Running our little guesthouse cum bnb Lily's Cottage keeps us real busy; needless to say it's hard taking a break! Yep, when everyone is hard at play, we are hard at work; but we just love our job as we get to meet the most wonderful people who find their way here. But, we do need to get away and do that during the quiet season.
When we take these short breaks, we generally go up or down the Kwazulu Natal coast in South Africa with close friends and family - our favourite being the lower South Coast, so I will take you along and introduce you to this lush tropical coastal region with endless beaches. Our destination - Caribbean Estates, Rennies Beach, Port Edward.
Although sugar cane is mostly grown on the North Coast of KZN, one still sees some sugar cane plantations down south.
South Africa produces around 20 million tons of sugar cane annually and most of this comes from the green hills of Kwazulu Natal where it was first planted in 1848.
Banana plantations are more prolific on the lower South coast with Macadamia Nuts and Coffee Beans being grown very successfully but on a smaller scale.
Bananas do real well down here on the South coast - blue plastic is wrapped around the large bunches of bananas to not only protect it from birds, bats and insects, but also to help with the ripening process.
We reached our destination; the beautiful and tranquil eco friendly Caribbean Estates is situated next to Indian Ocean with the Umtamvuna River bordering it on the south; this river also used to form the border between the old Transkei and Natal.
As we drive into the estate, we are greeted by a family of Egyptian geese swimming in a pond as well as the beautiful Caribbean style villas.
There are various ponds throughout the estate, so one gets to see many Egyptian Geese, ducks as well as many species of birds, Samango monkeys as well as small buck if you're lucky.
The stunning villas range from large six bedrooms to three bedrooms.
Water tanks are seen everywhere - the estate have their own water supply system as their local authority often fail with supplying uninterrupted water - maintenance programs having being neglected.
We had the top floor of this villa, with a loft bedroom up high, giving stunning views of the river and the ocean.
A large Toucan greeted us briefly and flew away - seen from our balcony.
Taking a walk down to the river on the wooden walkways, we were startled by a monkey walking real close to us along the wooden rail - no photo of that for fear of startling the monkey in turn!
A gentle river cruise goes up the Umtamvuna River and back to the river mouth.
Hubby trying to land a fish for the pan.
Egyptian goose getting ready to bed down for the night.
The following morning we took a walk along a wooden walkway through a little forest leading to the secluded beach - miles of sand and rocks with not a soul in sight. Fortunately the estate now have security guard with radio control keeping an eye on the beach as sadly there had been incidents in the past, a harsh reality of living in South Africa; but we take precautions so can still enjoy the solitude.
Cool walk through a little forest before we reach the endless beach.
Weird rock formation looks like a skeleton of sorts.
On the third day we drove down to the Pont Heritage sight situated at The Pont Holiday & Water Sports Resort.
Before the Umtamvuna bridge was completed in 1966, cars and its passengers had to be taken across the river via a Pont - a river ferry that is guided by a rope from one bank of the river to the other.
As a child, we often had to be taken across here as we used to go on annual holidays to Port St Johns on the Eastern Cape Wild Coast. It took about 3-4 cars at a time; I remember finding this quite an adventure!
Log cabins right on the river edge.
On the fourth day we visited the Beaver Creek Coffee Estate, and were the ladies excited when they walked into the shop next to the dining area! So much to choose from, not only coffee but also locally produced edibles, pottery and other hand crafts.
This Coffee farm produces three Arabica Varietals and the roastery four signature blends - super duper coffee for sure! The car smelt of freshly roasted coffee all the way back home! Of course we could not resist the creamy coffee liqueur they produce, absolutely divine! Plus no visit to the South Coast is complete without taking home locally grown Macadamia Nuts and cold pressed Macadamia Nut Oil, which not only is great for cooking, but also is a superfood for health and beauty. The roasted and salted variety is my favourite.
Unfortunately we missed the coffee tour and tasting but we'll be back for sure with our next breakaway down south.
Hubby came away with some coffee trees so hopefully we'll have our own brand of coffee right here at home, in about five years or more ;)
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And so our little breakaway came to an end but we were much recharged to face the world again!
Hope you enjoyed visiting the lower South Coast of Kwazulu Natal - South Africa, with me!
A huge shout out to @ericvancewalton for initiating the #blockchainmemoryproject as this is a great way to store our memories forever!
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It's a fun tool made by @blueorgy and @martibis that allows you to pin your posts to a specific location or browse the world map where ideally every place on the map is a Steemit post.
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