Thursday, November 8, 2012

SOUTH AFRICA


I am going to have the most difficult time putting this particular port into words.  The things I was doing, what I was seeing, and the emotions I was feeling were just unreal. It was exhilarating, overwhelming, and just incredibly awesome. I may have too many things to say about it.

First day, I tackled Table Mountain. I consider myself somewhat in shape, and it was a STRUGGLE to get to the top. The rock steps reminded me of Huntingdon’s “1,000 steps,” but there were many many more than 1,000. And they were HUGE. Short legs were a large disadvantage. The top was completely covered by fog when we first got up there. I compared it to the Land Before Time’s “Land of the Mist” if you’re familiar with that. You couldn’t see a thing.

There’s a restaurant up top as well as a gift shop so we just hung around for awhile. It was shortly after our meal that the sun came out and the fog passed! And the view was astounding. We popped a squat right on the edge, uncorked the bottles of wine we brought up, and just took it all in.

When the fog decided to return, we took the cable car back down to the bottom. We decided along the way that we should hike Lionshead peak right next door. We thought it’d be a great place to watch the sunset over the water. (It would have been without the fog.) This was the most intense hiking/climbing I had ever done. I was literally on my hands and knees for most of it. At some points, there were rungs fastened to the side of rocks in order for hikers to literally ‘rock climb’ up. It was crazy! I was terrified at the thought of making my way down.

We couldn’t see a thing from the top; it was mildly disappointing. But there were conveniently university students at the top with us, and they showed us a few pictures of what it would look like without the fog. I would have loved to see it in real life. Some day. Getting back down wasn’t as horrible as I had anticipated.

Early the next morning, I departed with a new group for my extreme activity trip. We had a long drive ahead of us to Mossel Bay (about 5 hours). Fortunately we were driving toward nice weather. Everyone else I had talked to on the ship had their shark diving trips cancelled so we all had our fingers crossed. Under the impression we were bungee jumping that day, we were all caught a bit off guard when we pulled up in front of “White Shark Africa.” I guess we’ll go shark diving today then.

It was unreal. The boat ride was about 10 minutes out to this seal-infested rock. The worst smell I have ever smelt. A bit closer to shore than I would expect but I guess it’s all right during the off season. We were forewarned that luring in a shark could take hours so after the initial excitement wore off we all sat back to relax. Not 10 minutes later, we hear the call… “SHARK!” And immediately we’re all up against the side of the boat looking down. They call for the first six divers.

I guess people were timid so they call for three more. My friend, Dylan, grabs me by the arm and says, “We’re going.” And before I have time to process what I’m about to do, what I’ve been waiting to do for so long, I’m suited up and climbing off the side of the boat.

Now I knew shark diving would be pretty freaking cool but not THIS cool. The first shark was a little guy. He swam up by the cage a bit, but the water was pretty murky. It was just as cool to look at him from just above the water. Another medium sized shark hung around for awhile, and then there was Bruce. We called him Bruce because he was just so so big. Like Bruce, from Finding Nemo. (Later we learned the dive guys had actually already named this female shark Trixie but whatever)

We got real up close and personal with Bruce. At one point he decided to do a little taste-testing of our cage. It’s actually a moment I’ll never forget. I don’t think it was fear that I was experiencing, but it was definitely something unlike anything else.

That evening we stayed in a great hostel right on the beach in a small town called Sedgefield. We all packed in their hippie van and drove up to a lookout spot called “Cloud 9” for sunset. It was unreal.

The next day was bungee jumping. Oh boy. I was not scared for this either as I again found myself unable to fathom what I was about to do. It wasn’t until I saw the bridge that I was like “holy shit.” Thank goodness I’m not afraid of heights.

When your feet leave that platform, your mind goes completely blank. Your brain literally cannot comprehend that you have just leapt off of a bridge by choice. Then you scream and love life.

The next day I did a SAS cycling wine tour. It was pretty cool, but the weather was sub par. It was nice to meet a few new people. Wine country is absolutely beautiful, and they have some stellar wines you can’t find anywhere else.

The last day was my field lab for Infectious Disease in Humans. We began our trip at a hospital where we listened to an HIV/AIDS presentation by the organization Hope Capetown. It wasn’t anything that we hadn’t heard before or just learned in class a few days prior.

Lunch was the best meal I’ve had on this ENTIRE trip so far. Ostrich is delicious!

Lastly we went to the first heart transplant museum. Who knew it happened in Capetown on December 3, 1967? Not me. It was awesome. We watched a film on the doctor who did it, Dr. Christian Barnard, and toured the “theatres” (operating rooms) where it happened. They have these creepy wax figures set up now to show what happened and how many people it took. They even still have the original bypass machine!

I’ve loved every place I’ve been so far, and I always say that I’ll be returning, BUT I will most definitely be returning to South Africa.  It’s incredible. Everyone should visit this beautiful country at least once in their lifetime. 

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