After saying our final goodbyes to our newfound friends in Port Elizabeth, we cleaned the house, picked up our car rental, and packed our bags for debrief!
When we went to pick up our rental car from Thrifty, we found out that they wanted to give us a free upgrade: from a Hyundai Sonata to a Mercedes Benz E200 –
FOR FREE!
Turns out they don't store Mercedes in Port Elizabeth and they were going to have to pay someone to drive it back to Cape Town if we didn’t want to take it. Who wouldn't want to take a Benz???
The Benz Backseat Riders
We headed out Tuesday morning on our road trip to final debrief. We had no idea how long the trip was going to take. We had asked around and heard anywhere from 5 to 11 hours. We gave ourselves two days to get there, so we could stop at our leisure to enjoy the views along the way.
So here we are, cruising down the Garden Route, said by some to be the most beautiful stretch of road in all of Africa. We drove wine country, along the shoreline, over mountains, and saw 3 rainbows along the way.
We arrived in Cape Town a day early and ended up staying at the Courtyard Hotel, one of the nicest hotels in town. It was just within our price range (with a little help from some supporters back home), had the perfect bed situation (1 queen and 2 singles, since it was 3 girls and 1 guy traveling…), and they regretted to inform us that they only had suites available…. Oh darn. 🙂
The Final Four outside our gem of a hotel
Time after time, God blessed our adventures to Cape Town. First the car, then the rainbows, and now the hotel. This hotel was amazing!! They had customer service down to a T and it was such a great time spent there. We even took two and half hours to eat dinner at the restaurant right next to the hotel – without playing cards while we waited for our food! We almost felt "normal" [whatever that is…].
The next day, we dropped our bags off at the hostel we would be at for debrief and then headed out to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope before we had to return the car. We stopped in to see the penguins at Boulder Bay on the way.
Looking back over Cape of Good Hope and the rest of the park from Cape Point Lighthouse
The very tip of Cape Point, looking out over the cliffs from the lighthouse
The rest of debrief, we were back in "World Race world." No more Benz, no more bed with 8 million pillows… But it was still a great time. After debriefs on the first day, the rest of debrief was relatively free during the day. Sadly, it was gloomy and rainy a lot of the time we were there, so we didn't get to do the things we really were wishing to do: like cage diving with sharks, sky diving, hiking table mountain… But instead, we spent the days shopping at the V&A Waterfront and browsing the food market and exploring the rest of town.
Our last meal together as a team…. *tear*
We survived the Tumbler!
In the evenings, we had sessions as a squad. They ranged in seriousness and length depending on the night. One night we had a talent show and showed our confessionals video, full of embarrassing and funny confessions from the past year. The next we had our final banquet, where we all got dressed up and ate dinner in the hall which we had decorated with fresh flowers and candles. The owners of the hostel were a huge help in making it all happen! It all turned out so great! At the banquet, we shared our team videos, honored the leadership, treasurers, logistics team, and squad leaders, and ate some amazing food.
Team Tumbler at the Final Banquet (we clean up well!)
Our last night in Cape Town, was Sacred Night. It was a night spent in prayer and worship for the 12 countries our squad had been to over the past year [remember we were split between Honduras and El Salvador in Month 2]. It was also a night to release anything we had been carrying, giving it to the Lord so that we wouldn't take any shame, anger, or bitterness home with us. It was an amazing night. It is hard to describe what exactly happened that night, but it was powerful. The Spirit of the Lord was definitely there with us.
The last day we spent in Cape Town was a day of packing, contributing to the largest free pile yet [aka leaving things behind],exchanging notes of encouragement, and enjoying each other's company one last time. We ended our time in true South Africa style with a Braii [the South African equivalent of a barbecue]. After taking one last squad picture outside the hostel, we said our goodbyes to the few Racers that were staying behind and we loaded the bus
one
last
time
