Bungee Jumping, elephant feeding, quad riding, surfing, tubing and more!

This weekend was by far one of the most ridiculous and fantastic weekends of my life. All 15 of us nursing students piled on a bus and drove 6 hours to Plettenberg Bay, an amazing area located along the coast of South Africa. I pretty much took the reins on organizing the trip and contacted a travel planner and told him the different activities we each wanted to do and found out if it was possible to fit it in the entire weekend. With the help of Jamin Adventures (the website I used) I compiled an entire itinerary for the weekend; which I gave to both the driver and the rest of the girls and it ended up working out really nicely!




SO on Saturday morning we visited Knysna Elephant Sanctuary where I had the opportunity to feed, pet and take pictures with elephants. It was really awesome, especially since these elephants were rescued from the wild and taken into this sanctuary where they would be safe from poachers and free to do as they please.






After the elephant sanctuary, Danielle, Chioma, Jenn, Nisha and I all hopped on the bus and went to Quad Riding in the BUSH. It was seriously sooo sick. We first went around a practice course to make sure we could handle going around curvy turns and up and down hills. After we proved our worth we went through a 6km course with our guide in the front. I followed him in the front for most of it but at one point Chioma decided to take the lead, and ended up flipping over around a corner! She was fine, just a little muddy, and kept going through the rest of the course. Quad riding was great, especially since we went through such a scenic route that made me see another side of how gorgeous the area is.



After quads we had a quick lunch break and then Jill, Danielle, Jenn, Wendy, Nadia, and I all went down to the beach for SURFING LESSONS. One thing I never thought I’d end up doing is attempting to surf in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa... actually just surfing in general really. So glad I tried it though. We had really great instructors who did a good job explaining on land first how to “pop up” off of the surfboard and the steps to stay on the board. Although I definitely wasn’t the best surfer, I was able to stand on the board for at least a hot second to say that I did it! I definitely want to try again because it actually was a slammin workout and really fun when you get the hang of it! Apparently Muizenberg Beach, near where we stay, has a lot easier waves because they are not so much one after the other; which makes it less difficult.






The next morning, Kate D, Jill, Danielle, Jenn, Mel, Sarah, and myself all woke up mad early to go BLACK WATER TUBING in Storms River Village. It was quite a drive out there and on the way there was actually a baboon just chilling in the middle of the road! We all got our wetsuits, life jackets, helmets, and tubes and were good to go! It was a bit of a drive to the actual riverbed so we just chilled in the back of the truck with our tour guide Tate who ended up being an extremely obnoxious womanizing homophobe, but at least got us through the river safely! The mini-hike down to the edge of the water was actually a bit terrifying since we all had to haul giant yellow tubes along the way while attempting to step down un-steady stairs that only had a piece of rope attached to two trees as a guide to keep you balanced. When we made it down to the riverbed, each one of us turned around and jumped backwards into the river with our tubes behind us for a photo-op. The water was actually freezing but luckily our wetsuits were able to keep us warm. There were also opportunities to “kloof” or cliff jump; which ended up being a little bit anti-climactic. I did the first jump which was I think 30ft high and I apparently resembled what us nursing nerds would call “the moro relex” aka I flailed around aimlessly trying to decide whether to plug my nose or throw my hands in the air… not quite sure what I ended up doing. After jumping, we traveled down the river using our hands as paddles and the current to pull us, however the water level was pretty low so the “rapids” area ended up being us trying to scooch our butts along the rocks and try and slide as best we could. There actually ended up being a couple of quicker paced areas which were fun but nothing to scary. In the end I’d rather the river be too low than too crazy fast so I was happy with it. The best part of tubing by far was when one of our guides whipped out a bag of bar-one candy bars which are one of the most delicious things South Africa has invented. It was such a great snack just chillin on the water in a tube eating a candy bar. Gotta love it.







