South-Africa Exchange 2013: Week #3

Yes! Finally another blog post! The past week has been so busy, I didn’t have the time to even think about homework. However, I do have lots of exciting and interesting stories to tell. As promised in the post before, I’ll start off with telling you the amazing airplane story.

On Sunday morning we woke up early. After getting dressed, and a delicious breakfast, we got into the car for an hour-long drive. During the ride, our excitement increased and increased, Emma and I couldn’t wait. As soon as we arrived, we met up with a good friend of Emma (now of me as well) and her dad, at Stellenbosch airfield. Yes, we got some good connections going on here; the friend’s dad owns a small airplane and invited us to come flying with him! For any readers interested in airplanes: it was a cirrus ZS-MCG (see pictures provided).

When the airplane was out of the hangar, after some hectic pulling and pushing, we could take our seats. This was rather tricky, since you cannot stand on the vulnerable wings. The seatbelts were heavy on our shoulders, and the sun burning hot. Finally, we took off from a small starting strip. The wind was strong, so the flight was a bit wobbly and nauseous-making, but I was too busy with admiring the views to even care. The little airplane took us all the way along the coastline, over the Cape Peninsula, past Table Mountain, Clifton, Camps bay, Lions head, the Waterfront and lots of other places that we visited the weeks before. As we were flying past Table Mountain, a huge air sack made us drop a couple of meters, and we were wide awake again. The azure blue sea and the plain white beaches formed a great contrast with the city and the rocky, green mountains. We were even able to see Robben island! It was so much fun to be able to recognize the places where I have been already and to create an overview of Cape Town. For I assume that you’re interested in the actual proof of this story (I could have also made it up of course to make my blog more interesting), see the pictures below.

A yummy late lunch and a long drive back completed this day, while a fish braai was waiting for us.

The next couple of days can be summarized in two words: busy, and fabulous. After school on Monday, Emma and I went to Cavendish again to walk around, get a Frio (the guys from the Frio-café, Vida, recognize us already…) and waiting for the others as Monday evenings are also know as 2-for-1-nights. If you have never heard of a restaurant called Spur, then you better go and visit it sometime soon. Here, they sell the most terrific burgers I have ever tasted. You must know that I’m not a fast-food person at all, but this food was so nice I would definitely go again. The bill was just as good, since I only had to pay half of the price; Tessa and I both ordered a burger and we only had to pay for one!

Before you get too excited, I will continue with my story. On Tuesday, the Herschel exchange group went together with the grade eights (comparable to second grade in High School in Holland) to a place called Kirstenbosch. Our host families had made us all excited, since they told us that Kirstenbosch is a beautiful botanical garden. However, what we did was playing the game of musical chairs (stoelendans in Dutch) with stupid animal cards around our necks and walking approximately one kilometre through an ordinary forest while our tour guide was telling us extremely interesting stories about trees and trying to teach us about photosynthesis, where we had never heard of before of course.

When we finally got back to school, I had to rush to be in time for my hockey practise and came back home late in the evening.

Wednesday was a really interesting, and impressive day. Ms Welman, the exchange coordinator from Herschel, took the whole exchange group to the train station just outside of Cavendish to get onto the train to Cape Town, Green Market Square. The train looked dodgy and made lots of strange shrieking noises but we arrived safely. I couldn’t wait to have my second early morning coffee, so we rushed into Vida where I had a great double espresso.

With an energetic feeling we proceeded to the Michaelis art museum on the Green Market Square, only to return thinking of home since the whole museum was full of Dutch art and furniture. While eating biltong (yes, I love to eat meat now anytime I want, no more ‘I can only eat meat for dinner’ complains) we walked past the Houses of Parliament over a long, broad walking path surrounded by green trees full of squirrels. Next, Ms Welman took us to Cape Town’s national gallery where we inter alias saw ‘The Butcher Boys’. Apart from this great, impressive, but somehow also frightening artwork, there was nothing interesting to see here (I’m not really a modern-art person if I can’t find the deeper meaning behind an artwork…).

Our next stop was the Holocaust museum, where we were exposed again to the facts of a horrific past. However, it was a good thing that we went, especially for the exchange students who are not from Europe and didn’t really know a lot about the Second World War.

Our highlight of the day was the lunch. We went to a really cool place; called the Eastern Food Market (or something like that…), where you could get any Asian food you wanted. As one of the cooks was preparing someone’s order, one of the other exchange girls suddenly screamed because she saw a giant cockroach walking on the back of the cook. We didn’t dare to say anything, until the disgusting insect had crept up the cook’s neck. Without any facial expressions, he flicked it off, crushed it with his foot on the ground and continued cooking his meal. However, the food was great!

