The Purposed Trek

Oh wait...I did. Last night in the pouring rain we walked 10 Kilometers to search for Loggerhead and Leatherback turtles laying their hatching's. It was the longest walk on the beach I have ever taken because it was in the pitch black, pouring rain and wind.

There was 7 of us - the island guide, the guide we booked through, his 3 daughters and Charlene and I. I was fun, but it wasn't for the faint hearted. My body was tired, but seeing a Leatherback turtle come out of the water, creating a trail as wide as that of one tractor tire and start digging her cavity to lay her eggs was amazing. It took a period of one hour and she wasn't even done - we decided to leave because the guide said it would take up to 2 hours and it was already 11 o'clock.

Here are some pictures of both the loggerhead and the leatherback turtles. Amazing!

Kosi Bay

Leatherback Turtle (just its hind flippers)

One would think that one visit to the Supa Quick (like a firestone) on holiday is enough. Nope - we decided to add additional business to the Supa Quicks all along the coast of South Africa. This visit was made in Margate (near Durban). This time at least we didn't destroy the tire, we bent the rim which could be beat out by a trusty Indian man at the Supa Quick. As we drove through the crater on the R61 we also lost our hub cap. There was a sweet older couple who decided to pull over and tell us that it was lying back in the intersection.

While we pulled into the petrol station the attendants helped us change our bent rim tire to our spare and we headed back to the intersection. I ran out into the middle of the road and came running back to the car like Rocky holding a medal. The unfortunate part of the story is that the snaps were all broken off. We zip tied the hubcap back on, but we lost it shortly after pulling out of Margate.

So needless to say we are buying this car one piece at a time. If anyone wants to donate to the Supa Quick fund we are starting please feel free to PayPal funds to mdepersig@yahoo.com and we will be glad to accept your generous gift. :)

Hopefully we will not be sustaining anymore Supa Quicks along the way and we made a promise that we will only take R## roads if the directions call for it. We love the N2 (the main highway) which is usually clear of craters, speed humps and speed tables. This country loves their speed anything.

If you are ever feeling the urge to take a drive to Coffee Bay on the wild coast of South Africa, DON'T DO IT. I am sure it is beautiful there, but not beautiful enough to endure the drive down Coffee Bay Road for 83 Kilometers and 3,000 potholes, in the rain and fog dodging cows, sheep and goats. This picture is not one of the actual potholes on this road, however they were like this, sometimes larger and took up almost 3/4 of a 2 lane road. You could go fishing in some of these potholes, you couldn't avoid them.

This place was the place I was looking forward to visiting the most on my whole trip. It changed shortly after we arrived and endured a 1.5 hour drive traveling 83 K's. It was miserable. We hit more potholes than we missed. Needless to say we also experienced a flat tire, but not from a nail or puncture, no we completely sliced open the sidewall of our tire and it was dead, nothing could be redeemed. A spare was put on by a nice Afrikaans man. We immediately both agreed to leave the next day because the weather was so crappy that we would rather spend it driving in the car than hanging out on the beach, hoping to pick up another day at the beach when it is sunny.

So we left at 8:30am from Coffee Bay and endure the grueling road again, this time we didn't experience a flat though. Good thing because we didn't have a spare now. We made it this time in 2 hours because we couldn't see jack from the fog. We made it to Mthatha which is a big town about 20 K's up the road. When I say big town, it was big in population not size. This experience reminded me that I do live in Africa - it was amazing. Couldn't even drive down the street because there were so many people walking. We found a Supa Quick and got a new spare tire so we were covered if anything happened again.

Off to Port Edward, we were very excited, but however the weather was so bad that we didn't pull in until 6 o'clock. We were exhausted. We settled in, found a place to eat and enjoyed a nice dinner overlooking the beach and watching the waves crash onto the rocks. It was excellent food too, which helped out a lot. We headed home and feel asleep pretty early. We woke up expecting to hit the beach, but it is overcast and a little breezy, so we are going to hit the grocery store for some food and such and then find a movie theatre and hopefully catch something we both want to see.

We are here for another night before we head up to Richards Bay where we will get to go on a sunset sail for 2 hours. Hopefully the weather will pull through and things will brighten up. We need it :) We are making the most of things and regardless of weather, flat tires, and 3000 potholes, are having fun!

This morning was a relaxed one as we didn't have to be anywhere until 1:00. So we sat on the deck at our hostel and ate breakfast and read. It was really nice. The night before we spend tooling around Knsyna and we found a Mugg & Bean (S'Africas Starbucks) that was open and sat there and drank coffee and Italian sodas and played 500 Rummy until they kicked us out.

Our big adventure of today was canopy gliding in Storms River. It was a blast. There were 10 zip lines that went from different trees in the forest. The highest one was 30 meters high and the longest one was 94 meters long. It was a lot of fun. Here are a few photos:

Tomorrow we are enjoying the morning in J-Bay and going to head to the beach and collect shells and read while we lay out. Then we are heading out to East London where we are staying with a couple that I have never met except via email through someone my parents know. Strange connection, but we are really looking forward to it because the first thing he said when I phone him this morning was maybe when you get here we can all go out for sushi. Both mine and Charlene's ears perked up and said absolutely.

Signing off for now, more to come later.

So we made it to our hostel in Outdshoorn which was an amazing drive because you drive through a mountain the whole way - up, over and through. It was beautiful. Outdshoorn is a tiny town about an hour off the coast in the mountains and is home to tons of Ostrich's and the Cango Caves. Sunday we visited the Cango Ostrich farm and got to feed them, and I rode one. There are pictures to prove it. The only comment I have on that is Ostrich's are made to lay eggs and get their big ugly toes made fun of, not to ride. It was quit entertaining and a little unnerving.

Today, Monday, we went to the Cango Caves which were amazing. I took photos, but they just look like rocks - hard to capture the architecture and design that water and stone together form. We then drove down to Knysna (Nies-Na) a cute town on the coast. There are lots of cute little shops, restaurants and of course this Internet cafe. Our hostel is interesting - looks like a washed up druggie runs it who is probably 40, but looks 60.

Tomorrow we head to Storms River where we will be canopy gliding, which is zip lining from tree-top to treet-top. I am really looking forward to it.

Here are some photos...

Well I haven't had access much to the Internet, but we finally found a hot-spot in Mossel Bay in a restaurant. So here we sit typing on our laptops, not talking to each other drinking a Coke Lite and a glass of tap water staring into our laptops. Pitiful I know.

Our travels have been wonderful so far and have laughed quit a bit. We spent almost 2 full days in Cape Town and traveling around the town, eating dinner with friends, lunch with another friend and then hit the road and it was a windy road. Switchbacking around beautiful kloofs (mountains) here along the coast.

We spent the night in a train in Mossel Bay that is parked on the beach and it was tiny, but cozy. This morning we both got henna tattoos and soon we are off to Oudtshoorn where we will go ostrich racing and visit the cango caves.

I will post photos once we are somewhere that doesn't charge you per megabyte for the Internet. Can get pricey uploading photos. If you want to see Charlenes blog on our stay in Cape Town click here. Hope your December is treating you well.

As my friend Janell always says "Good Times". The past week and a half has been nothing but fun. My parents, brother and I went on an amazing safari on a private game reserve outside of Kruger National Park and experienced some amazing sightings. My pictures of the safari are posted on my shutterfly page, but here are a few for a quick preview.