The fourth week - Garden Tour

 

The fourth week all exchange students from Herschel and Bishops were going to travel along the Garden Route, which is passing a beautiful area between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. Along the route we made a few stops to do all sorts of different, interesting and amazing things.  If you read my blog you will understand why this week was  so awesome, why these activities were the greatest experiences of my life.

 

Monday morning we went to school to get on our little tour bus. We met our tour guides:  Ismael, Neacail  and Mrs Stein from Herschel, who also joined to us. We were all very excited and ready to start our adventure.  But first we had about 7 hours’ to drive before we would reach Oudtshoorn. During the trip our main activities were eating, chatting, dancing and singing. Our Spanish language skills improved rapidly, since the Chilean exchange students spoke a lot Spanish. As we drove through little villages and towns our tour guide told us some interesting things. Oudtshoorn is known as “the ostrich capital of the world”, because here you can find the world’s largest breeded ostrich population. We stopped at Cango Valley and visited Cango Caves. We took the "Adventure Tour" with an experienced tour guide. The first cave was very impressive and huge with wonderful stalactites on the ceiling. It was named after a farmer, Van Zuyl's, who in 1780 discovered this cave. I think the second chamber was the most beautiful one, with incredible formations of  stalactites and stalagmites. Each formation has got a fantasy name like ‘Tower of Pisa’ or ‘Crystal Waterfall’. We also passed through many small halls. The special light effects made our tour mysterious.  We went through the "Tunnel of love" and the most difficult part was to go through the "Devils chimney". It was a narrow path 3 meter vertical up and not wider than 40 cm. It was quite scary to climb there but it was all together a spectacular tour  to discover the "underground wonder of Cango Valley".

 

Van Zuyl's chamber

Crystal Waterfall

We were happy when we arrived to Kleinplas Resort and we could rest and swim. We had a very delicious supper there. There were two ostriches at our resort. It was fun to feed them.





Ostrich farm

Tuesday morning we started very early and we visited the Safari Ostrich Farm. Here we learned some history about this huge bird, got to feed them and eventually sit on them or ride them.  We were also able to stand on some ostrich eggs without breaking them. The trick is that you only can manage to do that if the eggs are on sand, because this way the weight is distributed over a larger area.



Standing on ostrich eggs

After that  we went to see more animals at Cango Wildlife Ranch. This is a nice park with lots of different animals such as cheetahs, leopards, tigers crocodiles and monkeys.  We had a great time there. First we got an informative tour about wildlife in Africa and watched a show. Then we got possibilities to do different activities such as stroking different animals or to do croc cage diving.  It is an unforgettable  experience to stroke a cheetah. It is funny to feel that that the black spots on the cheetah were much softer than the blond fur. It was exciting how the lemurs walked on your shoulders, we took quite some pictures here. My most interesting experience of this day was the cage dive with crocodiles. It is very impressive to be only a few meters from these huge animals under water. Later on we went to a little supermarket to buy some food and suddenly there was a power cut. We could not even pay or leave the shop, because the doors were automatic and they were closed, so without electricity it was not possible to open them. It took at least 20 minutes before we could get out of the shop. But this little incident did not destroy our fun at all, because who wouldn't want to be locked up in a supermarket, where all the food is? When we drove through  a beautiful nature area to Knysna. We could swim had dinner in a nice restaurant. 

Cheetah stroking

Playing with Lemurs



Croco cage dive

Wednesday morning we got up early and after breakfast we left for the Elephant Sanctuary "Knysna Elephant Park". This park has been open for about 20 years and all elephants have their own name. Here we had the opportunity to feed these giant animals, walk hand in hand with them and we got a detailed tour in the park. We could also enjoy an elephant back ride. We could sit on the back on the elephant together with a guide. You really feel yourself very small next to these big elephants. After this program we visited ‘Birds Van Eden’ and Monkey land. It is a big park with a long  bridge where monkey’s just walked and jumped around, eating your shoelaces.

