Back in Delhi was had to pick up the surfboards from the Backpackers we left then in. Mushtaka (our travel agent) had our train tickets ready for Varanasi. Bupesh organised a porter for us at the train station and we said our goodbyes. The porter had agreed on Rps 200 but once he had got to the platform he said it was Rps 500 (we did not pay the 500) cheeky. The porter also ran off without telling us which carriage we were getting on (the trains are so long). This was to be our first of many train experiences in [View Full Entry]

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It was a 5hr journey to Agra from Jaipur. First stop lunch and we shared a Talli which was amazing and headed for the Taj Mahal. We had to pay tourist price which was Rps 750 each (local price Rps 10). With this you get a free bottle of water and paper shoes (it’s not actually free as you pay for it in the Rps750). The Taj Mahal was beautiful and the gardens amazing. After and 1.5hrs of walking around we got a rickshaw back to Bupesh. I felt really bad as the rickshaw/cyclist was my height but smaller is size [View Full Entry]

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Jaipur is known for its jewelry and textiles....basically we were not interested in either at this point in time. We started off the day at Bupesh's local restaurant. The food was amazing 3 curries, 8 rotis, 2lassi's and water = Rps 144 AMAZING (clearly local prices). Bupesh took us to see the CITY PALACE (tourist price) and it was interesting driving around the Pink City. We were then roped into going to see a textile factory shop (after we said 10x NO WE DONT WANT TO GO). After a 1hour the factory owner seemed a little peeved when we did not [View Full Entry]

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We left South Africa and had a stop over in Dubai, next stop DELI. WOW were in for a shock!!! To start with our 'pre-booked' transfer did not arrive at the airport so we had to haggle for a cab (and BTW we are now traveling with surfboards). We spent our time in chaos as there is no such thing as 'personal space'. Delhi was full of cars, rickshaws, tuc tuc and lots of cows- nothing could prepare us for this! Cows were s**ting on car doors and eating plastic bags right in front of the restaurants/cafe. The hooting was deafening [View Full Entry]

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The Intercape was fantastic as we got to sleep through the night (from J-Bay). Craig's dad (Trevor) was picking us up at the Somerset West petrol station at 6:00am. Unfortuantly for him we arrived 3 hours late and we had no signal until we entered Cape Town. It was really exciting as Craig was seeing his house in Penhill for the first time and I was meeting the family. After unpacking and introductions we went to the local Shabine....time to chill out and open a cold beverage. We tried to surf as much as possible but the waves were not that [View Full Entry]

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Arriving in J-Bay is like the feeling you get before going to watch a film everybody is talking about, but with mixed reviews. When you travel to far corners of the earth and mix with local surfers, its J-bay that they all know about and long to visit. On previous visits I failed to see what all the fuss was about and was hoping for an opportunity to experience the magic the place is famous for. We arrived early in the morning after our over night stay in PE. The signs were good as everybody else on the Baz bus had [View Full Entry]

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Back to early morning surfing, beautiful clean waves...what a life. I am finally off the 7ft board and onto Craig's 6.6ft shortboard (glad to be rid of the tanker). Camping is still cool...but at Buccaneers they gave us a patch of land (down hill) in a forest on an ant hill. The first night was not comfortable but we moved the next day to a camping platform which was good. The board bags came in handy and we used those as mattresses. We did a lot of surfing and some canoeing (to keep paddle fit) and attempted to play volley ball, [View Full Entry]

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Coffee Bay..... what can I say...AMAZING!! We camped on a plot of grass walking distance from the beach and 2secs from the booze. As new arrivals we had to run through the HOUSE/BAR Rules. Buffalo seemed to be a great rule as during the holiday a lot of backpackers got hammered. This is where we started the early morning routine.....Craig wakes me up at 5:30, coffee and then a dawny (early morning surf)! The weather was beautiful almost every day. We met a lot of people mostly Gap Year students (which made us feel like ballies). Hole in the Wall was [View Full Entry]

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The start of the Baz Bus journey..... Sean kindly took us to Tekweni Backpackers at 6:00am so that we could get the Baz Bus to Umzumbe. After a 2 hour journey we arrived at the Mantis & Moon backpackers (only an hour from Durban in a car- which my mom found hilerious). On arrival we were upgraded to a private Wendy House on suite. Mantis & Moon has a jungle/fairy glen atmosphere. There were cats, chickens, dogs, monkeys and lots of gogo's (crab as roadkill). The local Spar is over the train tracks.....not a slow walk. Craig taught me how to [View Full Entry]

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After deciding to bring our flights forward, we landed in Durban with minimal sleep and looking a little pasty to say the least. Claire’s Mom collected us from the airport and whizzed us back to the house, where we began to get steadily wasted in celebration of our first day of *annual leave. (*leave lasting a year) The preceding days were much of the same and the arrival of Nicole and Simon a couple of days later bought a mixture of sight seeing, surfing and baby chat. Just a couple of highlights were collecting my new surfboard, getting stuck in [View Full Entry]

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