Hobbiton in South Africa?!?!

Heading to Hogsback this morning, I was nervous and excited. I felt a bit like I was going on a blind date with someone who my friends swore was my soulmate... What if he was? What if he wasn't? 

Hogsback is a small village nestled in the mountainside in the eastern cape of South Africa. Local urban legend has it that it is one of the places that inspired Middle Earth. Apparently Tolkien vacationed here with his parents as a child. And the town has taken this claim to heart. With guest houses named "Frodo's Rest" and even a place called "Hobbiton". But more than this, it also has an association with fairies and fantasy in general. With a garden walk called "the fairy realm" and a hostel called "Away with the fairies" and a pub called "the wizards sleeve". And besides all this, the place has world class hiking--including 8 hour hikes up mountain sides, and 3 different waterfalls within a days walk.... 

So those are the stakes. Clearly if I do not find this place to be the home of my heart...I am destined to be homeless. 

And the results.... 

As I was a bit afraid of...expectations this high always mean disappointment.... Don't get me wrong. It is beautiful and amazing and wonderful, and very hobbiton. It just wasn't quite as magical as I wanted. The hostel was cute, painted up with fairy murals, but it was also pretty worn/run down. The Wizards Sleeve...while having a cool name...was otherwise indistinguishable from any other backpacker bar i've been to in this country. The forest was beautiful, but again, not that different from the hiking in the Wilderness or in Ksnyna. I suppose I shouldn't pass complete judgment...apparently part of the "magic" of the place is the mist and fog that sets in around the foothills and the beautiful snow that sets in in the winter, and the way everything stays green in the summer despite everything else going brown. 

But I don't think I will have a chance to experience all of this. Rain is supposed to set in tomorrow, and I don't want to be stuck up on the mountainside through the storm. Especially given that I am running out of time. I have to be up in Joberg in a week. So I think its back to the bus for me. Next stop: Coffee Bay. A beach bum/surfing spot along the coast. A day or two laying around there, then onto Durban... 

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p.s. The sad news: I've lost my camera!! It sucks traveling without one. I feel like photo-documentation is my default thing to do when solo-traveling. And sadly, I had not gotten the chance to back up my pics. So all the pics from the last two weeks have been lost. And I don't have any way of capturing visual memories of Hogsback for you to see for yourselves. I haven't decided if I'm going to bother buying a new one. Less than 2 weeks of travel left. But I feel so naked without one. :/

update from the coast...

I'm going to make this brief because blogging on my kindle feels a bit like carding wool to make a sweater (way too much effort for something that doesn't look that great. Apologies for the lack of formatting). Just to update y'all, I'm alive an having a great time. Already feeling like I don't have enough time to do and see everything I want to. So far, after the conference in stellenbosch, I spent one day hanging around the wineries. I rented a bicycle and made it to a few places around town. The wine was good. The vineyards lovely, and my legs sore (apparently 'just down the road' means 5-6km). Then next day i took the train back to Capetown where I met up with my dear friend from undergrad, kalyan (who was in south Africa on business) and we took the train to Simon's town. There we drove down to the cape of good hope. Where we hiked up to the point where the Atlantic meets the Indian ocean. It was breathtaking and perfect. We saw wild ostriches. And baboons and even a rainbow!!! Then we stopped by boulders beach where a (flock?) Of African penguins live. We got to get right up close to them!!!! I spent one more day on that side of the bay. Then grabbed a bus down the south coast, toward what is known as the 'garden route '. First stop, today, was hermanus-apparently the only place on earth where you can go whalewatching from land!!! The southern right whales give birth and raise their calves in the bay so they get very close to the coast. Today I did the 10 km 'cliff walk' along the coast trying to spot them. I saw two (!!!) But honestly it was little more than a big splash. I wasn't close enough to see much more (and /or they didn't get very far out of the water) . But tomorrow I am going on a whalewatching boat. So hopefully I'll get more up close and personal. Speaking of which, I should sleep! Night for now!

