South Africa 2004

End of the Garden Route | 20 Dec 2004

Waking up early (6:45 a.m.!) in order to be at Port Elizabeth's Airport before 10 a.m. to return our rented car. Nevermind, we have to train early mornings anyway - for the safari, where it would be a daily routine. So packing all our stuff, returning the keys.. and we are on our way. Roads are empty and of a high quality, so we are in PE after about 2 hours drive. Returning the car and making booking for the third part of our stay - after safari trip from J'burg back to CT. This proved to be a very good move, as will be explained on the day of that rental.

After all the negotiation with the Europcar rental we take a taxi downtown - to King's Beach. It's 10:30 a.m. and our bus to J'burg doesn't go before 4 p.m. We have quite a few hours to fill with swimming in the sea, sun-tanning, and exploring the beach area. But the Sun soon hides behind the clouds, so we decide to go to the nearby Snake Park & Museum and Oceanarium.

Museum was quite alright, nice exhibitions of nearly everything - from dinosuars through history of the city to different cultures of the area. You could spend there quite some time. NB: it is possible to leave your rucksacks at the Reception - you just have to ask nicely :) Snake Park is a standard ZOO of snakes and tortoises. And Dolphinarium/Oceanarium - well, shows of trained seals and dolphins, what would you expect? However, we have spent our day there and it was time to move on to the main bus station.

The idea was to get there on foot, but that proved to be too difficult.. so we begun to walk and after about 20 mins started to look around for the taxi or a bus station. When we finally found a bus station, a taxi passed by - so we took it to be on the safe side. Arrived to the main bus station at Greenacres well in time, but did not know you have to check-in your luggage in the Greyhound office (like at the airport), so we nearly did not make it at the end, because we were sent back to check-in in the moment when the bus was already loading. Well, we made it and after a few hectic moments we are finally sitting in the bus direction to J'burg. 17-hours trip can start! (Pre-booked in CT, price 340 rand per person one-way)

Locations Visited: Port Elizabeth

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