A horse in the kitchen
Trip Start
Oct 16, 2007
1
14
83
Trip End
May 09, 2008
The Crags,
South Africa
Saturday, November 10, 2007
We got to our next hostel, Wild Tongue, quite late, in this little town called The Crags. We turned off the N2 towards Natures Valley, and traveled on a bumpy dirt road for awhile at dusk, leaving a trail of dust behind. We were wondering if we were heading in the wrong direction, till we saw a sign "Wild Tongue this way ->".
This hostel was located on a farm in the middle of nowhere. Check out the picture of the Internet cafe at the hostel. Frank thought our accommodations had very open architecture -- the room doors had no locks, and the bathroom had no door!
The owners Aidan and his mom Jenny were super hospitable - and the first hostel owners we were able to talk to at length about what to see & do.
Jenny's horse in the kitchen at Wild Tongue
. After dinner, Aidan took us to "Rocky Road" (some dude's house) to meet up with some volunteers from the U.S. and Canada. The next day Jenny cooked us some breakfast and we spoke to us about her new volunteer organization and played with her horse in the kitchen. Jenny's done some interesting work - she would host some jumpstart type of programs for 3 weeks to bring local teens to her farm, to teach them basic skills - communication, getting a job, about STDs (HIV/AIDS is a huge problem here in SA). She mentioned that she was recently invited by a local chief in the Wild Coast to build a self-sustaining community.. somewhere near the Bulungula river in the Wild Coast, and is looking for volunteers next year to help her get started. Frank is thinking "hmmm.. good excuse for me to come back to South Africa!". The Wild Coast is supposed to be in untouched lands in an amazing setting overlooking the ocean. We gave her our contact info and are looking forward to hearing from her next year on her progress. Anyone interested in her previous work can check it out here: http://www.globalgreen.org.za Next stop on the Garden Route was Plettenberg Bay (or Plett Bay as the locals call it). A very upscale town - our guide book says that over 40,000 residents from wealthy suburbs swarm here over the xmas holidays. We have 2 memories about the town: 1) Having ice cream with Amarula cream (yum!) and 2) Frank getting "stabbed" by a kid who was upset that we wouldn't give him $ to help him fund his "soccer trip" at a local viewpoint
Wild Tongue's Internet Cafe
. It's so hard to know if someone is really telling the truth or not, and what they really would use the $ for. Luckily the pen wound was just a scratch but it was a little disturbing that this kid got unpredictably angry and violent after initially approaching us with a big smile on his face.The highlight of our time in Plett Bay was our trip to the Robberg Marine and Nature Reserve. It's a spectacular rocky peninsula where you can walk on high cliffs. We didn't see any dolphins but saw several hundred seals lying on the shores below the cliffs
Knysna was our next stop. Wish we had a little more time to stay and visit the Knysna forests as that's supposedly the best reason to come here. But we had to get to Buffalo Bay by the evening so we just did a quick stop at the waterfront. Frank thinks the waterfront here looked just like Pier 39 back in San Francisco. Guess maybe next time if we come back we'll need to check out the forests.
