A Year Without Ice Cubes One year through Africa and Asia

Well, we've just about come to the end of our backpacking experience on the Baz Bus, so while I wait for it to pick us up one last time and take us to Capetown, I thought I'd take advantage of the free wireless. Wilderness is a great beachy resort town, but I have to say, and we were warned of this, it feels more like Europe than Africa. And we did not come to Africa to have a European vacation! We were sitting on the beach earlier today and I was thinking to myself, if this was in Italy it would be great, but we're not, we're in Africa, and it feels kind of wrong when the only black Africans at the beach are the workers. Back in Chintsa, Kuno was telling us that South Africa was the most racist country he's ever been to, and he's traveled a lot. It's understandable, since institutionalized segregation here was only banned in 1991, but it's always still disturbing to me to see the legacy of colonization so evident. The Garden Route is beautiful, the skies are blue, the ocean is vast, but I'm ready to leave and see more of "real" Africa. Despite these feelings, Michelle and I did have a great day today, the owner of our hostel, Annie, told us we could walk along the train track because there was a landslide recently and there aren't any trains right now, so we walked and walked and walked on the track along the coast looking for whales and dolphins (which we never saw). It turns out I'm a super speedy walker on a railroad track, I was leaving Michelle in the dust, and I'm usually the one 20 feet behind! On our way back we passed the "hippies living in the cave", which Annie had told us about, saying "they're harmless, they'll invite you in and offer you a cup of tea." Well, the "cave" looked more like a converted train stop, with an alarm system and bathrooms, and there were nice chairs and tables set up outside that made it look like a restaurant. We were confused about what this place really was, when the hippie himself, Clifford, came up behind us and said, "Come on, I'll show you around." He brought us into the actual "living" area, which was amazing and magical and fantasy like. Shells hanging down everywhere, canopies over beds and elegant pieces of driftwood decorating the walkway. Clifford was eccentric, to say the least, but I felt like he's made himself a nice little existence on the coast of South Africa. I asked him if people could stay here, since there were so many beds, and he said, "Just friends and families." I asked him why he had all the tables and chairs out, he said, "Sometimes people pass by and drink some tea." Michelle was a little weirded out, and we didn't stay long, but still, cool experience.