Home at Hogsback
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Lisette
17 Maart 2015 | Zuid-Afrika, Alicedale
Last week Thursday I had to be ready again at 6 o'clock in the morning, this time for a bushwalk. Together with the entire PBL group of 8 people we went into the Stenden bus and drove like a retard into Bushmans Reserve. Afterwards we went into the wilderness, somewhat sick from the drive. The walk itself was really nice and interesting. Everyone's legs were cut open by all the branches and stingy plants, but it was worth it. Our tutor could tell us a lot about different plants and we could spot several animals such as waterbuck, giraffe, ostrich, kudu, impala, harlequin snake, tortoise, scorpion, frog and I guess I forgot some more.
That same evening I was able to watch Ajax for the first time with Dutch commentary. I missed it so badly! The internet in the accommodation here is too weak to stream something, but apparently it is possible to turn the internet on my phone into a mobile hotspot and to connect my laptop to that. While everybody was watching a movie in the living room, I locked myself up with the love of my life: soccer! Unfortunately the final score was not really what I was hoping for, but it was definitely worth to watch the game.
Last weekend I went to Hogsback together with Sarah and Maartje. When I saw online pictures of how beautiful Hogsback seemed, I wanted to experience it myself. So we went. Maartje, together with 5 others, booked a Skydive in Grahamstown, so we went there with the same taxi in order to wait there for 2 hours until we could take along Maartje in our hired car towards Hogsback. That's what we thought.. Africa wouldn't be Africa if the weather didn't cause the first flights to be delayed, causing the afternoon flights from 11.00, the ones of Maartje and the others, to take place at 15.00-16.00.
When we finally arrived in Hogsback it turned out we were practically in the middle of a forest, which reminded me a lot of the forest at Schoorl where I always used to go to with my family when I was a kid. So in the end it did feel quite a bit like home, even though it is so far away. We checked in at the hostel where we would sleep in a wooden cabin with solely 5 beds in it. A toilet and shower, without mirror, could be found a bit further. A great experience in the middle of nature, with only the stuff you need. We ordered pizza - and took the leftover home to eat Sunday evening - and went for a walk, looking for a waterfall. Because it became dark pretty soon we could not find the waterfall, but we did find a toad! So there we were, sitting on the gravel road with the three of us, 2 flashlights, a net to catch the animals, a camera and a book with which we could identify amphibians. But it worked out!
Sunday we went for another walk pretty early and this time it turned out that there was a clear path towards the waterfall, which we did not see because it was dark. We walked through the forest for a while and went back to the hostel to have toast, bacon and eggs. Afterwards we walked up to a bathtub, on a mountain with a beautiful view, which even truly supplied water! Then we walked again for a while (read: climbed) through the forest in order to take a path to another waterfall, which turned out to be pretty hard to see after the one hour walk. Fortunately we bumped into another frog which we identified on the road where cars were driving on every once in a while. After all of this we got into the car and drove up to the two biggest waterfalls in the area: Madonna and Child. We did not figure out yet why these waterfalls have these names. Afterwards we got into the car again and went back to Alicedale, the weekend was over!
That same evening I was able to watch Ajax for the first time with Dutch commentary. I missed it so badly! The internet in the accommodation here is too weak to stream something, but apparently it is possible to turn the internet on my phone into a mobile hotspot and to connect my laptop to that. While everybody was watching a movie in the living room, I locked myself up with the love of my life: soccer! Unfortunately the final score was not really what I was hoping for, but it was definitely worth to watch the game.
Last weekend I went to Hogsback together with Sarah and Maartje. When I saw online pictures of how beautiful Hogsback seemed, I wanted to experience it myself. So we went. Maartje, together with 5 others, booked a Skydive in Grahamstown, so we went there with the same taxi in order to wait there for 2 hours until we could take along Maartje in our hired car towards Hogsback. That's what we thought.. Africa wouldn't be Africa if the weather didn't cause the first flights to be delayed, causing the afternoon flights from 11.00, the ones of Maartje and the others, to take place at 15.00-16.00.
When we finally arrived in Hogsback it turned out we were practically in the middle of a forest, which reminded me a lot of the forest at Schoorl where I always used to go to with my family when I was a kid. So in the end it did feel quite a bit like home, even though it is so far away. We checked in at the hostel where we would sleep in a wooden cabin with solely 5 beds in it. A toilet and shower, without mirror, could be found a bit further. A great experience in the middle of nature, with only the stuff you need. We ordered pizza - and took the leftover home to eat Sunday evening - and went for a walk, looking for a waterfall. Because it became dark pretty soon we could not find the waterfall, but we did find a toad! So there we were, sitting on the gravel road with the three of us, 2 flashlights, a net to catch the animals, a camera and a book with which we could identify amphibians. But it worked out!
Sunday we went for another walk pretty early and this time it turned out that there was a clear path towards the waterfall, which we did not see because it was dark. We walked through the forest for a while and went back to the hostel to have toast, bacon and eggs. Afterwards we walked up to a bathtub, on a mountain with a beautiful view, which even truly supplied water! Then we walked again for a while (read: climbed) through the forest in order to take a path to another waterfall, which turned out to be pretty hard to see after the one hour walk. Fortunately we bumped into another frog which we identified on the road where cars were driving on every once in a while. After all of this we got into the car and drove up to the two biggest waterfalls in the area: Madonna and Child. We did not figure out yet why these waterfalls have these names. Afterwards we got into the car again and went back to Alicedale, the weekend was over!
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
