Since we arrived under the cover of darkness on Sunday night, we didn't do much besides explore Mantis and Moon (our backpackers). But there was no shortage of nooks and crannies to explore. Such a cool spot! Like wooden cabins and treehouses (yep. stayed in one of those...childhood fantasy fulfilled!!) built into the jumgle so that you can't see any other civilization from your cabin. Everything was rustic and wooden in a super hippy kind of way, with an outdoor bar, teepee, these rickety uneven wooden slat pathways, hot tub, pool, fabric-covered gazebo, rooftop deck, and tons of neon lights lighting everything up. DUH! Amaze-balls. Only downside was that there was only about 9 people there, in total. It turned out pretty well though cuz we just wanted to chill and hot tub and get a little drunkity and wake up bright and early the next day. There was Raymund the bartender who unfortunately was sick from the big party they'd had the night before. With his bleach-blonde dreds, we could definitely tell he would've been a good time. He was sad too. But he poured us a bunch of drinks and tucked himself into bed. Omri, an Israeli traveller on an exploration before joining the army for 5 years joined us. Calvin, a new staff member, joined us also. Pretty chill night but perfectly wonderful once the hot tub heated up beyond lukewarm.
Next morning, we woke up bright and early knowing already the Gorge awaited us. We headed to the beach for a quick stroll before our ride was picking us up. It was my first true Indian Ocean beach experience. We were walking along on the amazing dark tan sand gazing out at the gorgeous waves crashing all over the rocks. Too tempting!!
We had to get in...Naked! Well, suits would've worked too but we didn't have those and we couldn't pass up a dip. There were a few old white couples walking up and down the beach and several life guards chillin about 150 yds away. That may have deterred me if I was alone. But I didn't have to be the moving party on this one! THANK GOODNESS FOR KAYLA :))
For serious. She just doesn't care at all. Its amazing. She waits about 200ms for a couple to pass by and once their backs are to us (like actually 10 feet away) she starts stripping down. Well, once the stripping starts you can't stop it--its just like pringles! So we got nakey as quickly as possible and ran in. So warm Mmmmm. But it definitely was only about a foot deep for the first 200 feet. Only slightly awkward: skinny dipping in broad daylight on a populated beach with only your ankles covered. Teehee
It took about 20 minutes for one of the lifeguards to start waving us in. Honestly, I think it was more awkward for him than it was for us. We played the dumb tourists and skipped our way back to Mantis and Moon. Oh and PS we passed a praying mantis on the road on our way. For realsies!
Next adventure on the agenda: Oribi Gorge. A local, Ryan, who the backpackers hooked us up with was gonna show us around for the day. We thought we were just getting a bus driver. But No! We got a friend (Awwwwww). Haha. He was awesome.
Omri decided to tag along with us. And Lisa, a lovely German volunteer working in the area and dating Ryan, joined us as well. We headed out (with Sofie the cutest little sausage dog) and stopped for some food along the way. Got Nando's chicken, which apparently is taking the world over by storm. Well everywhere but the US. We learned the whole history from the owner and he was so excited to share. Making friends with everyone everywhere was one of the main goals of our trip.
Ryan briefed us on the area as we drove through and when we got to the Oribi Gorge Nature Reserve and we hopped out to walk around the first part to get views from every angle. It was a huge limestone and sandstone U-shaped canyon. Gorgeous. It had a flowing river at the bottom, like the Grand Canyon, but unlike the GC it was a jungle down at the bottom. Just green and gorgeous foliage everywhere you looked. Really breathtaking (or breath-giving, think on that). As we hiked around we saw this beautiful waterfall off the top of the canyon, falling 170m to the bottom. That's about 55 stories. And that's what we were going to jump off of :)
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Monday, May 20, 2013
Hello Narnia, is that you? (Part 1)
Holy Moley! Just had one of the best weeks of my life...possibly the best ever. I will forewarn you that there ARE NO WORDS to describe i, before I describe it in words :)
So I took last week off from program which was incredibly sad and an extremely hard decision. But I made the right one. I missed my kids so very very very very much! All of them. Cried a couple times and couldn't help but look at their pictures while I was away. But that was the ONLY reason that coming back to Muizenberg/Cape Town (both of which I absolutely adore btw) was bearable. That and the fact that I am one week closer to having my baby in my arms (Apollo duh!).
