Well, I've been back for a little over a week now, I guess it's time to start updating my last few posts over the Garden Route road trip. It's taken me a while to get these posts up because for the majority of the trip my camera had been out of batteries, and we didn't stop anywhere that sold them until one of the last days. So I've been stealing people's Facebook photos, and now I have enough to be able to make decent posts. All of the photos for the first and last few days are mine.
The closing dinner was the last official event at the University. The next morning fifteen girls and six guys (plus one girls mom, brother, and sister who signed on for the Garden Route as a family vacation) boarded the same bus with the same tour group we took to Swellendam and headed out. Our tour group consisted of George, our driver, Keith and Sylvia who ran the tour, and Lawrence who was the tour guide. Although it was an Option 1 trip (Option 2 still had another week) not everyone could go. At first we were told that none of the South African students would be able to go because of their classes, but at the last minute Charl was able to sign on to go, which was really cool. This is along the same road that we took in Bio-Diversity! This time we actually did see a few whales way out in the water!
Our first stop was the beautiful beach town of Hermanus near Gordon's Bay. We drove along the R44 mountain road that morning, and stopped in Hermanus for lunch. (My friends and I were brave, with coaxing we finally tried an escargot appetizer. It wasn't bad! I probably wouldn't want to have it again though. I also had a calamari steak for lunch and my favorite - cheesecake - for dessert). We had about an hour for lunch and photos before we got back on the bus for another scenic coastal drive towards Cape Agulhas where we would spend the night.
Looking across the bay from Hermanus.
When we got to Cape Agulhas it was starting to get dark. That's the old lighthouse at the Cape, and I believe it's still in operation today. Cape Agulhas is the southernmost tip of Africa (Cape Point is the 2nd most I think.) It's less impressive than Cape Point for sure, but it was still pretty cool to be there.
Where the two oceans converge. You can't tell though. The only way to tell is with thermal radar to track the ocean currents.
I am standing in the Indian Ocean! It was really, really cold, but I had to do it! At the moment when this picture was taken I was the southernmost person in Africa! Somewhere in the distance about 2500 miles behind me is Antarctica.
That night we went to our first stop. Technically it was a backpackers lodge, or hostel, but the places that we stayed at were really nice. Since there weren't many guys, we were all in one dorm type room with bunk beds. The place served us dinner. They braaied on a big indoors fireplace. Keith told us that if we wanted to get up early the next morning we could go on a whale watching cruise at dawn. I planned on doing that.
The closing dinner was the last official event at the University. The next morning fifteen girls and six guys (plus one girls mom, brother, and sister who signed on for the Garden Route as a family vacation) boarded the same bus with the same tour group we took to Swellendam and headed out. Our tour group consisted of George, our driver, Keith and Sylvia who ran the tour, and Lawrence who was the tour guide. Although it was an Option 1 trip (Option 2 still had another week) not everyone could go. At first we were told that none of the South African students would be able to go because of their classes, but at the last minute Charl was able to sign on to go, which was really cool. This is along the same road that we took in Bio-Diversity! This time we actually did see a few whales way out in the water!
Our first stop was the beautiful beach town of Hermanus near Gordon's Bay. We drove along the R44 mountain road that morning, and stopped in Hermanus for lunch. (My friends and I were brave, with coaxing we finally tried an escargot appetizer. It wasn't bad! I probably wouldn't want to have it again though. I also had a calamari steak for lunch and my favorite - cheesecake - for dessert). We had about an hour for lunch and photos before we got back on the bus for another scenic coastal drive towards Cape Agulhas where we would spend the night.
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