WARNING: exceptionally long (but highly interesting) post
ok wow, the last week and a half has been insane. during the week i had a paper to write, i went out a couple times, had some ridiculous roommate conflicts, and it was all very intense. On wednesday I went out to the shack i've been building and we painted it light blue. It was soo neat and the girl was so excited about. The house looks really nice. Painting out there was wild. All the drunk guys from the shebeen next door kept asking us if we had extra brushes and trying to help and then they'd say "well you guys must be professional painters because it looks great!" so funny. it was exhausting though to stand out in the sun all afternoon painting like that. Then friday i left for a road trip of the garden route with a random group of friends.
The garden route is one of the prized tourist attractions of south africa, as well as a beach destination for wealthier families from jo'burg. we left around noon and drove 5 hours to a town called wilderness. driving out there was beautiful because it's just barren grassland interspersed with farms for hours and hours. rural africa is extremely different from town. also we were trying to find a cd player for our rental car (a white mercedes) and no towns had electronic stores, and the ones that did only sold outdated, used technology. inconvenient. Once we go to wildnerness we had some trouble finding the proper campsites so we stayed in a beautiful hostel called "the beach house." We braaied some burgers and s'mores and then went down to the beach to hang out and play "never have i ever" as a way of getting to know each other. Since our group was such a motley crew we didn't really know each other very well at the beginning, but now... now we know a lot, maybe too much. some kids slept on the beach, but i was freezing and felt that since i was paying for a bed, i would sleep in it.
Saturday morning we woke up and headed to oudtshoorn (stopping at hi-fi warehouse first for a cd player). Oudtshoorn was celebrating day 1 of their famous arts festival so we stopped by that to see some minstrels and some afrikaans teeny boppers. pretty entertaining. after that we headed to an ostrich farm to ride the ostriches. That was hilarious. The jockeys made the boys go first and kris got bucked off his ostrich and then the ostrich fell on top of him. We couldn't stop laughing. For the girls they escorted us around and it was a lot more tame. You sit on the butt of the ostrich and hold on to its wings. and you have to lean back really far so that you feel like you are going to fall off. Then we headed to a wildlife reserve and saw a bunch of crocodiles, cheetahs, flamingos, vultures, etc. a few kids went "diving" with the crocs, but i didn't because i thought it was a waste of money. All they do is put you in a cage and dunk it halfway in the shallow water next to a hot, bored and sleeping crocodile. i was content to watch from 10 ft away. The best part about the wildlife place was actually the gift shop. They had these hilarious t-shirts that showed crocodiles in various sexual positions and it said "doing it for conservation." I thought this was highly inappropriate for a family attraction. After this we went to the cango caves and had a tour. The caves are amazing and some of the formations inside are up to 1.5 million years old. In each open room there was some cheesy story about the formations and their shapes so tha they could keep the tours interesting. Then we drove back to wilderness and camped in the wilderness national park. It was a beautiful clear night and we could see so many stars. We had to dig our own fire pit, which was probably illegal, and then we still froze all night. It was worth it though to wake up to crazy birds chirping literally right next to us.
Sunday morning we went to a place called eden adventures in the national park and went on a canoe and hike up to a waterfall. We got there nice and early and it was great. It was great to be active and then once we got to the waterfall it was incredible. We jumped in the water, which was strangely colored because of all the tannins so it looked like we were swimming in iodine, plus it was freezing! but we persevered and swam underneath the waterfall. Some girls decided to skinny dip, even though we weren't the only people at the waterfall. i didn't join them, mostly because they all weigh about 100 lbs. While they were in the water the boys decided to put their suits on top of a rock where the girls couldn't reach them. Then for about 20 minutes the girls tried to strategize about how to get the suits. One girl actually started climbing the rock, but it hurt too much and she was completely exposed. finally the boys retrieved the suits. Once we got back we went out to lunch in town and then moved on down the highway. our next stop was plettenberg bay. we stayed at a great hostel called albergo backpackers. We all rested for the afternoon then made eggs and bacon for dinner and went out to the local bar, flashbacks. We didn't stay long since we were exhausted.
