A South African Road Trip: Two Days at a Time

When I arrived to South Africa I flew into Durban as Timmy's friends were getting married three hours away. After the wedding Timmy and I did a road trip back down to Cape Town. Here is our route and some of the highlights! I have to give props to poor Timmy who had to drive the whole trip as I do not drive stick shift (nor have experience driving on the left side of the road). But if I do say so myself, I think I was an excellent co-pilot and did not fall asleep the entire trip (except the day we went to Durban, but I blame jet-lag for that).

12/31 & 1/1 - Underberg for Andrew & Claire's wedding 

I landed the morning of New Year's Eve at 10:30 AM. As mentioned Timmy's friends Andrew and Claire were getting married...did I mention that they were getting married that night?! So basically I came off a 30 hour flight, drove three hours, showered as fast as possible and went straight to a wedding! Talk about exhaustion! But it was a great way to get straight into it and avoid the jet-lag. The wedding (my 9th of 2015) was absolutely beautiful.

The wedding ceremony was in a really beautiful old Catholic chapel. The reception was in a big tent (marquee) on Andrew's family holiday farm just outside of Underberg, KwaZulu-Natal. The wedding was a sort of camping/scouts theme, done all DIY in a gorgeous way. Andrew and Claire are both architects by trade and built and designed the dance floor as well as all of the furniture and decor. The highlights of the night were Claire's sisters rapping/singing their toast to Justin Bieber's "Baby" (Cause now they are "Clandrew, Clandrew, Clandrew ohhh...."), the amazing dance party and the fireworks!!!! You know how I feel about fireworks. I only made it until about 1 am (yes I said only, weddings here last way longer than the the States) before I hit a massive wall and needed to go to bed. But until then I was dancing up a storm. This is where I got my nickname Party Vandi (thanks Andre!). 

All of the wedding guests stayed in small cottages adjacent to the farm. Timmy and I shared a small one with his best friends Andre and Mose (oh and I can't forget Andre's dog #OlivetheMountainGoat). After the wedding we stayed an additional day and threw a big New Year's Day braai (South African BBQ). 

South Africa is currently in the middle of a big drought. As luck would have it, it rained both the night of the wedding and the next day. I say luck somewhat seriously and also sarcastically because who wants rain on their wedding day? (I mean it is supposed to be good luck?!) But it was actually perfect. It was very warm and sunny during the ceremony and cocktail hour, and then began to rain as everyone entered the tent. The only issue was that the tent wasn't properly put up so when it started raining hard (during the speeches) the roof started to dip a bit. One of the groomsmen remedied this by walking around with a pole and slopping the water off the roof.

BUT the rain the next day was INTENSE! At one point during our braai it began to rain so hard (200ml in one hour) that we all had to go inside. It was so fun watching the mountains across our cottage turn into a massive flash flood. Their next day Claire and Andrew went to check out the tent and discovered that the rain had completely broken off the legs and punctured a hole into the roof. Additionally there were many large pockets of water in the roof. Had it rained that hard the night before we could have been killed! Obviously the gods were shining down on them and #DrewandDuswedding went off without a hitch!

1/2 & 1/3 - Durban with Gail & Dermot
After the wedding we did an incredible drive through the Underberg pass and then a quick 3 hour trip to Durban. For those who have been following along since 2011, you may remember my two South African friends Chloe and Gail, whom Laura and I met while traveling through Central America (#AwesomeFoursome). Well they are both from Durban. Chloe is currently in Sydney, but Gail and her husband Dermot live in Durban. Since we were in the neighborhood we had to go for a visit. And what a lovely visit we had! The main highlight was having a braai at their place, drinking umpteen bottles of wine and catching up. So fun having friends all over the world!

1/4 & 1/5 - Hogsback 

The next day we hit the road again for an 8 hour drive to Hogsback which is a small town in the mountains of the Eastern Cape Province. Timmy hadn't been here since he was a young child, but was excited to show me this place that he remembered as magical. And that it was. One of the best ways to experience the beauty is on foot. The area is full of forests with gorgeous waterfalls and there are so many hikes one could take. As Timmy and I really only had one full day, we did one hike and then had lunch at an adorable outdoors restaurant called Butterfly's Bistro. After lunch we grabbed a bottle of wine and watched the sunset in the gardens of a beautiful hotel called The Edge. If we ever return to Hogsback I 100% want to stay at this hotel. There are some little cottages that stand on the cliffs (hence the name The Edge) that appear to be the end of the world.