Walking with elephant

Elephant riding



In the afternoon we had the opportunity to zip line across the Kruis River in the Tsitsikamma Falls Adventure Park.  It has eight different zigzag cables and the longest one is more than 200 meters. We tried all of them. It was amazing, because we were 50 m above the water and we had a wonderful views: waterfalls and the Milkwood forest. It was not scary at all, just fun. We had a nice dinner in a local restaurant at Plettenberg Bay. There we could enjoy a beautiful sunset.

 



Ziplining

Thursday was definitely the most spectacular day, because we were going bungee jumping! But first we stopped at Tenikwa Wildlife Centre and we got an interesting tour along Carracals, Leopards and Cheetahs. It was very nice to walk so close to these big wild cats. Then finally we headed to the The Bloukrans Bridge, the world's highest bungee jump bridge - 216 meters high. The bungee jumping company says: "Regret is forever and fear is temporary." When we were walking to the starting point I was kind of nervous, but when I was ready to jump I was not afraid anymore. The first part of the fall was the scariest because I couldn’t feel any air, but after that it was coolest feeling which I have ever felt. The adrenaline worked his magic!  I could feel the rope pulling me back and I went up en down. I could see the beautiful mountains and also the Indian Ocean. Everything was upside down of course, but it was just incredible! After the jump everybody was very happy that they did it.

We are ready to jump



The Bloukrans Bridge
 

 

Friday morning we started very early, because we went on "open vehicle safari" to see the wild life of Africa. We could see different animals: giraffes, zebras, springboks, lots of antelope species and a wild cat. Once we got back to our lodge we had breakfast and packed our bags to travel back to Cape Town.

 

This was one the best weeks ever in my life. Everything we did was such an amazing adventure. This was an unique experience which I will never forget, thanks to our excellent tour guides and to Mrs Stout.

 

Fun together

The fourth weekend

 



Waterfall Elandspad

Our weekend started already on Friday, because a beautiful hiking excursion on Elandspad was organized by Herschel and Bishops. We had to be at Bishops at 7:30 in the morning and then we drove for about an hour and half to the starting point of our hiking excursion.

 

First we walked up and down through the hills as we followed the river. The view was beautiful and I took many pictures. After an hour walking we stopped at a place where we could do cliff jumping from 6 meter high rocks into the water. Later we went further and we found even higher cliffs to jump off. After lunch we went uphill for another hike to see a unique waterfall. This walk was very exhausting because we had to climb and jump a lot and it was very warm. It was worth doing it! This was the most beautiful waterfall I have ever seen.  This place is even more beautiful than Cederberg.  The waterfall is about 100 meters high. Mr. Court said that we could swim towards the waterfall and go through it into a cave. It was a very exciting feeling to swim under the waterfall. When I turned on m y back and looked up to the waterfall I just could not believe what I saw: breathtaking sunrays  through the water drops.

 

Aquarium

After this fantastic experience of boulder hopping, cliff jumping and swimming through a waterfall we were very tired. Our legs were sore and scratched all over but everybody was happy and amazed by this  beautiful trip. Thank you Mr. Court!

 

Next day I got up early because the next interesting program was organized for some exchange students. We started with a nice breakfast at the Biscuit Mill. After breakfast we visited the Aquarium at the Waterfront in Cape Town. It is beautiful and at least 10 times bigger as the SeaLife Centre in Scheveningen. It has several great viewing points and a huge tunnel where you can walk through and see the sharks swimming next to you. You can take great effect pictures there.  We also went to a shopping centre to eat something and to look around. On the way back home we stopped at the "pair of glasses" sculpture that symbolises Nelson Mandela in sea point.

 

 

 

A pair of glasses

In the evening the Dutch exchanges with their exchange partners went to Mitchell's house. There we had a relaxed evening with playing Fifa, table tennis, eating pizza and ice cream. Our whole night was full of laughter and fun.

 

On Sunday I slept till 11 o’clock in the morning, because I was so exhausted. In the afternoon I climbed up Table Mountain with some exchanges from Chile and our partners. Although we didn’t go to the top, we had a beautiful view. Now I understand why Cape Town is often called "the most beautiful town in the world". After we were going down, we went to the beach, where we had a proper picnic and we could swim in the ocean.

