Surfing lessons with Captain Jack Sparrow...

                         Friday morning we left bright and early to go to the airport to rent a car.  It was a new experience…also driving on the left side of the road was a new experience.  We quickly learned that reversing in a manual is different than a manual back home.  But we made it to Jeffery’s Bay (about an hour away from PE).  We got there (got a little lost), but we found the Jeffery’s Bay Surf School where we had signed up to take lessons.  We had a 2 hr lesson (they gave us a board and wetsuit to use) with our instructor Wanen (pronounced Vern-ah..maybe).  He was nice. He looked and sounded exactly like Captain Jack Sparrow.  We learned that there are only a few steps to surfing.  

                It was really hard to get up and to stay on the board. I have really bad balance.  It was also exhausting to carry the board back in and out.  It was like when you go sledding…I hate carrying the sled back up the hill…same thing but this time big waves are shoving you this way and that.  It was a lot of fun though.  I apparently liked knee surfing…multiple times I rode the waves on my knees…I just could not get both my feet up and let go with my arms.  I got both my feet on once but couldn’t stand or I got one foot up and let go but I still was kneeling on the other knee.  It was so worth the trip though.  When else am I going to go surf.  I was super nervous when we got there (not as nervous as I expected I would be or as much as I would have been at home).  I think I kept convincing myself it was fine, because we were in Africa and when else was I going to do this.  When the instructor told us we were only going out in the waist deep water and that the current was weak, it made me feel much better.

                After surfing, we walked around the beach and collected quite a few shells.  It was like CA all over again for me.  Then we walked around town, went into a few shops, got ice cream, walked around a little more, bought our surfing pictures and drove home.