PART 2 – Traveling
through South Africa!
Day 15-December 10th – I get up at an ungodly
hour in the morning, say my good-byes to Mac and Dylan who later that day will
catch flights back to America and head off to airport where I’m bound for one
of the coolest cities in the Southern Hemisphere, Cape Town South Africa!!
December 10th – December 16th – Cape
Town!
Cape Town is picturesque city located towards the
southernmost point of South Africa. The
city follows the sea coast wrapping around a small mountain chain that creates
the dynamic view of seeing ocean and palm trees in one direction and the huge
face of Table Mountain in the other. My
time in Cape Town was spent hanging out with a bunch of great volunteers and
now returned Peace Corps volunteers, hiking up the mountains, chilling at the
beach and eating. There was lots of
eating. My first day in Cape Town was
spent going to the Stellenboch region about 45 minutes outside of the city with
Anna, Valarie, and Amanda where we went on a full day wine tour. (4 fun and animated people + 6 wineries *
goat cheese = AWESOME).
For the next few days I
found myself hanging out with my good friends Chris and Laurie (yep! Those same
two from Mapinhane!), Anna and climbing up Table Mountain and Lions head
mountain, going to the beach and in general just relaxing and letting each day
take me to the next adventure.
December 17th -19th
Parting ways with my fellow PCVs and hanging out in Wilderness South Africa.
These next few days were a crazy time for
me. I said good-bye to my friends and
my security blanket and headed 7 hours along the coast of South Africa which
brought me to the town of Wilderness.
Wilderness is a nice ocean side town which has a rich forest that comes
right up to the beach making for a dynamic contrast between the ocean waters
and the thick surrounding forest.
I ended up spending 3 days
in Wilderness (it was only supposed to be two but there was a hic-up with the
ride I was hoping to take). I passed the
time running, canoeing and visiting waterfalls. The waterfalls in Wilderness were my
favorite part of my time there. The
first set of falls I saw were fun because the rocks had formed multiple pools
of water that one could go swimming in.
And to top it off there was one area which you could jump from about 4-5
meters into one of the pools formed by the water fall, needless to say I spent
my afternoon doing that! The second
water fall I visited was a lot smaller but a lot more fun to get to. The trail I took literally looked like
something out of The lord of the rings.
The forest was thick and in some places overgrown so that it felt like
you were going into a cave of leaves. As
you get towards the end of the trail you arrive at a small waterfall deep
within a rock formation. The appeal of
this waterfall was there was almost no one on the trail and when I finally
arrived, I had the whole waterfall to myself.
My time in Wilderness was
also spent getting to know some fellow travelers. As funny as it may sound I may have met more
people from Germany in my 3 weeks in South Africa then I had at any other time
before Peace Corps in my life. On top of
Germans I met people from Switzerland, Lithuania, England, a handful of
Americans, and of course a bunch of South Africans. Apparently December is the tourist month for
South Africa, and I was traveling in the peak!
December 20th – I
spent the majority of the day traveling from Wilderness to Port Elizabeth which
acted as a Pit stop on my way to Coffee bay.
December 21st -22nd
– I Left Port Elizabeth, bright and early, in the morning of the 21st.
And I ended up arriving in Coffee Bay in the early afternoon. Coffee Bay was an interesting place that I am
going to have to visit again at some point in my life. Coffee Bay South Africa got its name because
at some point in its history a boat carrying coffee beans shipwrecked off the
coast and for a period of time there were coffee beans aplenty on the
coast.
I got to know a few fellow
Americans on the bus that brought me in so I ended up spending a good portion
of my next day and a half in coffee bay with them. Some highlights of the trip were watching the
sunrise while doing some Yoga with some South African Peace Corps volunteers,
watching the sunset over the spectacular set of cliffs that looks over the
ocean in Coffee bay, and going to a dinner/cultural dance that they had going
on the night I was there. My time
there was short but memorable, I was sad
when I left that I didn’t get more time there.
December 23rd
–December 24th – Left Coffee bay and made my way over to Durban
where I spent Christmas Eve. On
Christmas Eve day Clemens and I (Clemens was a German traveler who decided to
join me) walked around the city trying to see as many sites as possible. We went to a huge market where we ended up
trying bunny chow, bunny chow is a large piece of bread with the center pulled
out filled with an Indian curry, and
it was SO GOOD. I have a deep love of
Indian food and Durban having the highest population of Indians outside of
India itself, was a number 1 food destination for me. After the market we visited the botanical
gardens, passed by the huge soccer stadium in Durban and then passed the rest
of the afternoon on the beach. Durban
was only a one day stop but I’m happy I was able to pass some time there,
though the whole time I was there I was starting to get really excited about my
family who were going to arrive on December 26th.
December 25th
- I spent the whole day traveling from
Durban to Johannesburg. Not the best way
to pass Christmas Day but I was holding out for my family to come on the 26th. I ended up grabbing dinner with a mismatch
group of travelers, a couple from
Uruguay, a Frenchman, and a Canadian.
Half of the meal was in Spanish, some was in French, and the rest was in
English, it was a whirlwind of languages.
December 26th –
My family touches down in South Africa!!!!!!
I meet them excitedly at the Airport and we travel to the hotel we would
be staying in. My father, mother, and
brother all arrived safe and sound and I couldn’t have been more excited,
though maybe a little nervous at the prospect of being their guide through
South Africa and Mozambique. The
Skvarchs made it to Africa!!!
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