Friday:
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After pulling a very eventful all-nighter in
which a small crew of us packed and finished some last minute homework, we set
off on our mid-semester trip!
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Our tour guide was named Tsepo and he was from
Jo burg.
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We departed the K-house at 5:00 AM, and I died
on that first bus ride. I ended up stealing Sohpie’s pillow and face planting
into it for about two hours.
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Other than sleep deprivation, the drive was
gorgeous, and we passed many ostrich farms. They are such fabulous creatures.
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We arrived at Knysna, a cute coastal town.
Rather touristy but really nice. I ended up meandering around with Jess Burkard
and Jason and we saw some art galleries and ate some good Italian food
(caprese!). For dinner the three of us made pasta with ostrich meat sauce.
Saturday:
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The drive reminded me a lot of Oregon, actually,
most of the countryside here looks like different parts of Oregon. Mostly
Eastern, but this part of the drive had many pine trees.
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We saw zebras and springboks!
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Today was BUNGEE JUMPING!!! I jumped off the
world’s tallest bungee. It was a giant bridge over a river. No big deal. Eleven
of the fifteen of us went, and it was one of the most incredible experiences. The
walkway to get out there was made of grates so you could see exactly how far up
you were. I was not ready to jump, so I just sort of flopped off, real
embarrassing like. But I ended up feeling like superman so I put one arm up
like him. I think my favorite part was the second bounce and afterwards when it
became all quiet and peaceful and I was just one with my surroundings. That
part was also the most nerve-wracking as I was convinced that I could feel my
feet slipping out. The bridge itself was a giant dance party and we made
friends with two South African girls and a Brazilian guy.
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After jumping, we drove to Cintsa. It is right
on the Indian ocean and was so picture perfect beautiful. I went for a
nighttime stroll with Stuart, Shatevia, and Jason, and we happened upon Tsepo
so we invited him along. However, it was then that he realized that he had
locked the keys in the bus. So we took off the front bumper and presto, the
front cabin flips forward and you can crawl in the window!
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After that adventure we meandered down towards
the beach. The way was blocked by the tide, so we crawled through some forest
trails up the mountain side. However, we soon realized it was not taking us
towards the beach, so we ended up just wading over to it.
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The beach was so brilliant. The moon was full,
the water was so incredibly warm and the sand felt like flour. I ended up going
swimming with Stuart and all I can think about is how much I want to go back to
the warm Indian ocean.
Sunday:
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We departed fairly early and saw our first
giraffes! I conked out for most of the drive, but I got to see a lot of the
country side as well. The landscape changed from farms and trees to more of a
high desert look. There were more round huts and sheep.
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We arrived in Coffee Bay. It was the epitome of
adventurous tropical getaways. Set along the Wild Coast, we arrived in a rural
Xhosa town that consisted primarily of the hostel we stayed at.
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Our first activity was a sunset hike. A quick
trip up the hill to see miles and miles of ocean and wild coast. It was windy
and wild. The waves were just the right sort of dramatic. Silhouettes of sheep,
donkeys, and those round little huts dotted the skyline.
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I ended up going star gazing that night. It was
gloriously clear, the Milky Way looked tangible. We saw many shooting stars and
had good chats about the universe. One of the best things about Coffee Bay was
that there were all these dogs just roaming around and they would just sort of
embark on adventures with you, so I took one as a cuddle buddy up the hill to
pet while we star-gazed.
Monday:
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First things first, I went surfing. Five of us
took a lesson and I got up! It was really fun, and I am totally going to be a
pro by the time I come home. The water was so clear warm, I felt like I was in
a tourist ad.
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After beasting the waves (and looking damn good
in a wetsuit), we went for a three hour hike along the wild coast. It was
glorious. And I saw about a million and a half whale spouts. We also saw a pod
of dolphins riding the waves by the cliff we were standing on! After we arrived
at our destination, we discovered that the water was too shallow to go cliff
jumping (I know, I am still bummed). But we had grilled cheese sandwiches over
a fire, so that was a plus.
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We were driven back home in two shifts, and I
took the later one. As we were waiting for the bus to arrive after its first
trip, we saw this bird meandering around near us. It was balding and grey. One
of the tour guides pointed at it and said “look at the baby ostrich!” So
naturally, Mary Claire and Shatevia go nutzo and start snapping pictures of it.
I look a little bit closer and realize that it has growths and fungus and bumps
all over its face. They had been freaking out and all excited over a decrepit,
diseased, balding chicken. I still won’t let them live that one down.
Tuesday:
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I decided to go for a horseback ride in the
morning before we headed out! I rode a horse named Big Storm, and he was quite…
spirited. I got to run him all up and down the beach and the hills around the
village. It was too fun! Although it has been far too long since I have last
been on a horse; my legs were a little sore for the rest of the week.
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As we were riding through the village I was
thinking about how cool it would be to live in a little rural village in the
middle of nowhere for a while. It would be really cool to get to know a small
corner of the world like the back of your hand and to make it all yours.
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The houses are round little huts. Most families
have one, but maybe two or three clustered together accompanied by some
variation of farm animal. On top of the huts are these tires that are filled
with cement and they have shells or glass sticking out of them. I asked about
why every hut had one and most people just told me that they were for
decoration. However, the guy that took us horseback riding informed me that
originally it was to keep the birds from landing on the rooftops. Especially
owls, since owls are seen as bad omens, mostly of death. However, people more
of do it now as tradition just because they see everyone else doing it.
