Plett!

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 12^th

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 13^th

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 14^th

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 2^nd 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