The Trankei and Bulungula

So I'm not breaking a for a moment with this updating blog thing. I just posted the bungee jumping and the Kichaka game reserve and now we are onto what I would call our first dive into something that feels a little more like Africa: The Transkei.

The Transkei is the section of land just being the Kei river and is characterized by big rolling hills with what looks like lots of pastel round houses no top. This is one of the only places in South Africa which was not conquered and is home to the Xhosa people. The X in Xhosa is actually a click so all you guys back home who've seen Russel Peters second live performance; this is the the language he's making jokes about. Enough with the history, back to the trip.

We woke up at Buccaneers before dawn and packed up and hit the road in time to watch the sun rise again. Our first destination was Coffee Bay to see the 'Hole in the Wall'. We reach Coffey Bay sometime around noon, ate lunch and head on to the Hole.

The Hole in the wall is a beautiful beach with an maybe 50 meter off short that has a giant hole through it. The beach was amazing: sandy with rocks surrounded by the most inviting forest with opening for camping. On the far left of the island with the hole there was some see cliffs made of what looked like Basalt. They were almost begging to be climbed.

Picture: Karina, Dion and Julie at the Hole in the Wall.

We spent some time wandering the beach and through the forest, soaking up the beauty of the place. After maybe an hour we had to move on as there was a 45 minute hike into Bulungula the backpackers were were going to stay at this night. I didn't want to leave but if we stayed we wouldn't have been able to enjoy the afternoon at Bulungula.

Bulungula is the best backpackers in South Africa. This is a bold statement but having been there and had the like of Buccaneer's backpacker(another very good packpackers) staff tell me as much I don't think its far from the truth. The backpackers is located at the mouth of a river and is made up of traditional Xhosa huts (mud and dung floors and walls) with beautiful beachs and bays to either side. Its protected from the winds off of the Indian oceans by a burm and a stand of trees. They have drums, amazing local Xhosa food cooked by the nearby village, a fire pit and great music.

I will only cover the highlights since this place to me was so special and sharing it with my Karina, my sister and new friend Dion was amazing and can't capture the magic of the place.
The first night some other people staying there, Dion and I drummed by the fire for quite some time. Joseph and Lindiley being notable characters.

The next morning Karina and I saw dolphins feeding and jumping in the bay just beyond the river mouth. After breakfast we hiked part way down the beach towards a hidden beach but never made it. Instead we did some body surfing and soaking up the untouch beauty of the place.

On our walk back we met a group of children from the nearby village and they started playing the drum we brought with us for the day. Dion and I did some cappoeira with the kids on the beach. Doing cartwheels and rolls to the beat of the drum. That night we ate an amazing vegetarian Xhosa meal with striking flavours and texture.

Picture: Me and the kids from on the beach at Bulungula.

The next days we resolved to make it to the hidden beach. Set out earlier this time and move quickly. The kids from the previous day joined us as did a german software programmer (forgot his name). After not too long we felt the need to break away from the kids and asked them to give us some space. We crossed a headland and onto the next beach.

At this point the beach ended and we all hiked up onto a steep hill overlooking the beach and looking back towards Bulungula. The wind was gently blowing off the water. We took in the beauty and untouch nature of the land here. It was an amazing experience. Karina and I walked to the top and then found a beautiful place to look out over the Indian Ocean. We stood there side by side taking in the smell, sound and beauty of the place. We probably wouldn't have left till night fall but Julie and Dion reminded us of our destination.

Picture: Beachs looking back at Bulungula at the tip on the upper left of the picture.

We continued along the hill top for another 5 minutes before we spotted 4 butterflies sitting on three blades of grass. We again paused to enjoy such unique beauty in such an amazing place. With some light left we continued on to find the hidden beach as the sun grew close to the horizon. With the beach in site we turned back resolving to visit the beach tomorrow and stay another day.

