In Search of the South African Rainbow

The day we arrived in South Africa, we drove to Entabeni in search of the South African rainbow. The airport expressway was flanked by burnt grassland. Our guide explained that because South Africa has a very volatile and dry climate, in winter it is difficult to grow valuable crops. Farmers therefore burn off the dry grass to prevent spontaneous fires that endanger crops, property, and people.

Because I was wearing a Japanese-style cap, when we stopped at a gas station, a friendly South African man I met spoke to me in Japanese.

Entabeni, which is about three hours' drive from Johannesburg, is a very unspoiled game reserve. On both sides of the highway to the game reserve we saw scores of local people hoping to hitch a ride. We wondered how long they would have to wait, for there were no villages or roadside shops anywhere in sight, and the few cars on the highway drove past at high speed.

In Entabeni we had a chance encounter with a group of young people sponsored by Cathay Pacific. Bony, the campsite manager, gave us a very warm welcome and showed us to the state-of-the-art tent in which we were to spend the night. To our surprise, there was even a shower in it, which is not half bad considering that we were sleeping in the wilderness. Bony warned us to keep our tent zipped closed to prevent small animals from getting in. He told us that one morning he had seen a lion sitting right next to the tent!

A game drive is an animal safari in an open jeep. When we set out in the afternoon, the weather was mild, but in the evening it got very cold, and we had to wrap ourselves in the blankets we found on the car seats. We all had runny noses, but that didn't dampen our enthusiasm: we grabbed our cameras and took one photo after another. There was also an elderly Dutch couple in our vehicle. After nightfall, Bony used a searchlight to look for animal tracks. To me, the most exciting thing was seeing lions with my own eyes! The lion's roar is something else again: it really makes your heart stop.

When we got back to the camp that night, attentive staff made hot chocolate for us, which hit the spot and gave us much-needed warmth. The people of Entabeni were very easy to get along with, but I must say that the drinks they served were very expensive. One Coke cost 11.60 rand, which is NT$67. Even a glass of water cost R10, which is NT$60. I also mailed some postcards from Entabeni. You can mail a postcard from South Africa to anywhere in the world for R4 (NT$24).

I was a little envious of the Dutch couple as they enjoyed a romantic glass of wine together. Because our campsite was a small distance from the main camp, and there are no walls around Entabeni, animals were able to get near us. When we turned in, Bony had to walk us to our tent with a gun. It was a strange experience.

Bony, our guide, picks up some elephant droppings. He explains that they contain grass, bits of wood, and even stones which help the elephant digest. Surprisingly, the droppings don't smell of anything much.

Cape Town is a charming city with a European feel to it. We were unexpectedly upgraded to business class on the flight from Johannesburg. Mark, our guide, was learned and well informed. Cape Town was South Africa's first city, and is for this reason also known as the Mother City. Its magnificent architecture more than made up for the tiring flight. It may have been because she was overwhelmed by the beautiful scenery, but Fu Chieh left her knapsack on a mountain top. She only noticed that she'd lost it when we planned to go the free market. We rushed back to the mountain to look for the knapsack, and came across a good-hearted person who had found it and who returned it to Fu Chieh. This was one of several pleasant surprises during this trip.

Going to Cape Town was like coming back to civilization. We stayed in the swanky Holiday Inn, and were finally able to take a hot shower. South African flea markets are remarkable. The locals who keep the stalls mainly sell handicraft articles, and expect you to haggle.

Seals are a protected species in South Africa. An island near Cape Town that has been specially set aside as a seal habitat is a popular tourist destination. We also went for a wine tasting, visited an old aristocratic mansion, and saw my favorite Porsche. I felt a real sense of achievement signing my name in Chinese in a guest book full of English signatures.

Soweto still bears the scars of racial conflict. Today, 99% of the township's population is black, and the gap between rich and poor is huge. The photo shows a wealthy black person's house.

Driving to the Cape of Good Hope we saw many strange things. Ostriches are found in the tropics and penguins in the Antarctic. But on our way to see penguins, an ostrich blocked our path. In South Africa it is impossible not to marvel at the wonder of nature. Many tourists, especially from mainland China, go there to see penguins. They make sure to get their photos taken to prove that they have been here. I also took some pictures for mainland tourists, and I wondered whether a young woman who had her photo taken was more interested being photographed than in the penguins.

As I stood atop the Cape of Good Hope, with the Indian Ocean to my left and the Atlantic to my right, I thought of the Portuguese explorers who first rounded the Cape, and felt I was conquering the whole world.

Mark, our guide, had an interesting background. He was born in South Africa, but spent half his life in Britain as a political exile. His parents still live there. During the apartheid period, his family were the victims of oppression and sought political asylum in Britain. Mark is the only one in his family to have returned to South Africa. As I took a photo of him at the top of the Cape of Good Hope, I realized how he must have been treated under apartheid. He said, "Some things just should not happen!" which coming from his lips I found deeply moving.

In the evening, we had a meal at a restaurant called the Africa Cafe that was decorated in an African style. Every dish was an African specialty from Mozambique, Morocco, Burkina Faso, Chad, and other countries in the continent. Before eating, we rinsed our hands with water perfumed with essential oil. The waiter told us the country of origin of every dish, and we ate the food with our hands, as is the traditional custom in Africa.

Soweto Church still bears the scars of racial conflict, including bullet holes and tables broken with rifle butts. The missing hands of the statue of Jesus remind us that the struggle for justice and racial equality is not over.

On the way to the Garden Route, we visited an ostrich farm, where we admired the ostriches and were then treated to a sumptuous meal of ostrich meat. It was a strange feeling. South Africa is a vast country, a fact that was brought home to us during the three hours we traveled to the Garden Route. Mark drove very fast most of the way.

