Taylored Trips – A Family Affair – PART 2 – A Birthday Celebration

Day 2

After bidding the Jeffrey’s Bay portion of our family affair trip farewell and with promise

s of serious consideration of their new travel plan proposition to Botswana, we were off. Well it wasn’t as smooth going as that because it was Monday the 2nd

of July and that meant it was the official start of the Jeffrey’s Bay Winterfest which featured the Corona Open Surfing Championships held at the legendary Supertu

bes. For those of you that can remember, this used to be the Gunston, which was held in Durban North Beach and J/Bay. Currently Jefferey’s Bay is the only leg of the World Surf League Championship Tour that takes place in South Africa. The first winner way back in 1981 was our very own Shaun Tomson who

later went on to become South Africa’s first World Surfing Champion.

J'Bay – home of the legendary perfect wave

The main road out of J’Bay past Supertubes was a hive of activity with cars parked everywhere and traffic police

guiding cars past restricted cordoned off areas. We threaded our way through the congestion and headed out towards the N2 and Port Elizabeth but not before stopping at the figurine of the surfer dude which tells you that you have arrived at the world renowned Supertubes.

Supertubes - Surf capital of South Africa

We made a few detours through to Van Stadens River mouth and the little sea-side resort of Sea View where we nearly got blown out to sea by the

extreme wind which was still blowing.

Sea View

After rounding the point at Cape Recife, we made our way back to Port Elizabeth all along the Algoa Bay coastline, past the Casino and Pier at Humew

ood. Lots of chokka boats were heading back to the harbour as the windy weather obviously was not conducive to fishing.

Fishing boats heading for shelter

We skirted the friendly city of Port Elizabeth and re-joined the N2

until just after Colchester where we took the coastal route to Port Alfred and then inland to Bathurst for the next leg of our family affair. You see we had very good reason to be in Bathurst. It was Verine’s mother’s 90th

birthday. Turning 90 is no mean feat and we were very glad that we could be there to celebrat

e this milestone with her.

Birthday girl blowing out some candles

After a celebratory drink or two and some fun we went out to a local restaurant in Bathurst to continue the celebrations.

A family affair

The local restaurant was Lara’s Eatery and Deli. They have quite a unique way of doing things. I wish they had a branch in every town.This is how it works. They have a

huge spread of veggies, rice, potatoes, chips and all the trimmings and then the local butcher has his selection of meats laid out for you to choose from. You choose your meat and how you want it done, they cut it right there, tag it and when it’s done you get called, you dish up the trimmings and your

piece of meat done to perfection and off you go. What a novel idea! Bathurst is not a big town and we were there on a Monday night and the place was packed. Just shows you how popular their idea is. Damn, I wish I lived in Bathurst.

Lara's, Bathurst

Watch this space for Part 3.Until next time, “Keep on Tripping!”