Umtata, South Africa Travel Blogs

Hole in the Wall - Transkei
Mar 11, 2005 (13 photos)

... of erosion from the sea. But there is one Catch. The walk to get there is through some of the most beautiful country side in South Africa. The Transkei "rural Africa if you will". We booked our guide (and make sure you bother paying the 15 rand) and ...

The Wild Coast
Jan 19, 2006 (4 photos)

... drive from the Drakensberg mountains down to what is called the Wild Coast. This is an area along the bottom eastern coast of South Africa. It is one of the last unspoilt areas of the country. A place where you can really see the local indiginous people ...

Leaving Paradise
Dec 24, 2005 (16 photos)

Christmas Eve, and lovely for the fact I haven't heard Slade once this year! The cave was as lovely to wake up in as it was to sleep in, and I genuinely didn't want to leave. If I'd known where we would be by sundown, I would probably still be there ...

Christmas Day the Wild Coast Way
Dec 25, 2005 (8 photos)

It was the nicest thing. As Lise, Andries and I took over the night shift from Ranel and Riaan, Riaan gave us a hug and said 'Happy Christmas' - so we did the same for Gretha and Casper. It's the small things that can make a difference. I slept so ...

Leopard Prints and Waterfalls
Dec 23, 2005 (13 photos)

Yes, they are definitely leopard prints. Cool! Well, it was a lovely, lovely, hanging cave. Let's sleep here! And so it was decided. Today was our 'rest day' - which in best hiking terms, doesn't mean you actually get a rest, but just that ...

moving on
Nov 30, 2005 (7 photos)

when i left you last i was heading to port Elisabeth. well i got here but i still had 10 days to kill b4 my flight, so i decided to carry on up the coast with Mark. i couldn't get the baz bus as it worked out a lot of money and i needed to sort a lot of ...

South Africa continued (minus 2)
Feb 17, 2007 (9 photos)

I stayed at the resort that is Sarah and James' house in the suburbs of Jo'burg.  We had a fantastic Tapas dinner with a friend of there's Mario.  I can't remember too much about the food but the margaritas were fabulous ;)  At this point I ...

Umtata
Aug 1, 2006

We drove back to Joburg today and flew from there into Umtata. We had severe thunder and lightening storms and had difficulty landing. It was a very tiny plane and the flight attendant was afraid to fly. She said the fire alarm was going off and kept ...

The French and Xhosa people of Coffee Bay
Apr 19, 2005 (6 photos)

The Transkei had to be my favorite part of South Africa's coast after my glorious week working at Buccaneers. The Transkei to me was meeting the Xhosa people in Coffee Bay, as well as getting lost on narrow pot hole infested dirt roads we drove along in ...

Transkei and Kwa Zulu Natal
Aug 23, 2005 (5 photos)

... and busy running away to take any pictures. That pretty much brings us back to Pretoria. We've had a great trip so far. Southern Africa is really beautiful but we can't help but get a little bit of a bad feeling about the place in light of the social ...

This Ain't No 4-wheel Drive
Dec 13, 2007

... Ian, the guy who cooked and helped run the Backpackers there, told us of a better, paved route that would take us south of Lesotho through the whole Drakensburg Mountain range.  He said there is a great new backpackers at some waterfalls near ...

Umtata
Apr 3, 2006

Been on a short outreach to Umtata in the Transkei here in South Africa. We run a DFS (Discipleship Foundation Seminar) which is kinda of many DTS. There were 26 Xhosa young people that came in. It was an awesome time.