We got up at 2:30am all excited to be doing a balloon ride over a game reserve, but alas it was cancelled when we got there, turns out balloons don't do so well when there are high winds. Just before we arrived at the balloon launch site we were on a very dark road as it was just before 4am, there was a car parked ahead of us with its high beam on which was shining directly into my eyes. As a result I went over a speed hump the size of Kili at about 80Kph, let say it was a pretty bumpy landing and I thought I'd blown all 4 tyres. We were grateful we hadn't and were now relieved we had also taken the $2.50 tyre & rim insurance. So given it was 4am and still very dark we turned around and headed back to the hotel to get some sleep.
Now the thing about driving in South Africa is that it truly is only for the extremely brave, the adrenaline junkies or simply the very fool hardy. I now think that I fit into all 3 categories. As an example we were doing 120Klm's an hour (the speed limit) and were overtaken by cars which made us look like we were standing still.
South Africa also has 4 way stop signs, (which I don't quite get) but it appears to be a case of first there, first to leave. Even if you're turning right, if you get to the stop sign first everyone else has to wait for you to turn, very unnerving. Stop signs are only sign posted once... at the intersection!!! So you can imagine how many I went though before I realised and then how many times I had to throw out the anchor in order to stop in time.
Traffic lights are another interesting concept, most of them don't work so the "Stop Sign " rules apply. At most of the major traffic lights on the outskirts of Sandton there are hawkers selling pretty much everything from sunglasses to mobile phone chargers. They walk between the rows of banked up traffic offering their wares, it's a hard way to make a living, but at least they are trying.
After our nap we headed to the Johannesburg Harley shop, now as far as Harley shops go, this a really great shop. The Hog Chapter have their own bar and dining room above the shop. We met Linda from the Chapter and got a Jo'burg Chapter pin, she was kind enough to invite us to their end of year function but we had already booked the Lesidi Cultural Village tour.
We left Sandton and headed out to the Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve, this was another one of those interesting and scary drives. Firstly let me say at times very high speed at other times we could have crawled backwards faster. But the most important thing to know was according to the navigator, it was Tom Tom's fault. You see after a very long white knuckle drive we "reached our destination", which looked more like a dead end street at the very end of a township. Lisa didn't want to film us driving down this dead end road out of fear, I felt safe amongst my brothers, they were pretty busy carrying stereos and the like. To leave the area I had to do a 20 point turn and head back to where we started from, needless to say the navigator owes the driver big time.
After the scenic tour was over we did end up at the Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve with the aid of Tom Tom and my programming skills...The Rhino & Lion Reserve is a very cool place, you get to drive your own vehicle around with the animals wandering very close by. There was a rhino mum & calf leisurely walking along side the road not more than 5 meters away from us, then they crossed the road just in front of us. You will all be pleased to know the rhino's were on Lisa's side so I was safe.
Next stop the Kimba the White Lion enclosure, (the enclosures are like massive paddocks with reinforced 2.5 meter high fences) in side this enclosure was a pride of about 10 white lions feeding. We got as close as the rules and the dirt road would allow which was about 25 meters, they are impressive and big. We then tried to see the cheetahs but they were hiding in their little shade shelters, I can't say I blame them, it was reasonably warm in the afternoon sun. Unfortunately the Lion cub interaction area was packed so it would have taken hours to get up close and personal with them, but right next to the cub interaction area was a great picnic and barbeque area. Worth a return trip.
The last stop for the day was the Lesidi Cultural Village experience, just let me say a big thanks to Mork (otherwise known as MC or Mark Carrick) it was brilliant. They have basically setup a interactive experience with all 5 of the tribes represented, you are given a brief history of each tribe and how they fitted into the South African landscape. You then walk around the replica villages and see how each tribes village was setup, for example the Zulu's and other warrior tribes would keep their cattle in the centre of the village so they could be protected from invaders. The peace loving tribes would have their cattle in a pen outside the village so that the invaders would just take the cattle and not kill them. So the deal is that if you come across a village and they have the cattle in a pen inside the village and you wanted to raid them, you had better prepare for a fight. If the cattle pen is outside the village you can pretty much just go and take them without much of a fuss.
Fun Facts we learnt at the Lesidi Cultural Village :-
Lesidi means "light" and the Cultural Centre was named because of a tribal king who hid his people in the mountains when the Zulu's were coming to raid his village, when the Zulu's saw they were in the hills they charged up the hill where the king got his men to roll boulders down at them. The Zulu's failed to kill any of the hill's tribe and in the morning the king greeted the sun by saying thank you for the light.
The doors are deliberately made really low for two reasons
1: To show respect for the people inside you are forced to bow your head.
2: If the enemy came in you could lop off their heads whilst they were looking down.