When we got on the train back to school, I had to rush yet again to be in time for my hockey match, which we won. After this I watched Emma’s match and, feeling exhausted, we went home.

Thursday was just a normal day of school that ended in a successful shopping session with Tessa, already looking forward to the weekend: I am currently writing this (it is Saturday afternoon) in a game reserve! On Friday, we only had half a day of school since we were picked up at 12 o’clock for a four-hour-drive to Botlierskop, where we are now. Yesterday afternoon we explored the compound, the main lodge, the swimming pool and our tent. The swimming pool was so nice after a long, and hot (38 degrees!) drive that we stayed in the cool water for more than an hour.

The main lodge is an extremely cool, wooden building with a thatched roof, large glass windows, animal rugs, and a cosy fireplace; see the pictures below.

I know you just heard me saying the word tent, but the ‘tent’ where Emma and I are staying in is better describable as a luxury bungalow with a canvas roof. Just to make this image a little clearer, this tent has a veranda, a king-size bed, a bath, toilet, wardrobe, fridge, and a closet. The shower is outside, and if you look up you can see the leaves from the trees and bushes that are surrounding you, while the crickets in the grass are chirping loudly. During the night, you can hear the waving of the reeds and the rushing of the Moordkuilrivier.

You are probably curious about what we did this day in the game reserve. Well, here comes the story: we woke up at 5.30 this morning, got dressed quickly, called the reception to send a golf buggy to pick us up, and we were driven to the main lodge. Here we met Emma’s parents (Mike and Di) and brother (Matthew), and we got into the four-wheel drive jeep. We went up a steep mountain over a rough road, entered a huge fenced area, and I met my first wild lion. No, you’re not dyslectic, we really were five metres away from the King of Beasts with his two female companions. The magnificent, amber-eyed lion looked deep into our souls while he was relaxing on the grass. I was really impressed when the tour guide told us that male lions can weigh up to 250 kg! The safari continued, and while driving trough the wilderness we saw loads of other animals as well. Again, please scroll down for pictures. We saw troupes of Bonte Bokken, Kudu’s, Impala’s (who are also currently grazing on the grass outside our tent), gnu’s, fat rhino’s, elegant giraffes, cute zebra’s and beautiful birds. It was so fascinating to see all these animals in a natural habitat, and not in a small cage in the zoos in Holland.

Feeling hungry, we got back and had a great breakfast, where after we did another exciting thing: horse riding! I had never ridden a horse before since this morning, apart from some slow trotting while someone else was holding the leash when I was about six. It was in the beginning a terrifying experience, Zulu, my horse, didn’t mind to start galloping when he felt like it while I was desperately trying to not fall off. However, once I got the hang of it, I really enjoyed it. We went all the way through the bushes, over mountains, over rocky, steep paths and passing loads of gnu’s. For this trip, I only have one remark: it was so boiling hot! The sun, even though it was about 10.30 in the morning, was scorching hot. When we said goodbye to our horses, we changed and jumped into the river immediately. Being dried up by the sun, we decided to have a lazy afternoon and swam in the swimming pool and chilled in the sun. Now, I’m lying down on a comfortable chair on our veranda, looking forward to the dinner tonight, which is, just like yesterday evening, a great buffet with loads of meat (yummy!). I had my first piece of springbok, Kudu, Venison, ostrich, Wildebeest and crocodile. It was absolutely fabulous!

Another fact: there is no WiFi in this area, so I will only be able to post this on Sunday night, when we get home, after a hopefully amazing day again.

We have just gotten back after a rainy day, and a long drive. Saturday evening Emma and I were surprised with a massage in the local Spa. Feeling completely relaxed, we headed up to the main lodge for dinner. The next morning, we could finally sleep in for the first time this week; we only got our wake-up call at seven o’clock! In the already pouring rain, we were taken up with a golf buggy to have breakfast.

One of the game rangers gave Emma, Matthew and me ponchos and we walked outside, for another exciting ride: the elephants were waiting for us! Sam, a gigantic 35-year old elephant took Emma, me, and Mark, a game ranger for a great walk through the reserve. While sitting on his huge body, and the rain pouring over us (the ponchos weren’t waterproof we soon found out) we were taken through rivers, over slippery paths and we could enjoy the nature around us. I would have never expected that I would ever sit on an African elephant, and it was so awesome! It seemed like his body was slowly moving, but you could see the ground far underneath your feet passing by quickly.

We returned completely soaked, and couldn’t wait to have a hot shower. As I was showering outside, the rain was still pouring so my shower was a weird mix between boiling hot and freezing cold drops of water. We packed our bags, got into the car, and went home. Our minds are blown by the fantastic and adventurous weekend, and we all want to go back.