23 November 2016: South Africa- Agulhas

                I woke up early to get a good start to Agulhas, as it would be a long drive to get there. I drove in the rain (what else is new?) for about three hours to get to Cape Agulhas, the most southern point in Africa. This is not to be confused for the Cape of Good Hope outside of Cape Town, which is the most southwestern point in Africa- even though there are souther and wester parts of Africa. Whatever. All these superlatives are a little ridiculous. 

               I arrived at Agulhas Backpackers (R100 for camping, R140 for dorms) and went to the reception. The lady and I started talking, then suddenly she stood up and was almost yelling, saying stuff about drying the grass and having a wanderbout. I automatically assumed that she was talking to someone else in the next room due to her increased volume and her switching to words I was barely understanding in her thick Afrikaner accent and South African vernacular. Maybe she was calling out to one of the staff members to do something with the grass? Who knows. At this point, thinking she wasn’t talking to me at the moment, I totally tuned out and started absentmindedly looking around the room. Doot do doooo. A pause. Then she busts out, “Do you speak English?!” Jeez, yes, I speak English. I told her that I thought she was speaking to someone else. She said that there was no one else here. Yeah, but you were kind of yelling, and there are, in fact, people in the next room. I tried to play it off like I was just really tired and out of it because I’d been driving all morning. Plus her weird, electric blue mascara was really throwing me off. But she just gave me this look like I was the dumbest person she’d met in a long time. Phew! I realized that she was saying that, because it had been raining that morning, I should go on a “wanderbout” around town and come back in a few hours while I wait for the grass to be dry to pitch my tent. Way to make me feel super dumb first thing in the morning. Thanks.

                So I did go on my wanderbout. I went to the lighthouse and to the southernmost point where the Indian and Atlantic currents/oceans meet. Then I found a shipwreck a little bit farther down the coast. I also walked along the beach/harbor, which didn’t look too promising for surfing. Dang. I guess I’d have to wait until I got to Cape Town.

The southernmost point, where the two oceans meet

The boardwalk along the shore

Lighthouse

There's the shipwreck. Right there.

Agulhas harbor and dock

                After my wanderbout, I was able to set up my tent and explore the hostel. It’s really cool! Indoor/outdoor kind of vibe, very colorful, border collies that go with you to the beach and steal pool balls off the table, a green parrot that is very squawkey, and a great atmosphere in general. I had a stellar nap in my tent after my exhausting drive and wanderbout, then just relaxed by the fireplace.

Resident parrot

And one of several resident collies about to steal a ball off the pool table

22 November 2016: South Africa- Wilderness, Mossel Bay

It was a quick drive from Knysna to Wildnerness. I drove up to the hostel called Wild Farm (R100/night camping) on a super bumpy road up a long hill. Among lots of soft grass, open space, and great views, I set up my tent. Needing to recover a bit from my night out in Knysna, I went to sleep pretty early. I only stayed one night, and in the morning, I packed up my worldly possessions and went down to the beach for a hot second. I was really apathetic about the beach, actually, it being cloudy once again, and decided to press on to Mossel Bay.

                I got to Mossel Bay and arrived at Mile Crunchers Backpackers (R140/night for a dorm), which is upstairs kind of in the middle of a shopping center, which was a little weird. It’s a nice place, though, with lots of space and some big tents set up in the common area. I arrived in the morning, so I dropped my stuff and started wandering around town. I went to the cape and watched really good surfers in one little part of the bay and boogie boarders spinning around on waves in another little part. There was also a lighthouse over there, and the start of a very long oceanside hiking trail called St. Blaize Trail that I elected not to do. Walking around, I watched seals and dolphins swimming just offshore. There is also another hostel on the beach that is made out of a train, which looked pretty cool.

                Then, being sufficiently bored of wandering around, I met up with the two South Africans I had met in Knysna, as they were also staying in Mossel Bay. They work as a chef and a game drive guide at this place in Outshorn, another inland place popular with tourists where, I’ve heard, you can ride ostriches. We made a tiny braai dinner and then walked along the beach where there was an insane amount of jellyfish strewn across the sand. There were enormous, firm ones, puffed up blue bottles with super long tentiacles, and so many others. Apparently this jellyfish graveyard was due to a recent spring tide, which, I learned, is an unusually high tide that happens every few weeks.

                The next day, I went to one of the main beaches to try to surf, but the surf shop never opened. That was all I wanted to do! Agh. What’s a girl gotta do to go surfing around here? All in all, Mossel Bay wasn’t super exciting. But you can do shark diving and sky diving and other activities if you want. 

19 November 2016: South Africa- Storms River, Knysna

               On my way out of J Bay, I stopped at Storms River Mouth Park for the day. Once again, I got the SADC price no problem. I found lots of little baby rock rabbits on my way to do a beautiful Oceanside hike to a suspension bridge and to a waterfall.