With Cemmie at Waterfront



Climbing the "Tafelberg"

Picknick on the beach

The third week

 

Stroopwafels en Milka

Monday we would go on an excursion, a Kalk bay train ride was planned, but the plans changed. So we started a normal school day. In school all exchange students were invited for a tea with the Principle of Herschel. He was very kind to us and we had an interesting conversation about the differences between our schools. After school I had swimming which was again a quite hard training. 



Tuesday after school we went home immediately because Elise’s sister from Johannesburg visited us for dinner. It was a very pleasant evening with delicious supper. I made Steff, Jeff and Paulie very happy after dinner, because I gave them ‘stroopwafels’ and ‘Milka’ chocolate as a present. This was a surprise from Holland: I asked my mother to send a lot of stroopwafels and.. yes! Maxime’s mother, who works for KLM as an air hostess and had a flight to Cape Town, brought them here. Jeff told me that it was the “Best day ever!”  It is quite funny how much foreigners like these typically Dutch cookies. If we go to Hungary to visit our relatives, they also always ask to please bring some stroopwafels with us.

 

 

Cavendish shopping centre



 

Wednesday after school I went to Cavendish with Cemmie, one of the most luxurious shopping centres of Cape Town. It is really beautiful and you can find lots of shops here with top brands and some restaurants and cafes. It was fun to walk around here. We bought some school stuff, had an amazing smoothie and something to eat. After the shopping we had to walk back to Herschel, because Cemmie had a hockey match and Elise would come to pick me up there. After 10 minutes walking it turned out that we were lost in Cape Town. We were chatting and we probably took a wrong turn. We couldn't recognize anything and we did not have the faintest idea of where we could be. We phoned Steff and Elise and we tried to describe where we were.  Luckily Elise knew where it was, so they came to pick us up.

 

Thursday evening was the “House braai” organized at Herschel. It is a traditional evening with barbeque which is organized at the beginning of school year at one of the twelfth grader’s house. There are different “houses” (groups of students) in Herschel. Every house has got a different  colour and name: Carter /blue/,  Jagger /green/, Rolt /yellow/ and Merriman /red/. Since Steff was in Carter (the blue ‘house’), I was in Carter too. Basically the houses compete against each other in sports and different plays. This evening we chatted a lot, tried out some supporting cheers, had lots of fun and delicious food.

 

 

The Carters

 

 

The third weekend – Hiking in Cederberg

This was a surprise weekend. A few days ago we got an invitation from Bischops School for a weekend hiking, climbing, swimming and sleeping under the stars in Cederberg. This is all so exciting that we could not refuse the invitation. Elise said to me that Cederberg is one of the most beautiful hiking areas in South Africa. Saturday morning I was very busy to pack all necessary things into my bag. I got lots of warnings: “Please do not forget your sun cream!” “Make lots of photo's!”

Start at Bischops

Around 12 o’clock we met with the other exchange students and Mr Court at Bischops. Cederberg region is about a two hours’ drive from Cape Town. He explained to us that it is a fantastic hiking place. This area is named after the famous Ceder tree. In the last century these trees were used to make furniture. Nowadays this tree is protected. The closer we came to Cederberg, the more the landscape was changing. It was completely different from the Cape Town area.  Here everything was wilder and the colours warmer. We were dropped somewhere and we just had to follow the river to find the spot where we could spend the night. Next to the river were many picnic spots with wonderful little waterfalls and very deep rock pools for swimming. Our main activity was swimming. It was spectacular to see so many different rock formations and with many different varieties of plants. I most liked the deep purple-blue flowering plants. Later I found out it is called “Ridderspoor”.   The plants and the rocks were so sharp that my legs were full with little damages.

On top of the cliff

The group

The sunset was an unforgettable moment! Incredible formation of rocks, brilliant purple, orange and blue colour combinations in the sky.  We had a pleasant evening together around the open fire. We also roasted marsh mellows. Maxime and Cemmie laid next to me and we admired the beauiful stars in the sky. It was such a special feeling to sleep somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Africa under the sky full of stars. 

Incredible colours during sunset

The night was quite cold but I could sleep well. Although before sleeping there were some stories about baboons which are common here. But I was most happy that we did not see a rain spider.

