It’s Saturday, and I’ve already spent 2 days in one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever visited – Cape Town. I apologize for the delay in posting. It’s been tough to track down consistent internet to connect to. I’ve begun the last leg of my adventure here in South Africa, where I will be living in Cape Town until I leave for home on May 5th. I’ve arrived here at the “Mother City” after an incredible travel week that took me from Pietermaritzburg in the East, to the edge of the world here in the Western Cape province. Instead of flying, the 52 of us piled into two chartered buses that drove us across the southern coast in what’s known as the Garden Route – one of the most spectacular road trips I’ve been on.
After a melancholy farewell dinner at A.E. in Pietermaritzburg, we headed out southwest toward our first stop on the garden route: East London. South Africa really is an amazing country; if you drive just 9 hours, you are in a completely different world than where you began. As our buses crossed the KwaZulu-Natal/Eastern Cape provincial border, we were suddenly in a place with a different landscape, different culture and even a different language. The local African language was no longer isiZulu, what we had studied in class (and I was just getting good at it), but isiXhosa. Instead of bright green hills filled with cattle and maize, I began to see dull green fields dotted with sheep. Minus the sheep, I thought for sure I was driving through Nebraska or Kansas. We eventually arrived in East London after the sun had set. We over-nighted in a hotel about 50 feet from the Indian Ocean. It definitely made for a nice view, but I was busy missing A.E. and Pietermaritzburg.
After a delicious South African breakfast at our hotel in East London we loaded up the buses for our next destination: Port Elizabeth. P.E. is another coastal city in the Eastern Cape province and was remarkably similar to East London. Perhaps the biggest difference I noticed between the two is the decreased usage of English and the increased use of Afrikaans as the lingua franca. We stayed at an even more spectacular waterfront hotel for the night that overlooked the Indian Ocean. I had a delicious sushi dinner then tried my hand at a blackjack table at the casino next door to the hotel. I lost a few Rand, but it was a fun night nonetheless. I was exhausted but still went to bed with a little anxiety as our trip to the world’s highest bungee jump was planned for the next day.
The next morning, on the day of the bungee jump, my roommate Shaun and I were woken up to a knocking on the door by one of our leaders. While I at first thought it was just a nice wakeup for breakfast, I soon found out that everyone else was sitting on the bus waiting to go. It was 7 minutes past our schedule time of departure. I threw on a pair of shorts and a shirt and crammed everything else into my bag. It was not the best wakeup, especially for a day when I had to prepare myself for jumping off of a bridge. The Bloukrans Bridge in between the city of George and Port Elizabeth happens to have the world’s highest commercial bungee jump, and we just happened to be passing through it on the way to Cape Town (we made reservations in January). We had been talking about it since our first orientation in Azusa, and now we were finally here. I took my first peek over the edge of the gorge right as someone else was doing his or her bungee jump. I couldn’t believe I was about to do that. I paid, went through my instructions, and before I knew it I was walking across a catwalk to the center of the bridge, below the road level. I was assigned the second spot in my group of 17. The company running the bungee jump had a live video feed from the platform to a café back near the entrance, so the rest of our group had the opportunity of viewing our looks of terror as we walked up to the edge. Just like that I had a cord attached to my feet, and I was holding onto a pair of shoulders as I was led to the edge of the platform. I took a nice look down to the ground, 216 meters (about 700 feet) below, and got ready for a major adrenaline rush. 5…4…3…2…1… bungee! As I jumped I immediately felt about 4 seconds of pure freefall before I felt the tension of the bungee cord. As I bounced about 4 times before I was pulled up, I felt absolutely amazing. The quietness and peace of the space below the bridge was mixed with an insane adrenaline rush all over my body. I had just jumped the world’s highest bungee jump. No words.
After jumping off of the bridge, we continued our drive toward Cape Town until we reached our final overnight destination at a place called Carmel, just outside the city of George. Carmel wasn’t right next to the ocean, but it was by far the most beautiful place we have stayed at in South Africa. Located on top of a valley that led into a bay, Carmel is a Christian conference center spread out over a few dozen acres of South African beauty. Flowers, bushes and even the grass teemed with brightness and color. We would stay two nights at Carmel before finally arriving in Cape Town on Thursday.
After our first night at Carmel, the 52 of us split into 2 groups of 26 again. Half of us would explore the nearby Cango Caves while the other half toured a local ostrich farm. After each group was done, we would switch so that everyone had the chance to do both. I was in the ostrich group first, which meant I would check out a bunch of ugly, oversized birds with marbles for brains. It actually ended up being pretty cool, and I had the chance to ride one of the ugly things around until it sat down with me on it after about 10 seconds. Riding an ostrich is not something you get to do everyday, so I had a good time. After the ostriches, we drove over to the Cango Caves to take an “adventure” tour that would take us deep into the cave. I absolutely love caves, and this one was maybe the most spectacular one I’ve been inside. The first was a little tame, but took us through some of the most jaw-dropping rooms of stalagmites and stalactites (still don’t remember which is which). The path got narrower and narrower until our guide led us to a few passages where we had to get on our hands and knees in order to squeeze through. It definitely wasn’t for claustrophobics. After a 2-hour tour we were back in daylight and on our way back to Carmel.
We woke up to our last day on the amazing week of travel, sad to leave the beauty of Carmel but ecstatic for the new adventures awaiting us in Cape Town. The 5-hour drive from George to Cape Town didn’t seem long at all, and before I knew it I was looking out over False Bay across to the Cape of Good Hope. As we drove from the rural suburbs to our hotel in the center, I saw how it would be hard to argue against the labelling of Cape Town as the world’s most beautiful city. Even more so than when I was in East London or Port Elizabeth, I felt like I was in a completely different country than the South Africa of Pietermaritzburg and Natal.
Cape Town is like California meets Europe meets Africa. Beautifully situated right under Table Mountain adjacent to the Atlantic, Cape Town is a bustling co-capital city (with Pretoria) with the flavor and energy of an African city, but with the modernity and progressiveness of a contemporary European city. We spent our first night eating out at an Indian bazaar restaurant in the core of the downtown area. Cape Town is a complete cultural mix – it seems like every language, race and culture of humankind can be found here. Street signs are in English, Afrikaans and Xhosa. A few Victorian buildings such as the Parliament building stick out among the towering skyscrapers and busy city streets. Hawkers of every variety can be found on pretty much every street corner. I’m not usually one who enjoys busy city life for very long, but Cape Town feels like no other city I’ve visited. It feels clean and close to nature yet comes off as bustling and super modern. After an orientation meeting we had a delicious lunch of fish and chips before packing up yet another bus for our next destination in Cape Town.
Our group of 52 will stay at both a Cape Town family and dormitories at the Bible Institute of South Africa (everyone calls it B.I.) while we are here in Cape Town. Half of us will be in home stays while the other half will stay in the dorms on campus. We will all have class together here at B.I. then return to our respective overnight places. I’ll be here at B.I. for the first half before I stay with my homestay family in the suburb of Ocean View. B.I. has a stunning campus. My dorm room is about a 30 second walk from the beach, and overlooks False Bay. B.I. is located in the coastal suburb of Kalk Bay, a gorgeous seaside village with a small dock and train station. Although I miss PMB and A.E., I will definitely enjoy my time here in Cape Town. I still have a lot more to explore and discover on my South African adventure before I come back to the U.S. in May. Bly te kenne, I'm pleased to meet you Cape Town.
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