Yet another selfie because, you know, solo travel

Lounging rock rabbits

Suspension bridges

I spy a deer

Orange on the trees...

...and on the rocks

Scrambling over the rocks

                Then I quickly passed through Plettenberg Bay. I didn’t really stop there, but I heard it’s also a really nice place to visit. I ended up in Knysna. Island Vibe also has a location in Knysna (“nyz-na”), but they were all booked up when I tried to reserve, so instead I ended up at Knysna Backpackers (R170/night for a dorm), which is a cute old house not too far from the town center. Knysna is basically a big bay with cliffs at the opening to the ocean called the heads. I drove to the eastern head to several really picturesque lookouts. Then I drove around an island in the bay called Leisure Island, then walked along the waterfront where I ran into some people I’d met in J Bay.

Views on and around the heads, and from Leisure Island

                The next day, I killed a bunch of time wandering around and watching people fishing before I got a mid-day cruise around the bay. It was on this big boat that basically took you to the heads and back. There were other cruises and speedboat rides that you could take even through the heads, but those were either all booked up or super expensive. The other people on board were pretty loud and obnoxious, but the views of the cliffs were really cool. Later, I drove to the nearby beach at Buffalo Bay and swam in the glorious ocean and tried to even out my awful shorts tan while trying (and failing) to concentrate on some philosophical book by Albert Camus that I had found in a previous hostel. It was too heavy for a casual beach day.

Shops at the waterfront

Boats at the docks

Long day for fishers

From the tour boat

                Then it was back to the hostel where who should be in my dorm but my ever-present vacation friend George. Since this was the third hostel we saw each other at, he said I must be following him (even though I got there first…). Then all of a sudden everyone in the hostel, including two South African guys, a German girl, George the Brit, and even a hermit-type French guy ended up in the kitchen drinking all the stuff that the Afrikaners said that they needed to get rid of before they go back to work in the next few days. Man if there’s one thing South Africans can do, it’s drink. So what would have normally been a quiet hostel night turned into a lively party in the kitchen. Then somehow someone got the French guy in an argument about cheese, which was hilarious because, being French, he was just so passionate about his opinion on different cheeses. After a while, the kitchen could not contain us, so we decided to go out into Knysna, following some people who actually lived there, and they took us to some pretty cool spots, so that was a nice ending to a fun night.

At one point I pulled one of the South African guys aside and asked him some linguistic questions. He was black, of Khoisan heritage, but he was speaking Afrikaans. I was quite confused, so I asked him about it. I had the impression that only white South Africans spoke Afrikaans. He said that the Khoisan language has all but died out, so being in a region where Afrikaans is a dominant language, they’ve adopted that as a first language. It’s also a first language for many coloured (technical term for mixed race or European/African/Asian heritage) people as well. Well, who’d have thunk it? The linguistic situation in South Africa is super complicated, but very interesting.

18 November 2016: South Africa- Jeffrey’s Bay (J Bay)

          I checked in to camp (R80/night out of season, R170 for dorms) in Jeffrey’s Bay at a really cool place called Island Vibe. The place is really big, with lots of areas to hang out, two kitchens, a bar and restaurant area, and an outdoor area with tables and a little grass space to camp. It’s right on the beach too. The first full day I was there, it was insanely windy and kind of cold, so instead of swimming in the ocean like I’d intended to, I just walked around on the beach. Walking around outside in the same pair of shots wasn’t helping with the 2016 Shorts Tan Fiasco caused by hiking in Coffee Bay all day without sunscreen, but whatever. Maybe later I’d try to strategically put more sunscreen on the tan part and let the white part get a little darker…Anyway. The sea was super foamy and the beach was quite empty. I walked back through town and boredly browsed some of the surf-brand outlet stores. Back at the hostel, I did some writing on my computer as I talked to a guy named George I had met back in Coffee Bay who happened to be at my hostel again. This tends to happen around here. In South Africa, you’re either going from Durban to Cape Town or from Cape Town to Durban with little deviation in the route, so you get to run into the same travelers from place to place. The night ended with some rowdy card games and partying with a really cool group of people in the restaurant/bar. I love nights like that- a group of mostly complete strangers comes together and just has a blast together.

A view from the hostel to the beach

The camping area

A chunk of very smelly whale that washed up on the beach. A bulldozer very shortly carried it down the beach and buried it.

