The Garden Route

My friends and I made it safely to the Eastern Cape and back this weekend. We started off Thursday night around 5:30 in a wonderful red 1991 Nissan Sentra. The five of us piled in and took off for the town of Swellendam. The drive was beautiful, with rolling hills and a long sunset. The hills were too much for the little car, and it was a struggle to make it over some of them. This was a common theme throughout the trip. We took to singing ‘Push It’ by Salt-n-Pepa for encouragement on the really steep hills. The roads in South Africa, at least the on the N2, are exceptional. They’re wide, nicely paved, and well marked. They even have a built-in passing system that puts the US roadways to shame. When someone passes you and you’ve scooted over to allow them to, they flash their hazards as a thank you without fail. There are also not any highway patrol people around to give out tickets for speeding.

The backpackers in Swellendam was like going back to summer camp in Saugatuck, Michigan. It was a really nice spot, with a lot of land around it and hills not to far off. We stayed in a dorm-style room with about ten bunk beds. Everything about it reeked of summer camp. I loved it. We were only in Swellendam for about twelve hours before we set off for Plettenberg Bay. On the way we stopped at a really quaint roadside restaurant called the Blue Crane Farmshop for breakfast. We ate outside in the beautiful garden. Everything we ate came from the farm and it was delicious. I had fresh yogurt with fresh honey, fresh muesli and fresh fruit, fresh toast with fresh strawberry jam. Everything I ate was made on the farm and I could have bought it all at the little shop attached to the restaurant. I bought some honey and was tempted to buy out the whole shop. The picture is of fresh bread from the Farmshop.

Swellendam Backpackers

The view from our table at the Blue Crane Farmshop

After breakfast we drove to Mossel Bay, a lovely coastal town right off the N2. We wandered around the coast for a while, exploring the rocks and seashells. There was one rocky point that jutted out into the ocean a little and we decided to go out onto it. While posing for a photo, a wave soaked my friend Jess and me and I nearly lost my shoes. It was quite hilarious. Luckily we had more exploring to do outside and it was hot and breezy, so we were able to dry off somewhat fast. We climbed up a rocky cliff trail to a lighthouse and lookout point, where we saw dozens of strange rodents that resembled prairie dogs. We could get so close that we could have touched them. After Mossel Bay we drove to the town of Wilderness and stopped for a light lunch. From Wilderness we drove straight to Plettenberg Bay.

Beautiful Mossel Bay, and it's natural lap-swim pool.

Plettenberg Bay is possibly the nicest and least assuming coastal town I have ever been in. The people are all really nice and the town is gorgeous. It’s situated at the top of a hill overlooking the bay and the Indian Ocean. We got into town around 4:30 so we spent the evening at Nothando Backpackers, our home for Friday and Saturday nights. Nothando Backpackers was much more ‘hotel-ish’ than Swellendam, and our room was really nice. We shared a room with a couple from the UK who were two months into a yearlong world tour. They were finishing up Africa and heading to Asia, starting with China, in a couple weeks. Nothando Backpackers had a nice yard and a convenient bar, living room, kitchen, and movie room. The bartender, Eric, was very friendly and made great drinks. The resident dog, Sarah (see photo), was playful and super friendly. She made me miss my Roxy. The proprietor recommended the restaurant La Med to us for dinner. We chose it not only for it’s great seafood but because, since we were staying at Nothando, we each got a free glass of wine. Our meal was delicious. I shared a duck spring roll appetizer with my friend and had a seafood medley for an entrée. So good.

In the morning on Saturday we took off for the Bloukrans Bridge where we were scheduled for an 11:00 bungy jump. Bloukrans Bridge is in the Tsitsikamma Nation Park. We had to drive for about 45 minutes to get there. Along the way we passed a troop of baboons in the middle of the road, as well as the border to the Eastern Cape, and crossed the bridge itself. It was hard not to be nervous. When we got to the bridge, we checked out the lookout deck where you could watch people jumping. It was both terrifying, because I knew I would be jumping in no time, and comforting, because I could see dozens of people jump and survive. We registered, signed away our lives, and were weighed. I finally know what I weigh in kilograms. Then we got our harnesses. It was trippy getting harnessed in because it made everything seem real. The harness distinguished us jumpers from the sane people.

Bloukrans Bridge, next pic is a detail of the where you jump.