We hiked back, watch the sun set from on top of the hills. The colour of the sky and clouds was beyond words and by the moon light we hiked back. This time not taking the same way we had come we waked over top of the hills instead of crossing the rockie head land we had used to come. Now this whole hike to this point had been done without shoes on and we continued into the night this way. The grasses and land in this area was so gentle but we soon discovered there were parts at the top of some of the hills that had prickle bushes. Rocks, soil, prickles, grass, sand, they were all amazing to experience through our feet. The sensations were amazing, something I had never realized I was missing. How many of us in Vancouver have hiked barefoot. I also realized I have never slept under the stars before. The closest thing I had come to this was in Australia where I slept in a swag.

Picture: Karina and I watching the stars at sunset.

Picture: Karina loving the beach and Ociean at Bulungula.

Wound our way back down to the beach after crossing many hill tops. Then Dion, Julie and I went skinning dipping in the surf. Dion and I stayed out in the water body surfing. Julie and Karina were cold and headed back to Bulungula early. Dion and I headed in after enjoying the surf and arrived back to Bulungula just before dinner. That night Dion played music for us from his iPod till the wee hours.

The next day I discovered I had forgotten the Rayban sunglasses that Karina had given to me as a gift on the beach when we were body surfing the night before. Dion and I went back to the location to see if we could find them but they were not there. Instead we spent the morning body surfing together.

Julie and Karina had gone to the beach in the opposite direction of the hidden beach near a sand dune. They had made this into a nudist beach and were relaxed into soak up the sun. Dion and I joined them and we did some more body surfing. We returned from the day to eat and relax. Our time at Bulungula was drawing to a close and we had to pack up for our 7 AM shuttle back to the car.

The car drive back was long as we made the entire return trip home in one long push. The beds of Wilderness were welcome when we arrived back late that night. The next day Julie flew home and Karina and I started planning for our trip to Cedarberg.

Kichaka, and Bungee Jumping...

Well this should amount to a busy post. I'm trying to catch up after nearly a month of amazing traveling.

I'll start this post with Julie, Dion, Karina and I leaving Wilderness to head up the Transkei. Our first day wasn't far, we were going to Bloukrans bridge to do the highest bungee jump in the world - 216m (720ft).

This road trip would be done South Africa style; rolling out in Dion's little Nissan truck, Karina and I sitting in the back with Dion and Julie in the cab. Karina was wearing these awesome tiger pants and some overall shorts. The reason I'm describing this is that she looked a bit like a character from a childrens television show. It was hilarious! The Bloukran bridge was a short drive away; maybe 2 hours and in short order we were out and getting our gear on.

Picture: Karina and I in the back of Dion's Buckie (truck)

Now I have never bungee jumped before so I don't have any idea as to what to expect but I have been getting really calm like I do before a big multipitch climb. It seems that through climbing I've started to relax before doing things I perceive to be scary. I have jumped out of an airplane before when I was in Australia. The 14000ft sky dive was great but I think it was easier since I couldn't see the ground and I was attached to someone. I think the decision to jumping off a perfectly good bridge and you can see the ground below you takes a different level of commitment.

To warm up for the jump we took a zip line to the center of the bridge. the zip line was called the Flying Fox and covered the distance from the edge of the ravine to the jump platform. The 30 second ride was a nice warm up and in moment we were all at the Bungee platform.

They do the jumps by weight and since I was the heaviest I would have to go last. Karina started going to the edge and without hesitation did a beautiful swan dive off the edge. Julie and I were able to watch on a close circuit video feed that was showing on the platform. She looked effortless and graceful.

The brought K back up and got Julie into position for her jump. Karina and I watch this time from the other side of the platform where you can look down to see the jumper. Julie jumped and sailed into the abyss below.

My turn came soon and I was standing at the edge. You can't walk to the edge so you have two guys drag you there. These moments leading to the jump where they attache the cord to you feet was good. It was a nervous excitement, the anticipation of something while not letting my brain hijack my precense with thoughts of how it would be. Now at the edge looking down I realized how how we were.

