Knysna Elephant Park/The Garden of Eden

      Knysna Elephant Park was absolutely incredible! Like with the ostriches it was too muddy to ride them, but we got to go around the park and see and feed some elephants. Elephant skin is probably one of the strangest textures I have ever felt: wrinkly, leathery, and their hair was like a boar-bristle hairbrush! The elephants we were allowed to interact with were all female or babies and were all fairly gentle and friendly. 

     I found the way they ate to be absolutely fascinating and they way they used their trunks was so amazing--I could have watched them for hours! The species we saw was an African elephant because the elephants at the park were all rescue projects. The indigenous elephant species to Knysna forest is different from the African elephant because it has much longer legs and smaller ears because it lives in a forest habitat. Unfortunately, like many other animals, it has essentially been hunted to extinction. It is estimated that only one elephant from the original forest-roaming herd is still in existence. I can't imagine how frightening it would be to stumble upon it whilst on a hike!

As you can see, nothing is allowed except picnics, hiking and couples.

      After the elephant park we went to the Garden of Eden. While it was not the real biblical deal, it was stunning. The ground was covered with millions of different fern, fungus, and brush species and the tree canopy covered the sky, only allowing little shafts of light speckled with dust to enter. There was a beautiful board-walk with several different loops, so you didn't  There were lots of massive spider webs, and their creators--waiting to pounce! We saw some vervet monkeys swinging above us, and luckily no snakes! There are some creeper snakes that live in the forest that drop from trees onto their prey--like green mambas--and I was afeared of an ambush. However, there were none and the walk was magical!

Brenton-on-Sea

     Brenton-on-Sea is one of the most beautiful of the beautiful places we stayed at. The place we stayed at was absolutely lovely and there were only two other families at the self-catering place we were at. The beach was just a short walk away and had a very unique castle-shaped rock formation with a ladder that led up into it--I felt like one of the adventures in Enid Blyton's Adventure series!

    One of the nights we were all lounging in the living room and we spotted a massive spider (massive meaning bigger than someone's nail)!!! We quickly exterminated it only to find that it had a friend that had also been lurking around! We began a spider-termination crusade that involved me standing on the counter and the brave knights (a.k.a. the fam) searching the many nooks that those creepers like hanging in. It was all okay and it only took me a couple hours to get over my almost nervous-breakdown (this scene may or may not have been dramatized for entertainment's sake).

I really, really don't like spiders...they're so eughh

       We went on a fantastic walk on the beach and found all sorts of weird creatures I've never seen before. For example there were these dodgy snail seashells that buried themselves in the sand at the speed of light (I'm only exaggerating a little bit) and ate all of the jellyfish casualties that lined the shore.

We also found a weird octopus thing that had an exoskeleton! I had never imagined that an octopus could grow such a thing. We later found out that it was called a paper nautilus. It looked like something out of a sea-myth!

I loved Brenton-on-Sea, and like most places that we went, I wish we could have spent more time there!

Knysna

The view from one of the Knysna Heads

     Knysna is well known for its furniture, ship-building, and oysters. We did not see any of those industries in action because we mainly did activities in the Knysna Forest, but those are the cool sights to see in Knysna. The town is situated next to a beautiful lagoon which is protected from the sea by two cliffs that are called "the Knysna heads." We stayed in a little town just behind the Knysna heads that I will talk about later called Brenton-on-Sea. The lagoon is so beautiful, we stopped by one morning and shooh (that's a noise that every South African makes that I'd never heard before) it was lovely!

       We drove up one of the heads and walked out to the look-out point and it really was stunning! At the view point there were some Rasta men making gallimotos (cars made from wire) and other wiry creations. The men were super cool and tried to show my little brother how to make a couple things from the wire. They had some really beautiful pieces. This aeroplane was my favorite, and I am so sad that I was too worried about it getting mushed to get it.

         When I had packed for the trip I had never anticipated the wet and cold that we would be in every day! I had packed my favorite shoes (they pretend to be Toms) that have holes in the soles and are super worn on the toes and are about as water-resistant as socks. My wonderful mum generously lent me her fancy-pants hiking shoes but by this time was ready to have them back so we made a stop at: Tekkie Town!

