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Day 1: Tuesday<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
6:30am<\/b> \u2013 Wake up with the sun at a B&B in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. I could use some alone time, so I sneak out to the living room with a book, thinking of a comfy armchair that I saw there. My hosts are awake and promptly deluge me with friendliness and hospitality, \u201cWould you like coffee? Hot or cold milk with that? Fruit? Toast? Eggs now or when your friend wakes up?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
8:00am<\/b> \u2013 I\u2019m traveling with a friend. She emerges and gets the same routine. A wonderful and very filling breakfast, but we\u2019re both slightly overwhelmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
10:00am <\/b>\u2013 Our guide arrives to take us on a tour of the townships near Port Elizabeth. These are the areas that Black Africans had to move to under the Apartheid system. Nowadays, the Townships are vibrant and complex. There\u2019s still extreme poverty there, but there\u2019s also a growing middle class who choose to stay. Our guide is part of this Township middle class, so it\u2019s a very informative tour, but we\u2019re just scratching the surface in three hours, really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1:30pm<\/b> \u2013 We ask the guide to drop us off at an African art store in downtown Port Elizabeth, instead of back at our B&B. We\u2019ve been traveling in Southern Africa about three weeks now and have some idea what sorts of things we like and what we\u2019re willing to pay for them. We both get some great stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4:30pm<\/b> \u2013 It\u2019s culture day! The same guide picks us up again to go meet with some storytellers in the Townships. We talk to a woman who was a maid during the Apartheid era about what that was like. Then we go to have dinner with a woman who was in the African National Congress (ANC) during the Apartheid era. She was jailed three times during the \u201870s and \u201880s because the South African police thought she might have information about what others in the resistance struggle were up to. \u201cPoverty tourism\u201d like this is kind of controversial \u2013 but we both end up feeling really glad we did it. We\u2019re giving money to a Xhosa-owned business and we\u2019re getting a more well-rounded view of both the past & present of this country than we\u2019d have otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
8:00pm<\/b> \u2013 Our guide is surprised that his boss said we could pay with credit cards. We\u2019re surprised that he can\u2019t process them at this hour and wants cash. A brief moment of tension, but a stop at an ATM<\/a> on the way home sorts everything out. 8:30am<\/b> \u2013 Go get a rental car bright and early, so we can drive to Addo Elephant National Park, about two hours east of Port Elizabeth. We\u2019ve been nervous about driving on the left side of the road, but everything goes very smoothly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 10:30am<\/b> \u2013 Drop our stuff at our backpackers in Addo town and head for the park. A completely amazing day for elephant sitings. We watch a whole herd take a mud-bath in the early afternoon, and then see the same herd washing off in a cleaner pond in the late afternoon. We also get to see the young males do some play-fighting a couple of times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t 6:00pm<\/b> \u2013 We had hoped to explore restaurant options in the town more, but it\u2019s getting dark, we\u2019re a bit worn out from hitting the road early, so we just eat at the place next to our hostel \u2013 which turns out to be a truly fantastic organic place where we have a really enjoyable chat with one of the owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7:45pm<\/b> \u2013 Sort some stuff with our hostel owner. Our banks communicated poorly when I made the wire transfer to hold our reservation, but now that we\u2019re talking face to face we figure it all out pretty quickly. 8:20am<\/b> \u2013 We go on a canoe trip on Sunday River, near the park. It\u2019s a beautiful, lazy river and we really like our guide, Chen. A terrific half-day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2:00pm<\/b> \u2013 We transfer to a different guide for a braii<\/i> (barbecue) and a game viewing drive in the park. Nice, but not quite as awesome as the morning paddle or our drive the day before. Those two things set the bar pretty high, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7pm<\/b> \u2013 We liked that restaurant next door so much, we simply go back to it. This time a solo traveler<\/a> has asked if he could join us. I will be traveling on my own soon, and need all the \u201ckindness to solo travelers\u201d karma I can get, so it falls mainly to me to try and draw him out. I do a so-so job of it, but the food is great! 