So, we’ve hit the Baz Bus’s compulsory stop over destination
– Port Elizabeth. Apparently there’s not really anything special to see here,
so we only spent the night before moving onto somewhere more exciting. However
in our backpackers we met another Project Trust volunteer; Gabriel, from York
and he’s on a township project. So the planned early night went straight out of
the window and we stayed up until 4:30 chatting about our projects and travels
– we felt sorry for Gabriel who had to get up for the Baz Bus at 7:00am, but we
had a great night.
Jeffries Bay
We make our own way to J-bay on public kombi’s because the
Baz Bus are rip-off merchants and don’t have any room for us. Even though we
paid extortionate amounts of money for our tickets and we called them up to
book our places MUCH earlier than the advertised ‘72 hours in advance so you’re
not disappointed’. We hate the Baz Bus.
Anyway, Baz Bus hating aside Jeffries Bay is amazing! Our backpackers ‘Cristal Cove’ is right on the beach and there are loads of surfers walking around. It’s exactly like the Boardmasters Festival at Cornwall... apart from the weather is much better!
We have a very mature 45 minute stroll along the beach for some calamari, and on the way back we have a swim in the once again warm ocean. I don’t know what happened between Coffee Bay and Jeffries Bay, but the water at East London was FREEZING – Indian Ocean, waddup wid dat?
Anyway, Baz Bus hating aside Jeffries Bay is amazing! Our backpackers ‘Cristal Cove’ is right on the beach and there are loads of surfers walking around. It’s exactly like the Boardmasters Festival at Cornwall... apart from the weather is much better!
We have a very mature 45 minute stroll along the beach for some calamari, and on the way back we have a swim in the once again warm ocean. I don’t know what happened between Coffee Bay and Jeffries Bay, but the water at East London was FREEZING – Indian Ocean, waddup wid dat?
Turns out the Polokwane girls and Gabriel are also in J-bay,
so we walk to their backpackers and meet up with them for the evening. We head
to this place called ‘The Mexican’ for a live music night; it takes me a good
45 minutes to get served at the bar because the place is so packed. I make the
logical decision of stocking up on drink and buy myself a few bottles so I
don’t have to go back to the bar for a while. You wait so long to get served you
actually sober up in between drinks! It’s probably a smart ploy to make money,
everyone has to drink more than usual to get drunk. Touché.
Storms River
Turned out to be an unplanned stop! Because Baz Bus are
rubbish (we hate the Baz Bus), they didn’t have room to take us the last 40km
from Storms River to our backpackers, Wild Spirit Lodge in The Crags. Therefore
we were thrown off the Baz Bus into the heat, dirt and unknown... backpacks and
all. Alright, maybe I’m exaggerating, we were dropped off at Dijembe
backpackers in Storms River. The staff were all really lovely, gave us free tea
and coffee and kindly let us stay the night.
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| Is this the prime place to chill, or is this the prime place to chill? |
We bump into the Polokwane girls AGAIN, this time is does
come as a surprise because we knew that they were staying in Plettenburg Bay
(which is further down the coast from Storms River). We decided to go tubing
and heard familiar screams on our way down to the river... Turns out the Baz
Bus royally screwed them over and they couldn’t get on it at all, so they had
to hire a car to continue their travelling. So with their new found freedom
they travelled back up the coast to Storms River to do the very popular
activity that is tubing! Tubing is great fun, you basically sit in a sturdy
rubber ring and travel down a river going over rapids, floating calmly and
climbing up rock faces to jump into deep pools. It was exhausting work on my
arms as we were on the river for a good 3 hours or so, but it was definitely
worth it.
Our instructors told us that the last cliff jump was 12m
high, and that only 14 girls had ever done it, so obviously I was well up for
increasing that total. I’d done coasteering in Newquay, Cornwall before and had
jumped from higher places so I was a little bit overconfident.
On the way down all the jumps that we did were a little bit hairy, the 8m jump was set back into the cliff so you had to jump at least 1m forwards to clear the rocks below and land safely in the water. This was a little nerve wracking, however I didn’t expect the 12m to be quite as dangerous! I am telling you, the ‘jumps’ that we did on that river would never be health and safety accepted in the UK, if you put one foot wrong or didn’t push off hard enough you would have kissed rock-face.
On the way down all the jumps that we did were a little bit hairy, the 8m jump was set back into the cliff so you had to jump at least 1m forwards to clear the rocks below and land safely in the water. This was a little nerve wracking, however I didn’t expect the 12m to be quite as dangerous! I am telling you, the ‘jumps’ that we did on that river would never be health and safety accepted in the UK, if you put one foot wrong or didn’t push off hard enough you would have kissed rock-face.
