The wild coast, conspiracy theories, and sharks lots and lots of sharks
Hey all, as some of you may know life still goes on back home as we bumble our way around the globe (I know I was surprised too). Recently my sister Kate Deiter-Maradei was honored to be selected as one of Triangle Business Journal's 40 under 40 in North Carolina. This award serves as well deserved recognition for all of the hard work she has put in for her clients and her community. We wanted to take a moment to applaud her achievement and let you all know that you can celebrate with her and us while helping a great cause. During the 40 under 40 awards lunch Kate will be giving an acceptance speech wherein every word beyond the third will "cost" $25 by way of a donation to the Wake County North Carolina chapter of Habitat for Humanity. For those of you following us internationally you can check out this wonderful organization here at www.habitat.org and can contact her here kate@deitermediation.com or at @medieatewithkate on twitter if you want your name, country or business mentioned in her speech. You can also follow this ridiculous URL if you want to see her in action at a habitat for humanity event.
and be sure to write kate's name in the "honoree" section. Kate we love you and can't be more proud of you. Sean and Tash Now on to the less important stuff.
After soaking up some sand and putting in the work to make
sure tax man TJ Hynes doesn’t show up at our door for an audit cause “you can’t
write off sun screen”(uh traveling is kind of our job now so is that not a work
expense?) we set off for the “Wild Coast.” We were mildly skeptical because it
seems every coast in South Africa has a name like the “Whale coast” or “Sunshine
coast” or “Free Pizza coast” (kidding on that last one but you have to admit
that you were intrigued). Thankfully, the Wild Coast more than earned its name
and its spot on the list of best places we Deiters have been ever. One
interesting surprise about South Africa is its western amenities. It’s got
highways and malls and Dairy Queen and a whole bunch of other familiar stuff
that makes you feel just a little closer to home. None of this applies to the
Wild Coast however and it’s this contrast that makes it so special. Its rugged
dirt “roads” that pushed the limits of what the engineers at Suzuki had in mind
for our little white rental car. Its women in amazingly colorful clothes with
all sorts of stuff balanced on their heads. Its rolling hills that stretch all
the way to the jagged cliffs on the coast. Its people who speak a language with
“clicks” in it (ya know, the sound you make with your tongue and the roof of
your mouth that sounds like hitting a ping pong ball) and little kids who chase
your car and frantically wave because you are still a novelty. It’s a land that
time forgot that’s a “go sooner rather than later” kind of place in a rapidly
developing South Africa. In other words we LOVED IT. Our first stop was the
worlds best hostel in a place called coffee bay. We were a bit nervous cause it’s
a “party hostel” and we were warned both on the phone and again via email that
our room is “very loud” cause its right next to the bar. We pictured sleepless
nights listening through the wall to early twenty something’s who don’t know
that the world existed before the internet. Like most fears ours were unfounded
and we found plenty of people who are old enough to know that the fresh prince
of Bel Air was raised in west Philadelphia and not some obscure Middle Eastern
country. The hostel (called the coffee shack if you’re headed that way) is the
height of convenience where anything you want or need can be procured by simply
signing the list. Want to go on an awesome hike? Sign the list. Want a cheap
and delicious dinner? Sign the list. Need a beer……and so on. At the end you
tally everything up and try not to laugh at the ridiculously low cost of the
priceless memories you just made. Activities done by the Deiters included but
we’re not limited to: Stunning 4 hour coastal hike to an ocean rock formation
called “the hole in the wall” (for reasons that will be obvious when you see
the pics), making new best friends and then shooting a late night best friend
photo montage, trying out our Xhosa skills (the language with the clicks),
checking out a drum circle with fire dancers and not feeling like a square,
more high stakes Jenga and plenty of other hijinks. It was a few days of great
fun with the only weird moment coming as I was walking back to our table one
night when out of the corner of my eye I spot the pasty white butt (I’m a
nurse, we’re trained to be descriptive) of this dude who was up on all fours on
a table playing a drinking game with a few girls. I shook it off cause I was
deep in my cups and I thought explaining it to my friends over in the “normal”
section around the corner would be much more difficult than ignoring it. This
strategy held until we all moved over to the fire pit later on and another one
of our friends spotted the spanking event of the naked drinking Olympics in
progress. We were relieved when their attitude was “that’s hilariously strange”
rather than “let’s go join in.” We all had a good laugh and it made the whole
thing seem less weird……..until the next day when things went next level weird when
we moved on down the road and who else but “pasty butt Pete” and his gang of
morally dubious ladies are THE STAFF at
our new digs. Apparently they had come over for a party and made it back in
time to have us wondering if we had accidentally checked into some bizarro
swingers joint. The dude was naturally hung over but he gave me a double take
like “oh blank I think this dude saw me naked” kinda look, but as always I
played it cool…. Until several hours and a few beers later when we totally
called them out on it. Tish and I we’re the only guests at the hostel (fantastic)
and we were sharing an awkward beat around the bush dinner conversation when I finally
just tossed the cat out of the bag and onto the table with a like “yeah, we’ve
seen you all naked” kind of comment. This actually improved things conversation
