Greetings! I write this while sitting by the fireplace in Oudtshoorn, a town along the Garden Route famous for its ostrich farms.
Hiking and the Indian Ocean
We started off the day with a morning hike in Tsitsikamma National Park, at Storms River Mouth. The trailhead was at the beach, and I kicked off my shoes and dipped my toes into the Indian Ocean for the first time. Woohoo, another ocean checked off the list!
The hiking trail — really more of a boardwalk path for most of it — took us up along the coastline and over to a suspension bridge with some stunning views of the river. It was quite a short hike, and by mid-morning we were being rushed off to the next destination. That’s the challenging thing about going on a tour; I easily could’ve spent a couple of days at the park. But time was a-ticking.
Next, we had to make the obligatory stop-off at the bungy bridge. There’s always one on these types of tours who wants to jump, and in this case it was the world’s highest bungy so there were two. No, I wasn’t one of them; bungy jumping has no appeal for me whatsoever. But we dutifully waited for them to hurl themselves off the bridge before moving on.
Deja vu all over again
The day was hot, sunny and hazy, so what better place to head next than to the beach? We drove to Plettenberg Bay, doubling back from yesterday’s route, and stopped off at the popular beachfront to hang out for a bit. Being without handy beachwear or sufficient time, it wasn’t truly a beach day, but we did spend some time dipping our feet and taking cheesy photos.
After another lunch stop in Knysna (at the same restaurant as yesterday, in fact), we drove up to Knysna Heads to see another view from on high. The views are stunning, of course, but they’re all blending into one another at times. The guide seemed very insistent that we see the view from one particular viewing ledge as opposed to another one, even though they appeared identical to me. Oh well, who am I to say?
Power failure
Finally, we started the drive inland to Oudtshoorn. We were meant to go visit an ostrich farm this afternoon, but when we arrived, we discovered a city-wide power failure in Oudtshoorn; the power’s been off all day for maintenance work. Apparently this happens from time to time. And in this case, it was actually quite nice; everyone put away their TV remotes and phones and laptops, and gathered around the cooking fire in the backyard to socialize. I’ve had power failure moments in hostels before, and it’s a great way to forcibly pull people back into simpler, gadget-free times and force them to actually interact with one another, without the constant pull of technology.
Dinner was cooked over the fire and eaten by candlelight. The meal of the day was, of course, grilled ostrich meat. (There were vegetarian alternatives too.) The hostel is pretty nice here, with a hammock, a large common area with a fireplace, and fresh baked goods by the staff. It gets pretty cold here once the sun sets, so everyone is basically sitting by the fire until it was time to go to bed and huddle under blankets. And even though the power is back on, it feels a bit wrong to sit here too much longer with my laptop. So I’m going to wish everyone a good long weekend, and shut down now.