Activity 5: Zip-pity Do Dah!

As if bungee jumping wasn’t enough time spent in the air, I spent the rest of the afternoon zip lining through the canopy top.  In my book about wildlife in South Africa the area is known simple as the forest and is characterized as "a community of trees with canopies that touch or interlock, with little or no grass cover.  Ferns, mosses and leaf-litter occur in the understory."  The forest that we were in was indigenous forest, commercial plantations and the ecosystem known as Fynbos.  We were in the Tsitsikamma area along the Garden Route.  The word means "place of abundant or sparkling water" in the language of the Khoi Khoi.  With the Indian Ocean to the south, the Eerste (First) River in the east and the Bloukrans River in the west the names makes perfect sense.

But enough with the fun facts.  This was the first time I had ever done anything like this before.  The last time I was on a zip line I was maybe 10 years old (probably younger) and it was at my elementary school and it was maybe 8 feet off the ground.  I fell off and got the wind knocked out of me.  Luckily, this time I was harnessed in and all the wind stayed in my body.

The zip lining itself was pretty cool.  We all had harnesses that were then clipped into to the zip line.  You had a glove on one hand that you used to brake simply by pulling down on the main line.  There were a couple of shortish runs and then two or three that were quite long where you got going pretty fast.  I wasn’t very good at braking and my landings on the platforms were not graceful, but it was fun anyway.  What was really cool was just being in the forest.  I had never been in an ecosystem like this one.  It kind of reminded me of a jungle, mostly because it was so green and there were so many kinds of trees and other vegetation.  The platforms that we stood on while we waited weren’t bolted into the trees or anything - everything was done with tension.  This ensured that the trees weren’t damaged at all.  The tallest platform was about 15 meters off the ground.  Quite tall, but considering many of us had just jumped off a bridge 216 meters as high, it wasn’t too bad.  We didn’t see any monkeys or anything, but we saw some birds and just the surrounding nature was really nice.

An example of how the platform was attached to the tree.

My and my roommate Jess.

Activity 4: HOPpy Easter

It was strange to spend Easter not doing anything remotely Easter related.  This was the first year that I didn’t dye a singe easter egg.  Instead, I spent the day jumping off a bridge.  In fact, I jumped off a really tall bridge.  Let me clarify these statements - I bungee jumped off the tallest bridge jump in the world at 216 meters off the Bloukrans Bridge.  

Here’s how it worked.  We were all fitted with a harness and then we walked out to the middle of the bridge on a kind of cat walk.  There were platforms built under the road so jumpers didn’t have to worry about what they were about to do, while at the same time trying not to get hit by a car.  Looking back, the walk out was the scariest part because you could see the bottom of the valley and see just how high you were off the ground.  I waited around for a while before it was my turn.  Then, these big pads are attached to your ankles and your strapped in.  Everything was self tightening so when the bungee caught you the harness got tighter and kept you from falling.  Then you HOP up to the edge of the bridge, someone counts to 3 and you push off from the edge and jump.  Then it feels like you’re flying for a while (it was probably only a second or two, but time seemed to move much slower).  It really felt like you were a bird during these brief moments before the bungee catches you.  You end up bouncing upside down for a while and swinging before your momentum ends and you’re just hanging there.  Then it’s just you and your thoughts, a beautiful view of the valley and the river below, a lot of blood rushing to your head and a whole lot of silence.  This was the first absolute silence I had heard all semester and it was quite nice to just be there looking around and listening to nothing.  Apart from all the blood pooling in your skull and a strange pressure behind your eyes it was actually kind of peaceful.  Then a guys comes down, your hooked to another bungee and then hoisted up.  Then, it’s over.  In all, the whole process lasts maybe 5-7 minutes, but it seemed a lot longer and the adrenaline definitely lasted much longer than that.

The bridge.

Rock on!!  I'm so excited 

But...WHAT DID I GET MYSELF INTO??  For a fraction of a second after I heard “3” I think I hesitated, but then I just jumped.  

Weeee!

The way up.

Phew - made it!!  I think it's really funny how red my face is.

Activity 3: Just Keep Swimming...

