Advertisement
Published: September 15th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Day 77 Outshoorn 23.8.09
Our second and only full day in Outshoorn felt similar to that of a school trip, I shall explain why. We awoke refreshed from a decent sleep, eager for a shower and to get our laundry done, this plan was immediately foiled by the fact that the whole of the eastern cape would be without power until 9pm... Oh yeah, I can't think if I've already mentioned this but Africa as a whole (inc Namibia & SA which are pretty westernized) suffers from sporadic power outings and relies heavily on generators, which make's simple tasks such as using a washing machine and watching the football (little luxuries i've come to expect after being in SA for nearly 2 weeks) not very easy. Come to think of it, it's a bloody good job they have generators otherwise all those folks on life support machines would probably be screwed and they wouldn't know the footy scores!
So with our washing not done we headed to our first 'excursion', Cango Caves, a very impressive series of caves that had many stalactites & stalagmites, the difference being one goes up and the other down however I can't remember which is which.
The caves were beautifully lit (something that had only recently been addressed since they used to use coloured lighting which made them resemble some sort of underground house music club) and our tour guide was hilarious, constantly using "ladies and gentleman" at the start of every sentence eg. "ladies and gentleman welcome to cango cave, ladies and gentleman I hope you enjoy my tour, ladies and gentleman there are no toilets in the cave, ladies and gentlemen this is a stalagmite" etc, etc... this cave was definitely an educational experience and it's firmly placed itself amongst my favourite caves between the batcave at number one and yogi bears cave now in third.
After the caves we moved on to Cango Wildlife Ranch to see some MORE animals and to and swim with crocs! When we got there we where told that due to the power being out the machine that made croc swimming "safe" wasn't working??? This didn't really surprise us considering the luck we had with the shark diving we're starting to believe god is basically trying to tell us that we should probably just not bother swimming with potentially lethal animals.
We still enjoyed our half day at the Wildlife Park and saw Meercats, Giant Bats and the Nile Crocs we couldn't swim with (as it was they looked pretty lethargic) and White Lions, more Cheetahs and Tigers, Michelle decided she would buy a 'tiger experience' and therefore have completed the set of stroking Lions, Cheetahs and now a Tiger. Just before we left we visited the Wallabies enclosure where we actually fed them.
We got back to the hostel at about 5pm and cooked diner on the fire before the power came back on at 8.30pm the TV went straight on long enough for it to say "England have retained the ashes..." before the power went out again.
Day 78 Outshoorn - Knysna 24.8.09
Today was a fairly basic one, up late, quick drive to Knysna, a seaside town with some very plush port side apartments. We managed to do our laundry and had fish and chips for lunch whist watching the rich families get off their large boat's (preying to god they'd fall in). In the evening I cooked Pizza's for the group and watched liverpool get stuffed by villa (damn you villa)
Day 79 Knysna - Storms River 25.8.09
The truck wasn't properly fixed when it broke on the way to Cape Town so had to go back there to get fixed meaning we had to be driven to Storms River by Mini Buses. On our way to Storms River we stopped at Blokrans Bridge and the world highest commercial bungy jump, 216m with a 65m free fall. Since i'd already done the gorge swing I felt that I didn't need to prove just how large my balls were but of course Michelle loves to prove that she has larger balls than me. She was more apprehensive this time and I thought for a second she may back out but of course she didn't and before you could say "Fear is temporary, regret is forever", (that is the slogan on Michelles T-shirt she bought to prove how tough she is and how I'm such a big poof) she was jumping and eventually bouncing into oblivion. We then went on to our next hostel at Storms River the Tub and Axe. A shitty place where the hostel dorms hold about 14 people and the dorm is connected to the bar via a door that doesn't shut! Needless to say we didn't get much sleep with all the noise from the bar!
Day 80 Storms River 26.8.09
Today was all about doing sod all because of the rain, we read, ate, slept, played pool, drunk a shot and went to bed. Storms River wasn't the best stop over of the tour!
Day 81 Storms River - Jeffreys Bay 27.8.09
Today everyone is very excited, not only do we leave Storms River, we get to go to Jefreys Bay, disputably the best surfing destination in the world with the best beaches and scenery in South Africa. We got to the hostel and immediately upgraded to a room after the awful nights in the dorm at Storms River and also because tomorrow is Chelle's birthday. We got to our room and immediately discovered the shower was blocked so we asked to move rooms and were told the only rooms they had were the posh rooms in the next building so I asked to see them and immediately upgraded again. This room was without doubt the nicest we'd stayed in during our time in Africa, big bed, flat screen tv, free internet, massive balcony overlooking the pacific, and a big bath overlooking the pacific, this is what they call Flashpacking! We decided, after a quick dinner with the group, that we'd go back to our own pad and enjoy the luxury whist we had it!
Day 82 Jeffreys Bay 28.8.09 (Chelles Birthday!!!)
Today we got breakfast and I surprised Chelle by telling her we had a surfing lesson booked for 10am, we got suited up and talked through how to do the whole Surfer thing, it was really fun if extremely knackering and we probably consumed more salt water than we should have but it all added to the fun (and kidney pains) and we're definitely going to do it again. After my generous present of the surfing lesson we went for lunch at a cafe overlooking the sea before taking a walk along the beach to collect shells. A little while later I surprised Michelle even further by presenting her with her present a brand new book! She was underwhelmed and made me promise to buy her a far more expensive present when we are working in Oz, I duly agreed and shall be saving for a set of encyclopedias in the coming months. In the evening we shared a bottle of wine over dinner and headed to bed after a few drinks.
Day 83 Jeffreys Bay - Addo Elephant Park 29.8.09
Today we left Jeffreys Bay, BOOOOOO! Although we did go to a really nice hostel, which was basically someones house. The hostel was based just outside Addo Elephant Park where we would eventually be heading. Most of the gang upgraded into dorms as it was only $4 but me and Chelle decided to get the tent out and slum it. We watched a couple of DVD's and headed to bed after dinner.
Day 84 Addo Elephant Park - Aliwal North 30.8.09
An early start to get to the park for opening and another disappointing game park. Sod all elephants and not much happening at all, except for the gang of meercat's hanging around the gang of warthog's, very lion king! After the game park it was a long drive onto Aliwal North, a small, odd town where we were stared at by the locals as if we had come to eat their babies. One guy was staring whist fingering his belly button in Deliverance style. We were terrified. However the campsite was safely behind a fence with an open gate, so any would be weirdos would first have to negotiate the tricky gap amongst the otherwise solid structure of said fence! The least said about this campsite the better really, it was Friday 13th with the showers from Psycho thrown in! Most evil place on earth? Maybe.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.201s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 24; dbt: 0.1309s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb