Rare Vertebrate: Where am I?

10FEB2011 (~3PM)
I am on a bus, seat 9, leaving Johannesburg, headed in the right direction, but not exactly according to plan. I am due to arrive more quickly and more cheaply than the train that I had originally arranged, but with considerable less comfort and boozing. Oh well. It turns out that the train (and by proxy, the passengers) suffered from the storied plague of Africanitis. I and many other passengers had already passed a decent amount of time before it pulled in--for instance, a coloured gentlemen (this is PC, I swear), headed to Kimberley with his sister and cute baby nephew had struck up a conversation with me. Patrick was very sweet with me, his sister, and the boy, but he also at one point suggested I hold the young one. By suggest, I mean to say, thrust into my apparently trust-worthy hands. Initial shock subsiding--along with the slightest fear that he was going to leave me with the thing--the baby got a few knee bounces and smiles, but was handed back after he saw his mother walk away and started to cry. I didn't take it personally--we had already bonded over a solid game of peekaboo when Patrick wasn't around. I cat-napped as the train idled, but was shaken awake by Patrick (perhaps an hour after the train had arrived) who told me that the train was not in service, and we would have to take a bus. Awesome.

To make a longer story into just the facts--well, here they are: as a crowd of ex-train passengers stood outside and stared at a single bus, I wandered over to some guys that looked like they might be on a trip like mine. Turns out they were from Swaziland, and had driven to JoBurg, wanted to catch the party train down to CT, and then fly back east in like 5 days. Together, we had our tickets exchanged for a cheaper bus ticket, and finally hopped on. All in all, it (and the ensuing 20 hour bus ride) was lesson number one of perhaps many in going with the flow.

In the bus I still got to see the land, which was one of the intentions of taking at train down. There was a loop of some Fela Kuti-sounding music going for a while. Eventually I switched on my iPod, took out some snacks, and tried to interpret the scenery, and the true beginning of my trip. I've had less of a feeling today of "what am I doing" and more of one like "where am I?" I've only ever been to Central America and Mexico (outside of the US), and in certain respects this place might be compared to Mexico, especially...though the comparison mostly breaks down after some reflection. JoBurg--the outskirts anyway--seemed modern, clean, fairly busy...and very black. Young too. I had been warned at the train station by an African Mama not to exit the building, but the people I saw all seemed like people anywhere--they looked like students, or working men, or mothers and children. My taxi driver had told me that some people were just desperate, and ready to take advantage of those they thought better off. I'll stick to that advice, but I look forward to learning more about how people are similar or different here than anywhere else in the world.

~8PM
The music has passed the time well, as well as/in spite of fitful, semi-upright sleep. I tried out the new Iron & Wine album (thanks Jamie) called "Kiss Each Other Clean." I was a little disappointed with the first go round, but he definitely deserves another listen. On the other hand, Yeasayer ("All Hour Cymbal"), Broken Bells, and more Dark Was the Night were great for this long road trip. I'm not looking forward to the day the music died, which I expect will be sometime in tomorrow's early morning.

11FEB2011
I didn't have music much after the sun rose, but I did have scenery. About 250 km (180 miles?) out of CT, the bus started to approach and then pass through some amazing mountain passes. I suppose this was the flip side to the boring Nevada-like landscapes. It was incredible, and then opened into farming and wine valleys, along with a quaint little town. The rest of the way to Cape Town was completely tolerable because of this scenery, and the increasing amount of civilization. I would arrive at the downtown CT bus station by 9:30AM, and a new leg of the trip would open up. Cheers.