I’m home! Langerry Flats has officially become my home. It’s
funny how living in a place for two months can become a place of comfort. It
definitely has the comfort of a home now. This past week in Cape Town was
unbelievable and absolutely amazing. I was able to do and experience so much.
One of my top spring breaks for sure. Over the past week (March 28th
– April 6th) I bungee jumped, stayed in a township for two nights,
climbed Table Mountain, experienced the nightlife on Long Street, visited
parliament, ate at Mama Africas, went to Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope, saw
a musical, went shark-caged diving, toured a winery, had a braai, and visited
Robben Island. My week was packed.
Friday
So on Friday we all got up early and departed P.E. around
7:30. We made sure pack the night before
so we were on time leaving. We drove
for about two or three hours before we hit Bloukrans Bridge. This is bridge is
home to the world’s highest bungee bridge. The excitement began to take over
and the nerves set in. I was surprised, though. 21 of the 30 kids on the trip
decided to take the leap which is more than I had expected. I was one of these
kids. We piled out of the cars and signed our lives away as quickly as
possible. Once the waiver was taken care of we were suited up with harnesses
based on weight. Then our bungee guide took the group of jumpers down to the
caged pathway that sat right under the bridge where you walked out to the
middle of it. Not going to lie, this might have been the worst part. Just a
little bit of fencing separating me from the canyon more than 300 meters below.
Once we reached the middle of the bridge we were briefed on how to jump and the
supplies used to make sure we survived which is always nice. Once we were out
in the middle of the bridge it was a party. The company who runs the bungee,
Face Adrenalin, does a super good job of getting everyone psyched and hyped up
for their jump. They had a DJ booth in the middle of this bridge that was
constantly playing pump up music. This helped calm some of the nerves. From
this point, one-by-one we each took the jump…or fall. I was strapped into a
brace that went around the ankles and a safety harness that went around my
waist and shoulders. Then the time came when the guy said “Alright man, place
your toes over the edge.” Woooo looking out from that point was insane and
super intense. Adrenalin was definitely flowing. They make sure to get you off
the bridge fairly quick so you don’t have time to think twice. One of the
students that jumped from our group had a mild freak out but they were able to
calm her. They held me there and checked my straps and then quickly counted
down “5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BUNGEE!” and there I went. Plummeting 216 meters. 216
meters of pure adrenalin. 216 meters of excitement and freedom. It was
everything that I thought it would be. The initial fall was crazy; a blast of
wind rushing past my face, the canyon growing bigger and bigger by the
millisecond, and then the tightening of the rope around my ankles. My stomach
shot through the roof. The feeling you get when you experience turbulence and
the plane drops a bit – yeah that times 1000. The best part about bungee
jumping off a bridge rather than a building is that there is nothing for you to
run into so they allow you to bounce, meaning you get to do it all over again.
The second bounce took me by surprise. I felt the rope tighten but then all of
a sudden I had a split second of weightlessness and then started falling again.
Ha it was great! Once the rope settled you get to hang upside down for about
two or three minutes why the guy comes down to pull you up. It’s cool hanging
there but this is where the mind realizes where the body is and you start to
think about slipping from the brace. So, the entire time you are flexing your
feet because you think you are going to fall out ha. Luckily, this didn’t
happen and the guy came down and flipped me around and pulled me all the way
back up. It’s crazy looking at a bridge from below like that. One extreme
experience - jumping off a bridge and then hanging from it. I loved it.
Amazingly, no one from our group backed down. They say 2 out of 10 usually
don’t jump. We beat the statistics.
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| 216 meters of pure adrenaline |
After we had completed the bungee and bought our jumper
shirts and pictures we piled back into the car and headed towards Cape Town. We
stopped to stay at a nice lodge that sat in the mountains near Cape Town. This
was to break up our trip and to give us some time to rest and check out the
nice surrounding area.
Saturday
The next morning we left there and stopped at a township
right outside Cape Town in order for us to experience how it is staying and
living in a township. We were split into groups of two or three and handed over
to our host mamas. Yes, mamas. My mama was Mama Dubakhaya (probably just
butchered the spelling of that). She was a wonderful lady who had three
children and a grandchild. She never married. The houses we stayed in weren’t
shacks by any means but they aren’t nice by any means. They have a good
structure and the inside is cozy – TV, furniture, beds, and a kitchen, however
things were left unfinished. Also, my houses garage was being rented out to a
man who ran a shop right in the garage. The lot that the house sat on was crowded
and dirty. Lots of other houses nearby and trash littered the ground. This is
how most townships are, though. I stayed with John and Jared during my stay.
The first night we were given a tour of the township and then the oldest
daughter brought us two a township party that night. It was cool to experience.
They set up a big tent; get a DJ and braai. The party had tons of food and
people dancing and talking late into the night.
The next day we went to mass in the township and then to a
place called Mxolsis. It was the end of the month and everyone in South Africa
had been paid so what do they do – go to a bar and have a good time. There were
so many people there. We ordered huge buckets of meat and grabbed some beer.
Then you eat, talk, and dance. This was smack in the middle of the townships.
We stayed our final night in the township talking and eating dinner with our
host family and then met with the entire group in the morning and headed out to
Mountain Manor Backpackers where we would stay for the rest of the week.
