hoezit!!!

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Hoezit! We’ve made it to the Indian ocean!

hey hey! just a quck apology for the lack of any continuity here!!! i write this every coule of nights or so, so i'm always talking in the present or refering to yesterday, but by the time i've actually got it published its all ages ago!!! sorry!


Hello again guys, hope you are all well. I’ll catch you up with the last few days!
The next day in Drakensburg was our last full day and still somewhat pleased with my mountain climbing achievements I bought a map of the local area and spent the morning trying to convince Rebecca to come for a little hike along a river. It must have been about 3pm when she finally agreed. We were back in the bar for half past! Ha! Rebeccas enthusiasm for adventure got us about 5 minutes away, we never even lost sight of the camp! Entirely worth it though as it was hilarious to see Rebecca lose her shoe in the mud, twice!!!! You maybe had to be there but it was pretty funny! We had also managed to adopt the dog from the hostel, who i decided to call Oscar (because who calls a dog pepe?) who was lots of fun and a little bundle of crazy. He ran up and down the footpaths beside us, completely disappearing in the long grass and swimming in every river, stream or lake we came across! Legend!

After our epic trip I started on the long island iced tea in the bar and racked up quite a bar tab getting myself pretty drunk and retiring for an early night.

The next day we packed our things (which is becoming my least favourite thing in the world to do) and were back on the bus headed for Durban (or eTekwini, as the zulu’s would call it) and the Indian Ocean. Durban is S.A’s third largest city, it’s largest port and the biggest settlement of Indians outside of India. Probably be having a curry then!
We drove through a crazy thunderstorm on the way, which was pretty cool to see. Though by the time we arrived i seemed to have gotten myself a cold. (who comes to S.A and gets a cold? Poo!) Then we were ripped off getting to the hostel, which turned out to be completely self catering and miles from any shops and run by the least friendly people we’d met yet. I was sick of this place before they had even squeezed me into our matchbox dorm. Ha, it’s the smallest room you could possibly fit 3 beds in (two of which were bunk beds) it would be so awkward to share with 3 strangers ! fortunately we are on our own!