     I got some hip-hoppin' tekkies (sneakers) and was so happy to end the soggy foot dilemma.

Oudtshoorn: the land of ostriches

        After a very rainy drive we arrived at Oudtshoorn! We rushed to Kango/Cango caves and let me tell you, it was probably one of the coolest sights ever! We chose to go on the "Adventure" tour which differs from the regular one in that you get to climb through super narrow crevasses and climb up chutes!

       At some parts it was so low that you had to leopard crawl (army crawl) or as I came up with: seal flop. The discovery that I could move akin to a seal made me very happy, and it uses far less arm muscles than other methods of scooting along on your tummy.
      The idea is to think of a seal on land (so this movie was the best I could find in a short amount of time of a seal flop...however, there are some naughty words so you may want to watch it soundless) and then imitate it...so it's like doing the worm but less cool looking and forwards. You look super goofy, but it is extremely entertaining. So, if you're ever bored on a Saturday night you now know what you can do.
      Some parts you had to contort yourself into odd shapes in order to squeeze your shoulders through. We asked the guide if anyone had gotten stuck in the narrow bits and he told a story of a wide lady who wouldn't take no for an answer, got wedged, and had to wait a super long time until she was able to be unstuck! Although it sounded terrible, I think it made climbing through far more exciting. What adds adventure more than a horror story?

Because of the lighting in the caves, flash, etc. it was really hard to show the depth of things...so  this picture is me climbing into a chute.

      After our marvelous cave adventure we went to the Kango ostrich farm where we learned lots of facts and got to sit on an ostrich. Sadly, because it had rained and made the ground a mud party we were not allowed to ride them because ostriches slip in mud? The main message of the tour was that ostriches, while super cool, are grumpy and don't like people. So it is best to exploit them for their leather, eggs, meat, and feathers.

      Ostrich eggs are hip, so we spent a couple of hours hunting down the best bargains for them. We found some really pretty ones for a very nice price and rejoiced by purchasing several.

      Unfortunately, upon our return to the United States, dang Customs confiscated and incinerated them. They had just passed a regulation about ostrich egg traffic whilst we were in Africa because of a bird flu concern.

Rant: I think that this was soooooo silly! Half of my family had picked up a cold in Africa and had very dirty shoes from visiting a farm before our departure, and customs is concerned about a bunch of curios (I wanted to bring up this point, but was concerned about being captured and quarantined). It would have been the easiest thing ever to sterilize the dang eggs in alcohol or scan them with a UV light or something! To get the eggs in you had to have had them checked by a veterinarian in South Africa and get a certificate declaring the lack of avian flu, which could very easily be faked and thus is a rubbish way to make sure that the eggs actually are okay. Although I don't have an expert knowledge of avian flu, I am pretty sure that dried out shells, let alone ones that have been sitting in a store for a couple of months, couldn't have a virus living on them--what would it be living on? Did customs examine us for weird African lice or ticks? No. I feel like that would be a far more legitimate concern than a dead avian flu virus. End of rant.
Moral of the story: check the customs website for banned things every time you want to buy something incase the regulations have changed.

Swellendam

    Swellendam was sleepy (like all the other places along the Garden Route) but had some very beautiful old buildings like the Dutch Reformed church above. It is also the third-oldest town in South Africa (Cape Town is first, Stellenbosch second), so there's a good trivia tidbit for ya. We were only there for half a day and then stayed the night at a very sweet B&B called the Shoebox. We mainly spent time with our family there and had a great time! It was a very chilly night and the thick brick/cement walls of the B&B seemed to act more like an ice box than a place to shelter one from the cold  (we came to find this was the case in pretty much everywhere). Luckily there was an asbestos heater that allowed us to thaw out a bit. Whether or not the exposure to it made us more likely to develop cancer will be determined in the next 40 years, we were just happy to get feeling back in our toes!

To Swellendam!

     On our way to Swellendam we stopped by Arniston and I still can't decide if Struisbaai or Arniston is prettier. Arniston has beautiful, white sand dunes right next to the ocean--which was a brilliant turquoise color!

