So here we are. For the first time writing in English for our worldwide followers and fans, concerned about our safety and sake. After writing it in English, we will translate it into Spanish with Google Translator and see what our Spanish fellows understand of it all. So, English speakers, this goes for you!
Finally we left Cape Town. It was a hard decision. We were so happy at Miquel and Eva’s place that we did not want to leave. It was almost like being home. We were cooking our own food everyday, having hot showers, having breakfast in a lovely garden overlooking Table Mountain… enjoying the comforts of life…
But we decided we wanted to see the country and we moved, by bus, on to Swellendam. Four hours or so of a 5 seater per row bus was not a so exciting thing. They showed a shitty movie although we crossed through beautiful landscape: wine states, mountains, loads of agricultural lands and saw cows, sheep and… ostriches!
Swellendam was like a German village just on the foots of huge mountains. It had so many churches that we almost could not count them all. The ratio church/people probably was about one church per 100 people… but even more guesthouses, all set in lovely and beautiful gardens, in cosy and well preserved german-looking buildings… It was all so clean, neat, cosy, perfect… pink, really pink… cheesy and tacky!!!! Of course blacks lived a few kilometres from the centre, in the township, far away from the European people (that is how white people used to called themselves, to differentiate from blacks and coloured people).
One day stop and continued next morning onto Knysna, passing through more fields, mountains and free range pastures for cows, sheep and, again, ostriches with their funny looks. Knysna is not famous for their churches (which they have a lot of them too) but for their oysters, which are cultivated on a lake. Obviously we had to try them (they were one euro per oyster) but according to the Seafood Master Itziar they do not live up to their fame. For me it was the second time I tried them in my whole life and… well, i was not too excited about their taste really… We have to say we also ate fish and chips at a supermarket, so it is not that we are becoming sibarites… We spent as well one night there, good time to realise that in this country, without a car, you are nobody. We are the only people walking everywhere and, unfortunatelly, like it was this case, the main attractions are not near the town, so we had to skip them… (I said we are the only people walking… it is not true. We are the only whites walking!! Blacks also walk everywhere!!! We are starting to understand the faces of sadness in the white drivers when they see us walking… they might be thinking «poor guys, they are poor and have to walk…». We tell you, white South Africans do not walk!!) Not having a car is also annoying (as we do not want to pay taxis all the time): the bus stops are always on the outer centre of the city, so we are doing quite a lot of walk with our backpacks…
And the third move in the week was to get to Jeffreys Bay. A shorter 2 hours bus drive this time to get to the coast, famous worldwide (apparently) for the Supertube waves, which is one of the best in the world to surf in. The truth is that we have spent two days in this ugly and characterless town full of Billabong and Quiksilver shops because of the great and fantastic B&B that we found, with its cute and green garden, full of shade, its hammocks, its laid back and homely feel, the «take as many beers as you like and pay later» attitude… and, well, yes, surf. Today Pablo went surfing. 8am for a two hours lesson… reports have told us that he was so succesful that he went on a second two hours course to practice. He claims he can stand up quite regularly although the board he is using is like a war ship: almost nothing can turn it upside down…
But don’t you think we are just relaxing and enjoying, at 04:45 AM we are getting off of our pleasant B&B to catch a probably crowded and stinky bus that will take us to the Wild Coast (check your maps and keep logged! More entries in English to come!)
Pablo & Itziar–hello from San Francisco–a quick hello, thanks for your words that paint so well the scenes you are inhabiting, in either language (though I fear to see how Google translated this into Spanish)…I’m picturing you both now on that surfboard– that can’t be overturned, as you continue on your adventure. love Eric
Eric, you would love the sunset here, the light is just fantastic.
Thanks for your warm support.
Just as I expected, I love the blog so far. Keep on like this!
Thanks! Merci!
Pablo e Itziar, hola desde Austin, Texas, que suerte de viaje, mantenednos informados, es estupendo leeros
besos y adelante!
Elisa
This is my favorite post! (it is also the only one I understand so far)
What was that nice B&B called? HaHaHa! Good luck in the wild coast guys! I will be looking out for those English posts!
peace love and lots of Waves from Ubuntu!
Right! The name of that lovely place that we already call home in J-Bay is UBUNTU Backpackers.
We liked Port St. Johns, specially its surroundings. Thanks for your advise!
We’ll wait for you with a paella.
En el 5º párrafo aparece «foots» que es palabro que no conozco en inglés (o ¿será americano?).
¿No será el plural de «foot»?
Besos, J.
Foots es el plural de foot despues de varias cervezas y de varias horas surfeando (ojo, que parece que este todo el dia en la tabla y solo he podido estrenarme una vez…) Es que uno, de vacaciones, desconecta hasta las neuronas…
p.
Ola,
we are really happy to follow your discoveries, thanks a lot for the neglish version, We could guess the spanish version, but were missing many things.
We went to Durban and Lesotho 6 months ago, just a few days, but liked it a lot, we’ll go again, and to Reunion island close to Madagascar, if you have some spare time, I can ask my sister there to prepare you a few day trip, it is a great island (be careful of Moskito in Mada, there is a Chickunguna epidemia those days, it could really spoil a few weeks of the trip !).
Lucky you to have the guts to take such break and go discovering those great places !
Hola, chicos. Muy buenas vuestras crónicas del viaje, sí señor. Prometo seguir leyendo y me permito sugerir que habléis más de la gente, por aquello de poner el acento en las diferencias culturales.
Yo, que también ando por Méjico, sin un duro, descubriendo personas y paisajes, he pensado que quizás os gustaría echarle un ojo a mi blog porque tiene temática similar 😉 Os mando un fuerte abrazo. Disfrutad a tope de la aventura.
P.d: hace mucho tiempo tuve también ocasión de visitar con un amigo el gigantesco país sudafricano y las lagunas de Knysna (junto con Soweto) fue de lo que más me impresionó, por su belleza al atardecer. Eso sí, las ostras no merecen tanto como dicen, en efecto, pero tomárselas con un buen vinito blanco en un chiringo de playa según observas a las ballenas no tiene precio.
En cuanto podamos, miramos tu blog, que aqui internet va a pedales.
Disfruta de Mexico!
PD: de Sudafrica me quedo con las Drakensberg, pero mejor aun, Lesoto. No hemos visto ballenas ni la migracion de las sardinas, que creo que es aun mas impresionante.