Friday, 15.3.19

Today, I took a day off and went on a trip instead of going to work. I went to Tsitsikamma with Ross, our neighbor, to do a zipline. I had high expectations for this zipline as it is brand new and many people rave about it. They say it's the biggest and best zipline they have ever done. After a one-hour drive, we arrived there. First, you could choose between a long zipline or several shorter ones. We chose the shorter sections because they looked more exciting. We were joined by two guides. One went ahead to unhook us after the zipline, and the other clicked us in and followed behind. The longest zipline was 100m... which means you had to brake as soon as you started. So, there was no time to admire the beautiful landscape with the little streams and waterfalls during the ride. It was a fun experience, but not something I would do again. Since the whole zipline lasted only about 30 minutes, we had enough time for another outing afterwards. On the way back, we stopped at Tsitsikamma National Park and did the trail over the suspension bridges. At the entrance to the national park, we had to pay an entrance fee. The woman at the counter asked where we were from, and Ross said we were from here. That cost 59 Rand per person. We also had to fill out a form with our details, such as name, nationality, and passport number. For nationality, I naturally wrote Swiss, and for the passport number, I left it blank, just like last time I was here. When the woman saw that, she said, "Ah, you're from Switzerland? Then it will cost you 235 Rand." I couldn't believe it! But indeed, it costs 4 times as much for tourists as it does for locals. When we arrived at the parking lot, we set off with about three Chinese tour groups towards the suspension bridge. Since I had also heard a lot of good things about this bridge, I had high expectations. But when we came out of the woods after a 15-minute walk and saw the bridge, then the disappointment... for this money, I have walked over thousands of suspension bridges in Switzerland! There were two short bridges along the cliffs and a slightly longer one over the sea. And everything was full of tourists! After the bridges, you could walk up to a lookout point, where you had a beautiful view of the sea. In the evening, I went to Zanzibar in town to kick off the weekend. My billiard skills are getting better ;-) Today, I also experienced the power outages... because the lights went out several times in the bar. Luckily, they have a generator, so at least part of the bar could be lit during load shedding.