The technicians allowed the cord to gently slide off the platform to hang in the air below. A gentle weight tugs my feet as I stand at the edge resisting the urge to pull back against the tug. The technicians the count to three and I launch myself into the space below.

Picture: Me Bungee Jumping.

The thing I remember was seeing the concrete fall away above me as I accelerated down and the rush of the wind. I'm not afraid but I feel myself tensing up as the weird tickle in my stomach takes hold from the acceleration. I tell myself to relax and enjoy the moment of freedom. My jaw unclenches not having realize I was tense there. The moment is quite and I feel the next 4 seconds of free fall at peace knowing I am here.

The cable starts to elogate and I'm slowing down. My smile spreading across my face as the blood rushes to my cheeks and then I go sailing back up in the air. I try do spins in the air on my way back up using my arms as a skate would in a spin. It works but only marginally.

A minute of bouncing and wigging like a worm on the end of a hook and then a smiling face shows up to clip me in and raise me back up to the jumping platform. I relax in the harness and wait; enjoying the last moments of hanging in free space.

Picture: Julie and Karina doing one of their legendary self portraits. Notice Tiger Pants

Having all jumped (Dion was taking pictures only) we headed back to the car for some Sparking Wine that J and K had bought for the occation while on the wine tour in Robertson. The time getting late we headed back to Nature's Valley where could get out and walk on the beach before retiring to a wonderful backpackers called the Wild Tongue.

The next morning Karina and I were up before the sun. We started the day by doing some stretching and yoga on the deck while watching the sun rise over Nature's Valley. This would prove to be a good start to the day since our destination was Kichaka private game reserve. We hoped to be there by 2PM so we could go out on safari in the afternoon.

The drive was not terribly exciting with the exception of getting slightly lost on route due to sketchy directions from the cook at the lodge. We arrived around 3PM to meet Darryl who would be a guide while at the reserve.

I have to say, Kichaka was top shelf, a five star establishment. Our bag were carried into our rooms which was breath taking. I regret not taking a picture of the interior but that is life. The wood finish was amazing. The decks look out of a water hole where the animal would come to drink. The bathroom was beautiful and raise up just behind the bed. The windows were massive, you could see out into the grasslands from any point in the hut.

We had a quick tea and set out on Safari. The wind was really blowing so we weren't holding our breath that the animal would be out since they usually take cover when its windy.

Darryl was extremely knowledgable and taught us about the local plans and insects as well as the animals. We tried eating termites which I have to say were quite good. They taste of cinnamon. I forgot most of the plants he told me about. I could remember them if I saw them but I couldn't recall the names.

In short order he had sported a mother and baby rhino which we were able to approach quite closely in the truck. We got some good pictures before moving on for a nice sundown location where he broke out the bar.

The sun down was breath taking in South Africa. The sun changes such a wonderful shades of organe and red, something that we miss because the show is hidden by the mountains in Vancouver. On our drive back to the compound we saw an Ardvark running through the night.

Dinner was rich and we didn't stay up late because the sun-up Safari started at 6 AM. The morning was cold but we had a few glasses of tea and coffee to warm us up. The predawn light was tickling the horizon when we started out.

Picture: Lions

We drove across the property stopping only to take in the sunrise which was as glorious as the sunset. Darryl in a short time had located the two male lions on the property. We found them lieing in the grass at the bottom of a valley.

They were HUGE and beautiful. We were able to approach them to a distance of maybe 15 meters and got lots of great pictures. I have always loved cats and this was one of the biggest I had ever seen. We took the Lions in for about 20 minutes before setting off to find the Elephants.

Darryl was amazing at tracking the Elephant herd. We moved along the valley floor and found the herd at a branch in the road. It was funny to watch them tear clumps of grass from the ground with their trunks and then beat clump against the ground so that it would release the dirt from the roots before eating it. We saw some quite young elephants as well.

Picture: Elephants sniffing the air.

