27. Final Day

Friday, March 15th, was our last day in Cape Town. It was also a special day at Bishops, as it was Founders Day. Celebrating the day that Bishops was founded, 164 years ago. The day started off with a one-hour chapel service. Afterwards, there was donuts and coke at Birt House. Then there was an inter-tutor soccer tournament in which all the tutor groups (mentorgroepen) played against each other. There was also Tug Of War (touwtrekken) and The Mile. The Mile is just people running from the one side of the long Bishops' driveway to the other side, they do it in all weird ways: there was one guy doing it in a wheelchair pulled by a bicycle. Domas and I weren't put in any team so we just walked around Bishops and watched what the other people were doing. We then walked over to Nikhal's house with Matías (from Argentina).

That afternoon, we went to Vida in Cavendish. We sad goodbye to all our friends and had our last chocolate frios. The goodbyeing was very sad. Matthew and I walked back home and I packed my bag.

We had dinner at a nice pub that apparently held the record of selling the most beer in one night in the Southern Hemisphere. I had a really good pizza with avo and bacon.

We had to be at the airport at nine, checked in, and goodbyed. Saying goodbye to our hosts and families was very sad and emotional. I felt very bleak.

The flight was long and I mostly slept. We arrived at Schiphol and I was reunited with my parents and sister. It's a really weird feeling knowing that exchange is over and I'm missing SA and my friends there already...

This is the end of my blog about my exchange to Cape Town, I hoped you enjoyed reading it!

Bye!

Pieter

26. Last Week

On Monday, March 11th, it was my birthday. It was really cool and I got loads of presents from my friends and host family. My host family took us up Lions Head before school, because they thought we couldn't leave without having done that hike. We hiked for about thirty minutes and reached the top, the view from up there was amazing. Camps Bay, Clifton, Sea Point, Green Point, City Bowl, Table Mountain, we could see it all! After the hike, we drove back to Newlands and I went to school. School ended at five. At six, we met up with all our friends at Spur (burger place) in Cavendish Mall for my birthday. It was really cool!

The next day, on Tuesday, my host mom took Domas and me to Cape Point. It was a long drive. At Cape Point, we enjoyed the view over False Bay and the Cape Peninsula and saw loads of dassies. 

On Wednesday, Annick's host mom took the Dutchies to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Stellenbosch (university town), and Rhodes Memorial (place with a good view over CT). It was really nice as you can see in the pictures below.

Thursday was a regular school day, but that night, we had the Dutchies' Goodbye at Annick's. It was sad... I went to bed realizing that it'd be the last time to sleep there.

Here are some photos of my last week:

View from Lions Head

View from Lions Head

Domas and me at Cape Point

Dassy at Cape Point

Cape Point Lighthouse

Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

Bishops' exchange boys at the Dutchies' Goodbye

Everyone at the Dutchies' Goodbye

25. Triangular, Surfing, Herschel, and First Goodbyes

On Wednesday, we had an adapted school schedule. This was because in the afternoon we went to SACS (South African College Schools) for an interscholar athletics event called Triangular. Triangular is between three schools from the Southern Suburbs: Bishops, Rondebosch, and SACS. It was fun to cheer for Bishops and sing along in all the pro-Bishops and anti-SACS/Rondebosch songs. One of them was:

Sacsy, hey Sacsy,

your school's a bloody riot!

Sacsy, hey Sacsy,

you might as well be quiet!

Shhhhhh

Triangular was fun, but it only ended after five, so it got quite boring. Fortunately we managed to leave earlier.

On Thursday, we (Exchange boys: Matias, Domas, and me) were driven to Muizenberg Beach to surf. First, we picked up the exchange girls at Herschel. Once we arrived in Muizenberg, we were dropped off at the Surf Shack. There, we got our wetsuits and boards. After a short shark instruction (black flag: no sharks, white flag: sharks!), we finally got to go into the water. As the weather wasn't that good, we were all afraid of freezing to death, but luckily it wasn't that cold at all! The surfing was really cool! Unfortunately, we haven't received our surfing pics yet from the Surf Shack. 

After the surfing, we were all very hungry. So we went to Knead Backery and I had white hot chocolate (which was delicious), a chicken pie, and a huge chocolate cookie. :) Then, we were picked up by the Bishops' driver and were driven back to Bishops. Once back, I got a haircut (Bishops style) and we chilled at Domas' house.

On Friday, we went to Herschel for a day. The Herschel girls had already visited Bishops earlier that week. Because of the bad weather, we got stuck in horrible weather on our way to Herschel. Once I finally arrived, I was guided into the grade 10's Eucharist in the Herschel Chapel. The service took very long and every time the girls started singing their hymns, I was surprised by the high pitch, as at Bishops, the pitch was very low.

