End of Chapter 1!

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We had planned to write a blog about life on the road but it seems like so long ago, we will just let you know whats been happening and what we are up to now.

It's been a big two and a half weeks, not much sightseeing but plenty of partying. We continued on from Outsdhoorn and stopped into Plettenberg Bay, Jeffrey's Bay, Addo and Cintsa. We went skydiving, Canopy touring and partying with Nick's mates in Nottingham Road/Mooi River.

The fighting about food continued while we were on the road, we were in Outsdhoorn during some local afrikaans festival so there were people and cars everywhere as well as blocked roads etc. We couldn't decide what to eat after our visit to the Cango Wildlife Ranch, I suggested eating there and heading out to Cango Caves but Al insisted we head back into the chaos in town. I obliged, nothing was accessible besides KFC so I was OK to eat it but Al wasn't happy with it.
I went into the drive-thru hoping she would change her mind but she was being her stubborn old self and wouldn't cave. I decided I didn't want to eat it in front of her so I skipped past the order window with the intention of driving straight out. Neither of us could have known there was a car in front which must have ordered enough KFC to feed their entire extended family and all of their friends. We sat in the drive-thru, Al blowing up, for about 15 minutes before we escaped. It was then another half an hour before we laughed at each other and pulled in for a relaxing lunch along the way to Cango Caves.

The caves were beautiful, stalactites that have been forming for 1.4 million years and caves so big they used to hold concerts in there. One funny story that happened a few years ago was a stubborn politicians wife that wanted to go for the "adventure" tour which involves some actual climbing through caves. The staff advised her she was too big but she insisted and went on the tour. Through one of the caves she got stuck and so did the other 12 people on the tour with her. It took 12 hours for rescuers to get her out with lubricant and a bit of muscle!

From Outsdhoorn we headed to Plettenberg Bay, the scenery was beautiful! Even more so from 10,000 feet in the air!!! I somehow convinced Al to make the jump with me, much to Helen's distress (paranoid scaredy-cat). I think Al was just worried that I would give her grief for being a wuss so she kind of got bullied into it. In any case all of her hesitations were blown away when we landed, she was pumped up for about 2 hours after it. We were both reliving the experience for days, such an awesome place to skydive.

From Plettenberg Bay we drove to Jeffrey's Bay where we stayed at a really cool Backpackers called Ubuntu. Derryn the owner was a young guy in his late 20's who was happy to chat and tell us a bit about the surfer town. The guys at the hostel told us to visit the "secret waterfall" which was about 20 minutes out of town. We jumped in the car and drove out to the gate we were told to go to. We continued up into a dairy farm and paid them about $5 to drive through their property. We then drove along a dirt road for 10 minutes and reached the spot. We had to walk along and down some stairs and down into a beautiful little swimming hole with a flying fox etc. We chilled there for the afternoon talking to some local kids and doing some cliff jumping and swimming etc.

On the way out we bumped into the local kids again, they had broken down on the road and we couldn't get past in our little Kia. We jumped out and Nick pushed in an attempt to clutch start the car but it wasn't going anywhere. We helped push the car to the side so we could get past and before leaving checked if they had someone to call. They didn't have a phone or any way of contacting people. So we leant them the iphone to make a quick call, they were fascinated with the iphone! For some reason everyone has blackberry's in South Africa so they don't see too many iphones etc. Anyway the kid called his mum and started with "mummy", Al and I both laughed at him haha!

From Jeffreys Bay we went to Addo for a sunset Safari, we had our first look at some Elephants, Zebra, buffalo and various buck and other wildlife.

We then continued on from Addo to Cintsa to stay at the Buccaneers Backpackers which we had heard was a fun place. We weren't too impressed at first, the cabins were dingy and old with geckos and wasps everywhere. We went for a quick walk down to the beach and back but there wasn't really much to do so we headed to the bar...

There weren't too many people there but the free shots every 30 minutes ensured everyone was in a festive mood. We started talking to a couple of english folk and found out they were from Manchester. Al said her cousin lives there but is from Bolton, turns out so were they and they were good friends with Al's cousin!! Small world...

