A Few More Tidbits from the Eastern Cape

I have a few things I want to show you that we saw on our trip and then I will be done.  No animals this time, just lots of interesting sites.  These pictures were taken between Port Elizabeth and Cape Town on our way home.  We drove around sight-seeing with our firends, the LaPrays in Port Elizabeth.  We saw these children playing on a rural road when we were driving to the Elephant park.  They had homemade toys and were happy to show them to us. 

I hope you can see that the toys have long handles that allows the boys to push them along on the road.  They have made those little wheels out of wire and then just added lots of layers of ideas.  They both look like they have something that is supposed to be a license plate. 

We have seen a few of these toys as we have traveled around, but this is the only time I have had the opportunity to take a good picture.

They seemed pretty intelligent and able to understand our language although we couldn't get them to say anything.  They have probably been told not to talk to strangers!!  I'm sure they had never seen adults so excited about their silly toys---they thought we were crazy.

This is our newest couple - they came in December and are assigned to Port Elizabeth in the Seminary and Institute program.  We didn't get to spend much time with them.  They are so busy learning their jobs and doing such a great job.

As we started out trip home, we again were greeted by beautiful open fields with forests of pine trees and mountains in the background.

Between Port Elizabeth and Knysna where would spend our next night, we would go through an area where the Tsitsikama National  Park.  This is kind of at the beginning of it.  We decided to turn down and drive to the ocean and see what it was all about.

This was an especially beautiful part of the drive with flowers blooming all along the highway.  This is the Garden Route which many people also call the Garden of Eden. 

It was only about a twenty minute drive down to the ocean and this beautiful bay where children and adults were all playing in the water.  They had boats traveling over to where the river came into the sea, but we were too late to be able to do that and still get to our Bed and Breakfast in time.

I did take a few minutes and walk down to the water and get a little bit wet.  You can see the little child playing at my feet.  The water was not very cold and so peacefully rolling into the beach.  I would have loved to swim there.  It was very, very hot and it was great to just get my feet wet. 

He doesn't look very happy, but he was enjoying the scenery.  It was just so hot.  The waves on the rocks are always so fun to watch.

Actually this is a oceanside campground and this is the little store that is connected---kind of like Mac's Inn in Island Park!  There is a laundry, mini-market, little restaurant, gift shop---you know.  Now we'll show you the campground.

First, there was this beautiful picnic area for day campers.  Not too many people here today because of the heat, I think.  But what a great spot for a picnic.

This was the beginning of the campground.  There were a  few people camping and I think they were having a great time even though there wasn't much shade.

Elder Herbert and I kind of missed our camper at this moment!  I hadn't considered camping on the beach in quite this way, but I am sure there are lots of places to do this in the good old USA.  We might have to find some!

 When we got back to the main highway and drove a few miles, we came to the Tsitsikama Bungee Jump off the Bloukrans Bridge.  It is actually the 2nd highest bungee jump in the world now.  If you look closely near the top of the arch, you can see a person at the beginning of a jump.  As we walked up to the overlook, a young man sitting there said, Elder, will you do the jump today? And of course, Elder Herbert laughed and said, Not as far as I know.  Then, two of our Elders walked out of the visitors room.  They said they heard our voices and couldn't believe we were there.  We couldn't believe they were there either!  It was the Port Elizabeth Zone Leaders, Elder Cannon and Elder Young, who were on their way to visit the Elders in George and Knysna which was where we were headed too.  They left pretty quickly after we got there, but called us later as they were driving away and asked if we would like to meet them for dinner.  We did, and it was a great visit.

 This picture shows a person being pulled back up after the jump.  The area was so amazingly beautiful, it was extra amazing to watch these daring people hurl themselves off this bridge.  We had an interesting coincidence happen here at the overlook.  We met two young men who were watching with us.  I asked them if they were going to jump and they said "Absolutely!"  We stayed a few minutes to see them jump and then we had to go.  The next morning at our Bed and Breakfast we went in to eat breakfast and there they were!  There were dozens maybe more Bed and Breakfasts in Knysna, but they were at the same one we were.  They were college guys from Finland, one was a teacher and the other a doctor to be.  This was their dream trip and they were trying to do every exciting thing they could find to do.  They were going on a week-long hike and camping trip with a guide along the ocean starting that day.  We talked with them for quite a while and I asked them if there were any warning signs at the bungy jump and they said there was only one----Do not jump if you have back problems.  They said their backs were a little sore that day.  It's good that jumping is against Mission rules or we might have a Granny with back problems on our hands! Obedience brings safety!

