It finally became official that I have been spending too
much time with Americans when I started talking about how excited I was for
‘Spring Break’, despite it being autumn here. With differences of language put
aside, we were all very excited for the upcoming holidays as we all had a lot
of travelling planned. Having an Easter with no family plans was a new
experience for me as this was my first year missing our Easter trip to Donegal.
However, this is just another part of my new lifestyle and despite it being a
shame that I missed it, I was very excited at the prospect of making my own
Easter plans and having the independence to decide what to do with my break.
After much discussion (arguments!), we eventually decided that the girls and
boys would split. The girls heading to Plettenberg Bay which is a four hour
drive along the west coast from Port Elizabeth and the home of some of my South
African friends, and the boys would go further along to Sedgefield! As my
school friends at home know, I generally end up organising any trips we take as
everyone else is too indecisive to make a plan, and so travelling with
Americans has been a new experience for me as they often know exactly what they
want to do. It has taken a while to get used to taking a back seat in organising
our trips, but surprisingly it has been a nice change for me to have the small
details arranged for me. 
I had no expectations of what Plettenberg Bay (known as
Plett to the locals, I am told) was going to be like, but I certainly wasn’t
disappointed! It is a town of cobbled streets, nice restaurants, friendly
locals, plenty of activities and most importantly a stunning beach that
stretches for miles. Before I left for South Africa I worried that I would
begin to take the coast for granted if I saw it every day. In actual fact I
feel lie it has only made me love it more, and so the three of us spent our
first afternoon exploring the beaches. Albergo backpackers, our hostel for the
weekend, provide a braii every night if we provide the food. Living here has
definitely made me more adventurous in the food I eat, and I have been trying
meals that I would never consider trying at home, and so after some gentle
persuasion, we decided it was time to be adventurous and try some ostrich
burgers rather than our standard choice of chicken. Thankfully we were all
pleased and despite almost eating them only half cooked, it was a successful
meal.
On Sunday, some of my local friends took us on a hike on
Robberg island, and we saw some of the most beautiful scenery and beaches that
quickly made ‘Plett’ my favourite place in South Africa so far. The Americans
were absolutely blown away by the scenery and the coastlines, saying that they
have never seen anything so beautiful. Although I agreed that it was beautiful, realised that if you took away the heat and
added cloud and rain it could almost pass as Ireland. Seeing the stunning
coastlines here has made me realise just how beautiful Ireland also is, and
although the weather may not be just as pleasant at home, I’d love to see more
of Ireland’s coast lines when I get home as I feel like it’s so easy to take
them for granted. 
On the Monday morning
we decided to go swimming with seals as a group from Annie’s cove had highly
recommended it. I think I went along with this plan without much thought, as
suddenly I was fifteen minutes away from the beach in a wetsuit, snorkel and
flippers and was somehow surprised that these people expected me to jump in
with at least 100 of these strange creatures! Despite a nervous first five
minutes of seals swimming towards me with their mouths open (I swear they
looked vicious!), I soon realised that they were just inquisitive animals that
wanted to play, and we spent half an hour swimming amongst them, only
occasionally screaming in terror as they brushed against me. All was going
swimmingly (excuse the pun!) until I swallowed two mouthfuls of salt water
which I was quickly informed definitely had seal poo in it. Thankfully it was
nothing a good puke over the side of the boat couldn’t fix! Embarrassing. After
our busy morning we spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach and eating in
a seafood restaurant. With it being April fools day this weekend, on Sunday we
managed to convince the boys that we had all been food poisoned, and they both
surprised us with kind, sympathetic responses which soon transformed into a
response typical of two angry, huffy children, which brought us great
entertainment! 
We got home on Monday
early evening to give Glenn and I time to get some work done before we head off
to Cape Town on the overnight bus this Tuesday night to meet Emily, Ian and
John who are visiting us for two and a half weeks. We plan to spend time in
Cape town and travel the garden route back with them. SO excited.
Until next time
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