2012-02-23
Garden Route
Last week we embarked on a 5 day trip. I’m
going to tell you about the two nicest things: the Safari reserve and the
bungee jump.
So the first day we were in the car for about 6
hours. We had a beautiful view but in the end everyone was just sleeping. People
told us that we would stay the night in shaggy tents or dirty beds. This was
exactly the opposite. There were about 35 individual cabins each looking over
the reserve. Next to the cabins was the main building. This is where we had
dinner, breakfast and a Jacuzzi. The safari itself was split into two parts. The
first day was from 5 PM till 7 PM, and the second day in the morning. Lourents
and I wanted to wake up early and see the sun rise. Unfortunately when we woke
up at quarter to five it was too misty to see the sun rise. So we went back to
sleep. The funny part was that we almost woke up too late the second time. Someone
came to our cabin and asked us if we wanted to come to the morning safari. We quickly
got up and went to the trucks. This morning safari was special for a two
reasons: a veld-vuur and a special animal. Veld-vuur is the Afrikaans word for
wildfire. As we began to drive I spotted
a cloud of smoke rising from behind the mountain. My guide told me what it was
and told her that some poachers use this as a technique. If you have a large
reserve, like this one, you have a lot of ground to cover so you can’t be
everywhere at once. If poachers make a large fire in the corner of the reserve
the ranger’s attention will go there. In the meanwhile the poachers can do
their business. So, only one vehicle at a time was allowed to go to the fire. Once
we were there it turned out to be a farmer that was burning tires in his back
yard. The second special thing was a cheetah. There were two in total. We saw
the female eating yesterday and the male was never seen from a car. Once it had
been spotted by our guide a mile away we approached it. She told us that he was
incredibly shy and had escaped into the reserve a few days before his release. For
that reason he didn’t have a tracking collar. This means that if you wanted to
find him you had to do it the old way.
The second amazing thing about the Garden route
was the Bloukrans bridge bungee jump. It is the highest in the world. The bridge
itself was 260 meters high. You jumped for 216 meters. To get under the bridge
we had to go through a tunnel with a see through floor. It was hard to focus on
the ground below you while you were walking forward, since you were moving a
lot faster that the valley below you. Once you arrived at the middle of the
bridge the atmosphere was amazing there are DJs and people are dancing all the
time, unless they are jumping off the bridge of course. We got numbers written
on our hands and we assumed that was the order of the jumpers. The annoying
thing was it wasn’t. That meant that we would be dancing one time and that a
guy would come up to us and say:
“You, come here. You’re the next jumper.”
It was a long wait for me as I was second to
last to jump, but once I was called my blood started pumping. The scariest thing
of the entire jump is when you are looking down. 260 below you there is a river
flowing. You look at your toes that are over the edge. One gust of wind could
knock off the bridge, but most importantly you want to jump… Before you’re done
looking down and thinking of all the things that can go wrong they start to
count: 5… 4… 3… 2… 1, BUNGEE. While they are counting they grab both your arms
and stretch them horizontally. They start leaning you forward further over the
edge and when they say bungee you jump. However once you jump your body is horizontal.
This means that you are jumping away from the bridge. If you would jump up you
risk having a whiplash effect. While you are falling down horizontally you have
the same feeling as in a rollercoaster. The awesome feeling comes afterward. Once
you are turned upside down the feeling in your stomach goes away and you feel as
if you’re flying. It is one of the most relaxing moments I had in my life. You can
see the surroundings move slower and slower and before you know it you are
going up again. Once you’ve reached your highest point you start falling down. This
is the most helpless I’ve ever felt. You start having the feeling in your
stomach again, but for a shorter while. All of this happened in about ten
seconds.
After you jumped you were hoisted up by a man
and you have a little chat with each other until you reach the bridge again. It
was my most memorable experience in South Africa yet. I certainly recommend everyone
to do this, especially the ones who are afraid of heights.
2012-02-11
2012-01-30
Elandspad
Finally we had our first excursion.
It was amazing. We went to four significant places: the 8 meter jump, the 12
meter jump, the spring/break area, the waterfall.
So first we had a 2-3 hour hike along the side of the
mountain. It was a beautiful sight and in the meanwhile we got to know the
other exchange students. You could see that there had been forest fires, as
there were black bushes that left charcoal marks on your legs and clothing. We
followed the river until we came to a little spring that joined up with the
river. That was the “tea break area”. It was basically a little plateau with
a few little cascades. This was our rally point, after each hike we would come
back here.
So the second hike was following
the river closely, that means going over the rocks on the river. We went on for
1-2 hours when we arrived at a little cliff. This cliff was 8 meters high. The exchange
coordinator, Mr. Court, said that we could jump off. Of course everyone wanted
to do so, but none of us knew if it was safe. Everyone let Mr. Court pass and
he showed us where to jump. Once everyone knew it was safe we jumped a couple
of times. It was fun, but Mr. Court wanted to show us an even bigger cliff.
