The program that I am in South Africa with, InterStudy, planned a weekend getaway for our group to a town called Hermanus. Not knowing much about this town, I was excited about the fun times that the group would provide us. We left Friday afternoon, and drove for about an hour and a half to get to the backpacker we would stay at for 2 nights. Upon our arrival, the backpacker made us a traditional braai with a salad. The night was pretty mellow other than the crazy Dutch guy that pretended to be the DJ of the night, playing songs that he “wanted us to dance to”.
Friends at the Hermanus Backpacker!
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The next morning we woke up to go sea kayaking. To do this, either 1 or 2 people get in a kayak and paddle out to sea. The fact that I tend to get a bit seasick on anything that rocks didn’t damper my mood. Charlotte and I hopped into our kayak and played the game of teamwork. Our guide (who would later in the month make a stop to Helena 5 for a casual date with Elizabeth) took us all along the coast to marvel at the beauty of Hermanus from the ocean. Here, we learned that the white foam that dots the ocean is not from pollution or a dirty ocean, but rather a result of kelp cleaning itself. The white foam took me back home, as I decided that an appropriate name would be “The Ocean's Snow”.
Here enters the gelato. Gelato Mania was a little shop right on the water that served the most amazing gelato at an advertised 93 calories a scoop. Needless to say, gelato enters the picture more often than I’d like to admit to.
Next, we had the opportunity to go whale watching. The boat ride to find the whales lasted about 30 minutes. Once we found the sweet spot, though, we really hit the whale lottery. There were a total of 7 whales all in one spot, all playing around the boat. At one point, 2 whales swam under the boat, and reappeared literally 10 feet from us. It was an absolutely amazing sight.
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| The whales were SO close to us |
A whale breeching-- quite a rare sight, but this morning we saw about 15 whale breeches!!
That night, after another wonderful meal from the Hermanus Backpackers, we headed out for a night on the town. We went to a little restaurant we had heard of that had a Bob Marley cover band. After a bottle of wine and of course a round of Malva Pudding, Grace and I were feeling brave enough to dance our little hearts out. The best part of the night was when the guy who had been watching us dance came over to me to ask me for a dance. At this point, One Love was making its second appearance of the night, and he and I went for a spin. What a dance that was.
My own living Bob Marley
The next morning, a few brave souls went shark cage diving, but a few others and I decided to stay back. Niko, one of the backpacker employees, took us on a little hike up to a waterfall, and then to the beach. It was a relaxing morning, which we had to of course follow up with another round of gelato.
For the last part of the trip, we became true warriors. We had the opportunity to go ATVing and paintballing. My group went ATVing first, which turned into one of the funniest moments on the trip. This is when Judy, the resident New York hipster of the trip, had her proudest moment. Before getting on the ATVs, Judy had warned us all that despite having her driver’s license, she hadn’t driven in about 3 years and didn’t really know how to drive. We all shook it off deciding that if a 7 year old can play Mario Kart, a 20 year old should be able to turn the handles enough to stay on a road. Oh, were we mistaken. Within 30 seconds of putting her foot on the gas, Judy had been unable to steer (straight), and ended up on the side of the path in the bushes.
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| The amazing landscape of Hermanus |
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| The waves were getting a bit hectic... |
Now the pain starts. Upon gearing up in some of the least attractive brown suits, we were handed guns filled with hard paint bullets. The marshall told us that because we had come at the end of the day, some of the professionals wanted to play, and that luckily, they would be our opponents. After 2 loooooooong games of paintball, I had about 4 huge bruises, but an awesome story to go along with them.
Here, we left Hermanus behind and headed back to the real world of school and work.
African Word of the Day: “swak”, a slang term meaning “weak” or not cool. In America, we might use the term to describe a bad play in football- “That play was swak.”