Rebecca wanted a day by the beach but it was pretty overcast so I dragged her off into the city. We visited an Art Gallery and the Natural Science Museum in the city centre. Both were real good fun. We headed for the harbour, to a place called the BAT centre I’d found in Lonely Planet. It turned out to be a little collection of shops run by artists who had studios above the shops. The arts and crafts were so good! Whilst we were admiring one artists paintings he came over and invited us into his studio, took us upstairs and showed us how he made the pictures. It has something to do with carving the negative into a piece of wood and pressing it onto paper. I never really got it so you’ll have to look up wood printing on Wikipedia! The pictures were beautiful though, I could have spent a fortune! If i didn’t have to carry them around for who knows how long I would definitely have bought a couple, but my bag already cripples me every time I lift it so I’ve pretty much decided not to buy any crafts yet.
We headed back to the hostel, cooked a Durban curry and hung out in the pool til late. Pretty good day! Quite like Durban, despite a rubbish first impression!
Rebecca was determined to get in a day on the beach so we spent Tuesday by the ocean watching the surfers. I dared to venture into the sea and it is ridiculous. You only have to get in about as far as your ankles and the waves will batter you in the face and drag you out half way to India! It’s pretty good fun but I don’t think this bay is the best place to take up surfing, the backwash is so strong I don’t think I’d ever make it back to shore! I wandered the way to the shop in the afternoon and had the best chilli chicken wrap of my life from a pizza place. Spent the evening in front of the tv for the first time in a long while, watched The Brave One with Angelina Jolie and an American indie film called the Squid and the Whale. Both were good!
Wednesday we headed north into the Valley of 1000 Hills, which is exactly what its name suggests. We visited a traditional Zulu village where some Zulu folks sang us some songs and danced out a love story. It was so cool! It was one of the tours our bus company provide. We visited a reptile and crocodile sanctuary in the same park (Phezulu) then headed out to a day centre that provided care, medicine and food to H.I.V + locals, as well as those with TB, orphans and local children. It was such a beautiful place, run entirely by volunteers and donations from local businesses. We ate with the folks there, the same meal they ate and were walked through the centre, the nursery, pre-school, clinic and wards and met the people who were there for treatment. The preschool children sang and danced for us and posed for photographs. It was one of those moments where you have to bite your bottom lip to keep from filling up. The difference this place must make to the community and its people is amazing and so inspiring. It makes you feel like you are doing so little!!! I broke my no crafts rule to get some curios from the store where the locals sell bits and pieces to raise money. It was for a good cause!
Again the evening was spent in the pool. The combination of packing my bag in 30something degree heat and still having a cold kicking my arse meant the cool pool was absolute heaven!
Thursday we headed south out of Durban to Uzumbe, a little further south on the East Coast and checked in at the Mantis and the Moon Backpackers, which is just perfect after the last stop! I was pretty glad to out get of Durban, leaving the rubbish backpackers and the even worse manflu behind! The Mantis and Moon is an awesome place, 2 minutes walk from the coast yet set in a crazy ju¬ngle, with real friendly staff, hammocks, a jacuzzi, plenty of surfboards, body boards, snorkelling gear and a guitar with 6 strings! Also 5 huge Dogs! It’s becoming a bit of a pattern that all the best backpackers have pet dogs! We found a little spot under the shade of the banana trees for the tent. Rebecca slept for most of the day and I hung out with an English and a French guy in the pool. Turned out the English guy and I had had the same taste in music a few years back and we spent hours talking about bands I haven’t listened to for ages. We had been to the same gigs in Leeds a few times! Small world huh?! ‘Yet I never run into Beyonce....’
Anyways, Managed to drag Rebecca up for some food. Didn’t fancy the pasta that the hostel was doing so we got pizza delivered and spent the night kicking back, playing some acoustic guitar with the French guy.
The next day I figured I would wander up to the nearest town, Hibberdene. I needed an ATM and a couple of other bits and pieces. The guys at the hostel said it was about 5km up the coast road, so i figured about an hours walk... what they didn’t say was its was 2km to the coast road first and then it was 6km from there! All good fun though, I arrived dripping with sweat and in need of some breakfast. Then there, above the shops, shining in the sky like the star that led the wise men to Jesus, was The Cornel! K.F.C!!! I could have kissed the beard straight off the Cornel’s smug little face! Easily the best KFC I ever ate, the place was sparkly clean and the air conditioning was perfect! Genius!
The way back was a little easier, I had figured it would be quicker to walk the train lines that hugged the coast than to follow the road. Just before I turned off the main road back into Umzumbe a lorry driver pulled over and offered me a lift, a little late but still a nice offer!
Back at the hostel Rebecca had had breakfast so I grabbed a body board and headed down to the beach. I’d got it into my head that somehow body boarding was surfing for beginners and should be pretty simple. I couldn’t have been more wrong! There were loads of surfers in the water when we got there, all of them looked about 11 or 12 so I headed a little further down the beach to avoid showing them up. I watched them for a little while and it seemed to be a case of laying on the board and paddling out beyond the waves, then paddling back in with a wave which picks you up and guides you back to the shore.... easy right?
WRONG!!! I Basically got my arse kicked by the sea for a good hour. As I tried to paddle out every wave beat me around the face and I got nowhere. When I eventually did make it out waaaaaay beyond my comfort zone and spun round not one of the waves picked me up and glided me back to shore like they did for the others. They simply beat my head all the way back to the shore, all except for the last wave which did decide to pick me up and blast me into the sand at some ridiculous speed. I tried to make friends with another body boarder who seemed to know what he was doing, but he just seemed to be showing off. Somewhat defeated, I returned to the backpackers. This whole time Rebecca had been sat watching little beach crabs dig holes in the sand and laughing at my devastatingly embarrassing moves in the waves. I just hoped I looked cooler carrying the board than I did falling off it!

I’d spotted a restaurant on the way to the town that was having its grand opening that night, it promised live music, free snacks and shooters and looked pretty cool so we headed there to eat. It was crazy!! I couldn’t stop laughing at how bizarre the place was the whole time we were there. It could well have been the 1950’s! The ‘Live Music’ was an Indian doing Karaoke to his Ipod, an old couple got up to dance, Rebecca wouldn’t dance with me though! The music would not have been at all out of place at the marine Bar! Cliff Richard and Chris deBurg... oh dear! The food was good but we ate and left pretty quick! I can’t believe we found the whitest place in Africa!
Spent the rest of the night with sundowners on the rooftop.
At some point over these last two days, I’ve had a shave the head of the British Army would be proud of. The beard was huge and beginning to get on my tits, it took the best part of an hour with a razor but it’s gone. I look like a 12 year old boy and no longer look cool in hats. (maybe i never did, but I liked to think so) I miss the beard already!

