June 16 – Long Day of Traveling

It was a long day in the car. We drove all the way from Graskop to Durban, which took about nine hours. There was one section of a highway that was being reconstructed, so we had to drive on a dirt road alongside the roadwork for about 30 kilometers. Other than that, and a little trouble finding our hostel, the drive was fine. We stayed at On The Beach Hostel in Durban North, and it was literally right next to the ocean. We tried to find a certain waterfront area for dinner, but failed, and ended up at a rather interesting spot for dinner. It was fine, however, because we got sushi.

June 15 – Loerie Trail

Slept in this morning, first time whole trip and much needed. We got stuffed pancakes for brunch at Harrie’s, which is famous for Graskop. We did some tourist shopping and got more biltong. Then we drove to Sabie because we needed gas, and the only gas station in Graskop was under construction.

Once we arrived in Sabie, we got hiking permits to hike the Loerie Trail. It is about 7 kilometers long and passes four waterfalls. The trail was a very nice short hike. I bought a tapestry with the Big 5 on them, which is something I just had to do since I actually saw them all! Then we picked up meat and veggies to braai that evening.

June 14 – Horseback Riding and Elephants

Today we went horseback trail riding with an elephant encounter! We had an hour long horse trail ride. Chandler rode a horse for the first time in his life, and he did pretty well for a semi-technical trail. 

 Then we got to the elephant place and were awed. They had six elephants that they had saved from overpopulated private reserves. Five of them were a bit younger, and one huge older one was from Kruger Park called Tembo.

The handlers had the elephants put on a cool show for us just by listening to verbal commands. They train them on a command reward basis, not by poking them with sharp sticks like they do for Asian elephants. They taught us all about the elephants’ anatomy, diet, behavior, etc. We learned a lot of interesting things such as how their ears serve as a cooling system by having blood pumped through them, how they have hormone secretion holes above their eyes that display their emotion, and how their molars determine their lifespan. We all got to take turns feeding one of them, touching them as they lay down, and standing between their front legs.

Then we got to ride them! Chandler, Kat and I got to ride the biggest one, Tembo! It felt so wonky with our legs spread so far! And we were so high up off the ground! Then we rode the horses back. 

 In the afternoon we explored the Panorama route by Blyde River Canyon, stopped at God’s Window, Berlin Falls, Bourke’s Potholes, and the Three Rondavels, the last of which was my favorite. The views of the canyon were stunning.

We had another authentic South African dinner of venison stew with pap (smooth corn meal, South African staple) and samb (a chunkier sweet corn meal). A Dutch guy sleeping in the same hostel room as us joined us for dinner. We are staying in Graskop for two nights.

June 13 – Kruger National Park

We woke up bright and early to drive through Kruger National Park! We entered through the Crocodile Gate and exited through a gate by Hazyview where we were staying that night. Kruger was awesome, so much beautiful open land teeming with game. I saw water buffalo, hippos, crocodile and rhinos for the first time! Seeing rhinos was really lucky.

 Thus I completed seeing the Big 5: lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant and rhino! (I had seen lion and leopard in the Kalahari). We also saw lots of giraffes, zebra, elephant, baboons, monkeys, kudu, impala, warthog, wildebeest, ostrich, a bushbok, eagles, and all sorts of other gorgeous birds.

Driving along the Sabie River was really cool because we got to see a bunch of hippos and elephant. At our lunch picnic stop, the monkeys were not shy at all and were experts at stealing people’s food. They swiped two apples from us, and when Kat tried to scare one away, it almost jumped on her. Unfortunately, we did not see any big cats today.

That night we stayed at an awesome hostel in Hazyview called the Gecko Backpackers with a really nice host and a fun vibe. We all got game meat for dinner. I got an ostrich burger, Chandler a Kudu steak, and Katerina got springbok. After dinner we enjoyed sitting at the backpackers bar watching the rugby game of the Stormers versus the Sharks and talking to the host about rugby.

June 12 – More Rock Climbing

We slept a solid ten hours which felt glorious. Then we headed on to the crags, tried a new area and then finished at the same wall as yesterday. We really pushed ourselves today by trying a 21, but we couldn’t quite make it all the way. I did my first full crack route too!

In the afternoon, we took off towards Komatipoort, a town just south of Kruger National Park. The accommodation I had booked, Kruger Inn backpackers, was through a scam that someone had set up. The backpackers had been having a lot of trouble with this certain guy who set up the scam. Luckily they had room for us for the night, and they were very accommodating. It was a really cool place. We had our own little braai that night.

June 11 – Beginning of a Road Trip

Today was the start of a week-long road trip with my brother and cousin! We woke up at 3 a.m. to catch our flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg. We arrived safe and sound, and then hit the road for Waterval Boven, which is about halfway between Joburg and Kruger and one of the best rock climbing places in Africa. We took a roundabout way getting to Waterval Boven and also tried taking a slightly longer route to avoid the toll road, but it put us on this long dirt road. Hoping the rental car is ok!

The Roc n’ Rope Adventure center where we checked in for the hostel for the night was very helpful. They lent us a guide of the routes for the two days we were there and had a pretty cool rock climbing shop. We picked up some bread, peanut butter, jelly, apples and rusks, and we were on our way to the rocks.

We got some awesome climbing routes in the afternoon, which were some of the best routes I have ever climbed in my whole life. I climbed a South African grade 20, which is an American grade 5.10c and the hardest I have ever done! The rock is red sandstone, which was beautiful and nice on the hands.

The concentration of routes was amazing! I have never seen so many awesome routes in one location, and we were only at one of the walls, the Hallucinogen Wall. We climbed until we could not see anymore, then went to the Aloe Restaurant and had some awesome fresh trout, which they prepared for us in the midst of load shedding.

The hostel we stayed at was awesome. It was a great hangout place for climbers, and we were some of the few people there.

June 10 – Last Final Exam

I woke up early to study and then took my surveying final in the afternoon. It was a three-hour exam, but I finished in about two hours. It was not too difficult, and it felt so good to be done! Daniel took Chandler and Katerina to Muizenberg to go surfing for the day, which was very nice of him.

I then packed in the afternoon for our Kruger trip and went out to dinner for sushi with Daniel for our last night in Cape Town.