Garden Route Tour

Hey everyone! So I just got back from a 5 day Garden Route Tour with a company called Southern Ambitions. There were about 25 of us from Arcadia that went on the trip in addition to our two guides Wes and Gary, who are both UCT students. It was a really awesome trip and a great way to spend the week I had off before school starts. Anyways here is a break down of how the trip went:

Monday:

We all met up at 7 to leave on our adventure but didn’t end up leaving until like 8:15 (gotta love South African time lol). The first item on our itinerary was a wine and chocolate tasting tour at a vineyard in Stellenbosch. First we got a tour of the vineyard and then we got to do a wine tasting. The guy who gave us the tour was really nice and even let us try wine that costs 1500 Rand ($200) per bottle. The vineyard was absolutely gorgeous. It was so green and had picturesque mountains in the background. After wine tasting we headed off to the Cheetah Breeding Centre. We learned about how endangered cheetahs are and go to see some of the cheetahs that were there. The centre was really cool because they also breed dogs that they give to farmers to try to prevent cheetahs from coming close to farms. Even though cheetahs aren’t harmful to farms many farmers don’t know that and try to kill cheetahs if they come close. The dogs are there to scare away the cheetahs and thus prevent farmers from killing them. After that we got lunch at a mall on the way to our backpacker’s (hostel) in Oudtshoorn. Malls in South Africa are pretty similar to ones in the U.S. except they tend to have grocery stores in them and high tech touch screen directories. Anyways once we got to the backpacker’s we had a braai (barbecue) for dinner. We had ostrich kebabs (which were surprisingly delicious), potatoes, bread, and salad. Along the way to the backpacker’s we stopped for some scenic pictures because the drive there was gorgeous. It is interesting because most of the signs were in Afrikaans (I’m assuming) and there seemed to be a lot of empty space without a lot of people living on it. Also we had a really interesting bus driver. His name is Arnold and he is a retired police officer. He was telling us how he grew up on farm where he learned to treat black people equally (this was during the apartheid in South Africa, which is basically legal segregation of white and blacks). He started work as a police officer in the 70’s and he treated everyone (no matter what color skin) equally and he said that a lot of times people would ask him why he would talk to black people. l had just finished reading A Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, which talks about his struggle to get rid of the apartheid and so hearing the bus driver’s account was really interesting.

Tuesday:

Tuesday was a pretty exciting day. We had to wake up pretty early to head over to the Kango Caves, which have a lot of pretty stalactite and stalagmite formations. After that we headed to the Cango Ostrich Farm, which I was really excited for! First our guide told us a little bit about ostriches. One fun fact is that one ostrich eye weighs twice as much as their brain. Also ostrich eggs can hold up to 120 kg of weight on them. First we got to hold 10 day old ostrich chicks, which were adorable! After that we got to have an ostrich wrap its neck around us in a hug (it was incentivized by food lol). Once we did that the part I was really excited for came, which is of course riding an ostrich. Originally we thought only 6 people would get to ride an ostrich, but luckily our guide was really nice and whoever wanted to was able to. Riding an ostrich was definitely a different experience, kind of like riding a bull at a rodeo. The guys first catch an ostrich and put a bag over its head to calm it down. Then I had to climb on and hold on to the wings. Once I was all set they took the bag off and the ostrich started to run. They go pretty fast so it was quite fun and then you just have to slide off the ostrich in order to get off. I was super excited because that was one of the top things to do on my South Africa bucket list. Before we left the ostrich farm we got to stand on top of ostrich eggs. After we were all done there we headed to Knysna, which is close to our next backpacker’s. We stopped to see the view and then settled in our rooms. It was really cool because it was right on the beach. Once we got there Troy and I (and also Lindsey and Ana but they walked slower) decided to take a walk on the beach. We ended up walking for like 1 1/2 hours and on the way we saw soo many dead jellyfish. We got back just in time for dinner, another braai. There were other people staying in the backpacker’s so Lindsey and I met some people who work at the surf school that’s part of the backpacker’s and we also met two women who were backpacking around the world, which was really interesting.

Wednesday:

Wednesday was one of my favorite days on the trip, mostly because we went to an elephant park where we got to feed the elephants and actually go up and touch them. It is a free-range park, which means that the elephants can go wherever they want during the day. We got to get really close to them, which was amazing. Elephants may be my second favorite animal now (giraffes are still my number one though). After the elephant park we went to a Rastafarian community (the largest one in South Africa). The tour guide explained to us about their society, which has a sort of hippie vibe. They are very religious but are also vegetarian, peace loving, don’t smoke cigarettes or drink, and have dreads. We took a tour of the community and then listened to reggae band. The community is in a township of South Africa called Uniondale. We then headed to the waterfront for lunch and then to Monkeyland. Several of us didn’t want to pay (it wasn’t included in the price of the trip), so we hung out in the van and talked. After that we headed to our backpacker’s of the night. While we waited for dinner Lindsey and I headed to a grocery store nearby to look for supplies for smore’s. We weren’t able to find graham crackers so we used biscuits instead, but they still turned out well.

Thursday:

Thursday was also an awesome day because that was the day we went bungee jumping. However, before we did that we hiked around the Tsitsikamma National Park. We took a short hike to the suspension bridge and then ate lunch at the restaurant there before heading to Face Adrenaline at the the Bloukrans Bridge for the highest bungy jump off of a bridge in the world. We played some pump up music on the way there to calm our nerves. Once we got there and got our harnesses we had to walk across this cage walkway to get to the middle of the bridge, where you jump off. Once I got there I was not as nervous as I thought I would be. At the beginning of the trip I wasn’t planning on going bungy jumping but I knew that I would regret it if I didn’t go. Luckily I was like the third or fourth person to go so I didn’t have to wait to long. It was awesome though because they had music playing so everyone was just dancing while they were waiting. First the guy ties up your feet and then you have to stand up and they attach the bungy cord. From there they help you to the edge. They then count to 5 and then you have to jump. The first few seconds are just free fall and during that time I was thinking what did I just do (but kind of in a good way). I bounced up and down a couple of times and then a guy came down to bring me back up. Bungy jumping was such an amazing and almost liberating feeling, not to mention the view was amazing. I am sooo glad that I went, I loved every second of it! After bungy jumping we headed to our backpacker’s in J-Bay (Jeffrey Bay). When we got there there was a children’s traditional dance group that performed and then we had traditional South African food of steak and pap (kind of like couscous).

Friday: Friday was a pretty uneventful day. The weather wasn’t that great so we just hung around until our flight at 3:40. We flew out of the PE (Port Elizabeth- can you tell that South Africans like to abbreviate things?) airport. It was really interested because there are no liquid restrictions to pass through security. The flight was pretty uneventful (except that I had to switch seats because my original seat had a sticker on it that said it was broken). While I had a blast on the trip I’m excited to be back in Cape Town and to start classes on Monday (assuming that I know my schedule by then...)

Cheers!