Transkei

We had planned on leaving Morgans Bay on Saturday morning, but we woke to find out that our campsite was now the venue for the local Farmers Market!  There was no easy way to drive Max out, without causing a bit of a traffic hazard, so…. oh well….. we were forced to stay another night!  Which was great of course because the kids got to eat candy floss & we got to enjoy the festivities that a small seaside village has to offer.  The whole town showed up and Yellowwood Forest Camp seemed like the place to be!

We left Sunday morning after a bit of a play on the beach, and then headed north.  We turned off the N2 towards Coffee Bay and then nearer the coast we turned towards Umdumbi.  We found a backpackers quite close to the beach and although they said their campsite was full, they weren’t going to turn us away because it was starting to get dark.

Alex had a great surf this morning, without a wetsuit, nice!  And the kids and I enjoyed some warm water swimming.  The kids even learnt how to bodysurf – they are complete naturals!

I have to explain what the above photo is.  Alex makes the greatest Omelets, and after Xan asked for Honey on his, Alex got an idea.  He made himself an Apple Pie Omelette!  Tinned apple, muesli, raisins, Honey, and Custard….. all on top of an open Omelette! 

We’ll leave this place tomorrow and head north again. 

Location:South Africa

Sunshine at last! Morgans Bay

We woke up in JBay to another very wet day......

We packed up a very wet camp, while the kids decided to decorate their room with all their 'rainy-day' artwork....

And then we headed north hoping we could find some sunshine.  Unfortunately the rain got harder and the mist heavier.  We stopped at a Mall in East London for an early supper and then headed on towards Morgans Bay.  We arrived just after dark so we didn't get to see the surrounding beauty, but after finding a campsite and sloshing in the mud to the spot where the trees weren't so thick, we all had a good sleep.  We then woke this morning to SUNSHINE!!!!  And more surprises...... this place is stunning!!!  The campsite we picked in the dark is called Yellowwood Park, and it's in a Forest!  Xan enjoyed riding his bike around the campsite, finding every possible mud puddle there is.  There's a great big JungleGym and kids area by the campsite outdoor restaurant that serves the most amazing vegetarian pizza's.  There are rabbits & ducks, and if we were all a whole lot shorter I'd think I was living in a CS Lewis Story!!!!

We enjoyed a long morning on the Beach, and then took a full 5 minutes driving around the tiny town to the one small shop to buy some things for lunch.  We enjoyed a picnic on a hill near the topshop, which felt like a set from the 'TellyTubbies'. (It's Laura writing this Blog Post, not Alex, in case you were worried about his TV viewing choices...)

We got back to the campsite and did some laundry while the sun was shining brightly & then went and enjoyed a pizza at the restaurant while the kids played.

I really like this place, but we feel like moving on and seeing what other great places this Wild Coast has to offer us.  Tomorrow we'll discover Coffee Bay maybe......

Location:Incarna Dr,Morgan Bay,South Africa

Knysna & Jeffrey's Bay

We left Bontebok and headed off to George Mall for Lunch and to stock up on some supplies that we had left behind.....  it seemed the whole of George was there doing their Christmas shopping, but we still managed to find a parking spot for Max.

We had made arrangments with our friend Greg to stay over at his farm in Knysna, and it was really great that he could manage to fly up to George for the night and stay over with us.  His farm is a stunning piece of land right on the edge of the State Forest, with no facilities at all, so it seemed the perfect place to camp out in Max.  We arrived and after driving through and over some of the overgrown bush we found a perfect spot and then took a walk through some more bush down to the stream on the border of his farm.  Greg hadn't had much chance this year to get to his farm,  and we've spent a few days with him there before so it was a really special day for us all.  We remembered taking Kaylin with us one weekend when she was 6months old and enjoying a picnic down at the stream.  This time we had to stop the kids from exploring too deep into the forest!  They loved it.  Xan later enjoyed collecting firewood around the area for our bush campfire.  It was rough, overgrown & isolated..... but it's Greg's farm, and we loved it!  Thanks Greg for flying up especially for us.

We then headed up towards Cape St Francis.  We found a place to camp at the Cape St Francis Resort.  Not great camping, but there was a great swimming pool which was perfect.  We enjoyed the facilities, camped for one night, and then headed here to Jeffrey's Bay.

We have camped here before, but not over the Dec holiday season, so we were happy to find that we could get one of their last seafront sites.  So here we sit,  huddled in our cozy Max while the weather outside is less than perfect - fresh sea wind, and not a surfer in site.

Despite the wind and overcast weather, we have enjoyed our stay here.  The kids don't seem to notice the weather and we went for a long walk along the beach down into town.  It doesn't look like the weather will be getting any better tomorrow, so we'll be leaving JBay and heading north again.  Not sure where we'll stop, but we'll blog again in a few days I'm sure.

Location:Uys St,,South Africa

Still at bontebok...

We'll be leaving to knysna tomorrow. Today Xan & I went for a two hour hike / ride to the reception to pay, and in the afternoon kaylin joined us for a swim in the river. Great day - Xan spent many hours riding!

Location:Swellendam,South Africa

On the road...

We left this morning eventually at around 10h30, and headed to Lourensford for some coffee supplies and a very nice lunch.



Now we're sleeping at the bontebok national park and we're already planning on slowing down and sleeping two night here! This evening we went on a very nice walk to the river, next time I'll take my vibram shoes cos the natural reflexology for 45 minutes on small rocks was a bit intense!

Also just to mention that we're not planning an epic adventure into deepest darkest africa this time, so our blog is more a way of keeping a diary for ourselves. For the family & friends following it's a nice way to share our photos and places along the way. Enjoy!

Location:Swellendam,South Africa

I found a cool new blog tool

I read a green article about how much more efficient mobile phones are than computers, so we'll try blog from here!




I fly to George on Tuesday to go fetch max! Can hardly wait.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Cowrie Crescent,Milnerton,South Africa

Getting set...

So Max the truck is in Knysna getting a new more efficient fridge installed, as well as some bigger batteries, and hopefully two 140W solar panels. We're getting excited for our relaxed journey up the East Coast starting around 8 December.... if all Travelstar's preparations go to plan!

Our goal at the moment is to have a very nice relaxed family holiday, and we're imagining slowly cruising up the East Coast (Garden Route, maybe Transkei, Durban, maybe Swaziland and then Mozambique - hopefully getting quite far North).