Out Of Africa

Day LI

2009-10-16T08:21:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-28T07:51:00.000-07:00

Day XXIV

2009-09-22T07:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-17T11:33:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-05T07:01:00.000-07:00

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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Day V

2009-09-03T10:43:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was my first day volunteering at my placement, which is Silvertown Educare. It is a child welfare center that has ages 1 to 6. I work with the 1-2 year-olds. Here are just some of the 48 lovely children!

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be nice, so a few of us are planning on hiking Table Mountain. If anyone has any questions about anything or just want to drop me a line, I would love to get emails! dwgooch@comcast.net

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The Townships

2009-09-01T14:35:00.000-07:00

Day III

Under the Apartheid government, Black and "Coloured" South Africans were driven out of their living spaces and forced moved to under-developed areas called townships (see about Group Areas Act). Yesterday, our group got the tour of these; it served as a intense & direct contrast to the Cape Town we saw the day before. To say what we were exposed to was devastating would be a vast understatement.

This is Mama Ivy, who lives in a township. She guided us on this eye-opening tour.

Miles of the this area is made up of sheet metal shanties.

This little girl had very obviously never seen a camera before.

She lives with her family in a place like this

We visited a great work center that helps unemployed people in townships learn to bead, make pottery, and play music. The goal is for the person to come away with adequate skills for them to get jobs or sell their crafts themselves.

Here is a neighborhood barber shop. And cell phone repair.

The group went to Ndaba's Herbal Chemistry.

Here he is!

As you can see, there is outrageous stuff hanging by wires in his dark lair.

Towards the end of the tour, we went to a creche, and I got a small glimpse into what I would be doing at my "placement" or volunteer workplace. Here are some younger kids napping!

More on my placement + pictures tomorrow. Stay tuned.

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South Afrika!

2009-08-30T10:58:00.000-07:00

I'm finally here!

My flight out of Nashville was delayed because of weather, so I didn't make my flight to Senegal from Atlanta. I was rerouted to Cape Town via Amsterdam. That made my second flight way longer than it should have been, so I got a bunch of movies in as well as a large chunk of Mother Night by Vonnegut read. I arrived at about 22h30 (I'm cool because I write the time like them, right?), and found the CCS driver named Wonga, along with a fellow volunteer. When we pulled up to the house, all the lights were out and no one was awake. Wonga led me to my room where my roommate was knocked out asleep. I, on the other hand, did not go to sleep at all. So- not counting any plane rest-I haven't slept since about 9 am on Friday. Hopefully I'll get to sleep tonight.

Today we had a few hours of orientation, then we were taken on a informal tour of the city. Cape Town is unlike any city I've ever seen. It's absolutely beautiful. The Table Mountain looks out at the Atlantic with the city sandwiched inbetween. Here are some pictures of staff and the incredible town.

Our lovely "Home Base"

Linda, one of the cooks. She is precious. She is also approximately 4'2".

This is Faried, a hired driver that helps out with CCS volunteers. He told us, "with the weather, Cape Town is like a baby: if it isn't full of wind, it is soaking wet. Other than that it's happy!"
Lion's Head is in the background.

A shot of "The Castle" with Devil's Peak in the background.

Where the 2010 World Cup will be held

The end of the earth

And finally....Cape Town!

This is unfolding into quite an adventure!

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2009-08-21T20:53:00.000-07:00

This is my first blog posting ever. I’m still figuring this stuff out, so bear with me.

In 8 days I leave for Cape Town, South Africa with an organization called Cross Cultural Solutions. I will be volunteering at a child welfare center called Silvertown Educare. The goal of this program is to improve the health, well-being, and education of children in vulnerable communities. I will be there for 3 months. I am incredibly excited and anxious for the program to begin!

Until then, I will fill this blog with my latest endeavor, building a fixed gear bicycle.
Here is the old French frame that was given to me by a friend, as well as a wheelset and chain given to me by my buddy Jake. I had to fix the stem and pedal crank, but it was starting to look like a bike!

So, after a go with a can of Krylon and a steady hand, I had the frame looking fairly nice. I went to REI with a gift card and got some cool bar wraps, and then took it to Halcyon Bike Shop to pick up my new wheel, tube, tire, cog, lock ring, and chain to convert my rear from a freewheel to a fixed gear. Fixed gear bikes are tricky because the pedals are always in motion when the bike is moving – there is no coasting. When the wheel moves, the pedals move in the same direction, allowing the rider to go backwards and forwards. So, once I had purchased everything, I took it outside to the communal work bench and put it all together. Here it is now!

I’m very proud of it. END OF LINE