Then we drove to the Cango Caves, a natural wonder formed out of stalactites. Every nook and cranny of the cave is extraordinary, as if carved by spirits. We were surprised to learn that nature can create formations of such beauty underground. Most tourists only see the first half of the cave. We asked permission to go into the rear part, and to do so we had to crawl and clamber for more than an hour, sometimes moving sideways and sometimes lying on our backs. The most challenging part was climbing up the mouth of caves. Dies, our guide, was a charming young woman. She asked me if we eat ants in Taiwan. I told her that we like to eat all sorts of things in Taiwan, but that I'd never eaten ants. She also taught me a few words of the local language. It was a wonderful experience.

We spent the night in a top-class resort. Our log cabin had a living room, kitchen, fully equipped bathroom, oven, microwave oven, induction cooker, bowls and plates. Everything needed was there. Outdoors we had a sundeck overlooking a river. Since we were only spending one night in the cabin and wanted to take advantage of all its creature comforts, we got up early the next day to make breakfast. We had instant noodles we'd brought from Taiwan. Even Mark ate them with gusto.

This small lake on the road to Tsitsikamma attracts many wild sheep and eagles that show no fear of man.

Tsitsikamma is a national park in the Eastern Cape which boasts many primeval forests and animals. On the road to Tsitsikamma, we stopped in a small town where I bought tangerines from a roadside peddler which I planned to give to the people who worked at the mountain resort.

It's a two-hour drive up a mountain road from the entrance to Tsitsikamma to the Kouga Bushcamp. The camp is in an area almost empty of people and is surrounded by mountains. Wild sheep graze by the road and hawks soar in the sky. South Africa has truly enchanting landscapes. If you had to pay to enjoy the beauty of nature, I would have gone broke in South Africa.

Our group consisted of four tourists and nine park rangers. We walked for a quarter of an hour to the Kouga Bushcamp, which was located in a ravine. The tents were pitched in trees and the toilet was partially exposed to public view. There was no flush toilet, and the shower, which had no door but just a curtain of bamboo and cloth, was also partially in the open air. To get hot water, we first had to chop wood. It was a real back-to-nature experience.

Wearing wetsuits, we carried a rubber dinghy to a ravine stream and went boating. The water was ice-cold! And the strangest thing was that the water was crystal-clear but there were no fish in it. We were soaked through when we got back to the camp, and dried our shoes by the campfire. To get supper ready, the rangers kneaded flour and washed vegetables.

That night, we all sat around a stove fire and talked about religion, life, and whatnot. One of the rangers, an American girl, was spending her summer in South Africa getting some work experience. Our tent was pretty small, the night was cold, and daybreak was even colder. The next day we did rock climbing with all the necessary equipment. It was terribly exciting!

Ricky, our guide, was a very interesting man. His mother tongue was Afrikaans, and he could make all sorts of strange sounds and also imitate some animal calls. As we left Kouga Bushcamp to return to civilization, he invited us to stop by his home.

At the Africa Café you eat food with your hands, as is the traditional custom in Africa, but first you rinse them with perfumed water.

Before 1994, black South Africans had a very low social status and suffered all manner of discrimination, which led to the bloody Soweto uprisings.

Three different classes of black people coexist in Soweto: upper-class blacks who live in posh houses, middle-class workers, and the very poor who live in slums. Remarkably, these three classes live side by side: In Soweto, you can see Western-style multi-story buildings in reinforced concrete being built right next to a slum whose inhabitants barely have enough to eat.

During our visit to Soweto, we met two black children who approached us not to beg but to say hello simply out of curiosity. Their eyes were full of purity and sincerity.

Standing in front of Soweto Church and leaning on pillars that still bear bullet holes, I could not help but think about the bloody sacrifice South African blacks made to achieve democracy. As I sat on what used to be Nelson Mandela's church pew, I imagined what must have been his frame of mind during the struggle for equal rights for blacks and the more than ten years he was imprisoned on Robben Island. I wondered about the sense of gratitude he must have felt on going back to the church after the black people of South Africa won power.

In the church stands a statue of Jesus whose hands have been broken off, as if to remind us all that the struggle for justice and equality is not over. The words written on a fountain outside sum up the anti-apartheid struggle: Remember and Forgive

This is Mark, our guide, whose parents were political refugees during the apartheid period. This photo, taken on the Cape of Good Hope, is one of his favorites.

Aren't penguins supposed to live in the Antarctic? These small South African penguins live in a sub-tropical climate. But who's the star in this picture: the penguins or the pretty girl?

A slum dwelling a few hundred meters from posh houses in Soweto.

The Africa Café serves specialties from all over Africa.

A Dutch couple on their "routine" honeymoon, who came along with us on the game drive, enjoy a romantic glass of wine.

On the way to the Garden Route there are many vineyards that produce world-famous wine. The winemaker who lives in this mansion also owns a Porsche!

The Cango Caves, with their many stalactites, are a natural wonder. Tourists are usually only allowed to visit the first half of the caves. We were given permission to go into the rear part, and entered some tunnels that are still being explored.

At the Tsitsikamma national park our shower was partially covered with a curtain made of bamboo and cloth. Before taking a shower, women made sure no one was within eyeshot.

The day we arrived in South Africa, the ROC representative hired a car and a guide for us.

When going on a safari in an open jeep, you have to make sure you don't stick out your arms, so that wild animals will think the vehicle is a large beast.

Signing my name in Chinese in the vineyard's guest book, which was full of English signatures.

Our guide would not let us go into the slum, because a journalist once disappeared there. But friendly children from Soweto approached to say hello simply out of curiosity.