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Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa
34° 2' S 24° 54' E
Feb 02, 2005 08:07
Distance 525km

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The next phase: Garden Route

Text written in: English

Outdshoorn to Knysna to Storm's River to Jeffrey's Bay

Alright sports fans, heres an update - sorry its been a while but I've been out in rural areas and when people say they have internet access what they really mean is that they have an old computer that pretty much runs on gasoline so I haven't had a chance to update till now. So without further adoo...
Oudtshoorn ended up being not too bad, did a 53km bike trip riding down a mountain stopping at a place known as the Cango caves which were really awesome and very old (when I have access to higher speed connection I will attach many more photos) then another 20ks further on I stopped at an ostrich farm. This area of the coutry is apparently renowned for its ostrich inducstry - they use everything on the birds from the skin for leather, the meat, the feathers and of course the eggs which you can eat. I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be with the taste of them but still one egg has the equivalent of 24 chicken eggs and three times the cholesterol. They were letting people ride the ostriches but unfortunately I weigh a bit more than the 75 kg weight limit so I got to sit on one instead there's a good pic that I will post soon.
I arrived back at the hostel sore and sunburned but had a great day.
The following day I caught the Bas Buz to Knysna (pronounced Nizner) and stayed at a really cool place called the Wildside backpackers, right on the beach with a 180 degree view of the coast. It was a good party place a lots of people from all over - the barman kept making me funnel - good times. Didn't do much else - just bech time abd a walk through the forrest with some people to a forest waterfall for a swim and some beers. The water in this area is brown but is strangely very clean, the colour comes from the iron ferrite in the water. So you jump witb trepidation into murky brown pools of very clean water.

FOR THOSE ABOUT TO BUNGEE WE SALUTE YOU!!!

After 2 days there I headed to a tiny town called Storm's River close to the site of the Bloukrans bridge, conveniently the site of the worlds highest (though not longest that in NZ) bungee jump at 216m. It was one of the most amazing things I've done. I was really nervous before hand and they make you walk out to the bungee which it under the middle of the bridge along a metal tunnel thats attached to the underside of the bridge. When I say tunnel I mean basically loose mesh 150 meter cage with mesh floor that allows you to see the bottom of the gorge. I got very nervous and stared sweating as I walked out. Once there they strap you in and tell you all this stuff that you don't really hear because you're basically crapping your pants. Then before you know it your at the edge and they count "5,4,3,2,1 - JUMP!!" and you do because your just one autopilot. Then the adrnaline starts and your mind basically shuts down. It was wild - the free fall and then then the residual bouncing as you hang upside down - talk about aversion therapy anyone with a fear of heights should jump. It was incredible. You begin the freefall and you forget that you have a cord attached to your legs and then the tension comes up and you remember that you won't actually be dashed to bits on the rocks. Then a man comes down on a platform to get you. I don't think the smile came off my face for a good hour. When you get to the top they ask you to say something for your movie (which I bought, for $6 I'd have been stupid not to!) but you have so much adrenaline in your system that you can barely speak, I think I managed a yell and some kind of profanity. Needless to say on the walk back through the cage its definitely easier. The weird thing was a few hours later after I;d been for a walk and stuff, you kind of come down from the adrenaline high and totally crash and you need a good jolt of sugar to wak you up again. I guess the rush just uses up every resource the body has and once your done you're just totally out of gas.
Anyway sorry for the stream of consciousness - but to all I say bungee!! Let me tell you how it was using South African slang:
Listen China, the bungee was fuckin lekker bru!!" (liten my freind the bungee was really rather good)

The next day was my birthday and I just did a hike in this really nice coastal national park to a coastal waterfall with a great pool that I swam in at the bottom. It was very hot and I got really sunburned but it was well worth it. The night before a load pf people at the bar bought me all these horrible shots (including tequila and stroh rum 80 proof), good times were had by all and I didn't even puke or have a hangover the next morning.
Today I'm in a small surf town called Jeffrey's Bay - so I'm just talking some time to do laundry and send some emails before I travel onward into the Transkei which is really rural South Africa, so I imagine this will be my last entry until before I got to Zimbabwe. I hope everyone is well, please send me emails and I will do my best to get back to you.
Cheers for now