Traveling Rockhopper

Do you like drinking wine? South Africa is one of the big producers of wine.
Many grapes grown in Stellenbosch and the nearby area; and they are mostly used for wine production.
If you don’t drink wine, just visit the region to see lovely wineries and vineyards.

If you’re not lucky to spot all members of the Big Five, you can try to search for the “Ugly Five”. 😉
The Ugly Five is considered as the ugliest animals found in Africa. Well, obviously they are not extra pretty, but searching for them and observing their behavior is also nice!

Ugly Five animals are:
-hyena
-marabou stork
-warthog
-wildebeest
-vulture.

“Big Five” refers to the five most difficult animals in Africa to hunt (so-called “big five game”). This name was also adopted by wildlife guides, so tourists often talk about “big five” meaning 5 big animals they hope to see. Of course, I just wanted to see the animals, not hunt them!

Big five animals are:
-African lion
-African elephant
-Cape buffalo
-African leopard
-rhinoceros.

Nature is usually a reason for visiting South Africa, and it’s the perfect reason! 🙂
Stunning landscapes, plenty of animals and plants – a paradise for nature lovers. 🙂

While entering national parks in South Africa, you get kind of leaflet/map with information about wildlife in a given area. There are pictures and names of animals and plants, so you know what you can find there and then better remember everything. That’s a great thing! 🙂

If you search for wonderful landscapes – visit South Africa!
You’ll find so many stunning places in South Africa, i.e., mountains, desert, plateau, 2 oceans (Indian and Atlantic), and many more. 🙂

Afrikaans is one of the official languages of South Africa.
Afrikaans was derived from Dutch spoken by Dutch settlers in the period of Dutch colonization of South Africa. The majority of words of Afrikaans are of Dutch origin, however you can find there some words from other languages as well. Sometimes, the language is called as “African Dutch”.

I was asking a few people from South Africa about understanding Dutch and similarities between Dutch and Afrikaans – so the answers weren’t so clear; I think, with small problems, people speaking Dutch and Afrikaans can understand each others.

There are 11 official languages in South Africa! I already mentioned two of them: Afrikaans (developed from Dutch) and English (as a legacy of British colonization). However, Zulu is the most common language spoken in South Africa.

Many years ago, a friend told me a story about South Africa, that was hard to believe in. To make it short, it was about men raping babies and small children (virgins) to be cured for AIDS or to prevent from getting AIDS. It sounds like a horror, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, this kind of sexual violence is quite common, because many people have these false beliefs about HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention. I feel speechless how horrible it is… And, it actually spreads the disease even more…

HIV and AIDS are huge problems in South Africa. And sadly, there are probably more people with HIV and AIDS in South Africa than in any other country in the world.

The mining sector is very important in South Africa. Diamonds and gold made South Africa a rich country. However, everything has its own price…

I’ll quote this short text from Wikipedia and leave it without a comment:
“The mining and distribution of natural diamonds are subjects of frequent controversy such as concerns over the sale of blood diamonds or conflict diamonds by African paramilitary groups. The diamond supply chain is controlled by a limited number of powerful businesses, and is also highly concentrated in a small number of locations around the world.”

If you haven’t watched it yet, I can recommend here a movie from 2006 – Blood Diamond.

I wanted to write a few words about Nelson Mandela, because he was a very important person (“a hero”) in a recent history of South Africa. However, it’s quite a difficult task, so I’ll just mention some facts.

-Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a first black President of South Africa.
(Doesn’t it sound strange in an African country?)
-He was a president from 1994 to 1999.
-Mandela was against apartheid.
-He spent 27 years in prison!
-Nelson Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
-He died in 2013.

p.s. As you may realized, I put a “random” picture when I don’t have any appropriate one. Hopefully, you don’t mind it! (On the other hand, sometimes I have something particular in mind, e.g., “orange” animal in a post about Dutch Colonization or here a lighthouse while thinking about “bright” future, etc.)

Apartheid is defined as a racial segregation and discrimination that lasted in South Africa between 1948 and 1991. However the racial segregation in South Africa has much longer history, and even these days is not completely gone…

“The white minority controlled the much larger black majority.” – Is it already the past or still the current situation?

As a tourists in South Africa, you may have an impression, that’s a rich and modern country with many extremely poor people.

A few facts:
-An unemployment rate is very high and many South Africans live on less than 1 USD a day.
-There are many immigrants from poorer neighboring countries who came to South Africa hoping to improve their situation, but usually they are as poor as they were before leaving their own countries.
-The material status, is unfortunately often connected with the skin color.

More or less after the period of Dutch colonization, South Africa was colonized by the British Empire (during that time, there were a few years of Dutch occupation).
That period also influenced the language of South Africa, so these days, English is one of the official languages. The South African English sounds a bit like English from New Zealand, so it’s completely different from e.g., English from India.

In the ~17th century, South Africa was a Dutch colony. It was quite a short period in the history of South Africa.
However, it’s not forgotten from at least two main reasons:
-Many places in South Africa have names of Dutch origin.
-One of the official languages of South Africa (called Afrikaans) was derived from Dutch (more about it on 11th of July 2017).

South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, borders Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe; and completely surrounds the Kingdom of Lesotho.
The southern part of South Africa stretches along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

July on my blog, is going to be about beautiful South Africa.

My friend wanted to know what country I’m going to show in July, so she asked for a hint to guess by herself. I said, that I took there a direct flight from the Netherlands. Do you know what I meant by this? If not, I’ll explain it very soon (3rd of July 2017)! 🙂

Let’s start the journey! 🙂

And June is almost over, so I’m showing you the last picture from Ukraine.
How did you like to travel with me in June?
I hope, I managed to show you some interesting places in Ukraine. 🙂

If you think about visiting Ukraine, especially Kiev, have a look at this nice guide.
It was made by Vladyslav Tieriekhov for Eurovision 2017 (that took place in Kiev).

p.s. See you tomorrow in other exciting place! 🙂

Eupatoria (or Yevpatoria) is an interesting city with a long history.
It’s located in Crimea and it’s one of the main Black Sea resorts.

There are two places you cannot miss while being in Eupatoria:
– The Juma-Jami Mosque, from 1522;
and
– The wonderful Karaite Kenassa, seen in today’s picture.
Karaite Kenassa is the temple complex of Crimean Karaites. I was mostly impressed by its courtyards – simply beautiful! 🙂

Bakhchysarai is a nice town in central Crimea.
It’s lovely located in a valley, nearby mountains, so no wonder the region was inspiring for many; even for Russian poet Alexander Pushkin’s or Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz.

When you go to Bakhchysarai – you have to visit the impressive Khan’s Palace (then you understand my first impression about Crimea).

My visit to Ukraine was connected with my job. I went to the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory (CrAO) that is located in Nauchnyj, in Crimea.
I spent a few days in Crimea, so I had a chance for sightseeing nearby places.
It’s always nice when you can combine pleasure with work. 🙂