South Africa Photo Diary
January 1, 2016 I headed off to South Africa. It was my first time out of the country and my first time traveling alone. I’ve shared a little bit about how I accredit my love of travel to my 4 weeks spent in South Africa (you can give them a read here and here!) Aside from those couple little love letters and thanks, my time from South Africa isn’t shared here on the blog because that South African adventure was pre Just Stay Stoked. So I decided, 4 ish years later, It’s time to let some of the South African beauty live here on the blog. After all, most of the adventures that have been shared here are a result of that first big trip.
While in South Africa I stayed in Muizenberg. Located not far out of Cape Town, Muizenberg is very much a surf town. Bordered on one side by the ocean and on the other by the mountains, the main stretch is filled mostly with surf shops and an array of places to grab a bite to eat. Muizenberg may look familiar to you, as the brightly painted beach huts are a pretty popular identifier.
Surf Outreach Program
The sole reason I went to South Africa was to volunteer in a surf outreach program. The program was an after school program for children that aimed to serve as a constructive, positive way for the kids to spend their time outside of school. Each afternoon the kids would come, suit up in wetsuits, grab boards and head to the beach. Some of us volunteers stayed on the beach playing in the sand with those who weren’t so interested getting in the water. Others would play in the shallows pushing kids on soft top boards into little whitewash waves. The few advanced surf volunteers as well as our program coordinator would paddle out into the line up with the older more advanced kids (let’s be honest, most of the kids were better surfers than any of the volunteers). On the rare occasions that the sea went flat, it was too cold to get in the water or the wind just made it completely impossible to hit the beach we all played cricket (another activity the kids always beat the volunteers at.) Before sending the kids home at the end of each afternoon we headed back to the surf room, made up some sandwiches and snacks and had the occasional dance party.
Weekend Adventures
While the week days were spent surfing the weekends were free for adventures. Adventures included going cage diving in hopes to see some Great White Sharks (we didn’t end up seeing a single shark…) a weekend safari/sight seeing trip through the Garden Route and bungee jumping from the worlds highest bungee bridge. As someone who is very scared of heights, let me tell you that jumping from a 216 meter bridge (thats just under 709 ft for those of us that aren’t familiar with the metric system) isn’t a cure for that fear. I left the experience just as terrified of heights as I started. I’m super happy I did it though because even though I was terrified, as seen on my face in the photo below, it was an experience I knew that I would look back on and regret not doing.
Beautiful Moments
Thursday Market
Thursday Market was a weekly tradition. We all made our way to Cape Point Vineyards for an evening filled with wine, cider, a whole lot of yummy food options (trust me don’t skip out on the food…) and beautiful views!
Slow mornings
I loved my mornings in Muizenberg. Occasionally a group of us would wake up early and walk over to the beach for sunrise. During the week the surf volunteers got to spend the morning in the water working on our own surfing.
Muizenberg Mountain
This hike offers the perfect look out over Muizenberg and the ocean. Unfortunately, by the time we reached the top we were fully submerged in fog!
Wednesdays were for Karaoke
Wednesday nights were reserved for karaoke at Brass Bell. A good time was pretty much a guarantee.
Farewell letters
It became tradition to write farewell letters at the end of each volunteers trip. Most often, the departing volunteer would leave a note to the house and to the people they grew closest with and they would receive letters from those staying wishing them farewell. I very much remember sitting in the airport reading through these letters, it honestly felt like one of the most special moments of the trip. My favorite line from one of the letters?
“Remember the rest of us are just as lost.”