Garden Route! Great times with great people.

I got out of Rondebosch! Success! A group of ten including me rented two really crappy cars to drive up the garden route for a four day road trip. It was unbelievably beautiful, even though I slept through most of the car rides through the beautiful scenery. Once all the plans were finalized, we were able to leave Highstead around two on Friday, made a few stops along the way, but made it to the first town in about six hours.

The first hostile was in a town called Wilderness, which was the coolest little place. We grabbed fish and chips real quick before checking into the hostile where we had our own house with a kitchen and a big room of bunks for everyone. Luckily we were a group of ten so we perfectly filled out the hostile dorms, and didn’t have to share with any randoms.  This one was tucked back into the woods so there were incredible views out of every window, and a bunch of hammocks and little tables all over the place to relax on. There was an outdoor pool table and fireplace bar area for everyone, and then we had our own patio outside the house where we all sat around to play games that night. It was awesome getting to know everyone better. In our group there were eight people from the CIEE program that I’m in, and two from another program, so it was nice to mix it up and all hang out together.

Since the reason for this long weekend is National Women’s Day, we woke up on Saturday and the boys of the group had made eggs and toast for everyone. After eating and paying for the hostile (110 rand = 15 dollars!), we headed to Victoria Bay, which was this nice little beach with a lot of locals who let the surfers in our group borrow their boards while everyone else hung around and grabbed coffee to keep us warm while we sat on the beach for a while. Next it was time to get back in our cars and head to a place where we could rent canoes and row to a waterfall. We buddied up in the boats and rowed until the river ended, and then hopped off to hike for another half hour or so until we hit a waterfall that everyone went swimming in. After that it was time to make the trip to the next hostile, which was about an hour drive away to Knysna, and this time the hostile was a little more crowded, which was fun because we got to meet other groups of backpackers staying there. There was a big fire pit outside the main house where we all sat around all night talking and sharing stories.

It wasn’t a late night on Saturday because my group is crazy and wanted to go jump off a bridge on Sunday morning. We woke up early to go grab breakfast in town because we had an eleven am reservation to go jump. South Africa has the Guinness record for the highest bungee jump bridge in the world, and for some reason they all thought it would be awesome to go jump off too. I wasn’t that into it, especially once I saw it, and immediately wanted to puke the breakfast I just had.

I was talked into at least getting on the bridge by the rest of my group, and people from CIEE that were there and who had already jumped off say it was incredible and I’ll regret it if I don’t. So I got harnessed up, signed my life away on a waiver, and starting walking toward the bridge with the rest of my group. My first hint should have been the fact that I couldn’t even look down walking across the bridge and needed someone to hold my hand before we even got to the jump point. But, I made it to the middle, where they have a DJ on top playing loud music, probably to drown out the common sense raging in my head telling me not to jump, and a bunch of big men up there who tie you up to the bungee. My group was stoked to jump, and most of them wanted a running start or to go off backwards. Crazy people. So I was fourth to go in my group, and the guy just comes and grabs you out of the group and starts tying you up before you know what’s happening. I was sweating everywhere and was ready to throw up, and to make a long story short (the long story version I have on video, since I didn’t think anyone would believe me without it), I eventually was just pushed off by the big men since I wouldn’t jump by myself. It’s a five second fall that feels like about three hours. Then as I was hanging, the man who pushed me repels down to get me and brings me back up. As soon as he came down I said, ‘get me back on the bridge, now’, and then wasn’t able to talk for another ten minutes on the bridge until I stopped shaking.

It was rough. The guy then walked me back to land and dropped me off at the viewing bar which overlooks the bridge, which is where I realized that anyone in the bar before got to watch my pre-jump/push freak out on the big screen TV on the wall, which just plays whatever is happening on the bridge for everyone to see. Then I had to go to the souvenir shop so I could watch it too. Soo… even worse than I remembered. But I bought it anyway, to prove to myself that I actually did it. Plus I got a package deal if I also bought a t-shirt… and I definitely deserved a t-shirt after that.

I don’t regret doing it, but I never ever want to again. Ever.

So by the time my whole group got back on land talking about how awesome it was, I had stopped shaking, and we were able to get back in the car to go to an elephant sanctuary for a while. You could pet the elephants and walk with them or ride them if you wanted to. They were beautiful, and I realized that that activity would have been much more my speed if I could have just hung out there all day. There was a nice restaurant, and we hung out there for a while before going to look for another hostile for the night, since the jump wore us all out… but mostly just me.

Leaving the elephant sanctuary it started storming, but luckily we came across Buffalo Bay Backpackers Lodge, which was right on the water. Literally, high tide waves basically lapping up against the common room. This place had a giant common room built around a huge fire pit and a wall of windows. With the water being so rough, it was awesome to have the windows there and see the rain and the storm with the big waves right outside. It would have been even cooler if it were really nice out, because we could have actually hung out on the beach instead of by the fire all night, or they have tents outside you can camp in on the sand instead of the dorms, and a bunch of hammocks and picnic tables and grills and things that would have been fun if it were nicer out. But it was still fun because since it was so cold, everyone who was staying there that night was huddled around the fire pit. Including these two really cute Jack Russell puppies who slept next to the fire the whole night, and were still there the next morning when we woke up. We met families that were backpacking and there were couples and just old people who just wanted to travel everywhere. It was a really cool place to be stuck in a storm.

Monday morning we headed to another beach in Buffalo Bay where the local people at the hostile told our group to go surf. We hung around there until noon, grabbed some lunch and started heading home since we had another seven or so hour drive ahead of us. It was an awesome weekend. Minus the bungee jumping part. I really liked the freedom of just being able to do whatever we wanted to everyday we woke up. And with so many options of stuff to do it was nice having the flexibility to just get up and see where the day takes us.

We got home last night, I showed the rest of my housemates the video of my jump, which we all had a nice laugh at, and then I went to sleep nice and early so I could wake up for my eight am. We had another field trip to the beach today for Oceanography, where we had to measure wave lengths and periods and heights. It’s at a beach called Milnerton, which is absolutely beautiful because the water is so clear, the waves are always huge, and you are able to see Devil’s Peak, Lion’s Head, and Table Mountain, all in a row. The teacher grabbed a stick and started using the sand as a chalkboard to chart out the waves and their patterns. We’re about to braai tonight outside Highstead with a few other houses, and then hopefully some of the boys will break out their guitars and play us some songs on the patio.

Especially after how great this weekend was, it’s time to start planning for spring break, which is September 4^th to the 12^th, and there’s one more long weekend before then that I think I want to spend in Stellenbosch. We’ll see where those trips take me, but hopefully not off any bridges.