Right now it is almost 3am on Thursday morning. It is about 845pm at home right now. Why am I still awake?! I just got done writing my paper for Post Apartheid History class because I waited till the last possible second to write it. I went away for the weekend and had no time to start it because visiting the Wild Coast of South Africa was way more important. Friday I woke up a got a lot of stuff done. First we went to the airport to pick up our rental car for the weekend. We got a manual, even though we could have chosen a automatic as a free upgrade. Meli, she is from Austria, knows how to drive a stick so she taught me and was super patient. I drove for about 10 minutes and didn’t do that bad, even with the stick on the left side. Once we got back, I caught up on my emails and started some research on my paper that I just finished. I spent the rest of the day trying to plan out our whole excursion and pack some stuff up. Our plan was to leave once Chelsea got out of class, but we waited for the other car also. We ended up leaving around 6pm and had about a 7 hour drive ahead of us up to Port St. Johns in the Eastern Cape. The roads consist of a lot of sharp turns and curves even on the highway once you get out of PE. With all the curves we took it slow and especially because the fog was really bad that night. It was so bad at points you couldn’t see more than 3 cars lengths ahead of you. We decided as a car to pull off in East London and sleep for the night. We were all starving once we got there so we headed down to the Windmill which was like a 50s drive up restrauant. You could park your car and they would take your order. We ended up just going in and getting pizza, but it seemed like the whole town was congregated right in that area. I fell asleep as soon as we got into our hostel because I was exhausted from the night before. We got up really early the next morning and continued out drive to PSJ’s. We got there later that morning and checked in. We got a room with one of the other cars that was there from the night before. We went for a hike to the lighthouse that the local hostel owner told us about, but couldn’t find it so we came back early and didn’t have much to do the rest of the day. The other car was at a hike like an hour away so we didn’t have that much time before the sunset. We all decided to just make some dinner at the hostel and have a few beers before heading up to an airstrip with the hostel owners for a sunset. It took forever to get to the top of the mountain, but the view was well worth it. We overlooked the river mouth flooding into the Indian Ocean from about 150-200 meters up. We decided that the next morning we would get up for the sunrise and come back to the same spot because the sun had set on the opposite side of the mountain and not over the water. We took the bus back down to the hostel where they were starting to set up the band they had playing that night. They played xylophone instruments (but I don’t think that is what they are called) for a few hours and it was so nice to just sit back and chill to. We roasted some marsh mellows over the fire and tried to make s’mores with our make shift graham crackers which are biscuits. The next morning we woke up around 5am to get ready for the sunrise. Obviously we got lost on the way back up to the air strip so we almost missed it, but it was beautiful! I’ll need to post pictures of this because I don’t even think I could describe it. Most of this trip consisted of seeing things, not so much activities. We headed back down the mountain to the hostel to have some breakfast. We then stopped at the beach to check it out and there was a baptism going on in the ocean. Everyone was in their robes and they were dipping people into the water, although the waves were so rough I don’t know how anyone didn’t get carried away. Afterwards we took off towards Coffee Bay. The roads were terrible on the way, two lane, skinny dirt roads. Potholes were filled with dirt and cattle were free roaming so fences were not there to keep them off the road. We had to stop or slow down so many times just to avoid hitting a cow, goat or sheep. Our little car did very well with all the holes, but sometimes I would think we were going to get a flat or just lose something off the bottom of the car because of how loud it would be when we bottomed out. Once we got to coffee bay we had to do some talking to make sure that we found a place to stay, which lucky enough we ended up staying where we had planned even though the car in front of us was turned away because they had no room. We had some delicious home made pizza, although not as good as my mom and dads, and chilled out the rest of the night. We walked up a hill next to our hostel for the sun set and it was beautiful. I can’t decide which sun set I liked better, but both were pretty amazing! There were donkeys on top of the hill, tied up so that they wouldn’t fall off the cliff. I think if you were to fall off the cliff it would be instant death, thats how high up we were! On the way down the hill, our guide decided to take up down the steepest part and I thought for sure I would go tumbling down. We ended up on the beach and went in the back way to the hostel. There was a drumming workshop that night at the hostel so a few of us joined in and were taught some beats on the African drum. We also learned some history behind some of the drumming and the Transkei region we were in. The Eastern Cape is mainly made up of the Xhosa speaking people and the Transkei would be similar to like a tribe and they make up most of the wild coast which is where we were for the weekend. I fell asleep so early that night because I was so exhausted from the past few days. We all woke up pretty early the next morning because we were going to the Hole-in-the-Wall with a guy we had met at the hostel. His name is Aden and he is currently living without money for a period of 5 years. He is living by trading his way and doing favors for others. He even made his arm a billboard for advertisers who help him out. He seems pretty cool and I added him on facebook so I can see what he ends up doing with his project. The roads were even worse on the way to the HITW and Meli decided she would ask Mark to drive back because she had been driving the entire time! The HITW was amazing! It was literally a hole that went right through a huge rock wall. I can barely describe it and wish I could post a picture! We swam for a while, some people jumped off the ledge into the hole. I am not the best swimmer so I opted not to jump, but did climb up there to check it out! If you were going to jump you had to time it perfectly so that when a wave came thats when you were hitting the water, otherwise it would be too shallow and you would hit the rocks on the bottom. There were a bunch of kids there selling necklaces, but I didn’t bring any money with me. I only bought one bracelet at the hostel from a Transkei women. On the way back as we were driving, we would pass a lot of kids and they would all either hold their hands out to beg for money or they would run after the car so that they could touch it. They know a lot of tourists come there so they are hoping that people will give them money and it is like a game for them to touch the cars. On the way back, Mark told us a lot about the region because he lives in South Africa. He told us that the huts they live in are made out of cow dung and then dried and painted. He also told us a story about why the houses are round instead of squares. It is because they believe in some sort of story that a witch can hide in a corner, but in a round house since there are no corners so evil witches can hide and cause harm to anyone in the house. The drive home was pretty uneventful. I don’t know if I have mentioned anything about the driving here, but I will now. They drive on the left side of the road and on the right side of the car. The pedals are the same on the floor and every car basically is a manual. The speed limit is usually like 100 or 120 km/h, but if you go faster it is fine apparently because no cops sit anywhere. Also, the n2, which is a highway is only 1 lane at times so that if you want to pass you have to cross into opposing traffic. And up every hill there is usually a speed lane so that you can pass slower trucks, but with all the curves and turns it makes it difficult, especially at night. It is kinda like driving in West Virginia. We made it back home just in time to get the car back to the airport. All in all it was a great weekend spent with good people and beautiful places. Thank you wild coast!
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