Above is the poster outside the visitor's rooms.  They didn't have a lot of things for sale, but they did show close-up videos of the jumps that just took place and jumpers could buy the video of their jump!  It was fun to hear their comments as they watched the video of themselves.  Most of them bought the video!

After a drive of abut 30 minutes, we met our two Elders for dinner.  Afterwords we saw this drum band on the street in Mossel Bay.  They had such a sweet relaxing sound---a very African sound - and I wish I had videod it so you could hear this one too!

Here is a shot of them a little farther away. You can see there were trinkets and batik for sale there and Elder Herbert didn't dare let me go on the other side to take a picture of them from the front! We still had a little ways to drive to our Bed and Breakfast where we were staying that night and he knew it would be hard to get me out of there very quickly!

Here are a few pictures we took at the B and B.  It was on the edge of a bay in the city of Knysna.  It is a city where the rich and beautiful gather to party and enjoy themselves.  We didn't really see any of them, but that is what we were told. 

They had this little pool that was as big as two hot tubs.  I didn't swim--we didn't really have time.  The other couples have said that it is okay for couples to swim in safe pools, but we played it straight by the rules. 

Our room was down the path on the left.  The patio gardens down here are always so lovely.  We had free run of the whole place and we even went to the fridge later in the evening and got some sodas and fruit to munch on in our room. 

After breakfast we set out to see the headlands where the water enters the bay.  Everyone had told us not to miss this wonderful sight.  Here are the pictures we took.

It was a fantastically beautiful day and the ocean was beautiful as always.

 People there told us that you can drive to the other side too and then hike down to the caves---not exactly our best thing.   But then they said you can get to the caves by an underground passaage way too.  Now that sounded interesting!  Time is always the roadblock to those exciting adventures---and probably a good thing!

As usual I'm talking or something when he snapped the picture.  We were watching that little sailboat way out there come in.

 Here's a close-up of the caves.

 I guess if you are rich enough, you can live on this hill with a view of it all.

Yes, we watched the little sailboat come in through the heads.

 Here's a picture of the whole bay.  Our B&B was on the far side right on the water.  I can't believe I have no pictures of that view - I guess I must have deleted them!  It was late evening when we arrived, but I thought we took more pictures the next morning.

Wherever you go, you can't get away from people trying to make a few dollars with their wares.  This young man had all these tiny animals made from beads and wire.  They were mostly sea horses and butterflies and dragonflies.  The little airplanes were made from pop cans and other tin cans.  We couldn't resist getting one  of those. It just breaks your heart not to buy more, but you have to resist because it happens all the time.

Can you see all those tiny things?  They really were very weird, but now, looking at the picture, I wish I had a few of them!

 The next city after Knysna is George--after King George!  We had to stop there and take one last look at the Indian Ocean. 

 I'm very glad we did because we got this picture of a sign on the beach that shows how very clean minded they are and unafraid to legislate morality.  They still have laws against obscene things in public.  I liked this because of the three languages too.  We see things like this often.  We should be grateful it doesn't show all eleven national languages of South Africa.  These are the three major languages - English, Afrikaans, and Xhosa.

I know strand means beach in Afrikaans, so this sign is in English and Afrikaans.  Fun, huh! No one down here thinks anything of having everything in lots of languages.  I expect you see this in Europe too.

We really took off as we left George, and drove like maniacs through the little Karoo to get home by dark.  We saw lots of ostrich farms and beautiful mountain scenes.  And we stopped for lunch at The Dung Beetle Restaurant---well, we were in the middle of the desert and it seemed appropriate at the time.  Although, looking back it was kind of a crazy thing to do!   The food was good though---that is a chicken salad and chips (fries) and yes, we had a coke - we weren't at all sure about drinking the water!

As the day wore one, we saw this for about half an hour - it was small at first and got bigger and brighter and then slowly faded.  We see these kinds of things through the clouds all the time down here.  I am always taking pictures of the sun streaming through the clouds.  We wonder if it has something to do with the climate or the curve of the earth, or what. . . .

We caught a nice little sunset as we were coming up on Worcester and the tunnel that goes through the mountain.  (And thank goodness for that, or we would probably have had to add another two hours to our trip!)

 

 And here it is!  I'm not sure what that sign with Boom! on it means----I'd really like to know!  Some of the members who come to Klein Drakenstein Branch live in Worcester and have to drive through this tunnel to
 get to church.  I'll try to remember to ask them.   Yes, Paarl is right on the other side of this tunnel!  Not too interesting inside - it is 4 kilometers long - about 2.4 miles.

And here we are coming out and the sun is still up on this side of the mountain.  We actually made it home just as it was getting dark.  Ahhhh. . . . what a trip!  What a memory.  How great it is to be back to our home away from home!!