Kathy’s Travels

November 30th
Bazbus has certain stops that are required sleeps: Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Jo’berg and Swaziland. So here is am at Kings Beach Backpackers for about 8hrs.

Kings Beach Backpackers: 4/10 the manager is grumpy, the house is not bad, but the main reason I came was for the “Free Breakfast”. This involved toast and coffee or tea. No cereal or yoghurt or anything like that. All in all very disappointing.

December 1st
Welcome to Cintsa and Buccaneers Backpackers, reported to be the best backpackers in South Africa. Set in an almost an idyllic location with a perfect view of the bay and beach.

Buccaneers Backpackers: 9/10 Perfect location (except for the rather steep hill), about 10min walk from shops, good food, free evening activities w/ free wine, and wonderful staff who make you feel part of the family.

Of course my free activity involved a few hours sleep. The kind of sleep where you are out cold and drool all over the pillow. Woke up just in time for dinner. Then went back to bed again. Oh how I love sleep!!!!
December 2nd
Today sat and made jewellery near the office. Sold quite a few items and had a few requests, such as chokers with matching bracelets. Was great fun, until, of course, the hand start cramping……

Tonight the free activity involved decorating the bar for a farewell. The wine made me very creative and I whipped out large zulu – style shields and masks (from cardboard) and when one of the guys asked me to paint him too, I happily obliged and painted flowers and flags all over his stomach chest and onto his back.

Since most of the staff were at the main house for the farewell dinner I helped sort out the guests. Looks like I become part of the furniture where-ever I go….

Highest Bungy Jump……
Oh yeah forgot to tell you… Before I went to J-Bay I stayed at Storms river and the Tube & Axe backpackers. In Storms river you can hike on part of the otter trail. To do the entire trail means you have to be placed on the waiting list that is almost 1year or longer. You go zipline through one of only 2 rainforests in South Africa and finally you can hurl yourself of a bridge and do the highest bungy jump in the world. Whatever tickles your fancy…..

Tube & Axe backpackers: 8/10 Good location, excellent set-up and 100s of activities available. When busy apparently has good party vibe, ( I was there on a slow night – but still very pleasant). However, the shuttle costs you everytime you want to go somewhere, even if there is a whole load of you and you just want to pop down to the store).

Four of my friends decided to throw themselves off the bridge and I agreed to be paparazzi for them. Looks like I have a new occupation….. Looking at the bridge made me queezy, let alone throwing myself, willingly, off it, a height of 216m….

November 29th

“Oh how I want to go home,
I’m tired and I want to go to bed.
Been on the road for many a day,
And its gone straight to my head.
No matter where I roam,
Over land, or sea, or air….
I will always keep on singing this song,
Oh how I want to go home!!!”

It’s official! I will never make a good travelling salesman. Been on the road for over a week and am tired of it. Just want to sleep. Can’t wait till I get to Cinsta (East London area) where I get to stop for 2 whole nights, sleep glorious sleep!!!

Yesterday I was in Jeffrey’s bay. The surfing capital of South Africa. So if you like surfing this is the place to be. Miles of yellow sand and blue ocean.

Island Vibe Backpackers: 8/10 Nice set up as far as dorms and such go. Beautiful view of the beach, amazing food (had a t-bone steak for R40 / $7) in general pretty darn nice. Also there are the Billabong, Roxy etc… factory shops just down the road. (however the sizes are a little on the small size!!!!)

Went to play paparazzi for some friends of mine as they learnt how to surf. Even got to try out the surfboard myself… great fun!!!!

Finally learnt a new drinking game that I shall pass onto all of you guys:
Place an empty glass in the middle of the table, surround glass with a pack of cards face down, be sure everyone has an alcoholic beverage.
Each person draws a card and then does what that card means (meanings to follow). The aim is to not pick up the last king – everytime a king is found the person must add some of his drink to the middle glass. If you pick up the last king you have to top up the glass and down the concoction.
A- make a rule
2- for you (make another person drink)
3- for me (you take a swig)
4- for whores (all girls drink)
5- raise right hand (last person to do this….drinks)
6- for dicks (guys drink)
7- to the left (person on your left drinks)
8- to the right (person on your right drinks)
9- rhyme (you start a rhyme and go round the table until the rhyme gets stuck – drink or it reaches you again – you drink)
10- category (everyone has to name something from the category eg. Scientific names of whales ~ please note “WILLY” does not count)
J- stick the card on your forehead, if it falls you drink, you can only remove it when someone else picks up a Jack.
Q- ask a question at any point of the game to anyone, BUT the person must reply in the form of a question or drink.
K- place some of your drink in the middle glass or if you have the last king, top up the glass and down it.

Great fun was had by all, and there was more than one hangover the next day.

