Saturday, February 16, 2008

Umzumbe / Thirnan's 24 B Day

Umzumbe, a beach/surfing town was our next stop along the coast. The hostel that we stayed at was quite nice with a pool, hot tub, and a nice bar. To save money we decided to camp on there grounds instead of staying in a dorm. Just to avoid confusion the tent that we have been carrying around on the trip is the one on the right. 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.

Coffee Bay, South Africa

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.

Jeffrey's Bay

After a solid week in Cape Town we hopped on the Baz Bus and started making our way west up the coast. Jeffrey's Bay (J Bay) a world renound surfing destination was our first stop. Here we made our first attemp at surfing, good times. Definately not something you can pick up over night. The hostel we stayed at was really cool, but the town itself was so so. A good party never the less.


This guy might look familier to some of the boys from the ARFC. Jackson we ran into randomly, funny considering that I had known him from rugby in Nova Scotia. I had crashed on his couch in Halifax once years ago, I think he made a group of us pancakes in the morning.

Jackson was traveling with a buddy from Vancouver, Nick. Good times partying with these guys for sure.

Nick rocked that strait up boxers often as you can see. The ladies loved it, what a beauty

We hit the braai (BBQ) pretty hard with no shortage of meat. Paul was pretty stoked about it as you can see.

Mark didn't make the cut in this one, sorry bud. Studying the best strategy for surfing is quite time consuming. His dedication and focus though are unmatched, keep it up.





Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Capetown, South Africa

We got back to jo'burg and hopped a plane to Capetown. Capetown's pretty much the Vancouver of South Africa - gorgeous, has a mountain, an ocean and ample panhandlers. After taking the first night off, we got up early (10 o'clock) to hike Table mountain, which sits in the middle of the city. It was time to find out if our hiking endurance built in patagonia stuck around through beers, car-rides and beaches. it didn't.

Table mountain has a cool cloud blanket that sits on top and rolls off.
About an hour after starting we cut up through this crevace to hit the top.
shifting pockets of cloud on top of the mountain...
thankfully the cloud isn't all-encompasing, giving a solid view and a chance to get back to our cliffs and back-of-the-head pics.

Next on the to do list - shark dive. We got many disclaimers on the way out that we may not see any sharks due to the low season. this may be to make you feel lucky when you do. we saw 3. The break-down was this: cage attached to the side of the boat, 35 people on the boat, 6 people fit in the cage, head just out of water. To ensure good sightings, they dump "chum" in the water to attract the sharks. They also toss a massive chunk of tuna on a line 10 feet out from the cage. when the shark shows up they yell "down!", you duck your head under and get friendly with jaws. should the shark go for the chunck of tuna, they pull the bait in towards the cage. After a couple good underwater sightings, switch up divers in the cage.
Paul and Thirnan are sporting REEF anti-shark wetsuits; colours: midnight black, that is all; sizes: XL and XXL.

Envigorated by their new attire, Paul and T threw caution to the wind and jumped in the cage first.. I stayed back to observe the best strategy for shark viewing. The first session in the cage was a good one; shark cruised right up and bumped the cage, T swears it looked at him, and that it blinked first.



The wine tour. We booked seats on a bus through the hostel. After the bus was an hour late we called the company to inquire. They said the bus broke down and should arrive soon. Another hour later the answer was that the bus was in an accident, and should arrive. Still later, we were informed the driver was needed in court and could not conduct the tour.. makes sense.

The hostel was good enough to get us another bus last minute. Wine country by Capetown's in a region called Stellenbosh. We hit 4 wineries, 5 free glasses at each winery, white AND reds, I like the reds, good tanons.

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...
M