We left Drakensburg on the 18th September 2009 and headed over the mountains towards 'The Wild Coast'. Our first stop on this bit of coast was Durban.

Durban

We had just one full day in Durban and as it was such a lovely sunny day, we decided to spend it on the beach - North Beach to be exact. As it was Saturday the beach was really busy with families and groups all enjoying themselves, even though a freak wave did manage to soak half of them along with all their belongings (thankfully it didn't get us!). I have to say this is the first beach I've been to where the lifeguards give tannoy announcements warning people to watch their personal belongings as thieves operate on the beach. It's funny because as you look around you can see everyone dragging their bag just that little bit closer and casting furtive glances across the beach looking for the thief.

This was also the first time we'd been exposed to the Zulu dialect and it's clicking. It's so unusual and when you try and mimic it you just can't. People will be chatting away to each other and suddenly they will throw in a click of the tongue. Now when I try and do it, I speak, stop for a second, click and then resume my conversation but with the locals it's seamless - all part of the normal conversation flow, no stopping and starting like me. I found it really amazing and just wanted to hear people talk so I could witness this clicking phenomenon!!

Port St Johns

Following Durban we headed for a small coastal town called Port St Johns. I liked this place for its lack of tourism but the Lonely Planet seriously oversold its beauty and beach!!

The reality is that there's currently no easily accessible beach! To get to it you have to cross a pool of rancid smelling water or take a vehicle to a second beach round the bay. Our time here was also plagued with bad weather which, when you are staying in a wooden hut with a tin roof, is not the greatest of things - think noise and lack of sleep!

Despite these few downers we had a surprisingly good time in Port St Johns. We met a great couple there - Lee from South Africa and his Swedish girlfriend Binty and the guys who worked at the hostel were all good musicians, so live music was on tap throughout the day and night, which was pretty cool.

On one of the evenings we decided to take up an offer from the hostel to visit a local mountain, Mount Thesiger, to watch the sunset. Unfortunately the weather wasn't particularly good so there wasn't much of a sunset but the trip was still quite eventful, firstly because of a Belgium guy and secondly because of our driver. It turned out that the guy from Belgium knew 2 guys that we had spent some time with on our Kruger and Lesotho trips. I admit that it's amazing how small the world is at times but this guy went completely over the top, screaming and shouting and wanting us to show him photos of his friends and have his photo taken with us…all very scary!! It was then made even more uncomfortable by our drug addled driver, very handsome, very boring and very into pot, who merrily puffed away on his spliff before driving us home. I had the unfortunate job of sitting up front with him and his conversations just got more and more disjointed and his voice quieter and quieter. Thank goodness we weren't driving far or on any major roads!

Cintsa

On the drive to Cintsa we saw a house where our very own 'Ground Force' team did a special garden for an equally special person - oh yes, ground force came to Nelson Mandela's house. This place was built for him by the ANC on his release from captivity in 1990. The strange thing is that, as well as having a braless Charlie Dimmock surprising him with a glass of champagne in his hastily revamped garden, he has also had a replica of the bungalow he was kept under house arrest built there too. Strange but true!

Our destination for the next few days is Cintsa, a small but pleasant coastal town with a fabulous beach. The hostel is located only a short walk from the beach and quirkily, to get to the local shop, we had to walk along the beach. It was hot whilst we there but it was also quite a windy spot, so we'd often discover that, after an hour of lying on the beach, a body part had been buried under the drifting sand. Just don't fall asleep with your mouth open - that's my advice! We even went into the sea here, yes both of us, which I think was very brave given the constant shark warnings on the coast of South Africa!

The hostel was really well run and seemed to go that extra mile. They offered superb budget meals on a daily basis (which was a good job when you saw what was offer in the local shop!) and they also did a group activity everyday at 4pm such as pool or volleyball.

We met some really lovely people in Cintsa, we met a great couple called Steve and Harriet (who we then proceeded to bump into throughout the rest of our time in South Africa) and David was very excited on our first night when we met a girl called Laura who had previously worked for the premature baby charity Bliss. David's niece Isobelle was a premature baby, so this is a charity very close to his heart.