Garden Route to Jeffrey's Bay

From Hermanus we headed along the Garden Route to Knysna. We stopped off at Mossel Bay and Wilderness. These were both very nice stops; although we again ended up in a township in Mossel Bay, unscathed.   Once in Knysna we settled into our hostel then went on a mission for 'Milk Tart', a South African dessert similar to a Creme Brulee but more awesomer. Everyday so far Mel has searched for the best milk tart in the country. The best up to this point is from a bakery in Britz, a farmtown near Pretoria, SA.

We arrived in Jeffrey's Bay the next morning. This is a surfers destination. This reminded us of Torquay in Australia because of the numerous surfing outlet stores. Our hostel had a view of 'boneyards' (for you non-surfers this is a surf break right next to 'SUPERTUBES', for those of you non non-surfers this is the longest right break in the world!!!!). Neal didn't make it out in the waves as there was no one else out in the water and the waves were very large. We walked along the beach finding shells such as abalone and a family of 3 Golden Retrievers: the dad Kei, the mum Scuzzy (don't really understand that one) and the puppy Summer. They followed us down the beach until their owner had to come and fetch them. They all barked at the guy who came to retrieve them.  We think they enjoyed their time with us much more than the idea of heading home.  Really, what dog in their right mind would want to leave Mel? In fact, Mel wished she could take them home for Kennedy.
A funny thing we saw was on the sign for the hostel was a Sitka surfboards sticker from Victoria. We thought we'd even it out by posting a Coastline sticker above it - represent. To make it to Cape Town which is 8hrs drive from Jbay We had to leave the next morning early.  Unfortunately, we also left some nice wave sets coming through Supertubes.

Jeffrey's Bay

Boardwalk to Boneyards and Supertubes

Supertubes with no one out except the oystercatchers...

...and a few landlubbers

Only wave caught in Jbay, and it was at a mall - embarassing.

 

Mel arrived on a Sunday night, and I picked her up witht he rental car, "Zulu Blue".  I decided earlier that week that it would be better if we started heading along the Garden Route the first night.  Driving in SA is sometimes tough enough in the daylight, let alone at night and out by the airport.  This made for an interesting start to our tour towards the eastern coast.  Upon leaving the airport we got lost and found ourselves heading into a township.  We did enter the township, but immediately turned the vehicle around and got out of there as fast as we found ourselves in it.  Townships are not a place you want to lose yourself in the daylight, let alone at night.
Hermanus was the destination we were seeking that first night, and we found it safe and sound with all four wheels attached.  We slept the night away thinking about our travels thus far, and looking forward to the whales we were going to be spotting the next day.
Hermanus is a stopping spot for female southern right whales with their calves.  I mentioned these whales earlier in my blog on my way to the shark diving.  We were blessed with a few sighting of whales this day, with one that was exceptionally close.  We stayed and watched the whales for about an hour.  Truly, we could have stayed the whole day, but we had to get back on the road so that we could make our next destination, Knysna.

Fat cat in Hermanus Hostel



Whale tale action for Mel



Hermanus waterfront

 From Hermanus we headed along the Garden Route to Knysna. We stopped off at Mossel Bay and Wilderness. These were both very nice stops; although we again ended up in a township in Mossel Bay, unscathed.   Once in Knysna we settled into our hostel then went on a mission for 'Milk Tart', a South African dessert similar to a Creme Brulee but more awesomer. Everyday so far Mel has searched for the best milk tart in the country. The best up to this point is from a bakery in Britz, a farmtown near Pretoria, SA.

Farmland along the highway

Knysna harbour

 We arrived in Jeffrey's Bay the next morning. This is a surfers destination. This reminded us of Torquay in Australia because of the numerous surfing outlet stores. Our hostel had a view of 'boneyards' (for you non-surfers this is a surf break right next to 'SUPERTUBES', for those of you non non-surfers this is the longest right break in the world!!!!). Neal didn't make it out in the waves as there was no one else out in the water and the waves were very large. We walked along the beach finding shells such as abalone and a family of 3 Golden Retrievers: the dad Kei, the mum Scuzzy (don't really understand that one) and the puppy Summer. They followed us down the beach until their owner had to come and fetch them. They all barked at the guy who came to retrieve them.  We think they enjoyed their time with us much more than the idea of heading home.  Really, what dog in their right mind would want to leave Mel? In fact, Mel wished she could take them home for Kennedy.
A funny thing we saw was on the sign for the hostel was a Sitka surfboards sticker from Victoria. We thought we'd even it out by posting a Coastline sticker above it - represent. To make it to Cape Town which is 8hrs drive from Jbay We had to leave the next morning early.  Unfortunately, we also left some perfect wave sets coming through.









