Once Upon a Time in Pondo Land

My favourite trip in South Africa was hiking The Wild Coast with a group of Peace Corps volunteers and our tour guide Jimmy.

I've always said that it doesn't matter where you are, it just matters who you're with... and I know I've been very blessed to be in the best peace corps cohort ever created, and we can have fun anywhere we go, The Wild Coast, was by far the best.

The hike started in Port St. Johns and ended in Coffee Bay, a 60km (40 miles) hike that spanned over five days. The terrain was mixed, from rolling hills, to flat, to wading through streams, to walking on the beach, to taking 'ferries.'

 

Each night, we slept in home stays in little villages that were scattered along the coast. At the home stays, we were prepared dinner (usually samp, pap, and some meat), and breakfast (usually fat cooks, porridge, bread). 

 

And each night before we went to sleep, Jimmy, our tour guide, would tell us a story that always started out “Once upon a time in Pondo Land...” and he would tell us hysterical stories about his childhood, and what it was like growing up in the wild coast.

Jimmy, himself, could have a whole book written about him. He talked about the most outrageous things, and would say words like 'exactle', and would tell stories about the times he used to wet the bed as a child (his solution was to tie a piece of string to the end of his penis to keep pee coming out... you can imagine how that ended!). You would think that Jimmy, a hiking guide, would be extremely fit. You are so very very wrong. Jimmy had a beer belly, and would struggle up every mountain, but the whole time he would be laughing, and telling stories.

The Wild Coast is possibly one of the most gorgeous pieces of landscapes I've ever seen, and it's so beautifully untouched. We swam in the ocean off beautiful beaches that have few visitors every year. 

We didn't see any trash along the hike (something of note, since Limpopo is littered with garbage). We saw birds, and weird bugs, and tons of beautiful trees and plants. Due to the fact we were pack backing and were staying in home stays along a unpopulated area, there was no place to charge our phones... and really no use since there was no signal. In a lot of ways this made the trip better, because we were able to spend the entire trip focused on the hike and staying up late laughing with each other... 

 

...but it made it so that my phone was dead the entire time... so I only took one picture (all the pictures in this blog were taken by friends).

When we made it into Coffee Bay we were all exhausted and excited to spend a few days relaxing by the beach. We stayed at Coffee Shack backpackers, where we all excitedly ordered a Savannah Dry (a refreshing cider, which was much needed). While there we visited Hole in the Wall, ate tons of pizza, met some very eccentric people, and laughed... a lot.