Ok. Let the adventure begin.
Chapter 1: End of Day, Beginning of Night
Friday afternoon I picked up my car half an hour before sunset. I drove to the top of Signal Hill and watched the sun slowly sink below the sea. Momentarily and sporadically, night lights lit up Cape Town, dotting it in gold; it was a gorgeous scene. While witnessing the end of day and beginning of night, I got a call from an old friend...Anna, she got back from her trip to Mozambique; she'll be town this weekend, leaving for Germany on Sunday. So I met up with Anna and another traveler at Ashanti hostel, from there we went out for dinner, and later a bar to watch the Ghana-Uruguay game. Speaking of which, I hate the Uruguay soccer team. Suarez could go to hell for that handball. Anna and I caught up with our stories while apart, though hers are much more exciting than those happened in the township.
Chapter 2: Mountains of Ceres
My safari starts at 10AM. To give myself plenty of time, I turned the car ignition at 7:06AM, and I made good progress to reach Paarl. I had a smooth drive on the spacious highway while watching sunrise. However, trouble started when I was little bit past Paarl, I found myself in thick fog. My line of sight was about 20M radius that I had to slow down. At around 9AM, I made it to Ceres, which leaves me about 60KM to cover. What I didn't know was that the good-chunk of the rest of the journey is on mountain roads. The road is one-lane wide in both directions, every 100 meter or so there is a sharp turn and there are no rail guards. The suggested speed is about 40~60km/h. Thinking to myself, at this rate, I can't make it to the safari on time and the whole trip is ruined. Long drive short, I had some good scares driving through that mountain averaging between 70~80km/h.
Chapter 3: Safari
An African Safari experience is unbeatable. I'm sure you've seen animals at the zoo, but seeing them in nature is completely different; I'm sure anyone who has done a safari will agree with me. Vernne, our 20-something year-old ranger, took us on a 4x4. Over the ponds and dirt road we drove, the tour was unbelievable. Vernne stopped every so often when we spot a new animal to tell us about it. We saw springboks, impalas and other species of antelopes, different birds, hippos, rhinos, giraffes, zebra...lions, cheetah...buffaloes..
Chapter 4: Life in the Vast Emptiness
After a solid 3-hour safari drive, the group went for lunch. I opted out the feast to have my own sandwich because I had other ways to spend money than buying an overpriced lunch. Instead, I rented a quad-bike to drive around the field. Lunch and a lil nap later, I hopped on a red Honda quad-bike. Vernne, the ranger from the safari, gave me a brief 1-minute lesson on these powerful monsters. We wasted no time heading out on the trails. And believe me, those bikes are all about power, power, and power. A few times I went off the trail over sharp turns at full speed, but I just drove over small bushes as if they weren't there! In an open area, Vernne and I messed around with the bikes a bit; we were drifting, spinning, drawing donuts..t'was wild (there's a video clip I filmed). Afterwards we went to do some jumps over small hills and then headed to the mountain to take a break. Vernne and I stood on the tallest point in the area; it's unbelievable that it's sooo quiet there that you'd think you're deaf. Vernne looked around the field and said, "welcome to my office". We had a nice chat there about the life in the vast emptiness.
Chapter 5: Through the Remoteness
In my mind I was still driving that quad-bike, but by late afternoon I was already on my way to Montagu from Touws River. The road is perfect, with no cracks, bumps, or potholes. However, there were a few scary moments when I was making my way over a mountain through the clouds; I couldn't see much of the road at all. The second part of the journey goes through valleys, and THAT was not all fun-and-games. I drove along the wingding road through remote villages, and for over 40km, there was not a single road sign to confirm that I'm on the right road. The sun was setting at a fast pace behind the mountains. Well, since I'm writing this, I obviously made it out alive. All I can say now is: it wasn't fun when I did it.
Chapter 6: Worcester Exploration
I drove through Ashton and Robertson in dark, the latter seems like a very nice and peaceful town. At a bit past 7, I made it to Worcester, which is about an hour and a half from Cape Town driving non-stop. Worcester has become a dead-town, there was nothing much going on on a Saturday night. The liveliest place was a place called Dros Bar and Grill. I didn't feel like spending the night eating left-over sandwich and sleep in a sketchy hostel, so instead spending money on a bed, I went to Dros and ordered a nice man-size sweet lips pork ribs. Man, were those ribs tasty! Oh, of course, that meant I slept in my car.
Chapter 7: Mes Memoires Francais
Sunday morning, I was up before sunrise and sat in the car for it warm up. The plan was to drive through the vineyards then head down to Cape of Good Hope and return the car to the airport. The drive from Worcester to Franschhoek was very pleasant. The scenery changed from dry, rocky mountains to those of gentle surfaces with plenty of vegetation; they reminded very much of the French country-side that I was so in love with. As you may have guessed it, Franschhoek had a French origin. In this town, Bastile Day is celebrated. In the main road there are many small cafes with French names and dressed with French colours. When I was there, there was a bikers' gathering which made it very busy on a Sunday morning. Too bad I was driving, I would've done some wine tasting there because that's such a "French thing" to do.
Chapter 8: Patience
On a beautiful day like today in the Cape Peninsula, the streets are filled with cars heading towards the sandy beaches. I spent a solid hour driving 10km because of the traffic jam. I started from Muizenburg and went down the Indian Ocean coast. At Simon's Town, there's a destination called Boulders Beach where penguins had colonized. As the legend suggested, there were penguins everywhere! Soon I continued down the peninsula, heading to the Cape of Good Hope. At the entrance road, cars lined-up for a kilometer trying to get on the road. Without the patience, I headed back to Cape Town through the Atlantic coast of the peninsula.
Chapter 9: The Last Bit of Rush
At around 3:00PM I got back to Cape Town. I parked downtown and went to the Internet cafe to call my parents - haven't spoke to them in two weeks. We had a three way Skype session (dad was home, mom was at work), I filled them in with all the things I've done and surprised them with a few shockers that you've just read. As our conversation drifted, I lost track of time. Once I realized how long it had been, I only had half an hour to fill up the tank and return the car to the airport. On the radio, I heard the news that many soccer fans are returning today. So I drove fast...like fast fast. I waved around the traffic averaging 140km/h. It's amazing how familiar I've got with driving a manual transmission - I like it a lot now, it has a lot better control and maneuverability than automatic cars. Anyway I got to the airport in 15 mins, had the car checked, not a single scratch was found.
Chapter 10: The End
So yeah, all those happening in 48 hours. That's it. It's amazing how much you can do in a weekend. I know, this chapter is really just bogus.
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