A Seat at Table Mountain

We left at 7:30am and drove on the N1 heading towards Gariep's Dam, 8 hours away. Everyone had told us that traffic was going to be terrible since it was holiday all over the country and the road between Cape Town and Joburg was always bad. Turned out to be great with some construction but no traffic. We realized about an hour or so into the drive that the rental car company never gave us our papers to cross into Lesotho (proves the car's not stolen). We got them to fax it to where we were staying but first we had to figure that out. We wanted to stop in Gariep's Dam for dinner and then drive the next couple hours to Ladybrand, right outside Lesotho. After a few calls we had booked ourselves into a guest house called My Housy in Ladybrand.

Gariep's Dam was beautiful and a preview of beautiful sights to come. We found a bar to eat at, not a great first dinner with pretty awful service. Then, we started driving at around 8pm to Ladybrand. We soon realized why the GPS was telling us to take the long way around, as the shortcut was a dirt road. We still beat the GPS's projections and got in around 10:45pm. My Housy turned out to be the nicest place we stayed on the trip, as it was originally R390 per person. On the phone, I had heard her say that it was R390 for the room not per person. I was able to negotiate it down to R1000 total so R250 a person. Everyone loved the included breakfast and it continued to be brought up every time we had a sub-par breakfast. She gave us some tips about Lesotho and ended up only charging us R200 per person, quite a bargain for the breakfast and great accommodation.

Sunday

We drove to the border in the morning and it was expectedly a bit confusing. We had to get out of our car twice to get our passports stamped. They never actually checked that we had stamped our passports at the gate though. We also turned out not to really need the documents the rental car company had faxed over.

We drove around Maseru, the capitol and only actual city in Lesotho, and headed towards the dirt road. The 65km of dirt/rock road took us 4 hours to drive through and was the most challenging driving I had ever done. At some points we were going 10 kmh literally driving over boulders. The worst parts of the road were actually the paved parts because they were filled with huge potholes. At least with the dirt roads they could just send a bulldozer and smooth it over. We got to the top of the hill with Semonkong Lodge at the bottom and realized there was no way the BMW was getting down that hill let alone up it the next day.

We sat there while Evan walked down the hill and asked the lodge how they expected us to get down the hill when they had assured us the sedan would be able to make it to the lodge no problem. They ended up finding someone in the village to watch the car for us while they drove us down in their 4x4. We dropped our stuff off at our Basotho hut where we were staying and went to go train for the world's longest single drop abseil (repel) in the world. They had us abseil down a 20 meter rock face three times, making it harder each time. The training was a good time in itself but it had started to rain and was cold so we stopped in the bar for some hot cocoa.

We met a family who was staying there who ended up giving us some great suggestions for the rest of our trip. The father was Swedish but had lived in Lesotho for a good portion of his life and had met his wife Ruthy, an American from North Carolina. He had hiked all through the Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa on the eastern border of Lesotho, and suggested we hike up to Amphitheatre, basically a rock formation that was in the shape of an Amphitheatre with the world's second highest waterfall. We made that our next major destination and planned the rest of the trip around it.

Dinner was ok as we had to eat at the Lodge since there wasn't really another option. We went to bed early because we were leaving for abseiling at 7:30am the next morning.

Monday

After a mediocre breakfast, we got in the 4x4 and took the 20-minute drive to maletsunyane waterfall. We hiked with our gear on horse-back for about 15 minutes to where we would descend. The view was magnificent, incredible, beautiful, there really aren't enough words to describe it. We just sat there struck by our surroundings while they set up the equipment. I was last to descend and though I was able to control it most of the way down, it got quite wet near the bottom as the waterfall sprayed to the side. That's what happens when you abseil down the one of the highest single dropping waterfalls in Africa.

We had an hours hike back to the top and Ayano hadn't been given a raincoat to go down and was feeling some mild hypothermia. Once we got to the top she had warmed up and was fine. It was a great hike and the whole experience was well worth what we thought was R600. When we checked out and they told us it was R750, I was a bit surprised as it had clearly said R600 on the website. Turns out we were supposed to look at when the site was copyrighted (2007) and that it had been too difficult for them to update the price for 2 years. They were not willing to compromise at all, claiming we should have asked. We were pretty pissed and my review of the lodge quickly went from 5 stars to 0.

