Radical Sabbatical

I think I’m done with the cornball titles after this.

The last stretch in South Africa was a whirlwind. I grew a bit restless with the lack of swell, so I blazed through the final few things I wanted to do. I checked out Durban, the Drakensberg, and the animals in less than a week. It was a lot of driving and frantic planning without much internet or sleep.

Durban

My stay in Durban was criminally short. I honestly don’t have much to say about it other than I liked the vibe and the warm water. If there had been any swell on the horizon I would’ve stuck it out because I’d really like to get New Pier good, but it wasn’t meant to be this trip.

Durban has a big Indian population, and the Indian food is insanely good. Get a bunny chow if you go.

Drakensberg

I said goodbye to the unusually placid ocean to check out some inland beauty. On the northeastern border of Lesotho is the Drakensberg, which is the most dramatic escarpment of the Southern African plateau. I went to Royal Natal national park and did a few hikes.

The Animals

I was grasping at packets of internet trying to figure out how to see the animals. Multiple people told me that Kruger is overcrowded and a little overrated. It was also many hours out of the way so I decided to give it a miss. I found a private game reserve that was more along my route to Johannesburg. Any further planning was foiled by flaky connectivity, so I decided to just drive up to the reserve hoping maybe I’d find some animals or at least meet someone who could show me them.

Turns out that the game reserve, an area deliberately chocked full of dangerous animals, actually has a guarded gate. Who’d have thought? I tried to sweet talk my way past the guard, assuring him that I had a reservation with one of the reserve’s lodges. He called several of them and found no such reservation. I was eventually able to gain admittance with a mixture of feigned confusion and confidence, but mostly because one of the lodges happened to have vacancy that night. And I was just in time for the afternoon game drive. Chalk one up for the internet-starved sleep-deprived good guys.

My lifelong relationship with these animals has gone like this:

1. Learn about them when I was 8 or whenever you learn about such things

2. Slowly forget about their existence over 20 or so years

3. Lie my way into a game reserve

4. Experience childlike wonder as I’m reminded of each animal one by one. “Oh that’s right, zebras exist. Holy shit, giraffes! Is that a warthog??”

It was amazing, any cynicism I had about the reserve essentially being a stocked pond quickly subsided. I was bummed when the sun went down and we had to head in.

The lodge itself was pretty luxurious, which apparently is the expectation at these game reserves. I was staying in one of the ‘luxury tents’ and during the day it did seem pretty nice: Once night fell, it was a different story. There must not have been a perfect seal in the tent because I’ve never seen so many bugs ‘indoors’ in my life. After clearing an adequate portion of the bed from a smorgasbord of exotic bugs, I was able to pass out. I woke up in the middle of the night to a smack in the face. I looked up and saw a bat circling a foot or two above my head. I resorted to the old sheets over the head trick and cowered myself back to sleep. I was awoken sometime later to a loud thud. I didn’t care to investigate at the time, but come morning I realized the bat had met its demise at the blade of the ceiling fan.

I left the bat carcass behind and went to the sunrise game drive. We barely got started before being confronted by this guy: These dudes anxiously watched the lion. Or maybe they’re just upset they forgot their cameras.

To Johannesburg and Beyond

After the morning game drive, I used some of that sweet speedy wifi at the lodge to book my ticket out of the country. After considering going to the Philippines to chase an upcoming swell, I ultimately decided it would be too difficult to get to the necessary island in time for the swell. I went ahead with my original plan and booked my ticket to Indonesia.

I made the final drive to Johannesburg, did my laundry, and burned the shit out of my mouth on my last bunny chow. The next morning it was off to the airport.

Shoutout to the Ford Figo. This baby took several thousand kilometers and tens of potholes in stride:

So, what about the sharks?

Now that I’ve made it out of the country with all my limbs and an acceptable amount of epidermis, I think it’s time to address the shark thing. People lovveeee talking about sharks. And asking you if you’re afraid of sharks. And reminding you that sharks exist as you go to paddle out. I think the ranking of most compelling topics to humans goes:

1. romantic relationships

2. sharks

• other stuff

So no, I didn’t see any sharks the whole time. I didn’t even hear of any nearby sightings. I don’t think I even saw a seal. I’d be lying if I said I never thought about them, but honestly I think Cape Cod in the summer these days is probably a bigger risk than most of the spots I surfed. But who’s to say.

South Africa: The Good, The Rad and the Ugly

South Africa is super rad. There’s good surf, it’s surprisingly cheap, and it’s naturally beautiful in a variety of different ways. I met a lot of friendly and helpful people.

But there are definitely problems that I’d be remiss not to mention. The country is clearly still reeling from apartheid. There’s a lot of crime due to the big wealth inequality. There’s definitely racial tension.

With that said, I highly recommend checking out the country if you get a chance. It should be a lot easier for Americans now as I believe a JFK -> Cape Town direct flight just started. I definitely plan on going back some day.

Music Rec

Heart Emoji by Richard Dawson