wise and we were having a great time with them and the owner who had joined the
party after dinner. Things were going swimmingly until they began to casually
deny 9/11. (wait what?) I’m not sure how we ended up there, but they were
throwing it out there in patronizing “I can’t believe you don’t know 9/11 is
fake, everyone knows it” kind of way. It was infuriating and led to some
general America bashing that culminated in America being blamed for “cell
phones ruining Africa” and me screaming “THEN THROW YOURS IN THE OCEAN, THROW
IT IN THE OCEAN.” It was horrible and shocking and a total outlier on this trip
where people on the whole have loved America and can make civil, logical, non “you
faked the moon landing” kind of arguments where they disagree with choices we
have made as a country. We left as soon as the sun came up tires squealing and
kicking up gravel but in a definite funk because of how we were treated.
Thankfully the next spot we stopped was completely in line with the amazing
time we had been having and helped us to remember that there are A-holes in
every country on earth. This new non- America hating place was called Bulungula
and was a spot where the local villagers owned roughly 50% of the hostel and
was designed to incubate small businesses in a desperately poor part of South
Africa and allow people to experience the Xhosa culture first hand. We stayed
in a “Safari tent” which is just a tent on a platform with a double bed in it,
and had a small view of the ocean. We ate communal dinners and used eco-friendly
compost toilets that were nowhere near as gross as you would think and showered
in “Rocket Showers” that you have to light paraffin on fire to warm up the
water. We did our part to help the local economy by getting massages and going
fishing and we absolutely loved our time in this ultra-rural spot where the
directions in included things like “turn left at the big tree” and “when in doubt
stay on the dirt road that looks most like a road.” Next up was a spot named Chintsa
which featured more casually epic coastal beauty and a night of free “wine
volleyball” during which they bring out a box of cheap but tolerable wine and explain
the rules (the most formidable of which is no cursing). Me and Tish were on the
winning side of course, but are there really any losers in free wine volley
ball? (nope). After Chintsa we reluctantly headed north out of the Wild Coast
to a spot in the “Hogsback” mountains, which are so named because of a razor
back rock ridge that actually looks like a hogs back rather than like a constellation
that might be a scorpion if you connect the dots but actually just looks like a
big jumble of stars (sorry it’s a pet peeve of mine). In addition to being accurately
named, the Hogsback is supposed to be the inspiration for the Lord of the Rings
novels cause Tolkien spent some time there as a child. It’s easy to see where
this rumor started because the whole place has a mystic fairy tale feel to it.
We stayed in a place called “Away with the Fairies” in a room called “Frodo’s
rest” which sort of sets the tone for our time in Hogsback. We had planned on
staying two nights and ended up staying for five cause we couldn’t tear
ourselves away from the fun and funky people in this beautiful place. Days were
spent hiking through the woods or insanely abseiling down a 30 meter tall
waterfall. (that’s like what the swat team does down the side of a building in
a movie, also that was Tash not me, I’m a scaredy cat, but check out the pics
and video). Literally, at one point she slipped and fell sideways against the rock
face and my heart almost exploded, but she’s a true Deiter and so she battled
her way back into a standing position to the cheers and great relief of the
crowd below. Nights were spent making friends around the roaring-ist fire in a
country that prides itself on roaring fires, and gaping at the “blood moon”
which is just the regular moon except bright red for space science reasons I
don’t understand. We made a bunch of friends including our “South African Best
Friends” Josh and Talita who taught us that you don’t just make delicious meats
on a braai, you make friends (put that one in a hallmark card). Things were so
perfect that when we told the hostel owner, Dan, about the America bashing we
had received on the coast, he knew the other hostel owner and said “oh don’t
worry about that, that’s just Aiden, he’s an a@#hole.” After 5 days we decided
that if we didn’t leave now we never would so we headed back down to the coast
to a place called Hermanus which you may have heard of if you’ve ever watched
shark week on Discovery channel. We booked into a nice hostel and set out the
next day to Gansbaai which comes up with an image of a great white if you
google it (seriously). Our guide was a cross between Captain America and Crocodile
Dundee and he casually hand fed the seagulls that flew next to the boat on our
way out to the cage diving spot. When we got there they began chumming the
water which was less of a buckets of blood kind of thing and more of a gently
ladle some watery fish juice kind of thing. Before long, Tash, who was on high
alert, spotted a 5.5 meter long (thats 18 feet for us Yankees) shark who had
come up to investigate the tuna heads that they use to keep em’ interested. Then it was into the cage in the 15 degree Celsius
water (thats really friggin cold for us Yankees) where they wait for the shark
to make a run at the tuna heads before pulling them out of the way at the last
second. I was so proud of Tash for conquering her fear and getting in the cage
if only for a little while and the experience was absolutely epic. I spent
about 30 minutes total in the cage watching these monsters that are as graceful
as they are scary glide through the water right next to the cage. This was a
perfect way to cap this amazing leg of our journey through this beautiful
country. But forget all this nonsense, next week things got even better as we
got to see my mom!!! Stay tuned for Bamboons, balloons and broken arms.
