Cape Town

These past 10 days have been full of fun and adventure! The amount of activities that we did were incredible so I will break things down day by day. Enjoy!

Day 1

Face Fear

The start of our journey. Our group of 30, plus a few family and friends, headed out early in the morning for the beginning of our trip! We piled into two short buses that came to be our home away from home for the next week. Our first stop along the away: World’s Highest Bungy Jump! I have been telling myself since the time that I was accepted into the South Africa program that I was going to complete this daunting task. It was a South Africa “Must-Do.” Surprisingly I stepped off the bus and could not have been more excited to leap off a bridge. That feeling soon left after I sat down and had my feet attached to the one rope that my life would be hanging on, literally. Filled with pure terror they helped carry me to the edge of the bridge. I made the awful mistake of looking down. As they counted down my jump I started to tell them “No, I do not want to jump off a bridge today,” but they did not listen and pushed me off. It was the scariest couple of minutes of my life. Not only was the initial 216 meter drop the largest in the world, the second bounce was the second highest bungy jump in the world. I tried to keep my eyes open as much as possible but I think it is safe to say that my eyes were glued shut the first ¾ of the initial jump. I have pictures that will soon be posted on facebook as well as a DVD documenting this “fun” experience. I’m glad to say that I survived, as well as the rest of my group, and I will definitely say that it was worth the experience, but man oh man, I do not think I will ever do that again.

Feeding the Ostriches

We continued our trip along the Garden Route and stopped at many beautiful outlooks along the way. We saw everything from beaches to the mountains and it literally felt like I was walking through a calendar with all of the pretty views that we had! Our next stop was at an ostrich farm. There I learned many interesting facts about ostriches including: ostriches only have two toes, those two toes can rip open in your chest cavity in one scratch, one ostrich egg is the equivalent of 24 chicken eggs, ostrich brains are smaller than their eyeball, you can punch an ostrich in the chest and it won’t feel a thing (I witnessed this from our guide), as well as many other ostrich facts. We watched an ostrich give hugs, massages, kisses, and rides to many of the people in our group. I may or may not have “fallen behind” the group to feed the ostriches some of the extra kibbles on the ground and the ostriches may or may not have bit my finger which is why you weren’t supposed to feed them in the first place. Oops. Just a few small bruises was definitely worth the thrill of feeding a 6 foot tall bird.

We had dinner that night at Oude Muel, which is Afrikaans for Old Mill. It was an incredible dinner! I had kudu and springbok, and a toffee pudding that was to die for! Lots of native South African food this week. We spent the night in Oudtshoorn before continuing onto Cape Town.

Day 2

This is morning we made our way through the “Adventure Route” at Cango Caves. I have been to many a caves before, but this was definitely the most intense cave tour I have been on. We skinnied sideways through the “love tunnel,” slid headfirst down a one foot opening and hole at the “postal slip,” used all walls in the three foot opening to climb up the “devil’s chimney,” and army-crawled through many other parts of the cave. It was very, very fun! Extremely claustrophobic at times, but luckily I had many supporters behind and in front of me. We continued our long bus ride and finally arrived in Cape Town!! Our first Cape Tonian adventure was to the Cape Town international Jazz Festival. While there I watched David Koz, Allen Stone, Atmosphere (from Minnesota!), and a few other bands perform. It was a great kick-off to Cape Town!

Day 3

On Saturday morning we explored the Slave Lodge Museum. This was very eye-opening because I did realize that Africa also had slaves. A very, very brief history of South Africa: the Dutch colonized the Cape Town area, but originally just wanted to have it as a spot for their ships to “re-fuel” on their way from India to Europe. So therefore, many of the slaves that were used in South Africa were originally from the India area, the east coast of Africa, as well as the natives that were already in the area. This was quite amazing to learn about.

At the top of Table Mountain!

Our most physical adventure of the week was climbing Table Mountain. It was an hour and a half hike straight up the side of the mountain. It was so exhausting, but the view from the top made the whole thing worth it! We ate our lunch at the top of the mountain and looked over the massive city of Cape Town. We took the easy way down and rode  a Cable Car which gave you a 360 degree view of the descent. The hour and a half hike up was just a 4 minute Cable Car Ride down. Weird.