We drove out of the valley to find a location overlooking the Elephant herd to have morning tea and watch the herd through the binoculars. On the way back to the compound we saw some Hippo, Giraffe, Zebra and Hartbeast.

After a generous breakfast we packed up and hit the road as we had to cover some ground to make it up to the Transkie. We made it as far as Buccaneers Backpackers before we lost the light. So we spent the night.

That is a nice section for the first leg of our trip. I'm going to make another entries for the next few weeks. For more pictures click this link: More pics.

From Boven to Capetown.

I'm making a quick version of this entry and will post it but will likely make and update shortly to include pictures and more detail like the climbs I did on the ascent of Table Mountain. This will do for the quick update for now.

Karina joined me in Waterval Boven, it was good to finally see her in person instead of chatting on the internet all the time. Climbed a day, hiked the next. During our hike we found someone's stolen climbing equipement and thankfully though the Roc n' Rope lodge was able to return it to its owners.

Trip from Waterval Boven to Capetown was a little strenuous since we stayed up all night in the Joberg airport waiting for a our flight in the morning.

First day in Capetown was organizing our rides out to the garden route and Wilderness which is supposed to be amazing (on the Garden Route). I also tracked down a climbing partner and yesterday climb table mountain. Did the whole day from 8:30 AM to 6:30 PM. You have to hike about 75% of the height of the mountain to get to the start of the climbs. Needless to say I'm a touch tired today. I also was leading trad which means I was placing my own protected gear which is WAY more scary especially since I haven't done that type of climbing in 9 months. (Paul C will be so proud). ;) I did three routes that day. Two of which were 20-21, 19 but I don't know the names of them. The third one was the ultra classic "Jacobs Ladder" which got us to the top of the mountain just in the knick of time as the sun set and the last cable car was leaving.

Today we are going to Cape point and chilling on the beach before heading off down the garden route and doing some wine tours.

Cranking in Wonderland...

This weekend has proven to be the best couple of days climbing since the trip began. The Satuday was the first day back after spending Friday resting.

For our first day back on we headed up to the "Gym" sector near the Restaurant area. This proved to be a bit of an adventure as the map is not altogether too acurate and the trail down is not marked. So we ended up doing a bit of bush whacking to get to the crag.

The gym is a short crag, maybe 8-12 meters at most giving it the height of most climbing gyms and hence the name. To warm up I cracked off a pair of 19s (5.10a) called "Any Objections" and "Monkey Monkey" both overhanging jug hauls. Once warmed up I jumped on a climbed called "Lithium" 24 (5.11d). This climb went up an overhanging wall on good crimps but no feet to the second bolt. Then a high left foot and a hip level high left foot which your rock over on thin crips and a rounded side pull to stand up and back to a juggy finish. I got the flash but the climb felts a bit soft.

To round out the day I got on a slab climb called "The Dark Side" 22 (5.11a) which climbed the steap slab on the other side of the river from us. I have to say, I have gotten out of practice of climbing thin slab as I got spit off at the first and second bolts. I decided I needed practice and should get back on but was shut down again at the third bolt. I did get the red point on the third attempt. Then ended the day cleaning "Any Objections".

Yesterday Klaus, Anna and I went to the Hallucinogen sector up near Tranquilitas campground. We hiked and by 10:30AM we at the base of some of the best looking climbs I have seen in Waterval. The lines are clean and much higher than yesterday's outing standing at around 15-18m.

To warm up I did "Old Crusty's Last Stand" 18 (5.9) which moved up an arete next to an offwidth crack. The climb was a touch technical as it involved laying back off the offwidth.
Klaus climbed Old Crusty's up, down and up again before cleaning it as his warm up. He then moved on to climb "Be Quick or Be Dead" 24 (5.11d) which was right next to Old Crusty. This climb looks to be quite a push with thin and blancy face moves as well as bad side pulls and thin crimps. The draws were put in but not without a few falls.

