Team Yaris wins!

Well I’m alive and spring break was a GREAT success.

They dropped the car off on Sunday afternoon (thanks, Mom and Dad!). The guy looks at me and goes:

“It’s a Toyota Yaris. I’m assuming you have these in the states.”

“Uh, you assumed wrong, sir. But if it’s an automatic we’ll figure the rest out!”

4:30 AM Monday morning I’m so excited I’m up a half hour before my alarm. Around 6, boys in the front, girls in the back, three burned CDs, some bread and water, we’re on the road! Nick makes two turns and we’re on the N2. Alrighty! 400+ km until our next turn! Just like the car dealer was wrong to assume the US had Yaris, we were wrong to assume it would be that easy. South Africa for some reason has these random check points where they pull you over and ask to see your license. Well Nick’s isn’t in his wallet. WE’RE DONE! Road trip is over already. We’re going to jail. I have no registration for the car. If Nick finds his license it’s expired because he just turned 21. He’s not even registered to drive the car if we get in contact with the company. We’re done. Thank God, I remembered I clipped it in his passport after using it one day to try and register for the car. Somehow, this officer let us continue on despite how dysfunctional we were.

First stop: Mitchell’s Brewery in Knysna. What a great way to start break. We didn’t mess around with tours though. We just cut to the chase and taste tested. Again, it was just a great way to start the trip. We went to eat some lunch and then wanted to find the waterfront. After that we wandered around for about AN HOUR trying to find the actual waterfront. We could only see the water but could not find the pier. Believe it or not, Azriel decided to ask for directions and the lady literally laughed in our face and pointed us in the right direction. Sure enough, we pass the place we ate at for lunch and it’s straight down the street. Oh life.

After window shopping around in the waterfront for a bit, we hopped back into the car to drive to our first backpackers, Starling, in Plettensberg Bay. This place was just AWESOME! We drive up and are greeted by the barks what could pass for a mini horse, Chungalung. He was just huge. My dog could have EASILY stood under him. We sign in and there was a pool table, ping pong table, foosball table, fire pit, a ton of couches, and probably the best part was the free WiFi. They show us our room and we have a whole attic with about 15 beds for just the 5 of us. This was nice when we could steal all the other blankets and pillows that night because it was so cold. Nick, Azriel, and I stayed up for awhile playing pool and talking to some girls from Berkley who were also passing through Plettenberg. Azriel also had an incredible comeback in a game of foosball against me. If anyone knows how well I take losing, they know I was pretty upset.

Tuesday morning, Nick, Azriel, and I did a four hour hike around the Robberg peninsula still in Plettenberg while Michelle and Maggie went on a hike with a couple of the German workers from the backpackers. It was my first time driving on the other side of the road and if you ask me, I did a good job! However, I did flick the windshield wipers on a couple times rather than the turn signal. The walk was awesome. We saw whales, dolphins, and a ton of seals. I was able to walk some of it without shoes because it was on sand. As we sat down to eat lunch, we saw a seal joining us as he chows down on some octopus. The waves were just incredible, I needed to jump in. I missed the second half of the summer and swimming I was desperate to hit the water. The seals looked so peaceful hanging out and riding the waves. We kept moving on and once we got to a good spot, I stripped down to my under armor and took a dive in the Indian Ocean. Refreshing is the best word I could come up with to describe it. After such a long hike, I was ready to cool off. I won’t lie though; the chill took my breath away. We continued on and of course within the last half hour of the hike, I fell down a flight of stairs to another beach. Naturally, we had been climbing rocks and through the sand all day but God forbid I walk gracefully down a flight of stairs.

We all met up at the backpackers and grabbed some lunch then headed out to MonkeyLand and Birds of Eden. At MonkeyLand, I literally felt like I was in Madagascar there were so many lemurs everywhere! They basically rescue all the monkeys that they have from private owners and fenced off part of the land for them to just roam around freely without worrying about the baboons. So the ones we saw will never go back to the wild although they are not restricted to only MonkeyLand. The fence is literally to keep the baboons from coming in but some of those monkeys were hanging outside to greet us. Birds of Eden was pretty cool but slightly scary at the same time. I felt like I was constantly looking at my ankles to make sure none of them were going in for a bite. If I wasn’t looking at my feet I was checking above my head to avoid any unexpected motivation to shower. One bird actually ended up walking with us/ chasing us depending who you ask, all the way to the exit.

By the end of the day, we were just hungry. We drove to our next backpackers in Tsitsikamma. Well this place had nothing on Starling. Literally, it didn’t even have a shower in the building. It was outside about 60 feet away from the building. I certainly was not about to shower after we got back from dinner when it was dark. So I laid out in a hammock on the roof and looked at the stars. I counted a career high of four shooting stars. It was simply a beautiful and peaceful night.

