Chapter 12
Door: Sarajan Graanoogst
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Sarajan
10 November 2014 | Zuid-Afrika, Bloemfontein
"Planning my own transport in Africa is easy (or so I thought)"
Thinking I could get to the Big5 project near Hoedspruit form Zanchieta was a nice yet ‘slightly’ ambitious plan. I though waking up early enough to leave with the 7.00 shuttle bus to Jo’burg would give me enough time to arrange a bus in Jo’burg to Hoedspruit. It turned out I was wrong! I got to the airport, picked up some lunch and hurried to Park Station from where a city-to-city bus would presumably take me to Hoedspruit where I would be picked up to start work at the other project. I went to the station by train this time. It turned out to be a very modern and clean train. I suspect this had something to do with the prohibition of eating food at the train station or in the train.
After reaching the station I had to run around with a guy I just met. He was a poor shmuck who wanted to help me with carrying luggage and finding a bus to take me to wherever I wanted to go. He checked various companies, but with no results. There were either no busses or places left on busses that would go in the right direction. Afterwards he tried to arrange an individual taxi which turned out to cost as much as a plane-ticket to Hoedspruit (SAR 4000, equalling about €285). The final option I had (apart from waiting until the next day) was taking a group taxi. None of the group taxi’s however went to Hoedspruit. One supposedly went to a place nearby, but since the entire place from where the group taxi’s departed looked dodgy I practiced common sense and decided not to go.
After sitting down feeling disappointed and tired I decided to call Tanya (my contact person for the second project). She arranged for a shuttle bus to pick me up the next day at the airport and advised me to not stay at the bus station overnight, which left me with the question of where I would spend the night. Since most of the communication had gone via text messages I was able to send a text to Jamie-Lee in the meantime and she provided the solution albeit indirectly.
Since Ade, Mari and Mermaid had to go to Jo’burg in the afternoon as they were leaving for Kenya the next day to go to an orphanage for another volunteer project I might be able to tag along. An amusing phone call later it was arranged. And since they were staying in a suite with a master bedroom and another room with two single beds I was guaranteed a good rest (apart from the fact that I had to wake up crazy early to get to my bus on time).
The room they stayed in though was amazing! It was in a hotel/mall complex named ‘Genesis’. The room was glorious. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room with tv and nice couches, a kitchen with cupboards and a fridge included. It all looked beautiful, clean and classy.
After a nice rest I took a cab to the bus terminal at the airport the next morning. About 7 hours later I was in Hoedspruit and due to shopping my ‘handlers’ had to take care of we reached the camp 5 hours later (we had lunch in the meantime though). My ‘handlers’ seemed vastly different people than the ones I met at my previous project. Still, they made loads of South Park references so they can’t be bad right ;)? Eiffion, Mathew, IP and Cara (yes just one girl) will give instructions and put us volunteers (Joost, Niels and I) to work.
Quite funny was the fact that there are:
1. no girl volunteers
2. only Dutch volunteers
Thinking I could get to the Big5 project near Hoedspruit form Zanchieta was a nice yet ‘slightly’ ambitious plan. I though waking up early enough to leave with the 7.00 shuttle bus to Jo’burg would give me enough time to arrange a bus in Jo’burg to Hoedspruit. It turned out I was wrong! I got to the airport, picked up some lunch and hurried to Park Station from where a city-to-city bus would presumably take me to Hoedspruit where I would be picked up to start work at the other project. I went to the station by train this time. It turned out to be a very modern and clean train. I suspect this had something to do with the prohibition of eating food at the train station or in the train.
After reaching the station I had to run around with a guy I just met. He was a poor shmuck who wanted to help me with carrying luggage and finding a bus to take me to wherever I wanted to go. He checked various companies, but with no results. There were either no busses or places left on busses that would go in the right direction. Afterwards he tried to arrange an individual taxi which turned out to cost as much as a plane-ticket to Hoedspruit (SAR 4000, equalling about €285). The final option I had (apart from waiting until the next day) was taking a group taxi. None of the group taxi’s however went to Hoedspruit. One supposedly went to a place nearby, but since the entire place from where the group taxi’s departed looked dodgy I practiced common sense and decided not to go.
After sitting down feeling disappointed and tired I decided to call Tanya (my contact person for the second project). She arranged for a shuttle bus to pick me up the next day at the airport and advised me to not stay at the bus station overnight, which left me with the question of where I would spend the night. Since most of the communication had gone via text messages I was able to send a text to Jamie-Lee in the meantime and she provided the solution albeit indirectly.
Since Ade, Mari and Mermaid had to go to Jo’burg in the afternoon as they were leaving for Kenya the next day to go to an orphanage for another volunteer project I might be able to tag along. An amusing phone call later it was arranged. And since they were staying in a suite with a master bedroom and another room with two single beds I was guaranteed a good rest (apart from the fact that I had to wake up crazy early to get to my bus on time).
The room they stayed in though was amazing! It was in a hotel/mall complex named ‘Genesis’. The room was glorious. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room with tv and nice couches, a kitchen with cupboards and a fridge included. It all looked beautiful, clean and classy.
After a nice rest I took a cab to the bus terminal at the airport the next morning. About 7 hours later I was in Hoedspruit and due to shopping my ‘handlers’ had to take care of we reached the camp 5 hours later (we had lunch in the meantime though). My ‘handlers’ seemed vastly different people than the ones I met at my previous project. Still, they made loads of South Park references so they can’t be bad right ;)? Eiffion, Mathew, IP and Cara (yes just one girl) will give instructions and put us volunteers (Joost, Niels and I) to work.
Quite funny was the fact that there are:
1. no girl volunteers
2. only Dutch volunteers
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
