Spring Break Twenty One Three was by far the craziest ten days of my life. We experienced South Africa’s 3 biggest cities, visited 2 other countries, witnessed wild animals in their natural habitat, rode in vehicles with random strangers, swam under majestical water falls, navigated via newspaper maps and lived to tell. I could most certainly write a novel if I were to recount and reflect on every crazy incident, however I definitely don’t have the time for that so here is the abridged version! The first part of the trip was organized through our program and the second included 9 of us backpacking through Southern Africa.
Day 1 - Everyone was giddy as we loaded our bags into the trailer to go to the airport. We flew to Johannesburg and visited the Apartheid Museum. It was hectic to see everything all together. Everyday we witness the repercussions of the Apartheid, but seeing it in its entirety was gut wrenching. We ended the day with a bike tour through Soweto (the mother of all townships) and were able to gain more historical context of everything we had seen earlier in the day.
Keep it classy South Africa
Getting ready for the bike tour
Shosholoza
Day 2 - We arose bright and early again and road tripped all day. We made a few stops along our route to Nelspruit which included: a beautiful waterfall, Blyde Canyon (the 3rd largest canyon in the world), Harry’s Pancake House, and God’s Window.
ROOMMATES
First of many waterfalls
Blyde Canyon
Three Rondavels
Blyde River
Blyde River
Day 3 - Eager to see animals we left before dark en route to Kruger National Park. That day proved very successful as we saw 4 of the “Big 5” before lunch (water buffalo, rhino, elephant, lion, and leopard). The rest of the afternoon we were in search of the lovely leopard, but sadly never spotted him.
Day 4 - Safari shanagins began to take place as we started to become less enthralled at the sight of the ever abundant elephants! The afternoon brought about a water fight between two vehicles, which escalated into a coke fight, which then resulted in a ellie dung fight, and ended with our driver, Basil dumping the dung all over the passengers of the other truck because the closed bag had nailed him in the head during the friendly fire.
Team L
Day 5 - The real adventure began when the rest of IES headed back to Joburg and Myxo and Bruce arrived to transport the nine of us to Swaziland. Along the way we stopped at a Swazi glass blowing factory (I am still obsessed), a local market, and “cultural village” where Zulu people sing, dance, and offer a tour through a traditional Zulu compound. Sondezela, our backpackers was great! Thomas was a fantastic host and we met a group of medical students who are interning in Joburg. We had a grand time playing cards and getting to know each other.
Rizzo - The Pink Lady
Myxo was the man
Glass Factory
Obsessed
Pharmacy at the market
Execution Rock
"Braids"... he was our roommate night 2 in Swaz
One of the many huts that a Zulu family would live in
Day 6 - We woke up to the sound of rain pitter pattering on the roof and went to breakfast in a hut outside where we were served fried eggs and toast that had been cooked over an open flame. Our plan was to hike “execution rock” but with the rain I was not feeling that. Instead, Monica and I decided to go to the spa. With a newspaper clipping of a map and the names of several towns neither of us could really pronounce we set out on what turned into an adventure of a life time. It was without a doubt not the most intelligent thing I’ve ever done, but I lived to tell and made lots of memories. The Swazi people are very prideful and not overly welcoming to outsiders. As you can imagine we stuck out like sore thumbs as it felt like we were the only white people in the country. We took three mini busses there and three back, Thomas had dropped us off at the first stop and when we got back to destination A we convinced ourselves we didn’t need to try to bum a phone from someone, we could just walk... THREE MILES later, barefoot, trying to out walk the rain, we arrived back at the back packers! I wish so badly I could have used the “go pro” to document the entire day. Sadly, we didn’t get any hard evidence, but it is something that will be permanently imprinted in my mind forever!
Day 7 - The following morning a zebra painted mini bus showed up to transport us back to South Africa! All was well until our driver was lacking a piece of information at the border. We sat for 30 minutes while he talked to different people and finally after paying a 2000 Rand fine we were on our way to Durban! “Dirty Durbs” as we coined it was not all it was cracked up to be. Half of the people you meet in Cape Town are from Durban and it is clear now why they all choose to reside in the Western Cape. I tried Thai food for the first time and we went out on “Florida Road” before we called it a night.
