We arrived in Coffee Bay at the end of our 5 day hike on the Wild Coast Trail. Coffee Bay is a small town located right on the Indian Ocean. We rocked up to the Coffee Shack, a good sized backpackers where we planned to camp for the next 3 days. The atmosphere at Coffee Shack was great and we met a lot of people that told us that the place is addictive and that we would end up staying longer than we planned. They were right. We planned to stay 3 days and ended up staying 6. In that time we enjoyed some great parties, some high stakes card games and of course the waves! The first or second night we were in Coffee Bay our hostel had a full moon party and to kick-off the night we headed up to the bluffs overlooking the Indian Ocean to have oysters and drinks! And it was free, all of it! After our 6 days at the Coffee Shack we had to move on before we moved in so we headed further south down the coast to Jeffrey's Bay. J-Bay is a famous little surfers town known for the supertubes, a large clean wave that forms a tube perfect for surf competitions. J-Bay is also a good place for us beginners to improve our skills. We stayed in a great backpackers (Island Vibe) in an awesome private cabin with an amazing view! and yes we stayed longer than planned... again :) The photo sequence below shows Andrew tackling a wave that was a bit too big for his long board experience!
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The wild coast is one of the last undeveloped areas in southern Africa so we decided to organize a hike from Port St. Johns to Coffee Bay to really take it all in. After reading up on the “trail” we learned that it was best to hike with a guide who knew the way (as it isn’t well marked), could arrange village accommodations, and assist with river crossings. Our guide's name was Lloyd, a Port St. Johns local fisherman who was extremely knowledgeable, entertaining, funny, and made us feel like his brother from another mother! Lloyd also taught us a few sayings in Xhosa (the click language), about the flora and fauna of the area and some of the villages' history. The trail began at Second Beach in Port St. Johns and winded around a small river and into a nature reserve. Throughout the five days the trail followed along the coast went through two nature reserves and into seven small rural villages. We got to hike through varying scenery of rolling green hills spotted with cows, goats, and sheep; lush forests, pristine white beaches, muddy mangroves, and small rural villages. Each night we slept in a villager’s rondaval/hut. The walls and floor were made from mud; the floor either had a piece of carpet, linoleum or was bare packed dirt. The huts had two small windows, a door split into two and a thatch straw roof. We slept on either straw or foam stuffed matrasses on the floor with clean bedding. When we arrived at each hut Lloyd would introduce us to our house mama, we then would sit down for welcome tea and bread. Each Mama used her own delicious recipe to make Xhosa bread, a very dense freshly baked bread. Each one was different but all so delicious and filling! One was made over a fire while another one was made in a plastic bag, the mama would place the dough in a plastic bag and place it in water and let the steam cook the bread inside the bag. We then would get to walk around in the village or relax in our private hut until dinner. We had dinner and breakfasts prepared by our house mamas. The food was so delicious and varied from beans, rice, pap (African porridge), fried chicken, freshly caught crayfish with garlic butter, potatoes, gravy, eggs and oatmeal! One night Lloyd took us to the local pool hall for a couple of beers and rounds of pool. We really enjoyed chatting with the locals and they enjoyed letting us win so we would have to keep playing with them! After spending time in the four villages we noticed a huge difference between the villages with and without electricity. The ones without had way more people outside interacting; people and children were all out chatting with one another, playing soccer, singing, or dancing. While we read we listened to a group of kids singing and dancing. After about 45 mins someone knocked on our door and the group leader asked if they could preform for us. They preformed 5 amazing songs each accompanied with a different dance. Enjoy the clip below! Each day varied in hiking length, scenery, and beauty. Most days we got to eat lunch while sitting on what felt like a private beach. The only other sun bathers were the cows or sheep! It was amazing playing in the waves, picking through shells, and enjoying the sun! There were several river crossing throughout the 5 days. We crossed usually in a small row boat operated by a local young male who normally was fishing in between customers. At one river Lloyd had said it could be deep but most times it is walkable. We had not planned not a deep river crossing so when we came to it and saw it was a large river getting deeper by the minute as high tide came in. Luckily Lloyd talked the local people into letting us pay to use a kayak that was sitting along the river's edge. The only problem was that Lloyd was going to have to swim the boat back. After