Month: April 2016

So after our exciting road trip up, the guys and I woke up on Monday to head up the west coast to Paternoster, where we were going to meet some of our other friends for a couple days at the beach. Markus stayed in Paternoster a few years ago and was able to find a really sick house on the beach for us to all stay at.  We stopped at the store on our way up to get groceries for the following two days and the car ended up being so packed that we could hardly move.  We were prepared to eat like royalty.

Even though the scenery wasn’t as green as it had been on the drive to Addo, it was still beautiful.

We got to the house first and five more of our friends joined us shortly afterwards.  We were extremely lucky and had great weather during out whole trip.  We spent the first afternoon and evening just hanging outside, playing soccer and braaing.  The next day we woke up early and played a lot of Jenga and Scrabble (neither of which I was very good at), while we took in the beautiful view we had from our upstairs balcony.  We made an awesome breakfast and headed out to the beach for a few hours.  We spent the rest of the day chilling outside, playing soccer and of course… braaing some more.  We went for a night walk on the beach and just spent a bunch of time hanging out with each other.  It was so much fun, and I wish we could have stayed longer.  The beach was gorgeous, the weather was great, and so was the company.

The following morning, some of our friends left for their own road trip to Addo, while others headed back to Stellenbosch.  Joey, Markus, Coop and I decided to go into Cape Town for the afternoon and stopped by West Coast National Park on our way.  The water was so crystal blue, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  Afterwards we headed back to Stellenbosch for the night to rest up.

The following day, we went back into Cape Town.  Joey is a coffee fanatic, so our first stop was Truth Coffee, a quirky, internationally-known coffee shop.  I don’t drink coffee but I figured I might as well try something while I was there.  Surprisingly, I really liked the mocha that I got… but it had me shaking for the next two hours.  I guess my body isn’t use to caffeine, haha!  Afterwards we headed to the abandoned zoo which is just behind the University of Cape Town.  You can going inside the old lion’s den and enclosure which is super cool.  There’s tons of amazing graffiti all over the walls.  From there we were able to walk up towards the mountain and go to the Rhodes memorial.  The Rhodes Memorial gets a lot of hatred these days- and for good reasons.  The man it celebrates, Cecil John Rhodes, was a British man who came to South Africa during his late teens.  He became prime minister of the Cape Colony for six years and was a strong believer in British imperialism.  He created laws that discriminated against black Africans, causing them to lose their land and making it extremely difficult for them to vote.  Today, he is regarded by many as a white supremacist and there have been many calls to remove the Rhodes memorial (#RhodesMustFall). Despite all of this, the monument has a great view which looks out onto the whole city.

To conclude our day in Cape Town, we drove over to Lions Head to hike up and watch the sunset, and then catch the (nearly) full moon on our way back down.  Lions Head is one of three mountains that surround Cape Town.  The sunset was beyond amazing and when we got back down to the bottom of the mountain, we were welcomed with a breath-taking view of Cape Town, all lit up with the city lights.  It is one of the most unreal views I have ever seen- I could sit there for hours just looking at it.  It almost seems like you’re looking at a picture and it’s not real-that’s how perfect the view is.  It really made me sit back and realize how extremely fortunate I am to be in South Africa, what a beautiful place I’m living in and just how much I love this country.  I truly wish that I could bring each and every one of you to South Africa to experience it with me.

The next day the boys went surfing in Muizenberg, and I stayed home to recover from the busy week of traveling we’d had.  I got some work done and rested up a bit.  I think it would be really cool to try and surf at least once while I’m here, but I respect the power of the ocean way too much to get out there.

Saturday and Sunday weren’t much different. Saturday we had another relaxing day filled with hanging out, grocery shopping and going to see Batman vs. Superman at the movies (which I liked despite its bad reviews).  Nothing too exciting but I was perfectly fine with chilling once again. The same for Sunday, which just happened to be easter Sunday.  We went out to dinner but that was about it.

