Camping at Chintsa

It is November 2014 and we left behind Byrne Valley and drove all the way through the old Transkei for a short visit with friends in Ugie. We then took the road down leaving the mountains behind as we drove to Chintsa, a tiny holiday town near East London, South Africa.

On the way from the mountains to the sea, the view from Satan's Neck (what a name). 

It was nice to be on our own as a family again for a while, although we had to have a serious family meeting to sort out relationship issues, irritations, frustrations, communications, and attitudes. On arrival we put up tent as the only people in the campsite. As usual, it was an organization of a higher level and me and my mom were not allowed to help at all. The tent was up in a record of 1 and a half hours.

Early stages.

Halfway there...

 The rain and wind proof setup.

Our campsite, Rendezvous Caravan Park, is really neat and lovely. There is a Launderette, so we could do all our washing - a highlight in my mom's week! We also had our own private bathroom facilities, which was very nice.

The weather was still rather somber and cloudy, with a cold wind and rain on and off. As a result Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday weren't exactly beach-friendly days. We did school, slept, rested and relaxed between the following outings....

Tuesday we visited East London's Museum, a very impressive and gigantic affair. They had something on almost everything and we spent hours wandering through the interesting exhibitions. Toasted sandwiches afterwards was a nice treat.

The marine shells section.

The most famous "living fossil", Coelacanth.

Shells.

A locally discovered dinosaur. 

From there we went on a short walk at Nahoon Point Nature Reserve, to Bat's Cave, a cave in the ocean which we unfortunately visited at high tide (so we couldn't go inside).

On the walk.

The cave.

Today we went to a nice restaurant/local social meeting place nearby called Tea in the Trees. We had lunch there and it was delicious.

Today was the first proper sunny day we had, so this morning we went to the beach.

 The boys.

Neigh-bors.

 Sand, sand.

We also went on a few walks during our time here.

Note the sun behind and the dark clouds over the sea.

 A patch of shells - here at Cintsa beautiful shells abound.

Tomorrow we drive to Port Alfred, where we are going on the 5-day Shipwreck hike along the coast - of which we will give feedback next week.

We've had a few very unique encounters with animals as well. At Bat's Cave, a lone dolphin jumped out of the water for us.  My mom and dad also saw a Blue Duiker, a very rare small antelope. At Tea in the Trees my dad stepped on a Night Adder. At the campsite a Green Boomslang was also killed, as it managed to get into a bathroom (luckily not ours). At our campsite there are also a very big variety of birds with so many different calls and sounds. Some sound like people laughing or whistling, others like ghosts. On the beach there are Sanderlings ("Strandlopertjies"), little birds that run on the sand. They are very cute and we've laughed at them more than once as the male chase the female, their legs blurring from speed.