Trip to South Africa, Day 6: Rock art!

I havent much time to blog today, having been out in the "wild country" and taking pictures with the infrared camera of (finally!) rock art, and now I'm going out to dinner soon.

My hotel, High street 137:

 The rock art site. Yes I'm wearing skiing clothes in several layers, but this was the first day I didnt acually have use for them. It was roughly 30 degrees at the site at most.
The thing with South Africa, like most countries, is that they have nothing like the "allemansrätt", ie most of the land is hedged in and owned by someone, so our guide, an archeolgist, had to borrow some keys from the helpful farmer owing the lands.

A partial hand painted on the rock, the other half being lost due to weathering. The motives varies very greatly in quality, from simple human lookalikes to finely drawn hunters and trees and strang beings.

SO, this is my last chance to blog for this trip, at least while on it. Tomorrow we will be traveling to Uppington, and then into Namibia, ending up in Gobabeb research station on saturday evening, where we will stay until wednesday for the SAAG conference. Then its more photographing in the Cederberg, and then the flight home from cape Town via Doha in Qatar. Be seeing you all!

Trip to South Africa, Day 5: Cell phone and sunshine hunting

Day 5, 4^th of September

We were at the doors of the dinner room at breakfast time, just to be able to get time to eat breakfast before the field trip, and hurried through that. Sadly enough our guide for the day had to cancel and postpone until tomorrow, so instead I recorded three 5 second time series at different times during the day of how the sun affects the temperatures at engraved stone plaquettes. My problem was that the sun didn’t want to show its lovely face, so I ended up “camping” 1h hour beside the church, working on my laptop. Later I found a second rock plaquette at the inner yard of the university.

Grahamstown down high street sometimes really looks lika an American frontier city a la some western movie:

At the lower end of the street is the derelict train station and an old locomotive:

Wanting to be able to actually talk with my family I wanted to buy a payphone of the cheapest sort, but it turned out I actually needed to both visit the local municipality office and get a special document (“proof of residence” I think it was. Bring your passport.), and then bring it and the passport to a *good* telephone store (I chose MTN). Before learning all this from Jan I just went into some store and bought a phone which proved to be a) without a working battery, b) without any SIM card and c) a used one. I returned that one…

The phone cost 169 RAND (~150 SEK), simple NOKIA telephone which was a nice history lesson of a time before iPhone; the hateful T9 function (I loathe autocomplete), actually using buttons, and all these menus. On the other hand: being able to phone home. A call for about 3-4 minutes didn’t actually cost more than maybe 8 RAND. I will have to double check that with a second call later on.

Jan and I were then invited again to Ians, where Jan treated us all with pancake wraps with brie cheese, homemade tapenade and salad. Delicious, and I managed to grab the spot infront of the heater… ;-)

Trip to South Africa, Day 4: Rainy weather and Fat Bastard

Day 4, 3^rd of September

Today I actually woke without needing to take a hot shower, thanks to the radiator close to my bed. As a kind of compensation, the weather served me (personally) with clouds and later on rains. Beyond taking a few shots of the church in the non-sunny weather (which of course didn’t give much since without direct sunlight the signatures just becomes a general blur), we used the day to catch up on stuff. Jan went to the university and I worked on the presentation. I did some exploring by visiting the local supermarket (Checkers) which is always fun in a foreign country. 

There were these funny pastries shaped like hot dogs:

I found Samp, which is a kind of large maise:

Also lots of interesting spreads:

This sounds interesting, syrup and peanut.

 So, a Annchovette spread is OK, I suppose...

But, wait, *yeast* on my sandwhich?!

And of course, roast beef spread is what I have been dreaming of...

If I buy any wine, it will be this:

I imagine some children (and grownups) agree we should have these in Sweden:

Afterwards I ate a really nice bread with peppery meat fillings for only 15 rand (15 SEK roughly).

In the afternoon Jan and I convened again and sat in the hotel at the fire and talked presentation for maybe five hours and ate dinner (chicken soup). Quite cozy actually, if one needs to work anyway.

Tomorrow the “real” stuff awaits: rock paintings!

Trip to South Africa, Day 3: Warm showers and Coral trees

Sunday 2^nd September

So did I mention they have no heating in the hotel? They don’t. Today I had a warm shower two times, beginning in the morning after waking up with cold feet, and in the evening after eating out (inside a restaurant, but still getting cold…). I do respect water being a greater commodity to treasure here, but I’d rather not catch a cold unnecessary. This night I will be sleeping with pajamas too.

Today the measurements of the church with the IR camera continued, and among other things we mapped individual uneven quartzite rocks on all sides of the church to see how temperature and topography (struktur typ) was related, with the main result being that downfacing (often shadowed) sides actually getting warmest. This is most probably due to indirect solar heating reflected in the ground (or emitted as heat radiation due to solar heating).

We went to the botanical gardens next to the university grounds, at which point the nature finally showed definite signs of not being Swedish (central Grahamstown being planted with so much plants that could easily be from gardens in northern Europe), with examples of aloe vera, and other tropical plants you usually see on vacation in southern Europe. The Erythrina or Coral tree must also be mentioned; we had a break below one and contemplated to impressions of the day and it being a winter’s day of 20 degrees plus.

From a higher vantage point, Jan noted to me how the previous apartheid division of the city still was evident, with the “white” old central town, townships for the black population (in the upper middle of the picture), and newer home projects (due to the ANC government) to the far right of that.

