This is Helen resting on "Leopard Rock" overlooking the Oribi Gorge. There is a great cafe there and lots of birds in the gardens; we saw a pin-tailed Wydah and some Weavers nesting.
Weavers at their nest at Leopard Rock.
After Coffee Bay we reached East London in the rain and decided to stay dry in a BP in the town. Very quiet and a little dismal with unfriendly staff giving us the impression the place had seen better days. So with the tent dried in our room, we moved off to Jeffrey's Bay, or J-Bay as it is known. We originally sought camping as the weather had improved but got offered a BP "Misty Cove" (13 th November) and double room with en-suite for the same price (40R ppn) so stayed for a couple of days. This is South Africa's big surf beach and although it was the quiet season, the place was full of surf shops etc. The beach was long and windy, but only a few surfers around. We did catchup on the cinema with a personal showing of "My ex-girlfriend" and shopping put into their fridge!! We found a great restaurent "The Wallklipper" further south along the beach from J-Bay, lots of seafood options so Helen was in her element of course.

We then travelled down to the coast around Shephed and a day in "The Eland Game Reserve" in Orbi Gorge. This was fun with the car on a gravel track that had been washed-out in places and under repair; we saw more animals, walked a suspension bridge and generally enjoyed the scenery. On the route back to the "Beach" BP, we stopped at Leopard's Rock to take some photos of us sitting overhanging the gorge and watched the weaver birds building nests.
Onwards through the Transkei to the "Wild Coast". At first we were going to give this a miss, but saw that the road was fine and the area completely different from elsewhere in the SA we seen so far. Lots of villagers along the long windy road and shortage of unleaded petrol in the service stations. It felt as if we were back in Rundu in the small towns on route and in complete contrast to Nelspruit and the small towns around there. It was a puzzle what the people did for a living as there was a lack of agriculture (maybe the time of year), although some of the soils looked good. Maybe a lot on pensions, but little sign of any activity really. We reached Port St Johns and camped overlooking the sea. Did a short walk to a blow-hole, climbing down with the aid of a wire rope, but got some good shots. After that, we decided to go onto "Coffee Bay" for a couple of days as this had been recommended by a group of South Africans that we had met at the BP at Port St John. The BP at Coffee Bay was very nice and also busy. Unfortunately we got our tent burnt with a spark on the first night and so moved to another camp site on the other side of the river for the second night when it rained, luckily I had a repair for the tent that sealed it OK. Did a walk along the coast to "Hole-in-the -Wall" with a local guide. It was fine when we set off, but it soon became wet and windy. The guide didn't seem bothered but we got soaked. It cleared up by the end of the walk for our picnic on the beach. However, with thunder clouds around we made for the gravel road in the hope of getting a hike back. That worked out OK in the end but a little uncertain about the quality of the kombies brakes on the hills.

Hello, we're now back in England with the rain and winds. We've had lots of adventures on route and no time to update the BLOG so you can guess it has been fun.
We did go to Mozambique, hiring a car in Nelspruit and driving straight to Maputo, the capital. Quite a shock as we had to dry through the city centre to reach the only road north going up the coast. The city appeared run-down with poor roads, traffic congestion and many traffic lights not working. We did try a road in the northerly direction along the coast but this petered out to a sand track, so a Nissan Almeria was not the ideal car for this. Then headed north to Tofu on the tarred coastal road and this was a long journey on some pot-holed roads and also temporary roads of sand and gravel. It took most of the day and the backpackers we had chosen was inaccessible without 4-WD so ended up at Fatima's Nest next to Tofu beach. Yes, the beach was magnificent, very quiet and blue sea and white sand for miles. We then found out the road further north was also a pain to drive and averaging 20 km/h so we decided to stay put and then return to S.A. To enjoy Mozambique you really need 4 WD as the tar roads north of Maputo are limited (coastal road) and so it is necessary to travel to and fro on the same road. The border crossings, even with the car were really easy and didn't take long as we had a visa already.
By 5 November, we were back in Nelspruit at the "Funky Monkey" BP that had been recommended by Bex. By coincidence a group of new Peace Corp volunteers were meeting there and partying so it was fun to hear of their experiences in Education in S.A. A lot sounded familiar and not so different from Namibia.
On the road again and this time actually travelling south towards our eventual destination of Cape Town. We had a great drive through the interior to the Drakensburg Mountains with the idea of camping and doing some gentle walking in the mountains. On route it had changed from sunshine to a cold dreary day so we were a little apprehensive about camping. However, we got ourselves some braii wood and made camp in the KZN Wildlife camp at Monk's Cowl. The next day it started cloudy but soon cleared to a brilliant day and ideal for walking. We went to Sterkspruit Falls and then on the Hlatikhulu Forest walk that took the rest of the day. We'll remember this as we passed some many different plants, many flowering and a variety of birds that were new to us including a black head oriole, red collared widow and double collared sunbird feeding on the nectar. I would have liked to stay longer and explore the area but again time was limited and so much to see. (to be continued).