Lekker Bru

Well, it's been an active trip up the coast from Jeffery's Bay with lots of fun in the sun. I've officially started the journey home, by catching a flight from Durban back to Cape Town this morning. From here, I hang out for a few days in the 'Mother City' (Cape Town was the first settlement in South Africa, by the Dutch), hopefully catching up with a few friends I've met along the way. Then take a long haul to London on the 22nd. It's a quick stop there to catch up with the London crew and then back to Frederick, Maryland on the 24th. When saying I'm from "Frederick, Maryland" the following conversation usually ensues: Where's that? It's on the east coast, near Washington DC, the Capital. Oh, is that near Seattle? Nope, that's Washington State, on the west coast. Oh, East coast? Yes, the east coast, the side that New York is on. Oh ok! I got it. So I usually just say "Maryland, near Washington DC, below New York."

Anyway, from J-Bay, I headed to Port Elizabeth, a bigger city for a night, then on to East London. Stayed at a cool place there called SugarShack, right on the beach, then headed off inland to a place called Hogsback. J.R.R. Tolken (author of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings) apparently once lived and got some of his inspiration there. It was easy to see why, all around there were mountains, waterfalls, and thick lush forests. I went for a couple of great hikes, and one sweet bike ride. Met some fun Swiss, a crazed Scotsman, and an even crazier South Africa who were all up for some fun in the mountains. The Scottish guy, Stu, was the chef at the hostel and avid mountain biker, it was really fun to be out on the bike with another keen rider.


View from the hostel lawn.


A beautiful fall day in the Southern Hemisphere.


One of many cool waterfalls.


The swiss crew I went hiking with.


Sunset, moon rise. Wax on, wax off.


the view from the hostel tree house, 40ft up a shaky ladder in a huge pine tree. A tricky climb with cold beer in hand.


the Hogsback Inn, nice spot.


The trail markings were hard to miss.


Madonna falls.


Waterfall # 342...


Sunset, moon rise.


I turned on the lights and look who's on my bed! no joke.
My Reef flipflop gently escorted this guy off the bed and onto the floor. He was then flung, again by flipflop, out the door and safely into the yard. This scorpion was actually not too dangerous, big pinchers/small stinger means he uses his pinchers to kill stuff and not the stinger, so it would have only been as bad as a bee sting. Not that it stung me, or the sandal.


After sunset, then moon rise. The stars were spectacular. We were so far from any cities, they some of the best I've seen, clear and bright.

From Hogsback, I caught a shuttle van to Cintsa and the awesome backpackers place: Buccaneers. It was a really really great place.


View from my room.


One of the staff and Toya, my Israeli scavenger hunt partner. Everyday at 4pm there's a free activity for everyone with free wine included. What an inspired idea? We won the scavenger hunt and had a lot of fun doing it. We won a free breakfast the next day and made it huge.

Went for another bike ride. From the hills to the ocean.


ocean view, fun fast downhill.


We rode across the beach back to Buccs.


My place.


The volleyball with free wine crew. left to right: Peter(Ireland), Caroline(Ireland), Sam(UK), Kate(Scotland), Girl on bench smiling?(S.Africa), Steve(Ireland), Emily(UK), Mark(Denmark) sitting on the ground, Maria(Denmark), and Richard in blue shirt(UK).


Amanda(Minnesota, USA) and me on the breakfast deck. She worked at Buccs and was super cool and great fun. She lead the scavenger hunt (with free wine) and the mud walk through lagoon (with free wine).


View of the lagoon and beach from the 'main house' at Buccs.


View from bus window on the road to Durban.

Lekker Bru roughly means "Nice One Brother" in Afrikaans and is heard quite frequently whilst traveling around S. Africa.