i really cant stay....but baby its cold outside

Today was the last day of the conference and I was planning on packing up and heading back to cape town this afternoon. But instead I ended up being lazy and did what I have only done maybe 3 times in my last 8 years of backpacking...I spent the day staying in. No I'm not sick and /or dying. Which is usually the only viable excuse for staying in on a trip.. .maybe I'm just getting old...but it just didn't seem worth it to leave the hostel. It was freezing out and pouring rain so all outdoor activities were impossible. And I 'd managed to lose my jacket the night before. And I got a very late start on the day since I was out celebrating until 3am. And by the time I got into Capetown things would be starting to close and it would be getting dark. And everyone else in my dorm checked out so I actually have the place to myself-a rarity in these backpackers places. Its actually been a lovely lazy day. Eating my leftovers and drinking tea and catching up on my junk-novel reading (wholly shit Dan Brown is an awful writer. Is it just me, or has he gotten worse? Granted I haven't read him in like 8 years, but I swear his other books weren't as painful as this Lost Symbol bullshit). This is the first time i've backpacked during the winter and there are definitely some factors that I haven't had to deal with before. Obviously the cold -but more than that, the fact that so much gets canceled /called off because of the weather. Much of the backpackery stuff I enjoy is totally weather dependent. And while it sucks to get caught in the rain in the summer, in winter bad weather means places straight up close. It also never occurred to me how much less you get to do in a day. Most sightseeing is dependent on daylight. Right now daylight is only from about 8 am to 6 pm in south Africa. Which means a lot less sightseeing per day. And since its really not safe after dark, there's not much to do after sightseeing either. Also, my backpack is so much heavier /fuller with a sweater or two in it :( Anyway. Resting up today and back to backpacking tomorrow.

The Town of Capes

So, the bad new about Cape Town: I have yet to see any capes at all. With a name like that, this place should be crawling with superheroes, right? But no. None. Unless there are superheroes and capes have simply gone out of fashion. Either way, huge disappointment.

The good news: That's really the only disappointment I have so far. :p

In all seriousness, these first 24 hours have been absolutely awesome. I had one of the most painless international flights over ever. A window seat with NO ONE ELSE IN MY ROW!!  I got to lay down (yay being little!) had three pillows and blankets to myself, and got to binge on movies and red wine. :D

I got into Capetown pretty late, but found my way to a hostel and crashed. Today was absolutely beautiful, so I made the most of it (even though I was pretty dead on my feet from the jetlag) and spent the day strolling through the Company Gardens, the Capitol Bowl district and then took the cable car up to Table Mountain. I had called ahead, because the cable car doesn't always run in the winter depending on the weather, and the answering machine said that it was running but that the weather was "very cold". So, like the good little Michigander that I am becoming, I heard "very cold" and packed up a scarf, hat, gloves, hoody, hat, jacket.....yeah, it was like 69 degrees. Needless to say, I was carrying around armfuls of clothing, and at one point just piled it all on a rock because it was too hard to hike through some of the steep sections with all of it. Oh, South Africans. You don't know the meaning of the word 'cold'. And/or perhaps the word 'very'. But I am not complaining. Both Table Mountain and the weather were breathtaking. People around here are claiming that its one of the 7 wonders...but I don't know if that's true. Or which of the 7 wonders it is? Is it just me, or are there about 17 '7 wonders of the world' ? And in which case, wouldn't it be more fair to call it the 119 wonders? Anyway, it was beautiful. The day was clear and sunny, which apparently is a rarity at the mountain. And I spent a good 3 hours hiking and taking pictures right up till sunset.

Afterwards, I headed out to "Long St" the bar/restaurant district, where I had the best Ostrich burger EVER, and walked around for a bit before heading back to my hostel.

I am now going to crash because I have to....I mean *get to* go to my conference in the morning, which is going to require checking out of this hostel and catching a 1:30 hour train to Stellenbosch. I will be there through Saturday, staying at the Stumble Inn (best name for a small guesthouse in wine country ever).

After that, who knows, I really want to come back to Cape Town because one day just doesn't do it justice....but on the other...I've got a long way up the coast if I'm going to make my flight out of Jo'berg in a couple weeks.

p.s. My favorite thing about the language out here so far is the use of the phrase 'the lady'. Seriously, people have said this to me like 3-4 times today. "A check for the lady please" "And what would the lady like?" For some reason, it makes me giggle and feel both flattered and ridiculous. As if I am wearing a giant purple sunhat.    

testing testing....

Trying to figure out if I can blog from my kindle...