To finish up our fall break, we hiked the Platteklip Gorge trail on Table Mountain.  This trail is really steep and one of the hardest, but also the fastest and most direct way to the top.  We were able to hike it in 1 hr and 35 mins, which is pretty good considering it usually takes 2.5 hrs.  The view from the top was really awesome, especially since you’re so high up (elevation 1085m/3560ft).  We walked around for a little bit taking pictures at the top, and then took the Cable Car back down.  The cable car ride is only a few minute but the inside of it spins, so you get a 360 view of Cape Town as you’re descending the mountain.  We got lunch in Cape Town and headed back to Stellies to prepare for classes the next day.

All and all, my fall break was amazing.  I never would’ve thought that I’d get the chance to do and see the things that I’ve been able to.  I can’t wait to explore all of the other parts of South Africa and everything this country has to offer- although this country is so filled with beautiful sites, people and wildlife that there’s no way I’ll ever be able to see it all. This is only the beginning!

xo

Kim

It’s about time! I’ve finally finished getting all of my pictures and videos together and I’m ready to share my fall break with you guys.  Sorry it took me so long!  I can’t wait to hear what you all think of my latest South African adventures.  This is going to be a rather lengthy post (as will the next one) but I promise that it’s worth it so don’t stop reading! 🙂

My official fall break started on March 19th but I since I don’t have class on Friday, mine started a day early! The first part of my break was a road trip to the Eastern Cape with my friends Joey, Markus and Cooper.  We left midday Thursday after we were all done with classes and set off to our first destination: Cape Agulhas.  There’s a common misconception that the Cape of Good Hope in Cape Town is the southern-most tip of Africa, but it’s not! Cape Agulhas is.  It’s also the point where the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean meet, which makes for some rough waves.  The drive was only about two and a half hours away so it didn’t take long for us to get there.  As we were driving along the coast in Cape Agulhas, I couldn’t help but notice how unbelievably green the hills beside the water were.  Standing before the ocean felt like I was staring at any other body of water but when I thought about it, I couldn’t believe what I was looking at.  The only thing beyond that point was miles and miles of frigid water and then- Antarctica.  I officially stood at the bottom of Africa!

We spent about half an hour there and there headed out so that we could make it to Mosselbaai (Mossel Bay) before it got too late.  That was another couple hours of driving and we got there around 9:30.  We grabbed dinner at the hostel’s restaurant and turned in for the night- we had to wake up at 6 the next morning.  Want to know the coolest part about that night? We slept in the sleeping compartments of a decommissioned train, with our beds facing the bay.  It was awesome!

So we woke up early, grabbed breakfast and got on the road by 8, so that we could make it to our reservations at… the Bloukran’s Bungee jump!  It’s the tallest bungee jump off of a bridge in the entire world!  You get all strapped up in your gear and then your guide walks you and the rest of your group out to the middle of the bridge, on a wire walkway attached to the side of the bridge.  The Bloukran Bridge is still in use- so as you stand on the platform there are cars driving overhead.  It sounds scary in concept but once you make it out to the platform you feel pretty secure (that is, until you have to jump off!).  The people working at the platform were super friendly and so much fun, they made it feel like we were all at a huge party.  They played music to help lighten the mood and get us pumped.  Then when it’s your turn, they put the big foam pieces around your ankles, secure your bungee cord to them and send you on your way… plummeting 688 feet down into the canyon and towards the little river below you.  I knew I would feel either of two ways jumping off the bridge.  I was really excited because I saw bungee jumping as an opportunity to experience what it would be like to fly.  But I was also nervous that I would be completely wrong about that.  You know when you are falling asleep at night, but you aren’t quite fully asleep and you’re suddenly jerked awake by the sensation that you’re free falling?  That was my fear.  Joey was also excited to bungee jump but Markus and Cooper weren’t quite as thrilled about it.  I was the first out of the four of us to jump off the bridge, and let me just tell you, I experienced a huge range of emotions in such a short period of time.  I was really excited until my toes were hanging off the edge of the bridge, when it hit me that jumping off a bridge is totally not normal!  I looked down and knew that I had no choice but to make myself jump straight out into thin air and hope that my bungee held up and kept me from falling down into the river.  When I close my eyes, I can still relive that moment perfectly.  But sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith- quite literally!  I quickly realized that the sensation of free falling is terrifying and I hated knowing that I would experience it a couple times, because your bungee springs back and forth.  But when I was being sprung back up, it was a lot of fun! And as I hung by my ankles, waiting for my knight in shining armour to come flip me right side up and take me back to the bridge, I got to admire the beautiful ocean and mountains around me, basking in the glory that I had actually done it- I had actually jumped off the bridge.  And I survived to tell the tale.  I had the biggest adrenaline rush for the next couple hours and it was so. awesome.  Check that off the bucket list!

