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Published: February 17th 2008
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On the road...
We saw some amazing views from the bus ride, if we weren't sleeping. Hello!!! I’m writing from my home in Cape Town today. The internet is up and that makes me really happy : - ) I’ve had a great past few days here in South Africa. We had Saturday through Thursday off of school, so some of my housemates and I took some time off and organized a last minute trip on the Garden Route. It’s a popular trek through beach towns and beautiful wildlife on the southern part of the Western Cape. This area is lush with green vegetation and flowers from the excess rain trapped between a mountain range and the ocean. There are many cities to go to along the way from Mossel Bay to Port Elizabeth, but we only had time to go to a couple of cities: Mossel Bay and Plettenburg Bay.
There were ten of us from my house that took a bus transit system from Cape Town to our two destinations. We reserved our bus tickets and our rooms at backpackers and we were on our way to figure out the rest. We were dropped off in Mossel Bay at a gas station/bus station and were picked up by our backpacker host and toted to
a surprise housing situation (it was a surprise to me anyway, since I didn’t book it). We slept in a former sleeper car in a train!! The backpacker was a train parked close to a beach with a restaurant to the side to complete the whole outfit. Our car was called the “dorm” since all the seats were cleared out of it and bunk beds were stacked on both sides of the train leaving only a narrow passageway to move through. It was kind of fun, like camping, almost. And ended up finding a café for lunch and buying food at a grocery store to prepare our own braai (a South African barbeque) on the beach, with both meat and vegetarian options. Our braai lasted into the night…well, at least starting the fire did, lol. But we got it all started and cooked to…almost perfection and covered up any imperfections up with some glasses of wine on beach. It was really nice unwinding with my friends and not having really much to do.
The next day a couple of friends and I went sea kayaking in the same bay our backpacker was located…lol, we didn’t know where we were
going and had a taxi take us someplace that I swear was in spitting distance away from our train- oh well! We were supporting the local economy. Sea kayaking was really fun and it wasn’t too wavy or anything, since it was in a bay. We saw tour boats of people pass us, and I wondered if they were looking for sharks…lol, but they were actually looking for dolphins. And, we saw some, too. Apparently, kayaking is a great way to get close to dolphins, since they are very unobtrusive to the water. We got so close!!! It was amazing seeing so many there. Seeing them pop up and disappear, and waiting to see where they came up next, making noises by blowing water out. I snapped some pictures with my camera that I took in my handy, dandy dry bag (I told you about this in my first post- I love it). We packed up for the day and headed on the bus for a few hours to our next destination: Plettenberg Bay (AKA Plett).
On to the next adventure, we were picked up at the bus station by a van that we cramped into- this time I
got to be in the front seat talking with a named Matthew that co-owned the backpacker. He and his wife have a great place for people to stay on their farm. There are horses, chickens, bunnies, dogs, and other animals I didn’t even see. Their own garden and rainwater collecter…and soon to own their own composter. We stayed in nicer beds than before in a cabin-like room with separate rooms for guys and gals upstairs for showering and all that. The decorations were very cute. This place also had a giant recreation room/dining area/bar/lounge building. You could order drinks after having dinner that they prepared for us or watch any one of their movies and kick back after a long day of adventure seeking. They also gave us rides to the beach, Robberg Peninsula (a beautiful place for hiking!!!), and even to bungee jumping (for a minimal fee, or course). Matthew even went with us up to the bridge and waited for all of us to bungee jump for a few hours. So, yes, I went bungee jumping!! I was really excited to go and finally do it. I would also like to skydive, too. Some of my roommates (7
others) and I bungee jumped off of Bloukrans River Bridge, the world’s highest bungee of 216 meters. It wasn’t too scary, the scariest part was walking on the bridge out there with meshed wire fence material underneath our feet. Once it was my turn to jump, what I wanted most was to jump as gracefully as I could to enjoy it as much as possible. And to minimize any possible backlash from the bungee (people said this didn’t actually hurt at all when it happened to them). It was amazing being able to jump off of the cement ledge like you’re about to dive into a lake from a raft. It takes a little while longer, though, for you to find any resistance to it. The air pressure was so strong it brought tears to my eyes, and when I got to the end of the jump, it looked as though I was crying. I’m trying to compare it the Top Thrill Dragster roller coaster at Cedar Point, and I still think that I went faster on the Top Thrill than bungee…but freefalling is a really cool experience. The strangest part about the whole thing was hanging in the air
Our temporary home.
Train backpacker in Mossel Bay by my feet staring into the canyon below hearing nothing but the wind and water below, and eventually the noise of the rope being pulled from the man that came to retrieve me. As soon as he was close, I had the urge to just touch something…so I grabbed his foot for a second or two, lol.
After we bungeed, we had some lunch at a beach and then went to Robberg Peninsula to hike. We saw seals there! And beautiful beaches and cliffs. For those geologists out there, there was some really nice conglomerate rocks with quartzite- quite different from all of the red sandstone I’m used to seeing all over the place.
The bungee jumping and hanging out with my roommates was the highlight of the trip. And I’d definitely love to go back to the backpacker in Plett. The place and people were so nice there. I’ve learned that if your friends are jumping off a bridge, it’s not so bad if you do it, too- only if you really want to ;-)
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your mama
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WHAT
You are so adventurous, you jumped off a bridge??? Your last two sentences, lol. Love ya, Mom