East of Cape Town lies various types of vegetation, and has become my favourite part of South Africa. I traveled with a backpacker bus called the Baz Bus, which is a long distance hop-on/hop-off van, with a dozens of stops between Cape Town and Johannesburg.

My first stop was along the Garden Route, and a town called Knysna. It’s a quiet town, with several hiking routes through thick forests. Apparently I’ve been quite taken by hiking, and enjoy spending hours exploring the countryside and vegetation. With a British botanist named Tom, I trekked for several hours and admired a 600 year old tree. This is a just an estimation, and I laughingly suggested we cut it down to determine the actual age. The botanist was not amused.

Several days later I found myself in Coffee Bay, which came highly recommended as a must-see destination. Initially, I planned to spend only 2 nights there, and ended up spending 4. The location was surrounded by the ocean on one side, and a peaceful and remote village on the other. The village was mostly huts that didn’t have electricity or running water, and on the first evening, a group of us had dinner in one of these huts.

The locals, through the aid of a translator, taught us about life in Coffee Bay, how they viewed the world, and shared their local food. Their main sustenance comes from the plant maze, which produces their staple food called pap. Pap looks like mashed potatoes, but is flaky and sweeter. The hosts also offered a local beer, which is only prepared for special events, and it looked (and tasted) like carbonated milk with alcohol. Yum!

The following morning began with a long hike along the water’s edge to a famous landmark called The Hole in the Wall, which is a hole in a rock wall. Along the way, I had a long conversation with Henry, an energetic and clever South African, who later showed me some card tricks. It made me recall that sleight of hand magic is something I’ve always been fascinated with, so I added it to the list of things I want to learn over the next year.

It seems my bad luck didn’t end with losing my wallet, as another tragedy struck on the subsequent day. While admiring a natural jacuzzi next to the ocean, a huge and random tidal wave lapped against the rocks, completely soaking me and all belongings. Everything seemed to be alright except for my phone, which no longer worked. I suppose I’m lucky the wave didn’t drag me back into the ocean, but as of this moment, nearly every piece of technology has broken or been lost 🙁 (Did I previously mention my brand new Dell laptop has a fan malfunction? Yah, that’s great).

Surprisingly, the busted phone didn’t actually bother me that much, which must be a sign I have detached myself from things. Several sympathetic guests at the hostel offered their phones to allow me to stay connected, and I fixed my phone in the next city, Durban. It took pretty much the whole day to resolve, but aside from the broken camera (no idea how that happened), the phone now works perfectly.

The calm and simple way of life in Coffee Bay really left an impression on me, and the endless bright lights and concrete jungle of Durban didn’t appeal to me at all. The hostel I stayed at was run by a kind couple from the UK, and I ended up having dinner with some fellow guests; 7 blonde Finnish girls who were studying medicine in Swaziland. As we walked to the restaurant, I joked we should tell curious onlookers we were filming an episode of the bachelor 🙂