The Garden Route

Hello, here I am again! I know it hasn’t been long since my last blog, but I did so much last week that I want to share with you guys. In my last blog, I told you that we were going to climb Lions Head to see the sunrise. I assume you all have seen my photo’s on snapchat and Facebook. It was amazing!! I got up at half past one in the middle of the night. We drove to Cape Town and after that we started climbing at half past four. The wind was very hard, which made it difficult to climb the mountain (read: I had to climb behind a rock and hold on tight to prevent myself from being blown off the mountain). Also, we started ‘a little early’, because we were at the top at half past five.. and the sunrise was at nine past seven.. Oopsss.. So we sat at the top of the mountain with a super hard wind and I guess no more than eight degrees for an hour and a half. BUT, in the end, it was all worth it! I would definitely do it again, because it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen, but I would prefer other weather circumstances.
As I also told you in my last blog, a few days later my vacation began! My real vacation. Four whole days without thinking about school!! Roxane, Carlijn and I left on Thursday early in the morning. We drove for a couple of hours to Mossel Bay and went surfing there. I strongly recommend all of you guys to go surfing once in your life, because I still think it’s awesome. I could even stand up on my board a few times!! We stayed that night at a hostel, which was kind of a hotel. Best hostel I’ve ever seen. Speaking about hostels; I will never complain about shitty hotels on my vacations to Italy or Spain again, because now I know: it can always be worse. Anyway, the next day, Friday, we started with a little drive again and ended up in Wilderness. We canoed for 40 minutes (you might think; ‘ah canoeing, that’s boring’, but no, not in Africa). Canoeing here doesn’t mean floating on a boring canal or river, canoeing here means floating on a river in the warm sunlight with an beautiful view of the mountains. After that, we hiked for another 40 minutes. I love the nature here. I know I sound like an old boring person, but it’s so much more interesting than Holland. Holland is just flat.. Hiking through the woods, in the sunlight, hearing all kind of animals, seeing rocks and waterfalls.. It’s just wonderful. At the end of the hike, we lay in the sun next to the waterfalls. At sunset we went all the way back. That night we slept at a hostel called Wild Spirits. It was very spiritish and hippie-like. And awesome. We ate together with all kinds of international people and sat at the camp fire playing the djembe with a grandpa-like, tequila drinking, weed smoking hippie. Saturday was the big day. I told you guys about my little secret and I assume you all know that little secret was me going to do a bungee jump. I also assume you all have seen my snapchat so you already knew, but let me tell you this: it was sooooo cool! As the day came closer, I just started to think more and more like ‘okay, I’m really going to do this, I’m really going to jump. So we went to the bridge a.k.a. world’s highest bungee bridge. First, we walked to the middle of the bridge over a bridge made of gauze, so as you walked, you could look 216 meters down, like you were walking on glass. When we came to the middle of the bridge, they had a huge music installation with really good music (if I may say so) to ‘relax’ everybody a little bit. I waited for like 40 minutes and then it was my turn. I jumped off that bridge (so weird to type this), 140 to 180 meters down, bounced up and down seven to nine times and then hung there for a minute waiting for someone to bring me back up. All I could do was smile, because I was so proud of myself. I’ve opened myself up to many things these last couples of months, but this was really the peak. Now, I can do eeeeeverything. The last day of our trip (Sunday), we went to Knysna Elephant Park. I looooooove elephants now. They’re so big, but so cute! I felt like a little kid, because I was so excited that I touched and fed an elephant. In the evening, we went out for dinner and that was the end of our vacation.. Today, we worked on our Health Promotion assignment again. The only plus point of being at my internship are those cute little kids. They absolutely make my internship a lot more bearable.

I promised some of my friends that I would upload a video of my bungee jump. Well, I did. At least, I tried, but the WiFi here is, as I call it, ‘zo traag als dikke stront’. Right now, it is the third time today that I’m trying to upload and I’ve been uploading now for the last four hours.. Please people in Holland, appreciate your WiFi and internet, because we’re soooo blessed with it. The only benefit of this WiFi is that I can add the word ‘patience’ to my dictionary, because before this, I had absolutely no patience (you can ask Dorien, she knows), but that has really changed. Anyways, in the upcoming days I will also upload new photo’s, so you can enjoy my vacation with me.

I still appreciate all the messages I get from all of you asking how I’m doing and stuff! That’s the one and only reason that I miss my home town. I’m looking forward to the days that I can talk, laugh and drink wine with you guys again! But for the upcoming two and a half months, I’m really going to enjoy all the things that Africa has to offer me! To all the people who might have the tiniest chance to go abroad: PLEASE DO!! It’s amazing, life changing and so much fun! AMEN. Goodnight to y’all and I’ll talk to you soon!