The next part of the trip was the highlight of my week! We participated in homestays within the township. We were paired up and sent off with different Mamas to their homes. My Mama was great! She was very kind and polite and hospitable! She had two daughters, one age 18, Pearl, and one age 24, ZoZo. Pearl took us out to a “block party” of sorts the first night where we met many new people and got a feel for the township. It was an awesome experience! We got back “home” and ZoZo taught us how to make “pap” a corn dish that is served with almost every meal. We feasted that night on chicken, sausage, pap, vegetables, and potatoes and shared in some small talk with our new family.

Day 4

On Sunday morning we went to church in the township. The first half of the mass was music that was performed by a soft rock band and I was lucky enough to know a few of the songs and sing along. There was lots of singing and dancing going on! The second half of the mass was basically run by the people of the church and was translated from Xhosa to English and vice versa. It was quite interesting.

Our big part of the day was touring Robben Island, the place that Nelson Mandela was imprisoned at for over 20 years. Since I have read Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, it was very interesting to make the connections from the book to the place where he spent so much time. Our tour guide was a former prisoner of Robben Island himself and it was really neat to hear everything from his point of view. I’m still amazed at how recent of history of South Africa is and how many people are still alive that can share their stories from apartheid and the first years of democracy.

Nelson Mandela's Prison Cell

We took the ferry back to Cape Town and I was one of the lucky ones who got to stand outside on the deck with the wind in my hair! I also was given the wonderful opportunity to see my “spirit animal” (given to me by one of my friends on the trip), the seal! Many of them were frolicking along the side of our boat on the way back. Talk about cool! We spent the next couple of hours exploring the Waterfront area, a very popular tourist attraction. I saw a marimba band, an acrobatic group, and other singers in the small stretch. I also treated myself to ice cream and a few souvenirs before heading back to my Mama!

It was wonderful to return to our Mama. Apparently she had missed us so much that she had called the person in charge looking for us and asking when we would be back. It was too cute! She made us another feast of sheep, rice, squash, salad, a delicious pudding and jello dessert! Also, we only were given spoons to eat with, so most of the meal was ate with our hands. We again sat around with our Mama and asked her about her part in the history of South Africa. She many great stories to share and two of my favorites were: she touched the car that had Nelson Mandela in it the day he was released from prison, and she stood in line for hours in the cold weather with her 2 week year old daughter in order to vote in the first democratic election in 1994. She is a very proud of her country and of her ability to raise a wonderful family and keep a roof over their heads. It was wonderful to learn about her life!

Day 5

After saying good-byes and not wanting to leave our Mama, we went back into the heart of the city to visit the building of Parliament. We sat in the room where the State of the Nation address is given every year (I actually watched it on tv the first week that we were here) and learned all about how their government was run. We then went on a tour of the Bo-Kaap area which is a very colorful neighborhood where many Coloreds live including Muslims and Cape-Malays. We went to the small museum and walked around the streets. Since this was our fifth day in a row of busy activities, I must be honest and say that I was rather exhausted and this was not my favorite part of the trip. However, the meal that we had for lunch at the Bo Kaap Kombuis (Afrikaans for Kitchen Over the Cape) made up for the slow tour. We had some delicious Muslim food that I don’t remember all of the names for, but it was great!

A few of us spent the afternoon at a place called Camps Beach which was a very touristy beach that was beautiful and had many restaurants and a few small shops. We sat in the sun and relaxed on our first afternoon off in a week. We also were now on the side of the country where the Atlantic Ocean is with the cold Alguhas Current. We warmed ourselves in the sun before taking a running start into the frigid ocean! I literally ran into the water, dunked, and came back out shivering. A friend said that the temperature was comparable to that of Lake Superior. Brrrrr!

We had our “farewell” dinner at Mama Afrika. It was a farewell because it was our last night tongether as a big group and with our guide as well as some of our guests. I had a Zimbabwe dish that was a chicken curry of sorts in a peanut sauce. Very yummy! The atmosphere of the restaurant was very lively! We danced the night away to a live band performing that night!