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After Coffee Bay, we drove to Durban. On the
ride there, we stopped in a small city to get food and take a bathroom break.
Me and Jessica Buck picked up some admirers that were rather persistent to tell
us that they loved us, despite the fact that I was only speaking to them in
(very poor) Spanish.
Wednesday:
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Durban is known as the city by the beach. It has
a huge Indian population as well. However, it was pouring rain all day.
Naturally, our activity for the day happened to be going to Ushaka, Durban’s Seaworld.
In the pouring rain.
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The aquarium was super cool, there were tons of
fish and other critters I had never seen before. And Jessica, you will be
pleased to know that they had a full tank of Cow fish!!
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We also saw the seal show and the dolphin show.
Meghan got to kiss one of the dolphins!
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On our way to Johannesburg, the rain began.
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I was sitting in the front seat with Jason and
Tsepo, and I must say I got the best seat in the house. The thunderstorm was
absolutely incredible to watch!!! Bolts of lightning everywhere! Additionally,
I got the best seat because that is when the back portion of the bus decided to
start flooding. But, there was nothing we could do in the middle of nowhere so
we pulled into Jo Burg very tired, cold, and wet (except for us lucky front
seat people).
Thursday:
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We first went to Soweto to see different
museums. This township is officially called Soweto to stand for South Western
Townships, but the joke is that after all the colored and black people were
kicked out of the urban areas they all said “So Where To now?”
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We began the day (which was still rainy and
cold) in the leaky bus, and we visited the Hector Pieterson memorial. It is a
museum for all the children that fought to oppose Apartheid. Hector became a
symbol of the struggle because of a photograph that someone took of a man
carrying his dead body. He was 13.
This is a protest sign relating to the fact that Bantu Education Laws made it compulsory for all children to be taught in Afrikaans as a form of oppression.
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After that, we visited Nelson Mandela’s house.
It was full of awards and mentions that he has received from notable people and
organizations worldwide. It is right across the street from the high school
where Hector Pieterson was shot. Down the street from the Mandela home is
Desmond Tutu’s house. It is the only street in the world to have two Nobel
Peace Prize winner’s homes.
This is one of the Mandela traditional beds. Since Nelson Mandela was of the royal house, his bed had jackal furs on it. Above the bed, that is a picture of Winnie Mandela while she was pregnant.
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We then stopped at a mall for a quick lunch so
that Tsepo could go and get a non-leaky bus. The highlight of the trip was the
crazy lady that chased around Jess Burkard and Mary Claire.
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After lunch we went to the Apartheid museum and
I wish I had a full day to go through it. It was one of the best set up museums
I have ever been to. They also had an entire exhibit on Nelson Mandela as
president and a lot of it was dedicated to the history of the mining culture which was why Jo burg even became a large city in the first place. It was really cool and certainly very moving, and I definitely would like to go and explore it
more.
We then hit up the Congress building which was really hip and modern. Rather attractive looking indeed.
Afterwards, we returned to our hostel in which me and a couple others proceeded to make friends with a girl and a boy from Israel who had just got in that day. They had just gotten out of their mandatory military service and were taking some time off to travel. I guess that's kind of the thing to do there. We hung out with them or a while and shared international inquiries for quite some time. They are planning on coming to Cape Town within the next few months, so maybe we shall see them again.
Friday:
Kruger day! We drove to Kruger, and again, I was very much reminded of Oregon. Luckily, on the way, we found a hardware store and I patched the leaking roof. Need I remind you that this is bus number two and it still leaked. Apparently rain is not on the planning priority list of Africa.
We drove around and saw hippos, a rhino, and lots of impala. We also saw some giraffes! Later that night I went star gazing again and it was almost as clear as Bigfoot! The Milky Way was going strong and I saw too many shooting stars to wish on them all.
Saturday:
- Saturday is a safari day!!!! We drove around all day and saw tons more things! I had lunch right by some lounging hippos and frolicking monkeys, and watched some lizards brutally attack each other. We even got out and walked around for a bit. Later on, we took a sunset safari and we saw wild dogs! I guess that they are more rare to see than most of the cats, so we were rather lucky indeed (other than not seeing cats).
We came across a den of six puppies! All of a sudden, they all jumped up and ran for it. I thought that they were being chased by something, but then, out of the brush, two adults appeared! They ran up to the pups and splash! they regurgitated whatever they had just eaten for their puppies.
At the same time, a vulture was perched over head, trying to steal scraps, so they kept chasing him away. Not too long after, another two adults arrived with more food. They puppies would all run up to an adult and start whining this really weird trilling noise until they were fed. The adults needed to keep a lookout the whole time, because even though they are predators, they are the lower end of predators and lions and whatnot will see the vultures circling, or just happen upon them and kill them to cut out the competition. Other than those, we saw a ton of rhinos everywhere, a serval (a small, spotted cat), and a hyena!
Sunday:
As we were leaving the park, we stopped to be let out of the front gate, and the ranger told us to follow him, and quickly. Laying in the bushes, some thirty feet off the road was a ridiculously huge python! The thing was massive!! Easily six inches in diameter, and he was curled up and just chilling there, so I couldn't tell how long. But let's just say, I would not want to be on the wrong end of his wrath.
We then headed to the airport, and spent some time looking out the windows of the observation deck. We ended up running into Sophie's friend Spencer, who is coincidentally from Lake Oswego.
Finally, we arrived back at the K house to be reunited with Meribeth, Sarah, and Kholeka. It is good to be back South African home.
