Coffee Bay and beyond

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Hello again!! I've done quite a lot since the last blog effort so will try and tell you as much as possible without boring you!
Well Cintsa, as lovely a place as it is, turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. On first inpsection the place was really cool, right near an amazing beach with a really nice little chalet for us to stay in. We decided we were going to go horseriding along the beach the next morning and were so looking forward to it. All the comments in their book said it was one of the most amazing horse rides they'd ever been on. So with high hopes we turned up the next morning only to be told that it was too windy and that the horse riding was off. With hardly a cloud in the sky and a gentle breeze blowing the palms we decided that they actually had decided to take the day off instead. The staff were so unhelpful about suggesting anything else for us to do, that we decided to pack our bags and leave. And a good job we did too! Coffee Shack was our next stop, further up the coast in a really cool place called Coffee Bay. The Baz Bus took us all though the Transkei, a road which goes though a part of Africa which looks like it's been caught in a time warp. People live in Rondellas - small round green mud huts with thatched roofs and these are scattered all across the countryside. The scenery was fantastic on the ride to Coffee Bay and our backpackers was just as great too. Free beer on arrival and a jungle fancy dress party too brought back memories of all those parties at college! So we grabbed some palm leaves and greenery, made some outfits and joined in the party.
Next morning with a slightly sore head I headed to the beach with another guy for a FREE surf lesson! Made some progress but still some way to go before the board riding championships I think! We met a really cool crowd here so decided we'd just stay on for a couple of days. It turned in to a bit of a ritual, that we'd get up early and try to surf for a couple of hours before starting the day. An eccentric but very funny french guy called Bert (Bertrand) gave me a few pointers on the second morning and this time felt I made some progress. A bit later on, Ally and I joined the three hour hike to 'Hole in the Wall'. Fairly self explanatory, but basically a rock in the sea that has erroded over the years, making for some pretty good viewing when the sea is rough and crashes through it.
The Coffee shack was also pretty good at providing amazing meals at hardly any price so we were tempted again into their offerering of Cray fish and a yummy pudding before settling in to another night of sitting by the fire with some ciders.
Stayed another night here and then decided we couldn't stay here for ever so jumped back on the Baz bus to go to Port St Johns.

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