Sunday – After a gorgeous scenic drive along the coast, the group stopped in Hermanus for whale-watching during lunch (we saw huge whales breach several times). Continuing in the day, we had 5 rounds at Birkenhead, a South African brewery, and then drove to the southernmost tip of Africa on Cape Agulhas where we played in two oceans simultaneously...because it's where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet! That evening, we were served ostrich meatloaf for supper. Stick with beef, just trust me on this one!
Monday - More scenic driving (actually, all driving would be considered “scenic” because the Garden Route is basically one large tourist attraction that stretches for hundreds of kilometers) before stopping at a funny roadside bar called Ronnie’s Sex Shop. In Afrikaans, the original name was Ronnie Se Shop, which means Ronnie’s Shop, but one night after several drinks, he and his friends added the additional “x” to the name and thus the present day, random tourist attraction… We all had a drink on the house (haha, the trip was definitely catered to college students, and as I have definitely acquired a taste for white wines, and sweet ones in particular, I still have no liking for most other alcoholic beverages) and then left underwear hanging from the rafters, a funny tradition growing out of the name. Next, we drove a bit further down the road to eat lunch while basking and relaxing in natural warm water springs. They were kind of dirty, though… Oh well, they felt good! In the afternoon, we went to the Cango wildlife ranch where we saw several bats, birds, fish, warthogs, hippos, mierkats, crocodiles, storks, lemurs, lions, tigers, cheetahs, and all kinds of snakes (puff adders, black mambas, king cobras, Burmese python, boa constrictor, etc.). Supper was Ostrich steak, which was much better than the meatloaf, and some ostrich sausage, which is another one of those things that no type of meat should ever be made into.
Tuesday – For breakfast, of course the meal had some part of an ostrich, but this time it was ostrich egg before going to tour the massive Cango Caves. We didn’t have time to take the adventurous section of the tour, which would have involved us basically wiggling through 18-inch cracks in rocks for about a kilometer. The reason for leaving early, though, was that we next went to an ostrich farm where we each RODE an ostrich, as well as other cool ostrich-related activities. After eating lunch at a jazzy little restaurant, we drove into the Eastern Cape (Think of South Africa as having 9 states, or provinces as they are called here, and the Eastern Cape is next to the Western Cape, which houses Cape Town and Stellenbosch) to the world's highest bungee jump! It was 216 meters tall (2 and a half football fields) and certified by Guiness Records, and I totally volunteered to jump first! And for those of you who might doubt that I actually jumped, that I don't seem like the "risk-taking type," I have several pictures and the DVD they made of it to prove my awesomeness!
Wednesday – We did a 1hr zip-line adventure through Tsitsikama Forest, then spent lunch and afternoon in a touristy town on the beach while several people went shopping. There were several cheap factory outlet stores for surf related stores like Quicksilver, Billabong, Jeep, and Element. That evening, we drove inland toward Addo National Elephant park and stayed overnight on an orange plantation in little African huts. It was so cool!
Thursday - 6 AM safari where we saw WILD elephants, cape buffalo, warthogs, ostriches, kudu, duiker, hartebeast (these last three are deerlike animals), monkeys, jackals, and lions. In fact, the three lions we saw actually walked mere feet from our frozen vehicle and laid in the grass about 8 meters from us (even the tour guide who works in the park was taking pictures)! So out of the big 5, which includes elephants, buffalo, rhinos, lions, and leopards, we saw 3. Not too shabby, I’d say, considering we haven’t yet been to Kruger National Park (we are going there mid-December). We stayed in the park finding animals until 12:30 and then spent the afternoon relaxing at the beach. There always seems to be a beach nearby here in South Africa… Yep, I knew I loved this place!
Friday – We began our drive back toward Cape Town, taking a few different routes so as to hit different attractions. The day’s first stop was at an elephant sanctuary where most of the group went in and walked, fed, and rode elephants. Afterward, we were scheduled to go sea kayaking but due to the windy weather, our afternoon activity was canceled so we just got extra chill time at the beach! Not that any of us were complaining :)
Saturday - We spent most of the day driving back, stopping occasionally at cool places like a scenic mountain pass, an Aloe Factory, and some others before arriving back in Stellenbosch. All in all, I’d say it was a pretty worthwhile trip. You know, I could get used to this whole idea of taking a vacation while on vacation. South Africa = Good choice to spend 6 months!
Oh, and since I’m on the topic of vacations, I would like to take this opportunity to announce the next big undertaking in my life. I have always wanted to learn a foreign language to the point of at least being conversationally competent, but have been unable to do so up to this point. Sure, I can understand a little Spanish (2 years in high school, and Josh speaks it fluently) and some Afrikaans (everyone here speaks it), and I can speak/read/write even more Spanish, Afrikaans, and some isiXhosa, but I would definitely not say that I have anything more than a rudimentary knowledge of each. Because of this, coupled with the amazing experience of studying abroad, Josh and I have decided to spend Spring of 2010 in Qingdao, China, taking a language intensive Mandarin Chinese course for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, for about 16 weeks. The Chinese school calendar for the spring begins around March 1 and ends about July 1, meaning that we would have to forego walking at our college graduation. Compared to spending a semester in China, though, that seems like a trade I’d be willing to make!
1 comment:
Wow! (That's all I have to say!)
Post a Comment