Arriving in Port Elizabeth, we stayed at yet another Guest House. This time owned by an elderly couple who every morning asked what we wanted for breakfast. In this city we experienced mainly two things: Addo Elephant National Park and Sandboarding. The national park was about 1 hour from our accommodation, and had every imaginable animal. It was a really big so-called “Game park”, where we ourselves drove around with our car and looked for animals. (After signing a long contract with conditions and rules of conduct) The park did not let us down in the slightest but let us see e.g. elephants, zebras, buffaloes and kudus. We were in the park for many hours but continued to marvel at the beautiful nature and its animals. Sandboarding was the next adventure, which is exactly what it sounds like. You snowboard down a sand dune. Unlike riding on snow, here on the sand you have much less grip, so it was mostly just trying your best not to fall. Very fun, and a good break from the otherwise relatively sedentary holiday.
The next destination was East London, where we would spend just one night before the really long drive to Durban. East London was a smaller town, very hilly and with a lot of green nature. We stayed at yet another Guest House, which for some reason had a yellow theme in the room we stayed in. By this point we were all quite car-weary, but still urged us to finish the last things with the computers for the work we were soon to do get to do. The final software installations and general fixes were done. The road to Durban was supposed to take about 8.5 hours, but turned out to be closer to 10-11 hours. This is largely due to busy roads (a lot of trucks mainly), as well as roadworks where it was completely stationary for quite a while. But the trip was completed. The most interesting part of that drive must have been when we stopped at a gas station and a large group of armed policemen came in and sent everyone out. We didn’t really understand what it was they were actually doing in there, but it seemed like something with the ventilation needed to be done. Interesting regardless, and an experience out of the ordinary. As the trip took longer than expected, we ended up in the center of Durban for a while, when it was completely dark, and there was an absurd amount of traffic. This, at the end of a full day in the car, took its toll in the truest sense of the word.
The hotel we arrived at was incredibly nice. It was on a beach, had great views, and even a rooftop pool. The food (and drinks) were also very cheap, even in the hotel’s own restaurant, so there was regular eating and drinking. Their pizza oven was used several times. Durban didn’t seem (from what we were told) to be a city you wander around in general, but especially as a tourist. So we ended up using bolt taxis to get around. Here we finally got the chance to wash our clothes, which after these two sweaty weeks was a huge need for the whole group. At the same time, we took the opportunity to have stickers printed for our computers. The next leg of the trip was another drive, this time to Hluhluwe, where we would spend the last two weeks and finally begin our work.
//CESA24
