St Lucia
We had a big drive ahead so decided to get up and watch the sunrise from the same wooden platform above the canopy that we had been on for the previous sunset. After sunset we left Marloth Park and Kruger behind and headed south, skirting Swaziland and then making our way east to the coast and St Lucia. We spent a chilled evening in St Lucia and had an early night as we needed to drive an hour to get to a spot we had booked to go diving. Sodwana Bay was our destination for the next morning and we arrived pumped to dive some of the reef there. Visibility was low and there was a strong undercurrent with little visible sea life so Blake and I both thought the dive site was average, even though Sodwana Bay is supposed to be highly rated. We only did the one morning dive and then made our way back to St Lucia. That night we jumped in the car and drove around the roads and along the waterways in search of hippos that come out at night and graze on the vegetation in the streets. We weren’t disappointed, see a few different ones just wandering along the streets, sometimes in peoples yards.

A morning run to the beach and back and a breakfast of fresh fruit (lychees and mangoes that we had purchased on the road-side), granola and yoghurt before we left St Lucia for Durban.

Durban
A couple of nights in Durban consisted of exploring the city and driving north to where we hiked from Ballito North to Salt Rocks and back. The walk consisted of climbing over rocks and past rock pools, and running along the beach and boardwalk. A total of 12km and we were pleasantly tired so we said goodbye to a group having a braai (barbeque), drinking and dancing who had been our cheer squad as we jogged back into the park we started from and we left to head south again towards Coffee Bay. We stopped in some dodgy looking area to go to the supermarket and get supplies and then drove a massive day south into rain and fog to get to the remote little stretch of coast that hosts Coffee Bay and Hole in the Wall where we stayed.

Coffee Bay
We hadn’t eaten since breakfast the previous day because nothing was open when we arrived into Coffee Bay so food was out top priority on our first morning there. Over breakfast we marveled at how crazy the last leg of the drive was the previous night. Blake had battled intermittent rain and constant fog in the night with no street lighting. This in itself isn’t so bad but the road was full of massive pot holes and soon turned from poorly maintained bitumen to poorly maintained dirt and loads of locals keep looming out of the fog at the last minute as they walked along the street to whatever gathering they were all heading to. Around lunch time we packed our bags and headed off along the coast to walk and run the hills towards Coffee Bay from Hole in the Wall where we were staying. The coastal trail was stunning with lush green rolling hills with sheep and cows leisurely eating and dramatic cliffs meeting the ocean. The next morning we walked the short distance in the opposite direction to the rock formation which gives the area its name (a rock formations out in the water with a hollow underneath from one side to the other, letting the water pass beneath). Some beach exercise and breakfast before we again packed up the car and moved south again.

Cinsta, Port Elizabeth and Jeffreys Bay
A couple of nights in Cinsta at the sleepy backpackers called Buccaneers, nestled high up in the valley above a lake and the beach below. Stunning photos of the lake upon sunrise and reflections across the still water, some beach runs and a swim as well as driving into the nearby city called East London to explore. The next stop was Port Elizabeth where we ate sushi, explored the city, walked the coast to some sand dunes where we saw a large pod of dolphins frolicking in the waves and a colorful tortoise chilling in the grass. Next we stopped in Jeffreys Bay where we collected a couple of extras and went rock hopping and tidal pool exploring at St Francis Bay then ate an amazing lunch at a place called Ninas back in J-Bay. It was so good, Blake and I had breakfast there the next morning before out departure.

Wilderness and Bloukrans Bridge Bungee Jumping
On the way to Wilderness is a spot called Bloukrans Bridge which has the highest bridge bungee jump in the world. I’d read about it while researching the road trip weeks earlier and every time I thought about it I started to get anxious, my body getting a little jittery just at the thought of walking up to the edge, looking down and seeing the ground so far away, the vertigo just before I would have to force myself to jump. I have sky dived a few times and was never this nervous, there is something so much worse about jumping off the edge of a bridge with just a bungee cord around your legs and so I had developed a nice coping mechanism of not thinking about it or if it did cross my mind, quickly distracting myself with thoughts of something else! I’d kept it relatively secret from Blake so he had no idea that today we were stopping to bungee jump, i’d even distracted him that morning as I drove down the coast so he didn’t notice any of the signs proclaiming bungee jumping nearby. We pulled to the side of the road just before turning into the carpark and he asked what we were stopping for. As soon as I told him we were bungee jumping, his face went white and he later told me that even though he had bungee jumped before, he found it much worse than sky diving as well and that in the lead up to jumping he got jelly legs and wasn’t sure whether he was going to remain upright or not. We both committed and signed up and an hour later were on the bridge getting ready to jump. I was before Blake and the hop to the edge made me feel as if I had suddenly lost all my insides. Trying not to think about it I looked out into the empty space and jumped, making big windmill movements with my arms as I tried to fly. Afterwards we were both pumped with adrenaline and laughter as we talked about how nervous we had been. We then continued on, stopping for a lunch snack of oysters before making it into Wilderness.

While in Wilderness, we ran the short but fun Kingfisher Trail and went for a dip in the ocean which continues to get noticeable colder the further south we progress.