watching Lloyd almost get swept away while testing the depth of the river, we all decided that renting the boat was our best option. Lloyd steadied the boat as I (Courtney) climbed in, the boat almost flipped from the strong current but good old Lloyd got us all across in two groups then had to return the boat and swim back to us. The whole time we had a small local audience! After a 22 hr bus ride that went 3 hrs South from El Chalten to El Calafate then another 4 hrs Southeast to Rio Gallegos, then a 4 hour layover and another 17 hr ride North to Puerto Madryn we finally arrived! Courtney wasn't feeling well so we took a couple of days resting and researching the next few months of the trip. With the decent internet and calm atmosphere we got a lot accomplished. Puerto Madryn is a beautiful city on the East shore of Argentina. It is a popular beach town and whale watching destination in the summer. Unfortunately we were not there during peak wildlife watching season so we didn't have our hopes high to see anything. On our first day we took a stroll down to the pier and lucked out by seeing a bunch of penguins fishing and then a large sea lion chasing a duck. We watched them for awhile and continued down the large pretty beach. It was neat to see the difference in water level between low and high tide. During low tide the beach goes out for half a km but during high tide it is only a couple of meters wide. Our second day we headed out in the evening and were accompanied by three street dogs. We were surprised that they were following us as we weren't initially encouraging them. We thought it was humorous because whenever we went inside a store they were there lying at the door step waiting for us. They followed us around for several hours "protecting" us from any other dogs! Our third day the weather was very windy and cloudy so we decided to not rent bikes but to walk along the coast to the Ecocentro (a local museum and cultural heritage center) to view a National Geographic Photo Gallery. The winds were so strong that in some areas we could lean back and let the gusts support our weight! When we rounded the last bend before the centre we saw the same three dogs tear-assing towards us. They were so happy to see us and greeted us with huge smiles. We were happy to be reunited with our little friends once again! The centre was closed for their Siesta so we went for lunch at a restaurant on the beach and ate Menu del Dia which ended with delicious Dulce de Leche crepes YUM!. Of course our friends waited patiently for us until we were finished. The third day in Puerto Madryn Andrew went on a day bike trip with two English guys we had met at the hostel. Courtney stayed at the hostel to rest as she still wasn’t feeling well. Andrew, Joe, and Max rode to El Doradillo (pronounced el door-a-dee-show), a popular place to see whales in high season. The bike ride to El Doradillo was long and dusty but the beach was beautiful. We sat around and had a giant beer each and waited for any marine animals to pass by. We lucked out as a couple of southern right whales swam past us about 200m away from shore but they weren't interested in sticking around or entertaining us with jumps or flips. In fact we were so excited to see them that we didn't bother trying to take pictures. The whales were also far enough away that our pictures would have looked like black blobs floating out at sea. A bit later we noticed that as the tide lowered some cool caves along the point at the far side of the beach were revealed so we head over to do a little exploring. On our last day we decided we’d walked to the beach and play Frisbee. We started heading down the block when we saw our three street friends waiting outside our hostel. They accompanied us to the bus station to buy tickets, then to the beach. It was hilarious as they had no idea how to play fetch let alone frisbee and never once became interested in it. Two of them fell dead asleep as the third ate sea shells while we played. When we left the beach, to get food, the shaggy one stayed sleeping. We felt bad for leaving him behind but he looked like he needed some rest. After 40 minutes or so just when we were wondering if they would find each other again we saw him crossing the road towards us! The two other ladies became really excited that they were all reunited and started rubbing and jumping on one another. After their little reunion party stopped we all continued to the grocery store. They laid down outside the store as they knew they were not welcome inside. When we were finished in the store we were sad to see they had left (probably found other tourists more willing to feed them). We spoiled them with love and affection but did not give them anything to eat the whole three days. We understand street dogs can be a nuisance to locals because they chase cars, can become territorial or dangerous and spread disease; however, we really enjoyed their company! In June we have decided to volunteer at an animal rescue in Mendoza, Argentina. We found the placement on workaway.org. We think it will be a great experience and know we will love working with the animals!
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