South Africa - Chintsa - Hogsback - Coffee Bay - Umzumbe

After a long, tiring journey we arrived down a bumpy dirt track at ‘Buccaneers Backpackers’ in Chintsa (also known as Cintsa).  The three of us (Andy and us girls) were led to a huge dorm (with some non-bunk beds!!!), signed up for the horse-riding, a delicious spag bol dinner (Hels’ favourite) and headed to the beach for a lovely long walk.  We were in paradise and knew that we had a good few days ahead. 

View of Chintsa Beach from the Bar

That night we met some local French chaps from Port Elizabeth, played some ‘competitive’ pool with some other guests and sampled the barman, Mikey’s, favourite shots.  Just as the evening seemed to be drawing to a close (the staff were all broken from a big party the night before), some local restauranteurs pitched up for an after-work drink.  Seven hours later, after watching the sunrise sitting on top of a dune, we finally made it to bed.

Two hours later we were due to go horse-riding but fortunately for us the weather took a turn for the worse and this was cancelled.  The gods were clearly smiling on us as this allowed a chilled day by the pool in preparation for a staff leaving party that night.  Surfing instructor, Warren, was to leave Buccaneers for Canada without even giving us a lesson (how dare he?).

The next morning we eagerly jumped out of bed and onto our gorgeous horses that had all been rescued by their amazing owner, Penny.  Every horse (there are over 40) had a story to tell and following our disastrous experience in Storms River we were thrilled to canter down the beach.  Please do check out this riding stables/rehab centre as it is quite incredible what Penny has managed to achieve - http://www.cintsahorses.co.za/rehab.html.

The following day we were sad to leave Buccs to head to Hogsback as the staff  - Lucy, Vicki, Janos, Jimmy, Mikey and Michelle, just to mention a few - had all been so lovely and welcoming.  However, we did have in the back of our minds that we might return.

We were picked up my ‘Mbute’ (me-bootie!) the following morning and after several cups of coffee and left-over food from the fridge we squished into his car for a 3 hour transfer up into the mountains.  ‘Away with the Fairies’ was, as the name suggests, magical.  Dogs galore, open fires, an outdoor bath sitting on the mountain edge, a really rather high treehouse and a well-stocked bar were all to come, but first we embarked on a shortish hike to ‘The Tall Tree’ led by the dogs (excellent guides).

Sadly, yet again, the rain followed us.  Fortunately for us we had been joined by several travellers we had met previously including, Mike from The Netherlands, Matt from London, a lovely Canadian couple who were on their 40^th gap year (their names escape us) and then also an hilarious guy from J’burg, Robin, whose main aim was to ‘lose himself’ (we always thought people went travelling to ‘find themselves’?!).  We were extremely well looked after by the gorgeous JP, Away With The Fairies’ barman. 

The next day the boys, head-to-toe in waterproofs, decided they were strong enough to beat the weather and headed out for a 3 hour hike to a waterfall.  We were happy to see the waterfall outside our window and chose to read our books in front of the fire with the dogs.  Judging by the boys’ faces on their return, we definitely felt we made the right decision.

That day there was a surprise arrival by a couple of JP’s friends from Coffee Bay (see later), Rudolf (the red-nose reindeer) and Jacobus (or Ja Ja as we re-named him) and it was great to meet some really fun Saffas (and pick up some proper Afrikaans phrases – “boom”, “lekke”, “away”, “ahoy”…).  We were also later joined by 2 ‘real’ explorers, Chris and Pete, who were in the middle of a red parrot conservation project and regaled us with their never-ending stories about their travels.

Ja Ja, Rudolf, Robin & JP

The next day it was unfortunately time to move on and we packed our bags again (it does start to get rather tiring packing and re-packing every couple of days) and headed back to Chintsa.  Lucy and Co managed to persuade us girls to stay there a couple of extra nights so that we could enjoy the weekend with them.  This meant a sad parting from Andy, but with promises of meeting up again further along the coast.

Sea Water Swimming Pool at Chintsa

It was another good decision by us as the sun re-emerged the following day and we headed for another walk in the opposite direction along the beach, joined by the hilarious Mikey who had had us in stitches in the car all the way back from Hogsback.  After lunch we headed back to the pool to catch up with Lucy and Jimmy and were delighted to see Rudolf and Ja Ja sitting at the pool bar.  We would love to be able to say that they had followed us to Buccs but rumours of a Brazillian volleyball girls team staying in town was probably their reason for being there (it was most certainly Mikey's).

The following day a whole host of us boarded the Bazbus for our next destination.  We were dropped off at Mthatha where we were met by our mini-bus transfer to take us to the renowned ‘Coffee Shack’ in the stunning Coffee Bay.  We were warned by the driver that we should not be fearful of his driving on the wrong side of road and wiggling in all directions as it would simply be to avoid pot holes, locals and livestock.  We almost managed a clear journey (RIP little piggy).

On arrival we were welcomed into the hostel by a 5ft nothing local lady who showed us around and gave us the bar rules (1: no drinks on the pool table and 2: no right-hand drinking).  We had been warned!

After a chilled evening meeting the other guests and watching the sunset from the top of the hill we were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed the next day in anticipation of our surf lesson in shark infested waters (we were told that we should be fine).  Helena eating a tuna sandwich an hour before entering the dangerous waters was perhaps not the best preparation.

Despite our fears we survived our lesson and all 5 of us were standing within minutes (well ok almost….) thanks to our superb surf instructor, Ryno.  However he was very strict and every time he saw a knee placed on the board we would be fined a beer.  Helena was busted several times (damn those English instructors).

After a relaxed evening the previous night everyone in the hostel was ready to party.  We had already made some great friends surfing/having lunch and we formed a competitive team at ‘Flip Cup’ after a round of ‘Ring of Fire’.  We had hoped that our team comprising Tavar a street artist from the States, Tom from Canada, John a chef from NZ/Britain (depending on who he was speaking to!), Alex from Germany and Wayne from Oz would have been the winning combination but alas we were pipped to the post by the deserving winning team after several nail-biting rounds. It was one of the best nights yet with everyone on flying form and the night went on into the early hours of the morning.  Coffee Shack is renowned for its parties and we can certainly see why.

The following day we headed along the cliff tops on a 3 hour hike.  This was the most stunning walk we have done to date and we were blown away by just how untouched the whole area is.  Our hangovers soon cleared!

We finished that day watching the full moon rise up from behind a nearby hill in the back garden of the hostel followed by a pizza (also best yet) at Papazela’s which is the restaurant owned by our new friends Rudolf and Ja Ja (we had promised them a visit).

We were very reluctant to leave Coffee Shack, but alas headed the following day to Umzumbe to ‘The Mantis and Moon’ hostel where we were joined by John, Katrine, Nick and Johannes all whom we had been with in Coffee Bay.  Here we spent a couple of days in the calm natural jungle comprising banana trees, tree houses, a swimming pool, monkeys, the beach on our doorstep (almost) and a dorm to ourselves.  Bliss!  We enjoyed walking along the beach, watching the locals fish with harpoons and the school boys surfing the waves between the rocks (very talented).

From Umzumbe we hired a car (we were ‘done’ with the poor time-keeping of the Bazbus) and headed up to Hilton (just north of Pietermaritzburg) to stay with Paul and Zoe Walters (for those who know them, Zoe is Hannah and Georgie Mair’s big sis).  This couldn’t have come at a better time and we were excited to arrive at some proper home-cooked meals and a washing machine.