South Africa and the Garden Route

The Garden Route of South Africa.

After spending a night in the Johannesburg Airport with all gear locked to a post and our valuables strapped to us, we were looking foward to the freedom of a rental car again and security of having our own space. We were easily able to get a car through Budget and this one (a Chevy Optra?) had a trunk so we could hide our gear. We set off for the Seaview Predator Park that morning and were anxious to meet up with Geoff and Sam to see how their volunteer work was going.

A baby giraffe (couple weeks old?) and its mom at Seaview.

A short drive later, and we were in the park watching a baby giraffe and its mom watch us warily. We started walking the grounds of the park where the large lion habitats are and stumbled upon Sam giving a tour. After hunting down Geoff, we got a first-rate tour of the park. They have some of the only white lions in the world. They only exist in captivity because they stick out like swore thumb in the wild without their usual camouflage. The park also houses tigers, leopards, meerkats, baby crocodiles, snakes, and other cats and animals.

It looks like even the big ones can be playful.

One of the biggest white lions at Seaview.

A leopard with a gene that turns its fur black (the black leopard is a different species). You can barely see its spots.

The hilarious looking meerkat. They were extremely curious about humans.

After our tour, we were fortunate enough to spend some time with the lion and tiger "cubs." I say "cubs" because they are young enough to still have their playful demeanor, but they are almost the size of adults! We only spent 5 minutes in their cage, but that was plenty. There are not many other things that I have encountered that can scare me like a nearly full-size lion looking me directly in the eye from an arm's length away. This was after I was told that she doesn't really like men either. Other than this and a male putting its claw on Erin's shoulder, the encounter went smoothly. My favorite was the tigers because they purred and acted just like massive domestic cats.

The tigers looked and acted like massive domestic cats.

This male lion was enjoying the rub-down.

During the encounter, this female tiger climbed the tree to keep an eye on things from directly above us.

This female lion is the one who looked me directly in the eye. Luckily she seemed too comfortable to do anything about a strange guy petting her.

We spent that night in Jeffreys Bay, which is a surf-town about an hour away from Port Elizabeth. We attempted to surf the next morning, but the waves were larger than usual and the largest I have ever seen so, after getting roughed up, we called it quits after a couple hours. The next town was Stormsriver (yes, one word).

The view down from the Stormsriver Bridge.

Erin is not a fan of heights.

We arrived to the start of the scenic Garden Route by spending some time in Tsitsikama National Park. The major attraction here was the mouth to Stormsriver and the end to the Otter Trail, when runs several miles through the park, between Stormsriver and our next stop, the Crags, and takes about 5 days to hike from beginning to end.

The Stormsriver mouth to the Indian Ocean with several hanging footbridges.

The look back to where we parked after climbing to a lookout point. It took longer than expected but it was worth it.

The end of the Otter Trail has crazy rock formations everywhere.

The waterfall on the end of Otter Trail.

There were massive waves that day.

Name one of my favorite childhood movies!

When we got to the Crags, we quickly decided we would rather continue on to Plettenberg Bay after hiking the end of the Otter Trail. This was one of the major upsides to renting a car and driving the Garden Route. Each day, we were free to decide which city to stay because of how close each city was to the next. Plettenberg Bay was larger than the Crags and offered many more activities and beaches.

I got a mouth full of steak and pototoes that we cooked at our backpackers lodge.

Plett had great beaches and spectacular views. After going from place to place with no breaks, we decided a relaxing day at the beach was in order. We rented a beach umbrella the next day and spent the majority of the day reading (Erin) or body-surfing (me). That night, we decided to go see Skyfall to try and get a sense of normalcy. Despite what some travelers we met in Namibia said, we enjoyed and it was worth the $4 per ticket. The next morning we packed up early and headed for the local National Park for a 3 hour hike around the Robberg Penninsula for some great views of the coastline and the local fur seal colony. Wilderness (awesome name) was the next stop on our trip and we were headed there by early afternoon.

Body-surfing these waves was easy compared to when we had to abandon it in Jeffreys Bay because the waves were too big.

The view of Robberg Penninsula.

As we pulled into Wilderness, we realized neither one of us had found much to do there during our research. We visited two lookout points. One of which is called the Map of Africa and, as you can guess, looks like the southern half of the coastline of Africa. The other (Dolphins Point) was nearby and overlooked the ocean. Since we could drive to both, these didn't take much time. We decided to get an early start on next leg of the trip to Oudtshoorn (farther inland) the next morning.

The Map of Africa Lookout Point.

The view from the car from Wilderness to Oudtshoorn.

Oudtshoorn brought us ostrich farms, game reserves, and the Cango Caves. We decided the caves were the best idea and drove straight there, and they were were amazing! The last time I have been in a major cave system was Mammoth Cave and it was a long time ago (guessing I was 9 or 10). This had many of the same attractions from what I can remember (Fat Man's Squeeze = The Love Tunnel at Cango, etc.). We did the Adventure Tour which included several tight squeezes and a decent amount of steps. Claustrophobia was  conquered in the Devil's Chimney which was a skinny climb upwards about 10 feet in a irregular shaped hole maybe 2 feet in diameter. I was one-handed because of our camera, which made it a bit more challenging. After being happy to see daylight again, we were feeling brave and decided to make the 5 hour drive down to Cape Agulhas to try and split up the long drive to Gansbaai the following day. We made a stop at Wimpy's (equivalent to a tricked out McDonalds) and ended up at a backpackers lodge at the southernmost point of Africa with our tent set up before dark.

Ostriches are farmed here along with their massive eggs.

The smallest points of two passageways in Cango Caves. Tunnel of Love (left) and Devil's Chimney (right).

The main gallery of Cango Caves. Only a couple hundred yards into the mountain.

The "organ pipes" in the main gallery.

The second chamber in the caves which is usually said to be the most stunning.

The view from the car from Oudtshoorn to Cape Agulhas. Looks like something out of Lord of the Rings...

Half in the Indian Ocean and half in the Atlantic at Cape Agulhas.

To characterize the Garden Route in a sentence, it's the best parts of the Appalachian Mountains and Florida beaches with more shear cliffs and extreme sports. It was a great road trip and we definitely understand why it's so popular.

(Written January 15th)