#30 Driving the Garden Route, sunsets and 2 traveling buddies.

I was staying in a backpacker in Cape Town called long street backpackers that overlooks the main part of town, it's good people that work there and many nice people I have met that stay there. They made food for everyone for a couple of days free of charge.
I have two friends from home who were traveling around South Africa and now have come to meet me, Erin and Jamie. Actually, I only knew Erin from home but have heard about Jamie and now have gotten to know her as well. The first night they arrived in Cape Town we headed for a 3 hour walk up the hills to go to a point where we could watch the sun set. On the way there printed on the street it said "100m until heaven" This was very exciting to me since I have heard so much about heaven and I never thought I would get to see it so soon. Madonna wasn't crazy when she said "heaven is a place on earth". Anyways, at the top of signal hill it was quite nice and the sunset was beautiful. It's just my expectations were sooo high that it couldn't possibly meet them. After the sun set it was quite cold and luckily we found some people to drive us back to town.
The next day we decided to hit the road so we went and rented a car. We learned that the car is not covered for attempted theft. They told us when we are out of the car to lock all the doors and the other safety things to deter the theives but I was thinking that if they attempt to steal it and break stuff we have to pay so why not leave the doors unlocked so they don't have to break windows and then if they do steal it, it would be covered by insurance.
Anyhow, getting comfortable again driving on the other side of the road with the steering wheel on the other side of the car and remembering how to do stick shift with my left hand took some time. When we got out of the city we got off at a wrong exit. Here there were thousands and thousands of shacks made out of metal or wood that people found and put together that couldn't be much bigger than a normal size kitchen and each one housed a family. We have since seen many of these neighborhoods.
The first night out of town we went to wine country and stayed in a beautiful hostel that was on a large vineyard. We did a long hike in the evening through all the vineyards, around large ponds and once again saw another great sunset. This place cost a little more than most places (about $19). When we left there we headed to a small beach town and got some beach time before heading to a city called hermanus which is world famous for whale watching. When we woke in the morning and went out to the cliffs we could see very easily a whale and her calf swimming. It was awesome to see and we watched for hours as they would every once in a while spray water through their blow holes and then also go down under by bringing their tale up above the water. They are a very peaceful animal to watch. When we left there and headed along the coast we saw a bunch of baboons back off the road in the bushes, it's no farm or anything, just wild baboons running around;crazy. (When I was telling people this later and they didn't seem to care much at all it was because I was so excited telling this story that I said bamboo instead of baboon and they didn't care too much that we saw bamboo.)
We stopped at the southern most tip of the african continent and saw where the Indian and Atlantic ocean meet. This night we stayed in a hostel that was actually an old train that is right on the beach. When we went back to the big dorm room (a train car) I saw 3 german girls that I had roomed with back when I first got to cape town. When we roomed together in cape town they always saw me eating apples and thought it was the only food I ate so they were amazed to see me eat other food. They would also ask me if I speak german and then I would tell them no, but when they would talk and then look at me and then laugh it didn't matter if I understood german or not; I understood what was going on. Earlier in the day we stopped at a little fishing village where the boats go out and actually fish with lines and the old styles to catch the fish. We were there when they arrived back and so we bought some fresh fish (a red roman which is only found in these waters). They were absolutely delicious!! After our night on the train we were off again and this time we found ourselves in another ocean city where we asked about hostels and were told of one that was out near buffalo bay, so we decided to check it out and when we got there we saw miles off beaches with this building that was right on the beach in the most amazing spot. We thought that can't be it, but to our luck and amazement that was it, right there on the beach for $13 a night where back home it would be hundreds. We were the only guests as well and at night they built a fire on the beach for us. Where we planned on staying for a night we will now stay for a few nights. Erin and Jamie have been very easy to travel with, they are quite laid back and happy about everything (it's not to hard to be happy in places that we've been), even when jamie cut her finger and almost bled to death (ok, a little dramatic).

You can't always view beauty from a comfortable armchair.