November 26th
In Buffalo bay at a hostel where the beach literally comes into the common room.

My first stop was at a backpackers about 30min before this one in a small town by the name of Sedgefield.

Upendi Backpackers: 8.5/10 Here you can go paragliding along with a number of other things. The atmosphere is wonderfully relaxed and the owner, Sancho, is a beautiful person who makes you feel at home immediately.

Upendi is actually so close to Wildside (the hostel in Buffalo Bay) that the BazBus couldn’t figure out how to put me on the bus for such a short trip. Eventually Sancho just gave me a lift.

Wildside Backpackers: 9/10 Stunning beach, fantastic staff and good food. The parties go late into the night and if you are not careful you get caught buying doubles when “the singles run out”….. yup people fell for that line a few times.

While at Bomvu, made friends with a group of hippies, no other terms works better. Wonderful people who taught me how to make string jewellery. Now with my own strings firmly in my hand and beads galore from the bead shop conveniently located right next door to Long Street Backpackers, I began making, selling and even teaching. Its great to make something and have someone actually give you money for it. Certainly helps a little with the bar bill.

November 23rd
Have finally arrived in Cape Town and am busy sorting out all the things I need to do for the festival. Am staying at Long Street Backpackers. Must admit, I never thought I wanted to stay at a backpackers that was in the center of things, but it is kind of nice.

Long Street Backpackers: 7.5/10 Nice atmosphere, beautiful old house with open courtyard in the center, little bit of a mission to find bathrooms and hard to sleep if you are not a party person. But on the whole nice and central, with a flea market just down the way and tons of shopping and bars.

Had to go all the way to the other side of CT to get some “Stage” magazines that had been sponsored then all the way back to pick up 12 bottles of sponsored Jose Cuervo from the Stage Mag co. Well it turns out that they gave us the wrong mags and the company only gave us 6 bottles rather than 12. Also the fliers they were sponsoring us and which were meant to be ready today went from 12 000 to 3 000 and will only be ready in a week or 2. Frustrating is an understatement.
Thanks a ton to my cousin for driving me around.

November 19th
Yup…. You guessed it, still at Bomvu
Have become part of the furniture, even joined the “tented” community (borrowed a tent since it is a lot cheaper than the dorms). A few days ago I hiked to Mdumbi and the African Pot hostel. Mdumbi beach is rated one of the best beaches in South Africa. The walk is a stunning 15km odd hike along the cliffs with many up and downs. I think I slept for 2 days when I finally made it, but it was definitely worth the trip. Tomorrow will leave for a 2 week marketing trip for a festival that is happening at the end of December. Have to travel to Cape Town and back to Durban and return to Coffee Bay, stopping at as many hostels as I can to let people know what is happening.

The festival is to raise awareness for AIDs and HIV in the Coffee Bay area and get a non profit organisation, Aids to Eden, off the ground.
Mark Russell the organiser of, A NEW BEGINNING, is a DJ from Cape Town and has been planning this event for over 3yrs. The festival will be held at Bomvu and include 2 DJ’s from the UK, as well as local DJs and some local bands. Already there are about 10 people here from countries like Israel, Germany, Austria and the UK that have heard about it and come to join.

To learn more have a look at: www.anewbeginning.co.za
This is the first of hopefully 7 festivals that will also challenge the world record for largest drum circle. It is planned to have 5000 drummers playing by 2010!!!

Well back on the Bazbus again. Choc-a-block full. Was about 3hours late for pick – up, so got to watch my dive buddy and the rest of the crew leave for the dive, and return. Could have almost made a 3rd dive (of course it was the one they saw everything on), but that’s cool, I got to see a lot and I don’t think my knuckles or muscles could take many more beach launches on those boats. The last one saw me land face first (feet still in the foot holds) on the bottom of the boat as we came to a VERY abrupt stop.

November 8th
The day I arrived was the start of a downpour. Literally! It rained solid for 5days. By the 3rd day we had no dry clothes almost no dry beds, had lost a foot bridge at the backpackers, could barely get to the beach and had no dry wood for fire.
But today, today was the 6th day and we have cloud failure!!!!!!!
5 days ago I arrived for a 2 day stay in Coffee Bay, former Transkei. But with the flooding up and down the entire South African coastline it wasn’t worth moving on, now that the sun was out I discovered just how beautiful it is. I even started doing Taekwondo on the beach in the morning, something I hadn’t practiced for a few years.

Bomvu Paradise Backpackers: 9.5/10, excellent food (thanks to Jenna), great staff, lots of trees and places to hide away in. 1min walk from a beautiful beach and a further 1min walk from a gorgeous beach. Good for surfing or body boarding. An amazing place.
There is even a tame green Cape Parrot named Joey, but be careful he has a toe fetish and will unceremoniously land on your shoulder and eat your food. He also likes his coffee with 2 sugars and milk (as I discovered at 5am one morning when he pulled the mug over and drank a few sips!!!)

