The Wild Coast & KwaZulu-Natal

I spent a few days watching the surfers in Jeffery's Bay before heading off to Coffee Bay on the Wild Coast. The Wild Coast is so called because of the wild coastlines which reminded me a little of home, helped by the fact that the weather was pretty rainy while I was there! Apparently Coffee Bay is named that because of a shipwreck that contained coffee beans leading to coffee trees growing along the coastline. I went for a long hike to see the "Hole in the Wall", but I mostly enjoyed seeing the cows chillin' on the beaches. This region used to be a part of Transkei, an area independent of the apartheid South African government populated by the Xhosa people. This results in a strong Xhosa culture that gives the area a much more "African" feel than a lot of the rest of South Africa, as I was once again seeing roundhavels, cattle on the roads, and I loved listening to the language as it's one of the "clicking" languages.
Next I went to Durban for a few days, and any time I'm in a big city I take the opportunity to go to nice cafes & restaurants, get any provisions that I can't usually get (like books!), and go to the cinema (Avatar 2 - 3D). I also took in the waterfront, wandered areas that were safe (which were limited), and took a trusty bus tour to see the rest.
Finally I went to St. Lucia, which along with Durban is in the KwaZulu-Natal province, a Zulu region. St. Lucia is famous for the iSimangaliso wetland park populated by loads of hippos and crocodiles, amongst other animals. This obviously makes it the perfect place to be on a boat trip when a really bad storm hits! You could see the storm approaching for about an hour before all hell broke loose, with epic thunder and lightning, hail (first time in over 10 years apparently), and wind strong enough to blow us 3km off course even against the engine. The captain had to drive us into the trees to stop us from being blown further away, and then drove us back as soon as the wind died down a little. I was convinced we were about to become hippo or croc food! I had a large glass of wine with dinner that night.Read more