Lank. Enormous. South Africa.

“We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden.” -Goethe

Last month, I went on my longest international vacation to date. For three weeks, I toured the countries of South Africa and Lesotho, the only nation in the world completely bordered by one other country. From villages to cities, mountains to beaches, an elephant orphanage to a penguin colony, surprises and adventure lurked around every bend in the road. A big chunk of this incredible journey involved renting a car and driving over 1,000 miles along the southern tip of Africa, starting with sunrises over the Indian Ocean in Durban and sunsets over the Atlantic in Cape Town.

My journey began in Johannesburg to visit my fabulous friend Michal, who I first met when she showed up at my going away party in LA before I left for Botswana. She was presenting some of her Master’s research at a conference at UCLA where she met another friend who brought her to my party. Her mesmerizing energy told me I had to stay in touch with her, and I’m so glad I did.

The other good reason to go to Joberg was their 20th annual gay pride festival, which we went to with a couple other Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs). An estimated 14,000 people attended the day-long festival. It felt good to be in an open an accepting environment for the first time in far too long and to dance to great music all day, surrounded by quality and creative people.

After several days of exploring Joberg with Michal, and falling in love with her parts of the city, James (another PCV) and I began our trek to Lesotho to visit Darrin, a PCV near the capital. After waiting for over three hours for the khombi (minibus) to fill up in the Joberg bus rank, our 6-hour journey in a packed bus to Lesotho commenced.

Darrin and I had never met in person. We’ve emailed a lot since I came to Botswana because he’s doing a lot of educational work and research with the MSM (men who have sex with men) in Lesotho that’s quite similar to the LGBT education work I help with in Botswana. He showed us many parts of his region of the country, and we also spent some time with his friend, Allison, also a PCV. We learned from them that the PCVs in Lesotho have one of the highest satisfaction ratings in the world, in part I believe to how beautiful the country is. Aside from the Okavango Delta region, stepping from Botswana into Lesotho is like a cinematic shift from black and white to technicolor.

We did two long hikes through the mountains during our few days in Lesotho. The first was up Thaba Bosiu, the mountain that is fabled to grow at night, which is how the Basotho claim the war against the Boers was won. The views from the plateaus were like an omnimax experience of Impressionist paintings.

The second few-hour hike was part of a long search for some elusive caves in the mountains. After three different khombis from the capital, our search continued with little direction. This is where the locals proved to be incredibly helpful as we embarked on an Indiana Jones scavenger hunt from a colorful dream.

We were directed to the top of a hill where a woman in a bright blue sarong called us over to her home, then to a donkey tied to the edge of a cliff where we saw the steep climb we had to make to a mysterious hut in the middle of nothingness. At the bottom of the hill we were directed east past a woman in a bright red top to find some stone steps. After some befuddlement, a man in a toga and some small children pointed to the stairs. At the bottom of these stone steps, we found the elusive caves.

At 6am on that Friday morning, I boarded a khombi to go to the northern border and find the khombi to Durban. James began his return trip back to Botswana, so this part of the journey was on my own. Since I take khombis home from the office on most days, I’m accustomed to the African practice of waiting for a vehicle to fill up before it goes anywhere. What I didn’t anticipate was that I would sit in a mostly empty khombi on the Lesotho/South Africa border for almost 6 hours before it finally left.

The khombi ride itself was at least incredibly scenic.

Before we departed from the border, mostly content with reading Maya Angelou while I waited, I was less impatient with the lingering than I was with the fact that a very special person was waiting for me in Durban.

In August, after I had finished planning most of my trip, still unsure of whether I would do most of it alone or with others, I tried to think of someone impulsive and free enough to meet me in South Africa on a whim. It didn’t take long for Michael to come to mind.

An incredibly unique and beautiful human being unlike anyone I’ve ever met, Michael is difficult to describe. A creative and adventurous spirit, a playful soul, an active and engaged mind and a generous heart make up this intelligent and joyful individual who actually said yes to spending 2 and a half impromptu weeks with me in Southern Africa.

Michael walked into my life via a beach on the North Shore of Oahu a month before I left for Peace Corps. As I was meditating at sunset, alone, on this deserted beach, his entrance into my life was like a fantastical dream. After he easily persuaded me to spend more time on the beach that evening than I had anticipated and after convincing him to have dinner with me, we spent an incredibly memorable two days together exploring Oahu and his home of Hawai’i.

