After Knysna we drove down the Garden Route to Port Elizabeth (PE). It wasn’t quite as garden-y as we had expected, but we still enjoyed seeing the landscape, which consisted of farmlands, forests and ocean.

In Port Elizabeth we did a tour which included an historical overview of PE and South Africa as well as a visit to townships. Townships are areas where non-whites were required to live during apartheid. This was such an eye-opening experience, and quite sad to see how many Africans are living. There are shacks after shacks that look like they are about to fall down. Most have electricity and some do have running water. Those that don’t have water in their shacks do have access to water within a 200m radius.

Although we felt a bit uncomfortable going into these areas, all of the unease was taken away by the inhabitants of these communities, who were so welcoming and upbeat. It was an amazing experience.