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.

From 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.

From Plettenberg Bay

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.

From Plettenberg Bay

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.

From Plettenberg Bay

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).

From Plettenberg Bay

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.