As we said good bye to each other in Hawai’i, he said “I told my Mom today that I met someone who restored my faith in humanity.” Michael left a quick and lasting impression on me, and I knew our time together was far from over.

Our communication over the following year and a half was spotty at best, until he sent me an email with the subject line “Start digging!” He reminded me of the fact that if one were to dig a hole straight through the center of the earth from the Okavango Delta, where my village is located, Hawai’i would be found directly on the other end. The serendipitous moments continued after he flew, literally, half-way around the world to meet me.

When I arrived in Durban late that night, I was still in partial disbelief that he was actually coming until I saw him at the lodge. We spent a day and a half catching up and wandering around this industrial city that I didn’t care too much for. The company more than made up for what the city lacked. After a bit of credit card drama and reservation issues, we got our rental car and began our road trip via the coastal roads along the tip of the continent.

Our first stop, after several hundred miles of small villages, hills and vistas, was Coffee Bay. The weather was rainy and cloudy, but the beaches were still fun to explore:

The next couple legs of our drive led us to several fun animal encounters, including a bird sanctuary where Michael got on his animal mojo…

…a monkey sanctuary with over 300 species of monkeys, including Madagascar’s infamous ring-tailed lemur…

…and an elephant sanctuary for orphaned elephants where we had the opportunity to feed, ride, brush and walk with the elephants.

We stayed in Plettenburg Bay for a couple of nights, which was super posh, beautiful beaches and nice restaurants.

While in Plettenburg, we went sea kayaking for several hours, in hopes of seeing some whales and/or dolphins. We didn’t see anything, but had an awesome time out on the water. On the way back to shore, we successfully caught a small gnarly wave that knocked our kayak over, drenching us both, a fun ending to an otherwise calm morning.

On our way to Cape Town that day, we stopped in Hermanus, which is referred to as the whale capital of South Africa because Southern Right Whales can often be seen on the shore. We weren’t exactly sure where to go, so we just drove through the town until we found a parking lot with a nice overlook near the beach. As luck would have it, the very moment we got out of the car, we saw a right whale, probably about 50ft. long, breach out of the water. It was out-of-this world, majestic, and my camera wasn’t ready for it. The image, however, is burned in my memory.

Moments later, we saw several other whales playing in the water. I didn’t get any good pictures, though. The only thing I could capture was this blurry take of the backs of a mother and calf cruising along the coastline.

Once in Cape Town, we had the nicest lodging I’ve stayed in for a long time, and at an inexpensive price. Then again, Peace Corps has greatly lowered my standards. A comfortable bed, nice sheets, a hot shower with a reliable water source, a TV with CNN or BBC, and the ability to control the temperature of the room is my current definition of luxury. The Village Lodge, complete with an extensive breakfast spread of breads, cheeses and fruit, an excellent Thai restaurant in the front and a rooftop pool exceeded luxury for me.

For the following 5 days in Cape Town, we explored the city as I soaked up, and at times was overwhelmed by, this little slice of the developed world replete with options.

On a tour of 2 of the wineries in the area, we samples 9 different wines.

On a day-trip to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was held for 27 years during apartheid, we had a tour of the island and an emotionally intense tour of the prison by a former political prisoner.

The island also provides a great view of Table Mountain, where we spent 5 hours on the following day taking exhausting, yet incredibly scenic, hikes all over the mountains.

Our Cape Town excursions ended with a sunset visit to a penguin colony at Boulder Beach on the southeastern part of the peninsula where over 3,000 penguins reside.

Michael took a flight back to Botswana with me to spend a few days in my village and take a quick camping trip in the Delta. That first day back in the country and back in the office was probably the most emotional and most difficult one I’ve had thus far, but it only took a couple of days after Michael left for things to begin to feel “normal” again.

At risk of sounding cliché, it was one of the most memorable and meaningful vacations I’ve ever had, mostly due to how much I needed it.

From the beaches of South Africa back to Botswana’s Okavango Delta, the sun sets on another adventurous chapter.

To peruse a map of this journey, click below.


View South Africa in a larger map

For the full photo album of this trip, with some additional pictures from my last trip through Joberg, click below.