My Suitcase. My Home.

When I was still a wee youngster growing up in Newfoundland, I had big dreams about lots of things that I wanted to achieve in life. For the most part they were silly dreams that I grew out of, like wanting to marry Tiger Woods (dodged a bullet there), becoming a professional stunt driver, playing Olympic volleyball or pitching a baseball to Joe Carter. One thing I did NOT dream about was being a famous, touring musician, and yet in a weird way I’m starting to feel that an unrealized dream has come true. And in South Africa no less.

From October 12 – November 15 I lived the life of a Rockstar (minus the drugs and loose men). I lived and worked out of my suitcase, pulling 12-16 hour days and passing in and out of so many hotel rooms that I’m no longer excited about the little soaps. My days were spent driving, sending emails from the car and promoting SEA Pledge. I met countless sailors, divers, anglers, surfers, lifesavers and shark experts. In every town there were at least a few gems who made me re-think my travel plans for Christmas. I feel that I have reached the rank of travelling biologist, which is something I’m sure everyone aspires to.

You can imagine that the stress of travelling and working for that long would get to anyone, and there’s no hiding it – I was frustrated at times. But the good moments far outweighed the bad, and now I can fill three suitcases with stories from my adventure. 

Sometimes it's hard to find a bathroom in the Eastern Cape

Although I’ve seen my share of restaurants along the way, I’m also learning the ways of the South African fruit vendor. The small queen pineapples are the best I’ve ever tasted and there is an abundance of guilt-free bananas everywhere. I’m also slowly becoming a fan of biltong and rusks, and cannot omit from this post the saga of the Crunchies. 

Crunchies are delicious oatmeal and sesame seed bars that our supervisor’s lovely and amazing wife made us before we left Grahamstown. Although we were not supposed to touch them until we were officially ‘on the road’ I made an attempt to sneak one after everyone had left the room one hungry evening, and got caught red-handed in my heinous act. I couldn’t help it. I had worked a long day with few snacks in between and if you know me at all you know I’m not good to be around on an empty stomach. After my little indiscretion the Crunchies had to be monitored. They went on the road as a high security item and I was to be watched. In my sneakyness however, I somehow found a way to sit alone with them in the backseat once or twice. Below is a pictorial description of what happened next… 

Nelson Mandela was also a very important travelling companion of mine during the road trip, in the form of his autobiography, The Long Walk To Freedom. I am amazed that I was never urged to read this book before. This is a great book to read if you ever find yourself complaining about the hardships of your own life and  need a reminder of how lucky you are. Even if you don’t need a reminder it’s just a juicy read. The entire thing, from his childhood in the Transkei to his reign as South Africa’s superhero freedom fighter is a monument of human strength and resilience. I’m not trying to sound like a book critic here, but I cannot stress how important it is that everyone read this book and learn more about South African history. There are even messages in there that us sheltered Canadians can benefit from. 

Groggy view from the backseat

Of course it was only too fitting to be travelling around the country with this man of such historical significance in my bag. We passed  the places he spoke of while I was reading about them, and when I first saw Robben Island in the distance I was reading about how horrible his life was for the first few years he was imprisoned there. It was definitely a humbling way to travel.

Sometimes we would get a chance to see some wildlife and the stop in Hermanus was particularly nice for that. We took a stroll down the main boardwalk of the town one evening and watched a few southern right whales playing around close to shore. Hermanus is known for very good shore-based whale watching and it was great to tick another ‘life whale’ off my list (you're welcome whale people). I had seen zero southern right whales before this and only one northern right whale, but in my experience whale watching never gets old. You still feel like a kid watching someone pull off their thumb. How do they do that?

Beautiful Hermanus

Besides the whales in Hermanus there are smaller and less well-known critters hanging around the shore. These rock hyraxes are the closest genetic relatives to elephants and sirenians (manatees and dugongs). They were more interested in the contents of the garbage bins than they were in the whales or me. There were probably ten or more of them hanging around the area and I would imagine that people think of them as sort of a nuisance. They struck me as the raccoon of the southern hemisphere. 

Looks kind of like an elephant.....

Now that I'm back in Grahamstown and reflecting on all that happened on the road, it seems like all my stories would take pages and pages to explain and write out. Maybe that's where the saying 'what happens on the road stays on the road' comes from - they weren't naughty, they just didn't have the energy to go into detail. I'm sure one day when I'm old I'll look back on this as one of the best road trips of my life, but right now I'm still trying to digest it all and decide which places to visit again. It's going to be a hard one.

Mountains on the way to Cape Town

House in Pringle Bay

Why did the Egyptian Goose cross the road?

Don't worry mom, this is my new mantra

The Lion's Head in Cape Town

I like to walk on the wild side

Royal Cape Yacht Club at dusk. So many masts!

These chips were moreish...I ate the whole bag

Unknown bird that flirted with me for a while

A couple of baboons

Mossel Bay

Hopefully after all that you can see why there was such a long pause between posts. I won't keep you waiting as long for the next one.

Jill