Saturday May 9, 2015
What an amazing day!! WOW! We did so much today it was great! Today was the first day off we all had together. John agreed to take us to Cape town about 4-5 hours away. We left early around 6:30 and arrived at our first destination around 10:15am. We first did a canopy walk where we walked along seven rope bridges that were spread out through the canopy of the rainforest preserve we were in. It was so fun! But dad would have hated it! We were about 40 meters (130 feet) above the ground most of the time. I took some great pictures. After that we drove about and hour more to the crocodile tourist spot. They took us out a bit into the river where they knew some crocodiles were and brought some out with food and had us pet them! Wild crocodiles! There was one really big mama that the lady fed probably a 10-12 footer but she didn't come to the shore like the smaller ones that we pet. We asked her if anyone has ever been attacked by one and she said no but I don’t know if I believe her. They have a restaurant right on top of this large pond or river where it’s filled with crocodiles! And there are no gates, fences or anything keeping them from mingling with the people! They only thing that keeps them at bay is the heat of the day. Apparently they come out more at night and roam around. Either way it seemed like a crazy place! haha but an awesome experience. A cheap one too! 2 cedi each which equates to about 56 cents.
The first of seven rope bridges we crossed
From front to back: Me, Gavin, Daniel, Mary Ellen, Marissa, Elisa, Annie, Rachel and Austin
Petting a crocodile. What!
After living the life of a crocodile hunter we moved onto the Cape town slave castle about 45 minutes away. That was such an interesting experience. We went on a tour of the Cape town slave castle that housed around 1500 slaves at any given time. It was right on the shore so boats could come in from Europe, trade their weapons, gunpowder, food and other raw goods for slaves that they then took to North and South America. Then they sold the slaves for raw materials like sugar cane and tobacco and then returned to Europe to trade and start the process all over again. They called it the trading triangle.
Cape Town Slave Castle
Our tour guide took us down into the male dungeon first where there were 5 large rooms made out of brick and mortar. Each room housed roughly 200 slaves. When you are in the room though it looked like it could barely fit half that! The rooms were about 15’ wide, 20’ long, and 20’ high. The first room we went to had brick floor that you could see but everywhere else had what appeared to be packed dirt. We were told however that the floor was covered in old, packed, human faces, urine, blood, vomit and everything else that could have been left behind from the slaves. They had excavated the one room down to the original floor to show people what it was like originally but let the rest. At one point the slaves would have been standing on about a foot or so of their own excrements for up to 2 or 3 months at a time. 1 in 4 slaves didn’t survive the stay. Slowly they were moved down room by room (which were all connected) until they reached a tunnel that bumped up to what they called the door of no return. Once you walked through that door there was no chance of you returning to African soil. I can’t express in words the feeling in those dungeons. It was a mixture of eerie, sacred, frightening, sickening, and honoured. I definitely felt a difference in spirit when we entered the dungeon. So many people. So many lives. I definitely hope that some day I can meet some of the brave men and women that had to endure such a horrific life.
Austin and I jumped in the ocean after at the beach right next to the castle. The water felt great! Very salty! It was my first time swimming in the atlantic.
Definitely my favourite day so far.
The beach is beautiful, you just need to ignore the garbage everywhere
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