Last week in programme

I made it back from Cape Town no problem.  In fact, when I arrived into Muizies (local name for Muizenberg) I
arrived to a beautiful blue sky, playful seas and hoards of people.  Being a Sunday, and a nice one at that
especially without much wind everyone and their braii make it down to the beach.  I avoided the beach for the day, and hung around Muzies drinkin' coffee and eating ice cream.
For my last week of the programme I decided to change to the surf programme for the last three days.  I'm happy I did that because I got to see how the surf lessons were run.  Plus I really enjoyed being out in the water with the kids.  I was bobbing up and down in the waves, pushing and encouraging the kids onto waves.  I even got a few good shots of the kids in the water with my camera.  They loved seeing themselves in the photos in the water.

These are two of the suits donated by Xcel.  Cheers Xcel, great fit!

Warm up

Paddle practice

Carve practice

Posing practice

up...

...and away

Toes in the sky

Future shred-heads

Other warm-ups

Surf instructor Widi warming up

After finishing up the programme with the kids, I started to concentrate on Mel's arrival and what we were going to do for the week that we were going to be together in SA.
Before Mel's arrival on Sunday night I picked up our rental car and headed out for a test drive with a few of my roomies.  We drove along the coast, and stopped off at a winery before dropping them back off in Muzies and saying our goodbyes.  Unfortunately, I don't have much photo documentation of that trip because my camera started to act up.  What I can say is that the coast along the cape's atlantic side is the most beautiful coast I have ever driven along.  There is a pass called the Chapmen's Peak that is absolutely stunning with mountains that join the sky to the sea.  More on this later when I get the pix from the tour Mel and I did on this same route.

"Zulu Blue" (rented car) in front of the Twelve Apostles before my camera went on the fritz

Here are a few randoms in Muzies

My accommodation: house 2.  Don't want to show you the inside because it got hectic at the best of times

Local watering hole

Local kite festival.  Fitting for an area that gets looootttss of wind.

It's been a while...

Since my last blog lots has happened: my birthday, more soccer with the kids, hearing from Mel for the first time since we’ve been here, surfing, skateboarding with the kids, climbing table mountain, losing my coat and getting it back, a night in Cape Town, diving with sharks, walking through the township, and more surfing.

My birthday was just as I wanted it to be: relaxing, and eating pizza with new friends.  I think I surfed that morning (likely).

 I wished they had warned me about this photo.

Soccer has been fun; however, I have pulled something in my neck and was out of commission for a couple of days.  This, in fact happened on two occasions.  The first time it lasted a couple of days and felt much better, and then it happened again a few days after it was getting better.  Nonetheless, my neck feels good now, and hope that it stays that way for the rest of the trip.  I think it started from my stellar headers in soccer.

Mel and I spoke last week.  Last I heard from her Mel was heading to Kruger National Park, and had already seen the “Big 5”.  Kind of jealous, but she didn’t see 3-4metre Great Whites.  More on this in a bit.

Surfing has been on and off due to my neck injury, and the variable weather here on the cape.  Today was fun with two sessions: morning and afternoon with soccer in between.  I’ll be sleeping well tonight after our veggie pie dinner.

On the way to visit a friend’s family for a braii (a SA bbq) I came across a makeshift skatepark in the back of a taxi parking lot.  There was space to ride, and “obstacles” scattered around.  Upon finding this gem I decided to take the kids from my programme there to skateboard.  It ended up being me and 16 kids, plus all of the volunteers from the surf programme.  The surf was blown out due to heavy onshore winds, so we packed up, jumped on the train and headed south to the skatepark.  The kids absolutely enjoyed themselves, and were so well behaved.  I’m glad I got to experience this.  It’s gratifying to see the kids have so much fun with a wooden toy with wheels.  I was amazed at the ability of some of them seeing as they don’t have much chance to practice.

trash slash

group shot

apres meal of peanut butter sandwiches and organges

Shark diving, now that’s an experience.  We travelled 2 hours east by van along the coast to come to our shark diving destination.  Along the way we stopped to see southern right whales calving in Hermanus.  The pix don’t do these whales much justice as they grow up to 18m.  Apparently, the calves will drink up to 600L of milk a day, and grow at an enormous rate doubling its size in the first year.  They are born at 4-6m in length!

When we got out onto the water in the boat half of the group quickly discovered what it feels like to be in 2m swells on a 35ft boat.  Unfortunate for them many missed out on the experience of being in the water with the great whites.  I got to go into the cage twice and got some fabulous pictures.  I realized how excited I was about being in the water with the sharks when I looked at the pictures back home.  You’ll notice that in some of the head shots there is no cage in front of them meaning I must have had my arm outside of the cage.  Didn’t think that one through at the time.  The guide told us that we saw 4 sharks ranging from 3-4m in length.  Truly, this was a worth while experience.

Brave souls

Here fishy fishy!

Yup!

Can't get enough of this rough stuff.

I don't know what to say, but this is a terrifying picture.  Notice you can see the cage in this photo.

