. There are 2 outdoor toilets and showers but also an indoor toilet and shower facility. There is also a volleyball court mind you the size was more of a badminton court and had metal poles as the court and middle line. The net was also really floppy and low. After dinner we played a few rounds. Word of advice, don’t chase after it outside the court as immediately or if the perimeters, the ground is less cared for and rocks and other jagged things await. Clive was telling us that in his 2 years with ATC, he has never seen anyone actually use the volleyball courts that are available.

Majority of the other people on the campsite work in the nearby energy plant as engineers building turbines. These engineers come from around the world – Netherlands, South Africa, Thailand etc.

Sarah had heard from Will that there was a local club nearby which she wanted to check out so we decided to go. Clive was originally going to accompany us but it was getting late so we made arrangements with two of the bar staff – G and Benny who were willing to take us. Benny’s fiance Charity also joined us.

We ended up walking to Wamzito night club which is the only club in town. All ages it seemed for only 20 Pula entry fee. The bars in Palapye close at 11PM everyday are aren’t allowed to serve alcohol past that time so they all come from the bar to the club. The club opens at 11PM which is the time we arrived. Pretty dead for the first hour but then the crowd slowly but surely filled out. The music playing was house music (not really my cup of tea) and we stayed on the couch for a little while. We were definitely the minority in the club and had many people come up to us just to shake our hands. We danced for a bit and we wanted to walk back but G kept telling us we shouldn’t. Luckily enough Benny and Charity hadn’t left yet and drove us back. I can definitely say Sarah was the life of the party that night with her dance moves and got her photo and video taken by/with the locals. There was a row of food being sold on the side of the road but the rules of the road were out the door with 3-4 lanes trying to find parking at the club leaving us stuck just outside the club for a long period of time. We got back to the camp and showered around 130-2AM and went to bed.

12/10/17

Another 5 hours in the truck to get to our next destination in South Africa.  We crossed the Botswana border to enter South Africa. Pretty quick and easy. The river divides the Botswana and South Africa but also two other countries.

South Africa info

-Population of 56 Billion

-South Africa is still under dictatorship.

-There are 11 official languages – 9 that are African

-SA in the Iron age was gold trading with China

• -In the 1400’s Europeans & Portuguese wanted to use Africa as a route to trade with China

-The Dutch came in the 1600’s in persecution.

-The French came down and brought wine and formed the African culture of wine

-The British came and colonized and pushed the Dutch inland in 1820s

-Union of South Africa Cape created the Orange free state and Transvaal where the Dutch inherited the apartheid with white segregation 50-70s

-Cape Town was the first to be explored.

-Johannesburg was a gold mining town and is the largest city in the world not sitting near water

-The Blacks, Indians and Chinese were categorized and segregated by race

-These ethnicities lives in the township of Soweto which meant South West township

-They were issued a dog pass that they had to use to get into the city with curfews and segregated in all walks of life (bathrooms, buses etc)

-Mixed race people would be put into prison as black and white weren’t allowed to procreate

-1976 massacre saw 176 students killed as students from the Soweto township protested against the Apartheid.

-In schools, students must learn Afrikaans languages.

-With the Soweto uprising – The English, Canadians and Australians shut down trading with South Africa

-Only by 1980’s the trading started again.

-In 1994, South Africa became a democracy and Nelson Mandela became the first president of South Africa.

-South Africa holds the Guinness World Records for having 2 Nobel peace prize awarded

-The population is comprised of 80% black and 20% white

-Gay marriage was put into law early on

-South Africa is slowly balancing it out with the government giving more incentive for Black owned companies

-The 1995 movie Invictus shows us how two South African men – Nelson Mandela & Francois Pienaar united a country using Soccer / Rugby.

-The South African flag features a sideways Y which represents people coming together – The rainbow nation.

-South Africa is the largest producers of platinum in the world. They also mine Chromium and Angston

-80% of the country is run on coal

-East coast cities like Durban have warm tropical beaches

-West coast cities have cold climate linked by deserts

-Cape Town rainy climate

-South Africa has so many different ecosystems within it’s country

-It has the 2nd largest population of Indian outside of india

-Unemployment is high

-The language of Afrikaans is a mix of Dutch, Belgian, German, French & Flemish

After 5 hours of travelling, we arrived in Polokwane, South Africa. We stopped by the mall for an hour lunch so the staff could go grocery shopping for the next few days. The girls and myself shared 4 pies from King Pie. NOTE – The bureau and alcohol stores are closed on Sundays. Unlike many places I’ve visited, it is very strange to be in a place where black and white people and some Indian are the norm however being an Asian person is a rarity. The staring is not subtle at all. We hopped back into the truck and stayed the night at Boma in the Bush. The camping property is quite large but no wifi and the bar is situated in the house of the owner. The water pressure for the showers was the best thus far of the trip.

It was my day to do cooking prep in the rotation. The sky started turning darker as we prepped and the temperature dropped significantly. Rain was coming. After prepping, we did a little bit of a yoga session lead by Lisa pre-dinner before it started to rain. We had free time and I honestly didn’t know what to do with myself. The girls ended up by the pool reading and catching up on their journaling and the rest were napping or at the bar.

For dinner, we had beef stroganoff and vegetables. The kitchen had covered grounds with a fridge and outlets so we just hung out there into the night as one by one we all went to shower. We ended up staying up until 11PM chatting away after dinner with Alberto about life and the tour itself and how expensive it was to fly out of Costa Rica.

There was a crazy amount of lightning and thunder overnight. The clothes I was regretting to have brought (long sleeves and pants) came in handy in that moment.