Last Friday while Kevin’s housemates prepared a wonderful braai for a huge group of friends, a few of the rest of us scrambled to both begin and complete preparations for our trip along the Garden Route, a popular route through many neat towns along the southern coast of Africa. I made a bunch of calls to backpackers (places here seem to go by “backpackers” rather than “hostels”) and easily found accommodation for the nine of us venturing on the trip.
Saturday morning we actually left a little before our goal time of 9 AM. Slight issues with the GPS forced us to make a few lucky directional guesses, but we somehow ended up on the right track. Driving a huge manual van on the “wrong” side of the road led to less disaster than I expected. Kevin’s housemate, Tom, drove fabulously the entire day (with a few requisite scary moments, of course). We drove along the N1 to Oudtshoorn, racing against the GPS clock to get to the Cango Caves by their last adventure tour of the day, at 3:30. We miraculously arrived at 3:34 and coaxed the woman at the ticket desk to allow us to catch up to the tour, which had already left. The caves were exceptionally beautiful and certainly delivered the promise of adventure as we squeezed through tiny spaces and our guide “accidentally” made a habit of turning off the lights, giving us an idea of how Jacobus van Zyl, the first person to go down into the caves, must have felt.
The Throne Room inside the Cango Caves
We drove about an hour and a half to the town of Wilderness to Fairy Knowe Backpackers. The place was great, with a pool table, bar, fire burning and a wonderful view that only became apparent in the light of the morning. After breakfast, we hiked right along a trail leading to a nice waterfall, which provided a well deserved cool-down.
Mural Map of Wilderness National Park at Fairy Knowe
Packing back into the van, we drove to The Crags. While some of the group went to the neighboring Elephant Sanctuary, Kevin, Tom, and I went on a tour through Monkeyland, a reserve for primates who have come from overcrowding in zoos or the pet trade. We got to walk through the large reserve and even found ourselves quite close to many of the monkeys. At one point we walked across a long, somewhat rickety, rope bridge, on which many monkeys swung. 
The singular ape at Monkeyland, a Gibbon named Atlas
A Squirrel Monkey noshing on a peanut
We ended up in Nature’s Valley at a backpackers called Wild Spirit, which could definitely be classified as a haven for hippies. They had a much greater emphasis on recycling than any place I’ve been to yet in SA. Our whole group stayed in the “family” suite, with all 9 of us sharing one big room with a nice balcony. 
The view from Wild Spirit's "Eye"
Monday was a day of adventure, starting with bungee jumping at Bloukrans Bridge, the highest commercial jump in the world. One of the scariest parts was actually the walk to the spot where we jumped, because the path is questionably sound and you can see through it down, down, down below. Once we got to the jump location, they started blasting music, which was effective in calming me down. After trying to delay by asking a multitude of safety questions, I found myself, feet bound, toes hanging over the edge and looking down into the huge gorge. Just imagining it makes my stomach do some cartwheels, but once I began to fall it was amazing and certainly worth all the nerves.
Bloukrans Bridge, we jumped off right at the middle
Me, hoping to feel the resistance of the bungee soon...
Next we were on to zip-lining at Tsitsikamma Adventure Park, which our guidebook deceiving deemed for “adrenaline junkies.” Perhaps going directly after bungee jumping made this activity doomed to fall short of my expectations. It was definitely fun, though, and the views as we zig zagged across waterfalls were quite nice.
Levi zipping down one of the slides
We ended up back at Wild Spirit on a mini hike to a waterfall close by (waterfalls seem to be a theme to the trip…) We came back to venture to the costume closet in order to properly dress for the evening’s event- a Midsummer Night’s Dream themed wedding being held at the Wild Spirit that all guests were invited to attend. We gave our best shot at this theme, incorporating leaves and flowers as best as possible, but were certainly shown up by other attendees in fairy wings and pointed ears. We even spoke to the groom, who revealed that he and his wife were actually married eight years ago, although they never signed any legal papers, at a wedding that was apparently more unconventional than this one. It was a beautiful and entertaining evening that I’m sure I will not forget.
Stine and Tom
Kevin and me (note those serious wings in the background)
Wild Spirit's nightly fire show
Tuesday we drove home along the N2, stopping at the Botlierskop game reserve on the way. From a massive, open safari vehicle, we got to see zebras, giraffes, lions, elephants, rhinos, kudu, and more. It was quite amazing to see them all, but since it was a sanctuary, the place felt more like a glorified zoo. We trekked on home, stopping once for pizza and gas, finally back to Rondebosch before midnight.
Lion yawning at us
Mixed race Impala group, including the rare Black Impala
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