Bungee Jumping

The Bloukrans Bridge in South Africa is the perfect place to jump down. With 216m it was once the highest commercial Bungee Jump in the world, and still is the highest from a brigde. Africa probably isn't quiet the place to put your trust in local safety standards, and I was quiet surprised at the lax fit of the harness (compared to NZ) and that they let me jump barefeet. A few years ago at the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe the rope snaped and an Australian girl fell into the Zambezi River. She was lucky and just broke her collarbone. There are various versions told, but it is said that after that incident the president jumped, to give back faith and boost tourism :) For the country of Zimbabwe it had been better if the rope had snapped again with low water level. Here never an accident happened and although I have done it before in New Zealand, I couldn't resist, with just around 50€ it's a bargain. Also, this one is a lot higher and you fly for a long long time, feels pretty awesome!

Kingfisher

My first MTB race! More information here:

https://www.facebook.com/KingfisherMTB/timeline

http://www.kingfisherchallenge.co.za/sample-page

Snakes

Although I sleep almost every night in the bush I haven't come across many snakes. Mostly you see them on the road, just crossing quickly or run flat by a car. They sense you long before you come even close and usually move. An exception is the highly poisonous puff adder, which isn't aggressive at all but lies in ambush and would bite if stepped on. Out in the bush, on a bicycle with no mobile phone, you're in trouble! Sit down and hope it was a dry bite, chances ain't too bad, about 50/50 ;) Next pictures were taken at the Lawnwood Snake Sanctuary near Plettenberg Bay.

... and back to South Africa

Leaving the county was the easy part, reenter the more difficult. It's not allowed just to get in and out for a new visa, and it's tightly controlled. But I must get back to SA, I ain't no finished with this country yet. There still some things and people I want to see, also l stored some stuff in Capetown and it's much cheaper to flight back to Europe. Luckily I am the owner of two passports, the immigration officer can skim through my documents as often as he likes he won't find any sign of a previous visit. To distract him I start telling about where I come from, riding my bike all through Africa to come to his county. That usually makes a huge impression and often I have to repeat myself because they can't believe it. It's a nice problem solver...

Welcome back to South Africa, my third and for this time last visit to this beautiful country. It was a great relief to successfully cross the border and  riding again on these roads made me feel somehow like coming back home.

Short excursion to Swaziland...

Actually there wasn't really much attracting me to go to Swaziland, this little kingdom between South Africa and Mocambique. I heard it's full of sugarcane. But after I failed to get my visa renewed at the little border post when I came back from Lesotho I had to leave South Africa. Because I already overdued my time I choosed a remote border, hoping they ain't got to sophisticated computers. 

They got. And after the officer scanned my passport I can see a message pop up on the screen causing some confusion. He looks down at the expired stamps, can't figure it out and asks me where I entered the country? Lesotho - Sani pass, I reply. I guess I wasn't registered back into the system and now he don't know what to do. But he does the right thing and just stamps me out :)

Drakensberg

Back in South Africa. Crossed the border at Sani Pass, a long and windy descent down the Drakensberg Mountain Range. The last weeks have been strenuous riding and I'm happy to have here a place to stay and rest. Also, it's a great opportunity to see the Drakensberg area (which is really stunning and a World Heritage Site), and Willie, my namesake and host, whom I met when I was in Capetown, recommend me a beautiful hike up the mountains.

Funny White Man

What is he doing there? When I start to cook I can be certain to have the full attention. Every step, from fireing my multifuel stove, to pouring water from my water bag into the pot, getting my pocket knive out to cut some veggies, to finally throw the pasta in, is accompanied by hushes and laughter. If you then get your camera out and take some pictures, and show them around, you make everybody happy. Camping in a village can be very tiresome, but also very funny :)

Backcountryroads

The infrastructure of the country is upgraded rapidly and the Chinese are busy improving the dirt roads to pavement standard. To see the very best of Lesotho, means the remote and therefore truly unspoiled areas I had to look a bit closer through a number of maps and found some old dirt tracks, marked as "Extreme 4x4". That sounded pretty good and I was looking forward for some rough terrain. What I then came upon I hadn't expected at all, the road was totally fallen apart, massive rocks blocking the way, big drops and river crossings where I had to carry my bike over. At some points the vegetation was so much grown over I had to search for the track to continue, riding on at some single footpaths along the riverbank. No surprise I didn't come across any vehicles (just donkeys and horses, the best and only way of transport up here), the road is definitely inaccessible these days. For me, it was one of the best riding experience on my whole trip!

Katse Dam

Lesotho isn't very developed yet, most of the people are farmer and still just live of what they get from their land. There are a few Diamont mines but virtual no industrie. The biggest ressource is water, which is collected in huge dams and sold to South Africa. The biggest is the Katse dam and the construction of a new dam is about to start. 

Lesotho - Mountain Kingdom

The little country about the size of Belgium is completly surrounded by South Africa and 80% of the country lies above 1800m. Thus the name "The Kingdom in the Sky", as it is also called.  The mountain scenery is awesome, deep canyons cut through the landscape with tiny villages settled at the foothills. It all seems so quite and peaceful and in harmony with nature, green fields of gras and crops are cut into the mountain slopes with no fences spoiling the view.

In South Africa I didn't had much contact with the African people. Because of the Apartheid the relation between the Blacks and Whites isn't very good and for the first time in Africa sometimes when I entered a village I didn't felt welcome. That's very different now in Lesotho, here you got greeted with a big smile and everybody want s to know where you from and going to. Kids are all around asking for some sweets, sometimes even saying "please". And much unlike Ethiopia, no stones are flying if you don't follow their request!