Oops......

Two, yes TWO, whole months have passed. More than half of my stay is already over and the end is getting closer!!

This is the perfect moment to look at all the pictures, sort them out, and share them with you ;)

However, I haven't been traveling as much in the past few months because I also need to focus on my work. But I still managed to explore a bit of this beautiful continent.

In April, I went on two great trips. One took me all the way to the Cape Peninsula...until Cape of Good Hope. On the way there, you drive through a few coastal towns with delicious fish and chips, and you pass by the famous Boulders Beach with the penguins.

Eventually, you reach the Cape National Park where you could probably spend your entire vacation. There are so many hiking trails, viewpoints, and water to see! But we drove all the way to the Cape. And suddenly, it was crowded again. All the tourists want to take their pictures at the southernmost point, even though the real southernmost point is a few hundred kilometers further at Cape Agulhas. But we also went up to the lighthouse and climbed further on the wall to at least go a bit further south. :D

It's truly impressive here. Sitting on the rocks, all you see around you is water. And suddenly, hundreds of dolphins! At first, we didn't even realize that they weren't just waves, but a lot of dolphins. Absolutely amazing.

You can see animals everywhere here, especially if you get out of the cities. After some photo sessions, we headed back up towards Cape Town from the other side. I actually found this side even more beautiful. There's this tiny, adorable town called Scarborough, and you have the huge ocean on your left and the road winding along the cliffs. And then the sun slowly sets...beautiful.

You really have to do this. For dinner, we found a farm stall where there were so many delicious things to eat.

The other trip in April took me to the north and the mountains. Near Piketberg is a farm that has a project for students from the university to reduce their energy consumption. And the people on the farm are so nice that they allow the two students (of course, Germans) working on the project to bring their friends. We couldn't miss that opportunity. It was really interesting to see a typical South African farm up close. On one hand, it was like a vacation, being so far away from everything for two days. The farm is almost isolated in the mountains. Around it, there are only fields with fruit trees and a few baboons stealing the fruits.Farm House

The farm is run by white South Africans who have a huge old house with a thatched roof and a smaller one further up where the daughter and her husband live, who will take over the farm someday. Along the road to the estate, there are also houses for the black workers, a church, and even a kindergarten and a school for the worker's children. The people here are really well off, but again, seeing this close difference between the rich and the poor is crazy. But apparently, the system works really well here.

We also spent the time on the farm hiking, doing an awesome explorer cave tour, having a braai, and enjoying wine and beer. The usual stuff.

What's also really cool is that the daughter started her own company that produces jams. Of course, with fruits from the farm.

That's it for April. In May, I dedicated myself seriously to my project and made really good progress. Marin flew back home in mid-May, and some others from our international group also went back home. The group has become smaller and smaller. Now, there's only one other German, one South African, one French, and me left.

But this week, a lot of new people arrived. So the getting to know each other process starts again...

In May, I also went on a 2-day hike in the Hottentots-Holland Nature Reserve. It was amazing. I was the only foreigner. Everyone else was Afrikaans-speaking South Africans. So I got good practice in understanding Afrikaans. :D

But they were all super nice and spoke English with me. But we didn't really need to talk that much because the nature was so beautiful that we could just focus on that. Sometimes, we had to focus on the trail too because apparently it's not well-maintained here, so we walked through waist-high grass at some places or jumped over small streams.In the middle of the mountains

On the first day, we hiked almost 20km with a small detour to a small mountain hut. In the evening, there was a big braai, of course. The South Africans brought a bottle of wine, loads of meat, and other braai utensils. Someone even brought tequila and 2 pineapples. Crazy!! But so delicious. It was worth the carrying.

In the rooms of the hut, we lit the fire in the stove and then slept through the night, or until it suddenly got freezing in my sleeping bag...But it was still great.Huts

The next day, we went back to the starting point, passing beautiful rock formations and a huge water reservoir that was completely empty. But luckily, there was still a river with enough water for one more swimming break at the end.

And once again, I realized how awesome it is to explore a country on foot.

I'll tell you about my trip in June next time. For now, I've written enough.