There is a massive cave that has given Arniston a second name: Waenhuiskrans (wagon cliff). This is because the cave is big enough to fit several ox-wagons! Go figure, we arrived at high-tide and couldn't see the cave because it was submerged. Regardless, we had a super time playing in the sand dunes...

and looking at the exciting nooks and crannies in the rocks!

      We were on a tight schedule so we had to rush off, but stopped to look at the old, traditional fishing village. It was like stepping back in time--the only give away to modernity were the t.v. antennas and security system advertisements. I felt a bit odd walking through people's lives like they were an exhibit in a museum, but I guess that is what being a tourist is. It really made me think about the things back home that I usually find quite pedestrian, from fresh eyes they are quite the opposite.

L'Agulhas: the southern most tip of Africa!

Read the Afrikaans side like a pirate, you'll sound really cool.

      L'Agulhas is super cool because as the sign above boasts, 'tis the the farthest south you can go on the African continent and it's where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet. Our drive took us a bit longer than we anticipated and so we arrived just in time for the sunset and then didn't really get to poke around more because of our inability to see.

    L'Agulhas is also interesting because compass needles actually point true north, and this bit of coast is scary as far as currents and such go: it is estimated that at least 250 ships have crashed 'round about Cape Agulhas. There is also a lighthouse (that we didn't really go look at because of the night problem) and there is a museum about lighthouse stuff in it. Like most towns on this coast it is very sleepy in the off-season and the guide book described it like so: "the tip of the African continental shelf disappears undramatically into the sea" ouch, I think whoever was writing the review of the town must have had an ex-girlfriend who lived there. 

     We stayed in a town right next to L'Agulhas called Struisbaai and woke up to the most amaaaazing sunrise:

I think that Struisbaai may win for best sunrise, it was not only beautiful, but had the sound of waves and cool bits 'n bobs from the bottom of the sea that had been tossed up onto the shore. 

On the way to L'Agulhas

First stop: Gordons Bay

   Gordons Bay is usually packed with "holiday-makers" but (because we came in winter) was fairly sleepy and calm. We had a lovely walk along the beach and looked at all of the cute shops that have been around forever (meaning that my parents remembered them from their childhood).

It was one of the first sunny days we had and it was so beautiful to have a stroll and see people having a relaxing Sunday fishing outing. I have decided that it has to be a good place if this sign is indeed speaking truth...

Any home of ice cream is a home of mine!

Next stop: Hermanus (this is especially fun to say like a grumpy Spanish granny--I dare you to try it!)

      Hermanus is very beautiful, and a bit more polished and modern than the other little towns we'd visited. This is mainly because it is quite touristy (think Santa Barbara) but is still super. We were hoping to catch a glimpse of a whale

This is the best bit of vandalism I have ever seen!

....but we didn't :{


I think we must have just missed them. Hermanus is supposedly a great place to whale-watch and even has smiling rubbish bins!

Everyone knows that a place with happy rubbish bins has to be a good place to whale watch...yup, you can go look it up, but only super cool people know about it, so good luck.

We had some fantastic fish and chips--which is always best when eaten by the sea-- and then greasily piled back into our mini-bus to go to the next town.

Franschhoek

     Franschhoek (French Corner) is a very small, artsy town that that has a couple very old buildings that are absolutely beautiful, as well as a monument to the French Huguenots who were given this area to settle in 1694.

      While the historic value of this town is an attraction in and of itself, the main allure is the gourmet cuisine which is apparently a perfect complement to the area's fantastic wines (this is according to the guide book, I don't drink myself). We got to sample some of the fantastic French gastronomy at a very exotically stocked cheese shop as well as some delightful baguette we found at another cafe.

It was sooo yummy!

   This charming town is definitely worth a visit for anyone craving a bit of French culture and some cheese!

Stellenbosch

  
     Stellenbosch is a fairly small city in comparison to Cape Town, but was equally charming. It has a lot of very pretty, quaint buildings and old shops everywhere that gives it a very old-fashioned mien.
    We stayed at my mom's cousin's wine farm just outside of Stellenbosch town. It was so pretty!