Bloukran’s Bridge. We jumped off of the top of the arch.

We survived! (left to right) Me, Markus, Coop and Joey.

Coop, Markus and Joey all survived the bungee jump but only a couple of us agreed that we might ever do it again.  We grabbed lunch after we returned to land and got back on the road- there was still more driving to do and places to see!

The plan was to drive to Jeffrey’s Bay, one of the best places in the world to go surfing, and surf for a bit but we arrived too late.  Most of the stores were about to shut down by the time we got there so we did a little bit of shopping and got back on the road to go to Port Elizabeth (PE).  We made it to PE around 6 and decided to check out the boardwalk before checking in to our hostel.  There was a mini golf course there so we decided to play a game, and to my surprise I came in second place! Woohoo.  There was also a casino so we decided to check that out for a little bit.  Then it was time to grab dinner.  We wanted to try a local restaurant and Joey found a place called the Thirsty Turtle that sounded like it might be good.  So we hopped in our car and follow the GPS’s directions.  That’s the last time we follow Joey’s phone to a food joint.  It took us to a house in the middle of a neighborhood and there was no sign of this so called “Thirsty Turtle.”  So what did we do? We turned around and blew 350 rand at McDonalds for dinner.  Afterwards we headed back to the hostel we would be staying at for the next two nights, which was this very eco-friendly house on the river.  It had a beautiful view, was very chill and two friendly little dogs.  There was one downside though, it had a huge mosquito problem.  We all had to sleep with full on mosquito nets over our heads and tucked into our beds.  That was the first time I’ve ever had to do that but I’m sure it won’t be the last.

We woke up again the next morning at 6am and headed to our next destination: Addo Elephant Park!  One of the biggest reasons I came to South Africa was to experience the wildlife firsthand and in its natural habitat, so of course I couldn’t wait!  Our original plan was to drive ourselves through the park early in the morning, then go back to Jeffrey’s Bay for the afternoon, and come back for an evening drive.  Once we got there however, and heard that a lion and leopard had already been spotted, we decided to just drive around the park the whole day trying to find as many animals as we could.  The park was big and it took us the whole day to drive from the southern entrance to the northern entrance, through all of the loops and back down to the southern entrance.  We saw so many different types of animals: buffalo, red hartebeest, tons of warthogs, bushbuck, eland, Burchells zebra, kudu, yellow mongoose, black-backed jackals, cape grysbok, ostriches, a leopard turtle, and flightless dung beetles.  We also saw many types of birds including bokmakierie, secretary birds, blue cranes, black-headed herons, and Egyptian goose.  But the coolest of them all were the two huge elephant herds that we saw.  The first one we came upon as we were leaving one of the loops and we saw a bunch of cars in the distance (usually this means animals!).  So we drove over and what do you know, there were about 10 elephants standing right off the road, eating and walking around.  We even got to see two of them play with each other.  Then later in the afternoon we happened to be driving and saw 15-20 elephants marching off towards a waterhole, so we followed them.  It was absolutely incredible to sit in our car and watch them drink and interact with each other.  And the icing on the cake was the little baby elephant who couldn’t have been more than a few months old!

Black-headed heron.

Flightless Dung beetle.

Male Kudu.

Male Kudu.

Elephant besos.

Mama and baby.

Mama and baby elephant.

Calling out to friends.

Mama and baby buffalo.

