So I split this post into two parts because I knew if I posted it all the same day, most of you would skim through the words because it would have been excessively long for one post. Here is the second part of our journey.
Arrive Daniel and Elyse:
*Daniel is my brother and Elyse is his wife
We met up with Daniel and Elyse in Cape Town after our ridiculously long bus ride, and stayed there just long enough to grab some lunch before we hit the road again. To give you an overview of the trip: We started in Cape Town, drove up the eastern coast, flew out of Johannesburg, and had and awesome time along the way. Also, there is a video at the end, so be sure you click the link to watch it after you have read everything!
Robertson
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| Cheers! |
There are literally hundreds of vineyards around the Cape Town area and it is known for having some of the best wine in the world, so wine tasting is obviously a pretty big attraction for anyone coming to visit. We stayed our first night in a small town called Robertson, mainly because it was on the way to our next destination. However, we ended up going by a vineyard (which was not planned) to taste some of their wine and were met with an unexpected surprise - all wine tastings in Robertson are 100% free (which I believe you have to pay everywhere else to try wine) and you can basically have as much as you want. To give an example, one of the waitresses at a vineyard just brought us several full bottles of wine from their sample list and left them on our table. When we left, she asked, “Wait, is that all?” Relax parents, we were responsible. Responsiblish.
New Years Eve
We spent New Years Eve at one of the coolest beaches I have ever seen in a town called Sedgefield. That night was quite a spectacle (sorry, no pictures though). There were hundreds of people on the beach, most of whom were setting off fireworks literally right above our heads. You know those Chinese Lanterns that have a candle at the base and float up into the sky? Well, hundreds of those were flying out over the ocean for several hours. There were a few “fire twirlers” that had flaming balls on the end of their spinning strings while they were dancing around like crazy people. Lights, fire, and explosions were everywhere around us it seemed. It was a great time and something we would be very unlikely to see back in the U.S.
Kloofing
In a town called Wilderness, the four of us spent the day kloofing. Kloofing you ask? What the heck is that? Well, typically whilst one kloofs, you hike/swim along the banks of a river through a gorge or deep ravine and spend the day swimming and jumping off cliffs down into the water. It is the dream day for an adrenaline junky. Some of the jumps we went off of were pretty intense, with the highest of the day being about 35 feet. I would talk more about this, but instead - just watch the video at the end! Thanks to Daniel’s GoPro camera, we were able to get some great action video throughout the trip.
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| Me, jumping off into the dark water |
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| The whole group posing for a picture during kloofing. |
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| The whole group, right before we went swimming at the base of a waterfall. |
Safari Time
Daniel and Elyse, of course, wanted to go on a safari while in Africa (who wouldn’t?) so we spent an entire day in two different game parks, both conveniently located right next to each other. The first one we went into was called Addo Elephant Park, and for good reason too - I have never seen so many elephants! Within five minutes of being in the park, we could of practically reached out and touched the herds of elephants that were next to the dirt road. We saw herds numbering around 100 elephants at the same waterhole, just drinking and rolling around in the mud.
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| Some of the many elephants we saw at Addo Elephant Park. |
After Addo, we went into the private game reserve right next door called Schotia for a 6 hour guided safari, followed with dinner and drinks. We saw two white rhinos (white rhinos are the second biggest land mammal behind elephants) and we were lucky enough to see a female lion with a fresh kill from about 20 feet away. Watching a lion eat is not as pleasant as I thought it would be.... snapping tendons is not really a nice sound (a short 2 second clip is in the video)
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| A full grown, male lion. He was huge. |
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| The female lion we saw, digging in deep for a hearty bite from a dead Blesbock. |
Side note: Poaching
Namibia and South Africa have some of the best conservation programs in the world, and are doing a great job overall. However, despite their efforts, poaching is still a huge problem throughout Africa. Here are some facts: It is estimated that 50 years ago, there were 200,000 lions in Namibia. Do you know how many there are now? About 800. In 2012, South Africa lost an average of two rhinos per day due to poaching. Lions are hunted for their bones and rhinos are hunted, obviously, for their horns. But do you know who is supplying the demand for lion bones and rhino horns? The Chinese. Who would have thought? It is a wildly held belief in China (and has been for thousands of years) that rhino horns can cure anything from the flu to hangovers to cancer, while the science says they have absolutely no health benefits at all. Rhino horns are made of the exact same thing as our finger nails and will grow back if you shave them off. But, that is not the belief in China and the wealthy Chinese are willing to pay up to $65,000 per kg of rhino horn. They are worth more than their weight in gold. With lion bones, they make some weird sex potion that is also completely unsubstantiated by science. Weird. Either way, there is big time money in poaching and it has gotten much worse in recent years due to the booming Chinese economy. There are talks of having tightly regulated legal horn trade to try to curve the rhino poaching and eventually kill the black market trade. I guess time will tell, but something needs to happen fast.
