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)
PIN IT29 March: Madakeni to Tsweleni (~12km)
PIN IT30 March: Tsweleni to Hluleka (~14km)
31 March: Hluleka to Tshani Village (~14km)
1 April: Tshani Village to Coffee Bay (~14km)
PIN IT
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!