Review of Everything Up To Now 4-9-08

Sorry it's been so long and this is so long...internet access has been scarce lately!  So here it goes!

3/31/08

We got up today and started the drive to Durban. On the way to where we stayed we stopped at the Indian Market. It was a huge building with probably close to a hundred different stands selling all kinds of African souvenirs. We spent a couple of hours browsing the stands and making purchases. After the market we drove out to where we stayed…oh my! It’s called a Backpackers place and was very…sparse. We split up and stayed 4 to one room and 5 to the other…except they weren’t really rooms…they were more like a conjoined shed!!! We had bathrooms that were up a steep hill of steps. The only saving grace was that this place was just off the ocean. When I was up at the bathrooms brushing my teeth, I was able to watch the gigantic waves crash against the shore of the Indian Ocean. We took a walk down the beach and Pierre, Antionette, and Sandy made us dinner in their room. Tomorrow we are going into Durban and going go Ushaka Marine World.

4/1/08

No good April Fool’s Day pranks…although many were brainstormed! We got up and went into Durban. We went to Ushaka and walked through a huge underground aquarium. We had lunch at a café there and watched a great dolphin show in the afternoon. We saw amazing fish…everything from the fish from Finding Nemo to jellyfish, blowfish, seahorses, sea stars, and even sharks!!! After Ushaka we walked down the street where there were various shops setting up selling all sorts of African artifacts. We then walked down the beach of the Indian Ocean. It’s great to actually be able to be in the water while it is warm and comfortable! We had dinner at Cape Town Seafood Market at Ushaka and drove back to our shack!

4/2/08

Last night there was a huge storm! I was fairly convinced our shed was going to get blown over! Surprisingly it didn’t and we didn’t really even get very wet!!! We checked out and drove a little way to watch a Zulu tribal performance. It was amazing! They showed us some of the huts they would have lived in and some of the ritual dances they do. After the Zulu performance we drove and stopped in a small town for lunch and a little shopping. I got a great piece of African fabric to make into a comforter when I get home! We then made our way to a small town in the Drakensburg Mountains. We are staying at another backpacker’s place, but the accommodations are much better! We are all staying in a huge wooden house that could easily sleep 20 people! We are treated very well here. The only downfall is the fact that we do have 2 indoor bathrooms…but only with bathtubs. We have ONE shower for 12 people…and it is outside with only 3 walls around it!!! We’ve resorted to having a towel holder as a makeshift door. It’s always an adventure on this trip! No one else is staying here tonight but our group and they made us a great dinner. Tomorrow we are going up Sani Pass in 4x4 vehicles. It is said to be very exhilarating. I can’t wait!!!

4/3/08

We got up this morning and had a great breakfast down at the main house of the backpacker’s place. We were “fetched” (not picked up) in 2 4 wheel drive Land Rover type vehicles. We started out toward Sani Pass. Everyone has really talked up this drive and to start it was nothing really any worse than dirt roads in the States. However, as we got farther and farther up, the terrain drastically deteriorated. It took 2 ½ hours to reach the top as we drove through completely loose gravel, stones, and boulders. Our final destination was the top of the mountain. The pass to get there is the steepest non-tared pass in the world. The views were amazing! There were waterfalls, baboons, and mountains covered in green and rocks as far as you could see. Right before the top, you have to go through 13 very steep switchback turns with cliffs on the sides. I have to admit I was a little frightened on multiple occasions!!! On the way up we had to stop and customs to exit South Africa. At the top we stopped again to enter Lesotho. Lesotho is a land-locked independent country inside South Africa. There is a pub that is located there that is the highest pub in the world. We also took a drive through a few Lesotho villages. The people are Besotho people and live very similar to how they always have. A small village just pas the top of the pub allows tourists to visit inside their rondavals and explain a little about the way they live and how tourism influences that. The villages used to be completely independent with no currency circulation, but now they purchase some materials and have a small general store where some supplies are bought. Some relief organizations have also come in and tried to help the Besotho people and installed a few toilets. The idea was great, but they didn’t leave a supply or the ability for the people to properly maintain the toilets and now the people suffer and die from bacterial diseases they had never experienced before. A tough question was posed by our tour guide for the trip, “Do you leave these people alone and let them live as they always have or try to help better their way of life?” There really is not easy answer to this question. These people were very self-sufficient, well-fed, and basic needs met. Now we’re started forcing the Western way of life on them. It was a real eye-opening experience, but so worth it to see the Besotho people in their natural way of life. We had lunch at the pub and made our way down. To say the drive was bumpy would be an understatement! The views were amazing and the path is so authentic and natural, it was a great experience! We are having a braai tonight and leaving in the morning for a day of driving…8 hours at least! I probably won’t have too many exciting stories tomorrow.

