the garden route: it's out of season

ahh, where to begin.

our road trip down the garden route was unbelievably fun. we left early sunday morning, figured out how to drive, got on the N2 highway, and drov

e. the entire trip was down N2, which made things incredibly easy. the first night we stayed in knysna, which is a small town but a popular destination on the water. we were told repeatedly throughout our trip that we were visiting in the off-season, so many things were much quieter than they would have been a month ago, which is the peak of summer and the travel season. so knysna was pretty quiet. we stayed in an awesome hostel called highfield backpackers, and the five of us girls shared a big room. after we got into our room, we asked the owner of the hostel what to do, and ended up going down to this secluded and amazing beach on the indian ocean... there were green mountains behind us, the water was warm in front of us, the sand was unbelievably soft, and there were small castles nestled into the mountainside. it was great. we went to dinner later, and then came back and sat around a bonfire at the hostel. we talked to a young couple from wales who quit their jobs and are spending a year traveling - a month in south africa, then new zealand and australia, india, malaysia, thailand, japan, etc... it sounded incredible. i can't overemphasize how much i admire people who do things like that.

the next morning we kayaked down the knysna river, where we were supposed to see animals, but of course the animals were out of season as well. actually, i think it was more because of the weather, but we only saw a few birds. oh, and some cows. but it was really pretty and relaxing nonetheless.

after that, we got back in the car and headed to tsitsikamma, where we ziplined through the forests and over waterfalls - well, there were supposed to be waterfalls, but those were dried up and out of season as well. after ziplining, we headed to our own private chalet in the mountains. for $10 a night, we stayed in this incredible chalet with two bathrooms, plenty of beds, a TV that actually received channels, a large kitchen, and a back deck that looked out on the mountains. it was great. we showered, changed, and proceeded to sit outside and relax all night with our guacamole, cheese, and nutella. it was quiet and wonderful.

the next morning we drove a little over an hour to jeffrey's bay, which is the surfing capital of the world; the billabong pro, a huge surfing competition, is held there each year. our hostel there, called island vibe, was packed with incredibly awesome surfers. it was my favorite hostel, right on the indian ocean, and we had two rooms between the five of us. we did some shopping in town and got lunch, and then katelyn and jill had a surfing lesson. naima, nicole and i intended to head down to the beach to watch them and take pictures of them being awesome, but we somehow never made it past the bar in the hostel... we sat down to have a beer, and ended up talking to the tubular bartenders for a while, and one beer turned into three... you know how it goes. it was an incredibly chill place to hang out for an afternoon.

after our afternoon at the bar, we got ready and headed to meet the boys for dinner. the five guys who we had initially planned on going on this trip with were in jeffrey's bay as well, so we met them at a fantastic seafood restaurant. we had a great meal, went to another bar for a while, and then went back to the condo they were staying at. they were on their own private beach, so we walked down through the sand dunes onto the beach and made a bonfire. it was absolutely perfect. the moon was out over the ocean, the waves were crashing onto the beach, and we just sat around the fire... until it started to rain, which prompted us to head inside.

the next day, things started unraveling. our intention was to stay another night in jeffrey's bay and go to addo elephant park, but we woke up to heavy rain (our first real experience with rain in south africa... great timing). we called the park, and they told us that people hadn't been seeing animals on the tours that had already gone out that day. so, unfortunately, we decided that it wasn't worth the hour and a half drive to the park. by this time we were all kind of tired and the weather was cramping our style, so, after much indecisiveness, we decided to head home a day early.

on the way home we stopped at knysna elephant park, which was much less authentic than addo would have been, but was neat nonetheless. knysna was the the original location of  one of the few elephant herds in south africa, and it's now a sort of sanctuary for orphaned and other elephants. i've decided that elephant trunks are incredibly bizarre body parts. feeding the elephants was cool, but messy. after feeding we just kind of hung out with them - the park was really beautiful, and it was so amazing to see elephants up close because i really think they're one of my favorite animals. even though i do want to slather lotion all over them.

we found ourselves surprisingly excited to get back home to mowbray on wednesday night. it felt good to be back. we had an incredible trip; even though it didn't go exactly as planned, i laughed harder than i have in a very long time, and dozens of new inside jokes were formed. it was good to have a vacation from our vacation.