Next morning after breakfast we walked through the bush to find the best place to swim and to do cliff jumping in the water. This place was really so beautiful that I cannot describe with words. It looked like that we were standing in front of a painting. But this was not a painting! This was real and I was there! It was an amazing feeling to jump off an eight meters high cliff. I am happy that my mother did not see it, she would be scared to death. All together it was an awesome fantastic weekend.

Swimming and cliff jumping

 

The second week

The second week was even more busy than the first one. Monday after school I went to the competition practice.  This was the first time that I could swim together with the team. We had to swim 2.5 km in different strokes. It was really a good preparation for the competition. I think here the swimmers are more fanatic. A good result is very important and the Herschel team has a strong “win mentality”. I think it is very good, because we stimulate each other. I was so tired after this training that in the evening I did not do anything anymore. Luckily Tuesday was quite a relaxing day in school. I had different language classes and during consumer studies we made milk cakes. It was so delicious. It is a pity that you cannot taste it on my blog. It was allowed to take one cake home. This was such a big success, that before I could take a picture, the half of the cake was already gone. 

Left over of the milk cake

Wednesday afternoon we did not have any plans. We went home, because Steff’s father Andries had his birthday and we wanted to celebrate it together. We had a little bit spicy Thais dinner, but it was delicious. Andries got many presents and he was very happy. After that we had a nice cake at home.  My family also sent a funny video film to congratulate him.

Family dinner

Happy birthday Andries

Thursday was a big day in school. The Swimming Gala!  Together 6 girls’ school and 5 boys schools were competing. I was selected to swim in the best group of Herschel.  I am very proud of it, but anyway I was a little bit nervous and I hoped very much that I can swim a good time. Yes!!! We did it. The Herschel team got the third price. I swam the breaststroke individual and I became fifth.

Swimming Gala

Friday we had an easy and pleasant day in school. In the afternoon Steff had water polo training, but Trinny, an exchange student from San Diego came by. We had a lot of fun together on trampoline and in the swimming pool. In the evening we went out with Elise’s family to a beautiful restaurant on the beach called “The Bungalow”. During the dinner you can enjoy a perfect sea view. I could not take pictures, because it was already dark, but once I will go back to this place to see it in day light.  I was happy to meet Elise’s sister and her family.  Their daughter just starts to study in the University in Cape Town. We were quite late at home and I realized that tomorrow I have to wake up early, because I have to pack my stuff. All exchange students are going for an amazing excursion to Cederberg organized by Bischops School.

 



Pleasent afternoon with Trinn



Having fun

The second weekend

 

I was so tired Friday afternoon that I just fell asleep on the couch. When I was awake already Steff’s friends were here. It is Party time! Let’s go out! First I thought: "No way". I cannot do anything tonight. There were chatting and laughing a lot. It was a pleasant atmosphere at home. So I decided to fast change my clothes and join them. We headed towards Hout Bay Market, which is  situated on the water’s edge in the old authentic part of Hout Bay Harbour. It was a very busy, but cosy place. You could see here people of all ages and all different cultures together. You could buy here lots of different kind of foods and also cool stuff. I was still surprised about how easy traders were bargaining to make a deal. This is something you don't see often in Holland.

 

Hout Bay Market

Here are also different places with life music which we most enjoyed. Steff said that South African people are working very hard during the week, but they love to go out in the week-end. It was a lovely place, it was a good decision not to stay at home. We were quite late at home and Saturday morning we had to wake up early. I was very excited because we were going to do surfing. I love the sea and all different water sports. I tried surfing before in Holland, but I could feel, I knew that this would be different. Steff already said so many things about the beautiful waves of the ocean. We had a great group with some other exchange students from Herschel and Bischops.  We got wetsuits, because water temperature is quite cold here. After detailed instructions about sharks, warning signs and surfing, we could start to feel the surf board on water. The Ocean here is the place where the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean meet. It is so magnificent, peaceful and awesome. It was a great feeling to be on the waves, the rest of the world disappeared for me. You never really know what is coming. A small wave , or maybe a big one. All you can only hope that when the wave  arrives, you can catch it, you can surf on it.  If it works, you feel freedom, you feel that you are on top of the world. 

