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The Wild Coast & The Garden Route Road Trip
I returned just 2 days ago from a very different kind of road trip. Jesse and Elyse (my cousin and his girlfriend) arrived over 2 weeks ago, after climbing table mountain and two nights in Cape Town, the four of us were off on a road trip none of us will ever forget.
We flew from Cape Town to Durban where we rented a car. I had order a mid-size four person, four large suitcase car, where in the pictures was something like a Jetta but when we got there we were greeted with something much smaller, a little 4 door, hatchback polo. Haha I absolutely thought it was funny, others werent as amused - the large ‘luxury’ car was out, instead we spent our time Eurotrip style, packing our all of our shit into a tiny ass car. SO packed by the end of our trip.
Our first stop was Umhlanga, a small suburb of Durban. Everyone that spoke of Durban, said to stay here and to not bother going to Durban, as it is used to be the place to-go until it became quite overpopulated by mostly
Indians and Umhlanga was the cool beach town that Durban used to be. It was a very cute town, a small little city center with mostly restaurants, and a beautiful boardwalk along the coast, which stretched for many miles, connecting hotels and apartments with all the shops and restaurants. Very neat. This was our longest stop, in order to slow our trip down to see the Quarter Final game in Port Elizabeth. We stayed at Flamingo’s Guest House, in their private apartment, which was very close to the boardwalk and walking distance to town. We spent half of our time on the beach or walking near it and the other half eating on the small strip of restaurants watching the soccer matches of the day. We were told by the owners of the Guesthouse to keep this security gate closed on our deck, in order to keep out the moneys. I thought that they were talking about people who might break in, but they were literally talking about monkeys. At one point we were enjoying an afternoon snack out on the porch, which over looks the water and was bombarded by monkeys, all of which HAD BLUE BALLS. I’m not
talking about what you guys think of as blue balls, but literally their balls were blue. Hahaha. There were TONS and TONS of them - most of which got a little bit too close for comfort at times and had elyse and I running for the safety of the apartment. The boys had the BEST time, and it was very very cool to see them in the wild like that. And no we didn’t feed them. Evan has all of the monkey pictures but everyone will definitely see them.
After three long days in Umhlanga we were ready to head out to Transkei. This was our longest day in the car, we took a different route than the GPS said and we went through a very rural area and got to see a lot of how people actually live in Transkei. Transkei is an area that used to be the old black province of South Africa. During Apartheid all black people were supposed to move to this area in order to ‘be safe’ it got the name Transkei because to get there you had to cross the Kei River (which we did) so it got the name over the
Kei, Transkei. We went through a tiny very rural area called Butterworth and then down a long dirt road, by long I mean 27 km long, most of it was in the dark (without one headlight) with huge potholes everyone. Not the safest drive, but we made it to Seagulls Resort in one piece. From the looks at night it didn’t look like too much, their was a bar, a place to eat, a couple of clean rooms and a roaring ocean that we couldn’t see, but it was absolutely gorgeous in the morning. Just stunning. From Durban past Transkei is considered the Wild Coast, this is because of the wild seas, their have been hundreds and hundreds of shipwrecks along this coast, most of which happened a long time ago, but the most recent was in 1972 on a ship called the Dacaranda, which was only 10km walk down the beach from us. After breakfast we headed out to see this shipwreck, walking along the coast was absolutely amazing, quite a bit of climbing rocks, but SO worth it. After this walk, we went on Trevor’s tour, which was a boat tour, hike and cliff jumping. Very interesting. We
learned about Xhosa, which Eli is the clicks language, and their traditions, superstitions and all of the potions (yes potions) they make from all of the different trees and roots. Very neat stuff. Mom and Dad you would have loved it. Evan of course jumped off the rocks with the little boys and scared the living shit out of me, when he did a back flip off the rocks. I couldn’t watch. We enjoyed dinner, some cribbage and wine. (I would like to say here and now that I skunked Evan TWO times on this trip.. for those of you who play cribbage -- Evan could use some lessons hahah)
After Transkei we were off to Addo Elephant National Park. In order to get there we drove down a different route from the way we came in and took a ferry across the Kei River. When I say ferry, I mean a boat that could barely hold our little ass car with nothing but a ramp, steering wheel and a motor. Of course we got out of our car and tried to enjoy the breeze, but the wind picked up and we were splashed with muddy/dirty ocean water. Definitely
Umhlanga
Light Househilarious. On our way to Addo we made a pit stop in Grahamstown, a small university city in South Africa, we did a quick tour of it, with me reading out of a guide book, we saw the city center, part of the art festival, Rhodes University, a few museums and the capital building. It was very nice. We arrived at Addo just in time for dinner, we were served lasagna by our amazing hosts Lize and Delano. This place was the best place we stayed. The owners were so friendly and the house and our rooms were extremely nice. The following day we had to game drives through Addo Elephant Game Reserve, the first was a sunrise tour, which was unfortunately on a larger bus but we got to see a Black Rhino (there are only 4 in the park), lots of Kudos, water buffalo, and Elephants. In between our two tours we went to the Cheetah Breeding area about 50 km away, where we were able to pet serbil cats, cheetahs and play with baby lions. Play, as in literally like chase them around and pick them up. Evan was sitting on the ground really close to one
of them (there were 2, and they were brothers) taking a picture, the baby lion was right up in his lens and then other one jumped on his back and was pretty much treating Evan like his bro. Sooo cute. Again Evan has most of the pictures we took, I was way too into playing with them and I forgot about my camera. Haha. We also had sometime before our next game drive started so all four of us got on two four wheelers and drove around our farm houses’ property. It was really fun. There are orange and lemon orchards surrounding their property so we drove around for an hour or so before making moves back into Addo Game Reserve. The second drive was much more successful, we had a better guide, and were right up close and personal with Elephants, Cape Buffalo, more Kudu (which is like a huge elk- with gigantic horns - there are over 20 species of elk like animals in Addo), Red Hearted Beast, Black Backed Jackel, Ostrich, and Bush Buck. After a full day, we enjoyed a great braai, a few dopes (drinks) a hot shower and we were off to bed early.
