South African Road trip

First I must introduce this article, it will the longer written on this blog since the beginning, I ll try to share all feelings and details with you, my writing is not the best but the photos will finish to show the unexplained details, only the most "serious" photos will be there, for others, they are on Facebook... Now let me introduce the dream team: Serkan, the running guy, not only running after the soccer ball and the nicest cars he find, also running after girls phone numbers', also the funniest. Vincent, well also running but never after girls, we also call him "push up man" also funny but a bit more serious and looking for adventures. And the last one: me, don t need to say anything, you already know what kind of animal I am.
Friday 22 of july, we get an extra day off to travel by day. Departure for Durban with the Corrola non officially booked but rented thanks to miscommunication... "CCA", C est ca l Afrique. Let s go for almost 1000km of African roads, where you will meet everything you can meet, potholes of 2square meters and 15cm deep, dead cow, donkeys (dead or alive), but the positive aspect is that we saw a lot of different kind of landscape, some of them are  typically african and some other are not really different from Europe. Well, we arrived around 11pm in Durban where after changing clothes we were ready for the 1st night partying in order to celebrate our holidays. Day n°2 nothing exceptional, a normal day, shopping during the morning and chilling on the beach during the afternoon. We were staying in "on the beach backpacker" which was quiet nice, clean and well situated. Exactly what we were expecting. Day n°3 beach activities, tanning, nap, football and sea-kayaking with vincent. This is cool even if sometime some waves are a bit dangerous when you are not use to this sport. After a late lunch in Moyo and "the glass of water" which is now copyrighted by us, we left in the direction of Knisna, 1300km by night, the only detail is that we had the chance to meet rain and fog while 1000km of mountain roads, nice isn't it? Then Knisna, very nice marine landscapes, that s it! Absolutely nothing tondo during the South African winter, restaurants and night clubs are closed, most of the tour operators are not operating because of the low season, we were supposed to stay 4 days, after a long night we left to Cape Town, the place where mountains, oceans, and city life are making the city amazing.
The arriving night was Vincent's birthday, as Sophia recommended it, we had our dinner in Mama Africa, a typical African restaurant in Long Street, the atmosphere was nice, live band singing, and the food was also different, Impala, Springbok, Ostrich and even Crocodile in the plate, we enjoyed (except Serkan, who is not so use to restaurants) We stayed in a backpacker called Carnival court in Long street, the best street to be when you want to party, bars, restaurants cocktail lounges, night clubs and backpackers make it the good place to be for young people who want to party. You can also enjoy the architecture of all the old building of the whole street. The first day in town was consecrated to visit around and see what was where, we found the port where all restaurants, luxury shops, cinemas and marine activities are. We went to a boat to see the sun set from the sea. That was a nice experience even if the crews were not very good in boat management! The day after was the perfect raining day to go in one of the most famous cape of the World, the Cape of Good Hope, which is also a natural reserve where birds, small and big animal are cohabiting with the flora and huge cliff where massive waves breaks and make the view unique. We spent the afternoon there enjoying the nature and quietness of some places where "basic" tourists don t go. To want playing Rambo was close to cost me the life, I slept and fall 30cm close a cliff 250m deep.... No comments. The day finished well in a restaurant on a rock, it was, for sure, the best restaurant where we eat in South Africa and to make it a bit funnier, there were penguins arounds, which mean that I have the all team from Magdagascar the movie. The following day has been about visiting around, camps bay, one of the famous beach of Cape Town with a nice experience in the taxi on the way back, what we call taxi are actually a minibus dropping people around, this one was more than full 18pax instead of 16, nothing exceptional here, but this one was pretty old and driving on mountain roads, at the end the breaks were burning in a nice grey smoke accompanied by a terrible smell and he was still driving 50 and singing. I have been walking in a church, where all doors were open and as I m curious, I’ve been everywhere... Saturday was a very nice sunny day, so we decided to go to Robben Island, the famous Mandela's jail, it takes an hour to go by boat, we did a bus tour where a guide explain all the island story, it has been used by almost all the European for many reason during all centuries since 1750. The small funny anecdote is that they built canons during the 2nd World War to protect Cape Town against Japan, the finish to build it in 1947... In Europe we've got watches, in South Africa they've got time! Then a visit of the jail, it was not so interesting cause of the number of tourist for one guide, at least I saw what was Mandela's room for 18 years, 3 square meters with a chair and a blanket. The sunday, has an holy day, was consecrated to chilling around, drinking beer on the port and going to the cinema. It let me some time to walk in the industrial port and thanks to some notes given to security guys on boat or private decks, I took some photos a bit less "usual" than the other one. Monday, the last day, as we missed the bus, we had one more day, which was a very sunny day and also the opening day of the table mountain, Vincent always motivated bring me to walking way to the top, 1h45 of walk under the sun, very nice but exhausting according to my actual physical level, the view on the top was amazing, there you realize how Cape Town is big and built between mountains and oceans. The way back was easier, we met Canadian guys living and working in Phalaborwa, the World is so small. Well, here we are, the end of the holiday, actually, almost, the way back by bus is also an adventure, 30 hours for around 3000km. I now let you enjoying photos.

Durban

 

Knisna

 

CAPE TOWN

Way to Cape Town

 

Waterfront Port part 1

Waterfront Port part 2

 

The cape of Good Hope

 

Robben Island

 

 

Table Mountain

 

Life in Cape Town

Thank you