SAfrica

Archbishop Desmond Tutu joined us as we sailed from Mauritius to South Africa. It was such an honor and pleasure to be able to live and learn with such an amazing man. As one of the major opponents to South African apartheid, the archbishop has made international history. He willingly told us about his experiences in the movement and his time with Nelson Mandela. He delivered a personal prayer to our entire shipboard community and spoke to us about his appreciation for young scholars. It was powerful and moving. Such a small little man that has made such a tremendously large impact on the world. He got each of us excited for his beautiful, now politically equal, country.

South Africa was what my anthropology of tourism teacher called a “cultural breathe of fresh air.”  Most of the countries we have been traveling to have required a lot of reflection and have been heavy in terms of reflection and taking everything in. South Africa was a whole other story. Although some people did visit townships, which are the slums blacks were relocated to during the apartheid, most of us did a bunch of fun adventurous activities.

The first day we got off with no intentions other than to hike. We had 6 hours to kill before I wanted to meet up with Adeline, so we headed to immigration knowing we could either do Table Mountain or Lion’s Head. I wanted to do Table Mountain, as it is one of the natural wonders of the world, but the three hour immigration process left us with no choice but to resort to Lion’s Head. No complaining though, because the hike was BEAUTIFUL. Cape Town is the meeting spot of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans so the beaches are stunning. The city is very developed and almost has a California feel. We were warned in pre-port that we would feel at home but not to get too comfortable since it is a relatively dangerous city. Our hike up was awesome. I seriously felt like a little kid climbing the rocks at our family reunions. We were all so happy to just be doing something active and fun. The top of the mountain is steep, so the path splits into “easy” and “challenging” routes. We naturally took the challenging route which included scaling the mountain using chains and ladders- it was awesome. The view from the top was unbelievable. We all sat and enjoyed the weather and stared across the way at Table Mountain. There was a huge cloud over the top, which meant that all the people that had chosen to climb it were freezing on top. My roommate still says that she got frostbite. After climbing, we headed straight to a beach to meet up with the rest of our friends. I had told Adeline to meet us there. I was in a shop next to our restaurant when she just casually walked in. Naturally, I cried. For those of you who don’t know, Adeline is one of my best friends from high school and since we were in middle school we have been planning our dream trips to Africa. It was so shocking and surreal to actually be in Africa together. So like I said, I cried. I was so happy. That night we went to dinner and hung out.

The next morning we woke up early and headed to the airport for our Safari. The drive to the airport was eye-opening as my seemingly perfect image of Cape Town was shattered. Yes, the city is stunningly beautiful, but the segregation within the suburbs still exists. “Townships” which are really just slums full of identical small metal shacks lined the highway as we headed out of town. It is hard believe the type of segregation that existed just a short time ago. We arrived in Port Elizabeth around 3:00p.m. and immediately got into a cab to go to Gorah Elephant Camp. The drive was a few hours long, but our driver was full of information. We passed the port and industrial part of town, where I nagged him with thousands of questions about manufacturing, and headed seamlessly into a beautiful grassland. There was untouched land literally as far as the eye could see. The roads started to get bumpy and then suddenly we were on mud roads passing all sorts of wildlife. I, again, felt like small kid as I squealed pointing to every single animal we passed. We first saw a warthog, which I thought was unbelievably cool until we passed several feet from 7 HUGE elephants, followed shortly by a herd of zebras crossing in front of us. I was in heaven. HEAVEN. Gorah was once a private game reserve next to Addo National Elephant Park, but the reserve recently opened their gates to combine their land and make it one of the only safari’s within the national park. As we pulled up to Gorah we immediately realized we didn’t belong. We agreed to a “tented safari” so I had envisioned us pitching camp and sleeping with lions- wrong. We were at a luxurious 5 star resort. We were one of 4 groups staying there the others being honeymooners, rich French families, and old people. We were welcomed with cakes and tea and told to relax “out by the watering hole”. This couldn’t be real life… as we sat out and admired the beautiful land, a rhino casually wanders up to the hole. We were escorted to our “tent” which was actually a luxurious hotel room. I say escorted because there are strict rules that you can’t walk outside in the dark alone since animals are free to roam anywhere. There were even fresh hyena prints on my doorstep- not lying. We had our luxurious dinner (our names were on the menu) and pretended to be prestigious (even though I’m sure we didn’t fool anyone) before heading to our king sized beds.

