So we've arrived in Port Elizabeth. As it turns out, internet access can be incredibly hard to come by in some of the places we've been. But here's a few highlights...
Our first stop out of Jo'burg was the Drakensburg mountains just east of Lesotho. We stayed at a little lodge just 19km from the Lesotho border for 3 nights. We one day time hiking through the mountians with a guide finding old bushman rock art - stories of trances and hunts painted in caves hidden amongst the cliff edges. The next day was a tour into eastern Lesotho, a mountain country much like Tibet - barren land way above the treeline. Most of the country is above 9000ft in altitude, which makes for an amazingly rough but full existance for many of the shepards who herd their sheep around the desolate landscape for months on end. Our guide was a cooky white fellow who was born and raised in Lesotho. Hew knew the language and many of the locals, so we learned quite a bit about this unique culture. But Cape Town called us south and off we went.
Our next stop was Durban, as we mentioned above. We had a great dinner upon arriving at a fantastic restaurant. Unfortunately, I must have eaten something wicked, for my insides chewed at me the whole of the next day, and even a simple trip to the nearby grocery store riled my nausia. Whatever I ate knocked me out for about 24 hours, and we had to be on our way before we ever saw any part of the city.
From Durban, we headed off to Coffee Bay for a stay at Bomvu Paradise. This little gem of a place gave us our own hut where we chilled for 3 days. We did yoga, Heather got a massage, I got a surf lesson, and we fought off the local children who insisted we pay them R10 (about $1.50) because they sang us a song as we walked along the beach. It was a nice song and all but they suddenly stopped being cute when we realized the song was really just a ploy for a hand out. We also enjoyed a great 3 hour hike along the lush green cliffs of the coast to a place called "Hole in the Wall" which is an amazing rock formation where the ocean has dug a "Hole" through a small island - it was pretty neat to see this 50m long hole through the land, and to see the waves crashing through it. Had it not been raining, I might have attempted a swim around the island and back through the hole. oh well!
And now we are in Port Elizabeth after a harrowing drive south. The rain that drowned my swimming aspirations built up to a massive storm which hit the coast all day today. A 580km drive (About 348 miles) took almost 9 hours. Needless to say, Heather and I are beat and are enjoying this stopover in "P.E."
Oh, sounds like the poijke is ready, gotta go, I'm getting hungary!