Bomvu is the xhosa word for red, the river is named the Bomvu because when it floods the mud turns it red. Also there are 2 stories as to why it is called Coffee Bay. The first is that many years ago a coffee shipment was washed up on the beach after a shipwreck. The other, and probably more truthful, is that during the rains the red mud turns the bay a coffee color, hence Coffee Bay.

Every night a group of the local girls come to dance and the donations go towards their school fees. On Friday night the Amagogos (older generation) come to dance. Fantastic folks and I always dance the last dance with them when audience participation is encouraged.

October 31st
Sitting in Umkomaas at the dive lodge. Am diving through a company called “The Whaler”. Etienne the owner had promised to organise me a place to stay and got me a room at the lodge at backpacker rates. All I have to say is WOW!!! White sheets and accent pillows, almost felt guilty for sitting there. Umkomaas is home to an area called Aliwal Shoal, famous for the ragged tooth sharks that come to breed here near the end of each year and a very popular dive spot. After trying to get into 2 or 3 different full wetsuits (any diver who has had to use the old suits where the neoprene has been compressed knows my woes), and losing most of the skin off my knuckles, I finally said “look just give me a shortie, I dive in Oregon and the water here is much warmer!!!!!”. I was right, I loved diving in the shortie and feeling the water. It was warm enough to not feel cold but cold enough to keep you awake.
Most of the others after the first dive wanted hoods and gloves because they got cold. But I loved it.
All along the South African coast it is too dangerous to do a shore dive because of the strong onshore current. So you take out the boats and what a ride it is. Trying to get over the breaking waves is quite exhilerating and bone jarring at the same time. The first day wasn’t too bad, but the second day I was thrashed around quite a bit.
Unfortunately the vis wasn’t perfect for photos but I got a couple of good shots. There were thousands of fish and invertebrates and then we saw our first raggy. Only about 1m long but still long enough. It was beautiful and frightening at the same time. On that dive I also saw my first turtle and had a pod of dolphins swim with the boat. The second dive we saw a few more sharks including one that was 3m long (learnt to swim backwards very quickly), and about 3 or 4 rays (all different species). You could also here the dolphins “talking” as the clicks carried through the water.
Truly a beautiful place.
The Whaler : 10/10 for dive expertise and safety and lodge – 039-973-1562/3 , info@whaler.co.za , www.whaler.co.za

My dive buddy and I took the afternoon to go back into Durban and visit the uShaka Marine World. Very impressive. Their fish and shark exhibit is absolutely stunning. However I wish they had done as good a job for the penguins, seals and dolphins.

October 30th
Am in Durban relaxing at my Uncle’s house.
After St. Lucia, Erwin, Meika, Michael and I went to a small town called Gingingdlovu and the hostel with red mud.
Inyezane backpackers – 9/10. beautiful location in the middle of sugar cane fields and lemon grass. The owners are hippies and very into natural remedies. Very relaxing and with an excellent pizza oven (think that was the best pizza I have ever tasted). The owner, Brad has many stories to tell, some unbelievable but who can say for sure. Also on a cold miserable day you can relax and paint a sarong or bed spread to discover your hidden artistic side.
On the last morning it was mud time. All jumping into our swim suits we promptly covered ourselves from head to toe in red mud. It would take about a week to get all the mud out.
The bazbus arrived all too soon and we headed out. Now this is the only part about Inyezane that disappointed me. I forgot my swimsuit there and even though they promised to send it to my Aunt in PE they never did. Oh well…..

October 24th
Relaxing in St. Lucia. Turns out I wasn’t able to go to Sodwana, so now have some extra time. Spent the day with some friends at Cape Vidal beach, about a 30min drive from St. Lucia. Stunning area but when the wind blows you get serious sand blast action going on.
St. Lucia is definately the place to go to see crocodiles and hippos. Was amazing to see them just chilling about 40feet from you. Made numerous friends and had almost an international delegation for dinner. Went to a resturant called St. Pizzas, great food. Our group included people from Holland, Germany, Israel, South Africa and a few more.
Have decided to leave St. Lucia early and travel with 3 new dutch friends, Erwin, Mieka and Michael. Going to a hostel where they have red mud…. I love mud!!!!!!
Bibs international Hostel – 9/10. Great place. after arriving they pile you all into a van and drive you around showing you the town. They have great evening activities, including a night drive with about 15of us in the van, so squished we were barely able to see out. The driver is also one of those rare people who can spot a 3 inch chameleon while driving at 30km/ hr.