I traveled with Kayla and Jenny. Two phenomenal people and incredible travel partners! LoVe!!! We took the Baz Bus for a week. It is a hop-on hop-off bus/van that travels around SA taking backpackers to various backpackers and awesome stops all along the coast from Cape Town to Durban and then up to Jo'berg. Its a pretty comfortable ride. Unbelivably scenic (here is the first place where the NO WORDS thing comes into play). And you meet some AWESOMELY "tubular" people. "Hectic bru, hectic!" (in SA-lingo).
We spent our first day (Saturday) on the bus puuurrrdy much the whole day from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth. We had to take the train in from Muizenberg to CT first, so it was definitely a 5am wake-up call and we didn't get to our destination until about 10pm. Looooonng Day. You get to get off and on the bus some to check out the different backpackers and at stops and breaks along the way. But it is still a lot of "bus" if you know what I mean. We just crashed when we got to PE too. Our backpackers was nothing special but still nice and there were some cool people hanging out and playing pool, card games, and drinking when we got there. We told them, "Ya, we'll be right back to hang out as soon as we drop our bags in our room!" Didn't happen. Not even close. First of all, we had our own private room (or room for the 3 of us, which is the most "private" I've experienced in the last couple months). Secondly, had the only non-twin bed of my trip. Ahhhh to lie diagonally!!! (it's the simple things you miss the most) Thirdly, we had a teeny tiny TV in our room. WHAT??! We at the Four Seasons or something? To watch TV in bed--straight up luxury. So shower, couple slices of cheese for dinner (but it was nummy cheese), and sleepy time. Briefly.
We got picked up at 6:45am the next morning (Sunday). For another long Baz-bus filled day. Still super cool people. Picked up right where we left off the day before with our box of wine. Classy ladies! Drinking games, journaling, sleeping, reading, meeting new people and exchanging awesome stories, researching places along the coast that were "Must-Visits". Which is everywhere. Literally. The Eastern Cape coastline (Sunshine Coast, Wild Coast, and beyond) is stunning, unreal, unimaginably beautiful and full of incredible variety. Ahhhh so cool!
At about 8pm we got to our first REAL destination: Umzumbe. Never heard of it? Well neither has most any South African. Little off the beaten path. Our undiscovered treasure trove!
So I took last week off from program which was incredibly sad and an extremely hard decision. But I made the right one. I missed my kids so very very very very much! All of them. Cried a couple times and couldn't help but look at their pictures while I was away. But that was the ONLY reason that coming back to Muizenberg/Cape Town (both of which I absolutely adore btw) was bearable. That and the fact that I am one week closer to having my baby in my arms (Apollo duh!).
I traveled with Kayla and Jenny. Two phenomenal people and incredible travel partners! LoVe!!! We took the Baz Bus for a week. It is a hop-on hop-off bus/van that travels around SA taking backpackers to various backpackers and awesome stops all along the coast from Cape Town to Durban and then up to Jo'berg. Its a pretty comfortable ride. Unbelivably scenic (here is the first place where the NO WORDS thing comes into play). And you meet some AWESOMELY "tubular" people. "Hectic bru, hectic!" (in SA-lingo).
We spent our first day (Saturday) on the bus puuurrrdy much the whole day from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth. We had to take the train in from Muizenberg to CT first, so it was definitely a 5am wake-up call and we didn't get to our destination until about 10pm. Looooonng Day. You get to get off and on the bus some to check out the different backpackers and at stops and breaks along the way. But it is still a lot of "bus" if you know what I mean. We just crashed when we got to PE too. Our backpackers was nothing special but still nice and there were some cool people hanging out and playing pool, card games, and drinking when we got there. We told them, "Ya, we'll be right back to hang out as soon as we drop our bags in our room!" Didn't happen. Not even close. First of all, we had our own private room (or room for the 3 of us, which is the most "private" I've experienced in the last couple months). Secondly, had the only non-twin bed of my trip. Ahhhh to lie diagonally!!! (it's the simple things you miss the most) Thirdly, we had a teeny tiny TV in our room. WHAT??! We at the Four Seasons or something? To watch TV in bed--straight up luxury. So shower, couple slices of cheese for dinner (but it was nummy cheese), and sleepy time. Briefly.
