The next stop on the coast was a village in a village in an area called Coffee Bay. The village is in a region called the Transkei which was created in the 50's when the government introduced legislation to create eight ethnically and linguistically divided homelands for black South Africans in order to pursue a policy of "Separate Development" for South Africa's various races. The areas have since been dissolved, but the transkei was home to a large number of freedom fighters during apartheid, including Nelson Mandela. The place was absolutely beautiful, and ended up being our favourite stop in South Africa.
The town was very rural spread out farm community, which has basically lived the same way for hundreds of years. The influence of tourism has had only a small effect compared with many of the other places we'd been. Jackson and I went on a walking tour guided by a local guy named Joseph who grew up close by the hostel and now works there. The people still live in mud huts, and mostly farm maize and cattle. Dowry of ten cows is still standard in marriage, so families always hope to have more daughters than sons.
The sacred pool...
Joseph showed us how they use clay to cover their faces from the sun. However once we walked back through the town we realized it's just something he does for fun with tourists..the locals all had a good laugh. That aside, it does work.
Lunch was served in Joseph's home, cooked by his mother and sister. The men sit on the chairs, women on the floor...tradition is tradition.
We ended it off drinking some local "beer", which was served in a milk carton and smelled like bad yogurt. The guy in the background was a shady character who harassed us to buy drugs everytime we saw him....he was happy to finish off the booze.
The next day we hiked to a place called "hole in wall". Now is a good time to introduce a man who's pretty hard to do justice too. Danny Boy as he was called was from Grimsby, Enland, apparently a dive of a port town up on the north east coast. This guy was a slice of life. He shut down the bar every night, and we pounding beer at 9:00am the net morning. He joined for the hike already 5 deep, and somehow seemed to manage it better than all of us.
a small break in the 3 hour hike. Jackson...suck it in buddy.
Everyone loves the beach in South Africa, even the cows.
Finally, 3 hours later, made it to hole in the wall (the hole in the middle of the cliff in the distance).
We swum out and jumped off a cliff in the whole as the waves wash in. Afterward since we needed two truck loads the boys stayed behind for some drinks. There was an 18 year old english kid (George) who jackson decided to take under his wing and show him how to open a beer with the top of another beer. All was going well until Georgy boy shattered the bottle and sliced his finger open. Jackson was kind enough to make it up to him by buying him some rounds at the bar that night, afterwhich he proceeded to spend the night in the bushes puking. Jackson, you'll make a great dad.
The kids loved to run beside the truck and were always waving and smiling.
After that, time for the beach. A little footy with some local kids
Working hard..
Now that mark had determined the best strategy for surfing, it was time for the big day.
And of course...the bar. They had a tab system, so you could rack up a pretty hefty bill. Luckily it was about $1.25 for beers, $1.50 for shots....gigidy gigidy.
Jackson, starting it off right with a blind shot selection
One night was a mustache theme. Jackson can be seen rocking the handle bar, me the Mr T. or the foo man chu, and T with a more traditional, 1940's style mustache. Can't figure out why that one ever went out of style.
Callum and George before the puking. George is sporting a hat made by this street performer from San fran who happens to travel with a bag full of balloons...weird.
He was pretty handy though, and could make a wide range of items..sorry about your eye Dea.
What started as 2 nights turned into 6 in Coffee Bay. Definately a must do if anyone ever goes to South Africa.
On the Baz Bus we happened to meet up with a group of 4 people that were traveling together (2 Brits and 2 Aussies) and going to the same hostel as us.
Billy's birthday was on the same day as mine, Feb. 2 (Groundhog Day) so we decided to do it up right. Thanks to Kim for the cake.
Splitting up into two teams (Project T and Plan B) we decided to have a beer games olympics. The teams were drawn from a hat in a very official manner. Thanks to Kimmy for being the photographer for the evening.
Beer pong Team T killed it.
We had 9 events all together but after Team T won the first 5 Plan B was forced to forfit.
Sorry Marieka it's not cheating if its a manikin. It was the blonde hair and the german features that fooled him.
That just about sums it all up for Team T.
Das your a great guy but I thought the British could drink. Don't worry about loosing it for your team how could anybody ever stay mad at that face. I know I can't.
Paul and Thirnan are sporting REEF anti-shark wetsuits; colours: midnight black, that is all; sizes: XL and XXL.
T's battle with a camera smile continues...
Cheetah conservation grounds at one of the wineries.
We paid for the tours and hostel nights all in one shot - over 10 G's Rand. I leave you with this...
