GeorgeousPorgeous: more of SA

Following on from the running and blue-bottles....

Having not surfed yet and being a bit keen we decide to leave Jbay to head back west towards capetown. We remembered a smashing break on the way which Adam had mentioned he saw previously on another trip and wanted to check it out. The last evening in Jbay was quite hilarious, we had drank some whiskey and been enjoying the night views when Adam is overcome with hunger. He was fairly much over the limit (if SA has one... no-one that I know is sure) but we still decide to drive to the pizza take-away place. It really isn't far but neither of us fancy a walk in the dark considering the relative remote location of Island Vibe (http://www.islandvibe.co.za/island-vibe-jbay-in-a-nutshell.html) within the town which meant we'd be at a greater risk of being mugged and such like. Adam tries to back out of the fairly wide gateway and still manages to clip his wing-mirror.. nice one bru. Pizza was very good but we both wake up the next morning and think "What the f@#k did we do last night!!! Why!! They have pizza at Island Vibe...."

So we up and leave J-bay and head back down the N2 a very long straight road.

Which still takes us 2-3 hours to get anywhere... We thought we were going to head to Plettenberg Bay but it turned out we wanted Wilderness. This place is not really like it sounds... not that much Wilderness and more like a seaside village... for hippies.

"Dude... I'm so stoned right now... I can't feel my face anymore... ugh"

We stayed at the only existing campsite which was situated up a steep hill called Asante (http://www.asantecaravans.co.za/) which was a very cool place to camp (in fact it even got cold a couple of nights..). The guys who run it (Wikus is pictured above) were a family who grew a lot of their own food there which made for a nice change from the typical campsite and holiday destination. The beach itself at wilderness was fairly choppy but was nice sand to run on.

Here is what Asante looks like from where we camped. I have to apologise though, the panoramic picture I've created here won't show well.. if you know me on facebook it is there.

We also weren't to know that it is quite sharky and has many rips... ouchy stuff basically. There was a place just round the corner however which was amazing!! Victoria's Bay / Vicbaai / VBay... whatever you want to call it.. is a fantastic little break, once you get past the breakers. There is basically two positions to try this from, the tiny bit of beach that exists to walk out from or the rocks at the point. Both are mildly treacherous as the beach has strong enough breakers to pick up a 16st (100 Kg) man with board and spin him upside down. The rocks are.. well rocks! we tried these and fell over in the process, damaging one of Adam's boards. My fault as I fell but he did try to catch me. He is about half my size... why Adam why?

So we spent about 3 days here just surfing Vicbaai getting dunked, spending an hour trying to get out past the breakers. Adam is a fairly experienced surfer (he's lived in Cape town for a year now so that plus what he did here in UK is a fair bit) and he had plenty of trouble with it. Me being a fat beginner had more trouble but I did manage it with much greater ease by the end. It really was like trying to ride a storm in a teabag... not a lot can be done to be washed about and brewed to stupidity

So this is Vicbaai...

where they get Elfs... (they're a type of fish... made me laugh for hours though)

After a few days in Wilderness we decided to make a manouver to Stillbai. We arrive after a couple of hours drive and realised how desolate the area is. On way I saw an abhorrent sight... I saw a ginger sheep. What kind of fucked-up shepard would think to cultivate them!?

There are also lots of empty properties which evidently never lived in apart from for holidays. We spent a couple of hours trying to find a camp site. There was a site, with no guard and no-one at the reception. In the end we asked for directions to get to another one which turned out to be 5km away in Jongensfontein. This had an awesome break coming off a reef with consistent waves coming in. We saw one other guy go out onto the waves and so we thought to join in. Adam had been very nervous the whole time. The other surfer was pointing to us to come out round the breakers, I turn back to look at Adam. His face dropped so far and I looked back towards the other dude and see a fin crest over a wave. I couldn't see the dude. I turned back to Adam and started to paddle in. I was quite calm considering I thought there was a shark out there. I paddle in and we then see it was a dolphin. I was fairly keen to get back out at this point but Adam didn't so we stayed on shore. Little did we know that 2 months previous someone had indeed been eaten, at Jongensfontein... right where we were.

Next day we thought to try out StillBai... we get to town and the car gets a flat.

Me - "It's ok bud, just get your spare out and someone at that garage across the road will probably be able to help"

Adam - "Oh... I'm not sure if I've got a spare"

Me - Speechless.... in South Africa on a road trip in a car driven by someone not knowing if they have a spare... where no-one will stop to help you. We were SO lucky to have had this happen there and then... I was a bit upset with Adam. We re-inflated it and it got us back to the campsite and the next day it went again. This time there were plenty of very fat Afrikanas (white Afrikaans speakers)about who were more than happy to get manly and fix a car problem.... mmm .... ya!.... mmm

I decided to take a big step sideways and let them and adam get on with it as I had no contribution to make other than be angry. Thankfully no more mishaps... This is all sorted by about 4 and we are toying of whether to stay in this campsite where we can't surf and there is nothing to do. We've finished all our whiskey previously and it looks bleak... So we scarper back to Cape Town.

On the 4 hour drive back it rains and I get some pretty pictures

We then go about capetown until I leave... other than surfing Kommetjie it was fairly smooth and uneventful. We went for an all you can eat sushi one night and ate waaaaaay too much.