The beautiful Garden Route.

Hi All,
Sorry I've only just got round to doing this, it's taken me a while to have the time to write.
Anyway, spent last Monday to Friday travelling the Garden Route with the Bok Bus. The Garden Route is famous for being a very beautiful, green part of South Africa and that it was, I saw some amazing views (when not sleeping on the bus!!)

Monday - Got picked up by the BokBus and met all the other travellers, there were 3 German girls, a Canadian guy, a German couple, a old Aussie man, 2 English girls, Adrienne the guide and me.
We had to drive for most of the morning to get on to the Garden Route but arrived at the Garden Route Game Reserve about 3pm. The game drive was very good, I don't think I'll ever get sick of going on game drives! Saw lots of animals (impala, zebra, wilderbeast, bontebok, springbok, lion, kudu and a snake and got very close to 2 rhino (5 metres away) and 2 giraffe.
We ate at the game reserve, which was strange because we had been on a game drive seeing springbok and they were serving it for dinner!!! I have to admit I did try it! It tasted like beef but was much less chewy and fatty, actually a lot nicer than most beef!
Stayed at a backpackers in the evening which was ok, at least i had a double bed to myself - luxury!!

Tuesday - Visited the Cango Wildlife Ranch in the morning, really enjoyed it! Got to see crocodile, alligator, snake, meercat, turtles, fish, jaguar, lion, monkeys, flamingos, fox, and got to stroke cheetah!!!! They ask for a 120 Rand donation to enable you go to into the cheetah enclosure and stroke them (plus you get a lovely cheesy photo of you stroking them)! The money is used to keep the cheetah and to start a breeding programme. They actually purr like house cats when they are stroked which sounded funny.
Next we visited a Ostrich farm in Oudtshoom, which is a semi-desert area so it was hot!!!! Really enjoyed the Ostrich farm, which surprised me because I didn't particularly like Ostrich before. Got to hold a baby ostrich, which was really cute (shame they don't stay cute!) Some people tried riding an Ostrich but no way was I going to do that!! It looked scary! They put a bag on the birds head, then you climb on its back, then they take the bag off and it runs!!!! But I was brave enough to get a neck massage off 3 Ostrich, which was quite nice (see Flickr for the photo).
The next stop today was the Cango Caves, which were ok, just big limestone caves like in England.
Stayed at Farie Knowe backpackers which was very nice, and again a lovely big double bed to myself!

Wednesday - Went 2 man canoeing in Tsitikamma Forrest in the morning. Shared a canoe with an old Aussie man called Kevin or Eddie (for some reason he had two names and was generally a bit odd), he was so busy talking, I did most of the rowing!! But he did keep me entertained with his stories. We canoed through a forrest which was lovely and so peaceful (apart from Kevin jibbering!), really enjoyed canoeing (I know thats a surprise Mum).
Spent the afternoon walking through Tsitikamma National Park, until we ended up at Storms River Mouth hanging bridge, which I walked over, bit disappointing because it wasn't scary at all. But the National Park was gorgeous, it even had it's own beach.
Next we went to watch the Canadian guy from out group do the worlds highest bungy jump, which looked so scary!!!!!! I think people must be mad to do it!
Stayed at a B&B in the evening which was lovely! I had a great room and again a huge double bed :-)

Thursday - Spent a lot of time driving again today, had a look round Knysna markets and an aloe vera factory before arriving at our accommodation, which was a farm in the middle of nowhere. It was nice to be surrounded by mountains and animals, but I didn't get a double bed! Boo Hoo!

Friday - Again a lot of driving today to get back to Cape Town. Our first stop on the way was Hermanus. Hermanus is famous for whale watching so after looking round the markets (got to get some shopping in!) I sat and was lucky enough to see lots of whales breeching. It's an amazing things to see! Unfortunately its hard to get good photos of the whales, its something you have to actually see.
Second stop was Betty's Bay to see the hundreds of penguins that live there, they look cute but can give a mean bite!
Got dropped back at Aviva house at 5pm-ish. Overall really enjoyed my trip and got to see some lovely places and so some good things.

So now back in Cape Town and try to do something different each day, theres so much to do! Went to watch the sunset at Camps Bay last Sunday. Camps Bay is a lovely beach with great views of signal hill and the 12 apostiles (theres actually 14 of them), then went out to dinner at the V&A Waterfront. And got to stay in a really posh hotel!!!!!!! One of the volunteers had booked her self in and asked if we wanted to come along, so we sneaked in!! 2 of us slept on the floor but we didn't mind! It was so nice and quite and had a lovely big, super clean bathroom, you get to appreciate these things when your used to sleeping in dorms. It was a treat!!

Visited the Turkish Baths on Monday, a funny experience!!! We weren't to sure what we were actually supposed to do so thought it would all be explained when we got there, but no! No one was very helpful! So we kind of made the best of what we knew, so we got changed (there are lots of little rooms with beds in, though I'm not sure what the beds are for!), then went in a hot room with marble slabs to sit on, then went between the steam and sauna rooms and the cold plunge pool. I came out feeling very clean! Which was nice, after feeling constantly dirty when working with the animals and in the schools!
But I think your supposed to take you own loofah and soap, scrub yourself in the steam room whilst dipping in the cold plunge pool, get a massage (on a marble slab) and the whole experience lasts for 4 hours - I think I would have no skin left after 4 hours. The masseuse looked kind of scary too.
Afterwards me and Angela went for a Carribean meal, which was very nice, I would recommend the banana fritters.

Start work at the Baphumelele Orphanage on Friday, I'll be working 3 day on and 3 days off. Looking forward to it but think they'll be tiring long days!

Trying to get some more trips organised for my days off from the orphanage so I'll keep you updated.

Take care all.
Love H

xxx