4/4/08

I only thought I wouldn’t have exciting stories on a long drive day. My morning at our huge log cabin started with a shower. That doesn’t sound too bad…but the catch is it was outside…and only had 3 walls and no door. So I basically showered in the open outside watching the sun start to shine over the mountain as the horses grazed on the hillside. It was beautiful…if not a little creepy. The rest of our day was well documented by my group-mate, Caitlin. Instead of retelling it I am just going to add in her rendition of the rest of our day…

The day started normal as we walked the gravel path to breakfast, unfortunately not cooked by Simon the horse like yesterdays (Yes, there was actually a horse who would stand with his head in the kitchen through a Mr. Ed kind of door.) That was about the only thing that went our way today. The battle began as feisty Antoinette (our tour guide) argued whether or not we they should pack us our lunch for the road that we paid for and did not receive the day before. We won and sandwiches were made for our (suppose to be) 8 hour drive. About 15 minutes into our journey we noticed that we still had the key to the cabin and had to turn around. We were off on the road again, for the second time, only to stop at the cheese factory. After tasting many cheeses and petting the calves we piled into the van once again. All was going well until we over heard Pierre on the phone “I am just driving and it turns off and I just turn it back on and keep going.” He was referring to the van that kept stalling out and we would just coast until he restarted it. Well, that is nice to know that the van was not in tip top shape. It was a very scenic route as we drove through the middle of no where and then would pass through these very congested cities with no stop signs and people playing frogger, risking their life every time they want to get to the other side of the road. The cities looked “African” as depicted by the movies with the American influences such as KFC and coke advertisements. At least it gave us a break from the Mountains. We were smoothly rolling along when all of a sudden we heard a thump and started rolling to the side of the road only to watch our tire fly into a ditch. We were ordered to quickly evacuate the van to see the second tire only inches from coming off the axel as well. While trying to hold up the van and find rocks to stabilize the van our mighty tour guide Pierre fixed the tire. Not to mention, that to do this he had to take a nut from all the other tires and we still had 2 hours to go. It could be worse because this all occurred right before we entered curvy roads and major traffic jams. Unfortunately, Pierre fears that someone loosened the tire nut while we were at the gas station due to the fact that we were white and obviously tourists. We were located in an area in South Africa which was dedicated to non-whites during apartheid. Therefore, today there are still many non-whites (mainly blacks) living in the area. It’s crazy to think that although there was someone with the bus the entire time, someone was still able to loosen the nuts on the one tire. This is a sad reality of some of the impoverished areas of South Africa. Finally entering East London we all knew we were not out of the clear yet because there is no doubt that we would get lost trying to find out accommodations. After all, it had become a nightly occurrence! Making our way through a cricket game stadium and driving from one end of the town to the other we found the Sugar Shack, yes the Sugar Shack! The 9 of us are all together in a dorm that smells of mold and is leaking from the shower. The crazy backpackers and their insane dog are in charge of this place, but we have our own personal watch guard! We did have a great dinner, which is really any dinner that concludes with a Dom Pedro. (Ice cream and Amarula…yum!) Luckily we leave early in the morning and hopefully we will all be bed bug free. The only saving grace is that we can see the ocean but prefer to have our nose plugged as it reeks as dead fish.

Yes, this pretty much sums up our day very accurately! We just laugh and think about what great stories all these adventures make for! We have another day of driving tomorrow as we head for Tsitsikamma National Park. I am kind of hoping for a less eventful drive! But in South Africa you just never know!!!

4/5/08

We all got up early and got ready at lightening speed in order to get out of the Sugar Shack and the stench as quickly as possible! We walked down the coast of the Indian Ocean and had breakfast at Wimpy. (It is a chain restaurant here in SA that is somewhat similar to Wendy’s. They also serve breakfast of mostly egg dishes. Interesting note: waffles and pancakes are often viewed as dessert items here with fruit and cream or ice cream.) While we were eating Pierre had the van at a shop having it looked at. He was also able to get more tire nuts so that we would have no more wheels flying off as we went down the road. We loaded on the bus and traveled all day and it was thankfully very uneventful. We stopped right before Tsitsikamma to get some biltong (jerky here…of varying kinds such as ostrich, kudu, eland, etc.) We found our forest huts at the park…they are darling! And we can hear the Indian Ocean from inside…and almost see it. Antionette made us dinner…steak cubes in a sauce over noodles. We played a few rounds of Mafia (very popular on this trip when we have nothing else to do!). Tomorrow we are going for a hike up to a waterfall.