The next day where were about 3 different activities that we could choose from.  I chose to go kloofing again.  (Review:  kloofing is essentially jumping from cliffs into water).  I had so much fun doing this before, I figured I would try it again and experience a new river.  We stopped at a place to get wetsuits and life jackets (because the river water was actually quite cold).  Then we drove for a while up a mountain and hiked through someones backyard and through a jungle-esk forest before we reached the river.  We walked along the bank of the river and waded in the shallows for a while.  Climbing over rocks in a wetsuit was more difficult than I thought it would be.  Before we got to the first jump, we had to actually swim along for a while and than climb up some rocks to get to where we could jump.  We all took turns and than swam a ways more to the next jump.  After a few more jumps that were all around 8 meters (much shorter than Suicide Gorge) we had a snack on some rocks and than swam for about 30 minutes before our van met us at the company’s camp along the river.  We returned our wetsuits and life jackets and then headed back to the hostel.  I spent to rest of the day reading and just hanging out.

Sorry - no pictures.  I don’t have an underwater camera.

Activity 2: I hope this doesn’t cave in!!

Our next activity was was to the Cango Caves.  We had the choice between the normal or adventure tour and obviously I chose the adventure.  I thought for sure that we would be scrabling up cave walls and squeezing through tiny cracks, but it wasn't quite that intense.  One of the sections on the, however, was called the tunnel of love and the wall were really close together and you kind of had to squeeze through.  Also at the end of the cave before we turned around, we did have to lay down on our bellies and slide down a short rock slide head first.  The rock formations within the cave were really cool.  You had your classic stalagmites and stalactites, but then were were some other really neat structures.

Sorry the photos aren’t the best quality - but they’ll give you an idea of what the cave looked light.

The largest chamber of the cave was huge.  It has been used in the past as a concert hall.  I think this would have been really cool and the acoustics would have been spectacular.

When I first saw this rock formation, it was instantly reminded of an organ.  It turns out I was right - that was the name of the formation.

Some more cool rocks.  It think it's kind of hard to tell which way was right up in this photos so I very well may have put the photos in upside down.

For the first few nights we stayed in a hostel right on the Indian Ocean.  The first day, despite the rain, I went down to the beach with some friends and we played frisbee.  We also discovered that the water was super warm - much warmer than the Atlantic Ocean which I had been swimming in near Stellenbosch.  So, we went swimming.  We spent the nights just hanging out and talking with some South Africans that came to the hostel bar.  Zaas and I talked with one guy for a while about US and South African politics which was pretty interesting.

Activity 1: Big Bird

As cool as it would be to meet the giant yellow bird who makes its home on Sesame St., the big birds that we met were slightly less sunny in coloration and made their home in an ostrich farm.  When we got to the farm, we were told briefly about the history of the ostrich in South Africa, what the meat and the feathers were used for and some other facts.  Then we got a tour of the farm.  In one pen, there was one bird that we were able to feed.  They are actually quite large and kind of scary up close.  Their beak/lips were leathery feeling and quite strong when you stuck your hand out with some pellets in the palm.  We saw some other pens that seemed too small for the number of birds it contained.  Then we came to a larger pen that had several ostriches it it.  This was where tourists could have the opportunity to ride an ostrich.  Because it was rainy when we were there, we could only sit on the birds.  I didn’t really like this part and I did not sit on one.  The handlers seemed to be very harsh to the birds and they stuck a bag over its head in order for the bird to be calm.  It was all just very strange.  The treatment, the conditions - it just wasn’t sitting well with me.  Our tour ended with lunch and then we moved on to the next activity.

I don’t have any pictures - so instead, here are some fun facts about ostriches.

Ostriches can run up to 40mph.

Fossils of ostriches have been found that date back to 120 million years.  Related to dinosaurs??  I think maybe.

One ostrich eggs equals 24 chicken eggs and takes around 2 hours to hard boil one.

An ostriches eye is bigger than its brain.

Vacation: an extended period of recreation, esp. one spent away from home or in traveling (New Oxford American Dictionary)

Finally. Vacation.  Although it seemed like the semester had just started and I haven’t done nearly as much school work as I would have done at St. A’s, by the time the end of March rolled around, I was very much ready for a break.  The week before break seemed much more like a typical week at St. A’s with 2 papers, a presentation and a test all due within a few days of each other.  But I should stop complaining because I have definitely had much more time for “extended periods of recreation” than many of my classmates back home.

