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| Africa > South Africa > Mar 26 - 30, 2006  1 slideshow
 1 blog
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Back to South Africa,
Africa Prev: Cintsa Next: Addo Elephant NP |
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Overview:
We spent 4 nights in Port Alfred, including beaches with dunes, golf, and a visit to the local fresh juice factory. Scroll down for the stories, or skip directly to a section: Arrival, Town, Golf, Beach/Dunes, Departure |
South African Rand (ZAR) ZAR 1 = US$ 0.1624 US$ 1 = ZAR 6.16 check current rates Telephone: +27 |
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Satellite Photo:
See this South Africa satellite map
with pushpins and then zoom in at least once. |
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Arrival:
We arrived in the pouring rain from Cintsa,
four hours east of here along the coast. |
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Town:
Port Alfred is a small, sleepy coastal town with a harbour on a river mouth (of course!).
The coast has long, wide beaches backed by dunes of various sizes. |
Population: 18,000 |
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We checked in to Villa de Mer,
an up-market, modern B&B across the street from the small dunes fronting the beach.
Bella, the manager, upgraded us to the best suite in the house: a corner room on the upper floor, with a big deck
with a view of the dunes, ocean and waves, plus a King bed with a view and morning sunshine,
and a very large bathroom with shower and jetted bathtub.For dinner we enjoyed our cheese and wine, plus leftover pizza we nuked in the kitchen. |
R700/night |
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It was cloudy and windy in the morning, but at least it was no longer raining!
After a nice breakfast, we drove around the nearby coast, then stopped at the
Post Alfred Royal Golf Club to check on prices and availability, but it was an unfriendly old-boys-club
establishment so we decided not to return there to play golf. |
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We then drove "downtown" and inquired at the TI about other golf clubs; walking around, we noticed a lot
of real estate offices! We found a used bookstore, Internet access inside the video store.
I tried to have a photo shop burn some of my digital photos to CD from my near-full memory card,
but it was painfully slow (they used some custom application) and so I gave up. |
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We then drove back to the west pier near our B&B (visible from our room), where a handful of businesses
were clustered near the channel. We discovered that the beach was unsafe to swim due to rip tides.
We ate
lunch
at Guido's, which specializes in customized pizzas, overlooking the channel.
Afterwards we walked along the breakwater to watch the waves break over the end and its marker light.That night we had trouble finding an open resto after 21:00, so we ate a quickie "dinner" at Beaver's Pies (open 24 hours), which is essentially a truck stop on the outskirts of town. |
Lunch: R77 + tip |
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Golf:
We spent the next morning trying to find a golf course with left-handed golf club sets for rent, to no avail.
Bella said we could borrow one of two right-handed sets from her, then called a friend who
brought a left-handed set to lend to me, which was generous and saved the day!We drove to the quiet Fish River Golf Course east of town (as previously mentioned, we avoided the golf club in town). It was so quiet that our tee time didn't matter -- we were 30 minutes late -- and we even decided to grab a bite to eat first. Only after paying for the rounds and a power cart rental did we find out we get vouchers for food & drinks at the half-way point! For you golfers, that is atypical and an added bonus! The golf course was very nice, lying near the ocean but just behind tall dunes, with occasional lovely ocean views and the soothing sound of the ocean waves crashing on the beach in the background. We saw a tortoise on the first hole, and we only saw 3 other golf carts in play! We barely finished the 18th hole in the rapidly fading light. |
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We drove back to town and straight to the Buck & Hunter resto for a nice meaty
dinner.
Our waitress was named Pippa (yet another nickname for Philippa; compare with my two "Philippa" friends
Pipps and Phlea in Cape Town). |
Dinner: R127 + tip |
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Beach/Dunes:
On our last full day, we drove around the harbour to the east pier and walked down the beach,
which had funky low tide side rips, along with more shoveler snails,
then into the dunes where we played in the sand and sun.After a lazy day, including lunch at Guido's again, and a drive to a cheesery outside of town, we went for dinner at the new Links resto. Bella had recommended it to us, although she had just reserved the last table for another couple at the B&B. Popping in anyways, we reserved a table for 21:00 (30 minutes prior to the kitchen closing) and went into town to use the Internet and purchase more ever-popular-with-us Strepsils (good cough drops). This time I was able to burn my photos to CD after borrowing a memory card reader from another B&B guest, a British pilot in training who was there for a few months, and using that at the Internet cafe which surprisinlgy didn't have one. |
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We returned for
dinner,
which was very tasty; unfortunately, I got something in my eye and spent the whole meal in physical discomfort
(trying to flush water in my eye in the bathroom didn't help). |
Dinner: R153 + tip |
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On our final morning, we packed up and checked out after breakfast, then walked across the street to the beach
for an hour, including a final dip in the cool ocean. |
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Then we drove to the Sunshine Juice headquarters, which also sells to the public, on the eastern outskirts of town.
We discovered that they only add cane sugar in the winter when the fruit is less sweet, but they only print one label
(which is why I was at first surprised in Hogsback that the label listed cane sugar in its ingredients).
On the wall hung multiple entrepreneurial award plaques.
They had a dozen flavours to choose from - much more than a typical store or resto carries!
And it was so inexpensive here! And so so tasty - fresh-squeezed juice! |
Juice: 350mL - R5 750mL - R8 1.5L - R12 |
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We stopped in town to use the Internet, sell 2 used books at the used bookstore, checked on the possibility
of repairing my digital camera (no!), and bought some
groceries
and wine for a picnic lunch. |
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Departure:
We headed west on R72 (the road designation), sort of along the coast, stopping along the way
in quaint Kenton-on-Sea for a picnic lunch overlooking the river mouth and beach. We arrived at Addo Elephant NP 90 minutes later; in all about four hours west of Port Alfred. |
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