The plan for the Next day was to catch the Bazbus to Kokstad, then catch a link up to Sani Pass on the Lesotho border and spend the next couple of days back in the mountains and check out another country. Didn’t exactly go to plan though! Getting as far as Kokstad wasn’t a problem, but once we were there we were dropped in a layby and wished good luck. I phoned the Hostel and apparently there were 3 ways to get the 110km up the road, the Underberg Express, the Interstate bus, or standing at the side of the road with our thumbs out. Rebecca wasn’t having any of the latter so we were down to two. We met a really cool guy who drove us into town to find the Interstate express only to discover it didn’t exist. And there wasn’t an Underberg express for 2 days. The guy we met was awesome, he took us around the town, we met his friends and hung out with them for a bit and they drove us to a B&B. It was unbelievable to find a group of guys who would give up their Saturday afternoon to help a couple of lost English folk. The B&B also should have been a blessing and it was only when we arrived I realised this was the first time we had had a bathroom and kitchen that we didn’t have to share. The xhosa family running the B&B spoke pretty much no English so I adopted one of the workers sons to show me the way back into the town. The little guy was awesome! And a fan of whole nut dairy milk apparently! I got him a huge bar in town to thank him and he ploughed his was through it!
I was absolutely shattered by the end of the day, we raided my hard drive to find a film to watch (Hancock) and I just about managed to cook some pasta with bacon, but was too tired to eat. I couldn’t wait to get into a proper bed and get a good nights kip. Didn’t happen. The B&B had about 12 little yappy dogs who barked their little heads off until well after 2am. I was so angry. I was way too tired for it, I don’t think I’ve sworn so much in my life. I was so close to packing my bag and leaving at 2am, I was determined we weren’t going to pay a cent for the room. I couldn’t find any staff to shout at (my isiXhosa isn’t that great anyway, I don’t know what i would have said!) and i couldn’t shut the dogs up for more than 2 minutes. It was nearly 3 when i fell asleep and then the craziest, loudest thunderstorm woke us both at about 6. It was raining so hard it felt like the roof was going to cave in.
I needed to get the hell out of dodge pretty quick. I wasn’t staying in that goddam room another night. We walked the 3 or 4km back to where the bus had dropped us off determined to hire a car and make it to Sani Pass and Lesotho. It would have been far easier to sack the whole thing off and head back to the coast but I’d got it into my head this was the first obstacle we’d come across and there was no way I was going to fall at the first hurdle! The rental place was shut but we asked around and got the number of the guy who ran it. He happened to be in the parking lot, coincidentally. He opened up and about half an hour later I was sat in my very own VW Hatchback. It worked out to be cheaper to hire a car between the two of us than it was to get the bus we had to wait 2 days for! Result!!! I was a little terrified of driving but it all went pretty well! Having our own car gave us the freedom to explore a little too, which was nice! I spotted one of those brown road signs with a rhino on it but Rebecca didn’t fancy the detour. When I saw a sign with a Rhino AND a Zulu shield I didn’t give her the chance to object! Turned out to be a national park that was down a ridiculous dirt track. Our little car had struggled on the tarmac if it was asked to go up hill, the poor thing had no chance on this road!! But it wasn’t my car so i didn’t care and carried on regardless, sliding around in the dirt and generally pretty happy with myself! We drove through the mountains so high the clouds were sat on the road. The landscapes were beautiful but we didn’t see any Rhinos or Zulus - or Zulu Rhinos, which was what i was secretly hoping for. We span round and headed back to the main road, picked up a friendly looking farmer on the way and gave him a ride to where he was headed because it had started to rain pretty heavy.
We made it to the lodge without really getting lost at all. It’s a really cool spot high in the mountains about 10km from the Lesotho border. It was hammering with rain when we arrived so we sat around the real wood fire and spent the night taking it easy, we were so tired se didn’t even manage dinner, the beds in the dorm were perfect. We were so high above sea level it was actually pretty cold when the sun went down, getting all tucked up in the duvet was great!
Up early the next day and along the Sani Pass into Lesotho. I cannot begin to describe the state of the road to you. There is 8km between the S.A and Lesotho borders that neither country maintains. To gibe you some idea, it’s illegal to attempt to drive the pass without a 4x4 and they affectionately name the corners things like ‘devils elbow’, ‘suicide bend’ and ‘oh my god!’ a good nights rain can pretty much wash the road off the edge of the cliffs, in several places it had, or the gulley of water running down hill had cut a trench about 2 ft wide and 4ft deep straight down the middle of the road. I was soooo glad i wasn’t driving!
Lesotho itself was a beautiful place. The scenery was as breathtaking as anything in the lord of the rings. The country has the highest low point of any country on earth! We met it’s people in a tiny village. They have nothing at all, less than you can really comprehend. No water, no crops (they don’t grow that high) no electricity, no shops, no transport, no anything! They live in round huts made of dirt with thatched roofs and keep sheep, goats and cattle on the mountains. We were invited into a hut where we ate some bread and drank the local beer (yuk!) We also happened across a hut where they take the wool from the sheep and popped in to see a sheep or two being sheared by hand.
The plan for the day had been to climb Hodgson’s Peak, which was about 50m higher than the Amphitheatre i climbed in the Northern Drakensberg. The weather over the peak was pretty awful looking though, so we ended up driving to the top of Black Mountain and wandering around there for a little while. It was a little disappointing not to climb the peak, but the mild meandering around the top of black mountain pretty much killed Rebecca so I guess she was pretty relieved we didn’t make the mountain.
The way down the pass was just as terrifying as the way up, we managed to stop at the highest pub in Africa though, which was a cool place to enjoy the local (but more western) beer, Mohotlo, i think.
Lesotho was a beautiful place, I wish we could have stayed longer, buy all there really was to do was hike, and I don’t think Rebecca would have approved! Also we only had the car for another day...
Back at the lodge we ate and I spent the night hanging out and playing guitar with a group of guys from Zimbabwe who were really cool. Talking about their country they were pretty optimistic now Tsvangari has been brought in as Prime Minister, though the current situation is still awful. It seems the country is just waiting for Mugabe to kick the bucket!
The next day was the drive back to Kokstad to return the car. I loved the drive, the roads were long, straight and wide enough for 4 cars to happily drive alongside each other, as well as being almost completely empty. We made it back and had little choice to get another hotel until the bus could pick us up the next day. The weather had sorted itself out and was beautiful, we wandered through the town but there was little to see. I picked up a cheap cell phone because I lost the charger to mine and it’ll make it a little easier to sort out a bus journey or a hostel. I’m on 0723687835.
The next day was another long drive through what used to be the Transkei, back to the coast - Coffee Bay, home of the cheapest professional surf lessons on the planet. R20 for 2 hours, that works out a little less than £1.50! Genius! We booked in for 5 days. We were welcomed with a free drink, a fantastic lamb curry, a dance from the local girls and a drum circle! There is nothing at all else to do here but drum, surf and play a little pool! I’m pretty sure I’m going to like it!
Thursday I wandered out to a drum workshop and met the guy who makes the Djembe’s, I think I’m gonna go find him again soon and learn how to make my own. I’m a little torn because I don’t know how to get it home and there is no way I can carry another thing! My luggage has grown to about 35kg’s and it’s killing me! I’d ideally make a huge one like the one I have but I think practicality will restrict me to a slightly smaller one!! I had my first surf lesson in the afternoon, it went really well!! The instructor is an awesome guy and I managed to stand on a handful of waves, it’s so much fun!!! The lesson was cut a little short when we spotted a shark. No-one really believed it at first but as soon as you saw the look on the locals faces as they paddled in it became pretty apparent that it was time to get out of the water! Ha! The instructor has been surfing this bay for 18 months and that’s the first time he has ever seen a shark!
After dinner we started drinking, I somehow won a game of killer pool and the prize was a 10km hike to the Hole in the Wall down the coast the next day. It was probably a bad idea to drink anymore from this point given the walk I had just won, but I carried on regardless and got myself involved in a drinking game with an Irish guy called Chris who reminded me a lot of Si. We played until about half two in the morning, I don’t really remember a lot after that...... definitely threw up though!

