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Sunday 21st: Not feeling too well..... We got the Baz Bus to Coffee Bay. The journey took us through some of the poorest areas of South Africa and past the village where Nelson Mandela grew up.
We got to the Coffee Shack hostel at around 4pm - I went to bed, got up for dinner, had this 15mins on the internet and now I'm going back to bed....

Monday 22nd: A few of us went on a 'cultural tour' to one of the local villages.
The Transkei is home to the Xhosa people (Xhosa is pronounced with a "click") and is the only part of the country still governed by tribal authorities.The people live in thatched mud-brick huts scattered across the hills without electricity. Recently a water supply was installed for the village so the people fetch their water for washing and cooking from the tap - they don't have any running water in their houses, so no sinks, showers or toilets.

One of the local villagers took us to his home in the hills where we met his family and looked around. One round hut was the kitchen which contained a small fire in the middle on which the meals were cooked, a kitchen dresser at the back and two benches, one on either side. The other huts contained beds and a few pieces of bedroom furniture, and one was a store-room where they kept maize and spare fencing etc. All the women slept in one hut, the eldest son slept in a hut of his own and the other sons shared another hut.

We had a 'traditional' lunch with the family which consisted of pap (maize meal), cabbage and soup. The guy was telling us how the villagers used to grow all their own food, but things are changing and now they earn money so they buy quite a lot of their food from the local shop. So the 'traditional' lunch wasn't entirely traditional in that the soup was out of a packet!! There are still loads of animals around though and he was still able to show us the'Transkei Big 5'- cows, sheep, goats, chickens and pigs!!

He was explaining how they still have a chief who is in charge of their village - he allocated land etc. He is also chief of around 20 other villages in the area so they vote in a headman who works on his behalf and liaises between them. If the headman doesn't do a good job, they sack him and chose another one.


We then walked around the village and went to visit their 'sacred pool' which is where their healer was blessed and then went to see the healer. We chatted to him for a bit, he didn't speak any English so everything had to be translated. He used to be a miner but said that the reason he became a healer was because he was injured in the mines and then 'the ancesters' had come to him in a dream and told him to become a healer. He ignored them and then got injured in the mine again so saw it as a sign and became a healer. He said he learned all his healing methods through the 'ancesters' coming to him in dreams - all quite bizarre!!
We then visited a local shebeeen (unlicensed bar) and had some of the local maize beer - yeuk, yeuk and double yeuk!!! I don't know why I keep trying this stuff, it's disgusting!!  










In the evening the hostel organised a game of killer pool and everyone had some drinks, but thankfully it wasn't as hectic as Jeffrey's Bay or Cinsta. You're allowed to smoke weed at the hostel so there's a fairly chilled out vibe about the place which is nice.

Tuesday 23rd: The Baz bus doesn't run from Coffee Bay on a Wednesday and I didn't want to stay another 2 days as there's not much to do and the weather was pretty rubbish, so I decided to leave the Irish Boys behind and caught the Baz Bus from Coffee Bay to Umkomaas (otherwise known as Warner Beach) to try to get some diving in. The bus left at noon and arrived at Umkomaas just before 10pm..... The hostel at Umkomaas, Blue Sky Mining was a bit quiet when I arrived but I'd been on the bus soooo long I was really tired so I asked the girl in charge if she could try to book me a couple of dives for tomorrow and went straight to bed.

Wednesday 24th: I wasn't able to dive because the sea was too rough so I decided to wander around the 'town'. The girl working at the hostel was telling me what was safe and unsafe to do here and around Durban so I went out carrying only a bit of cash and nothing else. This town is really horrible - it's scruffy, full of pawn shops and there are security guards with guns all over the place!!
Later on I went for a walk along the beach, which is really long, but the train track runs between the main road and the beach so it's really tricky to get onto it. The beach was deserted apart from a couple of kite surfers, but they were cool to watch for a bit.
This place is pretty dull so I decided to try to get a dive in tomorrow morning and then get out of town quick-sharp!!
In the evening I met a Canadian woman called Roxanne in the hostel who was looking to go somewhere for a few days before starting some volunteer work so after much dilemma and indecision we eventually decided to go together to Pietermaritzburg.

Thursday 25th: The sea was still too rough so my dive was cancelled again :o(
We caught a taxi to Durban bus station and then caught the 11am Greyhound bus to Pietermaritzburg. What a luxury bus!! It cost us 80Rand each and it had luxury seats, a toilet, they showed a DVD and brought round coffee!! Amazzzzzing - so they can do it in Africa!!!