To get there we needed to follow
the river again. At a certain point we couldn’t advance more by foot and so we needed
to swim up the river. After 10 minutes or so we entered a pool with steep sides
all around. There was one rock on which you could climb. After finding the right way up we found
ourselves staring 12 meters down at the water. It was important to jump in a
specific spot where the water was deep enough and to enter the water
streamlined. This time we only jumped once. Not because it was scary or
anything, but because the climb was more difficult and slippery. So once we
swam and hiked back to the break area we had a 30 minute break. Next we made
our way to the waterfall.
This was more a climb than a hike. Because
this was trickier than all the previous walks Mr. Court stayed behind and
helped everyone at the back. This meant however that the people in front like
me and Lourents had no idea where to go. At certain spots I wandered if we went
the right way as there was a giant boulder in the middle of the path. We
continued to climb up the mountain until we reached a little cave. Here we
waited for the rest. When everybody arrived we continued. The path narrowed and
we could hear roaring from the end of the canyon. Around the corner we found
the waterfall. I estimate it was around 60 meters high. After all this hiking
and climbing watching wasn’t enough. We took off our clothes and started to
swim towards the cascade. The water was so cold that the air was sucked out of
your lungs. After a while in the water you couldn’t feel your body anymore
because of the cold. This was pleasant after walking in the sun the entire day.
When we approached the waterfall we saw that there was a cave behind it. Obviously
we swam through the pouring water into the cave. It was as Lotte described it “just
like in the movies”.
After the waterfall we went back to
the break area. We had an hour long break before we would go back to the vans. We
sat in the shade eating, drinking and talking for a while. When it was time to
leave we took all our things and started to walk. This was the only bad part of
the hike. Remember that at the beginning we had to take this path? Well this
time it was agonizing. Any water that was left was boiling and we had the sun
right in our faces. But eventually we reached the end. We took one more dip in
the river and then we headed back home.
Can’t wait for the next trip.
Funny names:
Malik
Look
Luke
Louis
Adam??????
2012-01-24
The First Week
Well, I finished my first week of school.
It has been an amazing experience. The teachers are very kind and helpful. I’ve
been following math, English, physics, Xhosa and IT. And what is school without
weekend? On Saturday Lauren, the Dutch exchange students and I went to Ratanga
Junction. It’s a theme park next to a mall called Canal Walk.
Each day we start off with either a church
or house assembly. The first few days were extremely hot but this week it was a
bit cooler, it even rained! Afterwards most students have Tutors. Our
equivalent is a “Studieles”. Usually
Lourents and I just sit in the relaxation rooms of Gray House and play pool
sometimes. It’s funny how the exchange coordinator from Bishops expects us to
work while the teachers really don’t.
As I said previously on Saturday we went
to Ratanga Junction. It was nice to do some things together again since we are
separated most of the time. The day began well when we went to Ratanga. There
was a slight miscommunication as to where we would meet. While Lauren, Lotte and Elise were waiting
inside, Lourents and I were waiting outside. After 30 minutes of waiting we
went inside to see if we could find the girls. We had heard from our hosts that
there was a particular attraction which we needed to check out: The Slingshot.
It is basically a 10 story tall swing. You get pulled up until the ropes are
horizontal and then you start swinging. At first you are basically falling.
This was a good mental preparation for the Bungee Jump I’ll be making in February.
We went on some other rides, but kept the best for the last. The name of the
ride was “The Cobra”. It was an awesome ride where you are hanging in a seat. There
were loopings and barrel roles, it was awesome.
Later that day my host family wanted to
bring me to the top of Table Mountain. But that wasn’t the best part. They timed
it so that when we arrived the sun was setting. It was a wonderful sight. We
stayed at night so that we could see Cape Town lit by its own city lights.
Since my stay here people have had trouble
pronouncing my name, I don’t blame them of course, but here are some of the funnny names that they have given me:
Malik
Look
Luke
Louis
2012-01-18
First Day of School
It's hard to wake up at 6:00 after
staying in bed till 12:00 for 4 days. After I woke up I went back to sleep. After
a few minutes I woke up again. This time i also got up. We arrived at school
at around 7:30. We got introduced to Gray house. We also witnessed the initiation.
I must say it's a memorable experience. At 8:00 we went to church. 40 degrees
outside is not so bad since there's a breeze. But inside a church with no air
conditioning and with 750 other students, it gets pretty cramped. So we had to
sit in an extremely hot church cramped with 750 people for 70 minutes. After
that we had a 90 minute long break.
During the break Lourents and I visited Mr. Court, the
exchange coordinator. He gave us a list of subjects to choose from and informed
us about the trips. I have not a single complete school week during my
stay here! Tomorrow I’ll get my schedule and start actually attending lessons.
After the break we had to go into the oven again. This
time I was unfortunate enough to also sit in the sun. We heard a speech about
the opportunities the pupils have at bishops, by the formal head of 'de beers'
(which is the biggest diamond supplier in the world).
I’ll save you the rest of my school days.
2012-01-17
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