Spring Break, Part One

The beginning of the trip started out in Durban...about a day before it was scheduled to begin. One of the guys who was supposed to have reserved the rental cars didn't. Therefore, my girlfriend and I were thrust into a massive search for two 4x4 cars in one day. After visiting many rental offices and spending up all of my airtime, we found the ONE rental place that would allow us to go to Mozambique and had cars - Thrifty! My girlfriend and I returned to PMB so I could pack, grab my passport, and nap before returning to Durban in preparation for the next day.

Day One: Durban - St. Lucia Estuary

After our favorite cab driver arrived 45 minutes late, my girlfriend and I met up with the 9 other members of our journey at the airport. After an hour and a half of figuring out how to split costs, pay for insurance, and pack the cars, we were off! ...to McDonalds...in Durban. So, it was quite anti-climatic but we were hungry and it was near the highway. Tara got her happy meal and we continued on. We thought it would be a coastal, scenic drive, but the highway was actually a few km's inland so we were treated to fields of trees and green hills. Trees are a problem in South Africa. There are too many! Apparently, foreigners have bought land, are growing trees, sucking up the groundwater and riverwater which then ruins everyone's farms and such downstream.

Finally, we arrived at our destination - St. Lucia Estuary. We stayed at a hostel called, "BIB Backpackers." It was a nice place that had many European and Australian travelers. You are actually more likely to find an Australian on the road because they take 3-4 years out of their life to just travel the world. And it's not one month here, one month in Australia, one month there...it's 3-4 continuous years traveling. We piled into our huts and went on a small hike before going to the grocery store to get meat for the braai (BBQ). After seeing a Zulu traditional dance (Zulu dance count: 3), the meat was ready to be cooked and sleep soon descended upon us. Fatigue settled on most of us except for two, who decided to drink half a box of wine...which then led to an early morning wakeup call of vomiting. Yes. The road trip has begun.