We had lunch in town where the only thing on the menu was chicken (cold and slow but good), then I drove us back through the mountains and then back down to Maleala Lodge. There were much better roads to Maleala and only a 7km dirt road. They had saved us dinner and we all collapsed in bed around 10:30.

Tuesday

I had another cereal and bread breakfast, trying to eat as much as I could since the pony trek would be 3 hours without food. At around 9:30am we all climbed on our horses and rode off into the mountains. I had been pretty excited to do pony trekking as it is one of the major attractions in Lesotho, but it turned out to be a bit disappointing. The guide did not say much unless it was to yell at us for letting the horses eat. We met another woman once we got to the top of the gorge, and she led us down to the caves to see the Koi San paintings. We stopped at the first cave for what I thought was a break but turned out to be where some paintings were but none of us could see them. Then she showed us two other caves farther down where there was an abundance of paintings. It was pretty cool seeing something that was painted 27,000 years ago, but I think my dehydration and allergies were getting to me and I was not enjoying myself. We got back and I had some water and showered and felt much better.

We stopped in Maseru for lunch, first sitting down at a hotel restaurant where we quickly realized nothing was available on the menu so we left. We ended up at a pizza place which was exactly what all of us needed. Evan did the rest of the driving to Clarens (2 hours from Maseru). We got to the town around 6:30 and entered on a back road into a sketchy neighborhood. Once I called the hostel owner and got proper directions though we realized the town was just as nice as the guide book had said. It was definitely a tourist town but it was cute and consisted of lots of restaurants and shops all around a square park. It took us a little while to find someone to give us our keys at the cool but abandoned hostel, and then we drove back into town for dinner. We ate at a great italian place, a little pricey (pricey here is $8-10 per dish) but well worth it.

Wednesday

I woke up and made pancakes (crepes) for everyone here in the hostel kitchen and afterwards we went into town to explore Clarens. We found a great cafe with free and unlimited internet (a rarity in South Africa, I think it might not have been the cafes internet), so I camped out there planning the next day while everyone else went shopping. We had lunch at the cafe too and then got back on the road.

First stop was Golden Gate National Park, a beautiful park that is supposed to contain lots of animals (not the big 5 though). We did see some antelope but not as much as the guide book made it seem. The views were well worth it though and we had to drive through it anyways. From my research, I knew there was a resort right next to the base of the Amphitheatre hike but I could not find any information online or a working phone number. We decided since it was early in the afternoon we would drive the hour or so and just hope they had space available and it wasn't too expensive.

It turns out it was a little on the pricey side (R240) but after some calculating by Evan everyone decided it would be fine since it was pretty convenient. The Witsieshoek Mountain Resort was pretty run down but we managed to make the best of it. They let us cook our own pasta in their industrial kitchen which was a lot of fun. I also borrowed some flour and made flat bread for us and the staff. Without that it would have been a pretty awful place, but the views and the dinner made up for it.

Thursday

We had breakfast at 7am and we were on the road by 8. It was another dirt road, in pretty bad condition, but at least it was only 10km. The guy at the Sentinel Car Park told us that we needed a trail pass but we had come in last night after hours and there was nobody at the guard house to purchase one. I talked him out of making us go all the way back to the guard house and get a pass.

The hike was 3.2 miles each way and scaled about 500 meters. It took us about 2.5 hours to get up and about 2 hours to get down. The views were of course spectacular and at only one point as we climbed 50 meters on a chain ladder was it scary. You can view the hike here, as I used my iPhone to record the way back with GPS. Amphitheatre is basically a large rock formation in the shape of an Amphitheatre and is one of the most photographed parts of South Africa. The Tugela River falls down the face of Amphitheatre creating the second highest waterfall in the world. It was most definitely worth my 4 and a half hours.

