Jeffreys Bay sits about 700km east of Capetown on the Eastern Cape of South Africa and was a target destination for our world tour from day one as one of the most famous surf breaks in the world. We booked into a Bed & Breakfast called African Perfection and it is living up to its name – situated right at the famous Supertubes break (site of the annual WCT surf tour event) with our room right at ground level on the corner closest to the beach. We sleep at night to the sound of the surf of the warm Indian Ocean which keeps the water warm for surfing and the air comfortable day and night (highs of 30 / lows of 20). 
It's a small town that is built around the traveling surfers who range from the wealthy who have vacation homes, the transient surfers that stay for a while and work, the travelling recreational surfers (us!) and the hard core local surfers…much like Hawaii or any other beach/surf town. This is the offseason for surf as the big waves come in the winter swells from the South Atlantic (the contest is in July for the peak of swell season) but this makes it not as busy and our B&B is filled more with site seeing tourists than surfers right now.
The beaches are very raw and natural and J-Bay is actually famed for its abundance of shells – yes they even have a shell museum! The town is also a hub for the squid fishing business and each night you see 6-10 large fishing boats anchored 1-2km offshore shining huge bright lights to attract the squid…so we have eaten our fill of calamari this week! Lots of wildlife action too with the ocean filled with dolphins (and whales are regular visitors – but not this time or year) and Mark had an amazing encounter with a pod of 80-100 dolphins all swarming the bay he was surfing in riding waves 30-40 at a time in a wave coming right at him! The one other regular visitor to these shores who we are glad we haven't seen is the Great White shark with a few attacks every year on this coastline (as well as where we came from in Capetown). The water is about 20degrees right now and too warm for most great whites as they congregate more around the Cape in the cooler water periods of the year.
We also went on an amazing "safari" adventure to the Addo National Park, which is a game reserve so it wasn't a true safari, but as close as you can get from the safety of your own rental car. It is the third largest park in Africa and home to over 450 elephants as well as other African species like lions, zebras, rhino's, etc. It has been a protected park since 1930's and was previously mostly cleared for logging and farming. What's great about this park is you can drive your own car throughout and we then hired a "hop-in" guide to make sure we got the good inside scoop on the wildlife we were going to see. We are posting a bunch of pictures of the wildlife we saw – not that it is anything you haven't seen in national geographic but to see them in their natural 
wild setting was truly amazing for us. We had one "hold your breath" moment when we were parked at a watering hole watching a family of 30-40 elephants rollicking in the mud baths, eating trees and many just paired up leaning or nuzzling each other – which alone was awesome to be just 50-100 feet from so much action. Our guide then spotted a huge bull male off by himself on the other side of the road about 500m away slowly meandering our way (the bulls apparently don't socialize with the families much and stick to the periphery). 
We watched his progress and moved the car to anticipate his path and after a couple of quick adjustments we slid the car into a perfect spot to watch his approach and turned the engine off to ensure nothing would disturb him. Sure enough he set a b-line straight for our car and we watched this 6-tonne wild elephant saunter up towards us, make direct eye contact and walk within 2 feet of the front of our car looking straight in at us the whole time. Are hearts were all pounding (including the guide) and we juggled with the camera for a couple pictures from Paula's side then a video as he continued past Mark's side of the car and over to visit some of the heard. Mark described the moment as equal to the buzz when he had a great white smash up against his cage with Jordy in October…lots of adrenaline!
We continued the day with lots of Zebras, Kudus, Red Hartebeestes, Warthogs and even dung beetles…but the two we didn't see that are in the park are the Rhino's (who keep deep in bush until evenings at watering holes) and lions (which they only have 11 – and we did see one from 1km away crossing a road but by the time we raced there it was long gone). 
We still have a couple days in J-Bay to explore but our day in the Addo Park was so great we wanted to tell all about it!
SURF REPORT: It's been on & off for swell and wind as this is the off season at J-Bay but I have had a couple of epic days that totally showed me the magic of this place. It is so good all year as long period swells come in during the winter from the deep south Atlanic but in summer the regional SW winds drive waves from the Cape towards hear that then wrap around Cape st Francis and clean up and form great head high plus waves with offshore winds. 
Driving in was kind of like the same feeling that you get driving into Scorpion Bay in Baja - where from about 15k out on the road in you can see the bay and the town and you start straining your eyes to see if there is any waves. I arrived on a great day with offshore winds and head high waves (plus a couple feet overhead on the sets). The set up has a series of breaks like Scorpion Bay (all rights) and you can pick based on crowd, speed of wave. We are right in front of Supertubes…and as the name implies is a fast moving wave. The entire main stretch is a long beach but the tide line out about 100feet is a long rock reef that makes for treacherous launches and exits – and you can pay big if you get too greedy on the inside sections. There is blood on the walkway each day from a cut foot it seems. There were only two guys out when I launched the first time and no idea the "safe" routes out I hot footed out trying to find safe passage and paddled out. Took my first few waves and was not feeling "right" and board was way too loose….turns out I chunked my fin off going out!!? I got my board in for repair and rented a decent 7'2" epoxy and got in a few hours that afternoon with long waves that would just keep lining up with perfect walls (like 3rd point Scorpion). On high tide it is unsurfable (unless really big) so The Point (800m down the beach) is the spot and a mix of long & short boards with a wave that is a great drop then a soft section you need to glide through then it walls up for 250meters on the inside that is so fun. I had two 3 hour sessions the other day and was so paddled out! Down day today with onshore winds but hopefully one more good day tomorrow to finish the week here! We need to plan a trip here again for sure!!!! Check out the supertubes video footage I posted on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo468SMJWxU
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