in the water with a terrified tish at the hole in the wall
video from near coffee bay
just walking on the Cliffside inches from death
More pretty scenery, I'm putting up the shark diving/ cliff walking videos so keep an eye out for them real soon.
Tash doing our taxes
The cliff side hike to the hole in the wall
The ocean on the wild coast
Same, I love the colors of the houses
The "mini hole in the wall"
The real hole in the wall
Kids playing soccer on a lopsided field
Just a cute kid on the side of the road
That's a traditional Xosha rondoval (house)
Another rainbow
A fire dancer
Same, but with a different camera setting
Couldn't get enough of this
Happiest dog in the world
Irish Best friend photo shoot
Same
Same- I'll spare you but there were many more
My hangover the next day
Another wild coast beach
Women walking with stuff on their heads. Amazing balance
It just didn't stop.
The view out our window
More of me and tishys footprints in the sand
The whole coast is just dotted with places like this
Now with me and tish
Dogs on blogs Rhodesian ridgeback style
Tish with a cat
This is a tower of friendship I was building
It was destroyed by bat s#it crazy conspiracy theories about 9/11
Just a cool log in the water
Tish on the beach
Weird ocean snail things
Some rocks we found at the edge of the beach
Me and a new friend
The one day she cried when I left the room
She was awesome
Sunset at the beach
A rocket shower
Tish trying to catch a fish
Tish with donkey ears
Me at our safari tent
More people with stuff on their heads
notice who' doing all the work
Tish making friends
Then her flip flop broke
Another awesome bay/beach
Our room in hogs back
Now with me
That's the moon over the hogs back mountains (see the ridge)
me next to a big tree
This is the waterfall tash went down
This is a valley where we went to have drinks at sundown
This is what a braii looks like when its ready to cook
This was dinner that we cooked with Josh and Talita
Me and my friend red beard dan who owns the hostel in Hogsback
Same, what a glorious beard
Me with Josh
gotcha
rainbows over the waterfall
That's tash way up at the top
Here she goes
Insane
This is when she finally made it
This with Josh and Talita and our friend kate...and a dog on blog
Sunset
Deiters with our south African best friends
Just another pic of me kissing a dude
This is Neils and "doodle" who run the abseling and my Doodle
the pic stinks but look at the strange "aura" around the moon
Same
Just me and tish and my awesome red beard
Not hung over at all
Me and tish on the sharkboat, not my weathered eye towards the horizon
Me in the shark cage
He was a big boy
Same
He got the tuna head
He's looking right at me, also close the friggin cage
Me and tish by the shark boat
This is a model chichi, not real
The sun off the water gopro style
Our guide hand feeding seagulls
More shark action
Same
A tasty flight of beers at a local micro brewery
This was the view out back
This is on the walk along the coast
Just a pretty pic
Same
It just kept going
People said it looks like Ireland, we'll let you know
More wild coast action
A horse I found
The beach next to the hole in the wall
The hole in the wall
Me and tish in the water, note the pure terror on her face
Go pro shots from the water at the hole in the wall
Thanks, guys! I really appreciate the kind words. Can't wait to see you soon. Check out this book that mom and I just made. We love you. Stay safe!
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