the eastern cape is beautiful, but don't drink the water

So, this weekend turned into a bit of a misadventure. The plan was to drive all day Friday along the Eastern Cape, until we got to Mbotjie, and spend the night in a backpackers. Sat, we were going to hike all day, sleep at the same place, and depart for Gwetxlintaba on Sunday morning. The drive was good, and the hike Saturday was unbelievably gorgeous- pictures to follow. Sunday, however, it started raining really hard (summer is the rainy season on the eastern coast of SA) and the road to get to the village had washed away entirely, moonsoon style. So we drove to another backpackers, and spent the night on Sunday, hoping to still make it to the village for monday night. However, 19 out of 22 of us, and both program directors got really sick on sunday night. Most likely the water they told us was safe to drink wasn't, but we also were carrying all of our own food, so food poisoning is a definate possibility too. By mid day monday, 10 people felt well enough, and so went to the rural village. Sadly, I was not one of them, so the rest of us stayed back at the backpackers and slept all day, and then drove home tuesday. Overall, a somewhat unfortunate weekend.