Stormsriver!!
Trip Start
Apr 13, 2005
1
22
40
Trip End
Feb 09, 2006
Stormsriver,
South Africa
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
On Monday (20th) I got up around 7.30ish and got a lift down to George (a medium sized town about 40 mins from Oushtoorn) - got the 9.30 steam train to Knysna. Everyone (bar onea the lads workn in the Backpackers in Oushtoorn) said it was really great and worth doing, lovely sights etc etc en route and novelty of a steam train and that.. plus it was only 65 rand which is about 8 euro. So I got the steam train and yeah you see some nice sights and that but it didn't live up exactly to what I expected! Anyway, wasn't too bad and if I hadn't done it I would have just been wondering about it and been thinking id been missing out on something so im glad I done it instead of wondering!
Anyway, got off the train and rang to book accommodation.
Occhi!
. I went to Wild Side Backpackers. Before I got there I'd about 2 hrs to kill in Knysna. Again id heard brilliant things about it, and its nice and all that, but didn't appeal to me all that much. They'd a waterfront kinda thing similar to Cape Town but on a WAY smaller scale.. and not as nice. Is pretty like, but theres fuk all there. There was some oyster festival thing about to kick off there and apparently if your into oysters it'd be worth staying there and trying them.. I ament so I didn't! So I just walked around for a while and checked out the town and had something to eat before getting picked up to go to Wild Side. - They've an amazing location, its about 15 mins drive or so from Knysna (in an area called Buffalo Bay), the backpackers is right on the beach! It was a bit quiet thou after being in the one in Oushtoorn. Woulda been a bit better if more people hada been there, so I basically just chilled there for my stay. - I stayed for 1 night, but got nearly 2days outa it.. got there around 2.30ish I think and didn't leave till 4ish the next day so felt like it was 2days! The beach there is gorgeous!! Goes either side of the backpackers - to the left brings ya down to a little kind of holiday village. The backpackers had a dog that kind of adopted me.. took him for walks & runs on the beach each day a few times - and he loved tug of war so was constantly bringing over sticks to me to play with / throw - also discovered he like to play what I call "the sand game" which basically involved me kicking sand up in the air for him and he'd try and catch it.. sort of! Was funny.
Anyway, the other side of the backpackers was beach as well, onto which backed onto a nature reserve! Went for a walk up that way too the following day, couldn't take the dog thou coz there's birds nests there and they'd be too tempting for him
Preparing to Zip!
! (He went mental chasing after seagulls on the other side so I could understand the problem.. was hard to leave him behind thou coz he'd give that look that dogs give..!) So Tuesday 21st I Left Knysna and got the bazbus to Plattenberg Bay. Another smallish seaside town. I stayed in Nothando Backpackers. Was nice place.. Lovely rooms and decent setup. Didn't do much the first evening I stayed there.. walked around the town a bit and bought some food and cooked dinner!
Got up on Wednesday and went down to Lookout Beach. I think there may have been around 15 - 20 people on it in total for the whole time I was there! Couldn't believe it.. but then it is winter over here (nice winter if u ask me!) But I can see how the place would be jammed during their summer.. So again I chilled on the beach, read whatever book I was on at that stage (all the hostels have book exchanges - so you can swap one you have for any that's there basically.. so getting to read a bit over here! - handy for them beach days coz I cant just sit there and sunbathe, that's just TOO chilled for me!) So to get back from the beach to the backpackers involved a steep walk up some hills.. the town is set up above the beaches and its kinda hilly around there so was good for the legs and heart rate I suppose! Wasn't too appreciative of it at the time coz I wore flipflops - I learnt thou for the next day to bring my runners! So anyway, that evening I cooked again and went out to a few places in plattenberg with a few people from the backpackers.. Had a good laugh with everyone and got to see that there are a few people acturally in existence in plattenberg.. it's a bita a sleepy town! Nice, but wouldn't be my top recommendation. It's probably bigger than Hermanus, but I don't think it's as nice
Someone bungying...
! Nothing wrong with it just didn't really float my boat! So Thurday dawned - There were a lot of different things to do - but all similar activites to what I wanted to do in Storms River and along the coast so decided to hold off on them till there.. So got my stuff together and went to a different beach to see what that was like.. Went to one called "Central Beach" - I guess because theres 3 main ones close to the town and it's the centre one.. original huh?! Anyway, it was lovely there and warm enough to spend a few hrs at so I polished off my book and had some lunch. Went back to the backpackers then (another steep walk involved.. worse than the 1st day!) and changed my flights to the 20/07. Whether or not I'll end up changing them again thou I don't know (seen as that's my 3rd time to change them!) Anyway. Was told that the shop in storms river is kinda small and that I might wanna stock up on food and that if Id want to cook for myself so I went back out and got some stuff and then a while later got picked up by the Baz Bus and onto Storms River it was!
