From Nature's Valley I travelled onto a town called Coffee Bay where I did yet more hiking, this time with a guide and five other travellers. The hike was along the coast over springy grass-covered rolling green hills. The hills were covered with the occasional homestead and many of the domestic animals of the world - cows, sheep, and goats. Occasionally the trail left the hills and we wandered down on the beach amid the sand and rocks. In the water we were able to spot two pods of dolphins and a bunch of whales. At first, the whales were really difficult to see, but once I knew exactly what type of splashing to look for I started to see them pretty much everywhere. Mostly, I was just able to see flippers waving around and slapping the water, but occasionally one of the whates would jump out in a breach. After walking for 9km we came to our destination, Hole-in-the-Wall. Hole-in-the-Wall is an interesting geological feature which is basically a cliff right on the coast of the ocean with a hole in it that the water and waves crash through. Its not a terribly exciting thing, but it is interesting and we spent a while just watching the waves before hopping on our shuttle-bus back to our hostel.

The main event that afternoon after returning from the hike was drumming lessons. I had really been feeling that I should not leave Africa without trying at least a little bit of drumming and here was my opportunity. The drumming was lots of fun. Edge of athe drum was treble, center was bass. Beyond that and the proper way to hold the drum, what we learned were just various rhythms, which ranged in difficulty from ridiculously easy I completly can't follow what is going on. I realized though that I was having so much trouble with a couple of the rhythms because the instructor wasn't breaking them into pieces. Once I realized that, I had him go over the rhythms beat by beat and things suddenly started to make a lot more sense.

That evening, I was hanging around the lounge and ended up teaching the bartender/ surfing instructor how to juggle. This wouldn't be worth mentioning except that Dave was so happy with the juggling that he insisted on giving me surfing lessons the next morning. He didn't ask if I wanted surfing lessons (he already knew I didn't -- we'd been over my wave phobia), just told me which wet suit and surf board I'd be using and when to be ready the next morning and don't be late. Which is how I found myself the next morning in the water with a surf board attached to my ankle by a leash. Much to my surprise, the surfing was a lot of fun. The lesson started out on the beach with Dave teaching me how to (theoretically) stand up on the board. Then it was into the water where I attempted to catch many waves and stand up on the board. For the most part this didn't go to well. Mainly what I did was fall off the board, but for some reason I found that to be a lot of fun. I was, eventually, however, able to stand up on the board. Not every time, not well and not for long, but I did actually manage to stand up so I can now say that I have been surfing.