The next day I was suffering sooooo bad, it was so sunny and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky which meant it was about a trillion degrees in the shade. We were up at 8 for another surf lesson until half ten. It didn’t go quite as well as the day before, understandably! It was still awesome fun though and I nailed a couple of waves.
The walk along the coast I’d won dipped in and out of about 6 bays before we made the hole. It was all uphill and downhill, it was such hard work!!!! There were moments I didn’t think I could make it! I was so hungover! The bays were beautiful all the way along the coast though and the Hole in the Wall was just as spectacular. Upon arrival we ate from a braai and swam in the crystal clear sea. When we arrived back I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on some much needed sleep!
Saturday I headed back up to Jah Drums to meet Willie the drum master to start on my drum!! Willie had carved out the wood, we spent the day making the metal rings that would hold the skin in place. Big Will doesn’t like using machines so we each bent a rod into a circle, welded them and wrapped them in cloth. By the time we’d managed that Willie taught me how to start the knots that would hold the string in place and we called it a day. I wandered up to Papazella’s pizza spot and met a couple of English guys who’d arrived in S.A. 9 years ago and never left! One of the Guys, Marley, has started a pretty cool clothing company in Coffee Bay called Afritude. I dig it, so I picked up a tee. Anyways, Ate pizza and watched football with a couple of beers and headed back down to the Coffee Shack to eat again! Played a little more killer pool which I didn’t quite win, rediscovered SoCo and Lemonade and headed to bed.
Sunday I was up early for a surf with Ryno(the instructor... legend), which was awesome. The waves were pretty sweet and i’d just about got the hang of coordinating myself in time to catch the wave, rather than just getting stood up to see it leave me behind. Took a couple of nosedives too, which is the worst feeling in the world and completely unavoidable once it starts happening!! The trick is to stay under the water because if you instinctively pop up too fast your board flies into your head and it hurts a lot!! I learned that pretty fast. I’ve the lump on my head to prove it!
After the Surf I headed back up to see Big Will, he introduced me to the goat that was to become the skin of my djembe. Fortunately it was a long time dead and rather well dried out. I cut it to shape, soaked it and stretched it over the drum. Willie taught me how to string the rings together to tension the drum. All exciting stuff!! I spent the night getting myself merry and playing cards with a little group of people at the hostel.
We were planning on leaving Monday but I was loving the Coffee Shack waaaay too much so I booked us in until Wednesday. Drumming, surfing and partying was perfect. I dug the people and the staff too, I didn’t really want to leave at all! I surfed with Ryno again in the morning and spent the day with Willie finishing my drum, we shaved the skin and tensioned each string until the skin was tight. A few folks from the hostel had turned up just as we finished so Willie and I jammed. Then disaster struck, the skin split! Gutted!! So was Big Will. Neither of us really knew what to suggest, Willy offered me a spare skin rather than start the whole thing again, but that would have meant carrying a broken drum and a goat skin. I really don’t need everything I own to smell like goat for foreseeable future.
So I set about undoing the last three days work. Big Will was inspired by my gusto and he joined in too. Within a half hour we were back at square one and flying through getting the new skin on. Big Will told me I too would one day be a drum master. I bought him a beer a little later on and we clinked bottles to ‘drum masters.’ Awesome.
Tuesday a little more surfing in the morning then back up to finish my drum all over again. I kinda hoped to get out and surf again in the afternoon (it’s so much fun!) but I never quite made it. Tuesday was our last night and the hostel was having a jungle themed party. The locals came up and danced, sung and played drums for us and we drank with the guys from the hostel, which was packed.
Wednesday came way too soon and after one last surf and a quick lap of the staff to say goodbyes we were on our way south to Chintsa. I was gutted to be leaving but Rebecca had had enough of Coffee Bay and I couldn’t convince her to stay another day! We arrived in Chinsta late and spent the night hanging out in the bar and getting to know the guys who were already there. It turned out we were in a pretty cool place and I couldn’t really keep my grumpy face on long! The backpackers is set into the hill behind the beach and the views of the bay are beautiful.
