Plettenburg Bay
This weekend I took a trip to the most beautiful place in the world (that I’ve seen, at least). The Sarahs (both American student teachers), myself, Dem, and Pete drove to Plettenburg Bay, a few hours west of P.E., along the coast. We got there late on Friday night, and there wasn’t much to do except check into our hostel, which I’ve heard is the best hostel along the Garden Route (the stretch of land between Capetown and P.E.), and it was really very nice. The owners are incredibly friendly and helpful. They have a beautiful backyard with hammocks and tables, and a firepit that they light nightly so you can braai.
We woke up early on Saturday to spend the morning hiking Robberg Peninsula. On the drive out there, we were finally able to see some of the gorgeous scenery. (Check out my pictures.) The people at the hostel said that we should be okay to hike in flip-flops (I brought my hiking shoes, but no one else had that much foresight!) but after a few minutes on the trail, we started to realize that maybe flip flops were not such a good idea. This was seriously a rustic trail: tiny dirt paths with a cliff right next to you, climbing up piles of rocks on one side while the other side is a nice drop down to the churning ocean, and so on. Sometimes I felt like I was rock climbing: stretching my hands out to hold on to rock while my feet searched for a new place to climb up. However, any aches and pains we may have ended up with were well worth it, if only for the views alone. At pretty much everywhere along the trail, you could look in any direction and see the most beautiful view. On one side, you could see the town and the beach. Slightly to the right were mountains on the land, with their bases shrouded in mist so they looked as if they were floating above the ocean. In front of us was a gorgeous, untouched beach to stroll across (my favorite parts of the path!). To the right: some craggy rocks, and behind us, beautiful rocky hills. Seriously, you need to check out the pictures to even get an IDEA of what it was like. Then imagine actually being there with these breathtaking views, climbing over these mountains, seeing and hearing and even tasting the ocean, and the sun shining on a lovely day. This is why I want to move to Plett.
About halfway down the Penninsula, we cut across to the other side (we took the short, 2-3 hour trail because apparently it gets dangerous at the end; after seeing the rocky cliffs we had to climb over, we were scared to see what they actually called dangerous). I saw a little log cabin near the beach, partway up one of the hills. I’m sure it’s just used as a ranger station or something, but it would be the absolute PERFECT beach house.
There was some wildlife: we saw the seal colonies, but we were so high up that they just looked like moving black specks in the water. Lots of little lizards scurried across our paths. And occasionally there was the odd rustling in the brush beside us. But the worst was the ants covering the path!
I really think South Africa has an ant problem. Every time I go hiking, there are ants everywhere. There are ants in the kitchen at home. There are ants in Sarah’s flat (and she doesn’t even have food there!) They seem like they’re taking over the country.
So anyway, after some lunch at this amazing pizza place in town (oh by the way, South Africa’s one huge food indulgence is PIZZA: they put crazy toppings on it like avocado and banana yet have never heard of pepperoni, and when you go out for pizza, each person orders their OWN whole pie!) we went down to the beach to relax. Unluckily for us, we got there just in time to enjoy about ½ hour of sunshine before the rains started. We got some meat at the Spar supermarket to braai on the fire, and spent the evening teaching the boys how to play Euchre.
The next morning we went craft shopping and headed back home, making a few stops along the way. First was Monkeyland. I’m sure it’s a really great place to visit, and the monkeys are pretty cute. However, as soon as our tour started, the rain also started. So there we were, in shorts and t-shirts, getting cold and damp, and the darn mosquitoes would not let up! Now normally I can handle a few minor mishaps, but 3 discomforts at a time (oh and I’d woken up with a head cold, so I was feeling a little foggy as well) and I’m just miserable. Plus, it was mid-day siesta time for the monkeys. So this place is really very pretty, lots of trees, and we walked through paths created by elephants years ago. Monkeys hop around overhead and you can hear them chattering far away. Monkeys are brought here to be rehabilitated into the wild, although some are too domesticated to ever become truly wild. They have monkeys who were in movies, monkeys who used to wear the vest and carry cymbals, and monkeys who were just plain pets. So some of them are very tame, really like people, and hang out by the gift shop and restaurant (although you still can’t touch or go near them). Pretty cool. At the end of the tour, you walk along a 120 meter rope bring strung up in the canopy (good for seeing monkeys, at least when it’s not raining).
We then stopped at a petrol station/restaurant/shops near Tsitsikamma, near a long, scary bridge that’s pretty famous but I can’t for the life of me remember the name of. The most important thing about this place, to me, is that they have GREAT biltong (like jerky) and I even got some ostrich “droewors” which is like a sausagey piece of jerkey. The kudu biltong = delicious, the ostrich droewors = not so good. Very tough, not very flavorful, just all around blah meat.
On Monday night, back in P.E., the new Sarah from America dragged us to see the Drakensburg Boys Choir. I initially just went along for something to do, and it was cheap, but my mind was positively blown. The boys at this school (grades 4 through 9) go here to basically refine their voices. They have 2 1-hour choir practices daily. You can tell that it’s a very good school: the boys were very well mannered, and their voices were incredible. Since many of them were so young, they could really hit the high notes. During the first half, they sang many traditional songs that I don’t know the names of but sounded beautiful. They also sang songs that I know, like “Long Hard Night” and “Yellow Submarine,” as well as “You Make Me Wanna Shout.” I definitely enjoyed those. After the intermission, however, was my favorite part. They sang traditional African songs, played traditional African instruments, and danced traditional African dances. The diversity amazed me: not only did they sing songs in English and Afrikaans earlier, but now they’re singing in Xhosa, Zulu, and even songs from other countries like Zimbabwe. I have videos I’m going to steal from Sarah’s camera and bring back home on my laptop, so if you want to see, let me know.