After tubing the bus picked us up with the rest of the girls in it and we all headed to BUNGEE JUMPING. That’s right world, I Kate Harris, bungee jumped off a bridge. And not just any bridge mind you. The highest bridge IN THE WHOLE WORLD aka a 216m drop at 120km/hr which is pretty damn fast! Guinness Book of World Records kinda business. I’m not messing around! So let me tell you how it went. 13 of us ended up doing the jump and after getting harnessed in and briefed on what was going to happen, we walked out onto a mini-bridge with a metal-mesh floor that allowed you to see STRAIGHT DOWN to where we were about to jump. I have to say our RA Ben was right in saying that the scariest part about the jump was the walk out there because it was terrifying. Once we got on the bridge I chilled out a little bit even though I really wasn’t that scared to begin with. On the bridge there was literally a DJ booth with music blasting to get everyone pumped. AKA it was a dance party. As all of us danced around and cheered each other on we each jumped one by one. I ended up being third to go which I was pretty happy with. They sat me down, and put two Velcro’d pieces of cushion around my ankles and then wrapped it up with ropes that attached to the bungee. Doesn’t sound very stable right? I wasn’t even thinking about it at the time and was fully trusting everything and everyone around me. I’m going to post a youtube video up of my jump soon so you can see me dancing and getting pumped while they harness me in! Then two guys helped me hobble over to the edge and put each of my arms over their shoulders, then I shout “let’s do this boys” as one of them shouts ONE TWO THREE BUNGEE!! On the word bungee I jump and attempted to go head first but I kinda forgot that I actually don’t know how to dive in real life so I’m not sure why I thought I’d be able to dive off of a bridge… In any case I went feet first but ended up turning around pretty gracefully for myself and WENT. It was so amazing. Words cannot describe how awesome the experience was, I literally felt like I was flying. I won’t lie though once the bungee cord retracted and a bounced up those 4 times I really felt like my feet were about to fall out! I tried so hard not to panic because at that point what would I be able to do anyway? But I couldn’t help flexing my feet and holding them close like I’d somehow be able to hold my bodyweight if my feet slipped. Although the whole experience was probably only two minutes, it felt like a lifetime and during that time I was able to calm down and appreciate the gorgeous scenery around me and what I was doing. After the recoil stopped, I literally just hung there upside for I think what was 70 seconds until one of the workers came down and started to pull me up. I remember asking him if there was anything I could do to help and that he just laughed at me and told me to let go of his rope that I immediately grabbed on to. When I came back up they interviewed me and I honestly couldn’t even tell you what I said. I felt so elated and had such a rush that I could barely recall what had just happened. Such a sick experience. If I had the opportunity to do it again I definitely would because I would like to not worry so much about falling out of the bungee cord next time, and maybe wear some shoes next time!









I’m pretty sure not much else I do on this trip can top bungee jumping though I’m going to try! I’m looking into paragliding off of Lion’s Head, a mountain that some of the girls have already hiked that overlooks all of Cape Town. And of course there’s always the famous shark care diving though I’m not too sure how I feel about that yet!

Anyway, that Monday we had a long drive home but still stopped at the Cango Caves and had a tour of them. I have seen caves in Monterrey, Mexico when I was there a couple years ago but I have to say these caves definitely trumped them! It was so pretty and I got a pretty fun photo shoot in them with some of the girls. After the caves we went to an ostrich farm where pretty much everyone went ostrich riding except me. Something about those animals skeeve me out, especially since we all ate ostrich fillets right after riding them. I have to say ostrich is quite delicious and it’s definitely one of the meals from SA that I will miss the most! After ostrich riding craziness we had a nice, long 6 hour drive home but the scenery was so gorgeous that I barely noticed the time.


All in all such a fantastic weekend, definitely one I will never ever forget ☺

more safari pictures!

SAFARI IN AFRICA

Now for the blog you’ve all been waiting for… SAFARI!!!!

After a long and exhausting 7 hour drive to Kruger from Johannesburg we finally made it! Within the first 10 minutes of being in the park we saw an elephant on the side of the road just hanging out! We were in our giant tour bus so we couldn’t get too close but still were able to get some pictures of it! We then checked into our HUTS which we would be staying in for the next two nights! They were pretty legit, equipped with straw roof and AC! Not too bad a deal! The interesting thing about the huts was that the refrigerator and kitchen were kept on the outside of the hut so that baboons that wander around the park would not attempt to break into your hut!

As soon as we got to our huts we had to run to get on a safari jeep to take us to our sundown safari from 5 to 8pm! Our safari guide, Lettus, was a giant African man with a shot gun and lots of knowledge on all sorts of animals so we were in good hands! On our evening drive we got to see pumba in the flesh! (aka a warthog), a couple of pythons in the road, an entire colony of baboons and velvet monkeys, but by far my favorite thing we saw on our first drive was a family of elephants! There were three baby elephants and two older ones all walking around, eating, and playing together. We got up so close to them and they even crossed the road right in front of us! I literally could have watched them interact with each other all day! The baboons were really neat because we got to see a baby baboon latched to his mother, and see how they all interacted with each other.