Thursday Rebecca went horse riding on the beach for a couple of hours in the morning and I fixed our tent, which at some point had broken. I didn’t fancy the horse riding at all, but Rebecca has been looking forward to it since we landed. I’d planned to surf whilst Rebecca was out but there were no waves so we wandered down to the beach and I played around in the sea anyway. The water is so clear and warm, it’s beautiful, plus the beaches are huge and deserted, we pretty much had it to ourselves.
We were planning on leaving on Friday, but there was mention of a party Friday night so I figured we’d stay another night, I had become a little fond of the place. Rebecca didn’t fancy the party and still wanted to leave, but as luck would have it there was no bus anyway. Result!! Woke early Friday and would have quite liked to go for a wander along the beach at sunrise but the weather was a little rubbish so I made that silly djembe jam picture instead and hung out watching sports waiting for Rebecca to wake up. Couldn’t convince her to come for a wander when she eventually arose (there’s a tv!) so I spent the afternoon walking along the beach in search of the town, which I never did find, but I met a few locals and swam in the sea. I took my camera along for the walk but the light was as awful as you would expect on a cloudy summers day! I must have carried it around 12km (and it’s heavy!)before the sun dipped and I managed one or two shots of the beach.
It was braai night back at the hostel, which is always good! It was dark when I arrived back though so my pimp costume (it was a pimps and prostitutes party) was assembled in a tent in the dark, Ha! It wasn’t great but it didn’t exactly matter! The party was real good fun. The hostel has the exact same music taste as me so they played John Butler, Xavier Rudd, G.Love and Donavon Frankenreiter through the braai which was so cool! Rebecca never quite managed to get in the party spirit so I spent the night hanging out with the other guests and getting myself pretty merry, though I managed to avoid the pole dancing!
Saturday I had the day to nurse my hangover so I wandered back along the beach in search of the town I’d missed the day before and played in the waves on the way back. Also met an English guy called Marcus who was writing for SKY and who would be in Malawi about the same time as me so we exchanged details and maybe i’ll catch him sometime in June/July! Packing up the tent it became apparent that ants had repossessed one of my trainers. My trainers and Rebeccas converse were left outside the tent (in the back porch bit) for the few days we stayed there. When we pulled the outer off ten million billion trillion squillion kajillion ants were all over one of my shoes. Just one, oddly. I tried to rescue it but didn’t go well and it wasn’t something I’d ever want my foot in again so the ants can have it!
The bus to East London met us about 5pm and we arrived an hour later. The shortest drive we’ve had yet! We set up our tent about 20 metres from the beach and headed out for food, ending up at a sports pub, filled with Pirates fans. The Pirates seemed to be winning whatever sport they were playing so the atmosphere was great. I ordered a full rack of ribs (I was pretty hungry!) and ended up with the biggest thing you have ever seen!! The ribs looked like they were from a whale,each rib was about the size of your forearm! It looked like something Desperate Dan would have ordered, it hung off every edge of the plate and was dripping in BBQ sauce. Polished the whole lot off, fries too! They were good! The pile of bones left on the side of my plate could have been built into a full size dinosaur. There wasn’t a lot I could have done afterwards so we played some pool and hung out in the bar at the hostel.
Sunday I was up the second the sun popped over the horizon and turned our tent into a sauna. We headed out of East London to a breeding programme for white lions. The place was amazing, we saw adult white lions being fed, leopards, cheetahs, tigers and the antelope that, I assume, would soon become the lunch for the others! We also were lucky enough to catch some teeny weeny baby white lion cubs that were 4 weeks old. They were so cute, huddled together with tiny little paws and wrinkly skin they hadn’t grown into yet.
There was also Layla, a 6 month old bundle of boisterous fun that we got to go and play with. She only had a week left before she was too big for the public to play with so we were lucky to catch her too, she was so much fun!! She seemed pretty determined to eat my shorts straight off of me, but we rolled around in the grass playing for a little while. She’s the cutest thing you’ve ever seen, ever, ever!!! I could have spend all day playing but she had also developed an appetite for Rebecca’s trousers which Rebecca didn’t take all that well!
I was also stoked to see wild dogs at the breeding programme as it’s pretty unlikely I’ll catch them anywhere else. They were being kept next to the lions and kept wandering up to the fence and provoking the male lion, who would leap up and chase them the length of the fence to no avail as the dogs smugly trotted away.
We also made friends with a great big warthog, a meerkat and some antelope. (...or TImone, Pumba and Bambi as they were known...)