Hello Gumshoes

Hi all,

Sorry for the lack of posting. I have been (in some cases literally) running around so much on this trip that I have barely had a chance to sit down. Will have to fill you guys in when I'm back stateside.

As you may have guessed, I have been doing an in/extensive tour of Turkey. Basically, I tried to pack about 16 days worth of stuff into about 10 days. The result? Some of the most interesting sleeping arrangements I've encountered on a trip, and very little actual sleeping. Quick overview:

Sunday- Hopped an over-night bus to Cappadocia.

Monday- Got there at 9am, started a day tour at 9:30am. Went around and saw all the cool "Fairy Chimneys" (weird chimney looking rock formations caused by volcanic action back in the day). Spent the night in a fairy chimney cave!

Tuesday - Got up at 4am to catch a hot-air balloon ride over the fairy chimneys at sun rise. IT WAS AMAZING. I always wanted to go on a hot air balloon. Figured this was about the best place in the world for it. Ran around Cappadocia all day. Hopped another night bus.

Wenesday - Arrived at Olympos at 10am, after changing buses about 3 times, and long delays. Spent the day at the beach and hiking around the ruins. Did a night hike up to the top of Chimaera, the mountain that strangely holds fire! In ancient times, they believed there was a dragon-like creature inside (a Chimaera) and it was this endless flame that inspired our current Olympic torch (apparently, people used to light torches with the flame and then run races down the hill). Spent the night in a treehouse! (Olympos is famous for its tree houses).

Thurs- Got on a boat! Was a bit hesitant about a 4 day boat trip (which could be torture if the boat was awful). But the booking agent talked me into it. And I have to admit, it was pretty awesome. The 'blue cruise' as its known around Turkey, is a standard trip around the south coast, stopping at lots of famous places like the sunken city, Kas, and the beach from 'blue lagoon'. Some of these places are only accessible by boat, so it was kinda cool. Although "cruise" is a bit of a stretch. A quite compact little yacht, most of the 16 of us preferred sleeping on deck to sleeping in the tiny cabinet-cabins below.

Fri-Sat - Slept on a boat! Star gazing on the deck was really pretty magical.

Sun - Got off the boat at Fethiye. Got a bus to Pamukkale. Spent the night in A REAL BED!

Mon- Spent the day doing a whirl wind tour of the famous ruins and pools of Pamukkale. There was actually water in the pools when I was there, which is apparently not always the case. Got a bus to Selcuk. Another night in a real bed!

Tues - Ran around the AMAZING ruins of Ephesus and then the once-incredible Artemis temple (one of the wonders of the ancient world!). Hopped a night bus to Eceabat.

Wednes - Got there at about 7:45am. Hopped a ferry to Troy at 8am. Spent the day among the ruins and hopped a bus back to Istanbul. Where I met up with my Best-Roomie-Ever (Wendy, my roommate in Singapore had just got into Turkey hours before). Was planning on spending the night at the airport, but ended up catching a few hours sleep on Wendy's friend's couch.

Thurs- woke up at 4am and miraculously caught my plane into Albania. Still a bit impressed/surprised that I pulled off running to all those cities and making it back in time. Not that there weren't glitches along the way. In fact, I think more may have gone wrong on this trip then with any other. But thats a story for a different post. Besides, alls well that ends well.

In my final travel-clue, I will tell you that I will be bumming around Albania for the next week or so, before crossing into the country named after its 'black mountains'. A few days there, then a flight back to Istanbul on Aug 2nd, and a flight to the Capital of the USA on Aug 3rd.

Over and out!

Where ın the world..

Fınally got my plans set and head out tomorrow. You're clues ın case you wanted to hunt me down lıke Carmen San Dıego...

Tomorrow I head to the land of Faıry Chimenys (I know!!!!). I plan on flyıng around among the chımenys for a couple days before I head down to see the great flame that ınspıred one of the most celebrated sports events ın the world (whıle lıvıng among the treetops!). Not to mentıon the home of the goddess of the moon. From there, I wıll be wonderıng among sunken cıtıes away from land before headıng north to see one of the 7 wonders of the ancıent world. From there, ıts off to see the place that bore the face that launched a thousand shıps before headıng back to Istanbul on the 20th.

Wısh me luck!