I’m not going to lie, standing on that tiny outcrop I was
s****ing my pants, I’ve never been so scared in my life. Even when I get scared
it’s not normally from doing activities like this, I love this stuff! I
couldn’t work out what was happening to me, every time I pushed forwards to
jump my foot wouldn’t move, it was frozen to the rock. My heart was pounding
and I was looking sceptically at the 2m rock outcrop that I would need to clear
in order to survive the jump. My hands were shaking, my voice was shaking and
I’ve been told that I was stood there for half an hour.
I didn’t jump. Excuse the language, but all that can be said is that I pussied out. Big time. I’ve never been angrier at myself for not doing something. Now I was just an unknown statistic on the side of the girls who didn’t have the guts to do the jump.
The worst thing was that Ashley screamed like a little girl on the 8m, but she still managed to jump the 12m, now 15 girls are mental enough to hurl themselves off that cliff – good on Ashley!
I didn’t jump. Excuse the language, but all that can be said is that I pussied out. Big time. I’ve never been angrier at myself for not doing something. Now I was just an unknown statistic on the side of the girls who didn’t have the guts to do the jump.
The worst thing was that Ashley screamed like a little girl on the 8m, but she still managed to jump the 12m, now 15 girls are mental enough to hurl themselves off that cliff – good on Ashley!
The Crags
We finally get to Wild Spirit backpackers and it is again, beautiful. So far for me this backpackers and Amapondo Backpackers at Port St John’s are in tied 1st position when it comes to the most amazing locations! The views are gorgeous, we are surrounded by thick forest and the mountains fade out on the horizon as far as the eye can see. Looking out over our balcony from our dorm room there’s a sea of green below us, and within 20 minutes you can walk in either of 3 directions to get to a waterfall, the magical forest or the ‘Big Tree’.
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| Climbing a big tree, before 'The' Big Tree! |
Friday 21st December brings the dreaded
Apocalypse, so I go to reception before breakfast and book myself in for a
bungee jump at 5pm. Why not.
All 4 of us go on the short hike it takes to get to the waterfall and find ourselves in a place written about in story books; we cross the rickety wooden bridge over a glimmering plunge pool and climb up to where the waterfall is cascading down the rocks. The water is freezing cold, but it’s too stunning to not swim in!
After the waterfall we walk to a farm stall for lunch and find the best deal ever; fresh milk for E5.50 per litre, that’s about 40p. Fresh milk in Africa is a rarity for us as we get given UHT milk, nasty long life rubbish. So we empty out our 1litre bottle of drinking water onto the ground and fill it up with the fresh, non-UHT, organic and cooled milk. Words cannot describe how much we loved that milk, however we did have to buy another litre before leaving!
All 4 of us go on the short hike it takes to get to the waterfall and find ourselves in a place written about in story books; we cross the rickety wooden bridge over a glimmering plunge pool and climb up to where the waterfall is cascading down the rocks. The water is freezing cold, but it’s too stunning to not swim in!
After the waterfall we walk to a farm stall for lunch and find the best deal ever; fresh milk for E5.50 per litre, that’s about 40p. Fresh milk in Africa is a rarity for us as we get given UHT milk, nasty long life rubbish. So we empty out our 1litre bottle of drinking water onto the ground and fill it up with the fresh, non-UHT, organic and cooled milk. Words cannot describe how much we loved that milk, however we did have to buy another litre before leaving!
THE BUNGEE
There’s only one word for it, it was SICKKKK! Driving to
Bloukrans Bridge I was pretty nervous, but as soon as I was there and had on my
harness I was ready to go. The guy harnessing me up even asked me how many
bungee jumps I had done before, and when I told him this was my first one he
seemed surprised and commented on how calm and chilled I seemed to be – so at
least I wasn’t a nervous trembling wreck like I had been on the cliff jump the
day before.
Once my group got to the bridge it was even better; we walked along a covered grate walk over the valley (so there were some amazing views) to the middle of the bridge, I thought I had just walked into a club. Obviously it wasn’t dark dingy and foggy but there was blaring music and all the guys who worked there were dancing about all over; firstly they were clubbing and secondly they were working at a bungee site. It was such a good atmosphere and got you pumped up and ready to go! Unfortunately I didn’t jump to a brilliant tune, but that didn’t take away from the experience.
Once my group got to the bridge it was even better; we walked along a covered grate walk over the valley (so there were some amazing views) to the middle of the bridge, I thought I had just walked into a club. Obviously it wasn’t dark dingy and foggy but there was blaring music and all the guys who worked there were dancing about all over; firstly they were clubbing and secondly they were working at a bungee site. It was such a good atmosphere and got you pumped up and ready to go! Unfortunately I didn’t jump to a brilliant tune, but that didn’t take away from the experience.