Zebraville stuck at the border
Casually working out of the trunk?
Day 8 - The chilling thrill came when I woke up to learn that we were leaving Durbs at 8 a.m. with a guy that we had called at 1 a.m. Trusting the opinion of my accomplices, I packed my bag and was ready to hit the road. About an hour later Benny arrived to fetch us. Aye may me. I have definitely seen one too many episodes of NCIS, Law and Order, and Criminal Minds... My imagination was going insane. Sitting in the back seat I had to find my happy place and have faith that whatever the circumstances everything was going to be okay. In the end though, everything was indeed fine and we arrived safely and unharmed at a quaint little backpackers nestled in the Drakensburg Mountains. The day turned out to be spectacular. Five of us went on a little hike in search of a waterfall and while taking in the breath taking scenery we would occasionally hear the sining from a Zulu celebration happening across the way. We finally found the roaring waterfall, just a little farther down was another smaller one and we treated ourselves to a dip in the icy cold river. INVIGORATING it was. The day came to a close opposite the way it began. We feasted on a great homemade meal, drank wine and curled up on our beds each reading our own book of choice like total nerds.
Green for days
Roaring Waterfall
Chunky dunk
Day 9 - After a family style breakfast, complete with baked beans the nine of us sat off in a Landy, Lesotho bound! The ride was far from smooth sailing. We bounced around on unpaved roads dodging huge pot holes and large rocks for roughly 4 hours. Once we finally made it to Lesotho it was like we had gone back in time. Shepherds were herding their sheep and the land was very much undeveloped. Sadly we didn’t get to go all the way into an actual town, but even just seeing the outskirts was nuts. Lesotho is a country inside of South Africa that looks straight biblical. Donkeys, sheep, shepherds, small huts...Sooo glad I got to see it! Before the equally long trek back down Sani Pass we stopped at the “Highest Pub” in Africa. In between relishing in our successful trip and making dinner plans, Alex got a phone call. When we sketchily rode with Benny to the Draks we had canceled on our planned transportation. We were also canceling on him for our trip back to Durban because he was trying to charge 600 Rand per person each way when we could get it for 250 Rand. He was not having that though. He threatened to call the Lesotho border, get all of our passport numbers and then make our lives a living hell at the airport the next day. This crazy man still wanted us to take his ride after the threat and gave us 5 minutes to decide, when we declined his response was “You will regret this!” eeeek. My main concern was not that he could obtain our passport information but that the crazy knew where we were staying and was only 20Ks away! Thankfully, the manager of the backpackers came and reassured us that we were safe and gave us a key to our lodge. Did I mention all of this was taking place during a torrential downpour! Talk about setting the mood.
Lesotho
Us...transport problems?
Shepherds
Day 10 - Escaping before we could be found in the daylight we left the Draks at 7 a.m. the following morning. I was never so happy to see an airport! Safe and sound we were almost home! We caught our flight from Durbs to Joburg and met up with all of our friends who had gone on their own journeys. After trading stories and catching up we all made it home to our humble abode in one piece!
Thoughts/Reflections:
The morale of the whole story is trust. I have never before in my life felt as vulnerable and defenseless as I did at some points throughout the trip, but that is when I would just take a deep breath and try to enjoy the moment. Being afraid doesn’t do anyone any good. My favorite days were the Swaz Spa adventure and then the first day in the Draks. The group of people I traveled with were all great, thankfully everyone remembered to pack a sense of humor and adventure and we were able to laugh at ourselves the whole way. I am not dying to go back to any of the places or countries any time soon, but I am sooo sooo glad that I was able to experience them. I have a whole new appreciation for Cape Town, ‘Merica, Texas, TCU... Plan to make a plan, Annie also realized the importance of flexibility and spontaneity. Both of these things were essential to our trip! SPRING BREAK TWENTY ONE THREE.
