South Africa: Week 4

Week 4 was tough. We had a great time and made the best of it, of course, but the fact that it was my last week in South Africa was upsetting. Although, I'm finding as I continue to travel that such a post-travel depression is common after leaving a place where you have gotten comfortable and had so much fun. Anyway, when we came back from the road trip, Ian had a hefty school schedule and was incredibly busy for the first half of the week. Luckily, Ian's busy schedule allowed me to see some pretty cool things such as the Seven Memorial in Gugulethu, which he needed photos of for a school project, and the beautiful campus of the University of Cape Town, where I wandered for a bit while he was meeting with a Xhosa professor (Xhosa is the African language that Ian studies/speaks). Here are some photos:

The memorial was built in remembrance of seven African men who were murdered by the police during apartheid.

Oh yeah, I also finally got pictures of some local African ladies preparing goat heads in Kayamandi, which I had the pleasure of seeing every time I walked from the Prochorus Headquarters to the school where I was helping out (by the way, here is a link for the Prochorus website if you'd like to check it out):

Awesome! One of the teachers from the school actually explained the process to me at the time but I forget most of it (something along the lines of searing the hair off and removing the brains). But despite my earlier sarcasm, if you can believe it, this process and the process by which they clean chicken is really not disgusting nor unsafe for cooking/eating. Honestly, the crap they pull at Micky D's is probably far worse. Moving on... For my final day, after heading to Cape Town early to check out the top of Table Mountain, I was fortunate enough to be invited along on a yacht cruise around the city by Ian's great friends/second family in South Africa. It was the perfect way to close the trip:

  And so, my time in South Africa was over. My experience there was unlike anything I could have anticipated. The country is beautiful, exciting, and insanely unique. To be honest, it is probably only a matter of time before I try to go back. For now, however, I was off to Istanbul.

South Africa: Week 3 (Garden Route)

The road trip consisted of overnights in several unique South African towns including Mossel Bay, Knysna, and Plettenberg Bay. Visits to Montagu, Swellendam, George, Wilderness, and finally the Bloukrans Bridge (our easternmost destination) were also made along the way.

Maps displaying our route (click to enlarge)

Here are some photos from the ride to Mossel Bay and our first two stops in Montagu and Swellendam:

Our lightning fast ride: 530 hp @ 6,250 rpm | 0-60 mph: 3.1 sTop Track Speed: 196 mph | 25 mpg

After several hours of driving we arrived in Mossel Bay, an amazing shore town known for whale watching and its great white population (not as cool as it sounds. legitimately scary, actually).  We spent a good amount of time at the beach but I wasn't particularly thrilled about swimming. Although realistically, the threat of an attack was only slightly greater than at home. Mossel Bay also has some amazing cliff trails. Check out some of the pics:

Common room of the Mossel Bay Backpackers (where we stayed)

  After a brief drive through Wilderness, we stopped in Knysna. Kysna is home to what are called the "two heads." The two heads are a pair of huge cliff faces the jut out toward one another at the entrance to the Knysna Bay. We took advantage of our time in town by hiking all over these cliffs:

Our final overnight was spent in Plettenberg Bay, an incredibly popular spring break town for South African students and an equally popular vacation spot for families from all over the world. Here, we had the opportunity to swim in crystal-clear, warm (as compared to other locations) water. We also checked out one of the insanely nice hotels that border the bay. Below are some of the shots I came out with:

At last, we reached the Bloukrans Bridge, a 1,480 foot long, 709 foot tall divider between the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Ian and I had decided weeks before I even came to the country that we had to jump off of this beast, so we did. The under-structure of the Bloukrans is home to the highest commercial bungee jumping platform in the world. The jump was very extreme but overall less scary than I thought it might be. Here's the video of my jump (for the record, I did not add that lame music and I had no idea what this dude was explaining to me):

Following the jump, our road trip concluded and we made the long, slightly sad journey back to Stellenbosch. Only one more week left in Africa!