We woke up at 5:00 a.m. to go on a sunrise hike up Lions Head with my housemates. It was totally worth it, and seeing the city lights in the dark then switch to the sun peaking up was incredible!
Afterwards, we got breakfast at a cafe called Clarks in town. I then took a glorious nap when I got back.
We made homemade pizza with my cooking group tonight, which was fun and yummy. It has been really nice taking turns cooking and doing dishes with two other girls.
We went to dinner on Kloof Street at Cafe Paradiso. I had some tasty prawn and pea risotto.
We went rock climbing with the Mountain and Ski club today at Lakeside Pinnacle. I had been there once before, and this time we did a different side. Only three of us came, which ended up being the perfect amount with one person climbing, one belaying, and one chilling. After climbing today and bouldering yesterday, my upper body is sore!
We then went to dinner at Lyra’s, a nice little restaurant in Rondebosch within walking distance that has pizza specials from 6-8 p.m. every night. Rocket (aka arugula in the US) on pizza is superb. Afterwards, we had some fun at the house and then we went to Tiger Tiger, a club in Claremont.
Went bouldering around Table Mountain with Wes and some locals he knew. We did it in the dark with headlamps! It was exhilarating! Making it to the top of a boulder and then seeing the city lights below was amazing.
My Water Resource Management class went on a cool field trip to Philippi today. Philippi is the only large agricultural area that has persisted near the City of Cape Town. This week our seminar focus was on food and water, so we visited a few farmers at Philippi. It was really interesting hearing their perspectives.
A PhD student came along also who is researching the huge aquifer underneath Cape Town. There has been little research done on this, and none on how surface water and ground water interact. There is potential to tap into this water resource as a supply for Cape Town.
Went rock climbing at CityRock, an indoor gym in Observatory, with Wes, a friend I met at rock climbing on Friday. It was a really cool gym and we had a lot of fun.
It felt so good to sleep in today. Mercer and I got brunch at Cocoa Wah Wah.
It was a super huge day because we hiked the three peaks challenge! We hiked up Devils Peak, Table Mountain, and Lion’s Head all in one day!
We started at 5:30 a.m. and it took us 13 hours. When we started it was still dark out. We hiked to Rhodes Memorial and were looking at the map, and then someone came out from Rhodes Memorial and started talking to us- my stomach dropped. He said a few things and then luckily turned away. We immediately hit the trail after that. Getting robbed in South Africa by gun point is a common occurrence and we were a bit shaken, so we were glad that nothing bad happened.
Climbing up Devil’s Peak while the sun was rising was spectacular! Cape Town below us was blanked by a cloud as far as the eye could see. After a little difficulty in the section called Knife’s edge, we made it up to the top of Devil’s Peak. First peak accomplished!
Then we hiked down to the contour trail and took that over the Platteklip Gorge to hike up Table Mountain. Unfortunately there is not a direct way to get from the top of Devils Peak to the top of Table Mountain. This was my second time doing Platteklip Gorge and it was just as grueling. When we made it to the top of Table Mountain, we were able to refill our water bottles at the Cable Car Cafe.
After a nice lunch with the entertainment of some dassies getting up close it was time to descend Table Mountain. We did so via India Venster, a dangerous route. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. There ended up being some tricky rock scrambling sections where you had to hold onto some chains.
It took us twice as long to descend Table Mountain than to hike up it due to how technical this trail was. We were relieved when we made it back to the Contour trail. Two peaks were done with one more to go, which was Lion’s Head.
After Table Mountain and Devils Peak we were pretty tired, so the start of Lion’s Head was a bit painful. But once we got going, it was fine. Getting to the top felt so good. We then relaxed and napped for about 40 minutes.
Coming back down my legs were a bit shaky, but it felt so good once we were done. We hiked all three peaks!!
For dinner, we stopped and got bunny chow at Sunrise Chip n Ranch, we needed a filling meal!
To celebrate Sara’s birthday coming up on Tuesday, we watched Despicable Me and then went to Boogie to dance the night away!
We went rock climbing with the Mountain and Ski Club to Higgovale Quarry. This time things went surprisingly smoothly. There were enough cars for everyone, we left relatively on time, and a good number of experienced climbers came so we were able to set up five ropes. The routes were fun and it was really easy to find the place (sometimes finding rock climbing locations can be a mission).
In the evening, we went out to dinner with all the housemates at Toni’s, a Mozambique Portugese restaurant on Kloof Street. I had a really yummy traditional Mozambique Portugese curry with chicken and shrimp. So fun to all be together, really glad my housemates all get along so well and that we enjoy spending time together.
We went to The Great Wizoo, which has live Jazz on Thursday nights. It was a nice atmosphere of college aged people, and the live jazz was excellent.
Today was a big day in the news, as the Rhodes Statue was removed. A huge crowd gathered to watch. I stopped for a few minutes during my run to see. It is awesome that people’s voices are being heard at UCT.
