“One five minutes, one five!”

Sadly it is time to leave the beautiful Amapondo backpackers in Port St. John’s and move on... I will surely miss the thick jungle and amazing views.
So it is back to the Shell Ultra City (a petrol station where we have been spending quite a lot of time due to the Baz Bus shuttles) and then we move on to Coffee Bay! We were all excited at the prospect of spending some time in Coffee Bay as it has had a great reputation among the past Project Trust volunteers, so we were about to find out for ourselves why it was so amazing.

Coffee Bay
We arrive and it is beautiful, it is a tiny little place with a couple of beaches and hills that you have to wade to across a rivers’ mouth to reach, and the landscape is pretty much untouched. We had a walk to the ‘main part’ of the town which is home to; two backpackers (Coffee Shack and Bomvu), Kaleidoscope Kafe (a little hippy shop and cafe, who also sell the most amazing homemade passion fruit ice-cream!), a pizza place on the top of a ridiculous hill, an Indian run family store (who have all of their products behind what looks like prison wire, so they’re clearly conscientious about safety) and... well, that’s pretty much it.
I’m lying, that’s almost it; I’ve nearly forgotten about the jewellery ladies! As you hop across stepping stones over a little river to reach this area the grass banks are lined with ladies sat on blankets selling their handmade jewellery. Unlike stall owners in Swaziland these ladies don’t sit quietly and hope you will buy something...
As we passed by what must have been 15 stalls all selling the same thing we had 15 ladies all introducing themselves to us, telling us we must buy from them and saying that we must remember them and come again tomorrow. I smiled apologetically and said that I had no money and carried on walking, Ashley however stopped to have a look at one stall and that was the end of her. As soon as she was stationary all the ladies grabbed pieces of jewellery, sprinted from their stalls and threw themselves onto Ashley; within seconds she was laden with necklaces, bracelets and anklets, and she was surrounded by women so desperate to sell that their approaches to customers were more intimidating than friendly. In the end she paid for pretty much everything that had been attached to her body as it was the only logical option for escape!
This happened to us every time we walked past, which was a few times a day. I took on the inspiring motto of “if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball” and zigzagged my way through the danger zone with my reflective aviators on so that no one could catch my eye.  

Arriving, it's a tad cold, but the weather will soon pick up!

Our accommodation at Sugar Loaf backpackers! Finally I get to stay in an African hut!

 Tuesday morning starts with disaster, we booked a surf lesson for 7:30 in the morning and set an alarm so that we could get up and walk to Coffee Shack in enough time. Unluckily for us Ashley’s alarm decides to not go off and we get a call from the backpackers at 7:20 asking where we are and the answer is in bed. We all jump up that second (it is the quickest we have ever moved on a morning), throw on some clothes, grab our swimming gear and run to Coffee Shack which is about a 10 minute walk away. At 7:25 in the morning you do not want to be running for your life in flip flops on a dirt track wearing nothing but a bikini and a top. We made the surf lesson though and it was pretty fun! The water in Coffee Bay is as warm as a bath because it is the Indian Ocean, lovely.

We spend the day sunbathing and swimming on the beach and then head off for some pizza and ice-cream, I love holidays. 

Nothing says "Welcome to Africa" quite like cows on the beach...

Me not having a poo on Coffee Bay beach, just unfortunate timing!

Mmmm! Sun sea and sand <3

That night we decide to get in touch with some African culture and we head to Bomvu backpackers for the free drum lessons around the campfire! Considering I am the most unmusical person in the world I really enjoyed the drum circle, the guy lead us with some simple beats and we just copied him, when there’s about 20 people all playing in time on the dijembe drums it sounds quite impressive (even for a bunch of amateurs).

Dijembe Drums

Looking sunburned and sweaty, sums up my time perfectly really!

 The next day is hell, Ashley and I contracted third degree burns from the beach (the boys weren’t as bad), but none of us can move very far. My lips have blistered (which has never happened before in my life, and I’m very familiar with sunburn) and my face is so red and shiny I look like a prematurely born baby. Ashley looks like she has skin disease because she sun-creamed in patches before getting bored and presumably giving up. We took advantage of the aloe-vera plants growing in pots around the backpackers and cut off big leaves to take to the bathroom, there we spent half an hour covering ourselves in think, green sticky (but amazingly cooling) goo.

East London
LANDAN BABY! We head off to East London from Coffee Bay, and on the way back to our favourite petrol station (Shell Ultra City) we pass buy Nelson Mandela’s house and old village! WE SEE HIS REAL HOUSE, WHERE HE LIVES! And just like the Queen when he is home a flag flies from the rooftop, but when we passed there was no flag, because he is in hospital.

The Big Man's house.

We bump into the Polokwane girls at the Shell Ultra City; they’re getting off the Baz Bus to head to Coffee Bay. It’s so strange seeing them again after all this time, they visited us within our first 3 or 4 weeks into our stay in Swaziland, but when I see them again it doesn’t even feel like we’ve been apart for very long!

Our stay in East London was quite a long one, so we took advantage of the time and fitted in some activities. We went sand boarding on our first full day; sand boarding for those who don’t know is basically snowboarding on a sand dune. What we didn’t think about when we booked it was that in order to sand board DOWN the dune, you had to climb up it first. Unlike snowboarding there aren’t any lifts to the top; so in 30 degree heat and bare foot on scolding hot sand we were jogging up this sand dune, carrying our boards and struggling against the constant sand avalanches which hindered our progress.
Physical exhaustion (and embarrassment about how unfit I have become) aside I had a great time! Ashley, the Sam’s and myself bit the dust, literally, many times but before the end of our 2 hour lesson we all managed to make one full run down to the bottom! Sam Rutherford was so hardcore by the end he managed to snap his board in half, good effort my friend.

The next day we set off for a family friendly animal park; not the normal choice of destination for a group of 18 year olds but there was one good reason we were heading there... lion cubs. Need I say more?
For 30 rand (£2.15) you had access to view all the animals at the park (tigers, lions, crocodiles, cheetahs, rabbits and some of the biggest tortoises you will ever lay eyes on), and the opportunity to play with lion cubs! Money well spent.
It was a pretty funny day; I managed to electrocute myself on the cheetah enclosure (which is also on video because Sam permanently has his camera on to document everything that happens) and we found a llama that looked exactly like Ruth (a woman who worked at Kaleidoscope Kafe in Coffee Bay). Therefore we entertained ourselves for a good 30 minutes doing voice-overs to the llamas in a posh Johannesburg accent; it was almost like Ruth was with us.   

Howzit Ruth?

It's not everyday you get mauled my a Lion Cub :D

So, that’s it for this week! I’ve seen some more beautiful places and I’m definitely catching the travelling bug. 

Kate xx

P.S. The title of this post is dedicated to the one and only Petros, the best Baz Bus driver South Africa has to offer.

Petros: “Ok guys, we have fifteen minute stop, yes? Everyone back here in one five minutes... one five, one five!”

We love Petros.