The next morning we had to be up at 4am for our sunrise drive which ended up being quite a rainy experience. Despite the rain, straightaway we ran into a couple of giraffes right off of the road! We also saw zebras up close and personal which I loved! Also, because of the rain we ended up seeing a few hyenas which normally are nocturnal animals but come out during the rain.

During the day the sky cleared up nicely so we spent the day exploring the park, lounging by the pool, and discovering a disserted train station that was converted into a bar/restaurant and had a bit of a photo shoot there!

That evening we booked tickets for another sunset drive because the weather was so nice and we were set on seeing lions before we left! We saw a water buffalo which is part of “the big five.” The big five is the five most dangerous and difficult to find in animals in Africa that you are supposed to see on safari. The big five consists of water buffalo, elephants, rhinos, lions and leopards. We then saw a tree filled with vultures, which could indicate that an animal was killed near by and they could be waiting for leftovers! We looked our hardest but could not find any lions or animals in the area so we continued down the trail where we spotted hippos, an alligator, and more baboons and giraffes.

Then we ran into another tour group and they told us that there were lions in that area where the vultures were so we turned around and drove straight back there! By this time it was dark out but we ended up spotting a giant hippo right on the side of the road SO CLOSE TO US! It was kinda freaky because hippos are one of the most aggressive animals towards humans but we were fine! After that we continued onward and spotted two female lions napping right on the road! They must have been 10 feet away from us it was insane! I got lots of pictures and a video, but because it was so dark out the bugs were loving the lights we shined on the animals and literally eating us alive so we had to continue back to our huts.


The safari at Kruger National Park was such an awesome experience and even though we didn’t get to see the full big 5 (we were missing rhinos and leopards) I was still content with the variety of animals we saw especially on a rainy weekend!

Jo-burg adventures continued..

The next day of our stay in Johannesburg, we went on a tour of the Apartheid Museum. http://www.apartheidmuseum.org/ The museum went into extensive detail of this history of apartheid from its beginning to its final destruction in 1994. It was very interesting to see, and we had a guided tour throughout the entire museum. When we first stepped inside the museum we were forced to separate randomly into “non-whites” and “whites” and go through different entrances. Then as the tour continued we were brought together and see the different videos from that time period and information about the era.



After lunch at Gold Reef City Casino where I won 40 rand! (around 6 bucks) we went to Memorial Johannesburg Prison where Nelson Mandela along with other political prisoners like Ghandhi were kept. The living conditions in these prisons were horrendous and prisoners literally had a bucket to pee in and a bucket to drink water in both in the same tiny cell they had to share. If they were lucky they had an actual toilet that had no privacy from the other prisoners.


showing off my winnings!

Later on in the week we had a tour of Pretoria, one of the three capital cities in South Africa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretoria We visited the Union Buildings and took lots of photos of the lovely gardens outside of the governmental buildings. While we were taking pictures and minding our own business, a giant group of Asian tourists noticed our existence and decided to start taking pictures of all of us with their giant cameras and extensive lenses. They did not speak a word of English but were still frantically trying to get us to pose with them and give the peace sign in all their photos. It was pretty hilarious. They then noticed Chioma, the only African American of all of us, and started to treat her like celebrity status. Every single tourist of the group (there were around 20 of them) had to pose with Chioma and take zoomed up pictures of her faee for their photo albums. It was pretty hilarious but I eventually had to rescue her from the paparazzi team!




gorgeous purple trees that can only be found in Johannesburg!




Chioma getting mauled by asian tourists!

My First Couple of Days in JO-BURG

Hello All!! I realize I have been absolutely awful with updating this blog recently; however, I had been busy frantically studying for my final exams and then hardly a second to pack before we were off on our excursion! This past week I spent 4 days in Johannesburg, one of the other major cities in South Africa, and then three days at Kruger National Park where I went on multiple safaris!

While in Johannesburg we visited many museums and did lots of sight seeing in the area. Jo-burg is quite a drive from Cape Town so we took a two hour flight to get there. On our first night we checked into our hotel called the Westford Suites, which I have to say was luxury land compared to the pool house where we stay in Cape Town! We had AC, comfy full beds, and a bathroom with a mirror in it! Oh not to mention lots of hot water to take showers with! Needless to say we were spoiled! That night we had dinner at Trumps Grill in Nelson Mandela Square where there was tons of restaurants and of course a giant statue of Nelson Mandela to pose in front of, lots of fun!

