Warning: a long post

I really do not understand why I was so anxious about this trip that we took over the weekend. It was amazing. Warning: this will be a long post.

What was supposed to have happened this weekend:
1) get on bus at 6:45 and arrive in Plettenburg Bay at 3:30 AM. Get picked up by Starling Backpackers
2) go to Nature’s Valley (via cab)
3) Hiking
4) Beach days
5) Total relaxation

What actually happened this weekend:
1) got on bus at ~ 6:45. Broke down ~ 2:30 and arrived at around 4:30 A.M.
2) went hiking at Robberg Peninsula
3) went to Knysna Elephant Sanctuary where I rode an elephant
4) Two hour long canopy tours consisting of 6 zip lines over waterfalls
5) Bunjee jumping off of the world’s highest bunjee jump. A 7 second free fall
6) Beach
7) We never made it to Nature’s Valley

Now time to explain the strange course of events that made up one of the most exciting weekends ever! The whole premise of this vacation was to go to Nature’s Valley, a secluded beach area. To this day, we still don’t know what Nature’s Valley actually is. Anyways, after an entire day of several people trying to figure out how we would get to Nature’s Valley, which is a point along the Garden Route, we decided that the best course of action would be to take an Intercape bus from Cape Town to Plettenburg Bay, a town right next to Nature’s Valley. There, we would stay at a hostel, which wound up being Starling Backpackers, and then take taxis to and from Nature’s Valley. Eventually, after much planning and rearranging Marita’s class, again, which I felt horrible about, we arranged for taxis to meet us at UCT right after we finished in order to rush us downtown so we could catch the bus. I was anxious about sleeping on the bus, since it was an overnight ride, but Mia was great, gave me some melatonin and made sure that I slept which I did. I passed out, so much so that I did not realize that we had broken down on the side of the highway. In my defense, we had been stopping at various stops along the way to pick people up and drop them off so my unconscious state probably thought that it was another stop, a long one. Mia apparently had to poke, prod and yell at me in order to wake me up to tell me we had to get off the bus. I was so confused. We were in the middle of nowhere. Unbeknownst to me, another bus was coming to take everybody that was going to Plettenburg’s Bay. We wound up sitting on the side of the road for a good 30 minutes (the broken down bus was still there). It was fairly amusing. Starlight backpackers picked us up and drove us there to a place that was more of a farm bed and breakfast. I packed my stuff into my single room, assembled my fan (yes I disassembled a fan to bring it with me to sleep) and once again, passed out but this time on a comfortable bed and not a bus seat with people snoring behind me.
The next morning, I realized how amazing our location was. It was serene – absolutely gorgeous. We were on a farm, a place that was originally a mental institution but they bought it and turned it into a backpackers lodge. Vicky and Matthew, the owners, made us breakfast which consisted of mueli (granola with yoghurt in our language) and fruit, a little breakfast (two eggs, bacon, toast and a fried tomato) or a large breakfast (little breakfast + mueli and fruit). After eating breakfast, Vicky and Matthew proceeded to tell us various things that we could do that was in the area. We wound up splitting into two groups, one wanted to do the canopy tours which is essentially a zip line through the forest but this one took you past several waterfalls while the other group that I was a part of wanted to do some hiking. The plan was that we would hike and then come back in time to ride horses through a local game reserve (which I was very excited about).
Robberg Peninsula was gorgeous, that is all that I can say. There were three routes you could take: 45 minute, 2 hour or 4 hour hike. Obviously the longer the hike, the more that you see but we did not have time for the 4 hour hike so we resorted to the 2 hour hike. Our driver, Tyrrone, told us to be on the lookout for dolphins, whales and sharks – you can see them while walking around the peninsula. Unfortunately, we did not see any of those but we saw a ton of seals. Before we saw them, we could hear them. There was at least several hundred seals in the water or sunbathing on the rocks. There was not a good path to get down closer to them but it was cool to watch them all the same. Eventually the path led us to steep sand dunes (which are really fun to run down) and then to a secluded beach with maybe two people on it. I wish I had worn by bathing suit because I would have gone in the water. There we found a washed up puffer fish, which I proceeded to play with because I am a little kid. The water was so blue, the sand was so soft – everything was gorgeous. I wish we could have spent more time there but unfortunately, we had to get back in order to go to the game reserve.
After the end of the hike, we planned on calling Tyrrone to come and get us but he was already there (just a hint at how great these people were). He had some bad news though: the game reserve overbooked and there were no horses left for us to ride. We headed back to the lodge in order to determine what else to do. The alternative given to us was just as amazing: go to Knysna Elephant Sanctuary and ride the elephants throughout the park. Obviously we said that would be amazing. Tyrrone took us to The Lookout, a really good restaurant that he works at, in order to eat. Most people got fried calamari or calamari steaks. I opted for the fish and chips but it was soo good, some of the best that I have had. Apparently, the Lookout used to overlook the best beach in all of Plettenburg Bay but due to heavy rain, it was flooded several months ago, to the point that most of the parking lot is under water. There is no hope of it going down and that is too bad because it might start to affect the infrastructure of the restaurant. Some people have doubts on whether or not it will survive, due to the intense flooding.
