Garden Route

The fifth week of exchange was the moment many of us have had in the back of our minds since coming to South Africa. The Garden Route was at the doorstep. I was talking to an ex-exchange student the weekend before and he said he enjoyed this trip the most, so expectations were high. On the Monday morning, February the 13th, 2012, our bus arrived and we were on our way!

The first day we did quite some driving, because the Garden Route is Western Cape going into Eastern Cape and Cape Town is deep inside the Western Cape. A guide from the Bokbus company had picked us up that morning and he briefly informed us about the day plan. Our first stop of the day was False Bay. It gets its name from long ago, when the Portuguese used Cape Town as the last stop and then sailed straight to Indonesia in search for spices. When the Portuguese and others would come back they would see a very similar bay to Cape Town and think they had arrived only to discover it was False Bay.  After more driving we stopped at a penguin beach where we saw many African Penguins. After relaxing there a bit we headed to our accommodation for the evening. We were told that it would be our most luxurious hotel but I hadn’t expected a safari lodge. It was amazing! Loic and I stayed in a luxurious hut, and in the evening we relaxed at the pool, after having a very tasty dinner. However, I didn’t care about any of this, the best, by far, was that we actually went on safari and saw lions, elephants, cheetahs, giraffes, zebras and many more animals. My first day of the Garden Route was a great success. 

After a great night sleep, we went on safari again, but this time early in the morning.  We also went to the reptile center where we were allowed to hold snakes, and visited a couple of cheetahs. After breakfast and a load of happy valentines, we left my favorite hotel of the week. We headed for an ostrich farm where we got to feed, ride and pet the animals. It’s probably the most awkward animal to ride, but I felt sorry for the animals because they were extremely stressed out. The last stop of the day was the Cango Caves. These caves were discovered a long time ago by a local farmer, who was brave enough to let himself in and explore. The cave is covered with stalactites and stalagmites and huge formations of them. After seeing the main cave we went on an “adventure”. A guide took us through narrow tunnels, up(down) to 30 cm wide and 40cm in height, through the caves and eventually back out. We al enjoyed it, and that evening we stayed at the Backpackers Paradise where we played some football and had ostridge kebab. That evening we all went to bed with one thing on our mind: Bloukrans Bungee.

Wednesday was the big day that everybody had been talking about. We were going to bungee the highest bridge bungee in the world(216m). This was however later on in the day. We first went canoeing and after that we had pizza. The big moment had arrived and there we were, staring at the Bloukrans Bridge not able to believe we were about to jump off that massive structure. After being strapped into a harness and been given some simple instructions, we walked to the center to the bridge which seemed to take ages. Once we were on the bridge the music was pumping and everybody was in the zone. One by one we jumped and all came back up with a huge smile on their face. It was definitely one of the most amazing things I have ever done. Next stop: skydiving! After the bungee we went off to the beach to relax and let the adrenalin flow out of us. That evening we stayed in another youth hostel where we met the same guys who jumped of the bridge with us. We watched the videos of us jumping and we all had a good laugh.

Thursday was our last proper day of the Garden Route. In the morning we did a zipline through the tree canopy. The money we paid for it went to charity. It helped poor people getting educated and improving their facilities. After having done the bungee this wasn’t very adrenalin pumping but I still enjoyed hanging out with the group and viewing nature at its finest. After doing ten ziplines we had lunch and went off the beach where we could swim and have something to eat. We were already on the way back and after the beach we made progress heading towards Cape Town. After a long drive we arrived at a farm in the middle of nowhere. It was a very calming place and we all sat down and enjoyed the sunset and talked about the trip.

Friday we drove back to Cape Town. We made a stop in Hermanus where we had lunch and sat on the cliffs enjoying the view. We arrived at Bishops around five and all of us said goodbye to the girls from Hong Kong because they were leaving the next day. I had a great trip with moments I will never forget and I hope to go back to that part of the world one day!