That’s Some Lion King Ish Right There

After a morning of waking up too early resulting in silently attempting to pack and then getting my oversized duffel down the narrowest spiral staircase known to man, I was thrilled to just sit on my ass for eight hours and stare out the window. I’m onea those people that almost enjoys the journey moreso than the destination, so taking the Garden Route was an exciting thing for me. And boy did it not disappoint. All the different landscapes (mountains, grasslands, beach) are all so close together, so I could turn to the left, take a picture of the mountains, then turn to the right and take a picture of the beach. So cool. Suffice to say I didn’t get much work done in that van.

(Side note: we actually do haveta do work here. Our first “class” is a historical view of South Africa, gradually narrowing the scope from colonialism and apartheid across the entire country, to where we’re at now (yea I’m writing about a week ago), Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve. It’s a crapton of reading and discussing, which sucks because all the readings are in pdf format so we haveta read them on our computers, which sucks because we have to charge them a lot, which sucks because we’ve been moving around a lot lately and haven’t been able get a lot of consistent time for reading, which sucks because we have a lot to do.)

After about eight hours of driving along the Garden Route (split up into a few bathroom/food breaks obviously), we stopped to stay at this little place called the Harkerville Forest Lodge. Unfortunately we were only staying there for a night since it was so nice; it was like an awesome summer camp lodge with flora-covered wooden paths. So we spent the afternoon and night there reading, playing volleyball, discussing, taking pictures, and hanging out until we left early the next morning.

Oddly enough so far (knock on wood) I’ve had no problems getting up early and doing stuff, which is like the exact opposite of me at home. I thought moving seven hours forward would fuck with my system more, but I guess not. I’m also one of the few that haven’t gotten really sick (out of either end) already, just a lot of sneezing, but it’s not like I’ve never sneezed before so it’s all good.

That morning we drove another few hours until we hit this place near Grahmstown called the Conservation Academy, headed by this guy named Wayne and his wife. We learned a lot about the surrounding area (especially the plant-life) because Wayne’s a botanist, but we soon learned he’s much more than that. He quite literally knows everything there is to know about that area (and more). We went on a nature walk one morning (woke up at 5am, had a little trouble getting up that early) and he told us all about the flora and fauna around the hills and around his farm. We described him as a mix between Yoda, Indiana Jones, and Crocodile Dundee. When we went on our “game drive” (let’s be serious, it was a safari), he sat shotgun and talked with our driver (who looked just like Charlize Theron, good stuff) for most of the time about all the plants and animals. Speaking of the safari, many of us said that that was the (or one of the) “Holy crap, I’m in Africa” moments where it finally hits you. We saw zebras, giraffes (!), and an elephant really close, among others that, let’s face it, just aren’t as cool. I also ate a termite along the way, not great but not terrible either. A lot of the views were straight bananas, especially the ones from high up. I was kind of upset I didn’t get to see a wild lion, but we saw a bunch the day before at this wild cat sanctuary.

At the Amakhala Reserve place thing, they have this sanctuary for mistreated or abused lions and leopards. For instance, there were a few lions from a Romanian circus (why so many circuses in Romania?), a leopard from a zoo in Sierra Leone (they have zoos there?), and another lion from France. Not that I ever plan on being that close to a lion or leopard again in my life, but it was soo cool to see animals like that so close. You’d walk up about five or six feet off the ground into this hut thing that was about five feet from the cages (used loosely, they’re obviously fenced in, but they’re pretty large areas (comparatively at least)). We learned that one of the female lions was isolated on purpose because they tried to introduce another one with her, but she killed it within the first ten seconds. Crazy stuff.

So the last night at Wayne’s he treated us to a “braii” (BBQ) which was amazing. Springbok and corn just hits the spot. That night was the first time all trip I looked straight up at the stars. There wasn’t much air pollution so you could see a lot of the stars super clearly. The next morning we ate and left for Morgan’s Bay (for those keeping track geographically), where we were staying nearby at this place owned by the Eastern Cape Parks Board, who were welcoming us with another braii. Score. We stopped for some lunch at this “pancake house” right near the beach in this little town a few hours away. I, playing the role of ignorant American, was super pumped for a tall stack of pancakes and syrup with some OJ…notsomuch. Their pancakes are more like crepes (not really complaining about that though), so I got brown sugar cinnamon “pancakes” with cream. Holy hell were they amazing. After eating we waited for like four hours on/near the beach (where I got my first figurative taste of the Indian Ocean) for Neil (the leader of the program) to get some supplies, then headed to the braii.

I later went into a meat-coma after eating the half elephant amount of meat they gave us. It was pretty cool because they let us braii our own meat. Before and after eating, a lot of us were awestruck by the gorgeous sky in the background of the backyard. The entire sky was just lit up with thousands of stars with barely any blank space. The Milky Way was out in full blast too, something I know I’ve never seen that clearly.

That night was pretty rough, though, as the sleeping conditions were kinda eh. My original bed position lay right underneath this bunch of spiders that looked to be spawning by the second, it was so gross. No way was I sleeping under that, so I moved that ish pretty quick. The beds were also pretty awkward because every time you moved a muscle it’d make so much noise. Oh and the bathrooms were outside of the building and you had to remember to keep the doors closed because monkeys might get in. Yet another welcome to Africa moments for me. I hate monkeys.