The Grand Adventures of Bunk 7

15 people. 8 days. 7 hostels. 1,600 kilometers. 3 surfboards, 1 microbus. You can quantify our Garden Route road trip in many ways, but numbers (even words) kind of fail to do it justice, in my book. It was (to turn quite the phrase) a pan-coastal journey of rather epic proportions, from the hills of Cape Town to the hairpin turns along South Africa's rocky southern coast, ending in the beaches of Port Elizabeth. We were a group of kids navigating a foreign country, maneuvering two people-packed, stick-shift vehicles on the wrong side of the road, so I'm still sort of amazed something didn't go wrong.

Two Saturdays ago, I clambered into the back of our minibus preparing for a crisis (grand theft, police ticket, car accident, flat tire, lost in the mountains, you name it), and yet, nothing took a turn for the worst. In fact, it all went rather fabulously.

The landscape varied quite a bit:

...and so did our activities. Day 1, we camped out at a music festival:

Up the Creek was probably the most unique music fest I've ever been to. Everyone brought some sort of flotation device (whether it be an inflatable shark, an air mattress, or a tire) and then literally went "up the creek" to listen to the live music. The stage was situated on top of the ravine, so you could laze the day away floating around on the water, sipping a drink, and listen to some great bands.

We did a lot of swimming, surfing, and frolicking at the beaches of Mossel Bay, Jeffreys Bay, and Port Elizabeth:

We bunked, twice, in the seventh car of a train-turned-hostel, and thus earned the nickname "Bunk 7."

We actually stayed in a number of great places, one being a surfer hostel in Jeffreys Bay dubbed "Island Vibe." If everyone went about their lives at the relaxed pace those at Island Vibe emulated, there would be peace on earth.

We spelunked, we sandboarded, we safaried...

...cruised past an ostrich farm or two...

And when we were too sunburnt and exhausted to do any more, we braaied.

Not to mention we drove.

And believe me when I say there are few better feelings than laughing with great people in a microbus on a sunny South African afternoon, windows down, wind whipping your hair, the music loud, and nothing but the open road ahead of you.