Since the dawn of time here in Cape Town, people have been
telling visitors to take a trip and drive the Garden Route. It is a “high way” that is a one lane
road that drives straight down the coast and inland with lots of activities to
take part in. Finally I went the
other week.
I rented two cars with 5 other friends, packed an abundance
of snacks, and we hit the open road towards new adventures. The first stop was Mossel Bay but we
only stayed there for a night.
They had beaches but we had bigger and better things ahead- also
apparently no coffee shops open in the morning so we wanted to get the hell out
of there as quickly as possible.
Our first activity was communing with elephants. We got go out into a field and walk/pet
them and feed them food. The food
they gave us smelled wicked good- it was pineapples and carrots-
delicious. It was pretty fun, but
they made you a little nervous.
They were trained so when they brought us out into the field they called
them by names and the elephants lined up behind this railing and reached their
trunks out to take the food from your hand. The baby elephants would try to sneak around the railing b/c
they could never get food, but if you threw it on the ground they were the
quick and could get it before the bigger elephants nabbed it. After feeding them we got to walk with
them and pet them. They felt a lot different than I expected. When we finally started to get used to
them one little guy rammed his head/tusk into my friend Whitney’s side. It looked quite painful and after that
we all back to being nervous.
Our next stop was what everyone had been excited for since
day one—BUNGEE JUMPING! This place
claims to be the tallest jump in the world: 216meters. Two girls were afraid of heights, but
wanted to conquer their fear. One
was successful and the other’s height phobia is now even worse, but all six of
us jumped. I was pretty calm
through it all. The worst part for
everyone, except for me and the boy Jordan, was walking along the catwalk to
the actual jump. I could not
understand why people hated walking over an open catwalk with a wire bottom
that you could see through, but to each their own. They played pumped up music and everything- but I still was
pretty calm and relaxed, until it was my turn. They wrap your legs into a harness thing and you have to
kind of hop to the edge with the help of the crew. My downfall was looking over the edge right before my jump.
When they counted to 5 I did in fact jump and it was right after my feet left
the bridge that I was gripped with fear and understood why people do not go
bungee jumping. But after you let
go and relax it was absolutely amazing.
Jumping was my favorite part of the trip.
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| The View right before you jump |
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| Hating it-- it the first few photos if you click through them wicked fast it's just my arms windmilling trying to stop |
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| And now loving it |
We stayed at another hostel by the beach, but the next
morning it was pretty cloudy and we headed out without really lounging at the
beach for too long. We took an
unexpected stop at a wolf sanctuary we saw by the side of the road. We were greeted by a baby goat (a kid)
in the entrance and had a wonderful old time at the sanctuary. The wolves were pretty sleepy/bored but
there was a petting farm where we got to feed pigs, goats, ponies, and all the
like. I made best friends with a
white pony who I absolutely loved. He loved me if I do say so myself.
That afternoon we went to an ostrich farm and got to ride on
the back of an ostrich. This was
sickanating and very odd. They
bagged the head of the ostrich and put it into a gate thing where you sat with
you legs behind the wings and gripped the top of the wings with your
hands. It felt like you were going
to rip their wings off. In all
honesty the ostrich didn’t seem to care that much/ or just forgot about it a second
later because their brains are smaller than small. The jockeys that helped guide the ostriches jumped on them
at the end and showed us how to steer them in races which is basically using
their necks like a joystick. After this I’m not as afraid of them as I
was. They are quite stupid in the head.
The last hostel was a lot of fun, but again we left early in
the morning to see more animals.
We went to a zoo place with lots of endangered animals and all sorts of
cats. The only problem was this awful euro-trash looking couple kept
distracting me. I watched them the
whole time instead of the rare, exotic birds and what not. We did get to pet
some cheetahs, which purred the whole time you pet them. After that we departed
back to Cape Town to our own beloved animals- the pigeons. Cape Towners were right: when in Africa
you must go on the Garden Route.
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| The Euro-trash couple. I swear they were more entertaining than the animals |
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| I thought these were extinct |