We returned to our car around 2:30pm, drove through the last dirt road on our trip and made it to Bloemfontein for dinner around 7pm. We ate on the waterfront, very similar to the V&A waterfront in Cape Town but on a lake instead of an ocean. I had found Jazztime Cafe in our guide book so we ate there but we were a bit early for the music and the food was not so great considering there were so many better options in the mall. We did get to eat outside though and we had pretty much skipped lunch so it was just good to eat. We drove for another 2 hours to Colesberg and stayed in a small house that was sparse but clean and everything we needed.

Friday

We drove to breakfast at 9am in town but forgot that it was Good Friday and nothing was open. The gas station had a Wimpy (basically a Denny's) which had a surprisingly good breakfast. We had left Colesberg by 11am and drove straight to Stellenbosch arriving around 6:30pm. Stellenbosch is the wine capitol of South Africa with many vineyards but also a nice downtown area with lots of great restaurants. We settled on a cafe/restaurant and all had delicious and fast (a rare thing in South Africa) meals. We went next door for dessert at another cafe and toasted to a fantastic holiday.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Quick Weekend Update

I don't have much time because I am meeting my family in Simon's Town to go see the penguins and then to have dinner with my homestay family in a township called Ocean View. We had a great weekend first bungee jumping, then going on two safaris, and lastly spelunking. It was a great 4-day vacation (though it may have been the longest drive our family has ever done), and there are some great pictures to see (there you are Carol). I'll write some more later.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Family

From The Fam's First Day

The family got in this morning and I met them at the guest house they're staying at. Unfortunately it's about a 15-minute walk from my house when there are a few guest houses a few minutes away but we booked the guest house before I even knew where I was living so it's not that bad (and only for one night). We went to my favorite restaurant in Rondebosch, Addeso, an italian restaurant with a nice outdoor tent on the sidewalk and amazing sandwiches (Ethan didn't think so but he doesn't know what he's talking about). We took the cable car up to table mountain and the guy told us to let go of the handrails and all of a sudden the floor started to move. It was a rotating gondola! Cool, but kind of made me dizzy. The top had some great views and you could see all the way down to Cape Point and the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately it was pretty cold and we were not prepared so after about 45 minutes at the top we headed back down and to the beaches of Camp's Bay. We had some hummus and pita watched the sun begin to set, and ended up getting the same cab driver for the ride home. We picked up some food for braiing and made ostrich burgers and lamb chops at my house with 4 of my friends. It was a great time but the jet lag began to set in and they went back at 10. We're leaving tomorrow morning for the Garden Route, go check out the pictures from today!

Monday, March 2, 2009

Thai Food, Pride, and Kirstenbosch

I added some gadgets on the right side of my blog (for those of you who don't read it by email) so you can see the weather in Cape Town along with links to photo albums. Anyways on with the blog...

Though I have a workshop every Friday from 11-2pm, I was able to finish all the work for it early so I could skip it and go to the beach. We first took the Jammie (the campus shuttle) downtown and had lunch at an African restaurant Nzola's. I had a delicious pita filled with mince (ground beef). After that, Amanda, Kelly, Lindsay and I got a minibus to take the 15-minute ride to Camps Bay Beach. Camps Bay is an affluent suburb south of Cape Town on the opposite side of the mountain from UCT on the Atlantic Ocean.

We found a nice spot by the water and all laid down to tan and relax. After about five minutes, I could hear the water much louder than before and before I could even open my eyes, they tide had come in right on top of us. I was able to get up with my towel before it got soaked and we relocated much further back this time. The water was much colder than the Indian Ocean, where we last went to the beach and after finally getting used to it, I failed to do any good body surfing. After a couple hours on the beach, we went to the Thai restaurant (at my insisting) to watch the sunset. We went early to make sure we got a good spot, so we really confused the waitor as we ordered everything as slowly as possible. The curry was delicious and everything I hoped it would be after a month deprived of my favorite food.

To get back there are only two options, minibuses or a metered taxi. They told us the minibuses were not safe at night but it wasn't completely dark out so we decided to try it out for ourselves. The first minibus to get us from Camps Bay to Cape Town was perfectly safe besides the very happy and loud drunk next to me who enjoyed talking about poo and the hotel he wanted to build in the middle of the ocean. He was a large fellow and along with almost being on top of me as he waved his arms around as he talked, his hand would end up on my leg. It was all unintentional but quite annoying and I was very glad when the minibus cleared out and I could move. The ride home was a little less safe as the driver paid more attention to his ridiculous political rant with the passenger next to him than the road and sent a woman in the seat in front of me flying forward (luckily she was fine). The minibus was also more expensive after 7pm so I don't think that will be our favored mode of transportation at night anymore.

