Catching Up

I have a lot of stories to tell and pics to share, so I'm going to try to quickly recap the last week or so of events quickly. This was taken on the Baz Bus ride along the Garden Route on the south coast of South Africa, on my way to a town called Knysna.
I stayed there for 5 days, went mountain biking twice, met lots of travellers from all over, had a few kickin Braai nights (BBQ), toured the local micro-brewery, and also went Abseiling (repelling) down a 400ft cliff right on the Indian Ocean. The scenery at Knysna was breath taking.
After Knysna I continued on to Plettenburg Bay where I did some hiking, sun tanning on the nice beach and swimming in the ocean. From there I went to a place called Nature's Valley, once again a place for great hiking through jungle forests as well as trails down to the coast. The next stop was Storms River, very close to the world's highest bridge based commercial bungy jump site. Laura, Steve and I went to the bridge, paid to walk along a suspended walkway under the bridge, some 216m over the river below, and then Laura decided in a moment of insanity, to jump off. She had about 4 seconds of total free fall, and then another 4 seconds or so of the bungy cord slowing her down before she sprang back up again. She said was it was absolutely incredible, so I actually regretted not doing it myself, but I can easily rationalize the missed opportunity by thinking of the money I saved by not jumping.

These pictures aren't really lining up with what I'm saying anymore, oh well, so I'll just finish up by describing where I'm at now and what's happening. Today is my last day in Jeffrey's Bay. I've had a wicked time here, went surfing 4 times, partying at the hostel with dozens of other travellers from all over the world, did a little bit of shopping at the surf clothing factory outlets, and today we're going to head over to the famous Supertubes surf spot just a few km down the beach, where all the pro surfers go.

Then tonight I get on the Baz Bus again and head to Port Elizabeth, my last Baz Bus stop. From there on I'll have to figure out other transportation. I plan to head up to a place called Hogsback for a day or two, to Cinsta, and then on to a remote village called Bulungula. After that I'm hoping to go to the small country of Lesotho to meet up with a German guy I met in Storms River. That's all for now.

J-Bay

Hey folks, long time since I posted anything, I know. Internet access has been rather hard to find and quite expensive and slow in places.

I just arrived in Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa last night. It's a big surf town, lots of surf clothing factory outlets, shopping, long white sandy beaches and oh ya, lots and lots of surfers, everywhere. Tomorrow morning I'm planning to rent a board and catch some waves. I'll be here for about 4 days or so.

So much has happened in the last week or so it's insane. I met these two girls from Israel who are travelling with a Swiss guy and I keep running into the 3 of them, like 5 times in 6 days all in totally random places. So I figure there must be something I'm meant to learn from them or vise versa. They're arriving in J-Bay tomorrow so we'll see. I'll post some more pics tomorrow and start catching up with story telling as well.

Mossel Bay, South Africa

Ok, Two Englishmen, a German, and a Canadian get onto a parked train right on the beach in Mossel Bay. This train has been converted into a hostel, with only sleeper cars, and at the engine is the reception desk, restaurant, and bar. About 100ft away from the train is the crystal clear, warm, Indian Ocean. So, the Canadian turns and says to the German, "dude, did you take my food?". The German replies "no, my food is gone too." We all looked around our dorm beds and realized, WE'VE BEEN ROBBED!! Apparently the flimsy door with a 3ft gap between the door and the ceiling wasn't enough of a barrier to stop some locals from getting into our room while we were relaxing on the beach, and stealing all of our food. All our clothes, backpacks, and other belongings were untouched. Still, it made us feel pretty violated.


I left Cape Town yesterday morning on the Baz Bus, a backpacker's bus that carries 20 people and runs along a circuit of backpacker hostels along the Garden Route on the south coast of South Africa. The bus was full but comfortable, and I happened to know 2 of the guys on the bus! We drove through the rolling hills of the south coast, past endless hilly farmland, sheep farms, ostrich farms, and fruit orchards. Now we're in the town of Mossel Bay, despite the bus breaking down halfway here and all of us having to unhitch the trailer and push-start the bus. So since we arrived several humurous and interest events have transpired. In addition to our being robbed within the first couple hours of being here, we also went swimming in the nice warm Indian Ocean and then went for supper at a sea-side restaurant called King Fisher. We watched the beautiful sunset from our patio table, as locals surfed the break right in front of us. Now, believe it or not, this is what I feasted on for a total bill of $20CDN :

a tall glass of the local beer
entree of grilled Shark and salad
glass of local white wine (Two Oceans)
coffee
creme brulee for desert, mmmmmmm