Back at the hostel I met a guy called Richard who also made and played drums. He was doing a drum class for a group of children so I hung out with them, watching Richard carve the shell of a Djembe from a tree stump. He was a really cool guy, I showed him the drum I had made with Willie and he approved, which was nice! It somehow came up that I had made T.V at Uni and I got myself a job offer! He wanted me to help him put together a DVD of drum lessons and techniques. I was actually a little excited at the idea and already storyboarding in my head but with only one day left before heading south I couldn’t really help.

Sunday I had another surf lesson with one of the guys from the hostel. Turned out he was Welsh and regularly headed to Cayton Bay, Scarborough and Sleights to surf the East Coast so he knew Brid pretty well too... there was just me on the lesson so I got some one-to-one tuition and had worked my way to my smallest board yet. It was great fun again but the waves were huge and I don’t really have the confidence to be paddling along with waves that size just yet! I can’t bloody swim! Caught the face of a couple of pretty big waves (for me at least) though which was awesome. Spent the afternoon walking the esplanade amongst the craft stalls and street artists, I even bought a couple of paintings!! Back at the hostel I hung out with a Swedish couple who had got a scholarship/grant from their Government to travel. Apparently it happens all the time, you listening Gordy Brown? They get grants to travel! I’ll write you an essay or two and you pick up my tab every now and they hey? Didn’t think so....
Anyways, after nearly 6 weeks I felt I was due a holiday so I booked into a fancy looking lodge in Port Elizabeth (or P.E as it seems to be known) Bus drove us along the coast as the sun set and we arrived in PE about 10.30. It was heaven to check in and find the lodge was so much fancier than it had seemed in the pictures! Straight to bed! It sure beats camping!

