The Far East..London

I am at a new destination for a wedding, yes destination wedding! That can be ticked off the bucket list now, excellent.

Since I have never been to East London which is in the Eastern Cape, I thought I should focus on the trip and highlights in this blog post.

It is beautiful, the scenery especially the foliage is breathtaking. You know it is when The Hubby considers buying property here. 

Of course, there is also the beach we are staying in Nahoon right by the Nahoon River and a short walk to the beach. I started writing this with the most magnificent view to inspire me.

Having private beach access to Nahoon beach was a lovely perk to our Airbnb accommodation. There is a stunning pathway one can walk on but it can be a might scary in the dark and I am a scaredy-cat ..meow. 

So the walk back was thrilling in a horror movie kinda way. Nothing phases The Hubby who reassured me that his Honey Badger would protect us. This is a flick knife that has proven to be quite handy on our many camping trips but I am not sure of its protection from ghosts. (for some reason I thought the darkness held ghosts) His confidence in the Honey Badger kept me alive so I guess it works. 

Also when was the last time you saw a glow-worm? We saw at least three, I bet there were more but I was speed walking to get away from the ghosts so I might have missed a whole colony. Regardless it was lovely to see the bright green glow of a bug's butt to give you flashbacks. Ah, childhood camping memories and innocent times.

We then decided to patron the hotel next to the beach as one does. The Royal Hotel - seems fancy, feels fancy, looks fancy and smells fancy. I was severely underdressed in my travelling track pants but the beauty of wearing a mask is that no one can identify you. Another gem from The Hubby. The food was alright but I had a travelling tummy so ate very little except for devouring my Dom Pedro.

The next day was the start of exploration although sadly the weather was playing silly buggers with us. So it rained and was a tad chilly every day except the day we left. Actually saying it rained is an understatement - it's pouring here! But that never stopped us from exploring so Doc Martens on (the best rainy weather shoes in my opinion), a very happy Hubby and determination!

We ate breakfast at The Beach Break, what a lovely spot and I bet it's stunning in better weather. The hollandaise meal was the best I have had in ages. Not overpowering, just yumminess and love. Then off to the museum which was sadly closed..we never got to go back. The aquarium is in dire need of community support for a much-needed upgrade and the animals need to be moved out of there. I am also pretty sure the lady at the ticket counter pocketed some of our entrance fees because she kept saying different amounts and kept making us feel uncomfortable so we were thankful to just pay and not be in front of her.

We drove a while to explore all the different parts of East London, deliberately avoiding the malls because we hate those anyways. We ended up on the old East London Grand Prix Circuit and so we did some laps, it was pretty exciting. It looked like it was immensely popular in its time.

Then back to our room to get ready for my nephew's Nelengu. This was when The Hubby unlocked his saree tying skills via a youtube video I sent him a few days before. I was of course getting anxious about getting late but he got the job done and my goodness it was the best. I have never felt so comfortable in a saree.

The evening was lovely, seeing family and meeting a ton of new, friendly folk. We ended up staying a little later than we planned to but all due to having a great time.

The next day we decided to change up our plans a tad given that I am busy writing a book. So we drove to the Reef Cafe for breakfast. A beautiful spot that has excellent food, is dog friendly and is right by the surf spot. We even spotted a gang of Dassies when we went to watch the waves and surfers.

Then back to the room, I wrote and The Hubby relaxed with his audiobook and general hubby relaxation things. I didn't pay much attention since a pot of tea was made for me and I had the view - so a sweet writing setup.

The afternoon cleared a bit as we got ready and went to another wedding function at the local favourite - Table 58 Brewing. We had a beer tasting combo to start and to our delight, many joined us in trying out what was on offer. met more folks and lined the tummy as the evening started to come in.

Shots, shots, shots, shots, shots, shots! As that famous song goes and how the night was progressing so we decided to head out a little early to do our last beach walk. It was hauntingly beautiful that night and a magical end to a very cool event.

Sunday was the wedding and the reason for this 4-day getaway trip and what a beautiful wedding it was too.  I wrote a bit in the morning and we decided to skip breakfast, then getting ready was a lot faster than expected. The wedding was great, the conversations at our table were entertaining and lunch was yum with so many veggies to choose from.

Back to our room for a nap and some writing before getting ready for the reception. This last function tied it all together and we fondly bade farewell to all the new folk we met. 

The road trip back seemed faster and we pretty much missed our woofs too much to delay getting home. they of course rejoiced in us arriving and then it was not moving from the couch until it was time to collapse on the bed.

I am still smiling at what an enjoyable experience it was for both of us. Sometimes a little getaway and the right attitude is the best holiday one can have. Also having the right people around you make a world of difference.