Gap Year Experiences

A lyrical duet from Lucy and Jules

Sunday 15 February 2009

I blog to you from our latest stop on the Pepper trip, Nomad's backpackers in Durban.
We've all been in a bit of a sombre mood after our departure from the Secret Spot in Ballito, which, I'm sure everyone will agree, has been our best stop yet! The Secret Spot had the most incredible atmosphere and vibe and we all felt right at home straight away - and we've made some amazing new friends in Bongi, Stacey and Tam.
We spent the most incredible week surfing, skating and socialising, which included a very messy night out at Boston's Action Bar with some very enthusiastic and slightly questionable dance moves from everyone, namely Vince!
We were also lucky enough to experience the surf both in Salt Rock and on South Beach in Durban, getting some amazing conditions and, combining that with Bongi and Tam's enthusiasm and faith in our surfing capabilities (even when we were seriously questioning them ourselves) we all managed to get really stoked about surfing which made the week all the more exciting.
This is all from me, and Luce is going to take over now to charm you with her wit and eloquence.
love from SA, Jules xxxx

After reading Jules half I realised that she failed to mention she managed to jump straight into a sewage river. I don't know how she forgot to write about it but I thought you should all know about her truly special moment. Jules was first to volunteer to retrieve a wayward skateboard which had found its way into what seemed like harmless mud. She, however just sunk straight into it which looked bad enough but then we realised it was actually sewage. She got a few nicknames after that!
As Jules said we have all had an incredible week at The Secret Spot. Even though I wouldn't really call it surfing on my part the surf camp was a lot of fun and even though my personal best standing up time is about 3 seconds I can definitely understand why people get hooked on the sport. At first I wasn't so keen on being battered by the waves and swallowing gallons of water and then realising I was only a metre out from shore, I have now convinced myself (with a little help from Vince) that it just adds to the fun of the surfing experience. I also contemplated making our warm up ( a run along the beach) part of my daily routine ...
We have now been in Durban for 2 nights and we are all loving it so far. We spent the first night at Joe Cools, a bar/club which is right on the beachfront with a convenient Wimpy beneath it. We all massively took advantage of the buy 1 get 1 free drink offer and had a great night all round. We spent the day after on the beach, working on the tans, and amazingly none of us got burnt! which is definitely a first (I was personally very proud of myself!).
Anyway that is all from me as its breakfast time.
Lucy x x