5, 4, 3, 2, 1 BUNGY!!!!!

It’s been a very exciting few weeks for us both!! Not only has the sun come out to play, but we’ve both done some awesome activities on our way down to Cape Town.

Coffee Bay – surf’s up!!

We arrived at the Coffee Shack Backpackers where we were given a free drink and told that they had a strict policy of Buffalo Rules. Anyone caught drinking with their right hand had to down it on the spot and buy a new one. It was going to be a good few days!!

We signed up for surf lessons, which at £1.70 for 2 hours was almost stealing! The sun was well and truly out for the first time in a few weeks, so getting in the water in our roasting hot wetsuits was very welcome. We both fared pretty well - standing up a few times, falling off a few times and face-planting the ocean floor a few times. All part of the learning curve!! We were a little disappointed when the instructor called us back to shore, but when he told us he’d seen a SHARK (no word of a lie) we were pretty happy with the decision to finish a bit early.

We headed out again the next day, with an extra eye out for the fin of something that could end our trip prematurely, but there was no drama and we slowly honed our surfing skills – we’re still rubbish though!!

Storms River – adrenaline capital of South Africa

After a few days of travelling down from the Wild Coast to the Garden Route, we arrived at Storms River. Given its reputation as a place to please all adrenaline junkies, the town is actually very small and quiet. We set up camp at a nice backpackers a short walk from the town and enquired about how we could best go about getting that adrenaline rush. We booked ourselves on a black water tubing trip and the world’s highest bungy jump (well, Elliott did anyway!!).

The tubing was unfortunately not the high octane activity that we were hoping for. Despite all the rain we’ve had here, the river level was not that high, so we were forced to walk over the would-be rapids – rather that than a bruised bum. It was however a relaxing activity and Elliott did a few cliff jumps into the river in preparation for the next day!!

Bungy day – nerves are holding firm so far. We got to the bridge just before lunch time and had a beer with another jumper, Marcus, who we’d met at the backpackers. We stood at the viewing area and watched a few jumpers until we were called up about an hour later. The nerves were still pretty good up until the bridge walk out to the middle. The walkway is basically made of wire mesh and bounces up and down as you look down below your feet at the 216m drop to the valley floor. The confidence fell away with every step of the bridge until we arrived at the middle where the legs had turned to jelly. There was a lot of nervous laughter and false bravado at that point. Then Elliott was called up to go first!!

Within 5 minutes they had strapped him up and he was dangling his feet over the edge, then the call “5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BUNGY!!!!”, and with that he was gone. Four seconds of freefall travelling at 120kph until the reassuring feeling of the bungy cord pulls your ankles tightly together. At 185m from the jump point, the cord yanks you back skyward. What an incredible feeling, the speed of the air rushing past as the ground gets ever closer, and then the silence as you bounce up and down in solitude. Awesome!!! Gem wouldn’t be coerced though; the walk across the bridge was enough adrenaline for her.

Into the Wilderness

The following day we travelled to a small place called Wilderness. We stayed at possibly the best located backpackers’ place in the world. The view from our dorm balcony took in about 25km of pristine beachfront. Absolutely stunning!! Whilst there we didn’t really do much apart from lie on the beach. The weather was scorching!! This travelling is really hard work!!

Outdshoorn – ostrich country

We arrived at our next backpackers – Karoo Soul – and it was amazing. The place was all newly decorated and the sunset from the balcony was incredible. The next day we set off on an adventure around the local area. We hired a couple of bikes and got dropped off at the Cango Caves. We signed up to the Adventure Tour, which takes you further into the caves than the regular tour. This involved crawling through holes that even Gemma struggled to get through. There was one slightly larger guy who almost got stuck through the so-called Letter Box, but with the guide pulling his legs and another guy pushing him from above, he eventually squeezed through.

After manoeuvring ourselves through the caves we set off on our 30km (yes, that’s not a typo and it was 40oC). Along the way we stopped off at a camel farm where we were led around the grounds on the backs of 2 gigantic camels. We then headed a bit further on and had lunch at a lovely tea garden. We had a dip in their pool to cool off, then went to the ostrich farm. We toured the farm, which included Elliott trying to stay on the back of an ostrich while it ran around its pen and Gemma getting a “neck massage” from 2 females.

We cracked on with at least another 12km to go. Not long after, a lady stopped her van and asked if we wanted a lift, but we stubbornly insisted we could make it. And with a little sun burn and VERY sore bums, we did eventually arrive back. In fact, we enjoyed the ostriches so much we decided to have one for dinner. Yum yum!!!

Stellenbosch – the Winelands

Given our love of a fine bottle of £3 plonk from Tesco’s, we decided to test our taste buds on a wine tour. We went to 4 vineyards throughout the day and tasted some 25 different wines. Our favourite wine of the day was aptly named the Redhill Pinotage, one we will no doubt never forget!! We were both pretty drunk by the end of the day!! Stellenbosch itself is a lovely area surrounded by mountains and beautifully landscaped vineyards. A must-see for anyone visiting South Africa!

Cape Town - the final stop of our short tour of Africa

Our stay in Cape Town was the first time we’d seen a familiar face in a long time. We were able to meet up with Vicki (Elliott’s uni friend) and her family. They treated us to a lovely dinner and a relaxing afternoon chilling at their beachside villa. What a treat (and thank you very much Vicki). We also met Abi (gappy from RGS) who lives in Cape Town. She also treated us to dinner and an evening watching TV at her house. Thanks to you too!!

Whilst in Cape Town we didn’t just laze around and get freebies from our friends. We did the Cape Peninsula Tour, which took in the lovely Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope, the most south westerly point in Africa. We saw some African penguins and also took a boat ride out to Duiker Island, which is inhabited solely by seals.

Table Mountain is also a must see in Cape Town. We managed to go up the cable car one evening to watch the sunset, which was amazing. We bought a small bottle of red wine and sat on the side of the mountain watching the sky go from orange to red to black. The city lights all came on and the views were incredible.

We also went to watch a live Super 14 rugby match – the Cape Town Stormers vs. The Joburg Lions. It was a great match, we both bought Stormers shirts and they won 56 - 18!! That was the beginning of our last night in Cape Town and Africa. We headed home and started writing this blog when we smelt burning in the hostel. We initially thought it was the heat of the laptop on the wooden table or someone burning toast, until a staff member saw plumes of smoke through the window. We were on the 6th (top) floor of the building and the fire was on the 3rd floor. We rushed down the fire escape and got to the 4th floor where the smoke was really thick and hot. We managed to get out onto the street and looked back, where a 3rd floor office was completely ablaze. We then had a long wait until the firemen put out the fire and the engineers deemed the building structurally safe to enter. We were finally let back in at midnight, but you could still smell the burnt plastic in our dorm the whole night. A lucky escape but we’re still alive and kicking!!

The journey now continues...

... to South America where we are spending 10 weeks exploring Argentina, Peru and then Brazil.

We’ll blog soon after our long flight to Buenos Aires.

Adios!!! Love Ells and Gem