My first period was Afrikaans. All the girls seemed to be surprised by the fact that I could speak and understand Afrikaans. After Afrikaans, I had Maths. The girls had to prepare for a test so Domas and I spent our time drawing random stuff and playing tic-tac-toe. I spent the next to ours in the library with the exchange girls, where we wrote on each other's SA flags. Then it was lunch break. We went to Herschel's tuck shop, which is quite disappointing if you compare it to Bishops' tuck shop. After break, I had History. During the History lesson, we watched a video about Michelangelo. The nicest thing of this lesson though, is that the girls were handing out brownies. Apparently, they have a "bakers" system at Herschel, meaning that they have a schedule in which girls have to bake treats for during the lessons. Wouldn't it be nice if we had such a system at the Rijnlands as well! :) Then, I had science, this was quite interesting.

On Friday night, there was a nice chill session with a couple of oaks*. 
*Oaks = South African slang for guys/boys/lads

On Saturday night, there was a goodbye party for Bella and Ana. It was quite sad saying goodbye and realizing that we ourselves only had a couple of days in SA left... :'(

Triangular

Triangular

Surfing at Muizenberg Beach

Herschel Girls' School

Herschel

Some of the exchange girls in the Herschel library

24. Garden Route Trip

On Tuesday, we left for the Garden Route Trip, a five-day trip along the Southern Coast. We gathered at Herschel, where we met our tour guide, driver, and chaperone. We drove off along route 62, the longest wine route, the drive took quite some time. We went to the Cango Wildlife Park and the Cango Caves. It was really cool! We saw lots of animals in the wildlife park and the caves were beautiful.

After the caves, we checked in at our hotel, the Opstal Country Lodge in Oudtshoorn. We chilled at the pool and had really nice dinner at the buffet. We stayed up late and chatted with the whole group.

The next day we went to the Ostrich farm in Oudtshoorn, because almost everyone had disobeyed one of the silly camp rules, we weren't allowed to ride the ostriches and had to wait for an hour. After the farm, we drove off to Knysna, checked into our hotel, and went to the mini-Waterfront. From there, we took a boat across the Knysna Lagoon. We got off the boat at Featherbed, where we took a kind of train that was being pulled by a tractor. We drove all the way up the hill, from where we had a really nice view of the Knysna Lagoon. We got off the train, and walked back to featherbed, this took about an hour. Then, we took the boat back to the Waterfront. 

After the boat tour, we went back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit. Then, we went out for dinner at Ocean Basket, we had really good sushi.

On Thursday, we went to Knysna Elephant Park. There, we could stroke the elephants and feed them. After which we went to the Bloukrans Bungee Bridge. Bloukrans is the highest bungee jump in the world. At first, I wasn't planning on doing the jump, but then I thought I'd regret it if I didn't. So I did it. And it was really cool! One of the coolest things I've done in my life. The feeling of falling was so amazing! After the bungee, we went to Birds Of Eden, the biggest bird aviary in the Southern Hemisphere. It was so big that you didn't even notice that you were in a cage. 

After Birds Of Eden, we went back to the hotel in Knysna and had dinner at a local pizzeria. 

On Friday, we went to the beach, while three of us went skydiving. After the beach, we drove to the Garden Route Game Lodge in Albertinia. We checked in, went to our rooms, chilled out at the pool, and went in an open vehicle sunset safari. This was cool, we saw: elephants, lions, springboks, wildebeests, rhinos, zebras, giraffes, cheetahs, springboks, and buffalos.

We had a really nice dinner after the safari at the lodge.

The next day, we drove back to Cape Town via Cape Agulhas (Southernmost tip of Africa) and the cheetah park in Somerset West. We arrived at Herschel at five.

That evening, we had a really nice dinner at Moyo (South African restaurant) with the entire Dutch exchange group.

Prepare for a lot of pictures and a lot of scrolling work, enjoy! :)

Cango Wildlife Park with some of the exchanges

Lion at Cango Wildlife Park

Cango Caves in Oudtshoorn

Group picture whilst on our way to Knysna (there's a helicopter in the background above Tessa's head that flew by really close) 

Tractor/train that took us up the Knysna Western Head at Featherbed

The Bishops exchange boys, with Domas (Holland), Matías (Argentina), and me 

The view from Featherbed over the Knysna Lagoon and the nice houses that surround it

Rocío (Argentina) and me stroking an elephant at Knysna Elephant Park

Bloukrans Bungee Bridge, the highest bungee in the world!

Me, falling off a bridge with the treetops under me

Garden Route Game Lodge in Albertinia

Some of the exchangees in the pool at the Game Lodge

Elephant at the Game Lodge, during the open vehicle safari

Giraffe during the safari

The safari vehicle with all the exchanges

The exchange group at Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa

23. Biscuit Mill Market and Waterfront

On Saturday, after having had a good night's sleep, we went to the Biscuit Mill Market for lunch. The Biscuit Mill Market used to be a biscuit mill and has been turned into a crowded, touristic, food market. It is really nice and you could get so much food! I had a delicious mozzarella roll with tomato and basil, after which I had an even more delicious Belgian waffle with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce for dessert.