Because I came to South Africa with a study abroad program, one of the benefits was that the program organized our break activities for me and the other American students that I traveled with.  All we had to do was pack our bag and show up when the buses came to pick us up.  We had four big vans that carted us around for the next few days.

We left Stellenbosch pretty early on Friday, March 29^th so the bulk of the driving could be done before the day really started.  In the southern part of the country, running kind of parallel to the coast line, there is a drive known as the “Garden Route.”  This route is lovely to drive and is a full of all sorts of tourist traps.  For the first few days of break we did a handful of these activities.

Below are separate posts of each activity we did over the course of the week.  Enjoy!!

Bafana Bafana!

March 23^rd

On Saturday the 23^rd, a bunch of us met up in Cape Town to attend a soccer game in the stadium built for the World Cup.  I’ve seen the stadium several times when I’ve been in Cape Town, but it was cool to see the building up close.  It’s a beautiful building ascetically and the entire atmosphere (the people, the excitement, the sounds, everything) was super exciting.  I went later in the day with Neil, Amanda and Daniel and we met up with a bunch of other international students.  We took the train from Stellenbosch and walked from the train station to the stadium which was about a 30 minute walk.  We had brought dinner with us and we ate on some grass we found in a park on the way.  There were tons of people out and about, many of them wearing yellow and green (the colors of the team) and other South African garb.  On our way, we passed vendors selling all kinds of soccer related paraphernalia.  I ended up getting a jersey with Amanda to show support for “our” team and Neil got a vuvuzela.  We heard this noise so many times even before we got into the stadium.  People were just blowing them in the streets on their way to game.  At the game, they made a constant buzzing in the background.

We ended up having great seats and were maybe 15ish rows away from the field, pretty near one of the goals.  I don’t really know anything about soccer, so I’m not entirely sure if it was a good game or not, but South Africa won 2 to 0, so I’m guessing it was pretty good.  Daniel explained some of the rules to me while we were watching, but I don’t really remember what he said.  What was really great was people watching.  There were huge groups of supporters wearing all sorts of crazy attire in support of Bafana Bafana (the nickname given to the South African national team).  Bafana Bafana means “go boys go boys” in Zulu.  It came from the 1993 game against Cameroon when South Africa was on the verge of beating them and the fans starting shouting “Bafana Bafana” and the name stuck.  The other thing that was interesting was that we, as international students, were some of the only white people in the entire stadium.  Although the team is comprised of all kinds of people (white, black…), there still seems to be a idea that soccer the the sport for black people and rugby is the sport for white people.  Although Apartheid ended around 20 years ago, I have been able to witness instances such as this that seems to point to continued racial division.

The game was great fun.  There was so much energy and excitement.  I think the game we attended was a big deal (if they won, then they went on to something, but I have no idea what) so I think the stands were extra enthsiastic.  One of the coolest parts of the night was at the very beginning of the game, when they played the South African National Anthem and we were all able to sing along to some parts of it.  I don’t know about the other people I was with, but it was a special moment to realize how much at home I felt in South Africa and how much I had grown to love the country.  We spent the game cheering and yelling, being obnoxious with the vuvuzela and just having a great time!

After the game, we had arranged with a company for them to take us back to Stellenbosch in a van, but the van wasn’t big enough for all of us, so I stayed back with 5 others and waited for another van.  But the van was taking forever, so we ended up hailing a taxi and squeezing five of us in the back seat and one person in the front.  It’s amazing how crazy the driving is here and how many people don’t follow the rules we have back in America.  People sit in the backs of trucks all the time on the highway, and the driver allowed us to squeeze so many people into a car.  There are so many things people do on the road that wouldn’t fly back in the States.  But, we were so packed into the backseat that even if we crashed, I don’t think we were going anywhere.  It was a rather nice ride home all snuggled together though!

Enjoy the photos!!!

This group of supports was the best.  They were on their feet singing, dancing, shouting and just having an all around good time for the entire time we were there.  It was tempting to join their party, but we didn't.  They just looked like they were having the time of their lives and we were all jealous of how much fun they were having.