At the classic student restaurant Rat and Parrot afterwards we had some excellent pizzas (mine at least).
*BREAKING NEWS* You can actually turn on the radiator. I will be back with more of this in the morning news... ;-P

Trip to South Africa, Day 1: From Ransta to Grahamstown

Day 1, Friday 31st August. Travel from Ransta, Sweden to Grahamstown, South Africa

Struck by an intense longing to not leave my wife and children on the day of departure, the feeling was strangely enough lessened by the train being delayed in Sala. Most Swedes who commutes by train are used to this, so instead of the usual impatience you get from this, I actually experienced calmness – the familiarity of train delay…

I had made sure to not be short on time just for this reason, so I arrived 25 minutes late for Arlanda Airport, but well ahead of schedule. Check-in proceeded as usual, but for one thing. After checking in my luggage and passing customs you usually pass another pass control if you are traveling outside the EU. This was the case this time too, but in addition we had a second control of pass and boarding cards until getting to the final waiting room. The boarding was a little whimsical, but nothing unusual.

It was evident from the composition of my fellow passengers that I was going to the African continent, and in the plane it smelled of spices and they played African music, with some signs being in what I presume is Ethipoian. Another thing I noticed on this flight was the way people stored their hand luggage. First – most people had rather large luggage, which most assuredly should exceed the 115 cm LxBxH limit. Second – the storage was rather unstructured with bags going in whichever locker suited or not suited, but this was probably due to the large size of them. Oddly enough not even half the seats were in use when we departed for Addis Abeba, but this would have its explanation later on. The flight left at 21:00 local time. They first served a snack, then a meal, and a bit irritating, a snack again at 00:30 when most people had gone to sleep (even I slumbered fitfully). Anyway, the meal was fun as always. Oh, and yes, we also got breakfast. Ethiopian airlines seems very generous with food.

Then shortly after 02:00 the captain declared that we were landing in Cairo soon! I was indeed a bit worried by this, but managed to remain calm until after reasoning with myself and my fellow passenger I could conclude that this was an extra stop without leaving the plane, which I had missed I my flight manifest. And yes, after 30 minutes on the ground the empty seats was filled when new passengers flowed into the plane. Imagine the fun when I already thought the luggage compartments were full before. My new neighbor actually had a 20x30x50 luggage in front of him during the flight.

Waking and sleeping short episodes, it was a release to leave the plane after landing in Addis Abeba rougly 7:40 local time. It wasn’t clear at all were to go as a transfer, but helpful personnel simply caught up with us passengers one by one and directed us right. Well in departure hall and gate 7, the real fun began. There seemed to be people boarding but no call was made. Lots of other people was sitting still, so I had to assume it was business class, that’s usually the case. Problem for me was that after some minutes the TV said “Boarding”, so I was getting worried especially as I hadn’t gotten any boarding card in Arlanda but was supposed to get it here. I moved towards the desk for help but now it became unmanned for maybe 10 minutes, with personnel just passing and leading certain groups to (I assumed) my or other flights. Finally I and another few passengers got assistance and were hurried through several queues and onto a bus to the plane. I was actually the second last to enter the plane… pew. Well there, I got lucky and got a seat with an empty spot, much to me and my neighbors happiness. Aah…space for my legs.

The flight to Johannesburg had time for Simpsons and Arturian legend on the TV screens. Otherwise it was relatively uneventful, with me trying to catch up on some lost sleep (ie drifting away now and then and waking up beginning to drool or knocking my head in the seat before me…).

Johannesburg airport was fresh, and looks like any international airport with some African color added. I agree with my fellow passenger I overheard complaining the oddity of South Africa: having to check out your (ordinary) luggage and then recheck it when transferring from international to local flights. But it gave me the chance to try out the local fast food cuisine. Seeing no McDonalds I went with Wimpy (yes, I’m wimpy and lazy when it comes to eating alone abroad, haha) and a burger meny for 57 rand (~50 SEK). After that I got myself some dessert at Fournos Bakery adding two cups of welcome tea.

I’d like to reflect on something regarding international transfers. When I check in, it has for me, at least, been a bit unclear which company to go to. Should I go to the company listed in the flight number (like BA1234 = British Airways) or the company trafficking it for that company? It seems to me that it’s the company that’s most “dominant” at the airport you visit. So when I was at JFK in July, it was American Airlines and not the British Airlines as implied by my ticket. In Johannesburg it was the other way around. As long as you have some time to spare, it is really no big problem, as all receptions will check your departure time and your passport and then give you the correct way to proceed.

So, having eaten and found my way through a very lenient passport control (I could keep my belt on, for example), a familiar sense of relaxation took hold of me at the gate. I think it’s like when you run and the initial pain passes and you get into it, and then reaches a sunny spot or a downhill stretch. I sat down stretching my legs in a airy hall with a view of a summery airport (an unseasonal heat is coming to its end this Friday), well fed with the knowledge I have just a short 1,5h flight left. I still have to consciously avoid thinking about family, but I think that the adventure of being half around the globe will balance that soon.

At Port Elizabeth Ian and Jan had booked a shuttle bus which took me under a full moon to Grahamstown. As I understand it public transport isn’t that extensive in South Africa, but the motorway we used was very nice and was evidently undergoing improvements. Well at the hotel I was welcomed by my supervisor from Uppsala University, Professor Jan Boelhouwers, and it was straight to bed.