Awesome days along the garden route

Hello guys and gals!

First time it took me quite a few days to write a new posting for this blog. Maybe this gonna happen more times now :D

In think my last entry was on thursday last week on my stay in Mossel Bay. Time is moving too fast almost now, and sometimes i have to ask, what day it is :D
The dormroom on the train was very big, with space enough for 16 beds. There was a group of a few dutch pupils who did a school project in sa. But like everytime, there was a german student too.
We thought about what to do next day and decided for a trip to the little karoo. There are three typical landscapes in sa: the more mountain area, which the little karoo is typical for, the savannah (called the middle karoo) and of course the red dirt dessert (you already know what comes) the big karoo.
So we drove to the centre spot of the karoo, a town called Oudtshoorn (please don´t look up google or wiki, cause i can´t remember the way every village is written). First we passed Houdsbaai and went to the Congo Caves. Now maybe you have already looked up the pictures i loaded up the days before, so i don´t have to describe you how beautiful they were. And only the first of 5 parts of the cave is opend to visitors, the other parts are completly white and have to be much more better. Of course we took the adventure tour, which was sometimes really difficult.
On our way back Oudtshoorn we stopped at a oystrich farm. The little Karoo is world-famous for their farms, cause they got the best climate around this area to raise little oystrich and then sell them or even export them to germany. There was a little tour around farm and at the end everyone had the possibility to ride and oystrich. Because of the lame internet and the big hd-videos you unfortunatly have to wait till you can laugh off me. And all the fun for 35R :D
On my way back to Mossel Bay i drove the fourth mountain-pass the day (thats why they call this tour the four-passes-drive). The view on the first three passes was amazing, but the fourth pass was fully in clouds. You even couldn´t see the front of your own car. And that on a road in sa :D
The evening was the first time i spent in the hostel in sa. Well, at the bar of course. It was funny, because i got the attention of a gay south-african who payed me everything (but don´t worry, nothing happend afterwards). At this point i can tell you there are a lot gay people in sa, you will see...

On saturday i planned to leave Mossel Bay, but not before i rode the biggest dune in sa (about 350m long). When i got i rainned a bit and i thought this will be not a got day, but maybe it was the best of my whole trip till now, cause everytime it thought i was unfortune sth. really lucky happend to me :D
We, me and 2 girls from sweden, went to the "Dragon Lagune". You can reach this place only by driving a 4x4. We had a guide who told us everything about the area and sandboarding as well. Cause we were all experienced snowboarders, we started with the biggest dune and passed the beginner-hills. It was a lot of fun, but you get really exhausted, cause everytime you go downhill you have to climb up the dune own your own. There are no cable cars like in the alps. Now the first lucky thing about the day: i ever thought, that the sand has to be really dry and the sandstones have to be a little bit bigger, a fault the guide told us. The sand has to be really fine and wet, then you can go really fast. It was perfect day to set a record :D
After 3 hours and many rides we were that tired that we got back, or better i went on with my journey. The next city to Mossel Bay is George, and luckily again, it was hosting the super seven´s that weekend. The preeliminations were allready on friday but i vistited the finals. Now you will ask, wtf are the S7s? Its the fastest version of playing rugby. You have 7 player per team and only 7 minutes per halftime on the whole field. So there is enough space to play rugby really fast with a lot of try´s (a try is when you reach the endzone to make some points). Enough rules explained, just let me tell how lucky i was again. When i reached the ground a one a clock, of course it was completly sold out. But there is no sport event in the world without a black market (sounds bit funny in sa :D). They sold tickets for the southern stand worth 180R. I got my ticket for 150R :D The guy next to me in the block paid 300R (you may now already understand, But it will get better). Of course i had no clue about rugby before, but the guy (who worked from 1990-1992 in dresden) told me everything about the game. No german would probably do this, he answered me every question, even if i asked him twice. But there was another point about my seat in the stadium, cause the ticket i bought got me right into the hard supporters block of the all blacks (the name for the nationalteam of new zealand, cause they are playing in all black clothes ;). The all blacks are the best team in the world, and because of there name they have a really huge fanbase in sa. And you know, black people know how to party, when i am back in germany i will load up all the videos i took (btw. the maximum speed of the internet is 10mbit, the most times they got only 4mb and some are using 28k or 56k dialup modems). So i was lucky again. The whole tournament took about 7 hrs on saturday, with more than 50 matches played, by 16 nations. And if south african can´t organize anything, what they can is organizing a sports event. Even germany can learn something about it there.
Although George has a really nice rugby ground, there is nothing more interesting about this city, so tried to stay in Houds Bay but there was no hostel. I looked up my coast to coast guide an it told me that there is some nightlife in Knysna. On my way there they catched me again, damn :D But as i arrived at the hostel, and i asked for a bed there, i met the first unfriendly person in sa. Not that hard, but he told me i have to book my night before. Even if there were some free rooms. Ok, if you don´t want my money i can leave. It was even to quite in this place. So i got to the next village callend Plattenberg Bay (or just Platt). A guy i met the day before from sa told me that i have to go there because its the spot for the south african springbreak. Unfortunatly it ended on friday, one day before i got there. But wait, have i said unfortunatly, yes, but it was a luck to me. I got my own dorm room for me alone and of course there were some students who had not left the town. In Plett i met Jason and Sean who are from port elizabeth (p.e.;where i´m stayin till now). It was a funny night there. They knew all the locations and i was treated like a local (cheaper drinks and so on). We where stopped by the police (i wasn´t driving my own car) and they asked us the same questions like in germany. Sean left his drivers license at home and told the officers an unbelivable story that im not from Platt and that they take care of my driving me home. The only thing i had to do, was to show my I.D.-Card and nothing happend. If were driving alone, i would get locked up for sure, they told me. Well, i believe them :D We got back to the hostel the sun was already rising up over the sea. An unbeliable view (the best view in platt).

