Coffee and the mountains and the sea

A few years ago my mother, my Yorkie and I packed our cherry-red bags and headed for the north coast of Kwazulu Natal. My brother had just bought us a brand new VW Polo ( recently stolen from our driveway. Cry!) and we were excited to take it on a road trip to Ballito, which is a pretty little town with beautiful beach side cottages that overlooks a gorgeous azure bay.

We’d booked a night’s stopover at an enchanting guesthouse in Hilton, which we’d never been to before and fun loomed on the horizon like candy. I have written about the guesthouse in a previous post on Hive, so I’m not going to go into too much detail about the accommodations; suffice it to say the cottages were luxuriously appointed and the views over the Drakensberg mountains, from every window, were stupendous.

For us, the real charm of the place was the coffee bar/restaurant that boasted huge wraparound windows and long, cool patios to its right where we lazed away an afternoon of sublime coffee indulgence.

Coffee with an eagle-eyed view over the soaring peaks of the Drakensberg is not a pleasure easily equaled. It felt very much as if we were sitting on clouds, floating over lush green fairy lands; exceptionally memorable. A real plus for us was that the coffee bar was dog friendly and offered a tempting array of vegan fare. We couldn’t get enough of the roasted fruit kebabs, served with mint and coconut cream. Divine!

We spent a good deal of time sampling the wide range of coffees available and the balance, walking off the snacks we’d over indulged in. The weather was cool at the time and our walks took us along green lawns, which rolled down from the hilltop to a secretive looking copse of breezy trees in the valley below.

When we arrived in Ballito, one of the first things we did after a long swim in the sea, was look for a dog friendly restaurant that served delectable coffee and overlooked the ocean. Stangely, there was only one restaurant/coffee shop in the entire town that was dog friendly, but we couldn’t have been luckier, because the Galley Beach Bar and Grill, which is perched on the edge of a white beach with a panoramic view of the ocean, offered delectable vegan breakfasts, snacks and water bowls for my Yorkie and frothy cappuccinos (to die for). The view from the deck of the GBBG, was simply a dream come true and the spot was so perfect because we could go for an early morning swim everyday and then soak up the sun on the deck with coffee in hand for the rest of the time.

All-in-all it was outrageously sublime!

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All pictures are my own taken using my iPad