We woke up early on Saturday to spend the morning hiking Robberg Peninsula. On the drive out there, we were finally able to see some of the gorgeous scenery. (Check out my pictures.) The people at the hostel said that we should be okay to hike in flip-flops (I brought my hiking shoes, but no one else had that much foresight!) but after a few minutes on the trail, we started to realize that maybe flip flops were not such a good idea. This was seriously a rustic trail: tiny dirt paths with a cliff right next to you, climbing up piles of rocks on one side while the other side is a nice drop down to the churning ocean, and so on. Sometimes I felt like I was rock climbing: stretching my hands out to hold on to rock while my feet searched for a new place to climb up. However, any aches and pains we may have ended up with were well worth it, if only for the views alone. At pretty much everywhere along the trail, you could look in any direction and see the most beautiful view. On one side, you could see the town and the beach. Slightly to the right were mountains on the land, with their bases shrouded in mist so they looked as if they were floating above the ocean. In front of us was a gorgeous, untouched beach to stroll across (my favorite parts of the path!). To the right: some craggy rocks, and behind us, beautiful rocky hills. Seriously, you need to check out the pictures to even get an IDEA of what it was like. Then imagine actually being there with these breathtaking views, climbing over these mountains, seeing and hearing and even tasting the ocean, and the sun shining on a lovely day. This is why I want to move to Plett.
About halfway down the Penninsula, we cut across to the other side (we took the short, 2-3 hour trail because apparently it gets dangerous at the end; after seeing the rocky cliffs we had to climb over, we were scared to see what they actually called dangerous). I saw a little log cabin near the beach, partway up one of the hills. I’m sure it’s just used as a ranger station or something, but it would be the absolute PERFECT beach house.
There was some wildlife: we saw the seal colonies, but we were so high up that they just looked like moving black specks in the water. Lots of little lizards scurried across our paths. And occasionally there was the odd rustling in the brush beside us. But the worst was the ants covering the path!
I really think South Africa has an ant problem. Every time I go hiking, there are ants everywhere. There are ants in the kitchen at home. There are ants in Sarah’s flat (and she doesn’t even have food there!) They seem like they’re taking over the country.
So anyway, after some lunch at this amazing pizza place in town (oh by the way, South Africa’s one huge food indulgence is PIZZA: they put crazy toppings on it like avocado and banana yet have never heard of pepperoni, and when you go out for pizza, each person orders their OWN whole pie!) we went down to the beach to relax. Unluckily for us, we got there just in time to enjoy about ½ hour of sunshine before the rains started. We got some meat at the Spar supermarket to braai on the fire, and spent the evening teaching the boys how to play Euchre.
The next morning we went craft shopping and headed back home, making a few stops along the way. First was Monkeyland. I’m sure it’s a really great place to visit, and the monkeys are pretty cute. However, as soon as our tour started, the rain also started. So there we were, in shorts and t-shirts, getting cold and damp, and the darn mosquitoes would not let up! Now normally I can handle a few minor mishaps, but 3 discomforts at a time (oh and I’d woken up with a head cold, so I was feeling a little foggy as well) and I’m just miserable. Plus, it was mid-day siesta time for the monkeys. So this place is really very pretty, lots of trees, and we walked through paths created by elephants years ago. Monkeys hop around overhead and you can hear them chattering far away. Monkeys are brought here to be rehabilitated into the wild, although some are too domesticated to ever become truly wild. They have monkeys who were in movies, monkeys who used to wear the vest and carry cymbals, and monkeys who were just plain pets. So some of them are very tame, really like people, and hang out by the gift shop and restaurant (although you still can’t touch or go near them). Pretty cool. At the end of the tour, you walk along a 120 meter rope bring strung up in the canopy (good for seeing monkeys, at least when it’s not raining).
We then stopped at a petrol station/restaurant/shops near Tsitsikamma, near a long, scary bridge that’s pretty famous but I can’t for the life of me remember the name of. The most important thing about this place, to me, is that they have GREAT biltong (like jerky) and I even got some ostrich “droewors” which is like a sausagey piece of jerkey. The kudu biltong = delicious, the ostrich droewors = not so good. Very tough, not very flavorful, just all around blah meat.
On Monday night, back in P.E., the new Sarah from America dragged us to see the Drakensburg Boys Choir. I initially just went along for something to do, and it was cheap, but my mind was positively blown. The boys at this school (grades 4 through 9) go here to basically refine their voices. They have 2 1-hour choir practices daily. You can tell that it’s a very good school: the boys were very well mannered, and their voices were incredible. Since many of them were so young, they could really hit the high notes. During the first half, they sang many traditional songs that I don’t know the names of but sounded beautiful. They also sang songs that I know, like “Long Hard Night” and “Yellow Submarine,” as well as “You Make Me Wanna Shout.” I definitely enjoyed those. After the intermission, however, was my favorite part. They sang traditional African songs, played traditional African instruments, and danced traditional African dances. The diversity amazed me: not only did they sing songs in English and Afrikaans earlier, but now they’re singing in Xhosa, Zulu, and even songs from other countries like Zimbabwe. I have videos I’m going to steal from Sarah’s camera and bring back home on my laptop, so if you want to see, let me know.
posted by Katie | 11:47 PM
2 Comments:
Hey Katie, some pretty awesome stories you have to tell, very interesting, you are a very good writer also..Enjoy every opportunity you have there. Although it may be different and away from home I am sure that you are enjoying everything it has to offer. Hi to the rest of the family also and Hi to Rhonda. Long time no see...Also how big is the city you live in etc...Didnt see anything like that.
Katie,you are too darn brave for your britches! Anyway it sounds like you are getting to do alot of cool stuff. This trip is something you will cherish for ever. Just be safe and we love you lots! Shelly
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