Day LI

Last weekend I went on the Garden Route, a trip up the southeastern coast towards Port Elizabeth. It was remarkable, to say the least. the scenery was incredible, and the hostel we stayed at was excellent. Here is a picture of the Fairly Knowe "Backpacker's" (hostel).



The highlight of my weekend was also the most terrifying thing I've ever done. I jumped the world's biggest Bunjy jump at Bloukrans, this continent's largest bridge. Click on this one(and all the other ones) for the full effect.



The free fall was 5 seconds long, and the total height is about 216 meters/700 feet. For me, this eclipsed sky-diving totally - you guys, I almost pissed myself. It was absurd! I didn't purchase the pictures, but I got the DVD. I'll hopefully get that up here at some point!

Mom, I'm sorry.


The next day the group went to an animal conservation ranch, which was a fun time. Many beautiful animals.














Lion in the fetal, gotta love it!



At the end of the tour, I was given a chance to play with some of the animals. Very cool.




Great weekend! This is quite a beautiful country. Have a look.

Day XXX

Day XXIV

What a spectacular weekend!

Friday, we all went to the District Six museum. This place was incredible. District Six is a part of land near the urban center of Cape Town. In the 1970's, over 60,000 people were forcibly removed from their homes there. This was a memorial to the struggle. Since many of the people I've met in this country are somehow connected to this occurrence, it was nice to get gain some understanding.






On Saturday, we took a trip to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. It was a perfect day trip.





We stopped for a quick wine tasting at the Klein Constancia. They are evidently known for their wonderful Sauvignon Blanc.


On the way to the Cape of Good Hope I got great pictures of some different animal species including:

The Southern Right Whale


The African Penguin


The Chacma Baboon (+ baby)


The Southern Ostrich


Then we hit the Cape trails for a bit. Ended up here!



Sunday was the best day of my stay in Africa to date. I started the morning off sandboarding in the Atlantis dunes about 30 minutes outside of Cape Town. It was a "proper" time!





After being in the sand for the first half of the day, we hit the road to go skydiving! Skydiving is by far one of the most exhilarating things a human being can do.
Check it out.

The puddle-hopper that took us up.


My experienced tandem partner, G.






Cape Town in the distance.



Absolutely remarkable.

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Day XIX

Sorry for the delay! I'm going to try and post once a week from now on.

Last week on Thursday we went to Bo-Kaap, or "Upper Cape" which houses most of the cities Muslims. It has vibrant colors and incredible food!



On Saturday, I went to Bike Fight 2009. It was a sort of bike fest with beer and braai (traditional South African BBQ) and good times. It showcased pretty much the whole of the fixed-gear community in Cape Town. The craze hasn't really hit here yet like it has stateside or in Europe. Still, the delicate few know their stuff. The festivities included a race, skid-stop competition, a trackstand competition, jousting, and a demolition derby!






My favorite bike of the day. It's a Volume Fixed frame which is similar to a Bruiser frame. Comes with a lifetime warranty, a great selling point, if you ask me. Oh, and the toe straps? Recycled seat belts. Hell yeah!


Trackstands


The Joust!


Overall, a great time.

Just so people know, you can click on these photos to make them actual size. And the "End Of Line" deal is from a 1982 film with a young Jeff Bridges called Tron. One of my all-time favorites. You should check it out!

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Day VII

The past two days have been some the most exiting to date. Everything I've done pleases me to no end.

On Friday I said goodbye to my kids for the weekend, after an eventful last weekday. It is truly stunning how these children are so so happy with so little. The playground at Silvertown consists of about two pairs of swings made from tires, a wooden hut, numerous metal bars welded together in a sort of makeshift jungle gym, and a couple of sandboxes. The boys just mostly play with spare tires that the care center has a lot of. 150 share all of this. At the same time.






In the afternoon, a few of the volunteers and I headed off to hike one of the many trails up Table Mountain. It was a beautiful hike, and a great workout. It got cloudy once we reached the top, but still made for some cool images.











It felt great!



Later that night we went out to a cool Tapas restaurant in the city called Fork. Everyone was wary of the time though, because we would all be getting up at 5am to go shark cage diving.

Now, you always hear things on Discovery, Animal Planet or whatever else about Great White Shark's being a misunderstood animal that have a false reputation as man-eaters. This became completely real to me today as I entered the water with these graceful beasts.

We took a boat out a few miles off of the fishing village of Gansbaai to "Shark Alley", the area of the world with the highest concentration of Great Whites.




The anticipation level on the boat once we anchored was indescribable. After only about 15 minutes of chumming, we saw the first shark. The crew dropped in a line with a few heads of tuna and the baiting process began.




Then I finally got a few solid pictures of an apparently 3-meter male (approx. 10ft).




After another shark came up to taste the bait, I got in the cage with 5 others. What transpired was the most awe-inspiring part of my life, so far. I took an underwater camera in with me, and I will hopefully get those developed soon. Here's an above water view of the kind of thing we got to see.





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