                The next day, it was also super windy, and my tent was acting like it was gonna blow away. It probably also didn’t help that I had only 3 tent stakes at this point. So I folded it up and put it in my car, then I was very silly and decided that I wanted to surf. J Bay is one of the best spots to surf in the world, so I decided that I didn’t want to miss out. However, after renting the board and carrying it down to the beach, it got so windy that I had trouble carrying the board as it acted like a sail trying to carry me away. I got several waves, but mostly it kinda sucked because of the wind. I got out and started to go back to the hostel, but I could barely hold on to my board. My struggling must have been obvious, because a lifeguard out for a run noticed me stopping every few steps to get a better grip on my board, so he was a doll and helped me carry it back. Phew!

Surfers

                The last day I was in J Bay, the only thing of substance I did was take a super long (for me, anyway) run on the beach, taking advantage of the sand to be able to run barefoot, then I had a conversation with this Afrikaner guy who has been traveling by bicycle through South Africa and Namibia for a few months. I gave him some advice about biking through Lesotho, and suggested some bike-friendly routes he might be able to take through the country.

                I so wish that the weather had been better while I was in Jeffrey’s Bay, because I would have done a lot more (quality) surfing, but alas, the rain and clouds have been out to get me this whole time. But it was still really fun and highly recommended.

16 November 2016: South Africa- Addo Park and Port Elizabeth

Note: After I posted about East London, I was asked by a family member how England was. Apparently it was not clear that East London is a city in South Africa. I did not go to London, England. Sorry for any confusion!

                I left Fairyland (aka Hogsback) super early, rolled up my tent, and drove. On the road, I picked up a nurse first, then a lady going to the clinic. They both offered me money, but I told them to keep it. I’m trying to pay it forward for all the times I hitched for free. My destination for the day would be Addo Elephant Park, close to Port Elizabeth where I’d be staying for the night. The park is enormous, and of course I arrived at the completely wrong entrance (the one for people just passing through), so I had to promise the guard I’d drive straight through it with no deviations so I could get to the actual paying entrance. I did just that, but on the way I found a buffalo, and there was a cool turtle walking across the road where I stopped to pee. I exited the park only to drive to the official entrance and enter again. Still technically a resident of Lesotho, I was able to pay the SADC (Southern African Development Community- a collaboration of Southern African countries) price, which as like half the international price. Surprisingly (or not?), they didn’t even check to see if I was actually a SADC resident. I drove around the park for like 5 hours finding elephants (and baby elephants!), warthogs, an ostrich, meerkats, some kind of fox/jackal, different kinds of big deer types, huge tortoises, dung beetles (which, according to signs along the road, I must give the right of way to), zebras, and more elephants. Then I got sick of it and booked it back to the main gate.

Tortoise in the road

The actual entrance

Zebras

My rental car used to be all white...

Heyo

Elephant booties

The baby chilling under the mom

Line of cars waiting for the elephants to get out of the road

                This may not seem very significant, but on my way out of Addo and toward Port Elizabeth, I found myself in the middle of a huge herd of ENORMOUS wild windmills. They were so big, slowly turning their blades in sync. I felt like the 2016 version of Don Quixote. Let me add here that I never read the book Don Quixote, just saw the Wishbone version on TV when I was little, and I distinctly remember him fighting a windmill and swiftly losing.

Anyway, coming into Port Elizabeth was pretty sketchy and trash heap-ey. It was pretty gross. I finally got into the actual city (much cleaner) and found my hostel called 28 Towpath (R100/night camping), a giant house and gardens with a super sustainable and hippie vibe.  As he pointed out where I could set up my tent, the owner was like, “The [normal] bathroom is in there, here’s the compost toilet, and if you don’t want to go all the way inside, you can just pee in the garden.” Nice I love when people are that laid back. I spent the rest of the evening making dinner, chilling in the hammock, and snuggling up with a little dog. Hostel dogs are the best dogs.

                The next day, I woke up in my tent, packed up, and headed to the waterfront. This hostel’s back yard is basically a strip of grass that comes right up to some kind of canal. It’s really peaceful, and I decided to go for a morning walk along the water as Little Dogs 1 and 2 followed me down the path. I took advantage of the grass to do a little workout and stretch out there. Then I peaced out and drove into the Port Elizabeth city center to explore Route 67, which is a series of 67 (more or less) works of art and quotations to commemorate Mandela’s 67 years of political life. It was really cool, from under-the-highway murals to this nice park with the second largest flag in Africa and pieces of art all around. One of my favorites kind of blended into the city and I didn’t notice it at first. It was  the side of a combi (minibus taxi) on a rock face that, in several steps, looked like it was taking off into the air.

Airborne combi

Murals under the bridge

 Library

 Under/inside of one of the big sculptures

The park with the 2nd biggest flag in Africa

 Completing the chain

Mosaic benches at a park

                After getting my art fix, I headed off to Jeffrey’s Bay (J Bay). Stay tuned!