Still not totally warm I moved on to my second warm up "Doom" 19 (5.10a) which proved to be much more fun because of the exposure of climbing the arete that sticks a bit out from the main wall. I then moved on to climb "Be Quick or Be Dead" 24 (5.11d) the moves were wonderful and thin, requiring balance and good core strength to keep yourself in on the open hand side pulls and thin crimps. I fell at the lower and upper crux but worked out the sequence on the excellent climb up top.

For the button I had decided that the wall where you climb up Old Crusty's was in but after re-reading the description in the guide book, it states that the face is only to be used. So now I had to rework my beta for for the bottom. The new sequence involve a high right foot which rock up onto using a half pad side pull crimp and a one and a half finger crimp which gets you onto a incut 3/4 pad crimp. Another two things moves with feet tracking the crimps gets you to a nice incut flake where you get a shake before moving into the open hand sidepull sequence. Which I fell on. I lowered and made another attempt after a short rest.

My third attempt proved to be clean execution of the sequence and I felt good and in the moment. I moved through the top sequence of powerful high steps and side pulling to finish the route. This is the hardest climb I have red pointed yet on this trip. The only climb I would say I have worked harder on was "Je Suis Un Communist" in France, but this climb certainly felt better.

Klaus red pointed called "Fat Annie" a 25 (5.12a) and then another 24 (5.11d) called "Women Ain't Nothing But Trouble". He left the clips in "Women Ain't Nothing But Trouble". After five attempts at the thing crux off the second bolt I manage to get high enough to dyno for an incut rail next to the third bolt to pull past the crux and then finish with 8m of beautiful laybacking through a series of rooves and the red point.



To cool down I finished with "Rat Palace" a nice 20 (5.10b) which moves through a some thin balancy moves at the start and pulls a small roof at the end.



To celebrate my best climbing day yet we made our way down into the Township of Waterval and bought some "Chicken Dust" chicken which they sell from BBQs on the side of the road.



I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

Welcome to Waterval Boven

Picture: Elands Falls and the township of Waterval Boven

This is my fourth day in Waterval Boven and am finally taking a rest. I arrived here four days ago with no partner and a lot of energy for climbing. Its been 20 days since I last touch the rock so I was eager to get there.





The lodge where I'm staying is a climbing lodge and I had hoped to meet some people to climb with there. After arriving it would seem my like would hold as there was only a climbing couple from Austria stay at the lodge and they were more than happy to have one more climber with them. Their names are Klaus and Annalise.





The first day we headed up to one of the crags near the water fall called "The Last Crag of the Century". Gustov the owner of our lodge gave us a ride down to the crag so we wouldn't get lost and the road is rather rough and would be hard on the car not to mention the security concerns.





We abseiled (rapped) into the climbing area and got cracking. Me being the eager beaver, warmed up on "Who's your daddy" a nice austrialian 19 (5.10b) for an easy warm up. Anna toproped it as there were a couple run outs and Klaus cleaned the route.





Next Klaus put the draws in a climb call "Good Times" 23 (5.11c). I followed it and pulled through the crux but got a flash pump and came off about 3 meters from the top. Guess I should have warmed up more.





I moved on to do "Endless Summer" 22 (5.11b). The climb was really nice, with big holds and long moves. A pronounced crux at mid height where you have to step left on small crimps and make a reachy up and left. Then its sustained jugs on veritical wall to the top.





To finish the day and exit from the location I decided to finish on a climb call "Three Mosquitos" 21 (5.11a), since we were leaving the area and this climb topped out allowing us to leave without hiking through the train tunnel.





Since we were leaving I was climbing with my pack on. I headed up and then started traversing diagonally up and left under a crack system when I took my first fall. I was a little off balance from the extra weight in my back. I was clearly tired but continued up feeling I could rest above.





I moved up several more bolts and reach as series of roofs. By this time I was terrible tired but not pumped out (my forearms could still grip). I clipped the bolt below the roof and moved up and left a few moves to a small ledge that I hoped I could rest on. As I was pulling onto the ledge my right foot blew (slipped) and I went for a huge 30ft wiper in which I had to kick off the 2ft ledge that was 25ft below.