A group of us climbed Table Mountain last Saturday.  The climb was 2 hours to the top, or a 1000m vertical climb.  The view up there is a spectacular 360 degrees of the surrounding area including Cape Town city bowl, Lion’s Head (the adjacent mountain), Camp’s Bay and what we think was the Cape of Good Hope.  It was a goreous day, which made the first half of the climb difficult because we were in the sun.  It didn’t help that we started at noon.  Fortunately, the top half of the climb was in the shade.  The hike down, although difficult, took us half the time.

View east towards City Bowl, CT

Money shot

Looking towards the Cape of Good Hope.  FYI jeans were a bad idea..."Bad Idea Jeans"

Dung beetle doing his thing

After the hike up Table Mountain my group left for the last train back to Muizenberg, and left me in Cape Town.  I opted to stay in Cape Town to reclaim my jacket that I left at a coat check in one of the nightclubs last Wednesday.  I enjoyed my stay in CT at a hostel on Long Street, one of the lively strips in town, and I met a few travelers at the hostel with their own interesting stories (not that leaving a jacket in town is an interesting story).

Bubbles, a CT local

Because I didn’t get to my project until later on in the first day I arrived I missed out on the orientation.  In missing orientation I missed the visit to the township from where the kids I play soccer, skateboard and surf with come.  Kindly, a couple of the volunteers who volunteer in the schools in the township took me on a tour and took me to the schools.  The schools were quite nice mainly because they were built recently with grant money.  The kids who are in these schools have worked their way up a waiting list, and their parents are able to pay the R25 (CAN3) a week fee to send them there.  All other students are educated in shacks set up by residents wanting to help their community.  I have no pictures of the township because it is advised that you don’t bring any valuables in with you.  In fact, I noticed those who passed me by looked to see if I had something in my pockets worth taking (i.e. a wallet shaped object).  The township is an interesting place, and I wish I could spend more time there, although it is advised not to so.

That’s it for now.  I’ve been looking at the surf today, and want to try out a new board: a biscuit.

Day 4, CT

This is the view from the plane on the way into CT.

This is the view from the house in the morning.  The sun dips behind these mountains at sunset.

This is what sits on top of the neighbours house and wakes me at 6am to see the above view.  They're called Egyptian Geese.

Settling right into this CT experience.  Had another day of playing soccer with the kids.  A good high scoring game: 7-3 for the bad guys (i.e. not my team).  The kids are really into it, and really good.   Every time I see the kids play I am simply amazed at how good they are at playing.

I’m trying to set up a skateboarding programme for the kids.  Apparently, the programme that was advertised on the website isn’t running anymore because the public was complaining about where we were doing the programme: on the beach front boardwalk.  I went to talk to one of the local shops (who have been so supportive of the kids) to talk to them about using their mini-ramp for one or two days a week for the skateboard programme, but they are going through some repairs and asked me to come back in a week.  In the meantime I’m going to go out and source out a tennis court or basketball court (not many of the latter) that we could push around on.

Yesterday, I made it out to see the penguins.  These guys are not all that big.  Unfortunately I didn’t add any point of reference in the pix to give you an idea of how big they are.  Size of a house cat, but much rounder (depending on the house cat), and smell badly.  You probably would too if you had a diet of fish.  These guys were very used to humans, but you wouldn’t want to put your finger near them because they like their space.

On our way out to the penguins we saw a bunch of southern right whales.  It’s mating season, and they’re in the bay for some brown chicken, brown cow.

No waves today, so I didn’t surf.  Yesterday, before the penguins was very nice in the water.  I was out for three hours, and because it is a beach break I was exhausted and couldn’t make it out for an afternoon session.

Meanwhile, Mel is holding baby lions and saving domestic animals.  Sounds like Mel’s enjoying herself so far.

Cape Town, sorta

I touched down on African soil on Sunday.  To be honest, I have no idea what day or time that would have been back in North America.  Probably Sunday as well.  With that said, I’m not really feeling the effects of jet lag, which is incredible because we were traveling for close to 30hrs.  I did sleep a lot on the plane.

Mel and I parted ways in Jo’berg Sunday night.  Mel met up with her tour group, and my hotel picked me up for the night.  Well, it wasn’t a hotel.  Instead it was called a “game lodge”.  Not sure why they called it that.  Perhaps it was because they had some Springboks and Ostriches on sight.

I arrived in Cape Town yesterday in the morning and was taken through orientation.  Nothing too exciting.  We did get to go into Cape Town itself.  I did forget to mention that I’m not in Cape Town proper, but staying in a suburb south of it called Muizenberg.  Muizenberg is a beach town with surf minutes away from the house I’m staying at.  Cape Town itself is a 45minute train ride away.

Today, Tuesday, I got some surf in the morning and played soccer with the kids in the afternoon.  The kids are awesome – not only as players, but people too.  They’re good fun.  They are 7-11 years old, and come from one of the townships aka ghettos.  Unfortunately, I did not get a tour of the township because I came in late on my orientation day, but I plan on going with them in two weeks when the new volunteers come in.

No photos today.  I didn’t bring my camera along; however, I’m looking to take some shots tomorrow.