The South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, I was told upon my arrival, has everything, from snowboarding in the morning to surfing in the afternoon. And from the itinerary that Swize, from the local tourist board, handed me, it looked like I would be doing it all: a trip to a game reserve and a Zulu village; a tour of the townships and Oribi Gorge; micro-lighting over the Valley of a Thousand Hills; whale- and dolphin-watching; and so on.
All this would have to be packed around the reason I was in South Africa in the first place -- the Awesome Africa Music Festival, which took place Sept. 22-24 in the Shongweni Resources Reserve, about an hour from KwaZulu-Natal's main city of Durban. Awesome Africa might not be the name I would have chosen for a festival, but it is difficult to argue with. Some of Africa's greatest musicians, both local and from the wider continent, performed together with a smattering of international musicians.
After two days tracking down lions, rhinos, elephants and buffalo, I arrived at the festival site. Last year, the inaugural festival was situated in a beautiful location at the foot of a dam. However, this year a couple of rare black storks had also chosen the site to make their nest. Awesome Africa is part of the Living Treasures Project that combines elements of culture, community and the environment with eco-tourism and sustainable lifestyles, and living up to these convictions, the organizers switched the site to higher up in the hills. It still seemed like an ideal festival location to me, with a main stage set on a mercilessly wide and flat field, and a smaller stage at the bottom of a small valley, creating a natural amphitheater.