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Published: August 6th 2007
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Hello peeps!
Janice and I today returned from our excursion along the 'Garden Route'.
We hired a nice little car and set off on the 3rd June for a few days of peace out of the city. The garden route (in case you aren't aware) is a beautiful stretch of coast east of Cape Town that starts in Mossel Bay and finishes at Storms River.
On our first night we stopped at a lovely town called Plettenburg Bay, we just had time for a nice meal and a stroll on the wind swept beach before an early night in our hostel. The next morning we got up early (ish) and headed to Jeffrey's Bay-the beach heralded as South Africa's surf 'mecca'.
We checked in to a nice place called 'Island Vibe backpackers' and then hired boards and wetsuits and hit the Indian Ocean for a session in the waves. Now, although the Indian Ocean conjures images of calm, peaceful, crystal clear waters this is not the illusion we would have you slip in to! It was raining, the surf was rough and the sea bloody cold! After a while we both got used to the temperature and
View of Tsitsikamma mountains
Janice had an awesome time body surfing a few waves in and even managing (without any instruction!) to climb to her knees on the board on one or two waves-a true natural-Kelly Slater watch out!!!!!!!! I obviously enjoyed myself no end and managed a wave or two as well. That night we hit the bar and met a good group of English people whom we shared a few social beverages with before retiring to a deep slumber.
The next day came one of the highlights of the trip for me personally. After a successful first day in the waves Janice decided to retire from surfing and I was left to go it alone. I met some of the guys we had met at the bar the night before out in the surf and it was an average day with little swell (meaning few waves) though we all caught one or two. A chap called Rick nervously pointed out that he had seen a grey fin about 20 metres away and I put that down to tiredness/bird life, it wasn't until he had caught a wave a few metres further in and I was left as
the only surfer out
Us!
that I too saw a grey fin and after a brief heart stopping moment realised that it didn't belong to one of our Great White foes but in fact a Bottle Nosed Dolphin! Soon enough there was a whole family of them no more than 10 metres away from us and we sat and watched them hunt for about 15 minutes before getting back to the surfing-another priceless moment courtesy of Mother Africa.
Anyway, we next headed for a night at Storms River which is famous for having the world's highest bungy jump (no we didn't do it). It's also home to the parent's of my Mum's friend Bev, so of course we rocked up at the guest house and were welcomed into what will undoubtedly be one of the nicest rooms that we see the inside of on this trip. Mum, please thank Bev for recommending that we stay there and Bev's parents say hello and they'll see you in September when they come over to visit Bev!
Also at Storms River is the entrance to the Tsitsikamma National Park at the base of the Tsitsikamma Mountains. It is a large forested park that boasts some spectacular ocean scenery along with some of the most beautiful indigenous woodland in Africa. Janice and I went on a lovely walk through the park to a waterfall that falls into the sea, it was beautiful.
We breifly stopped for a night in Stellenbosch (wine tasting town) close to Cape Town on the way back for a night and arrived back at Long Street Backpackers this morning ready for our 4am departure for Tokyo tomorrow morning!
We have booked our first two night's accomodation in Tokyo at a place in the NE of the city, we will write as soon as we get there and owing to the superior technology available in Japan (and the free net access at our hostel!) we will be putting some awesome pics up for you to view.
Sorry to ramble on-Janice will post some more concise messages in the coming week!
Peace and love.
A and J.x
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Mumsy
non-member comment
Hi Sweeties Great blog entries am thouroughly enjoying them, slighlty alarmed at the comment about moving to SA. Can you hang on a few years until after the grandchildren have started to arrive. Bev over the moon that you stayed at her parents, it caused an enormough amount of excitement here I can tell you. All is well at home, the smoking cessation going OK. Karl gets results on Thursday so we look forward to them. Glad you are both well and enjoying your time. Japan of course will be a totally different experience and I hope you get as much out of it as you did Africa. Speak soon and love you loads. Mumsy xx