After we had seen the market, and eaten all the food, we went to chill at Tessa's place. We relaxed next to the pool and swam a little. Then, we were driven to The Waterfront for dinner, a movie, and the ferris wheel. We had a nice dinner at Spur, after which we went to see the movie Life Of Pi. I found the movie quite boring but it was all right. After the movie we went to the ferris wheel at the Waterfront. The ferris wheel is called the Wheel Of Excellence. We went by night because people had advised us to go by night so that we could see the city's lights. It turned out to be quite boring and we entertained ourselves by taking selfies with our cameras.

22. Cederberg Days 4 & 5

On Thursday, we went on a hike. It was a very long hike that took the entire day. We left the campsite at 8.20 in the morning. We had to take as much water as we could because there wouldn't be places to refill your water bottles. 

First, we hiked up the mountain, near the top of the mountain we had to climb through narrow cracks. Some parts of the cracks had been given names such as "The Birth Canal" and "The Coffin". These two passageways were so ridiculously narrow that people even got stuck. When we finally arrived on top of the mountain, we had a little break. 

We continued our hike to the arch, this was a huge arch out of rock. We had lunch underneath the arch and we all climbed on top of the arch for a group picture. 

After we saw the arch, we went to the radar beacon. At the radar beacon is a jar that was put there by Bishops. Every Bishops group that visits, writes their names on a piece of paper and leaves it in the jar. So did we. In the jar we found the names of last year's Rijnlands' exchangees. This was cool!

We kind of got lost at the beacon but eventually we found our way. We were able to walk back in our own pace, so the Dutchies got back at the campsite rather quickly. :)

That night we had a nice braai with the whole group.

On Friday, we packed our stuff and left the Cederberg. We arrived at Bishops at five and everybody was very tired.

Here are the last Cederberg pictures:

Last year's exchangees' names, found in the jar at the beacon.

21. Cederberg Day 3

On the third day of our stay in the Cederberg, after our solos, we went to a little school next to the farm. We helped the kids with their English workbooks and did some creative stuff. We also gave them lemonade and biscuits and we played touch rugby with them, it was great fun! 

After the school, we went back to the campground. We had two hours to relax, and so we did, as everyone was tired after their solo nights.

When the break was finished, and everybody had had their lunch, we went to the bushman paintings. These were basically paintings of elephants on rocks that were really old. Then, we went to a cave-like thing called Stadsaal or city hall. This was a place used by the bushmen to come together. 

After the visit to the bushman paintings and the Stadsaal, we went to the Leopard Trust. This is an organization that is trying to help the Cape Leopard survive. They showed us a powerpoint presentation and took us on a walk. We hiked to a spot where we were going to set up a camera that captures everything that moves. The Leopard Trust uses these cameras to see where and when the leopards move around. We also saw some bok tracks and loads of dassy (rock hyrax) droppings.

When we came back to the campsite, we all got a pizza base, we had to put our own pizzas together and bake them in a pot on coals. My pizza had tuna, tomato, cheese, and peppers on it and tasted really good! :)

Here are some photos of Cederberg Day 3:

The school kids

The school 

Stadsaal 

Bushman paintings

The motion camera

20. Cederberg Day 2

On the second day of our trip to the Cederberg, we went wine tasting at Cederberg Wine Farm. We cycled from the campground to the farm. First we went on a tour to the vineyard, they told us how wine was made and they also told us about their sales. Then, we went to the farmhouse to try some wine. It was really nice.

After the wine tasting, we cycled back to the campground. We were going abseiling that afternoon. We had to gather our stuff and hiked to the top of the cliff. The abseiling was quite scary and it was about 30 meters high. We had to wait really long before we could do the actual abseiling, as the ropes still had to be set up. After all it was really cool doing the abseiling! :)

That night, we were going to do our solo's, meaning that you had to spend a night on your own. We were being dropped with our sleeping bag and mattresses, we all got a gas stove, pan, and pasta. We sat in the back of a closed pick-up truck and we were dropped by Mr Court, one by one. I was dropped last and my spot was a little sandy beach next to a small stream. I set up my mattress, sleeping bag, and gas stove and started cooking my pasta. It was very windy, cloudy, and cold that night. After I had eaten my failed pasta, I listened to some music in my sleeping bag. Eventually, I fell asleep under the dark night skies. I woke up at midnight as it was drizzling. I was really cold and a bit hungry, so I ate a double Snickers bar. I woke up again at three in the morning, the clouds had gone away and the stars were out. So I gazed the stars for about an hour. I saw fifteen shooting stars and one satellite. This was the best part of my solo. I fell asleep again and woke up at six in the morning, I made my way back to the campground, which was about a half an hour walk. 

Once at the campground we shared our solo-stories. One of us had gone back to the campground in the middle of the night, as she had heard baboons in the bushes next to her sleeping spot.

The Farmhouse 

Cederberg Vineyard 

 

 

Abseiling

My solo spot