Hey everybody!
Sorry I didn't post anything sooner but my first week here at Rocky Road has been pretty busy.
I had a bit of trouble flying inside Africa after my international flight was delayed by a storm, making me late for my connection (from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth). Luckily, I was able to change my ticket and I flew into PE only a few hours later. I stayed at a backpacker's inn called Nulgile -- Afrikaans for "alright" -- for the night. The inn is only a few minutes from the beach and in the morning I explored the area for a little while before I had to catch the bus to Plettenburg Bay.
Here's the small part of Port Elizabeth I was able to explore. Not pictured: Unhappy Valley, which doesn't have a McDonald's.I arrived at Rocky Road during the weekend so I should've had a chance to rest before the week, right? Nah. Not when the Rugby World Cup is on and South Africa is playing! Apparently Rocky Road is a big place around here and people are constantly dropping in just to say hi or to enjoy a couple beers on the back porch.
The view from the aforementioned back porch. Decent.
After the weekend came the week, and "work". Now, everybody who reads this can tell people that I'm sweating and suffering here in South Africa, but really, the work I'm doing can hardly be called work at all. This past week I've helped with a few nature treks down at Nature's Valley (a conservation area in the area with beaches, wetlands, rivers, mountains, and estuaries), taught swimming lessons with some kids from local schools, and worked down at Ingwe River Adventures. Actually, this past weekend I got to work with terminally-ill kids at Ingwe and that has been my favorite experience by far. The kids were shy and quiet at first but by Saturday they were playing soccer with us, yelling and screaming through the obstacle courses, dancing and singing, just being kids. By the end of the weekend Chris (the other American volunteer and my roommate at Rocky Road) and I had most of the boys doing the handshake from Fresh Prince, the one that Will and Jazz do. Lindsay or Taylor can show it to you.
Oh yeah, South Africa won the Rugby World Cup this weekend so there was a "bit" of celebrating around here.
So that's a very brief summary of what I've been doing in the past week. It's hard to believe that I've already been gone for nearly two weeks! I will write more about the other volunteers and people here at Rocky Road later. Maybe even today; the weather is rainy which means there probably won't be any swimming lessons. Which is fine with me. That water is COLD.
Shunning resumed.
- Brandon
Everyone knows it for girls, anyway.
The walk to Salt River during low tide. It gets a little precarious when the tide is coming in, but it's a beautiful hike.
The Salt River estuary.
Another great view of the beach at Nature's Valley.
Taken from the same spot as the last picture. Look closely and you can see Antarctica.
Some of the kids. The guy standing on the right side of the picture, Stuart, is one of the Eco-guides that takes the kids on the nature walks. Chris and I "work" with him a lot, he's a really cool guy.
The sand beast discovered by Chris and me. That's a baboon tail, but we weren't able to figure out what animal that skeleton belonged to.