Neil, Amanda, Daniel and I

After the first half, several marching bands circled around the field playing some pretty jazzy music.

A good view of the building.  I didn't take a picture of the stadium of the outside, but oh well.  I can always steal one from Google.

A good view of the stands.

Although the stands were entirely full, there were still so many people there.  It was the biggest sporting event that I have ever been to in my life which added to the overall excitement.

Hittin’ the Trails!

March 20^th and 21^st

About 10 kilometers from Stellenbosch University is Jonkershoek Nature Reserve.  It’s a relatively small valley, but contains beautiful mountains, great hiking, a few waterfalls and a dirt road the goes in a big circle at the base of the mountains that is great for mountain biking and walking.  I can actually see some of the mountains that make up the area from my window in my room.  I biked to Jonkershoek one Sunday with some friends a while ago after we had signed up for the Jonkershoek Mountain Challenge which is a race in May (more about that later) just to hike around for the day and see what we were up against.  The area is just lovely.  Since then, we’ve been talking about when we should camp in Jonkershoek.  Three friends and myself don’t have class on Wednesdays and we had a public holiday on Thursday the 21^st of March (no school!) so we decided that those days would be perfect to camp for a night in Jonkershoek.  We spent the weekend before hand and the days leading up to Wednesday making sure we had everything we needed - like a tent.  I ended up buying a tent for under $40 - which is wicked cheap.  It’s a great tent and it’s huge!  It advertises itself as a two person tent, but we fit four people comfortably.

Daniel, Sam, Ally and I were going to head to Jonkershoek earlier in the day and hike around and then meet up with a few other people who were going to come after their class in the afternoon.  I was the only one with a big backpack, so I ended up carrying the tent, two sleeping bags, two sets of poles (for a tent someone was going to be bringing later), food, enough warm clothes for myself and other people if necessary, a water filter, two flashlights and bunch other things that may have been needed.  After everything was packed, I’m pretty sure by bag was over 30lbs.

On Wednesday morning, we took a shuttle bus to Jonkershoek and arrived around 11, although we had left Stellenbosch around 8:30.  We had to wait for a taxi for about and hour and the drive there took much longer as we stopped and started and picked up and dropped off lots of people.  We got through the gate and started hiking around.  We didn’t really know where we were going, but we did have a specific trail that we were eventually going to follow.  Right from the get-go, things were a little funny.  We ended up taking the first wrong turn possible and walked entirely around the valley to get to the trail head.  It was fun though, and we saw a lot of the area.  We ate lunch on a stream, crossed it and made a minor short cut to get to the trail head.  The hike up to where we were thinking we wanted to camp was easy at first, but eventually got pretty steep.  It was also pretty hot and it was a darn good thing that I had my water filter because we got water at almost every stream we passed.  Daniel and I even had to do some minor down climbing to get to a stream because we were all drinking so much water.  We went off the path for a little ways to find a place to camp in the early evening.  Then we found rocks to sit on that had a good lookout point so we could see the others coming.  We had done some research about what animals we needed to be aware of in the area.  There were obviously baboons, but there were also several kinds of poisonous snakes and leopards as well.  We didn’t see any wildlife except for birds all day, but when we were finding our campsite, Sam did spot a snake under a rock, but we gave it a wide birth, so I’m not sure what kind of snake it was.

Around 6pm, we got a phone call from one of the people we were supposed to meet up with.  They were at the gate, and the park was about to close.  Originally, they were either going to pay to get in or just hop the fence, but there was a search and rescue squad at the gate, so neither one of those was going to work.  Hearing that there was a search and rescue squad freaked us out, because we weren’t entirely sure if we were supposed to be camping where we were.  They had to call us back, so during the brief interlude, we tried to decide if we wanted to hike down and leave before we had to get rescued or if we should just stay.  This was all rather nerve-racking and I was not a happy-camper.  They called us back and said that the search and rescue was merely training and we were fine, but that the rest of the group wasn’t going to be able to meet up with us.

