The day after the last post, Jo jumped out of a plane at 12,000 ft! As you can see from the photo, she bloody loved it. When the big saffer guy was trying to put her off, she would still grin like an idiot and say "okay!" - was very sweet! I was very jealous as the guys at the hanger were all a really good laugh, and the sky pretty much no clouds at all. I sat patiently, and managed to get a few cool photos of her in the air and as she landed, which I'll upload in due course.
After the jump, Jo was hilarious, as all of her adrenalin wore off and she was really sleepy and dopey! We spent the rest of the day on the beach, then went for a run in the evening followed by some homemade soup and sausages done on the braii.
The next day was our last day in Mossel Bay, and we moseyed down to another beach at the point, then had to head back to the backpackers to catch the Baz Bus to Knysna.
We arrived in Knysna at about 6pm, and after chatting with a british couple, it turned out we were all in the same dorm, so as we were all starving, we wandered out together and had something to eat and a few beers. Turns out that the guy; Adam, is a PT too, and we are all avid gym bunnies, so the chatter was pretty boring to anyone else, but we enjoyed ourselves!
We got back to the dorm, and some locals were in the courtyard, and started making loads of racket at about 2am, so I gave them some grief and they finally went away - discovered in the morning that they woke everyone else up too, so it wasn't only me!
Next morning we were getting changed and a huge blonde bloke walks in the room, announces his name is Orin, and wandered if we wanted a free guided tour of the heads (the heads are the two huge rock faces which are only 200m or so apart, and the opening to the lagoon, which is deemed by the British Navy as the most dangerous approach to a harbour in the world, and has loads of wrecks in the mouth), anyway, we naturally said "yes", and so with 4 others, we piled into this guys 4x4, and off we went. If you try and imagine to standard rough-tough-saffer, this bloke was it. He was about 6ft 6, blonde, built like a brick shithouse, and with a really croaky voice. Turned out he was kicked in the throat in a rugby game a few years ago, and it crushed his voicebox, but I think it sounded cooler!
Saw some lovely sights, then Orin offered to take us on a township tour which goes through the town which was designated as where the "coloureds" would live by the apartheid regime. It is still very very poor, and resembled Ghana in a lot of ways, but it had things like running water in communal taps, which Ghana didn't.
We got back about lunchtime and wandered down to the waterfront, and looked around the town. There wasn't much to do to be honest, so we got some grub for dinner and breakfast and headed back to the backpackers... Until I dropped a jar of nutella on the floor and we went straight back out to the shop again to get some more plus some beer. Turns out my beers were about 60% the cost of Jo's Sprite! Outrageous!
We sat around and chatted with loads of people in the backpackers that night, then got woken again later on - stupid idea putting a dorm room between the tv lounge and the courtyard, but oh well.
Following day (Sat) we were getting the Baz Bus to Plettenberg Bay at 5ish, so we packed, checked out, and wandered down to the waterfront again for a coffee and some cards, then got on a boat trip out around the lagoon and up to the mouth. Was very nice, though the boat was a little covered over, and there was a group of about 20 Japanese people who must have collectively taken about 4000 pictures in the 90 minute trip - I pity their families and friends when they get home. Was nice and relaxed way to spend the hottest part of the day, though didn't see any dolphins or anything unfortunately.
Went and got a late lunch/early dinner at what seemed to be the only place open to eat in on a Sat afternoon and got chatting to a pair of Canadians who recommended a few things to do around the Crags which we'll probably do when we hire a car in Storms river.
Got back to the backpackers just in time to sit around waiting for the bus for almost 2 hours, then got to our backpackers in Plettenberg Bay at about 7.
6 of us got off and we all shared a dorm. There was Jo and I, 3 German girls, and an old guy called Stan from Brooklyn. Stan is funny as hell, and finishes lots of sentences with "man" and agrees with you by saying "right on". He knows his music though, so had some good chats with him.
When we arrived we headed to the Spar with 2 of the girls and got some meat and bits and did some steaks and sausages on the braii. The steaks cost about 2 quid each and were a) huge, and b) so tender that a crappy old normal blunt knife cut through them with ease. Was so good we actually did exactly the same thing for dinner last night again! We all sat around outside, chatting and having a few drinks, was really cool.
Yesterday, as it was Sunday, we thought it best to have a beach day as not much would be open, and we chose a great day! Plett has some lovely beaches, so we moseyed down with Stan and did a bit of swimming and lots of sunbathing and reading. Burnt the top of my legs which are still red-raw, so got the longer boardies on today. I foolishly told one of the german girls about one of the bits in Frozen Planet where a big wave is coming onto the beach and you can see the silhouette of a killer whale in it where it's coming onto the beach to get at the seals or penguins - she didn't go in the sea much yesterday because of that image in her head with a shark in the orcas place!
As I said, last night was much the same, chatting, drinking Castle and eating meat and greek salad. We planned to go for another run, but we don't know the area well enough, only the route down to the beach which isn't far enough, and a bitch of a hill.
Today we had brekkie, packed and have headed down the hill for Jo to get a wax while I sit here writing this with a coffee! Going to hit the beach for a bit, I'll hopefully find somewhere cheap to rent a kayak so I can go for a paddle in the sea, then later it's onto Storms River where there's loads of stuff to do! Going to rent a car one of the days so we can go to a nature reserve where you can ride a "horsie" as Stan put it and see 4 of the big 5 (not lions).
I'm still in 2 minds about the 216m bungee as it's about R700 which is about £55, so a bit pricey, but we'll see. I'd prefer to blow that amount on a day kayaking or kite surfing or 2 days diving off a boat.
Anyway, I think that's enough for now!
Hope all's well at home, will try and get pics up when I find cheap internet with good upload speed!
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