Cape 2 Addo overview

I did a week-long trip of the Garden Route, from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth along the south-eastern coast of South Africa. Although I considered driving the Garden Route myself, in the end I opted to go on the “Cape 2 Addo” tour organized by CapeXtreme. Joining an organized tour allowed me to see the most interesting attractions without having to do any extensive preparations. During the tour I could also relax in the back of the van in between the different sights, as the driving distances were not inconsiderable. Furthermore, the tour was well organized, and I saw and did some exciting stuff I would not have considered doing if I had been traveling on my own.

We were a group of eleven wonderful people from all over the world: there were people from Australia, Belgium, Denmark, England, Israel, Sweden, and Wales. Most of the people were young professionals enjoying their holiday: there was a fire woman, an insurance salesman, a medical doctor, a navy gunner, a pilot, a physiotherapist, a psychiatrist, and a software developer. I was pleasantly surprised that in such a diverse group of interesting and smart people, doing a PhD is apparently still considered as something a bit special, which I occasionally forget when continuously being surrounded by other PhDs both in my academic bubble and at home. This was the perfect group to spend a week with: we shared a lot of similar interests, while everyone brought some unique aspect to the table. I should also give a special shout-out to our slightly eccentric tour guide, who did a terrific job.

I will give a detailed account of all the exciting stuff we did on the six days of the tour. This post functions as an overview of these blog posts:

• Day 1: Shark cage diving
• Day 2: Cape Agulhas to Sedgefield
• Day 3: The Klein Karoo: Cango - The Klein Karoo: Oudtshoorn
• Day 4: Monkey business and the world’s highest bungy
• Day 5: Met de jeep door het oerwoud
• Day 6: Exploring the Wilderness