Storms River (aka Tsitsikamma - which is an afrikans word that means "place of much water"! - Just learnt that today!) was a lot busier than Nothando Backpackers/ Plettenberg Bay. Its got a good setup and the people working here are sound. First evening just chatted to a few people and sussed out some things to do etc. Friday dawned and was absolutely gorgous so they've a big garden and that so chilled with a few people outside and then played some pool before the Braai. (Dunno if ive explained about this before but it's a South African Bbq and the food has always been amazing at them!! This one was no letdown!)
Saturday turned into a more adventurous day by far! Some people had arrived on Friday eveing that had been in a few other places id been so we went down as a group to do the Bungy Jump off Bloukerans (Ive spelt that wrong!) Bridge. It's the highest bridge u can jump off and its fukn amazing! 1 girl done it and hated it but I think she was moaning more to get attention than anything else.. another girl didn't want to and then decided she would and then stood there for about half an hour freaking out.. Onea the lads working there was gonna do a tandem jump with her (Bit stupid for her to ask for that I thought thou coz shed end up going faster due to more weight being involved.. I was tempted then to do a tandem after my solo one just to see the difference in speed.. I didn't thou but reckon in N Zealand I just might have to!) Anyway, the dizzy freaked too much and then backed out.. wasted soooo much time sitting there waiting for her. Was a bit annoying but what can you do?!
Oh yea.. to get out to where u bungy off u can either walk out over this walking bridge they've installed (under the bita bridge you drive on) or you can zipwire throu the support colums of the bridge! I done the zipwire.. was good, but thought u'd go faster.. only get to about 40km an hr which doesn't feel that fast at all..! You land on a slopey parta the bridge (you'll see it in picts when I put them up) which is a bit freaky but its funny at the same time! So yea, anyway the bungy itself was class.. stood there looking down and then jumped - first cupla seconds were class! After a few rebounds I got a tad disoriented.. its hard to figure out what you're looking at when your rebounding and that but it was so class! Cant wait for NZ and the longest cable one next... and a skydive - theyre definites on my list of things to do!
So after we all trouped off the bridge (get back by walking only - and the bit your walking on is mesh metal so you can see all the way down - class!) we went to Tsititamma National Park and got something to eat before going on a Nature Trail. Oh nearly forgot, saw a LOAD of whales when we were having lunch - they were amazing to see!) We had a bita a disaster coz we were walking the otter trail, and it was getting towards sunset, so we had to turn around before the end of it! We ended up having to use the light from phones and lighters to illuminate the path by the enda it, but we all made it okay etc etc! So we got brought back then to the Backpackers and had something to eat and that sorta jazz..
Sunday dawned and we decided we had to conquer the otter trail.. We did it way faster than we had done the previous day and then we discovered we'd only been around 5 mins walk from the end of the feckin trail anyway! Bita a pisser but the waterfall was nice and all that jazz.. So back then to Stormsriver and we got lunch and chilled out again. Was going to go tree top zipwiring but it got cloudy and rainy so we skipped it. The others were heading on to Jefferys Bay that evening and waiting for the Baz Bus so a few of the other backpackers that I knew were heading to the owners / mgrs gaf for dinner (1a the girls is german and really good at cooking.. was making goulash to bring over) so I got invited along too.. so off we trouped and had a good evening there! Hes got this gorgous but mental puppy that's gonna be HUGE. Will be bigger than a great dane / st Bernard.. is some sth African breed but is kewl.
Anyway after the meal we came back to the backpackers and had orange chocolate cakes! Heres how to make them: Get some oranges and cut the top bit off. Scoop out the inside and put in some cake mix (eg chocolate cake). Now u can do 1 of 2 things..
1 - Put oranges on tray and cook in oven till done.. or
2 - Put "lid" back on orange, wrap in tinfoil and throw into a fire until their done (you can tell by the "cake smell" ! They taste serious!
Today I done the treetop zipwiring.. Involves you being attached to zipwires and flying over / throu forests and over waterfalls.. Was lovely scenery but finished too fast. The time just flew... Was good, but I think after the bungy jump im gonna be hard pressed to find anything that will measure up to it. The weather changed since I got back from that so after lunch I was gonna walk to "The Big Tree" (some massive tree close by in case u didn't get that implication from the name) but I didn't coz it was cloudy and thought it was gonna rain - so been typing up what ive done for about the past hour or so..!
So I still wanna quadbike I think before leaving here and maybe snorkel or scuba dive throu the nature reserve.. supposed to have amazing fishies etc there... Might also go fishing but have to suss that out yet.
Ok so i'll be stayn a bit longer than i thought.. have been at stormsriver a few wks now but thats coz i wk ere now! :D All good.. neway, wrote this a few days after i 1st got here (think that woulda been around the 24th June so hum.. 3 wks at this stage?! Time flys when ur havin fun and all that jazz!
Going to sort out visa and that over next couplea days - have to extend it, and then i'll be sorted! Happy to stay here.. :-)
Neway, gonna go throw up some picts of stuff from around here..
Hope everyones good and all that jazz!
