Wednesday 11th
Got the Baz bus from Ubuntu and after about an hour had a
breakfast stop, met a few people on the bus none were very chatty. Got to our
hostel in Plett about 12.30pm. When we got to our hostel we sorted out all our
washing that needed doing and headed around to find somewhere to do it. Whilst waiting
for the washing we did some food shopping. Weather wasn’t great at all, lots of
fine rain!
Tried to sort out what activities etc we were gonna do here
and surprise surprise… the hostel wasn’t very helpful. We ended up finding some
peoples numbers who were more willing to help and told us theyd get back to us
in the morning. Later on, one of the guys called back and invited us to an open
mic night at his bar called surf café. So after our spag bol dinner we played
some pool and got a taxi down there!
 |
| us in Surf Cafe! |
Drinks prices here are awesome!! For a pint of beer and a
bottle of cider.. under £5!!!! And when we got bored of that, 2x soco &
lemonade… £3.60!! that would only buy you one at home plus the measures here
are a bit more generous..!!
It was a really good night, the singers etc were quite good
singing all the goodies J
So singing loud n proud plus cheap drinks it was a very good night J however, it ended a
bit early (south Africans ust cant handle it lol)
Once back we just hit the hay…
Thursday 12th
The morning after…. Haha we wernt hanging so that was good! We waited for Blue
(the guy from the tour place) to ring us back about what we wanted to do. We found
out we could to our canopye tour… but! The shuttle there was going to coast
350R each!!! That’s the coast of the activity again!! So it wasn’t in our
budget but he would get back to us about sea kayaking. So with no activites today we went for a walk
around Plett.
 |
| the view from our dorm room! |
We got a little bored of waiting for the guy to get back to
us about the sea kayaking so we rung our own people and booked ourselves in for
12pm the next day.. we also tried to sort out doing an African township tour
with the hostel but as we don’t have a car we couldn’t do it! So we rung the
taxi guy from last night to see what he said (his business card said he did
them..) so he told us he’d pick us up, sort out a tour guide and do the tour
for us.. luckily, during our walk we came across the kayaking place and
rearranged the time!
Our walk to took us
too a hotel called Becon Island which has a coffee lounge out on the sea. So we
sat there watching the waves crashing against the rocks. It was like our own
little firework display, such a lovely view. We then got asked if we wanted to
take part in the quiz… so of course we said yes! We actually did alright at it J after the quiz a whole
load of dolphins crossed the bay! Was amazing you could see them jumping right
out of the water!
 |
| Beacon Island coffee lounge! |
When we got back we had a chilled evening, we had a fry up
for dinner! However due to our previous eggs.. a girl we met called Mon, made
our eggs for us! Ended up being a pretty amazing dinner! Afterwards we retired
to the tv room where a few guys were in there already watching the original
tarzan… we say don’t bother. Disney does it much better!! So after we called it
a night..
Friday 13th
9am.. Sea kayaking!!! Early start, the guy (Giovanni) who
run the kayaking thought we were crazy for actually turning up as the weather
was predicted to be pretty crazy but being from England, were used to it! So we
got changed into shorts and warm layers and headed into the sea in our double
kayak!
Getting from the beach to the calmer waves was the hardest
part then we kayaked around the lounge we’d sat in yesterday! Our total trip
was about 5km all round and unfortunately we didn’t see any dolphins or whales!
I do admit that Charlie did most of the work when we were in the kayak.. the
ocean was really warm! When our hands got cold we were putting them in to make
them warm again!! Getting back to the shore was also hard, we had to paddle
real quick and strong so that we would beat the breaking waves.. we nearly
managed it, right at the last minute a wave took us with it and Charlie managed
to douche me in the head with her paddle… tit!!! We put the kayaks back, had a
lovely warm shower, cup of tea and got dropped back at the hostel!! Had enough
time for a bacon and (own done) egg sandwich before getting picked up by Johan
for the township tour…
The township tour was a real eye opener, our first stop was
a children’s shelter and school. As its school holidays hardly any kids were
there. We had a look around, they were a few volunteers there helping out. The
had a good base, but obvisuouly not as good as some of our facilities back
home. Next we went to the newly built community centre. This is where all the government
offices are, it was good, but again not home standard. For instance the
library, the shelves were half full or empty.
Next we went to the community college, that was a good set
up too. But thew kitchen where they taught how to become chefs etc was not left
in the cleanest of states. Johan (taxi man) was quite disappointed by this, but
as he said.. it just shows how ungrateful they are to have it. We then took a drive through the townships. Everyone
was quite friendly waving and smiling at us. But all around them was just
poverty. We stopped at a house with a family playing cards outside in the rain
by a fire. We got to look around their house. And…. Well, you cant even imagine
how bad it was. The wall made out of card board, everything was mouldy, it was
falling down around them. Two rooms in the whole shack. One for cooking, one
for sleeping. It was hard hitting to see, it got worse when the lady who showed
us around said “we wish you could help us…”. I literally just wanted to hand
over all the money I had on me. But even that wouldn’t have been enough to
help!
We continued driving around, stopped at another house. This time
is wasn’t as bad. But I still wouldn’t want to be there. This lady showed us
around, luckily had a job. She washed clothes for people just to earn money for
food. She even offered to do ours, bless her!
She said to us that she knew it wasn’t a great place to live but she was
just grateful that she had a roof over hers and her family’s head.
We then carried on driving and stopped at a tavern! It was
empty but apparently at night it gets real lively with a lot of dancing,
drinking etc. we got a cider each! R16 each for a 660ml bottle of hunters
cider. Which is less than £1.50!!! we were amazed! We had a game of pool here
with the taxi drivers, we lost but was fun!
We had to get a bit of a move on as the driver had forgotten
about people he had to pick up an hour away but still, on the way home we drove
through an informal settlement which was really just tin shacks. The roads were
all dirt tracks and there was so many pigs, chickens a dogs running around!
 |
| view of the informal settlement. |
After our tour we returned to the hostel. Sat by the fire
and finished off our ciders and playing pool. Taking in what we had just seen…
for the rest of the day/evening we chilled, cooked then slou attempted to do
this puzzle of her, without much success. Whilst I fell asleep like a lazy bum.
Zzzzzzzzzzzz…..
Saturday 14th
Today is our last day in plett and the heaven decided to
open up today! ! has done nothing but rain… but this wasn’t rain you could deal
with, it was like torrential pour, non stop! It was so windy, there was thunder
and lightning!! We did brave it.. felt like a mission though! We went round the
corner, both bought a book to read in a 2nd hand bookshop and then
went into a tea shop & bakery to have breakfast/lunch! And use the free
wifi! J was very tasty in there!
Since then we have been chilling in the hostel reading our
books by the fire.. on the agenda for tonight is have dinner, pack up all our
stuff and be ready for cape town tomorrow!!
Love xxxxxxxxxxxxx
