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Well, this week has been full of exciting adventures. First off, we drove from Plettenberg Bay to a place close to Port Elizabeth/Gqeberha to our hotel called Zuurberg Mountain Village. We chose this location because it is very close to Addo Elephant National Park, the third largest national park in South Africa. I quite enjoyed the hotel because there were lots of adorable cats wandering around and the rooms were very lovely. The only thing that I didn’t really enjoy was their food. Instead of ordering from a menu there was a buffet. The meat was dry and nothing really had much flavor. Besides the food , and my brothers’ loud snoring, the hotel was very nice. We had two rooms which was great since I had my own bed. On the first day, we drove to Addo Elephant National Park to do a self-drive safari. I was happy that we were not in one of the open safari jeeps because it was cold and dusty on the un paved roads through the park. Although our car was relatively low to the ground, we still had a blast. We saw lots of elephants, warthogs, black-backed jackals, mongooses, Cape Buffalo,and herds of zebra. My favorite animals to see were the elephants at the Hapoor waterhole because there were so many of them with their babies and some were even spraying each other with water which was really cool to see. It was a really fun and awesome experience seeing all these wild animals so close by in person and free (especially as the enormous elephants were walking within feet of our car). Overall I would rate our self drive safari a 8.5/10 because although it was super cool I was a bit tired since I had to wake up at 8:00 am. (Usually I like to sleep until 10:00).
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Over these past 3 weeks of living and exploring South Africa, I have learned so much more than I could have ever fathomed. I have learned about their culture, language, and history, but my favorite thing about the food culture in South Africa has been Biltong.
First, what is biltong? Biltong is a type of cured meat that originated in South Africa. Biltong is similar to beef jerky in look and texture but has the benefit of being less processed and having a much richer taste. Biltong is made by marinating strips of meat in a mixture of salt, vinegar, spices, and occasionally herbs for several hours. After the meat is done marinating, it gets air dried in a controlled space. Scientists speculate that biltong was first invented in the early 1600s by native South Africans. Biltong can be made with countless different meats and mixtures. These range from local game meats such as ostrich, springbok, and kudu to more familiar meats such as beef and chicken. Biltong is also a high protein low carb snack making it popular with people that are following high-protein or low carb diets. After trying all of these, my personal favorite has been ostrich. Biltong is a staple of South African culture and is a very delicious snack. It has also been a popular snack among my family during this road trip and is a must eat when traveling to South Africa. See you next week! This week we went from the big city of Cape Town to a small town in an area of South Africa called the little Karoo. We drove to Oudtshoorn after visiting the tiny town of Sutherland to see SALT. SALT stands for Southern African Large Telescope which is the largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere. The drive through the Swartberg Pass on our way to Oudtshoorn was amazing to experience. There were dramatic cliffs that loomed on either side of the road. There were all shades of greys, oranges, reds, and varieties of white. The rocks looked like they were moments from collapsing on the cars below and appeared to be stacked like an enormous Jenga game. The road was unpaved and extremely rocky which made my dad nervous since we were also driving on the opposite side of the road. We finally made it to Oudtshoorn safely. This part of the journey was spectacular. In Oudtshoorn, one of my favorite activities was going to the Cango Caves. We decided that we were going to do the Adventure Tour , rather than the regular tour, which would include going through tiny spaces and crawling around to get further into the caves than the regular tour but we didn’t expect how hard it would be. We first started the tour in massive areas with all the normal cave formations. We walked around and taking photos of the different cave structures. We learned about cave development including stalactites and stalagmites. As we walked along, the spaces became increasingly smaller and smaller until we were squeezing through tiny crevices to reach the next point. There were four chambers: Jacob’s Ladder, The Tunnel of Love, Devil’s Chimney, and the Postbox. Jacob’s Ladder was the easiest since we went through steep built in stairs. The Tunnel of Love was a bit harder since it was super slippery and incredibly narrow for adults. It got its name from the “hugs” that you get from each side of the cave walls as you slid through. The Postbox was very difficult because you had to crawl into a space which was only about2 ft high and then slide down on your stomach which somewhat hurt. The most difficult one was the Devil’s Chimney which you had to climb up slippery rocks and were only able to use the same rocks as hand holds. Overall the tour was pretty good. I would rate it a 8.5/10 because one of the other participants smelled like smoke and onions which made it unpleasant. During this time in the Karoo I experienced a little bit of how life is like outside of the big cities in South Africa. I would recommend visiting the Karoo to discover some of the different landscape, animals, and vegetation that you wouldn’t see in the big cities. Just like that our second week in South Africa is over, what have we done? After leaving Cape Town, we drove to a small town called Franschhoek in the wine country of South Africa. Franschhoek, founded by French Hugonauts around 300 years ago, calls itself the “gastronomical capital of South Africa” and I can see why. We delighted our taste buds with delicious food such as eland and ostrich steak, and tasty wine (well, my parents had the wine). My favorite part of Franschhoek was when we all went to the Boschendal Estate for lunch and wine tastings. This place was awesome because they included us with sparkling grape juice and chocolate pairings too! There were three varieties of grape juices presented to us: red grape juice, white grape juice, and a rosé grape juice. These were paired with chocolates that had complementary flavors and each enhanced the flavor of the other. This was probably the best grape juice I have ever tasted. The complexity and rich flavor of the grape juice made it taste better than every grape juice i've had before. After Franschhoek, we traveled to a small town known as Sutherland. This is the home of S.A.L.T, which stands for Southern African Large Telescope. Sutherland was picked for the location of the S.A.L.T because of the remote location of the town as well as the climate. Remote locations are vital to telescopes because they lack the light pollution caused by nearby cities which would interfere with space viewing. The climate in Sutherland is cold and clear which the telescope needs to be able to see the stars. The plan for Sutherland was for us to go up to the telescope and star gaze, but apparently we arrived on just one of the few days of the year where it was mostly cloudy. The guide informed us that the weather is perfect for stargazing 80% of the year. We were unlucky to have arrived during the other 20%. Although we didn't get to see the stars, we did a tour of S.A.L.T and watched a movie at a very low budget planetarium. They even used fancy lawn chairs for the viewing rather than movie theater chairs. It was definitely an interesting experience! The next destination on our road trip was Oudtshorn, another smallish town. Similarly to Sutherland, more things went wrong! All the reviews for the hotel we were staying at stated about how it was a “paradise” and how “nice” the place was, clearly this was far from the truth. We had traveled to Oudtshoorn to stay at a “Working Ostrich Farm” but clearly the name was deceiving considering the fact that there were only 3 ostriches on the premises. Besides the lack of internet not exceeding the speed of 1mb/second, the place wasn't all that bad. We saw an abundance of wildlife like elands, hippos, nyalas, and ostriches. One of the best parts of this 2 day trip were the amazing meals. In conclusion to our second week in South Africa it has been exhilarating to see all the wildlife and eat all the delicious food, 10/10. |
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