We headed back to the coast because we wanted to get our fill of the seaside now that we live in a landlocked country. Oh, and some friends of our in Kampala had very generously offered to let us use their holiday flat in Port St Francis. We weren’t going to turn that kind offer down now were we?
We stopped off at Sea View along the way to St Francis for our picnic lunch. And indeed there was a very impressive sea view, the place being on the coast an all. However it was too windy to get out so we had our butties sat in the car like a real old couple on a Sunday drive out!
We came off the N2 at Humansdorp and quickly found ourselves in St Francis village where we located the chap with the key and we soon settled into our home for the next few days. St Francis is split into 4 sections, the canals, the village, Port St Francis and St Francis. The village is all whitewashed walled houses with thatched roofs (very twee) but our friends place was in the Port, directly on the marina. It is an amazing flat and we loved staying there.
The next day dawned bright and sunny so we decided to explore the area on foot. We walked through the small nature reserve and along the beach to the lighthouse at St Francis. Again this strand of coastline is very beautiful and dramatic and we spotted some mongooses amongst the scrub. We had a look at the penguin centre on the promontory where they help to rehabilitate injured and orphaned penguins. This is a worthy project but there was no one to show us round so we left a donation in the box and wished the little fellas in the pen good luck for getting back to sea.
The weather wasn’t looking so clever the next day so we decided on a drive over to Jeffery’s Bay, about an hour along the coast. On the way we called in at Paradise Beach and Aston Bay but with it being the off season they seemed rather dead and dreary. Jeffrey’s Bay is a much bigger and brasher version of St Francis and is a mecca for surfers. As it happened there was a suffering competition going on at the moment so the town was fairly lively.
We stopped at dolphin point to watch the surfers, and along with the idiots in wetsuits we noticed a pod of bottlenose dolphins showing them how it should be done! We really love the fact that you seem to see interesting wildlife without even going on safari. Earlier in the day we had driven past a private game farm and were amazed to see half a dozen rhinos! We also saw 3 species of antelope, ostrich, steppe eagles, flamingos and the national bird – blue cranes, on our free ‘game drive’.
The following day we needed to do some boring chores in the village so decided to walk the scenic way along the beach. We were rewarded for not driving to the village not only with a beautiful walk but we also caught sight of a southern right whale only 10m out at sea. The whales migrate through these waters every winter to have their calves, we were lucky to see one so close. There really are creatures everywhere, a friendly lazy seal often comes into the marina to bag fish from the local fishermen hauling in their catch. Apparently he has even jumped onto the boats to insist upon his share of the spoils!
We made one more excursion during our stay in St Francis and that was to Oyster Bay. It is not far down the coast but it took us a while to drive there as the road was shocking. We could have been back in Uganda! Again it was a stunning windswept piece of beach but there was nowhere to eat or even get a drink. So we had to make do with the entertainment of a pod of dolphins surfing on the rollers before turning back to St Francis.
We really enjoyed our stay in St Francis and are very grateful to our friends for letting us use their marina apartment as a base for a while.
