Travel Writing Coursework
Travel Writing Coursework
Stepping off the plane, I could tell I was in Africa. The intense sweltering heat of the African sun stifled me as my feet reunited with the soil of my home. The mesmerisingly beautiful African sunrise captured me in its piercing glare; the sun rise was like a blanket of god warming the earth. The air was almost too fresh and sharp to breathe. I was extremely looking forward to seeing Victoria Falls in Southern Africa and now I was finally there, and the minute I realised how beautiful Victoria Falls was, England was long forgotten.
My family and I were greeted by the sound of the African drums played by the natives and African dancing, there were so many people crowding us. That counting was not an option, everyone for some reason seemed so hyper, it was all because people knew that there tourists arriving, and this meeting of people could not have made me feel anymore important, only then I realised that when you're on holiday you are so powerful.
The feeling was too surreal to believe; the African hills were roaring at me like the Lion King. Not knowing what was yet to come I just took a minute to take in the surroundings. The scenery was unbelievably spectacular! It seemed like it was just painted before me, everything looked so natural. A great change from the noisy, stressful city life.
Making my way to the hotel, there was a dead silence in the car that I had never heard before; everyone was just trying to absorb the feeling of total relaxation, but totally destroying the silence, someone decided to let one rip and trust me it wasn't good it smelled like a thousand skunks were let loose!
Arriving at the hotel, I saw the name from afar it was "The Kingdom," just saying the name made me feel like some kind of highly respected African Prince that ruled the valleys.
Checking into the hotel, I was greeted by a man who served me a drink, like I was royalty, the waiter even called me "sir". I just wasn't used to being called "sir" but that was a minor incident, my brother started yelling my name from across the hall, he told me to run to the balcony, to look at the view of the infinity pool, I just thought to myself can this holiday get any better even though it was only the beginning. Astounded with how I was treated and the extraordinary view, I realised I was on holiday and prepared to P-A-R-T-Y!!!
Since it was night time, I saw the city really come to life and since it was the peak month of tourism. Attracting people to the streets a bright Victoria Falls light popped into the sky, it just lit up the whole city and sky. To kick off the night, my family and I went for dinner at Nando's. I had the weirdest combination ever, a large pizza, and steak and to top it all off a burger, my parents tried the local food but I wasn't the type for trying new things they ate sadza, its like ...
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Since it was night time, I saw the city really come to life and since it was the peak month of tourism. Attracting people to the streets a bright Victoria Falls light popped into the sky, it just lit up the whole city and sky. To kick off the night, my family and I went for dinner at Nando's. I had the weirdest combination ever, a large pizza, and steak and to top it all off a burger, my parents tried the local food but I wasn't the type for trying new things they ate sadza, its like over cooked porridge, my parents offered me some but I gave them a straight answer, it was 'no', I told them I wanted to stick to the things I knew. To be honest I ate all I could eat and more. Enjoying the last crumb, I sat back relaxed and saw how much I gobbled down, and I just watched my stomach rise, it sort of looked like Mount Kilimanjaro.
When I eventually managed to get myself up, I decided to go my own way; I went and looked at the shops, whilst my parents were dragging my poor little sister through a spectacular casino where trying their luck.
Walking out of the shopping areas I heard this amazing beat coming from the dining area. As I walked closer and closer the beat got louder and louder, the closer I got the more curious I got when eventually got to where the sound was coming from, I was so astounded that words could not describe what was happening. There was some kind of tribe playing and dancing to African music, just the drums alone were brilliant and in no time I found myself tapping my feet to the beat. I actually thought I was in the Lion King cartoon it was just surreal. I tried to calm down and catch my breath, because I was so excited, to be back home. Whilst I was admiring the scene, I noticed from the corner of my eye someone staring at me with extreme amazement, I had no idea what was wrong but I eventually realised that this woman wanted me to join in the dance, but I refused! I just wanted to admire what was happening from a distance. The music ended and I finally decided to make my way back to my room, throwing myself onto my bed, I turned the TV on and just watched what was on, it was so boring, and within 5 minutes I even fell asleep!
