Saturday, April 22, 2006
No Waves At The Surfing Mecca Of South Africa
April 22, 2006, Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa
The past few days we spent in Plettenburg Bay, staying at a cottage owned by friends of Nate's parents. The cottage was situated ten kilometers outside of the town of Plettenburg Bay. It was a lot like staying in the Hamptons. The gated community in which we stayed had charming brick streets that led to beautiful vacation homes, which, despite being owned by wealthy people, were tastefully sized and designed. The houses were set on a river that was situated below the mountains and led into the bay. Each house had various watercrafts (motorboats, wave runners, kayaks, canoes etc.) tied up on the waterfront behind their property. I'm sure it was a shock to the neighborhood when three scruffy young Americans pulled up in our ghastly excuse for a car.
We spent the majority of our time writing and planning out the rest of our trip. In our down time, we decided to play a bit of Frisbee on the perfectly manicured lawn. Given our surroundings, I felt like I was on a photo shoot for a J Crew catalogue.
Frisbee went well, until the inevitable occurred: the Frisbee got stuck on roof. It's understandable that when we were children, Frisbees constantly ended up on the roof. However, one would think that three college-educated, adult men could throw a Frisbee on a huge lawn and avoid getting it stuck on the roof; nevertheless, Sean misfired and we had to abandon our sport. (Sean took responsibility and agonized over recovery strategies while he tried to fall asleep; he was up early the next morning with a towel tied to a rope, "fishing" for the stranded pink disk).
Yesterday afternoon we drove 150 kilometers further along the coast and arrived at Jeffrey's Bay, which is list by one guide book as the, "Mecca of South African surfing." This did not necessarily interest me, but Nate was pretty psyched about catching some waves. When we arrived Nate checked the wave situation and reported to us that the sea was flat, but would be great today. This information however was not accurate, and Nate is presently sitting next to me at his computer, 100 meters from the waveless ocean.
The place where we are staying is definitely the highlight of our visit to Jeffrey's Bay. We are camping at a backpacker's lodge that is situated on a sand dune directly on the beach. Falling asleep to the sound of the ocean is reminiscent of my days living near the beach in The Gambia.
We plan to stay here for a day or two more, at which point we will race up the coast and attempt to make it to Mozambique within the next couple of weeks. On the way we plan to spend a few days near Durban, in South Africa, with some guys who Sean and I met on the way to Cape Town. They explained that the area in which they live has one of the highest, if not the highest HIV rate in the world.
April 22, 2006, Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa
The past few days we spent in Plettenburg Bay, staying at a cottage owned by friends of Nate's parents. The cottage was situated ten kilometers outside of the town of Plettenburg Bay. It was a lot like staying in the Hamptons. The gated community in which we stayed had charming brick streets that led to beautiful vacation homes, which, despite being owned by wealthy people, were tastefully sized and designed. The houses were set on a river that was situated below the mountains and led into the bay. Each house had various watercrafts (motorboats, wave runners, kayaks, canoes etc.) tied up on the waterfront behind their property. I'm sure it was a shock to the neighborhood when three scruffy young Americans pulled up in our ghastly excuse for a car.
We spent the majority of our time writing and planning out the rest of our trip. In our down time, we decided to play a bit of Frisbee on the perfectly manicured lawn. Given our surroundings, I felt like I was on a photo shoot for a J Crew catalogue.
Frisbee went well, until the inevitable occurred: the Frisbee got stuck on roof. It's understandable that when we were children, Frisbees constantly ended up on the roof. However, one would think that three college-educated, adult men could throw a Frisbee on a huge lawn and avoid getting it stuck on the roof; nevertheless, Sean misfired and we had to abandon our sport. (Sean took responsibility and agonized over recovery strategies while he tried to fall asleep; he was up early the next morning with a towel tied to a rope, "fishing" for the stranded pink disk).
Yesterday afternoon we drove 150 kilometers further along the coast and arrived at Jeffrey's Bay, which is list by one guide book as the, "Mecca of South African surfing." This did not necessarily interest me, but Nate was pretty psyched about catching some waves. When we arrived Nate checked the wave situation and reported to us that the sea was flat, but would be great today. This information however was not accurate, and Nate is presently sitting next to me at his computer, 100 meters from the waveless ocean.
The place where we are staying is definitely the highlight of our visit to Jeffrey's Bay. We are camping at a backpacker's lodge that is situated on a sand dune directly on the beach. Falling asleep to the sound of the ocean is reminiscent of my days living near the beach in The Gambia.
We plan to stay here for a day or two more, at which point we will race up the coast and attempt to make it to Mozambique within the next couple of weeks. On the way we plan to spend a few days near Durban, in South Africa, with some guys who Sean and I met on the way to Cape Town. They explained that the area in which they live has one of the highest, if not the highest HIV rate in the world.
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