a wee walk on the coast!

Hello everyone after a long silence,

I am just back from my well needed holiday - I went for a wee hike on the wild coast in South Africa and then spent some time with friends near Johannesburg.  I really needed a rest (and I needed another one after our hike) but it was really relaxing and just nice to get away from everything.  I thought I would share some of my photos - its a beautiful coastline north of East London.  I went with two German hikers who were great fun and we spent 5 days walking. We had Xhosa guides along the way who shared interesting stories with us. 

The coastline is rugged, and wild hence the name the 'wild coast'.  It is well known for shipwrecks over the years and the coastline is rocky, although at the right time of year a good place for whale watching.  We didn't see any whales but we did see a large shark which had been washed up on the rocks and didn't survive - when I saw its teeth, I was quite relieved!!  As you can see from these photos, the coast could be the north coastline of Ireland - it was stunningly beautiful, but the weather changes quite dramatically.  The first two days we got soaked and then we had lovely weather, which helped us to get sunburnt!

The terrain was varied - sometimes walking on cliff tops, sometimes on hard sand, soft sand (really difficult with a back pack on) and sometimes over slippery rocks!!

The coastline has many rivers to cross, where we used different modes of transport all described as 'ferries'!!  The first one which I don't have a photo of was a small rowing boat with more holes than boat and we all piled in with our backpacks - the water was literally touching the top of the boat.  The strong currents meant that we went round and round - maybe not so good if we think of health and safety but we just laughed!!

This is the second 'ferry' where we crossed the river one by one - as you can see we had to have the canoe emptied after every trip - there were quite a few holes in it!!

A lot of the rivers we took off our boots and socks and waded across (which was pleasantly cool on our hot feet)!  This is the final 'ferry' which was a car ferry and we travelled with a car for one rand!  Quite good value I thought!

One ship which didn't reach its destination in 1971 was the Jacaranda which ran aground on the rocks and some of the shipwreck is still there - quite an impressive sight!

On the coastline, you can only walk on the beaches and rocks at low tide and we came across this bridge which is used at high tide - not quite as impressive as Carrick-a-rede!!

The birdlife was wonderful and I was sorry I didn't take my 'good' camera but when travelling with all your luggage, its best to travel light!!  Here you can see some white breasted cormorants watching us as we cross a river and probably having a good chuckle at our antics!!

There were many spectacled weaver birds building nests along the way and making a right racket.  I took many pictures of different birds but too many to put on here!

 Other animals we spotted along the way were this rhino beetle,

this lovely crab who sat up nicely for his photograph!

and something I had never seen before - a Tarantula Hawk or a Spider Wasp - quite a large wasp with bright orange legs and very vicious as it dragged its drugged prey - a large baboon spider, into its hole!  Apparently it injects something like anaesthetic into the spider and then drags it along - it was a fascinating sight to watch!

Along the whole coastline we came across cattle who apparently come to the water when the tide is low to keep flies off them and then later in the day go off to graze on higher ground.  All the cattle had large horns but seemed very docile.

And as I have come to expect in Southern Africa, lots of colour in the plant life........

The sky was amazing......

sunrise over the ocean

Another sunrise and although it appears to be black and white this is the original colour photo

So a wonderful opportunity to see some more of Africa - to learn more of the Xhosa people, to eat amazing seafood (no idea what some of it was but it tasted good), to meet many interesting people, and to learn more of God's creation.

Back to Malawi, where the fuel situation remains critical, and on the way back to Mzuzu we saw this lorry which fortunately left enough room for cars to pass.....

and then later on we came across a worse accident where two lorries had collided and again they left us enough room to pass by.

Rains have well and truly begun and it was nice as I flew into Lilongwe to see the fields much greener than when I left.  Its hot and humid though which is great growing weather for mushrooms, and so we stopped to buy some on the way home!!

I don't have much of an idea of which mushrooms are edible but my trusty driver knew the good ones to buy!

I am back to work next Monday but I do feel refreshed and ready to start - and then I will have a few days off for Christmas which will be nice.  Our school closes this Friday for a month and I know teachers and children will also be glad of the break.

In Johannesburg there was much Christmas hype and I am sure its the same where you are.  Here it is hot and humid and no sign of Christmas yet, except the Christmas carols playing in the bank!!

Wish you all a wonderful week as we celebrate the advent season,

Blessings, 

Diane