Wednesday was the day I saw my life flash before my eyes. 9:30 AM we had a reservation to go bungy jumping off the world’s highest bungy bridge. This CERTAINLY is not my scene. I had been freaking out all trip about how scared I was. I was shaking in the car on the way. I shed a tear or two before we even started to walk on the bridge. I paid. They wrote my weight and “J1” on my hand. We were harnessed up on the ground then walked across a cage bottom bridge to the platform. This was no short walk either, people. It was a solid 2 minute walk if not longer because everyone in front of me was taking their good old time looking at the beach or how high we were. I made it to the concert platform. There was loud music playing. The workers were dancing. The place just needed a black light and we had a party going. Shockingly enough to me, “J1” is code for first to jump. “Um… excuse me, sir?” Michelle hugged me goodbye as if I wasn’t going to come back. There’s no turning back now. You paid for this, Chrissy. You’re doing it. The other people on the bridge I’m pretty sure laughed at how scared I was. I sat by the side of the jump and they were strapping my feet together. I was singing to the music, trying not to think about how afraid I was. My feet were together and I’m hopping to the edge. Michelle and Maggie are screaming at the workers telling them I wasn’t hooked onto anything they were so scared for me. Well I’m alive so needless to say, the workers knew what they were doing and they don’t hook you up until you’re basically standing on the edge. Just look straight out, Chrissy. Just look straight out. Seven seconds of feeling completely petrified and you can say you did it for the rest of your life. Next thing I knew I had nothing below me and they had pushed me off the bridge. I could literally feel my legs shaking from freight the whole way down. I SURVIVED! And, once I was hanging upside down at the bottom, I could swing around and finally got to see the beach that everyone was looking at from the top! After about a minute and a half of hanging upside down, I hear a man “Hello, lady! How was the ride?” Then I hear Nick screaming from the top of the bridge because he’s about to jump. What the heck is going on?! Two clips on the harness and I’m right side up again heading back to the top of the bridge. After they unhook me I laid down on the concrete platform to just breathe for a minute. What a feeling. An after thinking about it, it’s probably good that I got to go first. I don’t think I could have stood there and watch everyone else jump then go. Everyone else jumped, including a man probably about my Dad’s age who came up to me after he jumped and asked if I was okay. “Yes, sir. I’m fine. Thank you for rubbing it in my face that you’re twice my age and have better composure than I do.” Of course, it wasn’t over after I jumped. Nope, we had to walk across the caged bridge again to get back to land. Maggie and Michelle were in front of me. I just looked straight a Michelle’s head and kept telling her to walk faster.

We then went and grabbed some food at the restaurant on the side of the mountain looking at the bridge we jumped. While we were waiting for our food other people were jumping. I STILL can’t believe we did it.

After lunch we headed out to Tsitsikamma falls ziplining. Well this was just nothing compared to what we did. I was still a little scared but we ziplined over some of the waterfalls there. I actually ended up doing it bare foot. The water was a kind of brownish color. We asked the worker why and he said it was because of the leaves of the trees, similar to a tea.

After being by so much water, everyone was ready to go swimming. We started heading toward Port Elizabeth and figured we’d just find a beach there. As I was in the back of the car looking at the map, I look up and see signs for Jeffery’s Bay. I look back at the map and see that there are a couple beaches there. We stop and hang out for a bit. Did some nice cartwheels, built a sand turtle, collected some pretty shells. It was a good stop. We made it Port Elizabeth a bit before dark but Thursday we were supposed to be in Addo which was supposed to be about 2 hours away. We knew of a good backpackers so we decided to push on to Addo. It ended up being about 45 minutes away and still light out by the time we got there. This backpacker’s was not like the ones we had been to before. It was a much older crowd and definitely upscale. All I can say is, I’m glad I waited three days to shower at this place. Yep, that’s right, three days. We decide to braai for dinner so Nick, Azriel, and I go out to get some food to cook. I quickly realized we were in a pretty sketchy neighborhood. Every store we went into seemed like a convenient store but everything you could buy was behind the counter which was behind a giant cage! We’re looking around and all the sudden a loud noise comes from behind me. Azriel is almost taken out by a guy on a bike with no brakes. Somehow, the guy managed to gain enough control to squeeze through the door and came inches from Azriel’s toes. Sometimes, I am I just not even surprised. Africa has thrown so many curve balls I almost expect the unexpected now. Whatever. So Azriel’s alive and I’m asking the lady behind the cage for chips. She comes around the side, unlocks the door, and lets me behind the cage! I feel like she only did it because I was white but I’ll take it! I walk behind that cage like I own the store! Alrighty, lady! I need some chips and meat. I’ve got five hungry people to feed and their patience is quickly diminishing. She opens this freezer with what could have passed as her family’s supply of meat for the week. Meat, chips, beer, coal, and matches. Okay! Can I go shower yet? Thankfully, the guys lit the coal and I got to shower. While waiting for dinner I tried to read but just ended up falling asleep on the couch. I woke up and dinner was almost ready. Dad was right. Timing is everything. We ate dinner and then Michelle, Nick, Azriel, and I sat out under the stars in lawn chairs and talked for awhile. Unbelievable.

I know I'm only half way through the Garden Route trip. Trust me. There is more to come. It was an eventful week.