4/6/08

Today we had breakfast at about 8:30 and left for our hike. We hiked up a path that started out going through the woods and then out onto the ocean shore that was covered in huge boulders that were uneven. It was a lot more challenging than I thought it would be. Our final destination was beautiful. There was a waterfall that runs with fresh mountain water. However, it is tainted by the tannins so the water is completely dark…and freezing! On one side was the freshwater waterfall and on the other side the ocean crashing up on the rocks was still visible…it was gorgeous! Some of the girls climbed up the cliff by the waterfall and jumped in. Others swam…but it was just so cold! I was able to catch it all on video. We then walked, no hiked, back to our huts and relaxed for a little while. Gwen and I were on for dinner duty so we walked down to Pierre and Antionette’s to cook. We had hoped to make pork chops ( a little taste of home and a break from chicken) but the store didn’t have any pork chops, so we had to make chicken. We wanted to do a honey and pineapple glaze and neither of us had made a glaze before! Luckily it turned out ok and Pierre braai’d them for us. We also made a salad of banana, pineapple, and avocado (avocado is very popular here) and steamed some vegetables. It was a pretty good dinner. We all decided to call it a night pretty early after our strenuous hike that morning. Tomorrow we are going on a canopy tour (ziplining) through the forest and some of the girls are going bungee jumping. The point here in the highest point in the world to bungee jump from. (After all my bragging earlier, I’m sure you’d like to hear I spent most of the day after our hike wrapped up in jeans and a sweatshirt…it was cold and windy here…we’re fairly high up in altitude and right on the ocean again…but yes, I talked to my mom who was laying out in the sun while I was bundled up!) Hopefully tomorrow will be warmer!

4/7/08

Caitlin and Sarah offered to make us all breakfast this morning and we had scrambled eggs with cheese and veggie omelettes. We were going to go on the canopy tour at 9, but when Pierre called they told him we could make a reservation to go at 2. So we went up to the gift shop/restaurant and had hot chocolate. We then broke up into smaller groups and some went hiking and others went to the huts and caught up on some journals/blogs/pictures. We left for bungee jumping at 11 to make sure the girls had enough time before the canopy tour. Sarah and Cassie were definitely pumped for this chance. Ali wasn’t convinced even walking up the point. Dana went up to the jump spot as a “jump buddy” and watched the girls. They went up in a group of 8-10 people. Cassie jumped first from our group. I situated myself so that I could videotape for the girls. Sarah jumped after Cassie and after much coaxing, Ali jumped! (She is deathly afraid of heights!) They had a blast and I was able to get a little video footage of it. The point was over 600 feet above ground and off a bridge. I could hardly stand watching my friends jump! They finished up around 1:30 and we had to fly from there to the canopy tour for our reservation at 2:00. We split up into 2 groups and I went out with Sandy, Ali, Sarah, and Caitlin. It was so much fun! If you ever have a chance to do it, I highly recommend it! The views were great and some of the lines were really fast! The scariest part was that you were responsible to break for yourself with a glove on the line. It ended way too soon! They fed us a little meal when we got back and we headed back to our huts. We relaxed for a little while…did some laundry, etc. before our “second dinner.” We had hotdogs and some steamed vegetables and salad. The best part was that the power went out so we had dinner by candlelight! Tomorrow we are leaving Tsitsikamma and making our way to stay at Pierre and Antionette’s and do a few day trips before we go back to Stellenbosch and start working in the schools next Monday. And it wasn’t much warmer today…I was still in a light jacket and jeans, but the sun was out and it was really very beautiful! We’ll be farther inland tomorrow…hoping for warmer weather!

4/8/08

We left about 9am and had a few stops to make. We went to Monkeyland (yeah, that’s what it’s called.) It is a monkey sanctuary where the monkeys just run free throughout and you walk through the woods and watch them. It’s great…until you stand directly underneath a monkey and feel the sprinkles! Yuck! At least I had a jacket on! We stopped at Birds of Eden which had a very similar idea. We also went to an elephant sanctuary because it has been Dana’s lifelong dream to ride an elephant. She was able to ride along with Ali and Gwen. Our last stop was at a small cat reserve where they keep some of the smallest wild cats in Africa. We were actually able to walk right into the cages with the cats. The only scary moment was in the cheetah pen when Gwen dropped a tissue and bent to pick it up and the cheetah jumped towards us. Needless to say, we were terrified. The guide said the cheetah just wanted to play with it, but a huge cat lunging at you is a little unnerving!!! We had a fairly long drive to Pierre and Antionette’s. They live out in the country and have a guest house. We had dinner at the main house and moved all out stuff into the guest house where all 9 of us are staying. The house seems very old and we had a small worm/centipede problem! Our other problem is that the water very rarely gets used out here, so it regularly shuts off. It’s a whole process to turn it back on…but we’ve got pretty good at it! We have a whole system worked out! We were able to get a service project arranged for our last 2 days of holiday. We will be splitting up into groups of 3 and going into townships and downtown Mossel Bay to work with some of the local people. I’m not sure what we’ll be doing, but we’re all very excited to finally be getting the chance to interact with people on a personal and meaningful level. We also may be going to an internet café, so maybe I will finally be able to post the LONG blog!