On Saturday we had lunch at Rcafe on Long Street and then walked to the Pride Parade. We had assumed that people would be along the parade route waiting for the parade to come by but it seemed pretty empty. By the time we were a few blocks from where the parade started it was scheduled to begin but we still saw nobody. We were starting to think we got the day wrong, when were heard music and then police cars and a float. We joined the parade right around where there was a Harley Davidson party going on (must have surprised them!) and started walking along with it.

There were only a smattering of people watching and marching along at first but before we knew it we had picked up crowds of people after only traveling a few blocks. I'd been saying all morning that I wanted to get on a float, so after scoping out one with an open spot and good music, we positioned ourselves behind it so I could hop on. After seeing a couple kids hop on, I hopped on as well and joined the dance party atop the float. That is where I remained for the rest of the parade, trying to get up and dance a few times but would always be jolted back to sit down dancing after a sudden stop.

The carnival afterward was more of a braii with entertainment. It was fun to relax in the shade with people and the belly dancers were good but after an hour or two we headed back home on the mini bus.

From Marimba, Hiking, and Kirstenbosch

At night, we went to the large theatre where Beauty and the Beast was playing on the big stage and Marimba Extravaganza on the small stage which we went to. It was a really fun show with some very crazy audience members and even though it was at first a sit-down show they got us up after intermission.

From Marimba, Hiking, and Kirstenbosch

I had picked up some people's tickets to the Kirstenbosch concert early so we could hike to the gardens on Sunday. At around 1pm in the blistering heat (quite similar to today) Amanda, Lexie, Ayano, and I left Consolata and hiked up the mountain past UCT, over a fence (there were stairs), and up another 15 minutes to Rhodes Memorial. We stopped for some pictures since as much as I dislike Cecil Rhodes he has some good locations for memorials.

From Marimba, Hiking, and Kirstenbosch

Amanda had hiked part of the contour path already so we relied on her to get us there from Rhodes Memorial. We climbed for about a half hour until we finally reached the path that was supposed to take us all the way to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. We had heard that it was about an hour long walk. Though we were fully equipped with a GPS (my iPhone) and a human compass (mua) it would have also helped to have a good map of all the paths on the mountain. Unfortunately, those do not exist online so we just had to guess on which forks to take. I never thought we were lost as we were never walking that far from civilization. Eventually we hit some houses and instead of trying to go around we just went back onto the road and walked the rest of the 1/2 mile to Kirstenbosch. We arrived at 3:30pm just as the bus arrived with everyone else so it turned out to be quite a hike especially on a hot day.

We were wiped so we did a little bit of walking and then laid on the grass in front of the stage. The concert was a lot of fun and perfect for the venue and just relaxing. School is starting to get harder now that we have regular homework and I volunteered at LEAP for the first time Tuesday. LEAP is a science and math high school outside of Cape Town which is a private school who mostly accepts children from the townships. It seems like I'll be doing a mix of tutoring and hanging out with the kids during their downtime as well as during their classes (we go where they go).

We sat in on their Life Orientation class where they generally just talk about issues they may be facing in their life now and in the future. Bones (the person who runs the class and our volunteer program) started off the session by saying, "I heard one of the guys beat on a girl in this class." It turns out some boys were taking more food than the rest of the group at lunch and leaving some kids with no food. The leader of the group tried to take back the extra food one of the boys had taken and he elbowed her in the eye. It was quite difficult to understand what was going on because much of it was in Xhosa but I picked up the ghist of it and it turned out to be the boy I had been chatting to before class had started sitting right next to me. Anyhow, it seems like it will be quite an interesting experience and I'm excited to get started. I just need to work on my clicks, as some of their names (plus the name of the language itself) have them.

