Day six from Grahamstown to Hartenbos

DAY SIX - FROM GRAHAMSTOWN TO HARTENBOS

Prickly pears for breakfast

ADRIAN PTASZYŃSKI

People's Republic of SA

Another half a day of driving through the country. The amounts of kilometres we traverse every other day is just shocking – in Poland we would have already crossed the country from north to south already. Twice, I presume. Finally we arrived at the little seaside town of Hartenbos. Ah, Hartenbos – cold wind, constant rain, the Baltic-like beach and the ATKV's holiday resort which looks like a post-communist hostel straight from the 1950's. If I would not know better, I would feel like home. The evening was accompanied by a delicious vis en patat braaied by the local ATKV, as well as the unlimited ''serve yourself'' fridge with such native delicacies as Castle and Windhoek. The meal was considerably easier – and faster – to digest for my picky stomach than the braai in Durban – I still could not finish all of it, but the chewing was definitely smoother. We have also met the funniest woman up to date in South Africa – a lady from ATKV littering us with interesting stories about how she has met the 'Mampoer King' once, apparently a skilled spirits brewer and drinker, and how she herself is not much worse than him.

AGATA LEŚNOWOLSKA

So we’re traveling again. On this road we were supposed to bungee jump but we were too scared or too sick. So we stopped next to some other high, high bridge and look down. Very impressive, very scary. Everyone was relieved they wouldn’t bungee-jump.

What was incredibly important about this day is the fact that we ate our first 

pie. I got the black pepper steak one and it was amazing. Again, we need to pie Poland up.

We visited a beautiful place that we later identified as Natures Valley Beach. It was very peaceful and calm and one just wanted to sit there and think. We also encountered a bokkie with white dots on her back which I now using my Kruger Park Map identify as bushbok. Not a big score after Kruger Park, but then it was very exciting.

Another ATKV braai made me realize I liked the first one better. The big, empty hall was quite intimidating as well as the amount of food which landed on my plate. I enjoyed my fish very much but after I started to sweat trying to eat it all I knew I had to give up. And then of course the dessert. Delicious. But I had tears in my eyes because Michał wouldn’t hoover and so much of it was wasted on my weak stomach. 

Natures Valley Beach

ILONA KARNIŁO

For half of that day I was regretting that I decided not to bungee jump. Everyone was encouraging me to jump, however I don’t think I would be brave enough to do it. The jumping point was on our way to Hartenbos. The weather, to our surprise and relief, was quite gloomy that day. We’ve stopped for a short stroll along the Nature’s Valley beach. Once we arrived to Hartenbos, we hurried to the beach. The waves were as high as in Durban, so, again, we just jumped for a while and then got bored. Then we freshened up a bit and explored the neighbouring shops. In the evening, while it was pouring down outside, we had a pseudo braai (it was indoors). We ate freshly baked bread with jam, fish with sweet potato and some kind of dessert. People from ATKV were very friendly, especially a guy who gave us a lot of takeaway beer.

Our first bushbokkie

ZUZANNA WALISZEWSKA

Next day we were leaving Grahamstown and heading to the next destination. In the morning, during a breakfast, we thanked our hosts and gave them some gifts reminding them of Poland and our tour. Thanks to that we could talk a little bit more about Poland. Liz and Chris were amazed by the Polish architecture and monuments. Isn’t it a wonderful feeling when people from a different continent, living thousands of kilometres away from you, are interested in your own country? I wish we could have talked more. I got a feeling that they really wanted to visit Poland one day.

On that day we were supposed to do a bungee jump, but according to Professor Olivier’s  we “chickened out”. Well, thanks to my chickening out my heart is still beating and I could have taken part in the rest of the tour. Although none of us was brave enough to jump, on our way to Hartenbos, we actually could see the bridge we were supposed to jump from. At that time I realised “Thanks God for my heart condition, because I don’t have to come up with more ridiculous excuse for not doing that”.  Just a few hours later, we had a next stop, just to admire Natures Valley Beach. That place took my breath away. There was no sun, just grey clouds hanging above turquoise ocean and fog-covered mountains. In the afternoon we finally arrived to Hartenbos, where we stayed at ATKV’s resort. Although the weather wasn’t like a South African weather, it didn’t prevent us from going to the beach and having fun. If this essay is read also by someone who is unfamiliar with our group, you need to know my dear reader, that we can have fun everywhere. Especially when there’s Michał or Adrian or Michał and Adrian around. At the end of the day we had a great opportunity to enjoy our second braai. It was the time when we all realised, that eating two pieces of brooitjies and drinking two bottles of beer won’t help you in eating the whole meal afterwards. Before coming to South Africa we heard that people eat a lot there. But the phrase “a lot” has changed dramatically during the tour. I remember sweating and almost crying over my plate, because we were all so full. And surprise surprise. There was a dessert coming. 

Hartenbos

MICHAŁ MARCINIAK

On our way to another ATKV's resort in Hartenbos we tried our first pies. I had the one with minced meat but my favourte one is pepper steak pie that I tried from Agata.  We unanimously stated that we lack something like this in Poland, especially at  the university. We even plan to start up a restaurant with pies in Poznań. I think we would make a fortune. We could stuff them with some Polish flavoures like we stuff 'pierogi'. We are in Nature's Valley which is extremely picturesque. We spent some time on the beach admiring the beauty of nature and taking pictures but we had to move on. We got to Hartenbos and immediately go to the beach before dinner. This time the ocean is not so warm, but still enjoyable. We all sit at the beach, drink some cold drinks and eat some snacks. Then we went to dinner. I think that after the meal we were all at least five kilograms heavier than before it. We had braaied fish, sweet potatoes and salad. We also tried fresh, homemade bread with homemade tomato jam. I was surprised because I have never tried jam made from tomatoes.

Chasers performing for ATKV Hartenbos