December 22-25, Plettenberg Bay

On the 22^nd we gratefully left our dismal hostel in East London and continued our drive south, heading for Plettenberg Bay. It was another long drive day, 9 hours in total, so we stopped along the way in Jeffery's Bay a beautiful coastal town known for its great surfing. We tested the waters with our feet, stopped at tourist information to collect hundreds more brochures and had an obligatory chocolate dipped ice cream cone.

As we were getting back onto the highway we noticed a dredlocked hitchhiker putting his hands together in the prayer/pleading pose for us to pick him up. Now, there are a lot of hitchhikers in South Africa, mostly the black South Africans that have no transport of their own. Groups of people trying to hitch a ride stand on the side of roads or highways and either have signs or make hand signals to indicate their destination. Throughout this journey we had often debated if we should pick someone up, but our lack of knowledge of the area and the general consensus from all races of South Africans that it is unsafe combined with the fact that our backseat is covered with stuff has usually prevailed. The other problem with hitchhikers is that they are usually standing under 'no hitchhiking' signs and our general fear of the traffic control who we have already gotten one ticket from and who are everywhere has also made us not stop. It seems that while there are tons of hitchhikers in South Africa no one picks them up except for private minibus taxis, enterprising South Africans' answer to the lack of public transportation. This time the sheer desperation of the hitchhiker struck us and we were pretty sure that this was a fellow traveler. After some debate, one u-turn, and a stop to shove our stuff over as much as possible we picked up Eyal from Israel. It was a very tight squeeze, with Eyal and I balancing backpacks on our laps, as we had not noted his surfboard in our decision making process. He said he had been waiting for two days in that spot for a ride. He slept next to the highway and had gotten up at 6 am to start hitchhiking. We picked him up around 3pm. We talked for the next 2 hours until we deposited him at the Shell station outside Plettenberg Bay.

We found our home for the next four nights, Nothando (the word for 'love' in Xhosa) and were shown our spotless room with a nice comfy bed. Nothando's is a backpackers and a bed and breakfast located on the property of the family who owns it. While we would see the family several times a day as they hung out on their property or we bumped into them in the bar/kitchen next to their house, they were not friendly, and the business was clearly left in the hands of their hired managers. When we were at Old Vic Travelers Inn in Nelspruit we had asked the owners what they would do with their guests on Christmas and were told that while they would try and only have a few guests and not a full house they would certainly have a Christmas lunch for the guests. We had also heard similar things from the Spot in Umtentweni and while we weren't expecting a full meal from Nothando we expected some acknowledgment of the holiday.

The morning after we arrived at Nothando's I broached the subject with the manager on duty and was told, 'No, there is nothing, it is a family day.' Disappointing. . . especially as in this backpackers it was very difficult to meet people because the natural gathering places like the bar or kitchen were often dominated by the owners and their entire unfriendly family in for the holidays. Sitting in the bar you often felt like you were interrupting and were unwanted.

We have known for a long time how important community is to our quality of life. This has been confirmed over and over again in South Africa especially as South Africa as a destination was originally chosen because we could connect with acquaintances from our previous trip. When that did not materialize it was like our compass lost true north. We had no purpose and more importantly we had no one to ask our millions of questions to. We did find our bearings again but it was due in part to finding great people who were incredibly friendly and gracious about answering our questions at ACS Computers, Old Vic, New Covenant Church, and a few other hostels along the way. Being Christmas, we came with high expectations to Nothando's, hoping that we could share the day with friendly people.

The initial let-down from Nothando's was redeemed when we made some Swiss friends. I think the friendship began when I asked Lilian if she knew if anything was going on for Christmas. When she repeated my finding that, 'No, it was a family day,' our mutual disappointment showed that we were like-minded. Later that evening Thomas and Lilian and Duncan and I struck up a conversation and played with Nothando's six month old puppy. The next day Thomas and Lilian asked if we wanted to make a nice breakfast with them on Christmas to which we said, 'Definitely.'

Christmas day we got up and walked down to one of the most picturesque churches we have seen. The Anglican Church had a 7:30 choir service but when we arrived at 7:20 we were ushered into a large hall because the small church was full. When the choir only materialized in the church and not in the hall we snuck over and sat on the benches outside on the covered porch to listen to the service. By the time we got back to Nothando's Thomas and Lilian had set a beautiful table out in the warm garden sunshine along with plates of bread, scones, and cheese. We added sausage, a mango and litchi fruit salad and the bleu cheese they had bought me as a Christmas present (because I had been complaining about the lack of real cheese in some of the stores and my extreme hankering.) They cooked eggs and bacon and we sat down to a great meal with great company.

After a short respite we all went down to the beach and enjoyed the sun (a little too much sun for my still pale Seattlelite/Tacoman skin) and bodysurfed in the waves. We saw a pod of dolphins, followed by a flock of birds, chasing their Christmas meal. For dinner we split up, Thomas and Lilian headed to a restaurant and we cooked up our roast chicken and potatoes. It was a great day.

That night we all rested for our big adventure the next day – skydiving!!!

Andrea