Easter Vacation: Garden Route

We started in Coffee Bay; we were there two nights. On our very first day/night of driving—to The Coffee Shack Hostel—we got a flat tire!! It was pitch black and we pulled off to the side of the highway, Mom, I had my flashlight (though the emergency flashers were sufficient…), anyhow, the guys managed to switch the flat in 15 minutes tops, just as some other random folks were strolling by (yes, walking on the shoulder of a country highway). Not a blink later we had arrived at Coffee Shack where we got a free welcome drink, and went up the hill for pizza. Coffee Bay was a very small seaside town (pop 600), lots of huts for houses, one gas station that had limited (petrol supply?!) hours and no signage, the main attraction = beach, main attraction for most of the South Africa Garden Route. At Coffee Bay, surfing was all the rage, as was lounging on the soft sandy beaches, and making a toast (sundowners) and taking photos at sunset, below, left.

Man, the words to describe this trip! I want to just talk and have it transform people’s minds. Anyway...Coffee Bay had “Hole in the Wall” a big island rock with a hole in the middle, caused by such strong wave action over the years

We took off for Jeffery’s Bay and stayed two nights, funny, a brief but fierce shower poured down as we pulled in the driveway that night. Not a good sign for sand boarding the next day. Oh well, we jogged in the morning, and shopped in the small beach town, a lot like a California surf town! Santa Cruz or beach towns in So Cal, San Diego neighborhoods even. Got a billabong sweater and slops (flip flops). Worked on a tan. Went out for Mexican food. (Jeffery's Bay to the lower right).
We went up the road to the world’s highest bungee jump (lower left), which I am still glad I did not do. I watched most of my friends, that was plenty of terror for me! Then we rolled on towards Knysna (“Nice-na”). A touristy---but for a good reason--place. You can walk to wherever you need to go, so we just parked it at the hostel (sweet restored old mansion) we booked and walked on to the waterfront (lagoon here, reminiscent of Venice). That night we barbequed some grub and hung out.

The next day we took of down the road to where the Indian Ocean ‘meets’ the Atlantic Ocean. We arrived there just at sunset; I would say one of the most beautiful nights here. (photo here).
Then we carried on to Gansbaai, where we stayed the night to wake up bright and early to get in a cage with sharks swimming around us. This bay is credited with being home to more than 70% of all the photography and documentaries that are on TV these days. Inside the tour operator’s area they showed movies of underwater cage diving, they had teeth on display, they had photos of Matt Damon and Leo DiCaprio with the tour director, it was a fine established program. Thumbs up! A lot scarier than I thought it was going to be. Partly because of the suspense. The whole boat stays there looking at the chum line, bobbing up and down, waiting for a shark to snap on it. Not as common an occurrence as you would expect. No, you wait, until more than half the boat has gotten motion sickness, until the side of the boat is painted with “complementary breakfast,” until the six people waiting in the cage are too cold to wait any longer (and then they swap out with a drier bunch). the nthe shark creeps up, and BAM in your face!You wait until everyone has had the nice underwater, shrilling, life ending/death-breathing monster they call the Great White within an inch from their heads. The sharks feed on some 60000 seals that populate the rocky shores. (On a side note, I learned that a couple dolphins could take down a shark! They just ram into him until he cannot take the pressure). Photos from Gansbaai, below.
That afternoon we drove towards Cape Town. We followed the Garden Route and saw some nice beaches. Beautiful coastline. see below.
Upon entering Cape Town, we were shocked with the differing kinds of housing. The whole route we had taken showed and obvious trend from poorer, generally, to richer (that is moving from KwaZulu-Natal KZN to Western Cape)—everything from businesses to homes, to streets, to signs. There were still poor people in western Cape, but fewer. And we sort of expected this trend, but when we saw the repercussions of such a general pattern, there were no more words to describe it. The poor people in these “rich” areas of South Africa looked a heck of a lot more poor than the poor peoples’ neighborhoods here in KZN do. The shacky places were up on top of one another; the electricity wires were originating from a central pole, and hung low to the ground even until they reached a given shack. Heavy pollution (though not as bad as Naples, Italy last summer) more spread out garbage, not clumped in a heap. I have no idea if they have water nearby, most likely not piped to their shacks, maybe a central spot in the streets over. As usual, only coloreds and blacks walking around in these streets. Let me repeat, these streets are minutes from Cape Town. We just drove by.

