Blogs from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Africa - page 56

Today we ride from Mthatha to Umhlanga (North suburb of Durban) through back roads and following the coast. I rode with John and Dave this morning until we caught up with the rest of the group (Peter, Bob, Phebe, Patrick, Otto, Ellen, Murray, Peri and Ian) at Port St. Johns. The town was more rural than I expected. People stood in the streets and gawked at the strange gang of motorcyclist cruising down Main Street. I was at the back of the pack so by the time I cruised by the locals they were out lining the streets. Main Street dead ended, so I had to loop back out of town on a secondary street. The crowd rushed to the next street to keep watching. Being the focus of attention made me so nervous that I ... read more

The final destination of our great road trip was the Sodwana Bay Nature Reserve. Apart from being a stunningly beautiful dense forest, just off the coast lies a series of coral reefs which make the bay one of the world's top 5 dive sites. We had booked our dives with Coral Divers, a beautiful dive lodge in the National Park. Since the 3 of us were doing our dive course, we had an included tent accommodation . These were pretty decent army-style tents under a tin roof with proper mattresses inside. The cost of the same accommodation for the other 3 was R50 per day, but then you also have to pay R40 per day for park fees. Instead, the other 3 paid R45 p/d to camp in the park and then just pitched our well-used ... read more

We drive to our fourth destination: the Tembe Elephant Park where we were greeted by a very merry bunch of Staff, who harmonized beautifully in song to welcome us to the park. While the staff transported our luggage to our room, we were seated to enjoy a light lunch of fishcakes, calamari and salads. We headed through the bush to our luxurious, tent-like chalet which was isolated from all human life. The room was massive, beautifully furnished with two double beds with electric blankets, and bed side tables. There bathroom was similar in orientation to that of the Kosi Forest Lodge accommodation, in the fact that it was located outside the actual chalet in a surrounding of tall twigs. All toiletries were provided and soap containing fly and mosquito repellent was supplied. There was an indoor ... read more

Hi folks. Well we're back in Durban now having spent a couple of days in St Lucia. It seems the dodgy pool there has taken its toll on Bri as he now has ring worm :P Nothing that course of athelete's foot cream cant solve but fairly minging none-the-less. Aside from that our stay up there was very enjoyable. We went on a (supposedly) guided walk through the game park to an alarmingly close view of the resident hippos there (the guide didn't seem too bothered about the obvious safety issue) and generally just chilled out. We arrived back in Durban on Monday and pitched up again at the same back packers that we had been a few days before on the Bluff. There we met up with Tim (yet another insane Dutchman in Africa) and ... read more

Our teaching course is done, and while we wait for our visas and work permits to be approved we decided to spend some time enjoying the beautiful country we're about to leave. And what better way than a road trip. So we packed Sandy (my 200 000km old Honda Ballade) with a tent, dive gear, 5 Stellenbosch students and food and our clothing for 12 days. Then we set off along the N2 from Cape Town up the South African coast. On Wed 10th January Jeanne-Mari, Yvette and myself (Darrell) squished our unreasonable amount or stuff into the boot and left the Cape to pick up Andries and George in Stilbaai. The two guys then added their contribution to the impossibly full boot and climbed in, pushing the shocks even closer to their maximum. By the ... read more