Advertisement
Published: March 31st 2008
Our first night of the trip was spent in Port Elizabeth. We just stayed for the one night since it’s so close to Grahamstown we can always go back if we want to. The Baz Bus picked us up there around 6am, and we were off to Plettenberg Bay. It’s a cute little beach town, and we were staying at Albergo Backpackers.
Our first day there was pretty cloudy and rainy, but it was our only crappy weather day of the entire trip so I can’t complain. We decided to do a hike on the Robberg Peninsula, and were joined by a few German kids from the hostel. The hike lasted for about two hours, and the terrain varied from sand dunes to practically rock climbing. We were pretty grateful for the lack of sunshine because it would have been a difficult time in the heat. There were quite a few seals swimming in the water and lazing on the rocks below us, which was fun to watch. It was a beautiful place and we were all reminded of Ireland or Scotland. After we finished, we walked back to the backpackers along the beach. We passed a ton of huge
jellyfish; it made me scared to swim in the water haha.
The next day we took a trip to Monkeyland and Birds of Eden. We got transport through Albergo, and just two minutes into the ride our driver asked us “What would you do if you saw someone wearing your jumper?” We sat there utterly confused for a little bit, before figuring out that a jumper is a hoodie, and the guy standing on the corner was wearing our driver’s sweatshirt that had been stolen not too long ago. He said he’d gotten it from his skateboarding team in Switzerland, and was pretty sure this guy on the corner had never ridden for that Swiss team haha. So we convinced him to get out of the car and talk to him, and he ended up getting the hoodie back. Pretty sweet.
Anyways, Monkeyland. Pretty much what it sounds like. It’s the world’s first free-roaming primate sanctuary (not my words, stole that from the brochure haha) and they basically take in monkeys from around the world that have been hand raised by humans and try to let them live a normal monkey life. You know, aside from the masses
of tourists walking through the park every day haha. A lot of the monkeys hang around the restaurant and try to get handouts from people, but the staff does a pretty good job of preventing that through the use of spray bottles. We went on a guided hike (you’re not allowed to walk through the whole park on your own) and saw lemurs, gibbons, and capuchins among others. It was a good time.
Right next door was Birds of Eden, a bird sanctuary, which takes in previously caged birds and let’s them fly freely. Here we could walk through at our own pace, which was nice. Saw a lot of Knysna loeries, which are local birds, that are green with kind of a mohawk. There were also toucans, macaws, flamingos, and a ton of others whose names I don’t know. It was really cool how close we could get to them, and there was one that talked that let us pet him. We were told before going inside to take off all our jewelry because the birds are attracted to shiny objects and will try to steal them. At one point we came across a small bird with a
cigarette in its mouth. Not kidding. It was holding it by the thin shiny band around the center. After chasing the bird around a bit, Leslie managed to get it to drop the cigarette.
We spent the rest of the day down at the beach, where we were joined by Dave, a British kid we ended up traveling with for a few days. Kerry and I rented surfboards, and I found out that I can’t surf without a wetsuit. I feel invincible when I’m wearing it, and without it I’m kind of a baby and am scared of all the waves haha.
Plettenberg Bay Pictures
Advertisement
Tot: 0.106s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 14; qc: 65; dbt: 0.0553s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Jim
non-member comment
fantastic...
Sounds like you are continuing to have the adventure of a lifetime. Personally, I would've passed on Monkeyland, but that's just me - I usually don't care much for the little beasts. Can't wait to hear more!