Day 07 Spring Break

“Free Falling” – Tom Petty
Friday September 6^th 2013

Friday was probably our most laid back day of the entire vacation. The only thing on our list of things to do was TsiTsikamma Ziplining tours, which we were all pumped for! After we had all sufficiently woken up, showered, and such we drove into the town. Naturally, Caitie, Gillian and I forced everyone to go the little French place we’d gone to with Jes before bungee jumping. We apparently like to eat French food before playing with gravity. It was exactly what we wanted, and for Caitie Gillian and me, it was kind of like coming home.

After we finished our meal, we shopped for in the surrounding stores. We stopped in at a bookstore where we met some wonderful older women who were happy to just talk. I am positive that Plett is one of the sweetest most magical places on earth.

Before the day slipped away from us too much we decided to head towards the ziplining place. It was about half an hour away (but also on the other side of the toll bridge…poor planning on our part)

Ziplining was really pretty cool! It was a beautiful day and the area was just as gorgeous (of course, it’s magical). After having been bungee jumping, I was a teensy bit underwhelmed, but since I’d never been ziplining before, it was a nifty experience all the same. There were a bunch of quick zips from landing pad to landing pad. My favorite was set at a steep incline and ran between two cliffs over a stream. Though our protective equipment made us all look like absolute dorks, we felt pretty badass….that is….until our guides showed us to the hiking path for the return trip. 

repeat of our bungee pose

Hot and tired, running on adrenaline, we piled back into the cars for a lazy afternoon on the beach back in Plett.

The owner of the hostel had offered to braai for us that night (he was very “I am man. I make you fire.” But we were eager for the opportunity to have a genuine braai). We shopped at the local Checkers and got some chicken, steak, and sausages, as well as some supplies for breakfast the next day. The rest of the afternoon was spent on the beach, until we got a bit hungry and went to KFC like true proud Americans.

The braai that night was up in the bar portion of the main house. Our rooms were in a converted garage like structure down next to the reception office. Of all our hostels, I really liked the layout of this one. Again, we were some of the few people actually staying there. We weren’t totally alone, but we felt comfortable kind of doing whatever we wanted.

I helped our hostel guy (I think his name was Jared) prepare some of the sandwiches. I got to hear some cool hostel stories and a bit about Afrikaans culture. The rest of the girls joined us a bit later while the meat was cooking.

braai-ing with the best of em

The food was absolutely delicious (which was good because by the time it was ready, we were all starving). It was everything I’d hoped it would be and I was filled with a sort of prideful feeling for having such a South African experience.

A bit later, Jes, our wonderful gorgeous sweet Plett friend, came and joined us. I was sad she couldn’t stay longer, but it was great to catch up with her. After dinner was over and Jes had left we all went back to our garage room and vegged out on WiFi and snuggled into our beds.