Long Weekend!

Just got back from a loooong weekend driving through the Western Cape.  On Thursday, I went on a safari at a game reserve called Aquila.  I highly, highly recommend it to anyone who makes their way to South Africa one day.  We saw hippos, lions, wildebeests, zebras, springboks, rhinos, and my favorite animal that we encountered- elephants!  The two of them walked right up to our vehicle and one of them held his trunk up in front of another volunteer's face for a moment before walking off.  It was amazing.  Also, the food at this place (we stayed there overnight) was PHENOMENAL.  We had a buffet dinner after getting back from the safari and we had really worked up an appetite because it was freezing out there.  When we left the next day (after a buffet breakfast and lunch), there was snow on top of the mountains by the reserve!  It was that cold- cold enough to snow in Africa.  :)
We did lots of driving around over the course of the weekend and had to really be patient with one another because we were in the car quite a bit.  We listened to lots of Bob Marley on the ride, which was cool and the scenery was beautiful and basically got increasingly beautiful over the course of the trip.  I think I've overdosed on gorgeous views here.  It wasn't quite the same sights we've been seeing though.  Before this weekend, I'd been exposed to city, suburb, township, mountains, and beaches.  Now, I've gotten to see more of the rural South Africa.  We saw lots of farmland, rolling hills, and cattle over the course of the weekend.  We even stayed at a wonderful little place called Honeywood Farm on Friday night.  The cottages were really quaint and nice and we got to eat a home-cooked dinner made by a very cute old couple.  You might have guessed from the name of the farm, but the husband is a beekeeper as well and sold us some very cheap, raw honey.  Not only that, but he actually let another volunteer and I take a ride on a couple of his horses the next morning!!
The next two nights, we stayed at this very environmentally conscious and very hippie-friendly hostel.  We did drumming one night and other than that, just relaxed in the sort of lounge area, occasionally chatting with people from all over the world who were staying there.  There were people from France, England, Germany, and probably a few other places the two nights we were there.  From there, we just kept on driving!
As we drove, I loved asking the program director, who is like a personal tour guide, what the town names mean in English (since many of them are written in Afrikaans).  There are lots of town names that end in hoek, which means corner or baai, which means bay.  Actually, we spent most of today in a town called Gansbaai (Goose Bay) doing something very exciting...SHARK CAGE DIVING!  Yep, today, I saw Great White Sharks up close and personal.  So huge.  I didn't get a great look at the first one that came by when I was down in the cage because it wasn't facing me, but I felt it!  It had chased the chum right up over the cage and was thrashing around like a maniac.  All I could see was its tail moving, but I did get a nice side view of the next one that came by.  Anyway, that was an exciting end to a beautiful weekend!