The last animal we wanted to track down before leaving the park was a lion.  Luckily we ran into a park ranger as we were driving and he told us where the lion den was.  We quickly took off in that direction and as soon as we got close, we could see a bunch of cars parked in front of a field.  We inched our way up and parked as a couple of people told us that there were two lions lying far out in the field.  We staked out the area for about half an hour before we finally got a decent view of the two females, but they didn’t stay visible for long.  When we were satisfied with what we had seen, we headed out of the park and back to PE for some dinner.  We went to a restaurant called the Beer Shack which had a cool view of the water, then headed back to our hostel, played some games for a while and called it a night.  You would be surprised how exhausting it can be to look for animals all day!

Here are some videos that I took with my camera while we were at Addo. (Make sure to watch in 1080p!)

The next morning we woke up early and headed back to Jeffrey’s Bay.  The boys had hoped to do some surfing but it was too windy, so we did some more shopping at the surf shops before grabbing lunch.  We had to eat quickly because we were trying to make it to the Cango Caves for an adventure tour later that afternoon, but unfortunately we didn’t get there in time.  Instead of doing the adventure tour (which would have required us to crawl through small tunnels and openings in the cave), we did a regular tour of the Cango Caves, which I thought was still pretty cool.  That was the final stop of our road trip and we took off for Stellenbosch at about 5 o’clock.  The drive that day was especially beautiful- we drove on a road cut through the mountains for hours on end, with nothing but beautiful scenery all around us.  We managed to make it home around ten so that we could get a good night of sleep before we took off in the morning for Paternoster.

And with that, part one of my fall break was over!  Even though it was a relatively short road trip, it was probably the best one I have ever been on.  There was always something beautiful or cool to look at outside of my window.  The company was awesome and we jammed to good music (most of the time).  The fun never seemed to end and I had some of the most amazing experiences of my entire life.  I really can’t say enough good things about it.  A huge thank you to the guys for making this a trip that I will never forget.

xo

Kim

Hey everybody!  I know it’s been a while since I last checked in and I just want to say that I’m sorry! Things have been a bit busy but I’m still alive in South Africa and soaking up every second of it.

Unfortunately the weather is starting to get a bit cooler down here- which sucks because I keep hearing all about how the weather is starting to warm up for you guys back home (even though Kelly was telling me there was a chance of snow this weekend-crazy Maryland weather)! Luckily we had warmer weather this past week (consistent mid 70s) but the week before that was pretty chilly and those temperatures are likely to return soon.  I’m starting to wish that I had packed more than three long sleeve shirts.

My fall break was from April 18 to the 28th and I can’t wait to share everything that I did.  I went on some of the best trips, experienced some of the coolest things and made memories that I will never, ever forget.  I don’t want to post anything before I have all of my pictures and videos together, which is why I haven’t put anything up (there are a lot of them!).  Hopefully within the next week I’ll get it all together, and I’ll do a separate blog post for just that (or maybe even two).  It was a little bit hard to adjust back to classes after the holiday, especially since I had a big presentation and essay due a couple of days later.  But on the bright side, I only have five weeks of classes left! Isn’t that crazy?  I’m more than halfway through my trip and it’s freaking me out. Stellenbosch feels more and more like home every day.  Not only that, but my friends are becoming bigger and bigger pieces of my heart and I don’t know how I’m ever going to say goodbye to these beautiful people that live literally all over the world.

In the meantime, we’ve been doing more wine tasting, more restaurant exploring, and more exercising.  Our traveling has slowed a bit after fall break but we are still going on plenty of adventures around the Stellenbosch area.

Tomorrow is the final (or championship) rugby game for the college division and our school is in it! Rugby games have quickly become one of my favorite activities as a Stellenbosch student.  I have high hopes for the Stellenbosch Maties tomorrow that we’ll win!

It’s getting a bit late over here so I’m going to head off to sleep, but I wanted to write a brief post to let you all know I hadn’t forgotten about my blog! 🙂 I hope you’re all doing well and please, don’t hesitate to message me on Facebook or shoot me an email.  I miss you all!

xo

Kim

also shout out to my friend Joey who completed his first race today- an Ironman! He’s been training like crazy ever since we got to South Africa, which is way more than I could ever commit to. You go dude!

Just a few pictures from our post-fall break adventures