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Monday, March 31, 2008

Backpacking - Friday March 14, Day 1 – Port Elizabeth

The four of us, Grace, Ryan, Sonya and I, left Rhodes at 8:30am. We made the 1.5 hour journey to the PE airport where we took a cab to our hostel. In the cab we curiously asked the driver how close the hostel was to the beach and he responded, “not close at all.” This confused us since the website said that it was right on the beach and had a picture of a deck overlooking the sun setting on the shore. Luckily this was an easy preparation to the “TIA-ness” of our trip – your expectations will only be met to a certain point, after all, this is Africa.

We arrived at our hostel and quickly made our way to food and the beach. The beach was beautiful and the weather was wonderful. The four of us were very excited to be beginning our two week backpacking adventure and this beach was the perfect place to start. After the previous week of tests and papers we were all happy to relax with our books and iPods in the sand. A few times we made our way into the water, which was unbelievably warm and clear. We explored the beach a little. We found a rocky inlet near a popular surf spot. The waves crashed there creating huge pools of warm water and waterfalls of foam.

We had dinner in an area that they called the Boardwalk. It wasn't on the beach and it didn't resemble any boardwalk I've been to in the States, but dinner was good. We headed back to the hostel early to shower and prepare for another early start. Exhausted, we were all asleep by 8:30 on our first night!