Scared but determined I climbed the rope back to my high draw and clipped my pack to the bolt. After some rest and two more big falls I conceded that I was to tired to complete the route. Since I had spent so much time on the route we now had to hike out through the train tunnel.



That evening over dinner we were joined by two native South African climbers from Johannesburg: Paul and Doug. Paul was a retired stats professor and Doug was a software developer residing in Sydney Australia now. Both were friendly and interesting. It would turn out that Klaus and another climbing friend Kyle (AKA Canadian Kyle) had climbed the Nose on El Capitain in Yosemite last summer. After climbing there Kyle had cycled up to Vancouver and we climbed a few days together in Squamish. Welcome to the small world of climbing.



The next day I was so I decided to take it easy and climbs. Since we had left my draw on "Three Mosquitos" we returned to "The Last Crag of the Century". Paul and Doug also wanted to climb here so we all piled into Gustov's car and got a ride down to the crags.



Trying to stay gentle I warmed up on a climb called "Caffiene Jitters" 15 (5.7) then on to do the first pitch of "Electric Avenue" 17 (5.9). I finished warming up by putting the draws into "Who's your Daddy?" 19 (5.10a/b) for Anna to red point (which she did).

Now warm I jumped back on "Three Mosquitos" 21 (5.11a) but armed with some cams to protect the right travers at the roof. I quickly climbed to my hight point only to find that all the cams were too big for the placement midway through the right traverse in a horizontal crack. Instead I climbed above to place at the back of a roof above the traverse, this placement would prove to be my undoing as I didn't have any runners to extend the placement out from the back of the roof. The lack of extension would prove to be the critical mistake that would cost me the climb.

I completed the right traverse by commiting my weight to my right hand moving my left hand into an adjacent crimp next to my left hand. Then making another move far left to a ledge which was just incut enough to move left on then moving up to a good hold next to the third last bolt and standing up.

Clipping this bolt would prove to be a nightmare as the rope had tracked around a corner doing a near 90 degree turn at the TCU I had placed and out of the roof. To make matters worse the rope going from the last bolt to the TCP had sloted behind a flake to add to the drag. Pulling in the rope must have weighed 30lbs to get it clipped.

I struggled up gaining a few feet with my legs to reach the next bolt. The weight of the rope made it nearly impossible to clip but I managed to do it and fighting the pump in my arms. Once clipped I down climbed to the previous clip which I removed to reduce the 90 degree angle to a mere 60 degree with a roof edge and the rope still slotted behind the flake.

With 10ft of climbing and one bolt left I pressed on. I manage to drag myself up to face level with the final bolt, only 5ft below the anchor. I manage to get the clip into the bolt but the rope drag was too much to pull up and clip. I surrendered my red point attempt and sat on the rope to recover my forearms.

We rounded out the day by climbing out of the valley via the warm up climb "Caffiene Jitters" which tops out. We then walked about the hill that the rail tunnel passes through. See picture below.

Picture: Me hiking out from "The Last Crag of the Century" near the Elands Falls, Waterval Boven.

The next day Klaus, Anna and I were to have a rest day. Well, that was what I thought atleast. We decided to go check out the boulder fields at Kaapsehoop, a small town about one hour drive from Waterval Boven.

We drove out of town fairly early after having a light breakfast and arrived at Kaapsehoop after a little over an hour. The owner of our lodge recommended the pancake lodge there so we had only eaten a light breakfast so that we could enjoy the treat at this sleepy town. The mushoom and garlic pancakes were a delight and filled us up before heading out into the boulder fields.

Picture: Annalise and Klaus hiking into the boulder fields at Kaapsehoop.

We managed to find more than enough boulders to keep us happy and entertained for the day. There were boulders as far as the eye cold see, the sandstone was very features as you can see from the pictures. After a short hike in we settled on some promissing looking boulders that offered some overhanging crimpy fun. After a bit of skin punishment we threw in the towel on our "rest day".