When we woke up this morning we promptly checked out of the train hostel where we had been robbed, and took a taxi to the Mossel Bay Backpackers hostel, much cleaner, nicer and safer (we hope). Tomorrow we're all getting back on the Baz Bus and the two English fellers and the German are going to Plettenburg while I'm bound for a place called Wilderness, where there is a national park, some hiking trails, as well as various waterfalls and mountains to explore. There are also the usual thrill seeking activities offered, like bungy jumping, sky diving, shark diving, etc. But, my budget is already being stretched pretty thin by how "expensive" South Africa is. Typically I'm spending about $15 - $20 per night for a bed in a hostel 'dorm', and spending on average maybe $10-$20 per day on food. So, add in transportation and any sort of activity makes each day fairly costly. Today was a fairly cheap day, we bought a tennis ball at a flea market and played our own modified version of Ultimate Frizbee with it on the beach, great fun! So, as I strike off to Wilderness tomorrow who knows what adventures await me and who my next travel companions will be. I'll be sad to say goodbye to this lot, but there always seem to be interesting people to hang out with. By the way, one of the two English chaps here is an exact look alike of Ewan McGreggor, accent and all.

Table Mountain

So, this is where I'm staying right now, the Sunflower Stop Backpacker's in Cape Town. It's a pretty nice place, hot showers, communal kitchen, a pool and a bar. There's quite a few people here, some that stay a really long time and have become almost like a university dorm group of friends, and others that only stay a few days like myself. Notice the spikes on the fence and the barbed wire? Apparently it's a requirement for insurance reasons. Throughout the entire city all the stores, office buildings, condos and hotels are surrounded with razor wire, security gates and cameras.



I've been very tempted to do all the package tours and adventure tourism activites that Cape Town has to offer, but I've finally realized that I'm here for a different reason than most of the other backpacking adrenaline junkies. You can go sky diving, repel down the side of Table Mountain or down various water falls, go cliff jumping, sand boarding (wakeboarding on sand dunes), cage diving with great white sharks, and the list goes on and on. They offer all inclusive pub crawl drinking nights, BBQ parties (called Braai), and the atmosphere is almost like New Orleans at Marti Gras or a Florida beach on spring break. Sure I'd love to go rock climbing and sky diving, but I don't like the idea of doing it as an all inclusive tourist package. These things are also super expensive so that's another deterrant. Instead I've opted to do things on my own as much as possible.



So, a couple days ago I hiked up Table Mountain by myself. Well, not totally alone, about half way up I caught up to two girls who are flight attendants for British Airways. One from Ireland and one from Holland, so I joined them the rest of the way up. They were happy to have a male with them, and I was happy to have people to talk to and take my picture, plus they say it's not safe to hike alone, due to wildlife and the risk of falling.




Anyway, the scenery was mind blowing, and it was cool meeting new people. The girls ended up giving me a ride back to the hostel in their rental car after we took the cable car back down the mountain. We stayed at the top and watched the sunset over the ocean and then got to see all the city lights and the full moon shining over Cape Town on the ride down. What an amazing experience.

Cape Town, South Africa

Since my arrival here in Cape Town two days ago, it has been a gradual process of acclimatization, slowly adjusting to the drastically different weather, culture, and mindset. Suddenly I have been transported back into the lifestyle of backpacking, so it brings back a lot of memories of South East Asia. But this time I feel older and wiser in the ways of traveling.

Cape Town is a beautiful city. The population is about 3 million, and the mix of blacks, whites, and everything in between is finally starting to mix and blend across the previously rigid borders based on skin colour. There is still a major and obvious gap between the rich and the poor, but at least there is now equal opportunity.

There is so much to do right in Cape Town, so I haven't rushed out of the city quite yet, but the attractions are very touristified, expensive package deals, organized tours, etc. So I'll likely head either North or East quite soon, just have to decide whether I'll go see Namibia first or start the Garden Route right away, following the coast of South Africa. I'm meeting a ton of other travellers which is always interesting, mostly people from the UK.