The best place to start when talking about our Garden Route
Adventure Weekend is at the beginning, so here I go!
Murray and Mark pick us up on Friday morning and say,
“Alright, Team America! 2 hours until we bungee jump!” Now, at this point I am FREAKING
OUT. I had planned on bungee
jumping, but I didn’t know it would be so soon! We drive the two hours to the Bloukrans Bridge in Nature’s
Valley. This area is in the
Western Cape (PE is in the Eastern Cape).
Our car ride was a big party because everyone was trying to distract Liz
and me from the plunge we were about to take!
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Jamming out to music, trying to keep our mind off
of the jump! |
We arrived at Bloukrans and went through the steps to get
ready: 1) pay 2) get weighed 3) get a harness 4) jump! There was no safety video, no
instructions, nothing. I think
that was the craziest part. We got
to the edge of the bridge, walked across and watched the pros get set up. As all the jumpers and supporters were
talking, the “main guy” said, “Number 25!
Who is number 25! You’re up!”
Everyone looked down and their hands and I AM NUMBER 25! I’m the first to jump off of the
highest bridge bungee jump in the world!
I begin to chicken out at first, but the pros talked me back into it. If you’re friends with me on Facebook,
you really need to see the video.
It's hilarious. The jump
was the most incredible feeling in the world and I would do it again tomorrow
if I had the chance!
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| The official certificate! Highest bridge jump IN THE WORLD! |
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| Wellyna and me crossing the bridge! |
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| Don't look down! |
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| 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - BUNGEE! |
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| All of the courageous Freewalker jumpers! |
After our amazing experience on the bridge, we drove the 30
minutes to Plettenberg Bay, checked into our hostel, and bathing-suited up for
the beach! Our group loaded in the
car to head to the beach to swim with seals! We put on wetsuits and boated out to Robberg Island to swim
with 4,000 seals. It was
absolutely breathtaking. The seal
pups would swim all around you and they were so curious and friendly!
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| Headed to Robberg Island |
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| Seals everywhere! |
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You had to keep your hands like that so the seals didn't
bite your fingers! They were so curious! |
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| Getting some seal kisses! |
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| So graceful |
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| Hi, baby! |
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| Mmmmwah! |
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| Team America goofing off in our wetsuits! |
Team America + Brits + Belgians + Israelis + South Africans
headed back to the hostel to get ready for dinner. We went to a restaurant called “The Health Hut”. I had pesto gnocchi, but that was
definitely not the highlight of the night. One of my roommates started dancing at the front of the
restaurant (where the average age was 89 years old…). We soon had the whole restaurant dancing and taught all of
the older patrons dances like the Macarena, YMCA and Cha Cha Slide. It was so much fun!
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| All of the Bama girls at dinner! |
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| Just doing the Macarena... |
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| So much fun getting the restaurant on their feet! |
Saturday morning comes, bright and early, with our day
starting at 5:30 am! We drive 2
hours west of Plett to Mossel Bay.
Mossel Bay is where they film SHARK WEEK! The boat took us on a 30 minute cruise right off the
coast. I was one of the first in the
cage and they began baiting the sharks!
It was amazing how close they came to us. The sharks kept biting the cage and running into it. It was so scary, but amazing!
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| Excited to begin our journey! |
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| Cool, huh?! |
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| We were in that cage! |
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| So powerful |
We went to the beach and spent time body boarding in the
awesome surf. Our group headed
home to get ready for dinner at The Lookout. I had mussels and they were oh so good! A lot of the group went out, but I
decided to stay in and rest up for tomorrow. Around 2 am, the girls came back and we decided to sleep on
the hammocks outside at the hostel.
I felt so peaceful and it’s a funny story to tell people!
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| Enjoying the beach at sunset |
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| All of the Freewalkers at The Lookout! |
Sunday arrives and we actually got to sleep in! We drove back through Plett to arrive
at Monkey Land. Monkey Land is a
sanctuary where monkeys are rescued from zoos and homes and they teach them how
to be monkeys again. These
precious primates were everywhere!
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| Awww! Baby and Mama |
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| See? Monkeys everywhere! |
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| Marcell |
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| Zoboomafoo |
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| He likes to Move It, Move It! |
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| Hanging out with howler monkeys |
We then hopped over to Birds of Eden, which is basically a
biodome with birds flying everywhere.
If you know me, you know birds are my biggest fear, so I was a little
apprehensive. It was much more fun
than I anticipated and I’m getting over my fear quickly!
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| This parrot kept talking to us! |
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| Just arguing with a flamingo! |
Our last stop on our tour was zip lining through Tsitsikamma
treetops! I had never been zip
lining before, so this was a totally new experience. The scenery was beautiful and it was very relaxing. There were so many waterfalls and the
view was breathtaking!
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| Roomies ready to zip line! |
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| Alabama girls loving the scenery |
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| Wahoo! So much fun! |
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| Beautiful, right? |
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| Ready to head home and rest up! |
We headed home with our camera memory cards full and a
suitcase of dirty clothes. First
stop: Facebook. We were all dying
to share our adventures with America!
Lots of love,
Katharine / Miss Martin