The next day we were off to Jeffrey’s Bay to meet up with all of my roommates. After a quick drive we arrived and immediately found them having breakfast. They told us they were going bungee jumping at Bloukrans Bridge, the highest bungee in the world, 216 meters high, of course Evan wanted to go. After eating some lunch and attempting to see some of what Jeffrey’s Bay has to offer, its extremely large waves, we were off to this bridge. Miki, Mark, Orrin, and Evan all were crazy enough to jump. SO INSANE. I was a bungee buddy, so I went on the bridge with them, I seriously almost shit myself just walking on the catwalk under the bridge (a thin little grate was the only thing in between me and the 300 meter fall). Everyone working the bridge were the happiest people ever, and I really did enjoy myself once I saw Evan and all the boys breathing after the jump. So SO scary. SO not for me. Four hours later we were all together again, drinking margaritas and doing what I do best, eating Mexican food.
On July 2, 2010 Netherland took on Brazil in
Port Elizabeth and WE WERE THERE TO ENJOY THE VICTORY. The Nelson Mandela Stadium holds only 44,000 people a much smaller setting than the Cape Town Stadium. We were up close and personal with some of the best players in the world. Kaka was soo close I could smell his sweat. It was an absolutely amazing game. Everyone in the whole place was weeping - Either from joy or absolute sadness. I have never seen more grown men cry in my life. Old men weeping and crying for their country. Truly remarkable. Once the game ended all the Dutch gathered and were singing and dancing on the chairs SO great. Its really a shame soccer isn’t bigger in the states. Check the pictures and videos its truly a sight.
The next day it was a big chunk of the Garden Route, all the way to Mossol Bay. We first went right to Knysna, unfortunately we figured out that canopy tours were an hour back the other way a little too late, but we made it to Knysna and enjoyed the Oyster Festival there for a couple of hours. Knysna is stunning, super green and beautiful contrast with the ocean.
All of the houses, shops and restaurants were super colorful and modern. Everyone was really nice and I fell in LOVE with oysters. Between Evan, Jesse and I we probably ate 30 oysters. Delicious wild oysters with pepper, a squeeze of lemon and 2 drops of Tabasco sauce. YUMMY. 6 oysters and a glass of champagne for 48 rand (about $6.50). On our way out of Knysna we stopped for coffee at this little shop, where I was reading the newpaper about the game and how Paris Hitlon got arrested.. blah blah blah and I was about to walk out of the store when I saw Miki, Thibaud (Tebo) and Evan on the front page of the newspaper. UNREAL. SO COOL.
We went zip lining through the Tsitsikamma Forest. I have never done anything like this before and it was SWEET. We went really fast through the trees, up to 90 meters long was the longest on trees that were over 600 years old. So cool and fast. After this we got back into our car and headed to Mossel Bay and Avenues Guest House. We had dinner in Mossel Bay at a Seafood Restaurant and then it was
off to bed.
We woke up again early and then were off to Hermanus where we ate lunch, did some shopping and sat to see whales. SO COOL. WOOO. One whale came up right next to where we were sitting it showed us its tail and then sat in front of us purring kind of. I cant really describe exactly how it sounds but it was SO close to us and was burrrgggghhhhhhing hahaha. We enjoyed the sunset, hung out at our flat at Eastbury Cottage and then ate a nice fancy dinner, with more oysters at a fish house right where we enjoyed the sunset. AMAZING.
The next morning was our last day on the road. We had a 2 hour drive before we made it to the suburbs of Cape Town. We went to Muizenburg, through the little villages along the coast, Fish Hoek, Simon’s Town, Boulder’s Beach and then to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. We enjoyed the company of some more penguins, some of which have babies now, soo cute and then off to Cape Point so Evan, Jesse and Elyse could enjoy the views. Then back to Sea Point. Home
Trevor's tour
he's telling us a story about that bush Sweet Home.
It was a very very successful trip. Did almost everything that I wanted to-do. I really wanted to go to Oudshoorn and see the Cango Caves and ride Ostriches but really that is all.
I think that South Africa is a place everyone MUST visit in their life and I would love to come back with any of YOU. AMAZING!
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