On sunday i went on to p.e. with jason. He was that happy about it, that i can stay at his home now all the days. He lives in a flat-community with 3 other guys, one of them a dj. We passed the Bloukrans Bridge (which will get much space later in this blog, but i won´t tell you know why :D). We allso passed the Storms River Bridge (highest bridge in sa). The landscape in this part of south africa is amazing, with a lot of trees, mountains, valleys, rivers and so. The whole part a long the N2 is called the garden route, or as the south african say, the "Garden of Eden". Well, you can trust me they are right ;)
We also looked up for the big tree, about 800 years old and tall enough that it takes 10 people to build a circle around it. On our way to P.E. we stopped at Jeffreys Bay a world famous surfingspot. Every years it hosts the sa surfing world cup. And now you may get jealous. There is a Billabong Outlet where the sell everything for just a quarter of the original price. I got 2 shorts, a hoody zipper, 3 shirts, 1 pair of slops and a laptopbag for 1300R. You can´t imagine the big smile on my face when i left this store. Arriving in P.E. we went out for some bears in Barney´s Tavern, the Casino (i have to earn some money :D) and Steers.

On monday jason showed me all the sights in P.E. and we went to the beach and the university of p.e.
Yesterday the forecasted really bad weather (rain and only 17°C) but unfortunatly there was no wind, only sun and about 26°C in shade :D. Whe took the whole day at the beach, swimming and playing rugby. In the evening we had a braai and something to smoke as well (i can´t remember exactly what i was, but i´m sure you understand me ;D)
Because its raining today we take a rest today before we will head out tonight for a foam party. Tommorow is the season opening in P.E. (like a huge christmasparty at the beach). I will stay here for some days more and head on to Jo´burg on saturday or sunday awaiting "The one and only worlds greates Don Juan de Carmossimi" for a safari trip to the Krugers National Park!

Now you know a little bit better about what i´ve done the last days but i can´t describe you the way i feel about the people and everything about here. I just can say that everyone is very friendly, open for everything new (they really ask me a lot of questions about germany), very youngminded, very pleasent, some descent, proud of their nature, hard into sports and happy to live their live on the easy way and not worrying that lot like in germany. But sometimes or in some cases they are also living in the past days of the apartheid. It will take them a really long process that there will be a feeling of living together, cause till now every race is living on their own. The townships were an experience for life and its hard to understand that are not more riots here (the circumstances of living there is indiscusable). The difference between rich and poor is that big, no city or district in germany can be compared to it. But thats sa. I think a lot about it, if i could accept this for me to stay that near to all those problems without a solution. I really don´t know, all i can say, trust me my friends, you have to use the fortune that you have started your life in europe and please don´t worry about those little things in everydays life. There are some more problems in the world you should think over.

Allright, keep your heads up and use your mind.


PS: I will write some postcards now. But don´t expect them to arrive before Christmas or New Years Day. If anybody wishes a card just tell me; not those of you who allready told me ;)