So this past week, I have started to get settled into my role in Grassroot Soccer, South Africa. I am in the office and am adjusting to things. Last week, we kind of figured out that I would be in Cape Town for the remainder of the year and then would head back to Namibia the first of the year. I have started to interact with AED who is the other partner in Namibia so things are started to get sorted for me. It is a pretty big relief and I fell less like a nomad almost daily. I still don’t have news on my VISA, but hopefully that will come through in the next week or so.
This past weekend was absolutely amazing, a group of five of us from Cape Town, went on a road trip to Port Elizabeth, to hang out with some of the other interns for Halloween. We traveled from the province of the Western Cape to the Eastern Cape, along what is called the Garden Route. This drive is absolutely beautiful, it is very green, and the more towards Port Elizabeth (PE) the closer I felt to home (it has resemblances of Tennessee and Oregon). We had a car that fit five people, but it was a pretty tight squeeze.
The group of five of us, left on Thursday night and headed to Tsitsikamma, which is about 7 hours from Cape Town and 2 from PE. We stayed the night at a hostile in Tsitsikamma. I have never stayed in a hostile before and was amazed at how clean and well kept it was. The employees stayed an extra 2 hours to “check us in”. It was so funny because they were applauding when we finally got there. The atmosphere was absolutely amazing and it cost me 110 rand, which equals out to about 13 US dollars. So it is very inexpensive to stay. It made me realize how actually inexpensive one can travel. This was pretty exciting to me as my mom is coming to visit and there are a lot of things I would like to see.
On Friday morning we got up and headed to Bloukrans Bunji (which is the worlds highest bunji jump). I had not planned on bunji jumping when we left on Thursday but in the car ride to the hostile, I decided to do it.
So we get there and all together bunji jumping plus video and photos cost about 100 US dollars, but it was totally worth it. There were actually six of us that went Bunji jumping together, there was a kid from Australia who had checked into the hostile as we were leaving and we squeezed him in our car. When we got there only four out of the six of us were going to jump. The four of us got harnessed in and we were set for our walk to thee middle of the bridge.
The walkway was actually terrifying. It is not solid material so every other step, you feel like you are going to fall through, which would be a really long drop. When we got to the platform they called out my name and said that I was going first. A few years ago, I was pretty daring and would do about anything, but these last couple of years I have gotten a lot more cautious. I was mentally prepared to jump but was expecting someone else to go first. However, that is not how it worked out in my case. Each person that jumped had some sort of fear that they had to conquer on the bridge, for some it was the jump but for me, it was going first. One of the guys that was with us said that he was so impressed because I just did it. I didn’t really make that big of a fuss and they said, if Sarah can do it, so can I.
So they got me ready, wrapped the cords around my legs and buckled in my safety harness (the safety harness made me feel tons better). Anyway, the atmosphere on the platform is amazing, they have American Hip Hop playing in the background, everyone is having a great time and you instantly feel a part of the crew. However, even though everything was so cool, when they were helping me out on the bridge, I got a little freaked out (but no one really knew until they saw my video). I literally almost started crying because I was so freaked out. They help you out and went to take their arms off from around my back and I didn’t want them to let go. But they are good at their jobs and they counted 5 4 3 2 1.. Bunji, and for the most part I jumped by myself.
The bridge that you jump off of is 216 meters above the Bloukrans River, which looks more like a creek, than a river, and the free fall is about 5 seconds before the ropes catch you. It was absolutely crazy and amazing. I have never had an adrenalin rush quite like it. They send someone down and help pull you back up. Lets just say I was ready to be pulled back up. I then got to watch the other 3 people jump and it was so fun. We even talked the two girls who weren’t going to jump, into jumping and it was so funny.
One of the girls had her eyes closed the whole time and she would scream everytime they moved her closer. She kept saying “don’t push me” and they would reply “we won’t”, but they did. It was hilarious and the video is great. It was just great that everyone in our group did it and we all had so much fun.
We finished bunji jumping around 2 and headed to the state park to do a little hiking. We hiked the Otter Trail, which was a variation of walking on rocks next to the ocean and a nice trial (this is nothing like hiking Table Mountain). It took us about 35 minutes to hike out to were the water fall was.
The next morning we all went out for breakfast and then some went to the beach and 4 of us from Cape Town (including myself) and 2 from Kimberly went to this wildlife park, where you could pet baby lion cubs. It was actually really neat because you got to drive through and look at a lot of different animals. The landscape of this area is absolutely beautiful with all of the green trees and things. I loved it.
After that we parked the car and then walked around different fenced areas and saw tigers, a huge male lion and about 5 females. It was really amazing to see all of this, but also very sad at the same time. I loved being that close, but I also hated that the animals were not running, like they should. But as someone reminded me, these animals are bread and raised like this, so they are pretty use to the comforts their cages.
The other amazing thing about these female lions, was how they approached us. Even though these animals were raised in captivity, their natural instinct is still to hunt, and the way that they look at you, makes you feel as though you are being hunted. After this we went and saw little tiger cubs and then we got to play with the lion cubs.
The paws and toenails on these animals even as little babies are absolutely amazing. The little lions were 4 and 5 months old and they were pretty big. The people working there said that they were almost too old to be used as a tourist attraction. Also when we went it was close to their feeding time so there was a point when it got a little uncomfortable but the volunteers that worked there said that it would be fine. One of the lions named “riley” kept eating one of the guys crock sandals, it was so funny, it took two of the volunteers about 3 minutes to get the shoe away from the baby lion cub. Let just say, even as babies, these are some powerful animals.
After petting little baby lion cubs we met up with everyone else and watched this huge rugby game, even though I still don’t understand rugby, I LOVED the atmosphere. I am sure ya’ll know that I really miss American football and the excitement and cheer that goes into supporting a team. So it was really fun to be cheering for a team again.
Lastly, on Sunday we went down to the Indian Ocean for some people to go surfing. A few of the other interns and myself decided to go body surfing. Everyone that goes surfing here wears a wet suite, but I don’t think it is as cold as the Oregon Coast, so I was swimming in it in just a swim suit. One of the girls let me try her surf board, so I was out surfing for about 45 minutes in a swim suit. I was pretty cold when I got out. The first time I went surfing, I didn’t like it. It was raining, there were muscles all over the place so getting out was tough, and it was pretty rough so I really just tried not to drown. But this experience was amazing and the guys that were out surfing with me were trying to help me. I caught a couple of good waves, but didn’t ever stand up, maybe next time.
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