Picture: My fingers after the bouldering session on our "rest day" at Kaapsehoop boulders.

Picture: Klaus hiking out from the Kaapsehoop boulders.

I didn't manage to get this posted before my internet ran out on the rest day that followed but here it is now. I now have to catch up on the weekends climbing which was amazing.

Pilanesberg Game Reserve

We were staying in Kwa Maritane, a four star time share and resort. We pulled in here at 9:45AM for a coffee and to find out what time we could check in. I was impressed by how nice the resort was. The complex was actually inside the games reserved and there was a "hide" right next to a watering hole as part of the resort. The was quite interesting since you had to walk down a 200m tunnel to get to it and it was sunk into the ground so you would look at the animals eye to eye while they were drinking. Unforetunately, there we didn't see any animals there but there was an elephant that arrived while we were out driving around looking for game in the afternoon.

The weekend of the 18th, Les and Ros took me to Pilanesberg game reserve for the weekend of driving through the games reserve. We woke up at 7:00 AM Saturday morning so we could get out of the house by 7:30AM. The drive North East to Pilanesberg took around 2 hours and we arrived before the heat of the day started to be felt.

After finding out that our room probably wouldn't be ready for a few hours we decided to head out into the games reserve. Once inside, we only needed to drive for 200m before we came face to face with a several Zebra munching away right next to the road. The details of each and every game siting doesn't make for good reading here online so I won't go into the details.



After a few hours and lots of game later we stopped into the Pilanesberg Centre where you can get out of your car and have lunch and a cold beer. The centre looks out onto a open grass land and I was able to see two female lioness' lazing about in the shade of a tree about 1 km into the open grass plain.

After a nice lunch we returned to Kwa Maritane to check in and for Les and I to head out on a nature safari that Ros had kindly organized for us.

The tour went long and I got a much more upclose view of several animals that I hadn't seen in the drive earlier in the day, the most notable of which were the Giraffe, Rhino, and Alligators. The tour when to the early evening past sun down and we did manage to see the eyes and hear a pair of mating Lions before returing to Kwa Maritane in time to catch the Sharks vs Lions rugby match.

Les had gotten so nice pork chops and some boerewors (farmers sausage) which he cooked up on the BBQ which in RSA is known as a Braai. The food was delicious and Les' team, the Sharks, won their match insuring that they made it into the super 14 semi-finals.

The next day we relaxed in the morning after checking out of Kwa Maritane and then drove back into the games park. This time not 2km into the park we ran into a traffic jam as there was a herd of Elephants blocking the road next to the Lengau dam.

Les and Ros have had experience with the elephants in the past and elected to turn around and drive around them rather than wait till they elephants moved on. This turned out to be a good idea since we managed to drive around for an hour to our picnic destination, eat a late lunch and then driving back we encountered the herd on the road again. Thankfully this time they had moved off the road but were still skulking about on either side.

We return to Johannesburg that night to have dinner with Matthew, Les and Ros' son, and his girlfriend. I set up skype so that we could have a chat with Les Senior, Mom (Margaret), Dad, and Holly that night. It was nice to have a good chat with the family at home and for the RSA relatives to connect with the BC clan.

The next morning I packed up and caught the bus to Waterval Boven.

Welcome to Africa, a few days in Johannesburg.

I have been in Joburg since Tuesday. So far this place has been rather eventful. Within 10 minutes of clearing customs I stumbled around half awake waiting for my luggage to appear and managed to loss my passport. I couldn't find it and nobody had turned it into the lost and found. I didn't want to but had to assume the worst and filed a police report on the missing passport. After wandering the airport for a hour and a half filing reports and checking the lost property, Ros, the wife of my second cousin, and I finally made our way back to their place in Randburg. I checked my email to find that my passport had been turned into the BA desk and being held there for safe keeping. So after lunch we drove back to the airport to retrieve my passport. Les Woops.

