South Africa - Transkei

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,