Gap Year Experiences

Greetings from colonial Africa!

Tuesday 11 March 2008

Our last night in Coffee Bay was spent at a little pizza place just up the road from the Coffee Shack. A few impromptu speeches were made and we reminisced a bit about the last month and half. It was a really cool evening with quite a few laughs and lots of memories. The good news however is that we are only half way and have so much ahead of us still!
From Coffee Bay, we moved up the coast to Port Shepstone (about 120km south of Durban). We had a fairly leisurely days driving and only arrived in the evening. After a braai and a few drinks everyone move to the beach at the bottom of the garden and lay there watching the stars. Enzo reckons it was some of the most amazing shooting stars that he has ever seen. On Sunday we left Port Shepstone and visited the spectacular Oribi gorge where Enzo and Annie had a go at the 100m swing into the gorge. From there we moved to Warner Beach which is on the beautiful coastline just outside Durban and where we will be spending the next week. After dropping off bags, we moved straight to the Durban beachfront, where we settled down with a few cocktails at the famous Joe Cools beach bar. It was an awesome afternoon although a bitter-sweet one as Marisa had to leave us on Sunday night (more about that in my next post). After a few tears at the airport where we dropped Marisa for her flight back to Cape Town, we headed back to our base at Warner Beach for an early night. Monday morning, it was a 7 AM start as some of the group are doing their Open Water diving courses on the nearby Aliwal Shoal which is famous as one of the top 10 dive spots in the world. We are spending the next week at Warner Beach doing the diving course and some surfing in between. While half the group were involved in the introductory lessons, the rest of us found a little piece of paradise while looking for somewhere to have breakfast. A nearby hotel has the most amazing deck overlooking their pool. George and Johnny quickly agreed that it was worthy of the best in the British Empire and it has now been named "the empire" as it wouldn't be out of place in 1920's India. Its where I'm sitting now, having just finished an incredible breakfast. As I sit here, theres a perfect breeze just keeping it cool enough to be comfortable, an incredible Cafe del Mar CD is playing in the background and the others are relaxing in the pool below me. Not a bad way to spend the day I think!

I'll upload a load of pictures a bit later so check back later or tommorow for a visual feast.

Vince