Roaring surf pounds the (now) rocky beach here at Coffee Bay. Apparently the beach used to be fine sand abut the Storm of the Century a few years ago left only the heavier rocks behind.
Today the sun is shining and hardly a cloud is in the sky. Yesterday, as we drove here from Durban, we went over a mountain pass with at least 8" of snow on the ground. Our guide,m Jonathan, had never made a snowball before so why let a good thing pass? We stopped and had a good old Canadian snowball fight before heading back down to the grassy plains of Nelson Mandela's province... The Eastern Cape.
It has been quite a journey since the last update in Swasiland. After being whisked off in the bus we headed south through the predictable countryside of sugar cane and eucalyptus trees. During a visit to a candle factory we heard about the Union distruptions at the border crossings in to South Africa. As I said in my previous blog entry,there is a move to bring the union in to the Kingdom of Swaisland.... not popular with the King as you might imagine.
There seem to be a lot of people here that think they should be king.... if you have been reading the newspaper you will have heard that the South African president has been asked to leave.... in effect fired. The "bully" who is to take over has only a grade three education and has a court case pending for corruption. This is to be the leader of one of the richest countries in South Africa.... anyway, I digress.
Back on the road we pass little huts made of sticks, stones and thatch. There is very little sign of prosperity until we cross back in to South Africa. The only sign of the protest are a few armed vehicles and the border police.
It is so strange to go from political and personal unrest to kind of game safari.
Back in South Africa we saw giraffe and impala along the road on the drive to St Lucia. Here the bus stops and we run to meet a boat which takes us on an evening water safari. Man, what a pace!
Saw hippo up close and personal as well as crocodiles, weaver birds, heron and kingfisher. Nice windy ride! The rains didn't come till the next day.
Managed to walk from the ocean back to town before the rain came (saw hippo, crocs, duiker, and a heron). The same system that dropped snow on the mountain pass.
St Lucia is a nice safe little tourist town. We were able to walk around between downpores. There were mongoose & monkeys playing outside our window. Apparently the odd hippo wanders up but not while we were there.
Then, after a couple of nights in St Lucia, we head down through the snow to where we are now.... Coffee Bay.
I'm taking a 'no bus' day off. The rest have gone on a cultural tour this morning and to the Hole in the Wall this afternoon. Lynn and I are going for a massage instead.
I could get in to this!