June 20

NICOLE:
So I believe my assignment for today is to report on yesterday…a relatively uneventful day, but when you’re traveling in South Africa, “relative” has a whole new meaning. We actually got off before 8:00 a.m., which is in record time for us. I think we were all just very ready to get out of that bug-infested place. We got in a pretty good day of driving, even after stopping for almost 2 hours while Dad, Mom, Trav, and I got internet, to pay bills, check email, and of course update all you lovely people on our exciting travels, while Lisa, Renae, and Erin went grocery shopping. We called ahead to a town called Coffee Bay where we found out about a Backpackers place (which are really, really nice hostels) we made a goal to reach. We have been warned several times about driving at night around here because of bad, pothole-y roads and stray animals. There are also people constantly walking along the sides of the roads, practically on them, which is scary during the day but especially at night. Our goal turned out to be a little optimistic, and we ended up driving several hours in the dark. Our destination turned out to be on these terrible (but so fun!) back roads in the middle of nowhere. We passed tons of little spread out rondovals, and it finally felt like we were in the Africa I remembered (sort of), heard so many stories about, and seen so many pictures of. This particular Backpackers was party city—not exactly a family crowd, but fortunately the loud music died down before too late, and we were able to get a good nights sleep.
Nicole