We got picked up at 6:45am the next morning (Sunday). For another long Baz-bus filled day. Still super cool people. Picked up right where we left off the day before with our box of wine. Classy ladies! Drinking games, journaling, sleeping, reading, meeting new people and exchanging awesome stories, researching places along the coast that were "Must-Visits". Which is everywhere. Literally. The Eastern Cape coastline (Sunshine Coast, Wild Coast, and beyond) is stunning, unreal, unimaginably beautiful and full of incredible variety. Ahhhh so cool!
At about 8pm we got to our first REAL destination: Umzumbe. Never heard of it? Well neither has most any South African. Little off the beaten path. Our undiscovered treasure trove!
Monday, May 6, 2013
Stress: Longer I'm here the more there is to see!
Continuation from previous (Weekend Update):
The peninsula tour was really fun. Nice chill day making new buddies and seeing marvellous sights. Figured it wouldn't be too hard on my sad sick self. We got to see the entire peninsula (btw Aussies, Brits, and SAs say that word REALLY funny: "peninshoola"). STUNNING. Every time we turned a corner and every new view we saw was jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Can't believe all of this beauteous nature is all packed into such a small place. We stopped in Bo Kaap, which I had visited the week before with James, Kate, Dean, and Chloe. But it was cool to actually hear a bit more of the history. It began as a Vietnamese neighborhood back right after they were released from slavery. During that time they were greatly restricted in the ways they could express their culture. So when the were finally free, they went crazy and painted all of their houses these amazingly bright bold colors. After some time, a large Muslim population moved into Bo Kaap as well and there are mosques on every third corner all decorated in the same bold colors. Most recently, and large population of college students have been colonizing the area so its really trendy and young and fairly safe. So its a very interesting mix of cultures and people and has a super cool vibe to it (Oh! and the gay neighborhood borders it too). We had several cars of guys in their twenties in full muslim garb drive by blasting African drum music. So weird!!
We drove around and past the West Coast Beaches and towns and only stopped for long enough to figure out we HAD to come back. Paradise. AHH! Especially Camps Bay and Clifton. Pretty upscale neighborhoods and ridiculously so in comparison to whats just over the mountains from them. We went to Cape Point (Nature Reserve), which is the most SW point of the African continent and hiked up to the lighthouse where views were unreal. You could see the entire peninsula from up there, so Atlantic ocean on both sides and all the bays along both coasts, and mountains shooting straight up from the coasts: table mountain, lions head, muizenberg mountain, the 12 apostles. We even spotted a couple buildings in our "home town" (Muizenberg). There's a lot of super cool history about explorers and shipwrecks and such. Something like 300 shipwrecks right around that point. Only downside was all the bugs at the top! Gross and of course they all fell in love with me most of all! I had on a bright yellow/green skirt and they just swarmed. Got my first bug bites of the trip and was itching off imaginary bugs for the next hour. Still worth it though. And if I'm okay with bugs you KNOW the view was good!
We came back around to the eastern side of the peninsula and went to see the penguins again. I'd gone to Simon's Town to Boulder Beach a couple weeks before with Doni and Tyler, but there's no getting tired of penguins! So cute and awkward and little. And they are almost always in pairs because they mate for life and its adorable! You can climb through the boulders to like secret hidden little white sand beaches and privately obsess over the closest little jackass penguins (that's really their name).
Next up: Lunch. Finally! It was about 2:30 by this point and we'd left the house at 8:15am. We went to Kalkies at the Kalk Bay harbor. Its a sort of grungy but awesome hole-in-the-wall seafood place just sitting on the dock with a canopy over top. I got my first fish and chips, which are apparently a big deal! Its one of the classic 'Cape' dishes.
Side note: I came wanting to experience all the 'local' cuisine. But there is such a mixture of cultures that much of the 'local' cuisine is much like you'd find in the states. There are certain specialties though. Like fish and chips. And there's a special type of cuisine called 'Cape Malay' that is a mixture of indian, south asian (indonesian), dutch, and middle eastern. It is unique to the Western Cape of SA. And delicious. Or at least I thought so. I went during my day in Bo Kaap with James and crew and had a sort of wrap with a spiced curried steak. A few had the traditional dish bobotie. I was really the only one that loved the food. But some weren't super open to new things and some just ordered really heavy food. There is lots of game eaten here: ostrich, kudu, etc. And biltong--sort of like jerky--is huge as well. Moral of the story: There is no one local cuisine. There are many and they are all intertwined, a reflection of the people here.
