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...