Internet Dramas

We are trying our best but Internet in SA has been nothing short of an expensive debacle. Hopefully, we will post when we get to Namibia in 2 days time

Location:South Africa

Wild Coast, Wild Ride

After a dramatic start to our trip, we've had an excellent time on the Wild Coast and Sunshine Coast of the Eastern Cape.  The flight to Johannesburg was diverted to Durban due to fog.  "Great!", we thought, as Durban was our intended destination.  BA had other ideas and refused to let Durban bound passengers disembark.  So we refueled and flew back to Joh'burg only to be told that our, BA operated, Durban connection was delayed indefinitely.  When we finally got to Durban we found that BA had added the cherry to the icing to the cake by losing our bags.  BA did locate the bags after Zoe patiently and calmly dealt with various people at Durban airport lost luggage.  I'd lost my rag by this stage and was consigned to the naughty corner.  Thankfully, my cousin's wife's parents live at Port Edward, south of Durban.  They offered to put us up until BA couriered the bags to us the next morning.  We were warned not to head into the Transkei at night, due to roaming livestock and  bad roads.  So, instead of a night at Port St John's, we spent our first evening as guests of George and Elbe at their lovely beachside home.  They were fantastic hosts and we owe them big time.

The next day we awoke to find our bags had been delivered.  It was like Christmas morning.  After breakfast and a quick tour of Pt Edward we said our goodbyes and headed south to Pt St John's.

 Pt St John's is a beautiful location on the Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape.  The guest lodge at which we stayed had a perfect view across the small bay with incredibly powerful waves crashing into the point.  After a couple of sundowners we headed to a fantastic and quirky beachside restaurant for a crayfish dinner and some wine.  This was more like it.

View from our guest house at Pt St John's

As much as we wanted to stay, we headed off the next day to Coffee Bay.  We were due to stay two nights in Coffee Bay but thanks to the delay with the flight, we were limited to a single night.  It did give us time to explore Coffee Bay and The Hole in the Wall (via a ridiculously rough goat track of a road that our microscopic but trusty Chrysler Spark-Lite managed with a few moans and groans) but I think we would have liked to have spent some more time there.


View from the Hostel at Coffee Bay

Hole In The Wall

From Coffee Bay we drove to Cintsa, stopping after 50 yards when Zoe noticed that I had left my folder containing every single piece of important documentation, plus both my passports and all my currency.  I'd forgotten I'd "hidden" it for safe keeping under my pillow; something I am no longer permitted to do.  Trust me.  I'll never live it down.

It was amazing how much the surroundings changed, from predominantly poor, but colourful, African villages to plush farmlands.  Cintsa is a beachside community just north of East London.  It was here that we were able to really relax for the first time, soaking up some sun, having a few ciders and enjoying a quiet night in the beautiful surroundings.



Zoe getting all excited at Cintsa

After another long drive through the karoo of the Eastern Cape we landed in Jeffrey's Bay (or J-Bay as it's locally known).  J-Bay is known for its surf and we were lucky enough to be there when Super Tubes beach was living up to its name.  We spent a couple of hours watching some incredible surfing on the perfect but powerful surf.

Surfer riding Super Tubes at J-Bay

From J-Bay we headed to Plettenberg Bay and left the Eastern Cape.  On the way to "Plett" we stopped off so I could do what I'd previously conceived to be the unimaginable by throwing myself from the Blaukran's Bridge, the world's highest bungee at 216m.  I've gotta say that it was a hell of a rush and a lot of fun.  I was surprisingly lacking in nerves, Zoe was more nervous than me, but I figured that if it's 10m or 216m and something goes wrong, it's not going to be a great result.  Pants unstained, we headed to Plett.

Andy's Bungee Jump at Blaukran's Bridge

Highlights so far have been the crayfish dinner by fairy light at Pt St John's, cold beers after long drives, friendly hospitality of our various hosts, the amazing surroundings and the awesome (and inexpensive) food.  We both agree that South Africa is in our top three culinary destinations.  The lowlight for Zoe has been South African cider, Redd's, but thankfully we've finally acquired some Savanna.  Our next quest is to find some more palatable Sav Blanc.

Onwards to The Garden Route...

Scratch Ya Later

The day is here.  The farewell do at The Wheatsheaf, Borough was a great night out.  Serious hangovers ensued.  A few of the guests made a tremendous effort with the outfits.  In particular, Andy Parker, Paul & Veronika Curry and Ross Bridges, were outstanding.  Gary Edwards's adoption of the persona of an obnoxious Sorth Efrikan rugby supporter was a thespian delight.  Bridges and Parker continued boozing afterward in Bermondsey St, dressed as British colonial soldier and Zulu warrior respectively.  It must've been a shock to some of the fellow punters.  There were also quite a few more subtle outfits which were very clever, indeed.  Cheers to all who came along.  Thanks also to the Nigerian Habidashers in Deptford High St who knocked up my outfit for £20 in about 45 minutes.

We're all packed, ready to go and counting down the hours.  Only one minor glitch : O2 have managed to screw up the transfer of our phone numbers so, unless a minor miracle occurs in the next few hours, my contact number while away will be +44 7924510834.

Cheers

Facebook Page Connected to Blogger

I've now connected the Facebook page to Blogger.  Blog entries will be fed automatically to anyone who subscribes by 'like'-ing the Facebook page.

Unemployed and Homeless

So I quit my job and finished up on 28 February.  Done.  Woo-hoo.  My days as the Software Architect equivalent of a Leonard Cohen LP are done...at least for the time being.  Best that I say as little as that about my previous employer as Father Time and the Market will deliver the ultimate judgement.  Most of the month of March was spent in Australia.  I'd travelled there to spend some quality time with my parents and to visit a good mate and all round top bloke who is fighting MND.

Zoe took a voluntary redundancy from her job as a local government Neighbourhood Manager in East London.  She finished up on 25 March with mixed feelings.  It was her graduate job so moving on represented a milestone.  And she'll move on to bigger and better things, 100% guaranteed.

We spent five days at Oxwich in The Gower in late March.  Plenty of walking, sleeping, eating and a bit of drinking was the order of the day.  If you ever get a chance, do yourself a favour and get down there.  It's a wonderful part of the UK.

Upon our return to London, we spent five days packing up the flat and shifting our gear before handing over the keys to a Canadian-Swiss couple who we were lucky enough to get to let Deptford HQ for a couple of months.  So, we are now both unemployed and (technically) homeless, squatting for the next week at Zoe's parents' lovely house at Wanstead as we count down the days to our departure to Durban on 14 April.