The next morning we woke up at 6am for our morning game drive. I have been waiting for this moment my entire life. We waited out by the watering hole eating breakfast and admiring a spotted hyena getting some water until the big green safari trucks rolled up. I lit up like it was Christmas. Our driver asked what we were most excited to see and before he could even finish I said “GIRAFFES!!”. He laughed in my face. Turns out this park doesn’t have giraffes- good one, Madie. We all loaded into the car and headed into the acres of bush. Being so close to the ocean, there was a beautiful haze over the land. Within minutes our driver spotted lion tracks so we followed them. After 15 minutes we were directly behind two male lions walking the boundaries of their territory. AH! This was the coolest thing ever. They rubbed up against the trees like cats on furniture. It was beautiful. We continued on the journey and found a rhino in a field full of kulu (antelope with curly horns). After this we found a herd of elephants with a baby! The elephants walked right up to our vehicle and were completely unphased by our presence. The adults gave themselves mud baths and the baby followed swinging his trunk around aimlessly. It was adorable. We headed back to the resort for lunch and packed up to head to our next lodge. Our time at Gorah was way too short, but I think I have decided I want to get married there (sorry dad). We headed to Elephant Camp (a private game reserve outside of the park) so that we could go on an elephant back safari. RIDING ELEPHANTS! Our drive took awhile, but I was so excited that it didn’t even matter. I stood anxiously waiting as the elephants approached the mounting platform. I was riding the leader of the elephants and we trekked right on through the forest. This park did have giraffes so I was excited to get to see them. After our safari we had an “interactive experience” where we were able to touch, feed, and walk the elephants. These elephants were rescued from Kruger after their mothers were poached a few years ago and get to live freely in the reserve when they aren’t giving tours (don’t worry I interrogated the guides to make sure they weren’t abused). Elephants are AWESOME and I want one. We headed back to our resort and cheersed a beer to being in Africa for St. Patrick’s Day. At dinner I mentioned how I was jealous of everyone going bungee jumping. None of my friends seemed too enthused by the idea, and we all thought it was 100% out of the question to add it to our itinerary, but I forced my friend Sawyer to look into it anyway. Just minutes before bed it was confirmed that were indeed jumping off a bridge the next morning. Sort of last minute- but I was excited.

We woke up and headed straight to the bungee bridge. It was two hours away and the whole ride my friends were ready to kill me for this idea. I promised them they would be thanking me after, and they did. We got to the bungee place around 11 and were scheduled to jump at noon. We sat anxiously in the waiting room watching as all our friends and fellow SAS students dove head first off the tallest bungee bridge in the world. I couldn’t wait. Everyone that went before us said the walk across the bridge was the worst part, and they were definitely right. Although it was reassuring that the net separating me and a 216 meter fall was secured by zip ties, I was questioning my survival of this event. Once on the platform I wasn’t nervous at all. There was a DJ playing music and all the workers were lively and fun. Some of my friends shook nervously and refused to look down as they hopped up to the bridge, but I dove off with ease. It felt like I was flying! Jumping off a bridge is one of the most exhilarating things of ALL TIME. Dangling upside down on the bottom feeling like your tingling feet are going to fall through the ropes is way less exciting but still worth the experience. My adrenaline was pumping the rest of the day, which was unfortunate considering we had a 6 hour car ride ahead of us. That night we met up with all our friends at an airbnb and hung out on the beach.

I guess we can consider this a new day, but we still haven’t gone to sleep. At 3am a taxi picked us up from the airbnb to take us to go cage diving. Our 2 hour drive was our “good nights sleep” before we got our 5 am prep to head out into the ocean. I was dead tired, but my excitement kept me awake. The sunrise as we rode out into the water was beautiful. Our crew started to make “chum” (fish guts and water mixture) to attract the sharks and threw a cage out into the water. Was I actually about to jump into an ocean to swim with 15 foot long great white sharks? Yes. Honestly, there wasn’t a single part of this experience that felt dangerous. Except for maybe the fact that I though I was going to get frost bite from how cold the water was. A crew member would throw out a lure of 10-15 fish on one side of the cage while another held a wooden decoy of a baby seal on the other. The shark would go for one and then the other swimming right past all of us. The visibility in the water wasn’t very good, but it was awesome watching them from the boat. We were with a shark conservation group, so they wouldn’t tempt the sharks to swim into the cage (because this hurts them), but the experience still felt like shark week. Although the experience was awesome, I was dead tired, freezing cold, and grossed out by all the people getting sea sick; I was ready to go home. Back at the ship we all planned to take naps (much needed), but I got a text from Adeline asking to go surfing. I, of course, agreed. I couldn’t pass up an opportunity like this, so I packed my bags and met her outside the ship. To answer everyone’s question: I have no idea how to surf… But Adeline promised I didn’t need to know how. We rented wetsuits and boards and played around in the waves for a few hours. We had so much fun. I only got up like twice and was beaten up by the board/ dragged around by the ankle holder more times than I can count, but it was still so fun. Adeline showed me around her campus and took me to her dorm. She told me horror stories about how so many of her friends are robbed or jumped. I was shocked by how dangerous of a place this was. I took her to dinner with some of my ship friends (two worlds colliding- weird) and we cried laughing telling stories all night. I ate ostrich (actually good) and then finally was able to get my good nights sleep.

I spent my last day with Adeline shopping around all of Cape Town’s local markets. I, of course, spent way more money than I could afford, but whatever- it’s Africa. I could not believe our time was up, but I was amazed by this beautiful country. I want to live here- actually. Maybe it was because of the familiarness of the atmosphere or the presence of my best friend, but either way, I loved it.  It was the “port of visit” for many of the voyagers parents, and I was jealous as they walked around the city with their families. Mom- we have to come back here. I didn’t get to go on a wine tour, and I know you’d love that.

~fun facts & observations~
1. Elephants have boney backs covered in pokey hairs.
2. The conversion rate was 16 rand to 1 USD this is because South Africa’s president used the equivalent of 30 million dollars in tax money for personal reasons- corruption at it’s finest.
3. the country is one of the most biodiverse with nearly 300 mammal species and 900 bird species.
4. several of my friends got their phones stolen out of their hands while sitting in a cab… like someone reached through the window and took it- scary.
5. Zebra’s are in Adeline’s backyard. Like she watches them roam out her dorm window…
6. EVERYONE in South Africa loves Justin Bieber. Every single cab driver we had asked us to play him.
8. Elephants like beer because their favorite tree is an ingredient similar to that in beer.