THE GARDEN ROUTE

The first stop along the Garden route was Mossel Bay, where we stayed at Santos Express, which was really cool, as it was a converted train that was actually on the beach. the last carrige of the train had been turned into a drom room, with mini bunk beds, that were really comfy! The beach was wkd as well, the sea was really warm to go in, no where near as cold as Cape Town! so went in a few times!

Wilderness was the next stop where we stayed for 2 nights at the beach house, again was really good as we were right on the beach, the weather wasn't too good though when we were there so we went down to the national park and did one of the hikes to the waterfall, was bit scary at moments as you had to climb accross drain pipes to get accross in places. we were told that it was going to be an easy 50 min walk, it turned into a 5.5 hour walk which included the pipes walking up and down ladders along boardwalks. when we actually got to the waterfall, it wasnt that great, it looked more like a trickle! but then we were comparing it to the last waterfall we saw which was Victoria Falls!!!!

Knysa was only 15 mins drive from wilderness yet the bus managed to take an hour! Africa time!! this was where sue-mai left us!!wasnt really much to do in Knysa was quite a small town, so just chilled out for a few days.

Plettenburg bay, we stayed at Nothandos, which was quite exciting as they had hair dryers in the rooms!!! and clean fresh towels on the beds for us, felt like luxury! lol we went down to the beach but it wasn't very good weather, even started to rain a bit! in true english style we stayed on the beach even though it was raining! it did stop nafter about an hour though!

We moved onto Strorms River the next day as there wasnt much to do in plet. there was loads to do in Storms river we spent the day at Tsitsikanma national park, whcih is one of the best kept secrets in South Africa, we hadnt really heard much about it, but the national park is stunning, would def rccomend it to evrybody! We did the hike to the waterfall, which was a really good walk, it was described as difficault but we managed to so it! there was quite a lot of rock climbing involved though. the waterfall was def worth the walk though. we were supposed to be going canopying the next day but it rained all day really heavily, so we never got the chance to do it unfortunately.

Next stop was Jefferys bay, whcih was the end of the Garden route, and the start of the Sunshine coast. we stayed at Island vibe which was awseome, we got there on St.patricks day we didnt arrive till about 8 at night, and the party was already in full swing, eeryone was covered in green body paint! the next day we made it to Supertubes which is ment to be one of the best places to go surfing in south africa. went horseriding the day after along the beach, which was awseome, never ridden along the beach!

Port Elizabeth, was a must stopover, as the bus route we were taking made us stay there, we got there on Human rights day, so everywhere was shut nas it was a national holiday. the Boardwalk area was really busy though, down by the beach. we only stayed the for the night though

We moved on very early the next morning to Cintsa, where we stayed at Buccaneers, which was in a stunning location. the dorms that we stayed in were set in small cottages which were set along the hill, at the bottom of the hill was the beach. to get the one and only local shop you had to walk along the beach then through the river!! which u could only do when the tide wasnt in then up the hill, was quite adventurous i thought! we stayed the for 3 nights, while we were there went boogie boarding with lucy which was fun! the sea was quite cold at first but then it got ok! went for a walk along the beach the beach went on for miles and milesand there was no one there. we also had an attempt at canoeing there was me and kate paddling and lucy sat in the middle! we managed an hour then got board even though the river was really pretty, there were loads of jumping fish as well in the river, one of them landed in the canoe, think we managed to get it back inrto the water in time though!

Coffee Bay

This was the start of the Wild Coast, the Tanskei, we stayed at the coffee shack, where kate left us! the hostel was awseome, met a really great group of people here. the hostel organised daily activities and cooked dinner for us all everynight which was great! everyone ate there mainly because we were in the middle of nowhere with no shops or anything! the first activity we did was the beach day, did a surf lesson, was really hard at first to get the balance, did manage to stand up on the board though!! think def need to put in some practice, was fun! we did the cultural activity as well, where we went for a walk round the local Xhosa village. the village is really spread out thoughfew huts here and there. we visited one family where the lady made us all lunch She made us Pap, which is the local staple diet. its corn which gets left for a few days, then it get grinded up over stones, so its kind of like a mix between mash potatoe and rice, then they add about a kg of salt!! yum! its actually quite nice withouht the salt though. there was a soup thing as well to go with the pap, none of us really knew what it was though! we walked down to the sacred pools, which the local people believe has their ancestors in, so every now and then they sacrifice cows to the sacred pools. we then walked up to the village healer's hut. we all had to take our shoes off before we could go in, all the girls have to sit on the rights hand side of the hut and the guys have to sit on the left, on chairs, whereas we have to sit on the floor! he told us how he became a spritual healer and we were allowed to ask him questions. we visited the Shebeen as well which is an illigal drinking den. its basically the village pub, we tried some of the local beer, which is served in paint tins. it didnt really look like beer though, it was pink with throff on the top, it tasted like it had flour in it as well, but it is made from maize. i only tried a sip of it! i wouldnt be suprised if it still had paint in it! that night back at the hostel there was a P party, we all had to make our costumes, i was a pig, i made a pig mask, and lucy was a pizza! was funny! next day we went to the hole in the wall, which is a big rock in the sea which u can swim out to, to do some cliff jumping.

we said goodbye to the coffee shack and moved onto jungle monkey in port st.john. we went for a walk into the town, was really weird, felt like me and lucy were the only white people in the whole place, we were!, was a rwally nice town, felt weird to see shops as we'd been in the middle of nowhere for quite a while!.

next stop was Umzumbe, we didnt get there until 2 in the morning, coz the bus was running a few hours late due to a road accident. we stayed at Mantis and Moon, where the outdoor jaquzzi was! the hostel was really good, it had trees everywhere with boardwalk paths all around, so u did really feel like you were in the jungle. We attempted a surf lesson in the morning but it wasnt very sucesful, it felt like u were in a washing machine, everytime u wiped out u would get swept away completlely, wasnt good! the afternoon was spent in the jaquzzi recovering! the next day we just chilled out at the beach. we caught the bus that night to Durban.

We arrived in Durban at about 10.30 at night, the first thing we saw was somebody getting car jacked at the traffic lights!! which was quite scary! we only had one day in Durban so in the morning we headed to the Indian markets, which werent that good really, then we went down to Ushaka which is a huge complex, of an aquariam, water park, shops restaurants, beach etc... was really good, we went into the water park and had fun on the slides and rubber rings round the lazy river!

We had an early start the next day having to catch the bus from Durban to Northern Drakensburg. We stayed at Amphitheatre which was cool, had the most amazing views of the drakensburg mountains. we did a day trip to Lesotho the next day so we had to take our passports, got another stamp, was just a re-entry one though!, the trip lasted all day. it was a hour and half drive to get to Lesotho. when we got there we went straight to the local school, it was closed though as the kids were on easter holidays. the principle of the school, and the maths teacher were there to show us the school and tell us a bit about it. we went inside one of the classrooms that had 4 grades inside to teach. can imagine what a nightmare that is, but they are in the process of building another classrom, so then they will have 3 rooms so there will only be 2 grades in each which is a lot better. we then took a short walk up the hill to see some SAN rock art, the pics weren;t that clear though. we headed back down the hill after lunch, to the mini bus and drove to the next village where we went to see the Sangoma, which was the local spiritual and herbal healer. then went to the shebeen to taste their pineapple beer, which was so much nicer then the beer we tried in coffee bay! still didnt taste very much like beer though. then we headed on down to the maths teachers house, where his wife had prepared a sample of food for us, it was pap with some green veg thing, was actually really nice, the nicest pap i had !

After Drakensburg we caught the bus to jo'burg, where we had to fly out the next day!!!