Tyrrone picked us up and we drove to Knysna. The drive itself was almost as much fun. He had an open jeep – the weather was so nice that we climbed into the back and just looked at the scenery as we sped through the streets of Plettenburg, the wind whipping through our hair. Plettenburg is one beautiful town. Just the scenery, atmosphere and basically everything, reminded me of Nantucket. Knysna was amazing as well; just the fact that we were getting a chance to ride on elephants was exciting enough. According to the video that we watched, Knysna elephants are going extinct. There were hundreds of them at the Knysna forest at one point but hunters and poachers dwindled their population down to three. In 1994, the sanctuary was started and two elephants, Harry and Sally (for when Harry Met Sally) were the start of the sanctuary. Now, thanks to Harry and Sally, there are 10 Knysna elephants and these are the only ones in the world. The sanctuary is an open piece of property (there are fences so that elephants don’t wander into people’s back yards) that is a part of the Knysna forest. We had 4 elephants waiting for us. Jung and I wound up riding the biggest of them all, Harry. Unfortunately, it was not like Aladdin where you have a little hut thing on top of the elephant that you sit on. You are sitting on a blanket, on top of the elephant. Lets just say this would never become my favored mode of transportation. It was uncomfortable, especially since I was the farthest back. First of all, you need to stay in the center of its back, which is really hard. I kept slipping to the left and elephants are very high up, especially Harry. It was a really interesting experience though and elephants are such gentle creatures, except of course when their baby is being threatened (there was a mother and a baby – she was very protective of the baby). I sung Baby Elephant Walk in my head. It was like a train of elephants since there was four in a row (which also reminded me of the marching elephants in Jungle Book). As we were walking through this field, we got to see the other elephants that are part of the sanctuary, out in their environment. It was such a cool experience. I have an “official” picture but no scanner so you guys will have to make do with the pictures Mia took of us since my camera ran out of batteries.
That night kids from local townships came to the Starling for a camp. Vicky and Matthew are such amazing people. They allow these kids, who have to deal with being raped, abused, being exposed to violence etc. to come to their place, as part of the Born In Africa program. The kids are loud, naughty, what little boys usually are but they are actually allowed to be boys. At home, they grow up too fast due to everything that they are exposed to. We played a game of soccer with them and had our dinner, which was lamb, potatoe salad and something else. The lamb was pretty good but I had to keep telling myself it was a cow. After that, they took us on a “pub crawl” which is the South African term for bar hopping. The pubs had such a different, better atmosphere than the ones in Cape Town. It was a lot of fun.
The next morning we awoke to rain – downpouring rain. Since it was muddy, we could not ride the horses through the game park because the horses could slip in the mud. We needed to come up with a different game plan. Unfortunately, most things in Plettenburg Bay are outdoors so when it rains, you are really limited for options . The other group went to go and ride the elephants and we went to do the canopy tour. It was a lot of fun and even Noelle, who is scared of heights, was able to do it. There is a whole system of breaks and you can pause in the middle of the zip line to look at the scenery. It was such a blast. After that ordeal, Katie and Alyssa wanted to go bungee jumping, which the other group was doing as well. We drove out there and it turned out that Sarah and Lauren, the only people who were going to go originally in the other group, were joined by Christine, Jeff and Alex. From our group, Mia, Katie, and Alyssa signed up to bungee jump. John from the other group decided to go with them and Noelle, Jung and I walked out to watch them. Well I think the euphoria of jumping off of a bridge was a little too much for me. You know the saying “if all of your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?” Well apparently I would because I did. Free fall of 7 seconds. My throat hurt all night because I screamed so loud and so hard. Right before I jumped I was wondering what I was getting myself into. I don’t even like the Tower of Terror yet I am jumping off of a freaking bridge! So yeah…it was lekker though (that means really cool in Afrikaans). I still cannot believe that I did it but I have a video and pictures to prove that I did. The video is pretty funny. I am all excited right until they put me on the edge and I say “I can’t do this” and then they push me off. So I am psycho…pretty crazy.
We had a traditional African dinner that night which was an ox tail stew. I cannot remember the actual name of it or anything like that but it was essentially an ox tail stew. It was good! The ox tail tasted like roast beef. I did not want to leave last night though. That place was so much fun and soo cool. I was so relaxed while I was there. Before we left I played drums with some of the guys, we went for a joy ride in the car. I would love to go back there. If Amanda and I had more time, I would take her there to stay. The people there are just amazing. I am so glad that I forced myself to go on this trip. Thank you to everybody for telling me to go even though I was so anxious about it. I have such good memories and do not regret a single second of it.