My trip to Africa (6 months later)....

[peachy]

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Peachy, this trip sounds like it was amazing. I've always wanted to visit South Africa as I have a few relatives there.

Can you share some photos of the Zulu battlegrounds please?

Also, how did you handle security when travelling by yourself? Did you rely on rented tour guides to escort you around when travelling into more sketchy parts (which seems to be everywhere based on my understanding)?

Do you have any insight into the political climate in Zimbabwe. Do they generally welcome rich white tourists because of the money they spend, or do they appear to distrust white people in general as evidenced by their racist land reforms of the late nineties?
What kind of attitude do you feel is exhibited to these nations former colonists, the UK, do they tend to respect traditional European customs, or are they searching for an identity of their own.

Also, did you see any Rhodesian Ridgebacks (they're dogs)?

Thanks

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I really didn’t handle security per say. I just kinda used general “street smarts” – I didn’t go places alone, I didn’t take valuables, I didn’t APPEAR scared, I usually had guys with me, I used the same taxi driver everywhere I needed to go, I always left a note as to where I was, I had a South African cell phone during the trip. Sadly, I wasn’t as concerned as most people were, but this comes from spending a summer in Central American in dangerous places in Guatemala, etc. So I was somewhat prepared to act safely. On a few of the weekend trips we were in larger groups of about 40 or so, which broke into smaller groups to do whatever. Traveling across country I took the baz bus which has a ton of people around my age traveling Africa and is relatively safe – you just have to keep an eye on your belongings. At other times I traveled to places like Victoria Falls and what not in fairly small groups, mainly due to the fact the majority of people couldn’t afford to go (I even ended up paying for a friend to go so she wouldn’t miss out). During the beginning of the trip in Cape Town I stayed in a 4 star ritzy hotel which had HUGE stone walls and massive security without appearing overly so. They did a shuttle to popular destinations and otherwise they recommended transportation or rental car places for you. In Durban I was staying on a university campus that was on holiday and you had to have a scan card to get in the dorms, so I felt fairly safe, we only had one scare where we thought someone had gotten in, and out of the 30 people (guys included!!!) I was the first to start searching the dorms for the noises we heard!! There were some incidents while we were there, but they will happen and were mostly from people not being smart. One girl got robbed at knife point walking down the hill to get something from the store, and another student was shot and killed at the same place (we guessed from a robbery) but he was a local student! One of the guys that was with us got super drunk one night and passed out on the beach, something you DON’T do in Durban, we were warned to be OFF the beach at sunset!! He got woken up to some locals leaning over him and his book bag saying “white boy…whatcha doing out here?!?!” He called our local taxi driver we trusted at 2am to come get him!! On the weekends it was hard to keep up with who went out to where with what groups. Some of the girls weren’t so smart while they were out at local clubs and bars, but we got lucky and always got everyone home safely thanks to our local taxi man!! The worse parts of town we went into in larger groups and usually with one or two locals but there were one or two occasions where I went into town with just one other girl, and on top of that she was light skinned black, so we got very evil looks (its not too common to see whites and blacks together there – at a rugby game a couple moved away from me and my girlfriend because I was white and she was black and we were sitting together, this happened in a few restaurants as well), but I never felt in any real danger and usually had to calm others down who were panicing cause that’s when you get yourself into trouble. I guess I just had a false sense of security because of my Central America travels though, because I felt a lot less safe there vs the majority of Africa, why I have not a clue because both are extremely bad in many places.

When we went to Zimbabwe the political stuff broke out just 3 days BEFORE we arrived and we had already booked our flights, etc. We stayed on the Zambia side, but it was only 2 mins literally from the Zimbabwe side, and we spent ALL of our days over in Zimbabwe. We were in the Victoria Falls area, so I am sure the locals there act very very differently to white tourist since it is how their economy there flourishes because of Vic Falls. The only thing that happens because you are white is that they assume you are from the U.S. so they assume you are rich so they try and charge you more! I was using US dollars there (because people will ask you how you want to pay? Zimbabwe money? Zambia money? Rands (South African currency) or US? And I had been saying US because our travel agent in SA told us to take US, well the hotel advised us to use our Rand so that the locals didn’t jack up the prices so much! And the locals really didn’t treat us any differently because we were white, anyone visiting there got treated the same – harassed to buy anything and everything and they would TRADE you stuff you had. One guy was sooooo desperate for my friend to take his wood carving that he offered it to her for her hair holder!! But this happens throughout all of Africa!

Overall, throughout the parts of Africa I was in they either strongly hate one race/culture or they love them. For the most part, locals do not like people of European decent the most – usually whites that are born there – they dislike these of any tourist that come into the country. There is a lot of messed up racial stuff within the countries, and so much clan on clan hate (like Zulu vs. another small clan) that it just perpetuates everywhere. The majority of the violence occurs between local Africans themselves, they are detrimental to their selves – they refuse to put their children in school because they don’t want them learning the “white” man language, they want their children learning their tribes language and heritage – but this prevents them from communicating outside their small communities or the chances to receive jobs that would pay them an amount they could live on. This is a MASSIVE problem because some of the countries have 72 national languages and people who speak one of these may know one or two other dialects that are similar to their own tribes but it becomes near impossible for them to progress outside their local area. I could go on and on about this, and I am sure it is different in various places, I was only there for about 3 months so I am sure I am missing a lot of the big picture. But basically, it is all races vs. all races, its very sad and disheartening, and it perpetuated that the upper class stay upper and the lower class never have a chance – but this is largely in part because the majority of the lower class refuses the opportunities that it is offered for one reason or another (because it is correlated with a race they hate, etc.)

I hope all this makes sense because its too much to go back over and read, so if you need clarification just ask!!


Yes, we did see Rhodesian Ridgebacks, although I did not know their significance until I got back to the states and my close friend got one and informed me of their origin and use. When I did see them they were either being used by the police or taken out with us on our elephant safari and camping trip, for the obvious reason of fending off lions and protection.

Battlefield monument



Zulu marked grave stones



Zulu markers



Zulu memorial


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Peachy......Do you remember if these monuments were at Roarks Drift, the place of the famous battle?

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they were at the famous place that the movies have been done about...honestly its been awhile now and id have to look up in my trip journal where we were. Some of the places i didnt even write down the names of because they were so difficult to pronounce but i know where they are on a map!! But that name sounds right maybe??