4:30am<\/b> \u2013 Time to hit the road! We have to return our rental car to Port Elizabeth bright and early, then go catch a hop-on, hop-off bus to our next destination: Knysna. I have the ability to make myself wide awake even without coffee when I really need to, so the drive goes fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6:30am<\/b> \u2013 As we\u2019re waiting for our backpacker bus, we chat with a woman who\u2019s 68 and doing a round-the-world trip for the third time in her life. She has packed much lighter than either of us and we\u2019re sort of in awe of her. Would love to chat more, but unfortunately she\u2019s headed the other way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 12:45pm<\/b> \u2013 Arrive in Knysna. The big treat I gave myself for my birthday is my very own room! My friend and I are both quite used to living alone, so I chose a cheap hostel and paid for two separate rooms for us. We enjoy spreading out our stuff and just kicking back for a bit, then grab a late lunch down at the waterfront. When we planned the trip, my friend was going to buy me a birthday dinner tonight, but she\u2019s beginning to realize the 4am start to our day might kill that plan \u2013 she pays for lunch instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7:00pm<\/b> \u2013 Sure enough, my friend is dead to the world\u2026 I\u2019m still wide awake because of whatever I did to make myself awake for the drive in the morning. Someday I\u2019ll have to learn how to undo that effect. I go on Facebook in search of some sympathy for my lonely birthday, and I get some, but only from the insomniacs. For most of my friends back home it\u2019s the middle of the night. Also, you don\u2019t get a whole lot of sympathy when you\u2019re on vacation \u2013 not even on your birthday. 6:30am<\/b> \u2013 The hostel offers some breakfast foods, but it\u2019s tough to get a turn at the stove, or at the one indoor communal table, for that matter. I give up and retreat to my room with coffee. My lovely, solo room where I can kick back with coffee and a book, so it\u2019s not half-bad really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 10am<\/b> \u2013 We both had light breakfasts at the hostel, so down to the waterfront for a brunch. Knysna\u2019s waterfront is attractive and pleasant, but there\u2019s a \u201ccould be any upscale resort town anywhere\u201d feeling to it. Still, good food and a nice seat by the canal puts us in a pretty good mood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 11am<\/b> \u2013 A long, pretty walk along the waterfront to an underwhelming African art market. But actually I get one of my most-used items here: a little leather bookmark shaped & painted to look like a giraffe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2pm<\/b> \u2013 We go on a guided hike, using a guide the front desk recommends. It\u2019s a truly stunning hike from an overlook down to a rocky coast, but the scramble back up to the overlook is very, very steep. We\u2019re torn between happy and frustrated because the guide said he\u2019d listen to what we wanted (flat or hilly) and he really didn\u2019t listen at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7:30pm<\/b> \u2013 We find a fancy-ish place to have my belated birthday dinner. It includes a brownie with ice cream & hazelnuts. I feel much better now. 5:30am<\/b> \u2013 One of the front-desk staff (owners?) is on the couch just outside my room, watching sports on the telly and hacking out a lung (just a smoker\u2019s cough he probably doesn\u2019t even notice anymore) so I wake up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7:30am<\/b> \u2013 My friend and I have a nice breakfast at the waterfront, but also a minor quarrel. We\u2019ve been traveling together a month by now and this was our only quarrel, so we\u2019re doing pretty well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 11:45am<\/b> \u2013 We still have separate rooms, so that gives us some time and space to cool off. We take one last stroll around Knysna and resolve the quarrel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1:30pm<\/b> \u2013 Catch the backpacker bus to Cape Town, which is where we started our trip a month ago, and where my friend\u2019s flight back to her life will head out in a few days. It\u2019s a 10 hour journey thanks to all the stops, but we pass the time with a Scrabble app and new-to-us snacks like chutney flavored corn puffs.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nDay 2: Wednesday<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Elephants](\"https:\/\/www.theprofessionalhobo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/P1000724-600x450.jpg\")
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See also: Financial Planning for Travelers<\/a><\/em>
<\/p>\n\n\n\nDay 3: Thursday<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nDay 4: Friday (My 46th<\/sup> birthday!)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nDay 5: Saturday<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nDay 6: Sunday<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nDay 7: Monday<\/h2>\n\n\n\n