In other news, you may remember me mentioning the Bungee at Victoria falls being a terrifying idea at 110 metres. I’ve since learned that just a little south of Port Elizabeth is the world’s tallest bridge bungee at 216 metres!!! I’m still in two minds whether I’ll do it or not, I’m sure I’ll regret it if I don’t, but also I’m very very very scared!! 216 metres!!! (oh, and the beard is back!)

So........ There you go! They last two and a bit weeks! Sorry it took a while to get it up, who knew the internet was so scarce in a developing country hey? Hope you are all well and happy! Catch you soon! I may even have thrown myself off a 216m bridge by then!! For now I’m going to explore PE!!

Lots of love

xx

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Photos

ssssh!
they're sleeping!
the day centre in valley of 1000 hills

Lesotho
the bosotho people and their home

a whole load of mussels!
a rehad project on the wild coast

hole in the wall
only just worth the bloody hike!!

hole in the wall again
apparently you can jump off the top the other side and the current will bring you through the hole, not with my hangover though!

djembe
i made a silly postcard; making a djembe with willie in coffee bay and jamming!

chintsa
i carried my camera for about 5 hours before the sun dipped and the sky turned to a colour you could actually photograph!

baby lions!!
4 weeks old, how cute!!!!

layla
my favourite lion ever!!! she's sooooo cute!!!

me and layla
another silly postcard!

Comments

[Tim Metcalfe]

Loving the photo's mate, looks a beautiful place !

[ellie]

keeping up
Hi Peter, Just to let you know that I am 'keeping up' (and find it exhausting!). It's just great to follow you on your travells and to see the pics. I felt the heart strings pulling when you spoke about Durban, it was a wonderful place in 1971 - I ate my lunch every day at the marina and wished that I wasn't there on my own. I could feel the heat and the atmosphere at the Valley of a Thousand Hills' and even after all this time it sounds as though time stood still. I was never as brave as you. I flew straight there, was safely installed into my cousins house - servants, good food and generally spoilt to death - straight into an office job - and the only thing I had to remember was not to get into the black compartment of the train from Escombe or to sit on a bench for the blacks - wasn'tthat dreadful. Your mum is doing OK and is so proud that you are keeping her informed. It's about the only time in your life when you can do this sort of thing so take care and enjoy. xx Ellie