Surfing South African Style

Sorry for the delay in posting this blog. It has been constant motion since we left Jeffreys Bay, and I am just now getting to the computer.

Cape St. Francis and Jeffreys Bay are synonymous with epic waves. The design of the coastline and the angle of the bays allow swells to wrap in and peel down the points. We were in the area for just over a week, and I got lucky to catch fun surf at Cape St. Francis and a really good summer swell at Jeffreys Bay. On the best day, it was double over head, and the biggest waves would break for about five hundred yards. The best part of the swell only lasted two days, but the waves I caught were worth the wait, and the trip to see why this place is such a surfer's dream.

We spent our first two days in a nice B & B in Cape St. Francis. This time of year, the area is really quiet. The school holiday crowd is gone and there are just not that many people who head to the coast when the weather is nice (about 80 degrees and sunny with afternoon wind). It was so quiet that a lot of the stores and restaurants were closed or on reduced hours. We had a fun time exploring the area and chasing the best waves between the point breaks and the bay. Both Mat and Charlie were able to get in the water here and really had fun surfing in Africa. Supposedly it is not very sharky here, but one point is called "Shark Point", and the surf reports say to get out of the water quickly if you cut yourself. So who knows? I didn't see any sharks while we were surfing, but when we went out on a fishing boat, the other guy on our boat caught a nice three-footer.

In Jeffrey's Bay, we had a house that was directly across from the Supertubes break, one of the best breaks in world. On the day we arrived, there were no waves but the forecast said a new swell was due by the end of the week. My brother Chris flew out from Colorado and met us here. We spent the first few days checking out the town and going to some of the local attractions. We went Sand boarding on the nearby dunes, the Zip Lines Tour at Tsitskikama Falls, the Monkeyland Sanctuary, and the Birds of Eden Sanctuary. During this downtime, it was fun to spend time with my brother, who I usually only get to see twice a year. Sally enjoyed catching up on some reading, helping the boys with their projects, and cooking some wonderful meals. We made great progress on the schoolwork front, and the boys are putting their experiences to good use. Mat completed a nice research paper on Nelson Mandela, and Charlie enjoyed reading the abridged version of Nelson Mandela's autobiography, "The Long Walk to Freedom".

The swell arrived as they said, and the next few days revolved totally around surfing. Unfortunately, the afternoon wind usually messed up the late session, but the morning sessions were epic with only about ten to fifteen guys out at each break. Most everyone was local, so I did my best not to be a pest and gave plenty of waves away. I caught my fair share and really wished I had someone here to surf with. The swell was too big and the break too strong for the boys, so I surfed alone. The worst part about these waves are the rocks. The entire coastline is sharp rock covered with barnacles and urchins, so getting in and out of the water was very tricky. Big kudos again to my brother in law Bill Gassett for setting me up with the Vibram Foot Gloves. These things really paid off on this trip, especially in Jeffrey's Bay. This was our last time on the coast, so I hooked up with the Billabong surf shops and got a pretty good deal to sell them all my stuff. Thanks again to Mike Dolsey for hooking me up the surfboards, and I look forward to buying similar ones when I get back to the States. Next stop Kruger National Park and our four day safari.

The Garden Route

The section between Cape Town and Jeffrey’s Bay is called the Garden Route due to the amount of cattle farms, vineyards, and breathtaking scenery along the coast. Our first stop was the Skeiding Farm which is over 2,000 acres and raise ostriches, sheep, and cows. It is owned and operated by a very nice family who warmly shared their home with us and even let us help out with the daily chores. Not only did we get to feed them, but Mat and Charlie were invited to watch as they performed ultrasound on over 600 female sheep to determine if they were pregnant and how many babies they were carrying. After being unceremoniously flipped upside down on a metal trough and probed with the internal monitor, they were spray painted to denote their condition. Watching the first few was a bit shocking (Sally, being the only female, felt for the sheep and kept saying “poor girls”), but the process was also very funny watching the sheep dogs work the sheep into the pen and us helping unclog the sheep jam when they wouldn’t move down the corral. We were also treated to an authentic South African braai (BBQ to us), complete with fresh ostrich steaks. They were delicious and went perfectly with the local wine and the amazing view as the full moon rose over the African countryside. We only stayed here two days and then we headed back towards the coast, looking for surf.

Our next stop was Vic Bay, a beach community built inside a little bay that is a wave magnet – so I was told. Usually when you here this, the reality doesn’t usually match the hype. As we reached the gate, I could see the swell pumping into the bay. Vic Bay is actually a private community, and you have to be staying there in order to park inside the bay. Everyone else parks outside in the public lot and walks in. Leaving Sally and the boys in the car, I walked down the access lane that is built right on the rock edge to look for a place to stay. As a perfect overhead five wave set rolled in, I came upon the Waves B&B. I didn’t need to look any farther. Their family apartment was available, and it had a perfect front row view of the bay and the nice swell rolling in. We stayed three days and caught some really fun surf. Since the midday wind always came up and blew out the surf, we looked for other activities. Just inland from us were the Cango Caves, the largest show cave system in South Africa. Mat, Charlie and I signed up for the “adventure tour” which took you well past the normal walking route and into sections that you had to crawl and squeeze through. Mat and I opted out of the last two sections which were even smaller because the group we were with were quite annoying and made us begin to feel a bit claustrophobic. Charlie wasn’t fazed and forged on, first in line, and needing no encouragement. After two hours and going almost one mile into this cave system, we reached the light of day and very fresh air.

Our main stop on the Garden Route was the coastal town of Knysna. It is built around a large lagoon system and on the surrounding hillsides. The lagoon opens up to the ocean and there is a very active marina complex with lots of shops and restaurants. They are famous for their oysters, which are very good, but still no match for our Eastern Shore “Salty Sea Sides”. We got the chance to see the movie “Invictus” here. It was very compelling to see this movie in South Africa and having just gone to a lot of the places shown in the movie. This country is still struggling with its problems, but it has come a long way since the abolishment of apartheid twenty years ago. The most interesting tour we did was to the local Rastafarian Community. We had heard about other drive through tours of the “townships”, but they seemed too much like “Pompous tourism” to me. I saw an add in a brochure about this personal tour given by “Brother Paul”. I called him up and he was very excited to show us his community. The tour lasted about two hours and he drove with us into the main township to where the Rastas live. To understand how lucky you are, all you have to do is drive for five minutes into one of these shanty towns and see how others live. It was refreshing to see the optimism that Brother Paul and his fellow Rastas have. They have very little, but they are happy. Brother Paul showed us their day care center, their church, their music hall, and some of their homegrown ganja plants. Did I mention that they are “happy” people??

Our most memorable time in Knysna was when we went to the Knysna Elephant Sanctuary. At one time, Knysna had their own unique herds of elephants, but they were basically hunted out for sport and their ivory. The last survey only found three wild elephants. The Sanctuary was started fifteen years ago to take in orphans or elephants that other areas couldn’t keep. In order to get the best experience, I booked the elephant ride which allowed us to ride them for about thirty minutes and then interact with the entire herd for about two hours. Needless to say, we all loved the experience, and it made us even more excited about the upcoming safari in Kruger National Park.
After our four days in Knysna, we headed further up the coast to the place that characterized the original “Endless Summer” – Cape St. Francis and Jeffrey’s Bay. Possibly some of the best waves in the world.