Eastern Cape, South Africa

Hiking the WILD COAST

April 2, 2016

Dumelang!

Welcome back to regularly scheduled blogging.

Two weeks of school break + unused leave days can only mean one thing… VACATION! Or as lovely South Africans say… HOLIDAY!

The Wild Coast is a section of coast in the Eastern Cape of South Africa between Port Edward and East London. Luckily we only hiked from Port St. Johns to Coffee Bay. I recommend hiking with a guide like Wild Coast Hikes – they also organize the accommodation!

Recipe for hiking the Wild Coast:

Five days
Three 31s (my cohort)
Six 32s (the next cohort who are education volunteers)
One experienced guide to make sure you don’t get lost and die
61km (~38 miles)
12kg bag (~26 pounds) to carry on your back
One porter to carry your bag for you on Day 4 & 5 after you get a horrible cold and can barely walk
Four local families to host you on nights between hikes
Countless mountains to hike up and down
Unimaginably gorgeous scenery
One pair of sunglasses lost the day before the hike
One left hiking shoe to conveniently lose the morning of Day 2, only to find in a random guys house who had invited y’all in for beer the night before
Four nasty falls that are currently documented on your body in the form of scrapes and bruises
One bottle of mosquito repellent applied liberally
*Don’t bring a sense of smell because 9 people + no showers = repulsive

Mix it all together and you get some great photos, new friends, and an experience to remember.

P.S. I was a little busy physically dying to focus on taking a ton of pictures, so deal with it.

28 March: Port St. Johns to Madakeni (~12km)

29 March: Madakeni to Tsweleni (~12km)

30 March: Tsweleni to Hluleka (~14km)

The 31s celebrating 1 year since swearing-in on 30 March!

31 March: Hluleka to Tshani Village (~14km)

#dead. I wish I could say that’s all water I poured on my head…

1 April: Tshani Village to Coffee Bay (~14km)

The crew: Myself, Austin, Alyssa, Kevin, Ryan, Marc, Nikki, Jane, and Jack.

The crew with our guide, Sipho, and our porters, Michael, Vincent, and Polka.

Alsooo, we ended up staying an extra day in Coffee Bay at the Coffee Shack Backpackers, and Austin and I took surfing lessons! After an hour surfing ‘normal’ (right foot dominate) to no avail, I switched to ‘goofy’ (left foot dominate) and ended up standing! (whether that counts as actual surfing is still up for debate). This makes sense since I also shoot left-handed haha.

Hope you enjoyed the pics <3

xoxoxo

Have you hiked the Wild Coast? What other hikes have you done in South Africa? Let me know in the comments!