1/6 & 1/7 - Pumba Private Game Reserve

We were originally meant to go camping on our road trip. Timmy loves camping and was so excited to show me just how great of an experience camping can be! While I am sure it would have been amazing, for those who know me and my lack of camping experience, I am sure you can imagine how nervous I was for this portion of the road trip. Well I never got to see as the camping was called off as soon as Timmy got a job filming a video for a memory card company KLEVV. In this video (which I will post as soon as it has been published) Timmy shot various scenes throughout the world with people doing awesome activities. Well what is more awesome than a Safari Game Drive? Nothing! So we nixed the camping and instead went to Pumba Private Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape.

We stayed at the Pumba Msenge bush lodge which was absolutely INCREDIBLE! Our room was made of all windows and had a balcony with a pool that literally sat on the bush. On our last day as we were eating breakfast on the patio, the area was full of giraffes, baboons, warthogs and impalas all grazing nearby. It was quite magical! In addition to our lodge, the game drives were a major highlight. We saw all of the Big 5 (elephants, lions, rhinos, buffalos and leopards) as well as many other animals (giraffes, hippos, nyalas, impalas, monkeys, etc.). 

A hilarious highlight from the trip was that we got a flat tire on the first two (of our four) drives! The first time was right after we saw a leopard... We ran over a branch (or something in the road) right next to an open space and had to get out of the vehicle. As soon as we were out, the leopard reappeared and was standing literally 50 meters (150 feet) from our vehicle. It was an incredible experience, albeit kind of scary to be so close to such a wild animal. One of the rangers from another vehicle tuned our driver for letting us get out of the vehicle and in Afrikaans asked a third vehicle to get in between our car and the leopard ASAP. (Note tune is a very common South African word used for giving someone grief or mocking someone... I may use it often as I am starting to speak with South African slang).

The second time our car got a flat tire was during a rain storm. Again we had to get out of the vehicle, which was not so fun in the rain. But again, we experienced an incredible sighting during this mishap - a group of about 20 elephants bathing in a river less than 10 meters (30 feet) away from us. We sat there for about 30 minutes watching the elephants play. It was so cool that in then end we didn't mind at all that we were sitting in the rain. After two flat tires in a row I could tell that our guide Justin was a little embarrassed. But the rest of the trip went off without a hitch and he provided an amazing experience showing us all the animals and telling us hilarious stories about his years of working in game reserves.

1/8 & 1/9 - Driving The Garden Route to Betty's Bay and Timmy's family 

The next leg was another long drive of 8 hours. Luckily this drive took us through one of the prettiest drives in South Africa. The Garden Route stretches along the coast from the Tsitsikamma National Park in the Eastern Cape, down to Mossel Bay in the Western Cape. It includes beautiful towns such as Knysna, Plettenberg Bay and Nature's Valley. People typically take a few days to explore this beautiful region, with its lush forests, beaches and lagoons. As our goal was to get down to Timmy's parent's house the same day, we didn't really have this luxury.

Luckily Timmy and I came back about a month later to visit his bother Topher, sister-in-law Clara and their son Sunji who live in Plettenberg Bay. There we spent our days hiking through waterfalls down to the beaches in Kranshoek and exploring the lagoons of Nature's Valley. This was a great trip, both because we were in such beautiful surroundings and because it was so great spending quality time getting to know Timmy's brother and family. They are very spiritual people who are very in tune with nature and their bodies. We ate vegan food the whole time we were there and spent the our time just talking and enjoying each other's company. 

I digress...We finally arrived to Betty's Bay, a beautiful beach town 1.5 hours away from Cape Town where Timmy's family has had a holiday home for over 30 years. The house is so beautiful.  Perched on a hill, the backyard overlooks beautiful mountains while the front of the house overlooks the ocean! Last April Timmy's parents, Christine and Gerry, both retired and moved down from their home in Johannesburg. While in the process of building a gorgeous house in nearby Hermanus, they are staying at the holiday house. In addition to this first road trip, Timmy and I have gone to Betty's two other times.

His parents are absolutely wonderful and it's been so great getting to know them. It came as no surprise that they would be, as they raised such incredible sons. We have shared so many delicious meals and wonderful conversations about South Africa, the States, literature, politics, family, etc...

It's funny, Timmy and his dad share the same humor (i.e. witty sarcasm) which Timmy's mom often does not understand (just like me!). I feel so blessed to have been welcomed by Timmy's family in such an easy and natural way!

1/10 & 1/11 - Cape Town at last!

After going non-stop we finally were home in Cape Town!! Well, kind of... We only had one full day before we took off for Europe (see next entry). So after our long road trip we spent a night eating pizza, watching a movie on the couch and the next day running errands around town. 

Check back in a bit for my adventures in Cape Town!