Easter Break Road Trip

Although it's been about a month since my last post, to avoid writing a seven page post, I'll be highlighting my experience renting a car and seeing more of South Africa.  From Thursday, March 29th, to Sunday, April 8th, I, along with my housemates Florian and Steve, rented a car and decided to explore South Africa outside of Cape Town.  Between Steve and I, we've got about 700 pictures, so the following are just the cream of the crop.

I do need to admit right off the bat that if you compare our actual distance traveled (as seen below) with my proposed route (see two posts ago) that we probably didn't even travel half of the distance that we had initially planned. This, however, allowed us to spend much less time on the road and more time seeing what these different places had to offer.

Here's a link to the a Google Maps route that roughly shows our path: http://g.co/maps/jfxh2

Day 1- Thursday, March 29th

After quickly packing after classes, we picked up the car and left Cape Town driving in the pouring rain. Our destination was the AfroVibe, a backpacker in Sedgefield that we had recommended to us. After arriving at about 9ish, we sat in darkness on the beach before calling it a night.

My compatriots and I pre-departure.

Day 2- Friday, March 30th

After a morning on the beach in windy and overcast weather, we were driven indoors as the rain rolled in.  Friday was mostly spent indoors getting to know some of the other travelers and hostel staff.  Feeling a bit claustrophobic, we drove to nearby Wilderness (a city, not just the wilderness) for some delicious pizza and a walk.  By that night, the rain had subsided and a beach fire was lit right outside of the hostel where we were able to have a few drinks and socialize.

Day 3- Saturday, March 31st

This is the day things started to get a bit more adventurous.  That morning, we hit up the local Sedgefield farmers market, then went back to Wilderness and rented two canoes for a day trip.

Yup, I brought a camera into the canoe.

After some time in the canoe, we pulled the canoes up onto a sand back and took a small pulley operated ferry across the river. From there, we took a short hike to a waterfall.  The waterfall was very cool, and after coming all that way, Florian and I decided to do a bit of swimming and climbing around.

Waterfall, and the river we swam across to check
out the cool mini cave that you may be able to see me in.

We eventually got our waterfall fix, retraced our steps, and departed for Plettenberg Bay.  Arriving in Plettenberg, we drove down to the beachfront where we took a short walk before stopping for dinner. There I had one of the best meals I've had so far, a green curry with chicken and a side of butternut with cinnamon. That night we met a Dutch student from our hostel who was studying in Stellenbosch, a university near UCT. The four of us visited a few bars before coming back to the outdoor fireplace on the balcony of our hostel, which overlooks the ocean and city. Gorgeous.

View from our balcony.

Day 4- Sunday, April 1st

Our next stop was Port Elizabeth, but along the way, we made two eventful stops. The first was Monkeyland. As the name might imply, Monkeyland is a monkey sanctuary where we entered an enormous netted enclosure where hundreds of monkeys live, many being rehabilitated after being kept as pets.  Our favorite monkey was a gibbon named Atlas, who, while swinging around, almost jumped on Flo.

Atlas, just chillin'

Soon after leaving Monkeyland, we arrived at the location of the highest bungee jump in the world. For details and to see the beautiful area that I saw as my life flashed before my eyes, check out their webiste: http://www.faceadrenalin.com/. Flo and Steve had been bungee jumping before, and didn't have to much interest in doing it again, so I was ridin' solo.  The best way I can describe it is to say it felt like a dream. It seemed unreal, and my brain essentially went into shock, where all I could do is look at the fast approaching ground, mouth gaping (as can be seen in my current Facebook profile picture).

I urge you to check out the link above to see
how beautiful this area is.

That night we stayed in Port Elizabeth, where we ordered pizza, played some guitar, and hit the sack.

Day 5- Monday, April 2nd

On Monday we drove through the Addo Elephant Park, where we saw some elephants, water buffalo, ostriches, warthog-ish things, and maybe a few other critters.

Leaving Addo around one, we had an eight hour drive to Coffee Bay. A few kilometers away from our hostel, we busted a tire driving on pothole ridden roads. Thankfully we were able to change the tire quickly and make it to our hostel, and when I say "we", I mean mostly Steve.

Day 6- Tuesday, April 3rd

Tuesday was spent on the stunning Coffee Bay coast. Taking short drive, we ditched the car and made our way along the coast. Along the way, we made some local friends who showed us some caves and spots to jump into the river.  Coffee Bay had some of the most stunning geography of the places we visited.

Day 7- Wednesday, April 4th

On a recommendation from a fellow traveler in Coffee Bay, we started headed inland to a town in the hills called Hogsback.  Locals and visitors have been known to relate this place to how some imagine The Shire in Lord of the Rings.  The hostel was one of my favorites. Very quiet and cozy, fireplaces in every building, including the bar where we ordered homemade pizzas (we like pizza) and watched soccer with the bartender.

Day 8- Thurday, April 5th

The next day we did some hiking through a forest and to a waterfall, with three dogs as our guides (one being three-legged).  Unfortunately, by the end of the hike, both Steve's camera and my own were dead, allowing for few pictures.

Looking out with the lil' waterfall at our back

Although I wish we had more time to spend here, and I would love to go back, our next stop would soon become my favorite stop of the trip.  That night we found ourselves back to the coast, at Wild Spirit Backpackers in Natures Valley.  Here's their website with some cool pics of the place and the area: http://www.wildspiritlodge.co.za/gallery/.  We just so happened to arrive hours before a concert by a low key artist Andrew James (lead singer and guitarist) and the Steady Tiger (drummer). After a homemade dinner, we sat in a small warm room with about 20/25 others and ordered a few drinks while listening to a live concert.

Day 9- Friday, April 6th

Friday morning we took a relatively short hike to yet another waterfall before driving down the the beach. At beach we did some hiking, some frisbee, and photography.

Slightly downstream of the waterfall

My current desktop background

That night, we spend hours at the lodge/outdoor bar area, playing a bit of guitar, and meeting travelers like ourselves; some foreign, some native.  One person I had the pleasure to meet was an ex-educational psychology professor and head of department at UCT who described his current work of writing fiction surrounding the various South African cultures, in order to provide a way for young South African students to learn about cultures different than their own.  I plan to do a bit of digging online to see if I can locate some of his recently published works.

I'm not sure what else to say about this place. It's difficult to express how amazing the hostel, it's owners, the beach, the lagoon, and the hills are without posting all of my pictures and writing for ages. But I must say, if there is anywhere I'd like to revisit, it would be here.

Day 10- Saturday, April 7th

On our final full day away from Cape Town, we drove to Oudtshoorn, an extremely ostrich oriented, very touristy community. When I say very "ostrich oriented", I mean that you couldn't go far without seeing ads for riding, feeding, or eating ostrich.  We first traveled to a small zoo where we got to see some 'gators, giant bats, big cats, birds, snakes, and some others as well. Next we traveled to some neat caves, where Florian intentionally stood in front of cool formations in order to be in as many pictures as possible.

Flo apparently didn't make it into our pictures,
just the pictures of strangers.

Day 11- Sunday, April 8th

Having a good night's sleep, we headed back to home base, taking the scenic route to get there.

Driving through the hills

Although we wished we would've had more time to spend traveling, we all felt a sense of home driving to the unmatched Cape Town.

I think I speak for the three of us when I say we couldn't be happier with how it turned out.  My summary is of course totally inadequate, and leaves out all too much, so if you have any questions or comments, I encourage you to contact me.  I wish I could share more of the pictures, but due to my limited internet capabilities, the majority of them will have to come when I'm back in the U.S.

Thanks for reading and I'll try to get back on track with my posting rhythm,

Cheers,
-Andrew