Since my cousins' computer was working really slow I decided to help them upgrade the RAM as it was woefully inadiquate. We went out the next day and got some RAM for 1/4 the price that their computer guy had quoted and I installed it. However, it didn't work quite right, the 1024 MB stick was only showing up at 512 MB. I found this strange and check into the current revision of the BIOS (this is the Basic Input Output System; the lowest level of a computer which controls everything). I have upgrade many of these in the past and found that there was an online upgrade program. As per the normal procedure (since this is one thing that can physically break you computer) I made a rescue disk. In the 20 or so BIOS upgrades I have done over the years I have never had to use one of these. So off I went with the MSI (Microstar) Live Update and sure enough, the firmware upgrade finished completely and then failed after 2% of the verification process. No matter what I did, I could not get it to reprogram properly. So I rebooted in hopes of using the recovery disk to reflash the BIOS. Lets just say that it didn't work and the screen wasn't even online all I got was several beeps indicated a video output failured. A touch of panic set in as I had just destroyed my cousin's work computer and it was old enough to be unable to replace the motherboard with a new one.

With the laptop that was still functional I did some research into it. Apprently I was only one of many who had destroyed their BIOS for their MSI MS-7222 mother boards and the forums showed discussion on recovery methods from Feb 2007. You think MSI would have atleast gone to the trouble of preventing more people from doing this but apparently that falls outside their realm of concern for their customers. The forum suggested a few idea on how to repair it using a boot floppy (who has these anymore) and also contacting MSI in the Neatherlands where they might ship a new BIOS flash part which could be place on the board. I decided to follow both avenues for repair. I sent an email to MSI field application engineers requesting assistance (to which I still haven't gotten a reply) and create a boot disk. To do this I would go to the computer store where we bought the RAM.
This morning Ros dropped me at the computer store to attempt the recovery process. I had to remove the floppy disk drive from the dead computer because the shop didn't have any functionat 3.5" floppy drive that worked and when through the process of trying to create the boot disk to reflash the BIOS. After 4 hours of struggling I gave up and called Ros to be picked up.

My next avenue for success would be to track down a replacement mainboard and possibly call MSI for assistance. By this time Ros was starting to get a bit stressed over the status of her computer and with reason. Restoring a BIOS is no trivial task and the prospects were looking increasingly bleak. I didn't think there was a location in the area which would have a programmer and without home ice advantage I didn't even know the names of potential place that might even have programmers.

I decide to use what I had learn of distribution and support from my time at Xantrex and look into who the distributor of MSI was for South Africa. Thankfully there was only one and they were located in Midrand which I had never heard of. I called them and they pass me through to technical support who assured me they had a programmer and could program it but without any guarantee that it would work. All I had to do was bring down the chip and/or PC to be programmed with an image of the BIOS that I wanted put on it. As it would turn out, Midrand was between Johannesburg and Pretoria only about a 30 minute drive.

Ok, so now the situation was under control, we had a solution that could work. The only problem was that the alarm company was outfitting Les and Ros' house with additional security since there had been a crime wave in their neighbourhood so she could go. Les had appointments and was unable to drive me. So they had their Afrikaans employee drive me over there. I got quite the treat spending time with him. He knew quite a lot of history of the area and had mentioned that Ghandi had in fact lived in South Africa and was hiding in some caves near Johannesburg before he went back to India because they believe he was an illegal alien. This is in part where Mandela learn his peaceful approach to change.

Finally, I arrived at the MSI distributor's office and had the BIOS flashed and a sticked of 1GB RAM that worked for the mainboard. The computer all repaired I breathed a sigh of relief an returned to Les and Ros' triumphant.

So far, I have met a few South African and they have been a pleasure to work with. Tomorrow should be interesting and I know that my time in Waterval will be fun. Tomorrow night I go to Matthew, Les and Ros' son's restaurant for dinner. Ironically he is a the owner and chief of a french restaurant. So while I didn't eat much french cuisine in France I will get my chance in South Africa.