In the early hours of the morning, my mum came barging into the room, screaming at the top of her voice. Wake up! Wake up! As she opened the curtains the sun came glaring into the room, and this made me really angry. I just looked at her with utter disappointment, that she destroyed my sleep, I mean what sort of holiday would this be if I never even get the chance to lie in. When I eventually got up; I got straight into the shower. An hour or so later, and clean, my family and I went for a delicious breakfast, and my brother Darrell and I were having a competition to see who could eat the most, and even though we were in the heart of Africa we still had our full English breakfast. Then for the best part of the holiday we went to see the waterfall, before we even got to the waterfall we could hear the famous smoke that thunders with the amazing crackling sound and then eventually got soaked by the condensation. When we did arrive, our jaws dropped to the ground in amazement, it was the most beautiful thing I had ever see, it was just perfect, it was gigantic, it probably took us an hour to see the whole thing, we drove straight to the hotel to change because we were soaked, it was hilarious. When we eventually dried off and changed, seeing as it was the day I planned to make the most of my holiday, instead of all the partying I decided to go and relax by the pool, all my family thought I was crazy, because I wasn't the type to change partying for relaxation.
When I was done with the relaxing, I went to an extraordinary aquarium; I saw some spectacular fish, all different colours and sizes. There was everything from eels to sharks, but unknown to me there was more to come. When I stepped into this separate room just the room itself was so weary and gloomy, it seemed like it was from a set of a Hollywood horror movie, perhaps Jaws. I saw a massive shark fin and I just thought that it was impossible but then I realised that I was in a room surrounded by sharks and I could have been the possible bait. I was amazed and scared out of my pants all at the same time!! I tried to keep calm and just walked slowly through the rest of the room, I saw some of the ugliest and scariest looking things in the world, they were so ugly that words could not describe them, their massive beedy eyes, would just follow your every move and this just totally freaked me out. And then there was this electric eel that just zapped me from afar, I think I even managed to jump out of my skin, but to top my day all off was my brother, he was acting the most macho but as soon as he walked into the aquarium he through up, for the rest of the day we just made fun of him.
As tired as I was, I was ready for more, we went to go look at some natural heritage sites. They were just amazing, some of the top wonders of the world, I just had a good feeling, because I was standing where some of Africa's greatest kings stood, it made me feel well powerful!!! Standing on a hill I had weird moment of real calmness, the hot sun just pierced through the famous Sycamore trees, and for miles there was a golden kind of grass that you could see as far as the eye could see. I had a picturesque moment. The view was so striking and interesting, as the wind swept along the long brown grass and in the distance all you could see were the amazing mountains, and the thing that got me and my family puzzled was that all things were a million times more beautiful than man could ever make, and that for my family and I made us feel that it was a holiday very well spent, but our only problem was that why couldn't we have figured out where this place was years ago.
The time had come for my biggest challenge yet, why I made this stupid decision, to go bungee jumping off the waterfall. My family somehow persuaded me to go for it, they just wouldn't leave alone, but anyway I just agreed because I was over powered by them and I knew that they would still win, but no one knew I was dreading the moment that was yet to come. This had to be one of the worst days of my life and what made it worse was I that I was petrified! My hands and knees were shaking like crazy; I just had this feeling that for days it would feel as if I have no belly, but a man's got to do what a man's got to do.
Seconds seemed like hours, and as I peaked over the edge, I was terrified with what my future had in store. They started strapping me; I just thought this was the end of my life, as I was preparing to jump off the jagged edge; I stood up and looked down. My stomach just turned upside down and I felt queasy, but from a distance I heard my mum shouting, "Stop"! "Stop"! I turned around and I was clueless with what was happening and she started explaining that it was all a joke, I just thought great what fun I just got punk'd by my own family, it was all to see if I had the guts to do it, I was fuming that they made me get so scared in front of everyone even strangers for no reason.
When we got back to the hotel I didn't say a word to anyone, everyone in the room felt so awkward, for some reason I wanted my family to feel really bad, I thought it was my turn to have my fun and getting them back for what they did to me, and it actually worked, I just told them, "Don't ever try that again".
The time had for me to say good bye to my holiday, to this stress free living. I was actually really upset about the whole thing because I really loved the place and I didn't want to go home, I had even made friends with the hotel staff and some of the locals, I even practiced the local language Ndebele I felt very much at home, but all of a sudden I had to say my good byes.
Making our way to the airport I was really upset and my mum knew that, there was a real uneasiness in the car, because no-one wanted to go home, and as I set foot onto the plane I had a flash back remembering the first time I laid eyes on the beautiful African valleys. I just took a breath in and carried on making my way onto the plane and just looked forward to getting back home, and I made myself a promise that I had to come and see this place again!!!!
By Derek Steele
