Chethana's Great Adventures at Tsitsikama Falls

Okay, before I start on my adventures at Tsitsikama Falls, I want to say a couple things. Firstly, I'm super excited that my blog's been up two days and I've had 79 views already! Not quite sure who's reading about me from Germany & Canada but alright. Also, please leave me comments! I'd love to hear suggestions on how to improve my blog (this is the first time I've done anything like this) or even just reactions =]

Chethana’s Great Adventures at Tsitsikama Falls

By the second weekend I was here, everyone had moved in. NMMU planned the Tsitsikama Falls guesthouse as part of our orientation weekend. When you drive about an hour from Annie’s Cove in Summerstrand, past the city and past the poor townships, you come across wilder terrain. Other than roads and an occasional tiny clustering of houses, there’s nothing but the coast and lush vegetation. Somewhere in the middle of this (not quite sure of the name of the city), there’s a huge guesthouse with supporting buildings on the outskirts of a forest: Tsitsikama Falls Guesthouse. There were about 120 of us staying in this guesthouse for the weekend orientation. The guesthouse had 4 huge bedrooms with lots of bunk beds to accommodate all of us and a huge communal hall to eat and have other activities in. Outside the guesthouse, there is a huge lawn and beyond that trails leading into the forest to the waterfalls, rivers, and other beautiful sights. The stay at the guesthouse was quite enjoyable save the food. I met too many international students to recall all their names. During the day, we’d hike and sunbathe outside and during the night we’d play cards and dance. It was more of a ‘get to know the international students’ rather than an orientation but I absolutely loved it. Below are some pictures of the beautiful area.

I also learned to play drums! I’m quite bad at keeping a beat but somehow I managed along.

Oh yes, before I forget, I should mention that I went ziplining here! On Saturday afternoon, we were broken into three groups of 30 or so and sent to get our equipment on and head out to the trail of ziplines. Below is a picture of a few of my friends and me with our bulky and awkward to walk in ziplining equipment:

Then came the scary part for me: the actual ziplining. I watched about 10 students go before me hoping that would appease my fear a little. Unfortunately, it did nothing. When the guy in charge hooked me to the line, I was horribly confused as to what to do. I asked him how to break, when to break, what to do if I got stuck, the possibility of me falling etc. Thankfully, he was very friendly and the other students were all very reassuring. It still took me another 10 minutes to go off. I was terrified to push off the edge of the cliff with huge drop with nothing to trust but a hook on a line. Well, I was pushed off and when I was finally ziplining, I had a terrific time! We started off with some easy ones over trees and other vegetation. My favorites were the lines at the end: over the waterfalls! It was absolutely stunning: I was moving over waterfalls and a forest 50 feet above with the mist from the waterfalls on my face and the sun gloriously shining down on me. It was one of the best experiences of my life.

Ofcourse, because it’s me, I was one of the only people the guides have had get stuck on the zipline. Apparently I braked too hard and too far away and had to rope myself in. Although in my defense, I saw a huge boulder coming at me (they say it was a good 4 feet from me but it looked really close to hitting me!) and reflexively braked too early. Even with the 20 minutes longer than the average person to push off on the zipline and getting stuck, I absolutely loved the experience and would do it again in a heartbeat.

I have two more posts before my blog becomes up to date! Upcoming posts include visits to the township and the dance there and a post on campus! Hope you guys are enjoying reading this. Feel free to leave me any suggestions as to how I can improve my posts! =]