After a fantastic Holiday we had a final assembly on Friday, before the Easter holiday started. The holiday was quite relaxed, didn’t really do anything till the Thursday, when we were leaving in the morning to Durban. When Fearghas and I arrived in Durban we had to hire a car, because later that day we would fetch Elise from the airport, who couldn’t get the same flight. The Durban airport was miles away from the actual city, so to save a lot of money hiring a car was the best option. While I was waiting for our baggage, Fearghas went outside to arrange a car, which wasn’t that easy as we thought it would be. As I already said, Durban city centre is miles away from the airport, so many people had plans to hire a car, there were no cars available. 10 different companies and no cars available, I started to stress, but luckily we could get a last car at Europe Car. We were very lucky, because at Europe Car you must have your license at least 2 years, Fearghas didn’t even have his license for a year... But anyway we got a car and our trip could begin. Durban
All the streets in the city centre of Durban do have new names. Of course also the street where our hostel was situated. The Tom-tom was not up to date and calling the people in hostel was useless, because they kept saying the old street name. Fearghas and I are used to get lost, but this time it was a slightly different situation, driving in Durban city centre is horrific. People crossing the roads without looking, everywhere you look you see those typical African mini bus taxi’s (those taxi’s don’t understand traffic rules) and on every street corner there was a market. It was a hell! I was not just worried about how to get to that place, but also in which area our hostel was situated. Durban city centre is not a nice place!
Eventually we found the place, and it was not too bad. The hostel was situated more on the outside of the city and 15minutes walking to the beach. We dropped our stuff in our room and drove to the world cup stadium in Durban, the Moses Mabia stadium. It is not as big as the Green point Stadium and Soccer City Stadium, but very nice! In the evening we fetched Elise from the airport and had supper at a sushi bar near our hostel and then we went back to our suite where we found a dead cockroach under one of the beds.
The next day we had a breakfast in a restaurant at the beach, we went back to get our towels and spent the afternoon on the beach. The sea in Durban is much more comfortable than the sea back in Cape Town. The difference in temperatures of the water is about 15 degrees. In the evening we went out for dinner and to a concert of Avicii a famous Swedish DJ.
As good as the weather was a day before, how bad was that Saturday. We decided to go to Ushacka a aqua marine park. It’s a park with water glides and a aquarium. Unfortunately we couldn’t swim with the dolphins, because that was fully booked, but there were lots of other things to do, like snorkling above sharks. We also went on the highest water glide of the Southern part of the world, which was actually very disappointing. Umthatha
On Monday we left Durban with the bazbus and headed off to Umthatha the capital of the Transkei. The trip took us 8 hours, but it was nice to see the different landscapes of South Africa. The Transkei used to be a homeland for black people during the Apartheid (they sent black people to this place) and was a country itself. Nelson Mandela was born in the Transkei and we also passed the church where he was married with Winnie Mandela and his house where he still lives if he’s not in hospital. Arrived in Umthatha we had to get a taxi to the orphanage where we would help out for 2 days. We saw a police car and managed somehow to get a lift. First they had to look for a man and then they would drop us at the orphanage. The police men in Umthatha are different from the police men in Holland. Looking for a guy means knocking on the door hoping if someone opens the door (didn’t happen), the police car drove way to fast and furthermore nobody fasted his seatbelt. 
The orphanage itself was a good experience; there were 85 children between the age of 0 and 8 years old. A friend of Fearghas who’s working there for a year arranged a own flat for us, which was amazing. We had 3 bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom with a ice cold shower. The Transkei is proper Africa, with cows on the road etc. But it was a good experience! Wednesday we went on the African way to Coffee Bay, hitchhiking! It was actually very funny and very cheap. It took us about 2 hours and had to pay just 4 euro’s each. When we arrived in Coffee Bay we knew immediately why they call that small place in the middle of nowhere “little Amsterdam”. We got out the taxi and we were immediately surrounded by at least 5 drug dealers. Beside the Drug dealers has Coffee Bay a amazing landscape. We went for a surf and we watched the sundown on a hill. The next morning we already had to leave Coffee Bay, next destination Addo.
Addo Elephant Park
It was a day of almost 12 hours travelling when we finally arrived in Addo, near Port Elisabeth. Addo was amazing! We went on a safari with the 3 of us and a Swedish couple and saw lots of animals. We even saw lions, which doesn’t happen every day. When we got back to our hostel we had a nice braai and went to bed early, because the next morning we would leave at 5.30 am. 
Jeffrey’s Bay and Plettenberg Bay
After Addo we went to Jeffrey’s Bay, a famous surfing village. We had an amazing flat, the first night we shared it with an Brazilian couple but the other 2 nights we had the flat for ourselves. It’s actually ridiculous for how cheap we got it, but we couldn’t complain. The days in Jeffrey’s Bay where very relaxed. We went to the beach to body board and walk, slept quite a lot and Elise cooked for us. We also did a surfing lesson, where I finally managed to stand on the board and me and Elise stood one and a half hours in cue to buy a jersey for me, because I lost mine in Coffee Bay and the weather became quite chilly. We also invited the Swedish couple, who we had met in Addo for a Braai at our place; it was a very nice evening. From Jeffrey’s Bay we went to another town in the Eastern Cape/ Garden Route, Plettenberg Bay. The weather was much nicer, so we were able to do more activities. We met one Dutch girl on the Bazbus and after we arrived we went for a walk, to have eventually a drink at the beach. The next morning we went with the four of us on a kayak trip to spot dolphins and seals. Unfortunately we didn’t see any dolphins but we saw a lot of seals. When we got back in our hostel I got slightly worried about what we would do the next day. We had a braai in our hostel and met there two other Dutch girls who showed us a video of their bungee jump. We would do the same thing the next morning!
It was actually a miracle that I had a good sleep that night, I was so nervous! At half past 10 we left our hostel to go to the Bloukrans bridge, the highest bungee jump bridge in the world. I was very exciting, and on our way to the bridge I could only think of the thought that I would die of a heart attack. Luckily I didn’t die, but I was not happy at all, when we arrived at the reception and had to sign that it is all your on responsibility etc. The walk to the bridge “the catwalk” gave me another boost of excitement; we walked on a sort of bouncy chicken wire bridge over the river. It was high and I don’t like heights! Sounds maybe weird that I chose to do the bungee jump, but something in me told me I had to do it. They gave us some instructions on the actual bridge where we would do our jump, after that they played very loud music. The music actually helped, but what really helped me was that Fearghas and Elise were doing it as well! I jumped and I’m very glad I did it!
The jump was basically the last thing we did on our trip. That night we went out for a drink with the three Dutch girls we met and the next morning we had to go back to Cape Town. We got picked up by the Bazbus around half past twelve in the afternoon. It was a trip of nine hours, but with all the stops we had it’s not too bad. We were of course in the same bus with our Swedish friends again who also travelled to Cape Town. Once arrived in Cape Town, my host father fetched us and we went to our host families. We had the weekend to rest and on Monday we had to go back to school. It has been an awesome holiday, where we met lots of nice people and saw lots of things. We had a wonderful time.
More photos of my backpack trip and safari on Facebook "backpack trip Durban back to Cape Town"
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten