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Published: August 7th 2010
Was lucky to get the bus the next day, the lady 'took a risk getting me on' lucky someone along the way pulled out. All good tho, Nemo and I got to a place called George where we met up with a guy Vince from Canada and his rental car. When we stopped at a supermarket about 60km away just before some amazing caves I realised I had left my passport and wallet somewhere??? It had to happen at least once on the trip... So we drove back to the bus station and had to wait until the driver who couldn't be reached by phone came into work again. To late for the caves now so we went on to a place called Wilderness about 15 mins away; which is exactly just that, green forest and grass everywhere, next to a river in the middle of nowhere. Found some accomodation in a backpackers which used an old quarters from the 1870's, they hadn't installed any pink bats since and lucky it was only half full so we could double up on the blankets.
Wilderness Later that night we went back to George, bus driver had found passport etc
so was super relieved about that. had a pretty quiet night, dinner and movies and bed. Next day we walked a few hours to a waterfall, was a nice walk alongside the river and included crossing it on a small pontoon and pulling yourself accross with a rope. Waterfall was nice and worth it. Cruised on to Knysna later in that day. This is what the call the Garden Route, one of the most scenic roads in South Africa. It was really good, near the sea and big drop offs and nice views all around.
Knysna 70k people, so a decent size town sorrounding an estuary. Went to the backpackers and met a keen South African Darren who got everyone to join him in having a Braai (bbq pretty much) and some beers around the hostel fire pit. The Braai wa great, tried some sheep liver wrapped in fat which was amazing. Then for dessert another backpacker Jacky Tran from US got us to try some Braaied pineapple which was amazing too. The next day we had a bit of an explore including the island (in the esturary and to the cliffs looking over the ocean. Again its
scenery that I dont have to ability to describe and will let photos do the job soon.
On the
Jefferey's Bay next, Via a look at the highest commercial Bungy in the world (apparently). 216m was too much for any of us so we carried on and arrived just after dark. Stayed at Island Vibe which was a surfers hangout, pretty cool place that had 200 degree views of the sea. Soccer on the beach and the foozball table were good ways to meet people, Vinve took off with his car to the next place, but Nemo and then Jacky were still there so it was all good for a couple of days, the small town had hosted the Billibong pro only two days earlier and we were gutted to miss it after it finished three days in to the scheduled 10 because of the great wave conditions. The town consisted of a Billibong factory and about 5 different surf stores. It was cruisey as and there were plenty of people to talk to about more of the coast and their home countries.
Port Elizibeth Was more chilled out than Jbay, caught a ride with staff from Island
Vibe who also worked at a place called Lungile in PE. PE had a lot of waterfront to be walked so that's what I did, also had a look in its decent size town, and went to an oyster restaurant for a bit of a treat, oysters a quite bit business along this coast as well as crays and lots of fish. Nemo arrived last night so I ended up staying another night. About 500m from the hostel was a place called Captains which had Kareoke so us and the staff went down there a couple of time for a laugh and dance.
25th- wake up at 5.30am to catch bus but after learning nothing from my last bus trip I find that this one is actually full and they wont take me, taxi back to hostel and the coast bus from there is too much so back to bus station by 7.20am, missed the next/last bus! Lucky in SA there is always another way to get places. Minibuses are big there, they drive along the main roads every minute during the day filling up with at least 14 people each time, there is always more room! these only
cost about $1-1.50 a 5-10 min trip, get on get off anywhere along the route. They also do long distance to, but you have to wait for the long distance vans to fill up with people before they leave (cost about $30 for 600km). After getting to the minibus station at 7.30 we had to wait until 12.30 before we finally got going. 9 hours and two short distance vans too I got to
Coffee Bay, Simon from Pretoria was there so was great to catch up with him again. Jacky was also there and they had met many others who were super fun for the next few days and nights. Went for a 3 hour hike to the 'hole in the wall' the next day, nice hike, but hole was rather average, had first swim in the cold south Atlantic/Indian ocean and weather was still awesome as had been aroun the whole coast so that was good.
The crew organised events each night at the Coffee Shack (hostel), first night was full moon party, involved going to top of the hill to watch the sunset and the full moon rise, they also provided a few oysters and some
Waterfall
The waterfall was at the end of a track in a place called Wilderness.vodka lemonades before everyone headed back to camp to the big Braai they provided.
The next night was a jungle party, best dressed got free cocktail etc and a free jungle juice each. Instead of competing against each other we concentrated on getting our friend scott to win and sharing the drink, His leaf covered genitals, painted face and bush bling were enough to take it out so that was worth it and then a killer-pool tournament http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_(pool) , had a shocker in that but still heaps of fun. When going to bed at night we had to cross a small but wide creek very close to the ocean mouth, so at high tide it would be near your knees, not good when walking to bed late on your first night in jeans and shoes, lucky the full moon gave me bit of warning...
Met an older couple from Gisborne/Papamoa who were staying right next door too, Lil and John Parkin. So had a good chat to them about their world travels. Email home and their nephew is the locksmith making a key for us at home... small world eh.
Durban on the Minibus, only a single night
and day of relaxing left.. Get to
Durban that evening, go out for a real nice dinner, Thin slices of impala, creamy prawns and Chicken Tagine for a treat, all amazing food and relatively cheap. Didn't spend much time at the Happy Hippo backpackers instead got on the city bus and had a good look around on that for an hour before getting dropped off at Victorian market. this place sells pretty much every cut of meat that you never buy, sheep head, fresh, singed or singed and cooked. Tongues, hearts, livers, backbones, animal feet, horns, shells, fish, roe.Only thing I wanted was to try Bunny Chow; a curry served in a half or quarter loaf of bread, no cutlery needed, just rip peices of bread off. But after about half of this the smell of everything was a bit much so had to leave a bit behind that day, which as most of you probably know is unusual for me. We also saw the biggest Mosque in Africa, a large Cathedral next door and then another 'herb' market which apparently attracts almost 1 million traders a year and has everything except you dont know what it is because of
the language barriers. There were places where you could mix your own curries and some had signs like, 'Mother 'n Law Exterminator', Ass on Fire' or even 'K.F.C Spice'. I was sceptical, but after a pinch, found it was closeish to the real thing.
Train from here to Jburg that night (29th), only $20, I'm going to miss the cheap public transport so much. Met a local guy Paul just before I was getting on, he started offering me cider which I was a little cynical of his motives but he said he didn't want to just drink by himself... fair enough, I did the good thing and ended up having a few more and some brandy (bought on board) with him. Paul was off to start a new job so maybe he thought he was in with the money or something, but I didn't mind, the trip went by without any hassles and another train to the airport I was ready to fly out on Etihad to London via Abu Dhabi, pity it was dark when we dropped in, but I'm sure I'll see it another day.
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