So spring/fall break started Saturday, March 26th. I was traveling with three other people along the Garden Route, which is the coastal area in between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth: a major tourist attraction. In the morning we boarded the Baz Bus, which is a bus that travels the Garden Route everyday picking up and dropping off passengers at the doors of their hostels and backpackers. The first day we spent 8 hours traveling through farmland, scrub brush, mountains, and forests and finally ended up in our first stop, Wilderness. We stayed at the Fairy Knowe backpackers, which was nestled in the woods and so so so tranquil and relaxing, it was the exact atmosphere I was looking for this vacation. Then we walked down to the main town area to get some food and stopped at this restaurant called Pomodoro. The meal ended up being one of the best I have had in South Africa. My pizza was incredible, my salad did not consist of iceberg lettuce (very unusual for SA) and to top it off we had cheesecake that was voted the “Best in South Africa.” Later we found out it is made by this local guy and with goats’ milk. Yum! It was mind-blowing; I don’t think I can ever eat cheesecake again. We walked back to our hostel in the dark and it was quite refreshing to be in a safe area where we could walk about and every house wasn’t covered in razor wire and electric fences.
The next day, Sunday, we went on a nice hike to a waterfall and then rented bikes to ride down and have a picnic on the beach. This hike also brought about the nicknames for our group. Karina was to be referred to as “BOOTS” because she was the only one of us with hiking boots that she would casually wear with any outfit throughout the trip. Also, “Boots” was the only one to develop blisters from hiking. Megan was to be known as “Scout” because of her fearless attitude, and her experience guiding boy scouts through the Canadian wilderness during the summer. Nathan was called “Legs,” though his name soon changed, because he had to hike his shorts up really high to wade through these pools of water at the waterfall and ended up showing off half his bum to a number of foreign families. I was given the rather obvious name of “Freckles” for reasons I have no need to explain. We then headed back to our hostel in time to clean up and hop on the baz bus. Our next destination was Storm’s River, and it was definitely a highlight of our trip. The night when we got in we were the only guests in the entire hostel and our receptionist/bartender, Freddie, took it upon himself to show us a good time. First, he started pumping Nathan full of shots because he was going to bungee jump the following morning. Do not ask me why anyone would think drinking a ton the night before bungeeing is a good idea. Then Freddie’s friend came over and we casually drank and played pool. Then they invited us to go to the township pub just around the corner. Freddie’s friend was actually a police officer, so it seemed fairly safe and we decided to go. The township pub was definitely an experience I don’t know how else to say it. It was cool to be there and experience it but it was also sobering as well as damn entertaining. We didn’t stay too long because we had a long day ahead of us but nonetheless by the time we got back, Nathan had sufficiently gotten himself sick, spending most of his night in the bathroom. Thus, his true nickname came into existence: “Chunder Thunder” or “Chunder Wonder” depending on ones mood (to chunder means to throw up in SA, if you didn’t get that one through the context clues).
Early the next day on Monday we got Nate’s ‘hanging’ (SAs version of hung over) ass up and headed to the Bungee site. This Bungee jump is touted as the highest in the world standing at 216 m, however, after some independent research it was discovered that it is not in fact the highest bungee jump but rather the highest from a single arch bridge (funny they seemed to leave that detail out…) It was a pretty crazy thing to watch and Karina and I ended up screaming our heads off when Nate jumped, don’t ask me why. After that we went into the Tsitsikamma National Park and hiked the Otter Trail, which is this phenomenal hike along the coast with crazy surf and boulders on one side and steep forest mountainside on the other. The trail ends at a waterfall that collects in a freezing cold pool. This was by far the highlight of the trip. Unfortunately, though, that afternoon we had to leave Storm’s River to go to Port Elizabeth for a daylong safari/game drive thing.
Our safari started at 10:00 Tuesday morning when we were picked up from our hostel. The tour started in Addo Elephant Park where were drove around and saw a bunch of elephants basically. It was incredible. Then we went to a private game reserve and saw a ton of different wildlife. To touch on a few, we saw impalas, wart hogs, lions, giraffes, rhinos, wildebeests, springbok (SA’s rugby team is named after this antelope), and hippos. Scout’s detailed field notes will be in the next post. Our guide, Barbara was so incredibly knowledgeable, you could ask her about anything and she knew the animals’ behavior to great precision. We were feed twice and we did a night game drive where we saw a porcupine. It was a really great experience and I was a little skeptical of this whole safari thing going in.
On Wednesday, we headed back west to a touristy town off a chain of lagoons, Knysna. We were there two nights and spent most of our time eating and going out to eat since there were both delicious and easily accessible restaurants. On Thursday, we did a little canoe trip down the Goukamma River along farmlands and hills. The weather was overcast and a little drizzly but still quite enjoyable. We did go out to a local bar in Knysna but it was just tragic, more tragic than even the township pub so Im not going to go into much detail on that.
Finally, come Friday we headed to George. We stayed at a cute little hostel there and the next day went inland about an hour to Outdshoorn to go to the Cango Wildlife Ranch. The drive to Outdshoorn actually really reminded me of New Mexico in some parts with vistas and red clay so that was pretty fun for me. Really the only reason we went to the Cango Wildlife Ranch was because we knew we could pet baby cheetahs and tigers there and besides that one attraction it was very underwhelming, especially after doing a safari in PE. And although I was reluctant to give that lame institution anymore of my money, I had to pet some cheetahs. The ones we petted were actually more like teenagers but still so amazing to be around. Plus cheetahs actually pur, like freaking house cats! So flipping cool.
The whole George/Outdshoorn experience was interesting though because it was the most white Afrikaaner place I have been to of yet. Everyone around you speaks in Afrikaans. This was awkward because I am currently negotiating this problematic inclination I have of thinking every white Afrikaaner is racist. And the truth is many white Afrikaaners are racist. Finally, that afternoon we left for Cape Town and by the grace of God got into CT at a reasonable time that evening. And alas, the trip was over.
I would love to attach pictures but there are just too many. If you want to see them, check out my facebook.
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