I have an hour before we do take a bus to our homestay at Oceanview, a township south of Cape Town so I will certainly have much to write about in my next blog post.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Classes, Rugby, and Meat

I haven't been writing as many posts lately because school has begun and my days are filled more with class than with crazy animal adventures. School began a week and a half ago on Friday which was a Tuesday schedule (quite confusing since many of the teachers did not know whether they had class or not). I shopped a few different classes which were not in my major but would have been much more interesting than the classes I ended up with. Unfortunately, I realized it made sense to take classes which counted so it would make it easier my senior year at Brandeis. I am taking a computer science course on C++, a course on creating Databases, health psychology (basically how to be healthy and convince other people to live healthy lives), and introduction to Politics. The former computer science class will probably be the most excruciating while the middle two will be bearable and hopefully the politics course will redeem the rest. My hope is that during an election season in South Africa (April), a politics course will help me understand what's going on more than I could on my own.

My first week of classes were fine with not that much work, but 9 a.m. classes every day wears you down, and I was very thankful for the weekend. Friday night all of CIEE walked to the rugby stadium to see our first professional rugby match. It was the Vodacom Stormers (the western province team) vs. the Reds (Australian). We all sat in one section which happened to be right in the middle of the field and I sat only a few rows back. That's pretty good for R65~$6.50 but CIEE covered the cost. The game was much more exciting than the professional soccer match we saw a couple weeks before. It was also nice to know what was going on since I had figured it out to watch my brother play. The Vodacom Stormers scored early and built a pretty good lead over the Reds and even after a comeback by the Reds, they were still 3-points shy of the win.

At the soccer game, they all had plastic horns which people blew constantly the entire game creating an incredibly annoying bee-buzzing noise. I was very appreciative that no one brought those horns to the rugby match. The difference in racial make-up of the crowd compared to the soccer game was very apparent as Quinton (our resident director) had told us to expect. While we appeared to be the only whites at the soccer game, the majority of the crowd at the rugby game was white, though it still appeared to be more diverse than the soccer game.

The food of choice at the rugby game appeared to be donuts as every minute you could count on a donut vendor with a backpack full of hot chocolate coming by. Alcohol is also sold at the rugby pitch while at the soccer match it was not.

On Saturday we went to the Planetarium, which also happened to be a natural history museum. The exhibit on indiginous South African people had a sign in the back which noted that the exhibit had been left untouched since the 1970s so one could see the racist way in which it
was presented during Apartheid. Unfortunately, this sign was hidden in the back but at least it was there. The Planetarium show was interesting since the stars you can see in the southern hemisphere are different than you can see in the northern hemisphere where I've spent the majority of my life.

Sunday we got into two minibuses with a few of the SOL mates and went to Mzoli's Meat in the township Gugulethu. It is basically a tent in the middle of the township where you order buckets of meat and then watch the soccer game played in the narrow street or dance. The food usually takes a few hours and was no exception this time as we got there at 12:30 and the food did not come until 3. It's a good thing I made crepes that morning (which are called pancakes here, while pancakes are called flapjacks). We sat on top of a payphone shack and watched the game with other South Africans. The game was much more exciting than the professional match we watched as it was crammed onto a narrow street with much less rules. When the meat finally came, we gorged ourselves like animals, and though it was not the best food, it was worth the experience and I would certainly come again.

Now I must grab lunch before class. I'll try to post some more pictures soon.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

We walked cheetahs

We got up at 6:45am Thursday so we could make it to Tenikwa by 7:30 to walk the cheetahs. We made it there by 7:35 and met the rudest woman I've met so far in South Africa, who told us we were 20 minutes late (apparently we were supposed to be there 15 minutes earlier).

Then two of the cheetah handlers came (who were much nicer) and walked us to the cheetah enclosure where the two teenage brothers lived who we would be walking. When the cheetahs reach adulthood they are moved to a much larger enclosure with other adult cheetahs. The enclosure they were in now was still large (about 100 feet in length and width) but nothing compared to the adult enclosure.