After my freak out on the cliff jump I wasn’t too sure how I
would feel once I got to the edge of the bridge... Luckily the guys give you a
pretty swift count down so you barely have time to think about what you’re
doing! ‘5,4,3,2,1 BUNGEE’ gets you to jump pretty quickly, and if you don’t
jump they push you, so I knew that one way or another I was going headfirst off
that bridge.
I don’t recall bending my legs and pushing off at all, but I definitely jumped... The first split second that I was in the air I felt my body spasm and try to pull back, I think it was a reflex that was telling me ‘no, don’t do this, what the hell are you doing?!’, and then it was over and I was falling. I watched the valley pass me by upside down, and saw the river below getting closer and closer... and then came the bounce back up.
When I watched other people jump the bounce back up looked quite violent, their bodies were jerked at strange angles and the warning of ‘retina displacement’ was fresh in my mind... but I didn’t feel it at all. The most amazing part of the whole experience was after the bounce when my body was free in the air, it feels like you’re flying (instead of plummeting headfirst to the earth) and it is the calmest and most peaceful I have ever felt in my life. A calm, peaceful bungee jump, a little bit contradictory I know, but that’s how it was for me!
I don’t recall bending my legs and pushing off at all, but I definitely jumped... The first split second that I was in the air I felt my body spasm and try to pull back, I think it was a reflex that was telling me ‘no, don’t do this, what the hell are you doing?!’, and then it was over and I was falling. I watched the valley pass me by upside down, and saw the river below getting closer and closer... and then came the bounce back up.
When I watched other people jump the bounce back up looked quite violent, their bodies were jerked at strange angles and the warning of ‘retina displacement’ was fresh in my mind... but I didn’t feel it at all. The most amazing part of the whole experience was after the bounce when my body was free in the air, it feels like you’re flying (instead of plummeting headfirst to the earth) and it is the calmest and most peaceful I have ever felt in my life. A calm, peaceful bungee jump, a little bit contradictory I know, but that’s how it was for me!
Mossel Bay
Saturday 22nd December, everyone is still alive.
I am so surprised.
We Baz Bus to Mossel Bay and again meet up with the Polokwane girls and Gabriel at their backpackers. We have a lovely meal together and then hit the bar; Daisy and Ashley ask for free shots and get given something that is an absolute killer – this then leads to some hilarious events including cartwheels on the beach and unhappy beach wardens.
We Baz Bus to Mossel Bay and again meet up with the Polokwane girls and Gabriel at their backpackers. We have a lovely meal together and then hit the bar; Daisy and Ashley ask for free shots and get given something that is an absolute killer – this then leads to some hilarious events including cartwheels on the beach and unhappy beach wardens.
The next day we’re due to head to Cape Town! Baz Bus isn’t
due until early evening so Ashley, Daisy, Sam and I decide to go sea kayaking.
We’re doing doubles and Daisy and I are terrible; we can’t go in a straight
line and we zigzag our way along the coast by heading directly to shore, then
out to sea then back again towards the shore. I’m pretty sure we kayaked twice
as far as Ashley and Sam, but we were about 40m behind them all the time!
Then the inevitable happens... the Baz Bus is early. Normally it’s late, in fact it’s rarely ON TIME, but today it’s early. We’re fresh out of the sea and not even at our own backpackers! Luckily we packed that morning so the driver lets us jump on as he was stopping by our backpackers anyway and we manage to make it... just. We’re in swimming gear and wet, but we’re on the Bus and on our way to CAPE TOWN!
Then the inevitable happens... the Baz Bus is early. Normally it’s late, in fact it’s rarely ON TIME, but today it’s early. We’re fresh out of the sea and not even at our own backpackers! Luckily we packed that morning so the driver lets us jump on as he was stopping by our backpackers anyway and we manage to make it... just. We’re in swimming gear and wet, but we’re on the Bus and on our way to CAPE TOWN!
Thank you Baz Buz express service, we just caught you in
time and now you’re on your way STRAIGHT to Cape Town... Baz Bus, I think you
may have redeemed yourselves in my eyes just a little bit. Express service
means that we get to Cape Town around 9:00pm instead of in the middle of the
night and we meet some of the South African volunteers and go out on
Longstreet!
It’s going to be a LEGEN-wait-for-it-DARY
10 days!
Kate xx
P.S. The title of this blog is a poster I saw at the Face
Adrenalin bungee jump, rather motivational don’t you think?
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