The women would sit / sleep on the right hand side, men to the left hand side of the huts. Your probably wondering why round about now, well it's really simple this was because the doors open inwards to the right and so if the hut was attacked the door would shield the women and then men could better protect the women.
As it turns out women are very very valuable in South Africa, each one is worth between 10 - 13 cows. Paid by the groom to his father in law as the dowry, each cow is worth 10,000 Rand, approximately $990.
South African Tradition mandates that you can never raise a weapon against a women. this is important because one of the tribes was defeated by the British and Scottish Army. The story goes that the British had the Scottish soldiers out front wearing kilts and the warriors thought that they were women because of the kilts and therefore would not fight them, as a result they were defeated. Now that tribe wears kilts to remind them of the trickery which caused their defeat.We then had a traditional dancing show by the 5 tribes, hard to describe but very energetic and entertaining. The Zulu's kicked off the dancing and right at the end of each male performers dance he would fall down, when the first dancer fell down we thought it was an accident. Turns out we were horribly wrong, it was all part of the performance, the falling down represented the Zulu warrior being struck down by his enemy in battle. Later in the show the Zulu women came out and did the most amazing high octane dance performance I've ever seen, lots of high leg kicks and even a couple of forward and backwards rolls. The big finale ended with the Zulu warriors falling down and the women standing over them, I can hear you saying that's kind of strange...at least that's what I was thinking!!! But alas the host explained it for us, remember the rule about never raising a weapon to a women. As it turns out the women were being quite clever, because they were covering their wounded warrior the enemy could not kill them because the women were protecting them. Like I said very clever!!!, now I know I can legitimately use Lisa as a human shield.
We then had a great dinner and the whole Lesedi Village Cultural experience cost us about $40 each, bargain.
Because we had an early start back out this way the next day we decided to do a recce to the Ann van Dyke Cheetah Park, primarily because finding places in this region is hard work. We found it after a bit of work with the help of Tom Tom, but what we didn't anticipate was the incredibly scary drive back, in fact I was more concerned driving back to the hotel than I was when we took the scenic route to the Rhino & Lion Reserve via the township. (no I haven't let go of that yet) The roads were barely wide enough to keep all the wheels on what would loosely be described as a bitumen road, potholes the size of the Great Rift Valley. (I'm going with the African metaphors) No street lights, high risk high jacking zones (yes that's right high risk jacking zones) ohh and don't forget the "Surprise" in zero meters its a 4 way stop sign. White knuckle edge of your seat adventure, you bet!!!
As it turns out women are very very valuable in South Africa, each one is worth between 10 - 13 cows. Paid by the groom to his father in law as the dowry, each cow is worth 10,000 Rand, approximately $990.
South African Tradition mandates that you can never raise a weapon against a women. this is important because one of the tribes was defeated by the British and Scottish Army. The story goes that the British had the Scottish soldiers out front wearing kilts and the warriors thought that they were women because of the kilts and therefore would not fight them, as a result they were defeated. Now that tribe wears kilts to remind them of the trickery which caused their defeat.We then had a traditional dancing show by the 5 tribes, hard to describe but very energetic and entertaining. The Zulu's kicked off the dancing and right at the end of each male performers dance he would fall down, when the first dancer fell down we thought it was an accident. Turns out we were horribly wrong, it was all part of the performance, the falling down represented the Zulu warrior being struck down by his enemy in battle. Later in the show the Zulu women came out and did the most amazing high octane dance performance I've ever seen, lots of high leg kicks and even a couple of forward and backwards rolls. The big finale ended with the Zulu warriors falling down and the women standing over them, I can hear you saying that's kind of strange...at least that's what I was thinking!!! But alas the host explained it for us, remember the rule about never raising a weapon to a women. As it turns out the women were being quite clever, because they were covering their wounded warrior the enemy could not kill them because the women were protecting them. Like I said very clever!!!, now I know I can legitimately use Lisa as a human shield.
We then had a great dinner and the whole Lesedi Village Cultural experience cost us about $40 each, bargain.
Because we had an early start back out this way the next day we decided to do a recce to the Ann van Dyke Cheetah Park, primarily because finding places in this region is hard work. We found it after a bit of work with the help of Tom Tom, but what we didn't anticipate was the incredibly scary drive back, in fact I was more concerned driving back to the hotel than I was when we took the scenic route to the Rhino & Lion Reserve via the township. (no I haven't let go of that yet) The roads were barely wide enough to keep all the wheels on what would loosely be described as a bitumen road, potholes the size of the Great Rift Valley. (I'm going with the African metaphors) No street lights, high risk high jacking zones (yes that's right high risk jacking zones) ohh and don't forget the "Surprise" in zero meters its a 4 way stop sign. White knuckle edge of your seat adventure, you bet!!!
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