Blogs from Coffee Bay, Eastern Cape, South Africa, Africa

July 28th to August 3rd After the most amazing animal spotting in Addo National Park, we decided to let our adrenaline calm down a bit and head to the chilled out/hippy area of Coffee Bay. As it was pretty far away, we decided to spend the night in beautiful Chintsa, too bad we only had the one night there, it looked beautiful. Again, there's just too much to see and do in South Africa! The drive to Coffee Bay was beautiful; gorgeous valleys, mountains and local villages were the backdrop for our journey. Along the way, once we had turned off the highway and onto a long sideroad, there were signs for "potholes"...that was an understatement! They were like canyons in the pavement. Nick had to dodge them left and right, which is hard when there's ... read more

The journey to Coffee Bay was long. After a 7 hour drive to Mthatha, we waited for a shuttle bus, which would take a further 2 hours. After dropping us at the Shell Ultra City, our driver seemed to abandon us for about 45 minutes, which was slightly worrying, but he did eventually return. While swapping busses I bumped into Albjon from Kruger, who had just come from Coffee Bay. He assured me that I would have a good time there, so I was pretty excited. The shuttle was fairly uncomfortable because it was packed full of people (as Coffee Bay was so popular), and there were a ridiculous amount of potholes in the road. The driver did his best to avoid them but it was a fairly pointless venture. I also met the guys who ... read more

Taking the 7 hour flight on a Boeing 747 Malaysian air flight I left my journey of nearly 5 months in South America for Cape Town, South Africa. Landing on the continent of Africa has been a big dream of mine for years. The wildlife, the people, cultures and most of all the wide open spaces with limited modern technology. A place with pure unspoiled landscapes with potential to apply renewable energy systems to already sustainable lifestyles. I have timed my trip here in Africa with another dream of mine, attending the World Cup of soccer/ futbol. Starting in less than three weeks from now. Landing in Cape Town South Africa on April 8th 2010 I checked into Long Street Backpacker in the main trendy area with restaurants, shopping and nightlife. A, great hostel excellent location ... read more

Day 50 - Coffee Bay - 17/9/09 The Baz Bus journey was the same as yesterday; long and boring. It arrived for me at the backpackers at 0630, the morning was grey and cloudy and that pretty much was exactly the way I felt about everything!! The same people got on at the various places they had been deposited around Port Elizabeth the previous night. We stopped off at various points to pick up extra people who hadn’t been on the bus the previous night; in fact when we left Port Elizabeth it was quite uncomfortable as the bus was completely full. We continued though the Eastern Cape, dropping people off and picking other people up until we reached the town of Mthatha where we passed by the house where Nelson Mandela grew up, the driver ... read more

Hello Everyone; We have been seeing some of the most beautiful country ever! After leaving Buffalo Bay we went to Nature's Valley and stayed at "The Wild Spirit" backpackers. It was great. We went to Monkey Land, a sanctuary for monkeys from all over the world that have never lived in the wild, but are getting as close to it as they ever will. Some were peoples exotic pets, some came from movie studios, over-crowded zoos and believe it or not, quite a few were organ grinders monkeys taught to be pick pockets, they were confiscated from gypsies all around Europe and Russia. It was really cool. Right next door to it was the largets free-flight bird sanctuary in the world. Same thing, exotic pets and movie birds that needed a home. It was so beautiful. ... read more

Hey guys, Well after a super driving day and my favorite rural African driving game "Avoid the pothole while doing 120km/h" we arrived in Coffee Bay. (He doesn't understand the concept of slowing down so it's much easier to avoid the potholes. Instead hits them and says sorry that one snuck up on me! (edited by Tyne)) Coffee Bay was highly recommended to us by lots of other travelers and I don't know if it was because the weather wasn't the best or because neither of us is a dope smoking hippy but it didn't live up to the hype. The bay itself is quite beautiful but it wasn't really our scene. So we decided the next day to head to the next bay over "Umdumbi" which was also recommended to us. This was a much ... read more