Week 1 Part 1
Week 1 Part 2
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6 Part 1
Week 6 Part 2
Week 6 Part 3
Week 7 Part 1
Week 7 Part 2
Week 8
Week 9 Part 1
Week 9 Part 2
Week 10 Part 1
Week 10 Part 2
Danielas birthday party
2008/10/07
2008/10/07
During the very short rest of the week after the Orange River trip, we were looking forward to Friday as this was Danielas birthday. We had booked a table at Mama Africa, one of the most famous restaurants in Longstreet, serving African food. Ones more we went on a minibus, but after some weeks we were quite used to this kind of travel. Nothing special happened as we got out of the bus were we wanted and when we wanted. In Mama Africa, Daniela had booked two tables and we had a nice meal. After the meal loads of people went to the Dubliner to have some party. I, however, went home to get a little bit of rest, as I was still tired from the Orange River and I planned to go on the Garden Route the next day and had to drive a car.
Garden Route
2008/11/08 - 2008/11/10
2008/11/08 - 2008/11/10
The Garden Route is the a countryside along the southern coast of Africa. It starts somewhere between Port Elizabeth and Durban and follows the coast until some hundred kilometers to the western lands near Cape Town. It is famous for its flowers and landscapes and one of the most popular routes of South Africa. The landscape is quite untypical for Africa. There are lots of beaches and especially for surfers there are great spots and in general you'll find a lot of tourist attractions.
up to eight days to go along the coast. So we decided to fly to Port Elizabeth and rented a car there to go back to Cape Town. This way we didn't have to travel twice the same way by car and weren't forced to be at the airport at a certain time after three days of travel.
What's more, we decided to skip the school on Monday to have nearly three hole days for the trip. The flight and the car we'd booked via Internet and for the night we planned to stay in B&Bs as there should be a lot of them.
Having planned to do a weekend trip along the coast, Mirjam and I decided to use the chance to drive along the Garden Route on this weekend. There are several companies providing the trips, so we knew that it can take you
Also here, I took my camcorder with:
Saturday (Garden Route Travel)
2008/11/08
2008/11/08
Having remembered to change the time of my alarm clock, I started readjusting it, but I must have been interrupted as I didn't finish the job. Luckily I programmed the alarm on my mobile as a fall-back. The taxi driver, who was going to pick us up, was ordered to be there at 7 o'clock.
The Saturday morning, however, I slept till my mobile woke me, because my normal alarm clock wasn't set correctly. I only had 30 minutes left for packing my stuff, getting a shower and making some breakfast for taking away. Than, I was just ready with the shower, the taxi driver rang and so I was really under pressure. After the none arriving taxi the weekend before and another bad experience from Mirjam some days ago, we'd decided to call the Mohammeds. He is the owner of a taxi company which is taking the students from the airport and back, organized by the interlink school. The transfer is not that cheap as you have to pay 180 Rand per person from Seapoint to the airport. Nevertheless, it is quite reliable.
Mohammed took us to the airport and we checked in, still aware that we had to wait a while. One and a half hours later we were sitting in a totally white painted plane without any letters, flags, airline name or anything painted on, waiting for the take-off. We were already about 10 minutes late when the pilot drove the plane to the starting area. But there, instead of accelerating, he stopped the engines and announced that there was a red light in the cockpit whose reason he likes to check before. It took some more minutes and then he told us, that it's not a problem, we just needed some more fuel. So we went back to the gate and after half an hour we were able to take off.
Well, we reached Port Elizabeth, late but in one piece. We didn't have any check-in luggage with, so we went directly to the car rental; to find out about our next problem. As I was under pressure in the morning, I didn't check, whether I forgot something and of course, I had forgotten something: my driver license.
It took us some time to get the car. We had to rebook the car to Mirjam as she was the only one of us who could get the car. As a result Mirjam was forced to drive the car, something she really didn't want to. That's why we both charred the driving in the next days.
I had the idea to go to the next police station and to ask, what we can do, as I hoped that we could get a letter from the police which we, in case of a police control, could show to the police men. But that wasn't possible.
Actually the week is not at its end but my website requires a new site. So lets continue there.