Finally some vacation

Now I'm back again! For 10 days, 2 boys and I were on the Garden Route with this crazy racing machine. In general, the Garden Route refers to the coastal area between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. On this route, you can do all sorts of things: adventure, action, nature, city sightseeing, eating, swimming, shopping, seeing animals....

However, at the beginning, we didn't plan anything, just gathered some tips from others on what we could do. And then last Monday we rented a car and on Wednesday we started. I roughly traced the route. On the first day, we drove along the R44, which is very close to the water, and you can always stop and jump into the water. There are even penguins on the coast at one point! But we didn't want to swim in that water, it smelled really bad.

Furthermore, on the first evening, we learned something very interesting about South African roads: sometimes they turn into the craziest gravel roads. For some reason, it was decided to stop using asphalt and instead use the roughest gravel possible. And since road repairs here are already a millennium project, we drove with our tiny city car, avoiding the biggest potholes and stones, at a maximum speed of 30 km/h to our first hostel at the southernmost point of Africa. This point is called Cape Agulhas. And there's nothing much to see here besides the sign and nature. But it's still really beautiful. It was funny that there were mostly Germans in the hostel. Apparently, all other holiday nations are satisfied with the Cape of Good Hope as the "southernmost" point, but not the Germans 😃

The next day, we went to a nature reserve with really high sand dunes. Of course, we had a photo shoot there. We also saw some springboks. They are the national animals here. At first, we were really excited to see such big animals so close 😃 But later it became normal.

In the next few days, we visited the Cango Caves, huge caves with a really cool climbing tour, we jumped off a 5-meter waterfall, ate ostrich meat, crashed a South African prom, went hiking, relaxed on a beautiful beach that connects the ocean with a lake, explored the nightlife in Knysna, and drove a lot. Describing all of this in detail would take too long. You just have to experience it yourself ;)

Finally, last Monday, we went to the Addo Elephant National Park. I think it's the biggest national park here in the south. We spent the whole day in the park from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and drove a total of 260 km. We drove on every road, looking for the next animals, and we saw so many. We saw herds of elephants casually walking past our car, lots of springboks, zebras from near and far, warthogs, a whole tree full of cute monkeys, a herd of buffalo that we were initially too scared to pass, and a little turtle on the road to the national park. Unfortunately, no lions or leopards... but maybe next time.

The Addo was also our easternmost stop, from there we drove back. This time, I had my first surfing lesson in Jeffrey's Bay, went on more hikes and saw amazing waterfalls, did the highest bungee jump from a bridge, went on a super relaxed canoe tour, did some small climbing tours, and made some great new acquaintances.

Regarding the bungee jump, all I can say is that it was crazy cool. The night before, I thought several times that I wouldn't do it. But once you start falling and realize that nothing bad happens, it's just awesome!

And so these amazing, packed, and incredibly beautiful 10 days came to an end. Now I have to get back to "normal" here. I should actually work on my work progress. But work can also be easily pushed aside here, there's always something to do. The other day, we slept outside on the roof and saw an amazing sunrise, yesterday we hiked up Stellenbosch Mountain and watched the sunset with bread, cheese, and wine. And every evening, somewhere, a braai is made here, so the smell literally pulls you away from work.

But the weather here is supposed to get worse soon, it's going to be winter, so there will be enough time to work. Currently, it's a pleasant 25°C, so it's very comfortable to do nothing.