So on to Cape Town, and once you get there, it’s like the whole other world you passed by never even happened. Seriously: European! It is mostly white people walking around, a lot of cafes (we have about zero here in KZN, I am guessing because there is not enough extra spending money to waste on lounging in a café, though beer is another story). We were fortunate enough to stay at some other exchange students’ flat, in Observatory area of Cape Town, where we could go out at night, walking distance from a busy party street. Apparently not the safest part of town, oh well. (We met some UCT exchange students from the States, earlier in our trip, in Coffee Bay, and they told us that the UCT demographics are hugely different from ours. The most striking info was that of 20,000 students, 3,000 are international! Within that, 300 are American! Thus, they live with, hang out with, PLUS have classes with at least a handful of Americans per class. While here in KZN there are maybe 30 of us Americans, and we do not see only each other. We live with locals, and personally, there are no other Americans in my classes).
The next day we hiked Table Mountain (view from top is on the right here). We started in Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Papa and Grandma would have LOVED them!! I even said that to my friends when we were walking there. Hiked up the mountain (via Skeleton Gorge) for a couple hours, very steep, even had ladders at some points! But the breathtaking panoramic views were worth it. We “took the scenic route” getting down, which left us quite exhausted—lost?! Anyway, not a big night, that one, had Mexican food yet again! (Yes it is alright here, they know Mexican about as well as Chevy’s does, so we’re happy). The next day, Saturday before Easter, we headed to V and A Waterfront for a look around, shopped, saw a snazzy hotel or two on the water there that I could have moved into! Shopped around for some crafts, had a mocha and then we took off for a scenic drive around the Cape Point.
(The baboons!)

(photo: Cape Point)

That was an afternoon of beaches, wildlife and a lot of laughs! We stopped at Camps Bay, a lot like Miami—classy restaurants and bars on a longs single strip of town that runs along side the sandy beach (water in this part of country is cold, FYI) We saw African penguins at Boulders Beach, adorable (mating season now, we had some fun) and then we drove on towards the point and stopped to take millions of picture of baboons crossing the highway, picking at each other, climbing trees, they even opened the two car doors! Apparently they are very strong, ie dangerous, though, so my friends were scared, I thought it was absolutely hilarious!
We carried on and saw a camel on our drive back in to town, yes a camel! And then I got a nice call from my parents, wishing me well and saying they, too, were on a trip, really good to hear from them.
That night we checked into a hostel right in the thick of downtown Cape Town: Long St!!! it is crazy hectic loud from the afternoon, picks up around 8, and blares music, serves drinks, pours out people, until 5 AM. I made it until 3, but even then I could have kept on. Imagine Mardi Gras in New Orleans, just like that main drag there in New Orleans! I mean there is a bar/club interspersed by like 20 Backpackers hostels (they run like $10/night), so what can you NOT expect. (Long St below to the left). Well, one night there, and we bounced to the quiet and quaint Stellenbosch: it is like Healdsburg, but a little quieter.

Downtown and campus in Stellenbosch, above.

A couple main drags, with nice eateries, and a legit tourism office--but it was even open on Easter! But not much else was, so we relaxed, pretty much. We did take a self-guided tour of the University: it is landscaped marvelously, some oaks, some palms, many other trees and flowers I don’t know…(FYI the proteas are the country flower, it is a large pink and white petalled flower—you see the word Proteas a lot here, like as the name of an establishment). So, future reference, if you want to go to school at a very well recognized, nice climate, small town place, go to Stellenbosch Uni. One thing, though: taught in Afrikaans. Yes, this part of the country is bilingual in a different way from KZN. In KZN we have a lot of things translated to Zulu, but in the Western Cape, especially the richy rich wine regions, there is more Afrikaans, plus English.
The day after Easter we took a wine tour, and I have to admit it was a lot like being a tourist in Healdsburg. We have it good in Sonoma County. Blessed for our earth. On the tour we went to four wineries, a host of wines at each. First was Simonsig, where we had a particularly nice wine, Redhill Pinotage, developed in Stellenbosch, soft red wine. They suggested pairing it with game meats. It is a dressed up, classy, enjoyable activity to go winery hopping. Someone drives for you, have a nice lunch, talk about more flavors than you could have thought of on your own. We even tasted goat cheeses at Fairview Winery. Overall the tour was a good way to wind down the trip. We slept well that night and early the next morning, half past three, we left our hostel to fly back to KZN. And we hit the ground running with school that is for sure. Vacation was awesome. It definitely gave me some perspective about how this town, PMB, (that I spend a majority of my time in) fits in to the rest of it's surrounding country. The country is more diverse than Zulu land. It is whiter in some areas, it is poorer in some areas, not that those are mutually exclusive, but that they are two extremes that we don’t experience in our college bubble.