The handlers spent a good 5-10 minutes coaxing the cheetahs onto the leash. Once they did, they brought them to us outside the enclosure and we were told the procedure for walking the cheetah:

1) Always let the cheetah feel like he is in the lead
2) Stay at the side or farther behind the cheetah, never in front
3) If he starts to run and you can't keep up, just let the leash go

The harness had a double leash on it so the handler would always be holding one leash while we held the other. Nobody besides me wanted to walk the cheetahs at first so I walked with one of them. It was basically no different than walking a very strong and in control dog. Occasionally he would flip over and allow you to pet him, but you were always supposed to do it from the back side, not the stomach side. The handler would allow the cheetah to bite him, but he didn't bite any harder than a house cat would.

Some Cheetah facts we learned:
1) Cheetahs are built to run away, not to fight. They can run up to 70 mph
2) It is smaller than all the other big cats.
3) They have eyesight that can see a few kilometers away so they can see their prey or a predator like the lion.
4) Cheetahs can climb trees
5) Baby cheetahs have a white stripe on their head so as to look like badgers which lions are afraid of

Occasionally the brothers would act like cheetahs and play fight with each other. One was abnormally large for a cheetah and won every time. The larger one ended up pulling away and sending his handler flat on her back. I guess that's one of the lesser risk of working with cheetahs. When our cheetah walk was over an hour and a half later, we had breakfast and then went on our "Wild Cat Tour" which they threw in as our student discount. We got to see some cats which are ancestors of the house cats, lynxes, and cranes.

Some stayed in the bushes and watched us but some would come out to be pet.

When I saw our guide let the crane walk on his legs I asked if I could do it. I sat down and patted my legs and the crane walked on and the crane snooped about trying to steal my camera by the wrist strap. Then his wife came over and they started fighting on top of me by clicking their large beak rapidly. That was the most fun activity I did all day.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Plettenberg Bay Day 2

From Bungy

We left the hostel at 8:30 to make sure we got to the Bloukrans bridge before it got busy. At that point the girls still hadn't all decided whether they were doing it or not but once we got there and they had a couple minutes, all of them decided they would jump besides Lexie. They suited us up and a guide walked us on the trail to the bridge. To get to the middle of the bridge, we walked along a catwalk which let you know just how high up you really were with its wire bottom. We arrived on the jump platform and they began to play music and get me ready to jump. One of the guys wrapped a pad tightly around my knees and said "don't worry, it can hold 3 tons."

From Bungy

They started playing techno music which really got you pumped up and ready to jump if you were scared, but jumping at 709 feet is still nothing compared to 14,000 feet from a plane. Maybe I have too much trust in the equipment but skydiving and bungy jumping don't really scare me, so as the girls were almost jumping out of their pants, I was just excited. The guy tied the bungy cord around the knee pad, and then helped me hop to the edge.

From Bungy

They told us that we're supposed to jump like we're doing a belly flop and keep our chin up. As my feet dangled over the edge, they yelled, "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, bungy!" and flung me off the bridge. The rush of having seemingly nothing above or below you as you fly through the air was a thrill unmatched even by skydiving. It is a much shorter thrill, but definitely an intense one. I don't know if it was the fact that this was the highest bungy or if the movies just make it seem different but there is no bouncing feeling. It feels more like swinging.

From Bungy

After a few swings I was dangling upside down for about 30 seconds before the guy repelled down to flip me rightside up and guide me to the top. The upside down part was the only uncomfortable part since it put a lot of pressure on my sinuses but it didn't ever feel like I was slipping or hurt my legs at all. All the girls went and had a great time and we walked back to meet up with Lexie and see the pictures and video. We decided to just get pictures since the video was really short and didn't even film the entire bungee jump or even coming back up.

After Bungy jumping, we needed some food so we headed to Tsitsikamma National Park to eat at the restaurant overlooking the Storms River mouth into the Indian Ocean. The view was beautiful and we had just enough time to hike to the Storms River bridge before ziplining at 2pm. It was about a 15-minute hike and the bridge was well worth it. We made it to the Tsitsikamma Canopy Tours but the only reservation they had down was 5 for George so they sent us to the other zipline over the waterfalls. Our driver Graham called Leroy the hostel owner who made reservations and we figured out that he thought everyone in our group was doing it and had gotten confused this morning and thought I was George (I was henceforth known as George on the trip).

