The Garden Route

We had about a week off before classes started, so a group of us decided to go on the Garden Route. My group that I was traveling with consisted of eight of us from my house and two boys that are in a homestay. These two girls, Masha and Chloe, literally planned everything for us. The only other girls on the trip were me and my friend Taylor, and I would say we are both laid back and not really good at arranging this kind of thing. Therefore, everyone was SO thankful for Masha and Chloe. Not only were they so organized in booking and planning everything, they even gave us a powerpoint presentation of our plans for the trip!!

We started on this thing called the Baz Bus, which advertises itself as a “hop on hop off” kind of thing. This way none of us would have to drive on the other side of the road and with stick shift cars. The first day we left Cape Town early in the morning and headed to Jeffrey’s Bay. Along the way, our driver Sydney played some really strange violent movies like Adventures of a Foot Solider (or something) and some Quentin Tarantino movie with George Clooney. Except none of the movies ended up finishing because they player would get to hot and the DVD would skip. Anyway, the bus had to stop really often because it would pick people up from hostels along the way. Sometimes we would even have to wait at hostels for the people to come – this kinda sucked. But we all started drinking on the bus and once we got to one of the hostels our bus driver bought us shots! Then we also took a bungee shot at one hostel, which is lit on fire. Before anyone started to drink their shots my friend Sam goes, “Phil lets show them how it’s done” and the two boys took their shots. They both ended up lighting themselves on fire, Phil ended up being fine but Sam ended up burning his lip pretty badly. (This story reminds me of my golf cart accident that I got in with Peter being fine after and me being injured in Harbour Island). Anyway we finally arrived in Jeffery’s Bay later that night where we would stay at Island Vibe hostel for two nights.

Jeffery’s Bay is known for its surfing, so there were a lot of people at the hostel that were there for that reason. It was really fun to see/ hang out with so many international kids. The hostel was really fun and pretty rowdy. The next day some kids surfed but most of us ended up just hanging out on the beach. The water was a lot warmer here, and it was the Indian Ocean, it was my first time swimming in it! This day was kind of stressful as we realized that the Baz Bus is not really “hop on hop off” because the bus only runs in each direction once a day. This conflicted with our plans for the next day because we wanted to bungee jump, but where we wanted to stay was in Knysna, which was farter away. So, we ended up having to also rent a car for the next day.

We woke up the next morning, got the cars and headed towards the largest bungee jump in the world. I honestly cannot believe I bungee jumped. It was something I never saw myself doing until I talked with my good friend Mike Scott, and he honestly did a great job at convincing me. I knew I had to do it but I was really nervous. I kept thinking that I was going to pee my pants once I jumped. When we got there we had to put on our gear then wait around for a while. All of the employees wore t-shirts that said “fear is temporary, regret is forever” – pretty funny. I was obviously already nervous, but I became more nervous because it was pouring rain. We sat in this waiting room that had a flat screen TV that showed a live camera of people that were jumping at that time. I watched a few, but then I couldn’t watch anymore. I turned on my iPod and listened to songs like The Wind, Wild Horses and Clare De Lune to try and calm myself down and relax. I never debated about not doing it, I knew I had to, I just had that weird feeling in my stomach. Once it was time a large group of us walked along the bridge in this sketchy small pathway where you could look down and see the huge trench. This is the pathway:

Taylor, Sam and I right before my time to Jump

The bridge. This picture was taken not on the day I went because it was foggy and rainy so it was a lot harder to see.

Then we all waited inline and watched people go before us. Everyone that came back up had huge smiles on their faces and seemed so happy. Before I knew it, it was my turn to go. I was told not to look down when I first stood up there so I didn’t because I knew I would freak out. It was also pretty foggy and rainy so it was kind of hard to see. I told the two guys who helped me over there that they might have to push me off because I was afraid I wouldn’t jump. Techno loud music was playing in the background and my friends were all cheering behind me, then all of this sudden I hear 5 4 3 2 1 BUNGEE! All of this sudden I left the loud jumping spot and flew through the air. The sensations were so amazing as it was so peaceful, feeling like it was just nature and me.

Honestly, it was the best thing I have ever done and I was so happy I did it and I would do it again in a second. After I stopped flying through the air I just hung there for a little bit until a man on a lever came down to get me. He then flipped me around and all I could keep saying was “oh my god that was so amazing oh my god” while at the same time he kept saying “Katharine you are so beautiful will you be my girlfriend.” So that was pretty funny. Here's a picture of us

But everyone in my group LOVED bungee jumping and I haven’t heard of one person who didn’t like it. So if you’ve ever even considered or thought about it – DO IT, I promise you won’t regret it. 

After bungee jumping we drove to the Knysna Elephant park where Masha and Chloe (who were the only two in the group that didn’t bungee jump) rode elephants. Everyone else walked around to pet, feed and play with them. Then from there we drove to another Island Vibe, ate dinner then went to bed after a very long and adventurous day.

The next day we woke up, returned the rental cars, and got on the bus to Hermanus. This area is known for its large whale population. Unfortunately for us, whale season isn’t until their winter so it starts in July. We spent that night in a hostel and then woke up the next morning ready for activities. So a group of us went kayaking and we were able to see penguins in the ocean as well as a lot of seals. The kayaking was really fun but it hurt a little because the carpel tunnel that I got from working at Ben and Jerry’s came back… It was pretty painful, and kind of sad. Apparently if you go kayaking during whale season it is like 100% likely that you will see one if not more. Also I ate kelp out of the ocean. I was also the only person to get out of my kayak and swim in the middle of our trip. It was pretty funny because the instructor wouldn’t let me take off my life coat and he told me to grab kelp and swim downwards to look at the ocean. Let me just say, swimming underwater with a lifejacket on is hard. I didn’t even get all the way underwater I’m pretty sure my legs were flailing in the air, hahaha! But it was really cool to see under the water, the guide said he thinks it looks like the Avatar world. After about 2.5 hours of kayaking we ended up going back to the hostel and hanging out until the bus came to pick us up and take us back to Cape Town.

Overall, the Garden Route was an amazing time. I am really glad we were able to explore more of South Africa! Also sorry I don’t have very many pictures, my camera broke literally two days before going.