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| Two white rhinos who were poached about one year ago. Luckily, they just cut off the horns and didn't kill them |
Hogsback
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| This bathtub probably has the best view in the world. |
Hogsback is said to be the fantastical area that J. R. R. Tolkien used to visit as a child, which eventually inspired him to write the acclaimed book The Hobbit. Whether or not that is true, I have no idea. But what I do know is that when we went on our 5 hour hike in the forrest around Hogsback, it felt like we were in a fairy tail. Waterfalls, streams, bright green moss, and noisy monkeys were everywhere around us. We went for a swim in a couple of the swimming holes and were able to eat fresh blackberries, picked straight from the bushes along the way.
The backpackers that we stayed at was called Away With The Fairies (funny name, I know) and they claim to have the world’s scariest treehouse. Let me tell you, it definitely lives up to the claim. It was about 50 feet up in a tree and had a sketchy series of ladders and an even sketchier “house” at the top. To give you an idea of the sketchiness, Lindsey refused to climb up it and Elyse wouldn’t stand up once we were on the top even though the view was spectacular. One day, that thing is coming down. So yes, I would agree that it is probably the world’s scariest treehouse.
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| One of the many waterfalls we saw while hiking. |
Coffee Bay
This was my favorite destination on the trip. Coffee Bay is located on The Wild Coast of South Africa and is certainly deserving of its name. It is said to be a hikers’ paradise with incredible views of endless coastline, jagged cliffs, and sheltered bays. There are also scattered seaside villages with traditional huts and all the domesticated animals you can think of grazing right up next to the beach and on the edge of cliffs. It literally was wild as wild can be. We met this one crazy German guy at our backpackers that said, “When I first came here, I only checked in for one night, but I somehow ended up staying for six years.” I would never stay that long, but I could certainly see the draw to the place.
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| Some of the many sheep we saw scattered across the hills on the Wild Coast. |
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| The view of our hiking trail along the coast |
We went on a full day hike along the coast and through several villages to a place known as The Hole in the Wall. It is a secluded bay that is almost completely surrounded by high cliffs, except that one of the cliffs has a big hole (more like a cave really) at the base leading out to the ocean, where the waves from the outside were constantly crashing through. Lindsey and I swam out to it, but kept a safe distance away from the rocks and the pounding waves.
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| The whole group before we started our full day hike. |
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| Lindsey and Elyse... flexing? |
Daniel and I spent a few hours boogie boarding and surfing in the ocean by our backpackers. Before we started, the surf instructor said, “Yeah so, today is pretty much the worst conditions you can possibly have for surfing. The wind is howling, the waves are breaking early, and the current is relentless. But, you will probably still have fun.” To me, surfing that day was more frustrating than fun since we were constantly fighting the current and our boards kept trying to fly away like kites in the wind, but I am still glad we did it.
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| Daniel and I fighting the wind to keep our boards from flying away. |
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| I was practicing my signature move, called falling. |
Scuba Diving
The last part of our adventure with Daniel and Elyse was in the town of Ukomaas, where we went scuba diving on a reef called the Aliwal Shoal. The Aliwal Shoal is rated as one of the best 10 dive locations in the world. The area is known for the thousands of ragged tooth sharks that hang around the reef and feed during their annual migration. Unfortunately for us, the sharks had already migrated through so we didn’t see any on our dives. However, the dives were still awesome. I have only been on a few dives before, and these two were far better. There was colorful and abundant sea life on the reef all around us, ranging from giant tortoises to tiny orange clownfish and their anemones. The current was so strong that our dive group got separated a few times in a matter of seconds - It happens when you are looking down, watching the fish and then you look up to make sure you are still with the group and find yourself all alone. It can happen really fast and is a little scary when you find ourself on the outside of the group.
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| Elyse, looking at the camera on the way down. |
We said goodbye to Daniel and Elyse right before they flew out of Johannesburg airport, and Lindsey and I followed the next day. To you guys - we had an absolute blast, went on some awesome hikes, and we love and will miss you both a lot. Be safe and have fun in your new house up in Oklahoma. We will come for a visit when we get back!
VIDEO - MUST WATCH!!!
To watch a video of our trip, click here to take you to youtube, or click the play button below.
Back in the Village
Alas, after a month of nonstop traveling, we returned back to the “village chillage” of Mayara. School just started back up, and Lindsey and I are going to try to make the most of our last 9 months in Namibia. We are pumped to get this year started and will hopefully get a lot of productive things done this term. While teaching is still the main reason that we are here, both of us are going to try to put more emphasis on doing things/projects outside of the classroom this year. I will give you more info about that as things happen! As always, thanks everyone for your prayers and until next time..
Peace,
Tim
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