Lindsay and I suited up for the second time that day and headed out in a very large truck to the forest. Our group was 2 other men from America but one had grown up in South Africa. It's good we had a fun group because we were stuck behind a huge group of tourists (after 2 weeks and a house in Cape Town I decided I'm no longer a tourist). The ziplining was really fun and a good relaxing but still exhilerating 3 hours after a morning of adrenaline. We ziplined from platform to platform the highest one being 30 meters above the ground and to the right you can see me dangling 50 meters above the ground.

Our big adventure day took all my energy and when we got back to the hostel I took a long nap. We ordered pizza and watched Max Payne, a very bad movie and then went to bed since at 7:30am we'd be walking cheetahs.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Plettenberg Bay Day

I'm going to go a bit out of order and hopefully get back to my first full week in Cape Town but for now I'm going to write about my 4-day vacation in Plettenberg Bay.

Last week, I sat at our table in the basement and planned out what would end up being one of the best vacations I've ever taken a part of. At first I tried to plan a trip to Victoria Falls for the several days break before school began, but there was just not enough time and it involved too much flying (=money). Instead, I looked at what it would cost to take a bus on the Garden Route. To get the most out of our money with the time we had, it made sense to take a bus and stay in one place. If you've never been to the Garden Route, and you want to have lots to do in one area, Plett is the place to go.

So Lexie, Ayano, Kate, Lindsay, and I (all from my house) left the house on Monday at 4:30pm, after we had went to the activity fair on campus. Our bus was an hour late and we almost ended up missing it when we tried to go to McDonald's (hopefully the only time we'll eat there) with our extra hour. We all got our own row in the back and the bus was surprisingly comfortable. I heard later that Greyhound here actually has the nicest buses (quite the opposite back in the states). We left at 6:30pm and got in at 2:30am. Leroy, the hostel manager at Amakaya, gave me walking directions and told me it would be safe. It was rather safe and with a point in the right direction by some guys at the gas/bus station we made it there in 15 minutes safe and sound. Leroy showed us to our room, 4 bunk beds all to ourselves and we all collapsed and went to sleep.

In the morning we all paid our 360 Rand (about $36) for the three night stay and headed down to the beach. It was beautiful and once you got used to it, the water was warm and I had a lovely time body surfing (though apparently you usually go out further than 20 feet from the shore). We walked over to the large hotel which sits between Plett's two beaches and climbed out onto the rocks.

We had been told by Kate who went out there earlier that we could see dolphins from there but after being out there for 20 minutes we saw many mussels on the rocks but no dolphins in the sea. Just as we were about to head back, In the distance, I spotted what looked like ripples in the water but on closer inspection turned out to be an endless line of dolphins at least a quarter mile off the shore. After gazing at them for a while, we headed back and did some more sun tanning (which unfortunately lead to major burning as my sunscreen had apparently worn off).

For dinner we went a bit touristy and ate at the Lookout Point, a restaurant that sits on the shore looking out towards the entire bay. It was certainly worth it and though a bit more pricey ($8 compared to a normal restaurant meal of $5), it was worth the extra R30 for the view. We came back to a busier hostel as several other girls from our program were up drinking in the hostel's bar. We joined and had a great night talking, playing pool, and sitting under the leaky roof as it began to rain. We went to bed a bit early as we were all still tired from the night before and we had a big day of bungy jumping and zip lining to come.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Move-In Day

From Cape Peninsula Tour

On Saturday we slept in until 11 since we were the last house to move in. At 11:30 a bus came to pick us up and drove all 18 of us and our luggage to our house. We were all really excited and kept thinking that each house we passed must be our house. When we started to slow down in front of a very large property with an enormous house we couldn't believe that this is where we would be living for the next 5 months. None of us had been expecting to live in a nicer house than we'd ever had in college before. But there it was with it's long driveway and land covered with trees, bushes, flowers, and even cacti. We almost didn't care what room we got as we all knew we would be getting singles with our own bathroom.

From Cape Peninsula Tour

Of course though, to be fair, we all drew numbers out of a hat to set the order for picking rooms. I picked number three so after two girls had picked their rooms, I set off to pick mine. I had two criteria for picking my room: that it would be dark in the morning and that it had a big shower. I ended up picking a room on the second floor without a view and a bit smaller than most rooms but with very little sunlight in the morning and a large shower.