Day 6

It was an early morning on Tuesday for a long drive to Cape Point, or the most south-western point of Africa. We stopped at many scenic viewpoints along the way and took many pictures. We reached Cape Point and managed a short hike up to a lighthouse where you got a 360 degree view of everything around you. We got to see where the Indian and Atlantic Ocean meet, which was great because we learned about the two currents that meet there in my Biology class that I am taking. We ate our lunch at the top and continued onto Boulder Beach. At Boulder, we got to see penguins in their natural habitat! There were many out and about sunning themselves and posing for the tourists. And we all couldn’t help but laugh every time they walked around. This was our last stop altogether as a group and we said good-bye to our tour guide.

Sunset @ Camps Bay

I spent the afternoon back at Camps Beach with a few friends. But instead of swimming this time, we watched the sunset over the ocean. It was the most gorgeous sunset that I have ever seen! We then found  a place to eat and had some delectable pizzas for dinner and slow-paced night!

Day 7

I spent the day with 2 friends exploring the city. The first place that we went to was the District 6 Museum where we learned about the forced removals in the District 6 area in Cape Town. For all who don’t know about forced removals: in the 1980’s, the government decided to remove all blacks from their homes in certain areas and move them to another location. The black population was given no notice and had about 2 days to pack up their belongings and say good-bye to their friends and their homes. They were forced to live in places far away from their previous lives that the had. Children had to do to different schools and most people had much more extensive commutes to their jobs. The area that they moved out from was completely demolished and was supposed to be built up for whites. In the case of District 6, the area was never re-built and the empty land serves as a remembrance of Apartheid. The Museum was really cool to look through and the hardest thing for me to wrap my head around was that this happened only 30 years ago. That is very recent and there are still many District 6 inhabitants that are willing to share their stories with others.

"Untamed" Sculpture @ Kirstenbosch

I then did some shopping in the Market which is a square completely dedicated to locals who try to sell their African curios to the many tourists. We then hopped on a city bus and went to the Kirstenbosch Gardens, very comparable to the Botanical Gardens. It was gorgeous! We wandered around for about 2 hours and didn’t even see half of the whole place. It was so big and beautiful! We headed back to the city and had dinner at the Eastern Food Bazarre. I had a falafel, another new taste for me! We meandered our way back to where we were staying and called it a night in.

Day 8

It was a very lazy morning. I sat in bed all morning and wrote journals for one of my classes. We then spent the afternoon down at the Waterfront. We spent most of our time at the Aquarium which was really well-made. We saw many different fish, sharks, penguins, and coral. But the best part was that we were able to watch 3 of our friends SCUBA dive in the shark tank. It was really fun to watch them as they had no idea how close they were getting to the sharks and turtles and sting rays. We then walked around the Waterfront, did some more shopping and sightseeing and went out to dinner for Thai food and sushi.

Day 9

On Friday night a few of us went on a search for live music. We saw that there was a live piano at Kennedy’s and went to watch. We ended up being the only people who were actually paying attention to him, so he took some of our requests even though he usually doesn’t do that type of thing. It was great! After he finished, we stumbled upon another live band happening the floor below. They were quite the duo and obviously a crowd favorite. We watched them perform for a little bit and then left. We ran into a couple of classmates and sat and had hot dogs from a street vendor for awhile. We people-watched for a bit and then headed back to our Backpacker.

Days 10 & 11

Unfortunately, our shark cage diving was cancelled due to bad weather. So I took off with 9 friends for our road trip back to Port Elizabeth in the morning. We made half of the drive in the morning and stayed in Knysna for the night. Sadly the weather was not cooperative and since it was Easter weekend, basically nothing in the small town was open. We did find a grocery store and had a braai and sat around the bonfire for the night at our Backpackers.

Kayaking in Africa

We woke up the next morning and went on a Kayak trip. It started off great, the weather was nice and the sun was out. We reached our halfway point and stopped for a snack with our guide and froze because the weather became cold. Some of my friends jumped off a bridge into the river, led by our fearless guide. I sat and watched because I had enough jumping off of bridges for one week. Our break time was cut short because the winds picked up and it started to pour. We hopped in our kayaks and tried to paddle as fast as we could out of the rain. One of the kayaks went parallel to the waves and was flipped. It was funny but they didn’t think so until we got back to shore and had put everything away. We reached the shore wet and cold but still with smiles on our faces. After a warm shower we hopped back in the car and headed back to Port Elizabeth. It was nice to be “home” after such a busy week!