Bontle's first Holiday in RSA, Part III

In the early afternoon, we arrived in Hogsback, a town that J.R. Tolkien supposedly lived in and based 'The Hobbit' off of the forests there. We went on a wonderful hike in the forest and at the top found some stunning waterfalls. That night we hung out at the bar and met some fellow travellers. The next day we headed out for the National Arts Festival in Grahmstown. It was a beautiful drive and the terrain was becoming a bit more tropical. Now our beautiful Chico had done such an amazing job of taking us so far, and had put up with a lot of our bullshit. Finally, she just couldn't take it anymore and we blew two tires... at once. Luckily, we were only 15Km outside of Grahmstown, and since EVERYONE in South Africa drives a Chico, we found someone with the spirit of Ubuntu to let us borrow his spare tire until we reached Grahmstown. Once at the tire store, we discovered a nail in a third tire, so (Go Us!) we replaced all three tires at once. We made our way to the National Arts Festival, and of course I spent way too much money buying gifts for people at home... and for myself.

Our next stop was Jeffery's bay, known as one of the best surf spots in the world, and stayed at this great hostel called 'Ubuntu' for two nights. Aside from a trip to the Lion Sanctuary, where we played with lion cubs, we mostly just hung out at the hostel with folk there. It seemed as though many of the travellers we met were South Africans travelling around their own country, on part of some longer journey. We all swapped stories of places we had been, people we had met, things we had learned. Many of them had travelled to many other African countries, to Indonesia, and Northern Africa. They had stayed with locals in small villages where most of the people in the village were living in poverty, much like the villages here in South Africa... yet none of them had been to a village or township in their own country, or knew anything at all about the culture in the villages and townships. They were all so intrigued by our stories of village life. I was surprised by all of this... the fact that they didn't mind ' village life' in other cultures and could handle pooping in pit toilets, bucket baths, no running water, etc., but had never considered visiting any of the villages in their own country, or thought about what those people's lives might be like...

After J-Bay we made our way along the Garden Route to Wilderness, another beautiful town along the coast of South Africa. We stayed at a beautiful hostel that was at the top of the mountain, overlooking the ocean. We went hiking the next morning and once again found some beautiful waterfalls. Our road trip was coming to an end, as we headed towards Cape Town for the last leg of our journey...