We watched the sunset.  The place we camped was really neat because we could see the ocean on one side and then more mountains on the other.  It was beautiful.  We ate sandwiches for dinner and then played cards in the tent before going to bed.  We got up pretty early to hike down and we got to the gate probably around 11am.  Then we started walking the 10k back towards Stellenbosch thinking that we could hitch a ride somewhere along the way.  We had been walking for maybe an hour and a half and were a little before the half way point when a truck pulled up next to us and asked if we needed a ride.  There were some people sitting in the back and they were clearly all hikers.  Sam and Ally took the ride immediately, but Daniel and I decided that we were already half way, so we should probably keep going.  We walked for a while longer and got back to Stellenbosch around 2:30.  It was great to be able to say that we walked the whole way back, and walking back into the grassy area in between the buildings we all live in was a great feeling.  It was, however, extremely tiring and had been wearing my pack pretty much all day so my back was pretty sore.  After that, I ate my melted Snickers bar and finished up the rest of my food.  I did some yoga/stretching with one of my friends who and got a massage that ended up hurting pretty bad but feeling really good.  All in all, it was great fun.  The hiking was beautiful, the company was great and I love the fact that I can say I carried my pack the whole way!

I didn’t take that many pictures, but I have some of mine and some from Daniel and Sam.

Our "map" on my iPod.  The white line is where our ultimate goal was and we did make it!

The Happy Campers!! Ally, Me, Sam and Daniel

Lunch and a brief cooling of the feet.  The water was super cold, but it felt so good.

Break (and a nap) in the only shade we found for hours.

Daniel and I climbing to get water.

This is what the landscape looked like pretty much the whole way up the mountain.  It was beautiful and I'm constantly reminded of Lord of the Rings.

Almost at our campsite.

Sunset.

More sunset.

These pictures are from Daniel (he has a pretty nice camera).  I was really tired when we had finally found a campsite and we waiting for the others so I took another nap.

The four of us!

Looking longingly into the distance!  It's a little staged, but a nice picture.

I really like this picture too (thanks Daniel!).  The sunset was so nice and the contrast between the colors in the sky and the black silhouette of the mountains was so cool.

Good mornin'!

Back in Stellenbosch (finally).  Daniel took this picture to.  My shoulders were extremely tender after wearing my pack for so long and Neil offered to give them a massage.  It hurt, but felt really good at the same time.

Hello!  This "little" guy was hanging out with us as we were eating.  He crawled up and down the table for a long time and we tried feeding him peanut butter - but he didn't want it.  I've never seen a praying mantis that close so it was really cool.

Nice blister!

STOP!! Read this first before scrolling down!!

Hellooo Readers!!!

First let me apologize for the lengthy delay between posts.  I was trying to come up with creative excuses for my tardiness and I came up with 2.  You can choose according to personal preference.

     1.  I fought a lion and got all my fingers bitten off rendering me unable to type.
     2.  I fell off an elephant and have been in a coma for the past few weeks.

I personally don't really like either - they both sound pretty painful.  The real (less painful) excuse is that I've been so busy.  Who ever told me that I was going to get really good at doing nothing this semester must have meant that I would get really good at doing everything.  Because South Africa is so big and has so much to offer, I have been spending every weekend and really every waking moment basically playing (swimming, going to the beach, hiking, traveling...) and occasionally doing some piece of homework.  That's actually not true.  I have been playing a lot, but I have been doing a lot of reading for my classes and preparing activities for my first graders and other course work.  We're nearing mid-semester break and I have two research papers I need to be thinking about and drafting, a photo-essay, a group essay about the Lynedoch Community and a movie night to organize for our 1st graders and their parents.

But enough small talk - you guys are way more interested in what I've been up to.  Because I haven't posted in a while, things are a little out of whack.  The next few posts will be out of order chronologically, but I guess that's alright.  I will do my best to get up to date sometime this week and fill you in on my weekend in the Cederburg Mountains, my experience at the Holi One Festival of Colors, my excursion to Cape Point to see the penguins at Boulder Beach and some of what I have learned in LSCE about the "real South Africa," it's history, the legacy of Apartheid and how times may not be a changin' as much as people think.

Anyway, enjoy these pictures for now.  Thank you so much for all the interest in my blog!

Lots of love,
Katie

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