Back to the tour... We headed to a winery in Constancia for our last stop. This is not the big wine region that is classically boasted about. It is a smaller area right in the center of the peninsula. Gorgeous! We were all seated around a huge rustic wooden dining table. And the pouring began. We continued the party (and the bonding) in the courtyard outside and then headed home around 6:30.
Long Day. A few of the girls were going to a hockey game after (invited by some referees they met cage diving) and I was planning on going with but there ended up not being enough tickets and I think it was a blessing in disguise because I was sick, remember? And of course, I can't say no to good times :)
Woke up feeling pretty shitty on Monday, even as it was. Hawking up phlegm like I was going for the world record. (Apologies for the explicit nature of that description). It was pretty bad. Back to no voice at all, constant coughing and of the moist kind as described above. I had to stay home. There was no way I could be helpful at school feeling like I was. And there's really no soap, paper towels, napkins, or anyway to deal with the phlegm thing soooo. Bed it was! And I slept man! I tried to be somewhat productive and organize my stuff, do laundry, and practice consulting cases. Useless. My eyes kept closing on me and I slept basically all day. When nighttime came (about 5 hours after I got up-up) I had no problem going right back to sleep. So as much as it sucks to be away from my kids I think it was much needed.
I'm getting more and more behind on retelling my adventures as time goes. So quick synopsis (I promise I'll get to it all asap):
trying to walk to town and nearly passing out, Constantia wine tour, no brass bell, visiting Robben Island, ferry out, hottest day we've had, crying when reading about Mandala, African Dance show, best latte ever and hugest cheesecake ever (cheesecake factory watch out!), third class train, table mountain hike, opera, champagne, ostrich stew, cable car, robert, green market, kids dancing on train, girls' night but not really, mall and train back, horseback riding, imnhoff farm, santori,, story about mommies and daddies, health form and mulumba, my favorites, Sara at Sunrise, kloof st, savoy cabbage, fiction, high tea, kalk bay, cape to cuba (x3), tapas, friday market puppy, sneaking wine, house to ourselves, switch rooms, woodstock market, foooood, new people oh my, Toad round 2, my first Village, Kirstenbosch yoga, smelling evil, camps bay day of chill, deep convo with Jenny, Kayla just Kayla, sushi and sunset, gelato....
See, so much! I can't believe I only have 3 weeks left. It's gonna fly by
The peninsula tour was really fun. Nice chill day making new buddies and seeing marvellous sights. Figured it wouldn't be too hard on my sad sick self. We got to see the entire peninsula (btw Aussies, Brits, and SAs say that word REALLY funny: "peninshoola"). STUNNING. Every time we turned a corner and every new view we saw was jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Can't believe all of this beauteous nature is all packed into such a small place. We stopped in Bo Kaap, which I had visited the week before with James, Kate, Dean, and Chloe. But it was cool to actually hear a bit more of the history. It began as a Vietnamese neighborhood back right after they were released from slavery. During that time they were greatly restricted in the ways they could express their culture. So when the were finally free, they went crazy and painted all of their houses these amazingly bright bold colors. After some time, a large Muslim population moved into Bo Kaap as well and there are mosques on every third corner all decorated in the same bold colors. Most recently, and large population of college students have been colonizing the area so its really trendy and young and fairly safe. So its a very interesting mix of cultures and people and has a super cool vibe to it (Oh! and the gay neighborhood borders it too). We had several cars of guys in their twenties in full muslim garb drive by blasting African drum music. So weird!!
We drove around and past the West Coast Beaches and towns and only stopped for long enough to figure out we HAD to come back. Paradise. AHH! Especially Camps Bay and Clifton. Pretty upscale neighborhoods and ridiculously so in comparison to whats just over the mountains from them. We went to Cape Point (Nature Reserve), which is the most SW point of the African continent and hiked up to the lighthouse where views were unreal. You could see the entire peninsula from up there, so Atlantic ocean on both sides and all the bays along both coasts, and mountains shooting straight up from the coasts: table mountain, lions head, muizenberg mountain, the 12 apostles. We even spotted a couple buildings in our "home town" (Muizenberg). There's a lot of super cool history about explorers and shipwrecks and such. Something like 300 shipwrecks right around that point. Only downside was all the bugs at the top! Gross and of course they all fell in love with me most of all! I had on a bright yellow/green skirt and they just swarmed. Got my first bug bites of the trip and was itching off imaginary bugs for the next hour. Still worth it though. And if I'm okay with bugs you KNOW the view was good!
