Adventure

This past weekend was filled with adventure. We traveled to Storms River with our friends the Bells and McCarty's for a few nights. Our family, including Erin's friend Nicole and Emily's boyfriend Jono, started the trip by experiencing the Tsitsikamma Canopy Tree Tour. This has been one of the things on our "Things to do while in South Africa" list. After a short brief and gearing up we headed out into the forest.

This idea was first started in Costa Rica and it was interesting to see how they manage to operate without damaging the trees. The cable system is connected with pressure and rubber pads to each tree. They try to educate you a bit about each tree while you are up there on top of the world but I'm not sure how much of that our kids truly absorbed as we were all caught up in the fun of being able to slide through the forest from tree to tree.

When we were finished we met our friends at Tsitsikamma National Park. A group of us headed out to conquer the waterfall trail (a 3.5 hour hike). It is part of the Otter Trail which takes 5 days typically to accomplish. Ryan led the way for most of it and this was no easy task as most of the "trail" involved rock/boulder climbing. We were rewarded with a beautiful waterfall and pool at the base where you could swim, reminding me a bit of Hawaii. We even met a group of teachers along the way that were visiting from Michigan. This area of South Africa actually feels a bit like northern Michigan with all of it's pine trees.

Those that stayed behind either took a short boat trip or the hike to a swinging bridge. At the bridge, there was a rock beach where the kids started throwing stones into the ocean. They had a great time and were soon catching a lot of attention apparently!

The next day we headed to the Bloukrans Bridge where Emily and Jono jumped from the world's highest bungy bridge! Above is a photo of all of us after...as you can see they had a lot of support. A few of us were "buddies" and paid to walk across the bridge with them to watch them jump. Watching our oldest daughter jump from a bridge is definitely something I never had on my "bucket list"! Now Erin wants us to let her do it! Anyone else interested?

Stay tuned for Emily's blog on her experience...