So after the bungee jumping, pool playing and gas station sleeping, we eventually made to a backpackers lodge called Bulungula. We took the bus as far as we could and then the lodge picked us up in a 4 by 4 to take us another 2 1/2 hours over the bumpiest road Carolyn, Alisa, and I had ever experienced.
This is actually a photo of a smooth part of the road, but it shows them changing a second flat tire due to the rough terrain. The ride through the countryside was made especially beautiful by the setting sun.
We arrived at Bulungula after dark, ate a wonderfully warm dinner, sat next to a fire in the candle light, and then went to sleep early in the little hut we would share for the next 7 nights. We woke up with the sun and opened our hut door to discover that the ocean was just in front of us. A glorious surprise.
Our hut was the fourth one in from the right.
The ocean at our doorstep.
The view from our door looking the other way. Bulungula is a unique backpackers lodge because it is 40% owned by the local village, fair trade certified, and working toward eliminating the community's cycle of poverty. Many members of the village work for the lodge doing cleaning, maintenance, management, and cooking (delicious traditional meals!) and there are also a number of community members starting their own tourist businesses. These businesses, including horseback riding, canoeing, village tours, and massage, enable the tourist to explore the area and learn about Khosa culture.
The lodge is also unique because it runs almost entirely on solar and wind energy. After sunset they use candle light and they have organic composting toilets. The showers are called "rocket showers" and entail pouring paraffin into the base of the shower head and lighting it on fire. It roars and spurts flames!
We spent the week waking up with sun, going for long walks on the beach, and exploring the community through the various community-run tours.
One of the tours we did was called "Woman Power" and we spent a day learning some of the activities a typical local woman does in a day. Here is Alisa on her way to learn how to make the mud bricks for building houses. She had to smear wet cow dung over the bricks to help them solidify.
Our faces are covered with kolin, a naturally occurring clay, that is used as sunscreen.
The village has one single restaurant that they have set up for tourists. It is a one room hut with a set of shelves, a couple stoves, and a bench. We ate delicious crepes and then had a long walk home over the hills. We reached the ocean as the sun began to set. (Photo by Carolyn)
On our tour of the village, we met a lot of great people including this little girl who stood like a queen looking over her domain and would copy every face we made. On the tour we also learned that in order to build a new field you must give the chief a box of beer, wine, and one sheep. If you want to build a hut, you must give the headman (who is subordinate to the chief) a box of beer and wine (no sheep). (Photo by Carolyn)
We spent one afternoon canoeing! Carolyn (the only one with serious canoeing experience) took the canoe with the guide, leaving Alisa and Tessa to fend for themselves. This may surprise you, but we are not exactly the most proficient canoers. Despite our struggles to coordinate and inability to keep up with the other canoe, we couldn't help but feel at peace as we kept accidently hitting the shore of the mangrove-lined river.
It is typically the children's responsibility to keep the cows out of the fields and so the government built these fences so that the children could go to school. Unfortunately, it seems that school attendance is still low. The lodge's current project is to build a proper school building so that the children of the village can have quality teachers and materials. The current school operates in the shade of a tree.
We spent one day with the local herbalist learning about various roots, barks, and leaves. There were medical remedies for everything from an upset stomach to lack of breast milk to madness. There were also other types of potions for attracting lovers, making friends, and getting people out of jail. He told us sadly that he has no herb for curing AIDS (which affects a serious percentage of the community), but is hoping one will be found soon. And isn't his outfit awesome?
Alisa and Carolyn trying a root. Villagers use this as a way to stave off hunger.
This photo is pretty much self-explanatory . . .
Alisa was walking down the beach one morning and encountered a fisherman who had just caught a shark. He struggled to reel it in. He then unhooked it and left it on the beach to die. After about half an hour, the shark died. Alisa went over with the fisherman, Samuel, and slitted open the stomach of the shark. Samuel then ripped it open and grabbed out two huge clumps of fat lard for the dogs. As they explored the shark's carcass, Samuel remarked, "I think it might be pregnant. What a shame!" Alisa then ran up to the lodge and tried to recruit as many people as she could to go and see the shark. In this photo, Alisa is trying to engage some of the locals in shark games. Let's just say they weren't quite as enthused as Alisa. (We later found out that shark catching is actually quite common. Wa wa wa.)
Priceless. A musical adventure at Bulungula. On the right we have a little boy from the village playing sophisticated African beats. On the left we have a little boy from the United States making fart noises with his armpit.
Totally unrelated to Bulungula: the next World Cup. It will be held in South Africa in 2010 and they are EXCITED. We loved that this huge countdown sign had already started. Just 768 short days away.
3 comments:
I LOVE that picture of Tess and the little girl. So pretty!
PS. The armpit fart boy totally looks like my cousin. His name wouldn't happen to be Rohan Volkmann would it?
Pretty awesome little hostel - I didn't get down to the Wild Coast, but it looks like a place to hit! Durban has some great beaches, and is interesting because of its obviously very large South Asian population, but is otherwise not really special. How are you getting to Johannesburg? If you go east, stop at Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park east of Durban - it's probably the cheapest place to safari in South Africa (around $100/night for both of you combined, though you'll probably want a rental car). If you go west, check out the Drakensburg and Golden Gate Highlands, both along the Lesotho border, not far from the N3. If you're driving yourselves, you should totally take the backroads from Bethlehem (a nice little town!) through the Free State up to Gauteng - it's very scenic country!
Hope the trip is treating you well, guys.
I would also be quite excited over the shark, even if it was old hat to everyone else. Glad you survived your canoe adventure - when I worked at Girl Scout camp, teaching canoe skills was one of my favorite activities. When you get back to the States I'll give you some pointers on what to do if you capsize, hah hah.
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