TWINE Travel: February 2015

Transkei, I loved this area of South Africa. It's easy to understand why they call it the wild coast. The scenery is dramatic, with the sea rushing up against the jagged rocks that sit between the bay's and lagoons. It's also wild in another way, it's a lot less developed than the rest of the coast, which a is a fantastic thing. There's a big emphasis on Eco-living and living with the local community. As such some of the backpackers don't have electricity or running water outside of the main buildings - this is a good thing.

Transkei roughly translates to across the Kei, referring to the Great Kei River, which in turn got its name for the Dutch for rocky, as the bed of the river is indeed, rocky.

I started my adventure in the Mdumbi backpackers, which was nice but as the weather wasn't great there wasn't a lot to do. However I made friends with Simon, a German stone mason and tattoo artist and Neinke, a photography student from Cape Town. We soon formed a little group and headed to Coffee Bay and the Coffee Shack backpackers which is great if you want to socialise, which we did and got very drunk. On a side note we had great pizza at Pappazella's - so I'd suggest you check that out if you're there.

We were only there the night and the next day Simon suggested I come with him to another backpackers called The Kraal where i could see Dolphins. Unfortunately Nienke had to make her own way and we parted at Mthatha, the central point for most of the Transkei backpackers.

From Mthatha we took local transport and hitched a lift of a local coach. This got us to Issamella which wasn't as far as we needed to go. Luckily Simon knew two of the doctors there Zo and Tali, who are awesome!! They invited me to stay the night and said I should come camping with them to Dwesa national park in the morning.

This was a fantastic detour and I got to know the girls well. Zo even gave me her sister's number so I could look her up in Cape Town... How nice is that!!

Tali then introduced us to her friends (I hope I remember them all) Ash, Kirsten, Debbi, Danny and Rachael. They all fed me G&T and we hung out and listened to Ash's great music while she cooked and awesome braai (my first). The next day Zo and I woke up for sunrise which was spectacular and I read my books - Garth Nix's The Old Kingdom trilogy. Later that day Zo drove Simon and I to The Kraal.

The Kraal is amazing, I did loads of things for the first time. I walked through herds of cows, petted donkeys on the beach, saw tonnes of dolphins, stood on the back of a pick up truck, bought seafood from a local fisherman, drew a tattoo stencil... And much more besides, all while soaking up the beautiful sunshine and relaxing on the beautiful coastline.

I also bumped into Simone (yes it was me, Simon and Simone hanging out for a while), who I had met on the Baz Bus and who was going to visit her relatives in Storms River. We took Wasabi, my favourite dog from the backpackers on a walk to the next bay and she very kindly offered to make me a braai when I go to Storms River, so I'm looking forward to that. It will be a good way to celebrate having completed the Bloukrans Bungee jump, the highest bridge jump in the world!!

Wish me luck,

So I've been travelling for six days post Christmas and it already feels like forever. A lot has happened. I've discovered my favourite part of Johannesburg, Maboneng and taken my first surf lesson in Durban amongst other things.

JOHANNESBURG - MABONENG

This area is so far from my previous experiences of Jo'burg and is definitely my favourite part. With its many trendy cafés, bars and works of street art, it has an East London feel. There's also 24 hour security, so I felt safe to play with my new sexy camera, which was fun.

The art here is spectacular and the've crammed a lot into the relatively small four or so blocks. On the other side of these blocks is the town centre (CBD) which I assume has all the shops you could need. I only went to the Pick n Pay for groceries, but it looked like a big town centre.

That brings me onto the accommodation. I'd heard of the Curiosity from other travellers and it definitely lived up to the hype. From the moment I got there the staff were helpful and really welcoming. There's a great kitchen where I cooked aforementioned groceries, a spacious balcony, an outdoor jacuzzi and a bar with a stage for live music. They also give a discount to musicians which gives it a great vibe. It's the first place that I've walked by some guy playing the sax to a bunch of people and getting them to sing along.

The Wifi is also great. You buy 1.5G for R60 and you can use it all around Maboneng - which proved really handy when the power went down for an evening in the hostel due to a local power cut.

DURBAN

Durban is a nice place. The weather on the whole was good during the day/stormy by night and there's lots to do along the coast.

I stayed in the On The Beach backpackers, which is served by Baz Bus, my transport of choice as it was the cheap option.

Anyway back to Durban. The On The Beach backpackers does what is says on the tin. I could see the beach and hear the waves from my room. It's situated in Durban North near La Lucia, giving you a choice of shops at the La Lucia mall.

All the activities are in South Durban, but you can easily get a taxi with Flying Tigers, which is basically a woman called Maureen in a car. She's really nice and will charge you R70 to get anywhere in town.

When in town I used the people mover busses. Apparently not a lot of people use these. I don't know why, they are convenient and you can get a day ticket for R16 (under £1) and hop on and off as much as you like.

I visited the Victoria Market, which to be honest didn't live up to the hype in the travel guides. In all I think I spent 10 minutes there. However, opposite the main entrance is the spice market. Now this is worth check out. They have all manner of things there including huge lizard skins, bones and a huge array of spices. Just be careful when taking photos. I innocently took some and another stall owner tried to get me to pay them, I had my earphones in, so just walked off 'oblivious' to what they were saying.

The next day I went for my first surfing lesson and did really well. I was standing on my second attempt!! We started with some practice on the beach to get the theory down and then hit the waves (on an Beginner board). By the end the instructor was questioning whether I hadn't surfed before and he even let me catch some waves on my own while he caught up with a friend - by this time we were past the hour lesson time. He then invited me to join him and his friends for a drink. Man that pint tasted good! His friends were a great group and I could have stayed all afternoon, but I needed to get onto my next activity.

I walked up the Durban south coast to the Moses Mabhida stadium and completed an adventure walk, which takes you over the top of the building, much like the one that they do at the O2 in London. It was only 500 steps, but it was really steep. The views of the city were great too and the weather was perfect for it. (I'm not going to be an English stereotype and complain that it was too hot...). We then headed back down and that's when you get an appreciation for how steep it is. At one point you can't even see the bottom of the stairs due to the curvature of the stadium. That's when I was glad I had a harness thy was attached to the wall.

There were a few things I would like to have done if I had the budget. You can bungee swing across the stadium, that would have be. Great. I also didn't get to do the Valley of a 1,000 hills, as on my own it was too expensive.

Those are the main things about my trip. I'm back on the Baz Bus now on my way to Coffee Bay and hope to have more fun stuff to tell you a soon :).

Also as always, please like and comment on the vids on YT, follow me on Twitter and Instagram and Tumblr.

Also I've been keeping myself entertained with The Wicked + The Divine and Saga, both great comics. Plus I've been watching a lot of What Would You Do on YouTube. It's so addictive and makes you want to do more when you see unfair situations in your daily life. Currently at the top of my travel playlist is Crown by Diplo feat Michael Posner and Boaz Van Beats, which is becoming a bit of a personal anthem, so I'll sign off with a lyric from the track.

"Don't worry about them angry faces, they just hate"