The next day we hit up a bunch of museums incluidng the Hector Pieterson Museum and the Nelson Mandela Family Home. The Hector Pietereson Museum is a museum honoring the Soweto Uprising and the death of Hector Pieterson, a 13 year old boy, who was shot and killed during the protest. The Uprising occurred in 1976 and happened because students refused to be forced to speak mainly Afrikaans in schools because it was an oppressive language and associated with apartheid. It was so heart-wrenching to see the pictures and videos of all the violence that occurred during this time period, especially because it was not so long ago. Definitely an emotional experience.



After that we visited the Nelson Mandela Family Home, where Nelson Mandela and his family lived from 1946 into the early 1990s. Inside the home there were many different artifacts that Mandela and his family used throughout the year along with pictures of the family. It was definitely a once in a life time experience to actually step foot in the home of a Nobel Peace Prize winner!










Today I had one of my most favorite meals here in South Africa. After a morning of touring the Hector Pieterson Museum and visiting Nelson Mandela’s Family Home we had worked up quite an appetite. Vernon took us to “Wandi’s Place,” a delicious buffet of traditional South African food. The buffet consisted of spinach, beans, butternut squash, mashed potatoes and various different meats including spicy beef, beef, chicken and lamb. Also, the traditional South African “pap” was served which is pounded yam and quite delicious! The meal was great, but the most unique part of Wandi’s was that the walls (and ceiling) were completely covered with different signatures and business cards from restaurant goers over the past ten years. We found the signature of the Uconn nursing group that had come before us and of course had to leave our mark next to theirs! Hopefully the next group will find our signatures and continue to carry on the tradition!


After lunch at Wandi’s we had a tour of Soweto/Kliptown where we were allowed to walk around a bit and see the exact place where the Freedom Charter was established which is today called Freedom Square. The Freedom Charter was written by the people and is the base of the Constitution that is used today.

COLDPLAY IN AFRICAAAA

Sorry I haven’t blogged in a while, I’ve been so busy with finals coming up this Thursday and Friday!

I realized I never blogged about going to see Coldplay at the Cape Town Stadium where the World Cup was last year! The stadium holds up to 60,000 people and it was packed. We originally had seats up pretty much in the nosebleed area which wasn’t bad because we could really get a sense of just how huge the stadium is, but I have to say I was pretty jealous of everyone on the ground. While waiting for Coldplay to come on we met some other Americans who were from Utah and currently living in South Africa for an internship which was pretty cool and actually ended up meeting up with them to climb table mountain that weekend! Before the show came on we ended up going down to the ground floor to the merchandise tent and ended up being able to stay on the ground floor for the remainder of the show! Needless to say it was amazing. This was my second time seeing Coldplay and they were even better in Africa. There were fireworks for the opener and closer of the show, giant balloons bouncing through the crowd throughout the entire show and of course the band was flawless. Definitely worth the investment. I want to thank my dad for finding these tickets back in March when we bought them! ☺

CLIMBING TABLE MOUNTAIN!

10/10/11

So this weekend I accomplished the impossible. I, Kate Harris, climbed the giant-ass mountain outside my window, also known as TABLE MOUNTAIN!!! What does this entail you ask? Let me enlighten you! It consists of packing and drinking over 3 liters of water and hiking for 4.5 hours pretty much UP HILL for 7K. Not an easy task for me if you know me ☺. However I thought I kept up pretty well and have to say I was pretty impressed with my capability. So obviously table mountain is gigantic so there are many different trails you can take. As a rookie I wanted to take the beginner route of course, but ended up taking the “scenic route” by accident when we decided “that path looks good!” Note to self... don’t do that again! In the end I was glad we took that trail because we really got to see just how beautiful the area is and pretty much ended up climbing three mountains to get to the actual top!
Along the way, we climbed ladders attached to the mountain, scaled rocks, and drank juice boxes. All in all a fantastic time! I have to say getting to the top was one of the most rewarding things I have ever accomplished. The view from the top was absolutely breathtaking and I could see both the Atlantic/Indian Ocean and all of downtown Cape Town. Such a beautiful view. After taking many pictures we ended up taking the cable car down which was awesome because it rotated 360 degrees while we were descending so we could get a full view of our surroundings.

All in all a great weekend, even though The Springboks lost in the world cup :(

miss you all!!