Monday
Our first adventure in Cape Town was Table Mountain. We all
quickly changed into some athletic clothing and hiking boots and started up the
mountain. There are three trails. One is one hour long and steep and the other
two are around two and a half to three hours long. I chose the one hour path
and made it to the top in about that amount of time. It was pretty exhausting,
though, but fun. The top of Table Mountain is neat. Very flat and big. You can
walk around for a while and look out from lots of points. The view is
beautiful. There is also a cable car that runs up the mountain for people who
don’t want to climb. This allows everyone to check out the view from the top,
but also brings with it a chance to make money. So there is also a café up
there where you can buy lunch. Funny how it’s on top of a mountain.
After climbing Table Mountain we unpacked at the backpackers
and got cleaned up. Then went out to Long Street and found a place to eat. Long
Street is the most popular street in Cape Town (or so I think). It is the
liveliest and has the most restaurants and nightlife. We ate and went out there
most of our nights because of the fun atmosphere.
Cape Town brings much more a city feel to Africa. P.E. is more…
African I’d say. Cape Town is a thriving city with tourists. It had some tall
skyscrapers, but not as many as our cities back in the U.S. Nonetheless, I
would find myself thinking I was back in Minneapolis again. Just the landscape
and view was nicer considering Table Mountain was its backdrop.
Tuesday
On Tuesday, we toured the parliament of South Africa and met
with a member of one of the popular parties that is a part of it, the DA. The
DA actually controls Cape Town when it comes to elections. The ANC dominates
the majority of South Africa but the DA controls the Western Cape. It was cool
to see where meetings are held and how things are done. Some of it was very
similar to the U.S.
Once we had toured parliament we left to go and catch a
ferry to Robben Island. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t very good that day so
the ferries had been canceled meaning we weren’t able to visit that day. We
quickly rescheduled our visit for Sunday.
Wednesday
On Wednesday, we toured two museums. We saw the slave museum
and the District Six museum. The slave museum went over the slave trade and how
it was very prominent in South Africa and Cape Town. This was the place where
the British landed and settled first so it was a major port. The District Six
museum taught us about the forced removals of black, colored, and Indian
citizens from ‘white areas.’ The whites declared specific areas as white areas
and District Six was one of them. One day the entire town received notice that
they must move by July and that their homes were to be bought from them. They
were given next to nothing for their homes and forced to rapidly move as much
as they could to townships that sat outside Cape Town. Then bulldozers moved in
and destroyed everything they had. It was very sad to hear how things were, but
good to learn about.
That night we went to a restaurant called Mama Africas. This
is a popular restaurant here in Cape Town. This is because you can order a dish
that serves you five kinds of meat. I ate crocodile, springbok, ostrich, kudu,
and venison! I liked trying all of these. Crocodile was my favorite but I seemed
to be the only one. Maybe it’s because eating crocodile seems cool ha but
whatever it is I liked it. Dessert was malva pudding (think that is what it was
called). Unbelievable, so good. Have to try it if you haven’t.
Thursday
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| The southernmost point of the African continent |
After we returned, the group piled into the cars and we
headed back to our hostel. That night we had tickets to a musical called “Blood
Brothers”. This musical was great. Everyone really enjoyed it and the music was
phenomenal. The storyline was about twins who were separated at birth and the
different lives they lived. One being wealthy and the other poor. They grew up
being best friends but only found out that they were twins on the day they
died.
Friday
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| Jaws in the water |
went out a ways where they dropped the cage in the water. They use a stew called chum to attract the sharks and that’s exactly what it did. We saw eleven sharks that day. Amazing! Huge Great White sharks were inches away from me. I could stick my hand out and touch them but obviously you had to be careful. They would swim up to and sometimes skim the cage. It was exciting and fun. The biggest shark we saw was around 14 feet
long. This is huge. I was never that scarred because the cage was secure so it was just a lot of fun to be that close. Out of the entire group only 5 of us did the bungee jump and shark-cage dive.
Saturday
Saturday morning we all went to a winery. I was looking
forward to this but didn’t expect it to be so much fun. Super interesting. I
learned lots about wine and was able to test four kinds. We went to a winery
called Spier. It has been running since 1692, I believe. I learned how to check
the color, alcohol and sugar content, aroma, and taste of the wine. Now I know
why people are checking out their wine glasses all the time. There’s actually a
purpose. Now I can do the same.
The winery was fascinating and that night was also a lot of
fun. We had a true African braai at our hostel. We cooked a large lamb and tons
of vegetables. The meat was delicious. It was fun to have everyone around to
just hang out and have a good time.
Sunday
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| Mandela's Cell |
He spent five years in prison for leading a riot that protested the oppression and laws. His name was Jama. The tour showed us the quarries where prisoners were forced to work, the many cell blocks where prisoners were kept, and then the tour ended with visiting Nelson Mandela’s cell. It was great to be able to see it and look in at where he spent so many years of his life. The cell was very small and didn’t have much.
After Robben Island, we piled into the cars and made the
long journey back to P.E. We got in around 11:30 at night. Cape Town was
amazing and all the hype I had made leading up to it was definitely worth it
because it was that exciting. Many great experiences that I will always
have.
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