So many moons ago, in South Africa, we left J'Bay after my attempted suicide in a wetsuit, sorry, I mean "surf lesson" and playing with baby lions, and headed to Buccaneers Backpackers in Chintsa. Using the Baz Bus, we had to change at Port Elizabeth. We didn't want to spend any time there, so we just got a hostel dorm, and got dropped off at about midnight, then picked up at 6.30. This would have been a real pain in the arse, but luckily Jenna, Adam, Marlene, Linda, and Maike were all doing the same trip! Sadly Marlene and Linda who we'd been travelling with on-and-off since Plettenburg Bay, were off further as they had to get Jo'burg pretty sharpish. We arranged to meet up with them when we land in Auckland though, so was ok!
Anyway, PE (Port Elizabeth) was a shithole (sorry to swear, but it was). It reminded me of Le Havre, which is a nasty concrete jungle port in France, so was happy to leave!
We got to Chintsa late morning and were instantly much happier, we were back out in the sticks, in a lovely place which occupied an entire hill, with volleyball, 2 bars, a pool, and free kayaks for the beach. We had some grub, played some ping-pong, then I went for a wander. The interesting thing about this place was that to get to the town, you had to walk across the river estuary, then along the beach. I went and got some breakfast stuff and a pack if beers, and wandered back. That night we had a pool party and braii, which sounded lovely when we signed up to it, then the heavens opened and it pee'd with rain all night!
The next day was much nicer, so we went to town, had some drinks and played some cards (Adam was scaryily good at Shithead), then went to walk home... Well, we tried, but the tide had come in a bit, and I managed to find the shallowest point of the river, which was still about 4 1/2 feet deep! At 6'2", I was fine, but all the others looked hilarious, trying to save their bags above their heads! Reminded me of the scene in Forrest Gump in Vietnam with guns over their heads! When we got back and had nursed our sunburn, I managed to get the England 6 nations game on in the bar, unfortunately, we'd signed up to dinner which was a 3 course Xhosa meal. This was lovely, fantastic foods with pumpkin and butternut squash, a mixed bean and vegetable stew, some mash with herbs, some different beans, and a lamb stew with huge hunks of meat. Starter was butternut squash soup, and dessert a crumble thing with ice-cream. Amazing food, but meant I missed first half hour of the second half! After that, a load of saffers came in the bar and started playing a drinking game which got you drunk and simultaneously helped your mental arithmetic! Was great fun, and Jo was loving it!
The next morning was Sunday, and we got free breakfast which was served up in the big room overlooking the whole estuary and beach where we ate the previous night. As it was free and we had another bus ride coming up that day, we gorged on Xhosa bread (somewhere between normal bread and crumpets), toast, jams, honey, fruits, hard boiled eggs (we managed about 20 between 5 of us), and tea and coffee.
The Baz Bus to take us to Coffee Bay was surprisingly early (we'd waited over an hour for almost all the other legs), and we got to a service station about 2pm, where the shuttle to run us to Coffee Shack (our backpackers) was waiting. This trip then took a further 1hr 45min, and it wasn't looking good with rain and dark clouds all around us. And then we ran over a bloody piglet that decided to top itself by dashing out of a ditch and under the tyre of the luggage trailer. When we got to Coffee Bay however, it was lovely, although very desolate, with only a couple of tiny cafe/shops, another backpackers, and lots of locals hanging around trying to sell you bead jewellery (and quite a few trying to sell you weed and mushrooms, which they'd tried out to excess already by the looks of their eyes).
We had a couple of beers with Connor and Rob, 2 Irish lads who were in Storms River and on the party bus to Jefferys Bay were there, and spent the evening drinking heavily and chatting after our free Xhosa meal, which again was really good grub, with more Xhosa bread!
Following day, we (Jo, me, Adam, Jenna, Maike, and Connor) decided to walk to The Hole in the Wall, which is a tourist attraction because, well, it's a big hole in a huge lump of land not really attached to the shore, and creates a little lagoon. The walk was 3.5 hours along the coast (very up and down), and after about 45mins, my feet were rubbing like buggery as I wasn't used to wearing shoes anymore! Tried to plaster and bandage them up, but wasn't working, so just took my shoes off and did it barefoot! Was a little painful in places, and I walked in poo more times than I care to recall, but made it!
We were told that you can swim through the hole in the wall. We were def not going to be trying that, it looked lethal, with waves about 25ft high crashing in it! We had enough trouble trying to get in the water from the shore, as it was a rocky beach, and after lots of slow sliding around on bums, and getting thrown back in against the rocks, Adam and I made it in. Connor almost gave up as he was being beaten senseless by the waves, but he found his way in. Then the girls tried to get in, and did so delicately and elegantly as expected (teetered on the edge of the water, made on step, then landed on their bums). Was lovely in the water though, and we quickly noticed if we'd walked another 50 yards along, the rocks were covered in sand, and was a lot easier to get in and out!
Our guide (sorry, can't remember his name), then rang up his mate to pick us up and take us back to Coffee Shack. His mate took a while, but we saw why; the roads are potholed dirt-tracks, and he had an old bukkie (little pickup with no 4wd). We all piled in the back and bumped and rolled our way back along the winding coastal tracks. Lovely way to finish the day!
Spent the night watching some local kids put on a traditional dance, had dinner and beers, before passing out in our hot and mozzie filled dorm. Had to get up at 4am to shower and cover myself in DEET as I was being eaten alive (even got bit on my chin, and looked like Popeye!)
Next morning, we packed, and the shuttle ran us to the service station for the Baz Bus to whisk us off to Durban!
Will update Durban onwards in the next catch-up post!
TTFN
x
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