Tramps like Us

Yesterday morning Friday 08/04, up at 06:00 struck camp and showered, ready for further southwards down the coast, but still in the EC and on our way to 'White Clay' between Coffee Bay and the Hole-in-the-Wall.

Being the first in and out of the ablutions, I was attacked by hundreds.... no hundreds of Squadrons of Mozzies! I always wondered, being right next to the Mzimvubu River, where they were??? More incoming Mozzies than shower drops😖

Our route out of Port St.Johns=> Mthatha=> Viedgesville=> Mqanduli=> Coffee Bay and finally to our destination, 'White Clay Resort'. 4 Hours (+-200km).

The road conditions on the first stage, PSJ to Mthatha on the R61 were absolutely perfect except for the extreme Speed Humps and the usual farm stock, including as many 'Road-Kills'... a menu of Cattle, Donkeys and Dogs!😖

19km on the M2 to Viedgesville was also fine, but the the partly tarred road between Viedgesville and Coffee Bay was epic, as was the unsurfaced 4X4 track between CB and White Clay.

Whilst every care was taken to miss all of the above hazards, not all could be avoided. Pothole collisions were common, even at a moderate speed, meaning slow. We were advised to get in behind any 'low-flying' taxi, (they know all the pressure-points and the best route around them) but that was not to be! Clearly we were one of those pressure-points to taxi's, and they knew exactly their way around us too!

As we descended into White Clay, the most stunning view of the Indian Ocean, the beach at low tide and the caravan park, already occupied by a group of four caravans that left us at PSJ, a day earlier.

The expectant weather pattern we were desperate to beat, was lingering just inside the horizon, ever threatening!🌧️ Large squalls of passing showers over the sea, thankfully stayed away just until we had pitched camp and then!One or two light showers as we sat, beer in hand and watched the 'big-boys' also just pass by. By late afternoon as constant drizzle interrupted by nothing and then a few more showers and nothing!

The most people together (a tour group, led by the legendary 'Alfie Cox') we had seen since leaving Mthatha arrived for a Seafood Lunch, which smelt all of an early dinner for us, after they left for the Ocean View hotel in Coffee Bay.

We sat for hours in the very rustic and typical Transkei Restaurant, nailed and held together with #06 'Blou Draad' wire and 6inch nails! Equally the usual and legendary framed photographs of giant trophy catches of Red Stumpnose, shark and Cob. Badly reconstructed taxidermy fish heads of massive Mussel Cracker and other huge, what look like Sea Monsters hang off all the cracked walls of the Pub, held together with a dozen layers of enamel and whitewash. The 150 degree vista of the ocean from the Pub and Restaurant at nearly 100m above the sea level, directly above the crashing high tide, takes me back those 50 odd years, to Coffee Bay and the Lagoon Hotel. The view of the bay, the ocean and the whole world from this dot, not even on the map is breathtaking!

A delicious seafood dinner, the contents mostly supplied by 'BidFoods', whose truck we passed somewhere on the Snakes & Ladder board en route here, drenched by several Windhoeks and at least a bottle of wine, sent us to bed by 19:00. Also drenched and true to the 'YR Weather App, the constant rain and as many showers were happening for the rest of the night. The sound of persistent drizzle, only blocked out by the storming breakers and passing showers. Tucked away in our Jurgens “X-Cape”, what a mesmerizing nights sleep.

Love, Peace and Light,
M&K
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