South-Africa Exchange 2013: Week #2

I cannot believe another six days have passed since I last posted something on this blog. The very cliché saying suits this situation pretty well: “Time flies by when you’re having fun!” Yes, the past week has been fabulous. The days at school included my first hockey practise and match, nice dinners and great fun, but I won’t go into the details since I have a lot more interesting stories to tell.

Being used to the early-rising rhythm, I can now wake up without any problems (!) at six in the morning. It isn’t that difficult at all if you know that another great day is waiting for you to begin. What also helps is that the sun is already shining through your curtains at around five o’clock, and the fresh breeze that is coming through the open window gives you a good start for the day.

I felt the same on Friday morning, and I could feel a rush of excitement as soon as I woke up. The whole exchange group gathered at 7 o’clock at Bishop’s for the hike where I was talking about earlier. After meeting everyone, we got into the vans that took us to Elandspad River, a beautiful fresh stream of water. Once arrived, we started hiking over massive stones through the water. It was absolutely fascinating, jumping from rock to rock, trying not to wet your shoes while the early morning sun was already burning in your neck. The trail continued more up the mountain on the left side, as the river is embedded between two immense mountain ranges. We kept on walking and walking, it seemed like there was no end to the path, until we suddenly realised that we were rapidly descending. The sound of the water became clearer and clearer as we came closer to the river. As promised, we had our first break down there in the middle of the river, sitting on enormous stones that kept us dry while the water was rushing past.

As the real Dutch water lovers, Tessa and I decided to have our first swim at this stop, so we jumped into the invigorating water, showered under the waterfall and, feeling refreshed, proceeded with the rest of our day.

To get to our next stop, we had to do some hectic rock-climbing over narrow passages, taking pictures with one hand while you desperately needed the other one to make sure you didn’t fall down onto the rocks in the river beneath us (yes, this sentence was especially for you mom) and slipping and tripping over slithery stones. When we finally arrived, blood was dripping down from the cuts in our legs and I couldn’t wait to jump into the cool water again.

This time, you have to take the word ‘jump’ a little more literal as we climbed up the rocky, steep sides of the river and let ourselves fall down into the deep, clear water.

At the next stop, we could jump from even higher riversides. This was so amazing; first scared to death as you were standing on the edge but convinced that you honestly wanted to jump down. I took a deep breath, counted to three, and let myself fall down. As I fell, I could feel the adrenaline rush through my body while the wind blew past me, and I saw my surroundings passing by quickly, until I was suddenly brought to a stop by the vast mass of water underneath me.

Feeling hungry, we walked back to where we left our bags to have lunch and relax for a bit. We prepared ourselves for a heavy climb up the river, over rocks and ridges to get to the waterfall. This part of the hike was beautiful, yet challenging. It was definitely worth it though; the waterfall was wonderful. It was hidden in a deep gulch where no sunlight could enter. After a quick change, we got into the water, feeling relieved from the heat and our aching muscles and bruises. The water was freezing cold though, and very, very deep.

Together with a few people who weren’t feeling numb yet, we swam and swam until we finally reached the waterfall. We didn’t stop swimming, even though our last breath of oxygen had been used up a long time ago since the damp from the waterfall was surrounding and blocking out the air completely. The hardest part was to swim through, but it was definitely worth it: on the other side of the waterfall was a small cave where we could rest for a bit.

As the day was coming to an end, we walked all the way back to the vans, while passing a group of baboons approximately twenty metres away from us. To keep the spirit up, we started singing songs from our childhood, and drank water from the clean river.

This great day ended with eating sushi and watching a movie with Emma in bed, feeling exhausted but satisfied. It was such an amazing experience, and if I could I would to this whole day completely over again.

On Saturday, after sleeping in until about ten we got ready for another busy, ‘beachy’ day that started off in Muizenberg where we had a nice cup of coffee. From here on, we walked along the coast to Kalk Bay, a very pretty bay with a harbour and shops. The walk wasn’t that long luckily (sore muscles from the day before…) and I really enjoyed it.

After strolling around for a bit we decided to have lunch at Kalky’s at the harbour where I had some great hake and chips (fortunately not served in a newspaper!). When we were completely stuffed we walked around in the harbour and saw some cute seals that were chilling around and being fed by fishermen. Then we did some shopping and had a lovely ice cream, got into the car and went to Boulders Beach.

Here we saw so many cute penguins, as you can see in the pictures. We walked down to the beach, which was on the Indian Ocean side, and decided to go for a swim. This was the first time I ever swam in the Indian Ocean, and it was great. The water was way warmer than the Atlantic Ocean side (Camps Bay, Clifton) and the penguins were also with us, lying on the rocks.
This day we also went to a party/braai/pizza evening at someone’s house (can’t remember his name…) and had loads of fun, even though I felt like I could fall asleep immediately. As soon as we got home, I went to bed, to get my energy for Sunday, where I will tell you everything about the next time I will post something. To already tell you a little about this fascinating day, I can only say that we did something that involved an airplane…!

Here are the pictures: