Driving the Garden Route. Day 2.

So - to our delight - we survived the night at the scary hostel in the middle of nowhere. Our German host made us a homemade breakfast of dessert crepes which was splendid. And we were off. When initially planning the trip, we wanted to go to an ostrich farm and ride them. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time and opted to hit up the other "must see" on our list, the Cango Caves. The caves were very cool. We did the 'Standard Tour' because of our time limits. So it was a nice leisurely walk through some amazing limestone formations.

The Cango Caves also offered The 'Adventure Tour', which sounded fun. You went deeper into the caves and, at points, had to crawl on your belly and all fours. Our Standard Tour guide told us an interesting story. Apparently, an overweight woman had tried to go on the tour. The people collecting tickets told her that it wasn't advisable that she do the tour because it would be unsafe. The woman became upset and tried to blame their denial on the color of her skin. Eventually, they allowed her on the tour, but advised that if she couldn't fit through a crevice, she would have to wait. So she went on the tour and at the second narrowing, she couldn't fit. She was told to wait and the rest of the tour went deeper into the cave. The woman then tried to fit through the narrowing on her own, slipped and got stuck. The woman was stuck in the cave for 15 hours. The worse part: the other people on the tour were stuck deeper in the cave because the woman was blocking the only way out. And it was very humid in the cave. Eventually, with muscle relaxants, they were able to extricate the woman. I would've been so pissed...

So, after the cave tour, we continued our journey to Port Elizabeth to catch our evening flight. We stopped in Knysna, a cute beach town known for oysters, for a lunch of oysters. We made it to the airport 3 hours before our flight, enough time to grab some dinner and catch a Spain game on the tv.

It was the next 24 hour period that was the worse part of the trip....

Driving the Garden Route.

When I say the trip was all inclusive, I very much mean it. We rented a car in Cape Town and decided to drive it to Port Elizabeth. Again, I wish I could've added more time. There were so many cool places to stop along the way.

The drive- according to Google Maps (also source for the map above) is 797 km long (494 miles) and takes 10 hrs 24 minutes. I did some calculations. To put things into perspective, this would be the distance for us to drive from SF to the southern most point of CA, or Tijuana, Mexico. Arriba!

Driving in South Africa is similar to driving in the UK. Drivers seat is on the right and you drive on the left. It was a bit stressful - probably more so for me - than for Jordan, who actually drove. Driving on the freeway was cake, as you just drove straight. It was driving through small towns or roundabouts that made things harrier. But we survived. Phew.

Anyways, thankfully, we broke the journey into 2 days of driving and spent the night in Oudtshoorn. Outdtshoorn is home for the largest ostrich population in the world. So an obvious place for us to stay the night. Being in the dead center of our journey, also helped us with that decision.

It was pretty crazy driving to our hostel - located in the absolute middle of nowhere. We passed hundreds and hundreds of ostriches. Fenced in just like cattle are raised, but instead of cow herds, pseudo "aviaries". To commemorate our new friends and neighbors, we dined on ostrich steak that evening. A bit chewy, but very very tasty.

Cape Town.

We entered South Africa through Cape Town, and I immediately fell in love. Such an awesome place. Cape Town is similar to SF - seaside city with a nearby wine region. A city that doesn't feel like a city. Two full days was really not enough time for us here.

To start, our hostel was very clean and had awesome staff, but was in a horrible location. "In the middle of the gang war area" was how our cab driver described it. So not being able to leave or walk around the area was a bit of a disapointment. We had to take a cab if we wanted to go anywhere. This was really the only negative about the time spent in Cape Town.

The first day we went to Table Mountain. Unfortunately, the weather at the top was cloudy, so we didn't take the tram thing up. Added to the list for the next trip. We were dropped off in the city center at a market. Bought some homemade goods and then walked to Long Street.

After exploring around here, we made our way to the FIFA fan zone. FIFA sent up a bunch of locations around South Africa to watch the games. It was a cool area - fenced off - with free giveaways and places to buy food and beer with some large TV screens. Obviously everyone was rooting for SA to win. There were way too many people at the fan zone before the game started, and we would've had to have watched the game while standing in the middle of all of them, so we headed to a bar. Their win over France put the town in good spirits, despite the fact that they would not advance.