I had barely had time to move in, when the SOL mate arrived to pick two of us up who wanted to go get basic supplies at the mall. I needed a shower curtain and a window curtain most of all, and those were only things that you could get at the mall which required a vehicle to get to. We went to Cavendish Mall in Claremont, the suburb just to the south of us. It was one of the largest malls I'd ever been to and even had a large electronic touchpad instead of a map that would show you where you are, which direction you were facing, and how to get to the store you wanted to go to. We found a Wal-Mart like store called Mr. Price where we got everything we needed.

Once we got back, we immediatly left for the braai (South African word for barbecue, pronounced like brian without the n) at the Liesbeek Gardens pool (the dorm where some CIEE students were staying). It was our first of many to come braai experiences and it was delicious. The pool party was fun and our last official get together where all 150 participants on CIEE would be there. We stayed home that night and enjoyed our new house, since we had a long day of exploring the Cape Peninsula on Sunday.

Friday, February 6, 2009

The 2nd and 3rd Day

The 2nd day was a lot of lectures by CIEE to not drink our semesters away and stay away from prostitutes. We also were divided into our orientation groups, which I had a sneaking suspicion were also our house groups since Lexie was in my group (I was right). Then we went to Signal Hill instead of taking the Gondola up to Table Mountain because it was closed. Clouds had enveloped Table Mountain in what the locals call a "cloth over Table Mountain" and clouds were literally pouring over the cliff. The views of Sea Point, Lion's Head, and the city were beautiful and we walked down a path to sit down and just take it all in.

For dinner we went with our orientation groups (we were still really only allowed to go out in our groups) to Rafiki's which had some delicious Tapas and mediteranean food. It took a while again so we just went back after and did some skyping (Lexie finally contacted her parents).

Friday was the day we found out we were in Consolata House with our orientation group and another one too (18 ppl+Nyoko). We went on a quick tour of campus (begging to go see our house but Nyoko said she wasn't allowed). Once we made it up all the steps to upper campus, we had a stunning view of the suburbs below. In a classroom at upper campus we had a talk on some of the volunteer opportunities and then about academics and pre-registration. It was only at that point that it hit me I wasn't just permanently on vacation and school would have to start eventually. They made it seem harder than any U.S. school but from stories I hear it will not be as rigorous as they make it seem.

During our lunch break, Lexie and I tried to find the UCT store (so she could buy a water bottle) in a very confusing building. It turns out they had moved to where everyone else had went to get lunch in the cafeteria. The book store didn't have any water bottles and another book store off campus said they weren't getting water bottles until April (weird when the summer is right now). The cafeteria seemed good and had lots of choices but it was closing when we got there and there were long lines so we went to find another area where they have a few tents of food setup. I ate for the first time at Souper Sandwich and decided that it will be my main source of lunch, with their scrumptious grilled sandwiches.

CIEE rented out Marco's African Place Friday night and treated us to dinner and music. The food was alright but there was not enough, and we had the worst seats in the place since we couldn't see the band. Then I got up and went to the front near the band because a few people were dancing. Soon, they had cleared the tables and almost everyone was dancing. That is still the most fun I've had in Cape Town so far.

We went out that night to a club that had a rooftop seating area with a nice view of Long Street. The dancing was fun too but it was all slightly older people. As we were sitting on the rooftop a German and a white South African drunkenly talked out loud about how we stole their seats. We ended up talking to them, and learning that the German was very conservative and supported the Iraq War "unlike most germans" and the South African was complaining about how they took their (white South African's) national anthem away and were moving the emblem to the other side on their rugby jerseys. Our third night in Cape Town was an interesting night indeed.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Cape Town: First Day in detail

We arrived in Cape Town and had to wait on the tarmac for a bus to take us 50 feet. Once we got to customs, I realized I needed proof that I had a return ticket. Luckily I was able to sweet talk the customs lady by telling her I'd fix her broken computer. The SOL Mates (Student Orientation Leaders) were there to meet us and they packed us all onto a bus and drove us to the hotel. I had just enough time to shower at the hotel before I got on another bus to take us to the waterfront.