Cape Town, South Africa- 2/18-2/22

Since I already talked a little bit about my time in the Township in South Africa, I’ll try to focus on some of the other highlights of my trip here.

South Africa was one of the countries I was most excited to see for so many reasons, and it definitely met my expectations. This was the first port where we pulled in and the scenery was just incredible. Giant mountains stand over a beautiful waterfront full of shops and restaurants where you could wander for hours.

It was also great because I got to see my friend’s Mike and Nicole from Wisconsin and Becca and Lara from camp. It was great to talk to them about their experiences there and we all went out together in Obs and on Long Street and had a great time.

On our second day there we drove about 3 hours north to a place called Aquila. Here, we were served an incredible breakfast buffet with a mix of typical breakfast foods and traditional south African cuisine. Then we went on a 3 hours safari in the game reserve. We didn’t get to see any leopards because they are nocturnal, but we saw the other four out of the “Big Five” (lions, elephants, buffalo, rhinos, and leopards). We saw elephants playing together but then they got a little too close to our trucks and we had to speed away pretty quick. It was pretty funny and I got it all on video so you can all watch the elephant attack when I get home. We also saw zebras and ostriches. Let me tell you, ostriches have got to be the dumbest animals on the entire planet. They basically tried to get in the truck with us, and these were some seriously big birds, I was not planning on sharing my seat with any of them. We learned a lot about the ecosystems in the reserve and we also got to see some really cute baby hippos! After we got back we spent a little time in the beautiful camp area and got an equally delicious lunch. After relaxing by the pool for a little while we made our way back to Cape Town.

The next day we took a tour of the cape peninsula and drove to Cape Point. This is the most south westerly point in Africa where the Atlantic and Indian Ocean’s meet. We hiked to the top of the mountain there where there is a famous lighthouse. It was so beautiful just to stand at the top of the cliffs and look out over the water. South Africa has some incredible views. After hiking back down the mountain we stopped at a seafood restaurant on the water where we had lunch and then headed up to the winelands. This day was a little stressful for me because I planned all of these day trips for a big group of us and some of the timing was a little messed up. Unfortunately because of this we only got to go to one out of the planned three wineries but the one we went to is one of the most famous in the area called Spier. We tasted some incredible wine and took in the scenery. Unfortunately it cost about $300 to ship any of it home, so we had to enjoy it while we were there.

The day before we left we planned to go shark diving. Unfortunately this day was kind of a bust. We drove out about 3 hours to the dive site and took the little cage boat into some rough waters since the weather was pretty bad. By the time we reached an area where we could dive, we were in such bad waters that it wasn’t even safe to get in the cage since we would have been knocked around so much. Unfortunately I didn’t get to get over my fear of sharks, although I did get to overcome my fear of seeing myself in a wet suit (got some pretty sweet picture of that).

The entire time in South Africa a few of us had been going back and forth about bungy jumping. It’s a really big deal there because about 6 hours outside of Cape Town is a place called Bloukrans bridge, which it the highest bungy jump in the world with the longest free fall. I was really torn about it the whole time, but JacMac was dying to go. Somehow this lead to us making the decision at around 10:30pm the night before we were leaving SA that we should hire a driver at 3am, drive out to Bloukrans, be the first people to jump in the morning and drive back as fast as possible to make it onto the ship on time. Genius, right? I decided that I wanted one more night out while I was there, so I went with a bunch of people out on Long Street and went dancing and saw some of my friends for the last time. We got back to the boat at 2am and I changed my clothes, met up with Jac and our two friends Nick and Corey and the four of us piled into a tiny car and hit the road for the first leg of about 12 hours of driving. After a sleepless night, we pulled into the jump site. We were a little concerned once they got us into the harnesses that there wasn’t much of a explanation, but I guess the only explanation you need is to jump. After crossing under the bridge on a see-through walkway that did nothing to calm our nerves, we got to the jump zone. Even though it was only 9am they started pumping techno music to get us hyped up enough to jump. I went first out of our group of friends and was pretty darn terrified. The first second of the jump was probably the scariest moment of my life, but after that it was the most amazing feeling of freedom. Once the first free fall is over you just hang there. It felt like flying. Don’t worry, I got it all on DVD and some crazy pictures. The only problem is the next time someone asks me “if all of your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it?” I’m going to have to say yes, and I have. After our crazy adrenaline rush we hopped back in the car and drove as fast as we could back to Cape Town. Unfortunately this was a little too fast and our driver got pulled over by the cops. We had exactly enough time to make it back to the ship without being late, so this little issue was actually a big problem. After dealing with the police, we nervously continued back. If you’re late getting back to the ship, you have to spend a certain amount of time on the ship at the next port. For the first 15 minutes you get 3 hours of “dock time”, pretty serious stuff. End of the story: we made it back just in time and got to jump off a bridge. Spontaneous, yes. Awesome, yes. Foolish, yes. But totally worth it. And that’s how we ended our time in South Africa.