FLYING THE NEST: MONTH 11
Month 11 found us attempting to cross off as many African things on our bucket list as we could - and I think we did a pretty good job! From parasailing off mountains, diving with Great Whites and experiencing our very first safari, Month 11 is going to be one of those travel months we will never forget.
We also reunited with Stephens family, attended a beautiful family wedding and spent Christmas and News Years with the ones we love. Month 11 ... YOU ROCKED!
Where We Went
25 days in Cape Town / South Africa
2 days in Touws River / South Africa
4 days in The Garden Route / South Africa
Highlights
Reunited with family after almost a year of travelling abroad! After 11 months of full time travel we were finally reunited with Stephen's Mum and Dad, and his sister Chleo also came to join in on the fun again! If you didn't already know Stephen was actually born in South Africa and his family had not been back for many years, so we thought it would be the perfect destination to all meet up so we could be reunited with family again and have an amazing Christmas family getaway!
Paragliding from Signal Hill. There’s just something about running off of a mountain and slowly making your way down to the bottom whilst taking in the incredible views below that you simply can’t get enough of. This wasn;t our first time paragliding and will not be the last!
A beautiful Cape Town wedding. We had the opportunity to attend Stephen's cousins wedding, which meant we were able to reunited with family members from around the world that all flew in for the event. It made this family trip all that more special.
Diving with Great White Sharks! One of the most prominent adventure activities you are told about when you announce you are heading to South Africa is “Are you going to go Great White shark cage diving?”. So, of course we had to do it! We surprised Chleo with a birthday present to come join in on the adventure too.
Our first safari experience. For a family getaway just before Christmas we got together with Stephen's family, including his Auntie and Cousins and spent the night at Aquila Game Reserve. This was our first ever safari experience and we were not disappointed. We were charged by an elephant, saw baby rhino and were metres away from giant lions!
The view from Table Mountain. Table Mountain is a must do when visiting Cape Town, trust us - we went up it twice! At the top you can get panoramic views of the city, Lions Head, the Twelve Apostles and the beautiful beaches below. So breath taking.
Crazy African zip lines! We have been zip lining through urban jungles, luscious rainforests, but never from 100’s of meters high above the mountains. Heading up to Elgin for the day saw us flying through a World Heritage Site, past waterfalls and valleys – a moment we wont easily forget.
Christmas in Cape Town. MERRY CHRISTMAS! We spent Christmas '16 surrounded by family and friends in Cape Town - could it get any better??
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! HAPPY NEW YEAR! Again, we said goodbye to 2016 surrounded by family and friends in Cape Town - could it get any better?? 2016 has got to be the best year of our life to date!
Lowlights
Losing all our money! Our bank cards got hacked into and we lost ALL our money! After spending hours on phone calls trying to fix the situation we were told that our account had been cancelled and a new card had been sent out to our home back in Australia (which was not very helpful as we were in Cape Town). We finally worked out a solution, but that scare of having no money in a foreign country is a feeling we do not want to have ever again!
The Funds
Due to our beautifully generous family and the fact food in South Africa is SUPER cheap we had a very good money when it came to spending.
Month 11 was the first month we spend zero dollars on accommodation. As Stephen has a lot of family living in Cape Town it meant we were able to stay with them for the majority of our time in Cape Town. Our visit to the Aquila Game Reserve was a lovely Christmas present from Stephens parents (thanks again) and our Garden Route road trip was organised by some close family friends. We will 100% be returning the favour if any family members want to have a cheeky holiday to Australia ;)
As already mentioned, the exchange rate was very kind to our Australian dollar which meant for an entire month we only spent $300 on food - and a lot of that money was put into grocery shopping to repay for the free accommodation with family. This was also the month we ate out the most during our entire year of travel - really shows how far the Aussie dollar can go in SA!
For transportation in Cape Town we opted to rent a car for a few days coming to around $200, however most of the month we used Stephens parents rental to get around which really kept the cost down (thanks again Mum & Dad)!
When it came to entertainment we were super excited to find out that the cinemas cost only $5 a ticket in SA (its around $15-$20 back at home), so we treated ourselves to a few movies this month coming to $30. We were lucky enough to have a lot of work assignments, experiencing and reviewing a number of activities and attractions in and around Cape Town which we are so, so grateful for!
Due to our very generous family and amazing opportunities that came our way we managed to spend $530 for the two us.
Quick Numbers So Far…
Flights taken: 26
Kilometres travelled: 171,457
Photographs taken: 22,123
Days uploaded to YouTube: 336
Coffee’s Had: 325 (this is getting out of hand :P)
Where To Next:
Apologies to those that have been following along with these monthly updates. The last month of travel was such a whirl wind that we never completed month 11 & 12 - sorry that these are so late! Many of you may know then that our last month was spent travelling through more of South Africa before our year of travel came to an end with a surprise arrival home! Month 12's round up will be out shortly.
Thank you so much for coming along on our journey of leaving home and travelling the world!