Because it was winter, the leaves of all the grapevines were going red and yellow and were framed by the surrounding mountains. I could put up a million pictures and still not do the scene justice. We learnt all about the wine-making process, which was far more of a complex science/art than I had ever thought.

Cape Town

      Cape Town was absolutely stunning! It definitely did not fit my expectations of Africa, instead, it felt very European and it never failed to shock me when I turned a corner and felt like I was in southern France or Italy. I had expected a drier climate and that the city would be dirty (Johannesburg fits the bill a bit better in this aspect). However, it rained without fail every single day we were there! As far as climate goes it felt like a mix of California, Hawaii, Utah and a pinch of Oregon. Granted, we were there in the winter so I am not quite sure how wet it is the rest of the year, but looking at the vegetation it looked like it was mostly California-ish as far as weather goes. The city was really nice as far as cities go, and although there were burglar bars on every house and you paid someone to "keep your car safe", I never felt threatened and the people were very friendly. 

       Because of the very stormy weather we were not able to do some of the main tourist attractions like going up Table Mountain or over to Robben Island. We still had tons of fun and got to go to many other historic sites like:

Rhodes Memorial

The V&A Waterfront

The Iziko Castle of Good Hope

and a couple other places (the ones pictured were my favorite) in the city. 

       Although I really liked seeing all of the historic monuments, my very favorite touristy things were the flea markets. It can be a little frustrating sometimes when you're starting and don't really know what your doing, but once you practice a bit it is very fun for both the customer and the vendor.

Rules of the game:

1. Don't touch or look at for a prolonged period of time something you are not interested in purchasing. This will end up annoying you (because the vendor will start barging) and will annoy the vendor (because it doesn't make sense that you would pay interest in something you don't want). If there is something you want to look at (quality check, etc.) make sure to say very clearly that you're just checking things out and don't want to start finding a price. 

2. Don't pay the first price that the vendor tells you unless you are just wanting to be charitable. They will expect you to continue the scene like so:

 Customer: How much for this?

 Vendor: 180 R

 Customer: Gasp/sound of disbelief  180R for that? No, no, no 20 R.

 Vendor: Gasp What! Do you think I am selling rubbish? 140 R.

 Customer: No, that is too expensive, 40 R.

 Vendor: I paid 100 R just to buy that, but for you I will make a special deal...a deal for you not for me, 80 R

 Customer: No I will only pay 50 R

 Vendor: Ok, 55 R

 Customer: No, I can only spend 50 R

 Vendor: I will starve tonight, but ok, 50 R

Obviously this dialogue would differ each time you buy something, but the key is that the vendor will name some ridiculously high price, so you suggest a ridiculously low price and then you go back and forth until you reach a price close to what you're willing to pay for the item. It will be especially helpful if you think of/research the worth of the item before you start bidding so you can be direct and not stop in the middle of the bartering to think about how much you actually want something. It is really rude to get a very crazily low price from someone who is desperate because...it's mean that's why! Most vendors will have a set price in mind when they're selling something and if they are doing well and can rip off a less-savvy tourist they will probably stick to their guns and not bend. So unless you want to be in the ripped-off-tourist club (R.O.T.C) you can try another person (most of the curios are the exact same at every stall) or think of how philanthropic you are to keep the economy going and go head off to the R.O.T.C. If the person is desperate and you get them down to what you know isn't a fair price, be nice and go to a fair one. Forcing someone miss out on a lobola or school payment so you can brag to your friends about how cheaply you got a necklace isn't cool.

3. The more dramatic and silly the gasps of disgust the more fun it gets. Also make up as many starving children back at home as you want, because that is definitely what the vendor is doing...unless they're not, then you should help them out and go join the R.O.T.C. (that is if you're feeling philanthropic). You get this funny connection between the buyer and seller when you know that you're playing a game and that the other person knows it too. It's like when you share a joke at the dinner table and no one else hears it except some random person across from you. 'Tis delightsome.

Tip: Learn a couple greetings from the local language of that region. Even though most of the vendors are not actually South African (usually they're from Congo, Nigeria, or Zimbabwe) they like to see you try to speak an indigenous language (whether for nostalgia or amusement I don't know). Also this will trick them into offering the non-tourist price...maybe...pretty much just expect them to raise the price as soon as they know you don't actually know the value of things.
      After our travels I've decided that if I ever were to live in South Africa Cape Town would definitely be number one on my list.