We drove back home from Mossel Bay to Cape Town and stopped at a few cute farm stalls along the way.
Easter! It was the most adventurous and interesting Easter ever! It was still pouring rain in the morning and we had no power. It was also make your own pancakes day and Evan and I flipped them in the outdoor kitchen.
We then got on the road and drove to Oudtshoorn, an inland town for our activities that day. We went to the Cango Caves and did the Adventure Tour. We were a few minutes late, but I had made a reservation ahead of time and they still let us go.
The caves were epic! There were huge cavernous areas with beautiful limestone configurations. The Adventure tour entailed some adventurous parts, such as 172 steps in a cavern, a hole to climb through called the coffin (because of its shape, not because anyone died there), climbing up through a chimney chute sort of thing (as in wiggling ourselves upwards through a tunnel), sliding on our bellies through thin spaces, crouching in tunnels, and going through the love tunnel (called that because it hugs you from both sides). It was super fun! Also, it was surprisingly very humid and hot in the caves.
Just down the road from the Cango Caves is the Cango Ostrich Farm. Oudtshoorn is known for its ostrich farms. We had a nice lunch at the farm, with many of us eating various forms of ostrich (I had ostrich carpaccio salad).
Then we went on an ostrich tour. It was cool to learn how to tell if ostrich leather is fake or real and learn some of the history around ostriches and their anatomy. We visited the incubators and learned how to tell if an egg is fertilized or not, and of course visited the ostriches.
A few boys got to “kiss” an ostrich by having a piece of grain in their mouth that the ostrich plucked from their lips. This was hilarious, and the funniest part of the whole day. We got to sit on an ostrich if we wanted to, but unfortunately we could not walk around riding them as the ground was too slippery from the recent rain. So I sat on an ostrich! I also got an ostrich neck massage, but holding feed in a bucket by my face.
Ostrich necks are surprisingly soft. I had to take off my jewelry because ostriches like shiny things (they pick out shiny rocks to put in their stomachs to help them digest). I also stood on ostrich eggs, which are super hard and don’t break even with all your weight on it.
We then drove to Wilderness to hang out on the beach a bit before getting dinner and then checking into our hostel in Mossel Bay. This turned into an interesting episode though... too embarrassed to write about it in this blog but some of you guys out there might know the story already!
We woke up very early so that we could make our own breakfast at the hostel and then get to the Addo Elephant Park when it opened at 7 a.m. Game drives in the morning are a good time of day because the animals are pretty active.
Since we are all studying in South Africa for six months, we were able to get the cheaper citizen rate instead of the international rate which was four times as expensive. We just had to show them our passports with our visa.
Game driving turned into quite the adventure! The car I was in had Chihiro driving with Skyler, Maddie, Sara, and me. Right away we saw a huge lion. Throughout the day we saw a crazy number of elephants, they were everywhere! We also saw multiple herds of zebra, which were so beautiful! The warthog were also plentiful and super adorable, and the Kudu (large antelope with curly horns) were stunning as well.
At one watering hole there was a group of elephants on one side of the road, and a herd of zebras on the other, and some elephants crossed over to the zebras and started chasing them: super entertaining! I heard a baby elephant trumpet, which was the greatest sound ever. The baby elephants, zebra, and warthogs were so cute.
But the biggest event of the day was quite an adrenaline rush... we were driving up a dirt road and had seen lots of elephants cruising along it; we called it the ‘Elephant Superhighway’. We waited as they passed by, then started driving up the road when a huge elephant came into view. We waited and jokingly said it’s no problem as long as the elephant doesn’t shake its ears or trunk and start comping towards us, but then it did just that! An elephant was charging our car! Chihiro maneuvered backwards very quickly with everyone in the car shouting “back up back up back up!!!” She turned the car around and sped away quickly.
Luckily we got out of the way, but everyone was a bit shaken up after that and got super nervous whenever we saw an elephant near the road. We then met up with the other group and made sure to stick together from then on.
Other animals we saw that day included: red hartebeest, caracal/roolkat, black backed jackal, egyptian goose, bok-maklerte bird, yellow mongoose, vervet monkeys, dung beetles, and many birds that we couldn’t identify. The park map included a checklist of the different animals in the park, so it was fun to check them off as we saw them, our own little game park bingo. We also saw plenty of elephant dung.
After a full day of game driving, we drove to Storms River to our hostel. It poured rain that night and the power went out. We got pizza at a place in Storms River and they had only one pizza oven. So we were there for awhile, but it was fun.
The hostel was a cool hippie place, but not the cleanliest or best kept up. The tented structure the boys were sleeping in was leaky, so some reshuffling of beds and sleeping in the car took place. They were kind enough to give us a slight refund.