Monday we woke up at 5 am to go on a private sunrise elephant walk at knysa elephant park. They have 6 elephants there that they use for study and mostly for public education. We met all the elephants and then walked with them around the park. The sunrise was unbelievable. The colors of red and purple were so vivid, my pictures do not do them justice. also the elephants were so cute and friendly. We learned a lot about them from our guides who were all from zimbabwe. We got to pet the elephants, take pictures with them, feed them. I actually put my hand in an elephant's mouth, on its tongue. Then we got to sit a thatched roof hut and eat a delicious breakfast. It was an amazing morning. After that we had to drop two people off back at our hostel because they had to leave early to do school work. We had time to kill though so we stood around our cars in the middle of town blasting country music. It turned out that basically all 9 of us loved country music so it became the theme genre of the weekend. After we dropped them off we headed to tsitsikamma national park for bungee jumping. We were headed to Bloukrans bridge, the longest bridge in Africa and the Guinness book of World Records certified highest commercial bungee jump in the world. It was 216 meters above a dramatic river gorge. We got all suited up in our harnesses and then they wrote our weights on our hands (this was terrible and i never want to have my weight displayed that nonchalantly again). They walked us out to the bungee site and i was forced to go first. They put all this crap around my ankles and forced me to the edge. Standing at the edge knowing i had to jump off of it was easily the scariest moment. Well i didn't really understand the directions properly and i wound up jumping wrong. They said to put your arms out to the side and look up, then jump. Well i did that, but somehow i didn't go head first and went feet first. So i was falling feet first for part of it until gravity snapped me down real fast. Instead of having a graceful dive i was bouncing around and getting whiplash. I was TERRIFIED. I got really sick to my stomach and dizzy from all the bouncing that wasn't supposed to be happening. and i was freaking out, you can see in the video my hands fanning my face, and i think i was crying. anyways, once they finally pulled me back up i could hardly move, breathe or talk. Everyone was so graceful and came back up smiling and excited. So moral of the story is, i don't plan on doing that ever again.
After the jump we all grabbed a pint of beer and watched the videos of our falls. Everyone was laughing so hard during mine that one girl actually spit her drink out - all over me. not cool. We decided to just buy the pictures of our jumps and not the videos. After that we had lunch in a roadside restaurant and it was on to our next destination. We went to jeffrey's bay, the surf capital of the garden route. The bay was beautiful and since it was in the eastern cape and on the indian ocean the water was a little warmer. Our hostel, the island vibe, was really fun and had a very happening bar. We went to hang out on the sand dunes for a little while and then me and two other girls came back from the beach and hung out in the hostel bar all night. We made friends with the bartenders and with a bunch of the other travellers. I was in charge of picking all the music and they had a bunch of fun hats for all the cool people to wear.
In the morning we woke up, swam, made pancakes and headed out for the long trip home. Today we drove from 10:30 until almost 9. some of the most fun parts of the trip were just when we were hanging out and driving. We played silly car games, sang garth brooks at the tops of our lungs, tried to figure out our busted mercedes. Which we discovered had an oil leak so we kept having to refill the oil. also, the speakers vibrated and squeeked whenever we played rap because they couldn't handle the base. The main highway along the coast is called the N2 and it's 2 lanes for most of the way. The slow cars drive in the shoulder so that people can pass them. We drove by countless numbers of cattle, some sheep and had to quickly break numerous times for families of baboons to cross the road. all in all, it was amazing. now i have prepare for my fall break trip to botswana on saturday!!
ok wow, the last week and a half has been insane. during the week i had a paper to write, i went out a couple times, had some ridiculous roommate conflicts, and it was all very intense. On wednesday I went out to the shack i've been building and we painted it light blue. It was soo neat and the girl was so excited about. The house looks really nice. Painting out there was wild. All the drunk guys from the shebeen next door kept asking us if we had extra brushes and trying to help and then they'd say "well you guys must be professional painters because it looks great!" so funny. it was exhausting though to stand out in the sun all afternoon painting like that. Then friday i left for a road trip of the garden route with a random group of friends.
The garden route is one of the prized tourist attractions of south africa, as well as a beach destination for wealthier families from jo'burg. we left around noon and drove 5 hours to a town called wilderness. driving out there was beautiful because it's just barren grassland interspersed with farms for hours and hours. rural africa is extremely different from town. also we were trying to find a cd player for our rental car (a white mercedes) and no towns had electronic stores, and the ones that did only sold outdated, used technology. inconvenient. Once we go to wildnerness we had some trouble finding the proper campsites so we stayed in a beautiful hostel called "the beach house." We braaied some burgers and s'mores and then went down to the beach to hang out and play "never have i ever" as a way of getting to know each other. Since our group was such a motley crew we didn't really know each other very well at the beginning, but now... now we know a lot, maybe too much. some kids slept on the beach, but i was freezing and felt that since i was paying for a bed, i would sleep in it.
Saturday morning we woke up and headed to oudtshoorn (stopping at hi-fi warehouse first for a cd player). Oudtshoorn was celebrating day 1 of their famous arts festival so we stopped by that to see some minstrels and some afrikaans teeny boppers. pretty entertaining. after that we headed to an ostrich farm to ride the ostriches. That was hilarious. The jockeys made the boys go first and kris got bucked off his ostrich and then the ostrich fell on top of him. We couldn't stop laughing. For the girls they escorted us around and it was a lot more tame. You sit on the butt of the ostrich and hold on to its wings. and you have to lean back really far so that you feel like you are going to fall off. Then we headed to a wildlife reserve and saw a bunch of crocodiles, cheetahs, flamingos, vultures, etc. a few kids went "diving" with the crocs, but i didn't because i thought it was a waste of money. All they do is put you in a cage and dunk it halfway in the shallow water next to a hot, bored and sleeping crocodile. i was content to watch from 10 ft away. The best part about the wildlife place was actually the gift shop. They had these hilarious t-shirts that showed crocodiles in various sexual positions and it said "doing it for conservation." I thought this was highly inappropriate for a family attraction. After this we went to the cango caves and had a tour. The caves are amazing and some of the formations inside are up to 1.5 million years old. In each open room there was some cheesy story about the formations and their shapes so tha they could keep the tours interesting. Then we drove back to wilderness and camped in the wilderness national park. It was a beautiful clear night and we could see so many stars. We had to dig our own fire pit, which was probably illegal, and then we still froze all night. It was worth it though to wake up to crazy birds chirping literally right next to us.