How it works at Bloukrans is you’re put in a group of about twenty people and then the group is led out to the bridge. Our guide was really funny, and joked that if we hesitated when it came time to jump he’d kick us off. There was a lot of nervous laughter. To get out to the jump area we had to cross this freaky walkway that’s about 200m long. Lots of people say that the walkway is the scariest part. It’s got a mesh bottom and you can see right through to the ground. Our guide didn’t fail to remind us that we would be jumping from the same height as the walkway. Once at the jump site everything set in. We received our final instructions and then the jumping began. There was already an order set up, so we just had to wait and be surprised as to when we would jump. My friends and I were in the middle of the lineup, so we had the comfort of watching other people in the group jump and come back up. I went after my friend Erin. It was so scary. I was really pumped all morning and was excited even in the jump area, so I was ready to go. Here’s the play by play. They sit you down and put these huge Velcro legwarmers on your ankles, and then the guy wraps a rope around the legwarmers and straps your ankles together with it. He explains how the rope works but you don’t pay attention because you’re about to jump off a bridge and that’s a hard idea to cope with. Then they ask if you’re ok. Once you say you’re ok they pick you up and help you to the edge, since your ankles are bound and you can’t walk. Then they attach the bungy cord to the rope and lift you to the very edge of the bridge. This is the ‘holy shit’ moment when you can’t even think about what you’re about to do or else you will back down. There are two guys on either side of you, and you have your arms around them. When they back away it’s scary, because you’re standing there on the edge with your arms held out completely exposed.  Then they scream ‘FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE, BUNGY!!!’ and you jump. How you jump is you bend your knees and spring off the edge with your arms out, just like diving. Falling is the most surreal feeling. I had four seconds of freefall before the cord kicked in. Then I bounced up twice more, so that means I fell three times. There was about a minute of dangling before a guy on a pulley came down to get me. Bungy jumping was so exhilarating. I would do it again for sure. All of my friends did it, as well as everyone in my group except for one guy who chickened-out twice even though his girlfriend jumped. Oh did I mention Bloukrans Bridge is the highest bungy jump in the world? 216 meters baby.

On the edge, about to be abandoned by my guys.

Falling

On my way back up, taken from the on bridge. You can  tell how high up we were. 

Right after the jump, posing with the crew. 

The rest of the day we were pretty tired, so we lazily explored Plettenberg Bay for a while. We found a really cool old church and cemetery. Around 5:00 we went to the beach and hung out for a while. It was a little too cold for swimming, so we walked up and down the beach and took in the gorgeous view. We made pizza for dinner and watched two fabulous movies, ‘As Good As It Gets’ and ‘Blood Diamond’.

On Sunday we drove into Tsitsikamma for a canopy tour. After bungy jumping, zip lining isn’t all that scary. We zipped ten times between these huge trees. One of them, the Yellowwood, is South Africa’s national tree. It was a very relaxing morning, even though we managed to get lost along the way. The guides were hysterical and we had sing-alongs on every platform.

After the canopy tour it was time to head for home, so we embarked on the seven hour drive back to Cape Town. I drove the whole way, and luckily I had my friend and trusty copilot Shawn to keep me company. The five of us snacked, sang, discussed, and joked our way through six hours of driving and then we ran out of gas…literally. No joke. We went looking for gas in one town and since it was Sunday and apparently nobody drives in South Africa on Sunday, the gas station was closed. We got about ten kilometers outside of the town when the car puttered and died on a hill. Luckily there was a large shoulder so we were able to pull over and hang out safely. Since there isn’t AAA in South Africa, we called the police. The conversation went something like ‘Ya, we’re stranded in our car on the N2 about 15km out of Bolt River. We ran out of gas. Ya I know we should have stopped. We’re stranded. No we’re not walking back to Bolt River because there’s no gas there. Ok the police are coming? Ok we’ll be here on the side of the road…waiting’. About ten minutes later two policemen came. We gave then R100 for gas and they came back with 5L. They were really helpful and told us we’d be able to make it to the next big city where there was a 24-hour gas station. Unbeknownst to us, 5L was just barely, if not less than, enough gas to make it 45 kilometers. Luckily, most of the drive was downhill so we were able to coast into the gas station while the tank was back on empty and the gaslight was back on. It was almost a very bad situation times two. Being stranded on the side of the N2 was kind of fun. I was super tired and needed a break anyways, and we had a ton of food so we were able to get our snack on while we waited. There was also a full moon Sunday night, and we got a spectacular view of it from the road.

The view from the side of the N2. You can see the red Nissan.

This weekend was awesome from start to finish. I had an amazing time and spent a surprisingly little amount of money, considering all that I did. Hopefully I’ll find myself driving along the N2 again someday. Maybe then I’ll bungy jump backwards…

-Sarah