The next day was the best day of my life. We had booked a half day tour following the coast of the Cape. Expecting it to be like the London tour - we had low expectations - and were prepared to be on a bus with a bunch of strangers struggling to overcome more jetlag. Unexpectedly, we were the only two on the tour, so we were in a private car with our guide, Bobby. We went from the City Center down to Simons Town to Cape Point and then up to Hout Bay. At Cape Point, you can see where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic. My optimistic pictures did not turn out. All the towns we passed were small beach towns. On the tour we almost ran over some baboons (on several occaisons) and we got to visit with some penguins and see some ostriches. It was a very, very beautiful drive. And Bobby was a great tour guide.

After our tour, we went back to the hostel and threw on our USA jerseys and went back to the fan zone to meet our friend Josh and some other Americans to watch the US play Alergia. For whatever reason the fan zone was only playing the London game on its larger tvs. Unsatisfied with the mini tv they provided for the US game, we went in search of a bar. We started out with maybe 10 people - decked out in red, white and blue - walking through Cape Town. Slowly more began to follow us. By the time we reached a bar, the Purple Turtle, we had grown to about 40. I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but by the time the game started there were about 65 Americans crowded into the Purple Turtle, and by half time, about 80. It was a great place to watch the game. And it turned out to be an awesome game. The US won. The Purple Turtle blasted Miley Cyrus' 'Party in the USA' because they knew that's the exact song we sing in celebrations such as that.

After the game, we - regretfully - had to leave our Miley singing friends behind because we had reservations at a very, very nice restaurant. A couple months before our trip, a list of the top 50 restaurants in the world came out. Number 12, La Colombre, was in Cape Town. Reservations were made shortly after the list was published. I could proably dedicate a post, possibly a book about the experience. We had a 5 course meal paired with local wine. It was an amazing time. The food was perfect - every bite a vacation. And wine - five glasses - is never a bad thing. To add to the magic, the meal cost $65. Five courses! At the 12 best restaurant in the world!

Fell asleep full, drunk, happy in our hostel surrounded by gang warfare.

Map source.

The UK.

The flight to South Africa - from San Fran - takes about 20 hours and goes through London. We decided to stay in London for a few days to break up the journey. My mom is on her own Eurotrip this summer, and the timing worked out that we were all in London at the same time.

We stayed in London the first night at a hostel . It was this night that we watched the USA tie Slovenia and England tie Algeria. It's actually fun to travel - anywhere - during the World Cup. I was in Europe for it in 2006. Amazing to see how soccer can bring people together. In South Africa - when we didnt have tickets to the games - we would just find a bar showing the game and end up meeting people from all over. It's nice having something in common with others - especially when you're far away from home.

So we went to bed happy that night and woke up early the next day to go on an all day tour. I'd like to point out that, although effective, taking a 10 hour tour helps you get over jet lag in the least of fun ways. Tour went to Windsor Castle, Stonehendge and Bath. All things cool to see, and I'm glad I never have to do that tour again.

After the tour, Jordan and I left my mom in London (where she stayed for a few more nights before heading to Paris), and we went to Cambridge. Jordan has a friend that lives there - so free lodging and free tour guide. Free = good.

I was blown away by how cool Cambridge is. It's a giant college town that looks/feels like it's from Harry Potter. We got a tour of all the campus' and their histories. Saw where Isaac Newton studied. We also went to the Orchard Tea Garden where "more famous people have taken tea than anywhere else in the world." Yep, pretty cool.

We were in Cambridge for 2 nights before heading South. Way South.

Back.

So I'm back. And I don't even know where to start when describing how amazing the trip was. First, it was 18 days. It was awesome, adventureous, scary, stressufl, relaxing, entertaining. And included a 24 hour period where I cried three times because nothing was going right. There were times where I didn't shower for a few days. Times where all I ate all day was a sandwhich. But there were good things as well. Sleeping in until noon. Five course meals with wine. All of this helped make the trip great. South Africa is a really cool country - I'm looking forward to going back and exploring more someday. 18 days is not nearly enough time to see/do everything there is to be seen and done.

It was also nice not having to worry about work. I had no cell phone and didn't check my work email the entire time. I acutally didn't spend much time on the computer (also nice). There just wasn't time, nor did I want to stop and sit at a computer. Brief emails were sent to the parents every four days or so just letting them know where I was, how much fun was being had, and where we were located.

I did take notes, in a notebook. So I'm going to spend the next week or so providing post trip updates on here. And organizing photos and videos. And getting used to being back at work....