We partied the night away with the English people and a guy from New York and a journalist from Palestine who were heading up to Cairo using public transport alone, crazy!

We were supposed to head to Coffee Bay but Al couldn't speak or move and the weather wasn't great so we drove straight to Nick's mates farm (Aka - the Pelser Palace) in Nottingham Road. This is unlike anything we have ever seen (well Nick for the second time). It has 9 bedrooms, ensuites in all but 2 of them, 2 maids and 2 farmhands who do everything for you. THere is a bar, pool room, 2 offices, 2 loungerooms, a massive kitchen, dining room, another cottage with another living room and land as far as you can see. They filmed the movie "racing stripes" on the farm because it was an old horse Stud and has 3 HUGE barns with heated floors (one of them was used in the movie).

We kept doing our dishes and Piet (Jays's dad) kept telling us not to and that the maids will do it. We found it very odd not having to do anything, on one weekend we needed to do some washing and the maids weren't working so we went to do it ourselves. The only problem was that nobody knew where the powder was or how to operate the machine!! We worked it out in the end. For the next two weeks we were living in this luxury, living life as a wealthy south african. We had a poike (like a stew) and a Brai with some more of Nick's mates. We went to various pubs around the area and partied with lots of good people.

We went to a place called Leisure Bay for Nick's birthday which is south of Durban on the coast. We were told the place was home to alot of young thiefs and to make sure we lock up all of the windows and doors and put alarms on etc. We were cautious enough to lock everything but we didn't put the alarm on straight away because we were all in the house. I'm hesitant to tell the story because it isn't indicitave of our time in S.A but I guess it is a reality in the country. While we were all on the balcony drinking and carrying on after we settled in (we had only been there about 3 hours) one of the girls noticed her handbag was missing. We all thought she must have been drunk and misplaced it but she was certain she had just been into it and it was in the bedroom (not far from the balcony).
We did some investigating and noticed a small handprint on the wall in the toilet, we went outside and had a look but couldn't see any evidence. That and the fact that the window was the only window open, on the second floor of the house with 9 people nearby. We called security anyway and they eventually found the bag stashed over the fence with nothing missing except about $15.
We couldn't believe that someone had climbed in the window right under our noses, needless to say the alarm was on for the rest of our stay, it also meant we had to endure some South African racism for the next few hours until tempers went down.

On our last night before the Safari we decided to go and stay a bit closer to the airport in Durban. We put the address in the GPS and headed off. We couldn't work out why there was a half way house (mental health home) where we were supposed to be staying. We also couldn't work out why people were looking at us funny as we were driving down the road looking for it. Turns out there was a good explanation a) we had the right street but wrong suburb and b) we were driving the wrong way down the one way street. We headed off the right way down the street and along to the right hostel that wasn't a halfway house.

The place was decent but in the morning the hot water was busted, Al said she had some body wash so I had a rinse and put the body wash on to clean the important parts. Al went to use it herself before she realised it was actually moisturiser, I have the smoothest armpits going round...

Al wanted a bit of chocolate (she claims she wanted to celebrate Easter) so we had a premature easter egg hunt with all 3 mini eggs, still I don't think I have seen Al so excited before.

After the moisturiser shower we packed up and headed to the airport which was about an hours drive, we would have been better off just staying at the farm and driving in. Especially considering the flight has now been delayed from 10.40 to 13.50, which is why this blog is a bit longer than originally intended!

We are now waiting for the flight to Joburg before we depart on the safari tomorrow for a month and then Egypt after that, I would assume internet will be scarce over the next 6 weeks or so but we will try and keep everyone up to date.

It's Al's last day of eating and drinking as she figures she won't need to use the bathroom (side of the road) for a month if she is successful. Apologies for the poor editing we just paid R30 for 30 minutes of wifi which is about what dinner cost!

Love to all, happy easter and ANZAC day. Missing you all!

Love Al and Nick.

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