Eastern Cape Day 3

March 30, 2011 5:10 PM

Journey to the Eastern Cape Day 3

Hello all. Currently, I am sitting in our room at the hostel enjoying some “alone time.”  It’s been a busy three days so far! Let me fill you in.

Monday we arrived at Cornerstone around 6:30 AM to begin our trip. We’re driving in a 13 passenger van…the 11 Americans, our “leader” Tami, the driver, and we were joined today by our mentor Kenneth who is coming because otherwise Asa would be the only male. Anyways, our driving time on Monday was about 6 hours ending at Oudtshoorn. We saw the Cango Caves where some of us (not including me) were brave enough to do the “adventure tour” climbing through cave holes as tall as a flashlight. No thanks. The rest of us wimps just did a standard tour that brought us inside the cave enough to make me clastrophobic and learn a little about them. That night we were stayed at the “Backpackers Paradise” hostel and played cards.

Tuesday I rode an ostrich. Seriously. This wasn’t something I expected to do while in South Africa, but it was pretty awesome! It was super short, like 10 seconds, but that was long enough. It was at an ostrich show farm in Oudsthoorn where they have all different kinds of ostriches and stuff. Did you know they even race these things? So after that little adventure we got in the bus for another 3 hours or so and (after waiting at a view point for a couple hours while our driver was sick) ended up in Buffalo Bay, which is near where I was with my host family two weeks ago. Our hostel wasn’t quite paradise, like the night before, but it was right on the beach. That’s enough of paradise for me. It was kind of..Oregon Beach-y, but still fun.

We didn’t travel far today, our hostel is less than an hour from last night’s. Our adventure today was bungy jumping and ziplining. I did the latter. But the 5 brave souls jumped off the highest bungy bridge in the world, one of them even did it twice. Krystle and I, trying to be at least a little brave, did a zip-lining tour over some waterfalls.  It was pretty cool too! Our hostel tonight is called Tubes N Axes…not really sure why…but alright. It’s really cool with hammocks all around and a very spacious, nice shower (hard to come by in these hostels).

I’m really enjoying it all so far. It’s nice because it’s much more relaxed than the other trips we have taken, and it’s all fun stuff instead of museum after museum (which is great, too…).  The group is an interesting one, which makes it all the more fun. We’ll see how I feel after spending 2 weeks with them all haha.

I can’t say enough how much I am blessed to be here. Who can say that in a span of four days they have seen a circus (that was Sunday, btw), gone in a cave, rode an ostrich, and zip-lined over waterfalls…all in South Africa?! Yup, I’m a lucky girl.