It's spring break here in South Africa, and I just got back from Langebaan! We rented an airbnb there and stayed a few nights. The drive was terrible (was carsick half of it), yet amazing, and about 1.5hrs long. We decided to drive through the West Coast National Park (only like R350 for all of us, which is ~$20) instead of staying on the highway. So much better than the dry ass shrubs and dunes along the highway. Did get a cool pic of a big dune on the way there tho:
Right before turning into the entrance gate, we saw WILD GIRAFFES!!! I wasn't fast enough to snap pics tho. In hindsight, they were probably in part of the reserve on the other side of the highway or smth, but was cool either way. I didn't see many animals in the reserve, just a mongoose on the road and a few ostriches.
There's a lagoon (like a lake that connects to the sea I think?) in the reserve and it was so fucking blue it's insane.
Langebaan is literally right outside the reserve so I probably could've just walked to the reserve from our airbnb. We could only go to the house at 4, so we went down to a restaurant by the lagoon (a different lagoon I think) called Pearly's. It has like 100 different things on its menu, so it took a while to choose lol. Eventually I settled on the butter chicken curry, which I ate so fast that I forgot to take a pic lol, but it was great.
Pearly's is literally on the beach so after finishing we went over to the dunes. I found a cool valley in the sand and raced my sisters up the sides a bunch. It was so windy that all the sand grains were like heat-seeking missiles going DIRECTLY into my eyes. Got to watch how kitesurfers get onto the water. They get the kite into the air first and get their board ready, then go to the edge and let it pull them out. It looked hard ngl bc of the wind pushing the kite every which way.
The next day we went to the beach around noon. My aunt and uncle drove up from Bloubergstrand and came with us. Pretty much the second I got down to the beach I was in the water with my paddleboard. Haven't been able to use it much since all the water in Florida was either windy wavy ocean or swamp lands (I moved to Africa like 6 months ago). There was this sand bar way out in the middle of the lagoon that I decided to paddle out to.
It took like 15 minutes (I think?) and a lot of energy to get there, but it was cool. I dragged my board up onto it and chased the flocks of seagulls around. The sand was all gooey from being underwater most of the time. Good thing we got there at low tide, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get on there because it was covered like an hour later.
After I got back to shore I pulled out my folding shovel and started digging The Hole™. There weren't any other guys with shovels so I didn't get any helpers, but once I started filling it with water it attracted kids from all over the beach. I put the hermit crabs I found on the sandbar into The Hole™ and the so all my minions (kids who saw The Hole™) started finding more to put in. I dug some moats around it as my minions made the moat walls taller, and this kept attracting more minions. (I have become Gru btw, there were like 10)
There were like 20 hermit crabs in there by the end of it, but the water all evaporated so I connected The Hole™ to the ocean and freed them.
I got tired so I made a chair shape out of sand and covered it with a towel (the BEST idea btw, do it when you do the beach), then started reading I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream on my kindle. As I was finishing the 1st short story (I think there's multiple in the book), my paddleboard fucking POPPED! Randomly started squealing and like everyone within 20m was looking at it lol. I opened the valve to let the air out but the damage was done, the rear tip had a split seam. I guess baking in the sun made the air expand and pressurize it past its breaking point or something. I tried gluing it once I got home but it was super sloppy and it peeled apart by itself later.
On Wednesday I woke up sore all over from paddleboarding. Like I could barely stand because my back hurt so much (and it still does a little). We went to RoxCiBeach, a restaurant right next to Pearly's. Honestly not a great menu, I just got pizza. Then we went back to the same beach as yesterday. It's called shark bay btw, but it only has sand sharks which are harmless. Didn't see one anyways, I think they're nocturnal. I was so fucking sore that I just made a chair out of sand and put a towel over it. It is so comfy if you do it right. I just read for the 4-ish hours we were there. My family rented kayaks, and eventually they copied my hole idea and connected them to the ocean.
I stayed up later that night (compared to the others lol) because Artemis II was launching and I wanted to watch that. I can't wait for Artemis III in 2028 :D
The next day we went to the West Coast Fossil Park. It was about as entertaining as any museum is, but the dig sites were cool. The tour guide said the majority of the fossils there were from a relative of modern giraffes, called the Sivatherium. They don't get enough funding, and there's just so many fossils at the dig site, so they just leave a bunch in the ground for ppl to see lol.
On our final day there we left at like 9am and went to my uncles house to stay the night instead of going straight home. We went to the Grand West Casino to ice scake, but went in the arcade a bit first.
Ice skating is HARD. I only fell once (like my 3rd step on the ice), but it wasn't incredibly fun. After a couple loops holding onto the wall I tried letting go and I was mostly okay. I didn't get faster than my walking speed but eh at least I didn't fall again lol. I think the skates were shitty tho bc my ankles hurt so much.
Langebaan was fun. Idk what else to say here so bye
