Coffee Bay

Pauline Surfing



Me and Pauline on the beach








Dancing in the backpackers



Dancing around the fire








The glittery girlies
(Susie, me, Mel and Pauline)

Friday 15^th August

Yesterday it was Melaney’s (a friend of Susie’s who works at Wilderness) 23^rd Birthday, so they decided to take a long weekend off and go to East London.

Susie and Pauline had been staying at Addo so went on ahead and I got picked up by Mel on-route. I was supposed to be taking Friday off, but after 3 phone calls before 8am from the office, I decided I might as well go in. Mel also had to go into work and didn’t finish til 2pm, so got to me at 4pm. Thus the epic drive began.

It was dark and rainy by the time we stopped at Port Elizabeth for McDonalds, and then we got stuck in traffic for a while just outside Shamwari. Other than that, and a couple of occasions where Adrian nearly lost the back end of the car on the windy roads, our 10 hour drive on the N2 was fairly uneventful. We turned off the N2 at about 2am and drove along an 80Km stretch of nasty, uneven, potholed road, swerving to avoid sheep, goats, horses, donkeys and cows. We all just wanted to get there and (from Susie’s description) we assumed we were close. We were not. We hit a huge pot hole and busted the wheel rim, thus getting a flat tyre. So 3am, in the North of the Eastern Cape we had to get out and change the tyre. I have never felt so vulnerable, but luckily we didn’t get shot/stabbed/mugged/raped/hijacked. We put on the spare, let down the jack…and the spare was flat! We managed to slowly nurse the car to the backpackers as there was still some air in the spare. Nothing like a bit of excitement to start a holiday!

Saturday 16th August

The next day we got up late. Adrian, Pauline and I all checked out the Bomvu bay, then looked at the big sandy beach that stretched out the other side of the donkey field. Here I met a professional surfer who liked my Hardiedar impression and wanted me to go out surfing with him to watch for sharks, I was tempted but embarrassed by my poor surfing ability so declined. This turned out to be a good move as it started to rain in the afternoon. We spent the afternoon chilling at the awesome backpackers and making T-shirts. The barman took us to play with his 2week old puppies which were very, very cute.

In the evening there was a “full moon party” we all to a communal spooning power nap which was a great bonding experience, then fully refreshed we covered ourselves in glitter and headed out to the party. We danced around the fire while local drummers played, and ended up encouraging all the people staying at the backpackers to join us, then Jimmy and I practiced on this balance board whilst the others went with “zee Germans” to the beach. We danced all night long and had a fantabulous time.

Sunday 17th August

Next morning Pauline and Susie went for a surf lesson. My knee still hurt from the otter trail so I just went and swam in the 22degree water (it was amazing!) and took photos of the girls. The rain set in for the rest of the day, so we just chilled out and read our books. We tried all day to get someone to fix out tyre, but no one turned up.

We were going to leave at 10pm and drive through the night to get Adrian to the Airport for 5am. We went out in search of someone to pump up out tyre, but everyone refused as they said it was too dangerous to drive at night. Thus Susie and Pauline left with Adrian at 7pm (once we had transferred some petrol to their car from Mel’s) and Mel, Jermaine and I stayed another night.

We had a drumming lesson and then played pool on the horrifically bumpy table, which was so wonky the balls went in a circle. We then sat at the bar talking amongst ourselves and to the barman, doing Jagerbombs, flaming lambos and all sorts of other foolish stuff!

Monday 18th August

Monday morning we got someone to pump our tyre and left at 9am. Mel drove all the way home and we didn’t get to my house until 8pm. It turned out that when the tyre had got damaged, a hole was made in the water tank, and thus we had to keep stopping to refill the water so that the car didn’t overheat.

Mel and Jimmy had dinner and Moffee at mine before heading back to Jimmy’s house at Bloukranz. Mel wanted to drive back to Wilderness that night but we wouldn’t let her. Good job as the next morning I got a call from her…she had broken down.