We came back around to the eastern side of the peninsula and went to see the penguins again. I'd gone to Simon's Town to Boulder Beach a couple weeks before with Doni and Tyler, but there's no getting tired of penguins! So cute and awkward and little. And they are almost always in pairs because they mate for life and its adorable! You can climb through the boulders to like secret hidden little white sand beaches and privately obsess over the closest little jackass penguins (that's really their name).
Next up: Lunch. Finally! It was about 2:30 by this point and we'd left the house at 8:15am. We went to Kalkies at the Kalk Bay harbor. Its a sort of grungy but awesome hole-in-the-wall seafood place just sitting on the dock with a canopy over top. I got my first fish and chips, which are apparently a big deal! Its one of the classic 'Cape' dishes.
Side note: I came wanting to experience all the 'local' cuisine. But there is such a mixture of cultures that much of the 'local' cuisine is much like you'd find in the states. There are certain specialties though. Like fish and chips. And there's a special type of cuisine called 'Cape Malay' that is a mixture of indian, south asian (indonesian), dutch, and middle eastern. It is unique to the Western Cape of SA. And delicious. Or at least I thought so. I went during my day in Bo Kaap with James and crew and had a sort of wrap with a spiced curried steak. A few had the traditional dish bobotie. I was really the only one that loved the food. But some weren't super open to new things and some just ordered really heavy food. There is lots of game eaten here: ostrich, kudu, etc. And biltong--sort of like jerky--is huge as well. Moral of the story: There is no one local cuisine. There are many and they are all intertwined, a reflection of the people here.
Back to the tour... We headed to a winery in Constancia for our last stop. This is not the big wine region that is classically boasted about. It is a smaller area right in the center of the peninsula. Gorgeous! We were all seated around a huge rustic wooden dining table. And the pouring began. We continued the party (and the bonding) in the courtyard outside and then headed home around 6:30.
Long Day. A few of the girls were going to a hockey game after (invited by some referees they met cage diving) and I was planning on going with but there ended up not being enough tickets and I think it was a blessing in disguise because I was sick, remember? And of course, I can't say no to good times :)
Woke up feeling pretty shitty on Monday, even as it was. Hawking up phlegm like I was going for the world record. (Apologies for the explicit nature of that description). It was pretty bad. Back to no voice at all, constant coughing and of the moist kind as described above. I had to stay home. There was no way I could be helpful at school feeling like I was. And there's really no soap, paper towels, napkins, or anyway to deal with the phlegm thing soooo. Bed it was! And I slept man! I tried to be somewhat productive and organize my stuff, do laundry, and practice consulting cases. Useless. My eyes kept closing on me and I slept basically all day. When nighttime came (about 5 hours after I got up-up) I had no problem going right back to sleep. So as much as it sucks to be away from my kids I think it was much needed.
I'm getting more and more behind on retelling my adventures as time goes. So quick synopsis (I promise I'll get to it all asap):
trying to walk to town and nearly passing out, Constantia wine tour, no brass bell, visiting Robben Island, ferry out, hottest day we've had, crying when reading about Mandala, African Dance show, best latte ever and hugest cheesecake ever (cheesecake factory watch out!), third class train, table mountain hike, opera, champagne, ostrich stew, cable car, robert, green market, kids dancing on train, girls' night but not really, mall and train back, horseback riding, imnhoff farm, santori,, story about mommies and daddies, health form and mulumba, my favorites, Sara at Sunrise, kloof st, savoy cabbage, fiction, high tea, kalk bay, cape to cuba (x3), tapas, friday market puppy, sneaking wine, house to ourselves, switch rooms, woodstock market, foooood, new people oh my, Toad round 2, my first Village, Kirstenbosch yoga, smelling evil, camps bay day of chill, deep convo with Jenny, Kayla just Kayla, sushi and sunset, gelato....
See, so much! I can't believe I only have 3 weeks left. It's gonna fly by
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