Today we needed to get from Knysna to Addo since we were going to Addo Elephant Park the next day. Along the way, we cut off from the N2 (the national road that we had been on mostly) and wound down to check out Nature’s Valley, an absolutely stunning beach. My favorite beach so far, as it was stunningly picturesque and serene!
Then we wound back up to the N2 and to Boukrans bridge and I did the craziest thing I have ever done in my life... I bungee jumped off the tallest bridge in the world! Evan did it with me. You had a harness on but that was back up, your weight was all supported through your ankles. The workers wrapped the rope around your ankles, and then you had to hop to the edge while they supported you. Then they yelled “5,4,3,2,1, BUNGEE!” and before I knew it, I was diving off head first!
Those first five seconds of free fall at the very beginning was super exhilarating, I screamed extremely loudly. Then the bungee rope softly slowed you down, there was no jerking or whiplash at all. I bobbed up and down for awhile. The view of the gorge, the river, and the ocean was fun upside down. Surprisingly, it felt very peaceful bobbing up and down at the bottom. The only negative part was not being used to so much blood rushing to my head.
Then a guy in a harness lowered down to take you back up. The company takes video and photos of you which you can look at for free afterwards, but then have to pay if you want to keep them. My three friends who watched took a video of me from afar.
After bungee jumping we drove onwards and made a pit stop at Jeffrey’s beach, the best beach in South Africa for surfing. The weather was a bit overcast and bungee jumping took awhile, so we didn’t surf. Instead, we got bubble tea to go.
We drove to our accommodations by Addo, the Aardvark Hostel, which was great. We have now met up with the other half of our group who flew to Durban and drove down. It was fun to be all reunited.
At the restaurant next door the waiter highly recommended we get the Eland steak, saying that Eland is pretty rare to eat. They only get it every few years, so the whole table ended up ordering it besides the two vegetarians. We had a nice time around the camp fire to end the evening.
Today we went on the most spectacular hike ever in Kranshoek. It was a 9 kilometer hike that wound down alongside a waterfall and a creek that led out to the ocean, then walked along the ocean for about 4 km, and then looped back up to the top. The beaches were stunning with various sized pebbles and boulders. This is the most scenic hike I have ever been on.
Afterwards we were starving, so we drove to Plettenberg Bay to have an early dinner. We went to a restaurant right on the beach and I had some yummy seafood chowder. It was still light out so we hung out on the beach for awhile with the boys playing frisbee and the girls reading. Then we drove back to Knysna and went to a cute local craft and food fair.
We slept great in a tent on Jay’s lawn. Jay took us kloofing today! Kloofing is essentially jumping off of rocks into rivers. From his house, we hiked a bit and then were at the river. We kloofed off of a waterfall! It was spectacular. The water color has a brownish tint to it from the tannins of the fynbos, but it is perfectly clean. It was really cool to be taken to a local spot and get to do something most tourists don’t get to do.
|We had lunch in Wilderness with Jay and then we headed onward and Jay stayed home. Jay was a wonderful host. All of a sudden, we were on our own without a personal guide!
We drove to Knysna, where we were staying the next two nights, and checked into the hostel. The hostel was wonderful! We ended up having the dorm beds all to our ourselves for the most part. The receptionist was very helpful with giving us pointers for what to do. I had done quite a bit of research beforehand on things to do, but getting local advice is always the way to go.
We drove out to the Heads, which is the inlet area of the Knysna lagoons. The lookout views from the cliffs were stunning, and then the beach down below was gorgeous. After relaxing at the Heads, we went to have dinner at a restaurant called Tapas and Oysters since they were having half priced sushi night. So of course I ordered sushi, but I also really wanted to try an oyster so I got one.
We drove back to the hostel to park our car, and then we walked to the Knysna Waterfront to chill for a bit.
Today was the first day of a week-long road trip with my housemates! My car included Evan, Phalgun, Olivia and Maddie. Phalgun and I were the two drivers.
A very nice South African friend of ours, Jay, took us under his wing for the first part of our trip. He drove us to the airport to pick up the rental car, and we were a caravan for the day. Jay lives in Wilderness and let us camp on his lawn. His parents did a braai for us that night and gave us breakfast too. His house is amazing with a great garden, swings, a dam, and a pottery house (his dad makes and sells pottery) with an overall hippie feel. His parents were really nice to take us.
Along the way to Jay’s house, we stopped and got little pies. I had a bobotie pie, a kind of curry with mince. When we got to Mossel Bay, the first town of the Garden Route and about four hours from Cape Town, we had fish n chips from a food truck right by the water. They were the most yummy and cheap fish n chips I have had yet!
Then we drove onward to Wilderness and stopped at a great lookout of the coast. After that, Jay took us to the beach and I swam in the Indian Ocean for the first time in my life! The water was pretty cold, as you have to go farther east (like Durban) for it to be warmer, but we still had a blast. Then Jay took us to his awesome home.
