Our Tilley Hats!

We are experts on Tilley hats.

Well, maybe not experts, but we sure do have a lot of experience with the two hats that we own! We have accumulated a lot of hours wearing our Tilley hats, so now we think we are fully qualified to tell you about them.

Heading into the wild!

The Wild Coast, that is.

This section of South Africa isn't really "wild" although it is one of the least inhabited, as well as an area where many locals live traditional lives. It's also supposed to have some gorgeous scenery, and we're looking forward to taking some great photos for you!

Only downside is you might not see them for a while!

Driving Day

Yesterday was a driving day. Hard to believe that we've been in South Africa for almost four weeks. When we look at the map though, we really don't seem like we've made much progress! And so we needed to do some driving.

Because of Ruth's accident with her hand on Sunday, we never made it down to Port Elizabeth's beach area. We wanted to have a quick look though.

A visit to a South African hospital

This is not how we planned on spending our Sunday!

We were actually kind of taking our time yesterday morning, and Ruth had made some delicious gluten free pancakes for us all. I was in the process of writing yesterday's blog post, and our couchsurfing hosts Kurt and Leizel were getting their kids ready to go to a birthday party. Ruth was in the kitchen, tidying up.

Then we heard Ruth calling. "Kevin! I've cut myself. And it's bad!"

Knysna Self Catering Holiday Flat

We stayed a couple of nights at a self catering holiday flat in the Knysna, Garden Route tourist area. It was a nice place, and we wanted to tell you about it!

It's a private rental, so you don't have to pay any administration fees or anything like that. And for what you get, it's a very reasonable price.

Apartheid's Leftover Problems

We've been in South Africa now for over three weeks and we wanted to tell you about some of the things we've seen and heard regarding race, which still plays a huge part in South African society.  Of course the news of Nelson Mandela's death on December 5th brought South Africa into the forefront of the world's media again, and so we were very curious as to how life since the end of official Apartheid has been for all races who call South Africa their home.

Glow in the dark waves

Port Elizabeth currently has a "red tide".

A red tide is a strange phenomenon caused by the rapid growth of a microscopic form of plankton. During daylight hours, the water close to shore has a reddish brown shade to it, but at night when the waves come in, the white caps glow in the dark. And they glow blue!

Would you bungee jump off this??

Yesterday we drove from Knysna to Port Elizabeth. We have to start increasing our driving distances because time is flying by too quickly! It was only 260 kms (161 miles) but there was a lot to see along the way so the drive took us almost all day.

Plus, it was almost 10:00am before we hit the road.

Beautiful views around picturesque Knysna

But before we set off for the day, our couchsurfing host Didi had suggested that we go for an inexpensive breakfast at a spot overlooking the harbor. Great idea! So she drove us down to the Knysna Falcon Creek Spur restaurant.

Who wants to go Paragliding??

Well after seeing people do it yesterday, we want to go paragliding!

We did the 115 km (71 mile) drive from Reebok to Knysna yesterday, but we took a little detour to go for a hike. Along the way, we stopped to watch the paragliders and to see the "Map of Africa".