 

Ready to go

 

To the waves

 

"On top of the world"

 After this fantastic experience we went home. Almost all exchange students stayed with us and some other friends of Steff came by. We were just all afternoon  “enjoying the art of doing nothing”. We watched a movie and we had fun together. Saturday evening! Party time! It was so amazing good, almost all exchange students were there, dancing and nice food.

Sunday morning we hardly could get out of bed. Around one o’clock the guests arrived. Elise and Andries invited their friends for a garden party. There were at least 30 people. here was a lot of nice food and we grilled some meat. It was beautiful weather so we spend quite a lot of time in the swimming pool. My brother made a joke with me. He said if it is normal to have a party every day in Cape Town, he is going to fly over here tomorrow.

 

Deep dark Africa, Powercut

 This week I was not lucky, because every time I wanted to work on my blog or go to internet to post something, there was a power breakdown. Unfortunately this is regularly happening. It is really an issue here. The electricity company mentioned that it can happen more often in the near future, because there is a big lag in maintenance of the electricity network. It is a strange feeling to be  without electricity in the twenty first century. It is dark and silent, but the candles makes a pleasant atmosphere.

The first week

 

My school uniform

The first week has come and gone so fast. I am getting used to how everything works here.  The life and the climate are different. People are generally getting up very early and also going to bed earlier than we do it in Holland. If I have to go to school, I also get up around 6 o'clock in the morning.  At that time it is already light here, so it is not to difficult. We are  taken everywhere by car. Public transport is also not so common here than in Europe and the roads are quite busy in the rush hours.  It is so strange for a Dutch girl that I cannot just take my bike and ride somewhere myself.   Monday was a relaxed day. We went to pick my uniform and we looked around in Herschel. In my previous blog I already gave some information about the school to get an impression about this beautiful place. I also was introduced to the Principle. He was very kind to me . In the afternoon we were at home and enjoyed the swimming pool in the garden. I had lots of fun together with Jeff and Paulie, the brothers of Steff.

 

 

Enjoying the swimming pool

Tuesday was my first day at school.  I was a little bit nervous and I was awake before my alarm went off.  I heard so many things from Steff about the school, about her friends and teachers.  I did not know what I should expect.  This was the first day of school of the new year. Everybody was happy to see each other. A lot of students from Hershel were on exchange and their exchange partners arrived now from different countries. It was quite busy but very nice to meet so many people at the same time.  The Principle kept a new year's speech for the students and everybody sang the school song.  After that we sorted out our timetables.  I was introduced to Mrs. Stein,  who  is the coordinator of  about it.  The teachers were very kind, but it seemed to me that they are stricter than the Dutch teachers.  The behaviour of the students is similar to the students  in the Hungarian school. They are more respectful to the teacher,  they do not speak while the teacher is speaking  and you do not see mobile telephones during the lessons. When school was finished, we went to a big shopping centre nearby. It was very nice to have a drink there together with Steff and with her friends.

 

Swimming trial



Wednesday  was the first actual school day. I started to go my own lessons. Most of the time I am together with Maxime, because we almost have the same schedule. It is very good that the teachers have their own room so you always know where you have to go. After school we directly went home because Elise's sister Christine visited us from Johannesburg. I was happy to meet her and of course she told some things about this big city. I especially liked this because at the end of February I am going to have a long weekend in Johannesburg. I hope very much to see her there. Thursday  afternoon I had my swimming trials. It was quite hard, there are such a good swimmers in the Herschel team.  Luckily my time was quite good and I was really happy that I can practice with this competition team and I can even join next week to the "Swimming Gala".

 





Wonderful sushi

Friday we had a short day, lessons  finished at 13:00 p.m.  Steff suggested that we can have lunch in her favourite sushi restaurant. Emma, her friend, came along with us.  It was incredible how many different sushi's  the restaurant offered. We had a very pleasant afternoon there and we laughed a lot. Steff went to water-polo training and I went home. I had plenty of things to do this afternoon. But I was just so tired that I collapsed on the  couch and fell asleep.