P.S. The part where my acronym for ripped-off-tourist club (R.O.T.C.) is the same for the army R.O.T.C. is unintentional and I am not trying to make an underhanded statement about whatever the R.O.T.C. does...I just couldn't think of a better name for a club for tourists who have been ripped off.

The Trusty Steed

     You can't start a story without first introducing the mode of transportation! This here is a Toyota Quantum (yes, I did say Quantum as in Quantum of Solace)!

And because of its name I will take the opportunity to dub it "James," and in this case "James I" because we got another one just like it later on.
          This car is extra cool, not only because it is named after a James Bond movie, but also because in South Africa these cars are more commonly used as a minibus taxi. Minibus taxis are one of the most common modes of transportation for black people. Why black people? Because the taxis are very cheap and although apartheid ended a while ago many black people are still in a very low economic bracket due to a whole bunch of complex and not-so-complex problems that I won't talk about right now, and also to tell the truth I really don't know . . . but I never once saw a white person on a minibus taxi. My guess is the connotation they have and also that they are usually bound for townships. I found a really fun article about minibus taxis and the authors said they tried riding them, but it is very uncommon for at least the local white people to ride in them.
      For the five weeks that we were there people were always trying to flag us down to get a lift and were always surprised and often very amused when they saw that it was not a taxi and filled with white people. It was a dear old thing and probably the strangest design for a car I have ever seen.

   Firstly, the engine was in the weirdest spot ever (ok, maybe not ever, it could have been somewhere truly bizarre...like on the roof). We only discovered this when we pulled into a petrol station (that's the South African word for gas station . . . just incase you couldn't guess that) and had to change the oil. We popped the bonnet ("hood" in American) and were really confused--it was tiny and didn't have the engine in it. The guys who fuel your car for you (I can't remember the official name for them...helper guys? petrol attendants? filler-uppers?) just laughed at us and un-velcroed the front two seats from the floor and tipped the seats back! The engine was actually right underneath the front two seats! My family all started laughing because my mom had been greatly distressed about her chocolate melting even though it was pretty chilly outside, and my dad had been dying of heat the entire time whilst us back-seaters had been freezing. Mystery of the toasty Dad and melting chocolate: solved.
      Also, because the front seat was right over the wheels, to turn was a bit challenging. I didn't actually drive the car, but my dad said that it took some serious magic taxi-driver skills to move that thing around corners. The shock absorber-do-whoppers (I don't know much about cars so if that's the wrong word...go do a victory dance for being cool like that) weren't very good, so on some of the dirt roads, things got pretty exciting/excruciating.
      Because our car was so big we got either special parking privileges

...or had to drive around forever to find a place.
       We ended up really liking our "minibus", quirks and all. I felt especially safe in it because I felt like we blended in really well with all of the other taxis (with the exception of the passengers) and were never a real target for car theft...I think.  Yay Quantums!

The Beginning

      I love airports. No matter how long it has been since your last time flying things are pretty much always the same: the smell of coffee and linoleum floors, shady characters, noisy groups of whippersnappers, crying kids, aggravating bureaucrats, the people in the security line who forget to take metallic items out of their pockets about four times in a row, and the glazed-over look all the international flyers have. I love the sense of adventure airports have--you can defy gravity, go anywhere in the world, and see anything you'd like.
     We started our journey in the Salt Lake City airport, had a layover in Washington D.C., and then had a super long flight to Senegal where we re-fuled and then went to the massive Johannesburg airport where we caught our final leg to Cape Town. Phew, even listing all of those layovers makes me tired! My family and I counted up all the time flying and waiting in airports and came up with a grand total of 36 hours! We then got a rental car and drove to a relative's house to finally catch some z's.
    

Prologue

Hello everyone! I'm back and ready to tell y'all how it went. Because I was gone for so many days I've decided to talk about the areas we stayed in, as opposed to blogging about every individual day. So ladies and gentlemen put up your tray tables and fasten your seat-belts 'cause it's on with the show!