Please find the overview of my Garden Route trip here.
After a slow morning and a hearty breakfast we kicked off our second day on the tour. The first stop of the day was situated only a few kilometers from the hostel, at Cape Agulhas, which is the southernmost tip of the African continent and the place where the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean officially meet. Nevertheless, the Agulhas Current continues to carry the warmer water from the Indian Ocean (12-17°C for the Indian Ocean versus 10-14°C for the Atlantic Ocean) a bit further westward up to False Bay, which is why Capetonians will mostly go to the False Bay beaches if they want to go for a swim, while the beaches on the western coast are mostly occupied by sunbathers. However, I was not fully satisfied with being at the official, touristy, southernmost point. I wanted to go further south, so I jumped from rock to rock into the ocean as far as possible. Naturally this ended with me slipping while I tried to scramble back to higher and drier land, so as a result I carried a bit of the Indian Ocean around in my wet shoes for the rest of the day.
We gladly posed for a group picture at the southernmost point of Africa.
From Cape Agulhas we set out westward along the coast towards the Garden Route. During the ride we were treated to some breathtaking views: to the left we gazed upon the sprawling mountain ranges and to the right we looked straight at the ocean waves crashing upon the cliffs. The landscape in this part of South Africa is simply phenomenal, it might very well be the most beautiful nature I have ever visited!
While driving our tour guide pointed out a road sign that is quite amusing for Dutch-speaking people. Our drive took us through George, the biggest city on the Garden Route. However, our stop for the day was a few kilometers further, in Wilderness. When we went over the itinerary the day before it was not only me who initially thought this was a description of the surroundings instead of the name of the town. The legend goes that a Cape Town bride agreed to get married provided that she and her husband-to-be would go live somewhere in the wilderness. Her spouse complied with her wish and bought a large stretch of uninhabited land to build a log cabin, and the town that arose around their cabin subsequently became known as ‘Wilderness’.
After we had lunch in Wilderness the plan was to go canoeing, but strong winds prevented us from doing so (this was starting to become a theme on my travels). To spend the afternoon, instead we went to Wild X Adventures, who offer several outdoor activities. Most of the guys on the tour wanted to play some paintball, but the girls were not in favor of this plan. Instead we did some quad riding through the forest, although this would not have been my personal choice. When asked how to drive the quads the attendants just shrugged and told us that we would figure it out. “This is Africa after all” was their laughing reply. Luckily they went rather slow through the forest, which is probably the sole reason I did not come ungently into contact with the trees on some sharp turns, but which made the quad ride also rather boring on the easy stretches of the path.
After the quad ride we were still five guys that wanted to play some paintball. The “this is Africa” credo was repeated, as the safety regulations simply amounted to “do not do anything stupid.” In Belgium we always got a stern safety briefing before playing paintball and the threat of removal from the game if we would take our protective mask off, here the attendants did not seem to be overly bothered with that. A similar laissez-faire attitude would recur a few more times in the subsequent days. As we were so few players we mostly played a few free-for-all games, and pretty soon everyone had collected and doled out some painful hits.
After the game of paintball we drove a short way from Wilderness to Sedgefield where we would spend the night. Sedgefield is the first and so far only so-called slow town in Africa. Slow towns aim to slow down the pace of living and promote a healthier lifestyle, although we did not really see any examples of this during our brief time there. Instead of giving in to the slowness we played an energetic game of rugby in a nearby field. This came naturally to the other guys as they were from England, Wales, and Australia; countries where, like in South Africa, rugby is a very popular sport. They quickly clarified the ‘street rugby’ rules for me, and we had a lot of fun until the falling darkness forced us to stop. After the exertions of the rugby game we concluded the day with a relaxing dip in the pool and a tasty braai.