Sunday morning we went to a place called eden adventures in the national park and went on a canoe and hike up to a waterfall. We got there nice and early and it was great. It was great to be active and then once we got to the waterfall it was incredible. We jumped in the water, which was strangely colored because of all the tannins so it looked like we were swimming in iodine, plus it was freezing! but we persevered and swam underneath the waterfall. Some girls decided to skinny dip, even though we weren't the only people at the waterfall. i didn't join them, mostly because they all weigh about 100 lbs. While they were in the water the boys decided to put their suits on top of a rock where the girls couldn't reach them. Then for about 20 minutes the girls tried to strategize about how to get the suits. One girl actually started climbing the rock, but it hurt too much and she was completely exposed. finally the boys retrieved the suits. Once we got back we went out to lunch in town and then moved on down the highway. our next stop was plettenberg bay. we stayed at a great hostel called albergo backpackers. We all rested for the afternoon then made eggs and bacon for dinner and went out to the local bar, flashbacks. We didn't stay long since we were exhausted.
Monday we woke up at 5 am to go on a private sunrise elephant walk at knysa elephant park. They have 6 elephants there that they use for study and mostly for public education. We met all the elephants and then walked with them around the park. The sunrise was unbelievable. The colors of red and purple were so vivid, my pictures do not do them justice. also the elephants were so cute and friendly. We learned a lot about them from our guides who were all from zimbabwe. We got to pet the elephants, take pictures with them, feed them. I actually put my hand in an elephant's mouth, on its tongue. Then we got to sit a thatched roof hut and eat a delicious breakfast. It was an amazing morning. After that we had to drop two people off back at our hostel because they had to leave early to do school work. We had time to kill though so we stood around our cars in the middle of town blasting country music. It turned out that basically all 9 of us loved country music so it became the theme genre of the weekend. After we dropped them off we headed to tsitsikamma national park for bungee jumping. We were headed to Bloukrans bridge, the longest bridge in Africa and the Guinness book of World Records certified highest commercial bungee jump in the world. It was 216 meters above a dramatic river gorge. We got all suited up in our harnesses and then they wrote our weights on our hands (this was terrible and i never want to have my weight displayed that nonchalantly again). They walked us out to the bungee site and i was forced to go first. They put all this crap around my ankles and forced me to the edge. Standing at the edge knowing i had to jump off of it was easily the scariest moment. Well i didn't really understand the directions properly and i wound up jumping wrong. They said to put your arms out to the side and look up, then jump. Well i did that, but somehow i didn't go head first and went feet first. So i was falling feet first for part of it until gravity snapped me down real fast. Instead of having a graceful dive i was bouncing around and getting whiplash. I was TERRIFIED. I got really sick to my stomach and dizzy from all the bouncing that wasn't supposed to be happening. and i was freaking out, you can see in the video my hands fanning my face, and i think i was crying. anyways, once they finally pulled me back up i could hardly move, breathe or talk. Everyone was so graceful and came back up smiling and excited. So moral of the story is, i don't plan on doing that ever again.
After the jump we all grabbed a pint of beer and watched the videos of our falls. Everyone was laughing so hard during mine that one girl actually spit her drink out - all over me. not cool. We decided to just buy the pictures of our jumps and not the videos. After that we had lunch in a roadside restaurant and it was on to our next destination. We went to jeffrey's bay, the surf capital of the garden route. The bay was beautiful and since it was in the eastern cape and on the indian ocean the water was a little warmer. Our hostel, the island vibe, was really fun and had a very happening bar. We went to hang out on the sand dunes for a little while and then me and two other girls came back from the beach and hung out in the hostel bar all night. We made friends with the bartenders and with a bunch of the other travellers. I was in charge of picking all the music and they had a bunch of fun hats for all the cool people to wear.
In the morning we woke up, swam, made pancakes and headed out for the long trip home. Today we drove from 10:30 until almost 9. some of the most fun parts of the trip were just when we were hanging out and driving. We played silly car games, sang garth brooks at the tops of our lungs, tried to figure out our busted mercedes. Which we discovered had an oil leak so we kept having to refill the oil. also, the speakers vibrated and squeeked whenever we played rap because they couldn't handle the base. The main highway along the coast is called the N2 and it's 2 lanes for most of the way. The slow cars drive in the shoulder so that people can pass them. We drove by countless numbers of cattle, some sheep and had to quickly break numerous times for families of baboons to cross the road. all in all, it was amazing. now i have prepare for my fall break trip to botswana on saturday!!
posted by kerry at 12:27 PM
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