Sphili Makhanya discovers there are many whimsical adventures to be had while exploring Southbroom I'm an adventurer at last - an Enid Blyton character two decades too late, peering through foliage and ducking spider webs as I heed the impulse to ascend Southbroom's Frederika Trail.story_article_left1It is late on a grey Sunday morning and I have made reassurances to my car-bound companions which I am failing to keep - "I'll be back just now, I'll only walk a few steps in to see if I can spot a porcupine or a buck or something".This South Coast conservancy's information signs have made me promises. Of indigenous woodland creatures, bushbuck, grey and blue duiker, rock and tree dassies. Bushpigs! Mongooses! (Mongeese?) I have expectations. "Show me the monkeys!" Nothing appears. And so I walk. Step by step, I follow the winding path. The breathing is easy. The greenery is lush and glorious on every side. "Maybe, if I walk just a little further, I'll spot something." Nothing. The 100m climb is mindless now. I'm all eyes and ears and craning neck.The sea booms rhythmically just out of sight. I limbo awkwardly beneath a low-hanging branch that bars my path. I walk and turn; walk and turn. Just like that, there's a glimpse of the sea beyond the bushes and trees. More climbing and I am at the steps of the Frederika view deck. A wooden platform, two empty wooden benches. The sea to marvel at as I please. My companions are missing out. I breathe the air greedily and try to cram my senses full of the sights and sounds of brush and sea. Any moment now the phone will ring. It is 10 minutes before it does. I fumble for it guiltily. "I'm on my way down."Later, we get lost searching for the road on the other side of the quiet holiday homes and the endless, immaculate greens. We don't mind. I talk too much. "Doesn't that look like it could be hiding a cave? Maybe like the kind in those adventure books - Famous Five, Secret Seven? Did you read them when you were a child? What did you think of the beach? It's weird, isn't it? There's no advertising anywhere on it for anything. I wonder how much the people who live here have to pay to keep it that way."story_article_right2As I chatter I am already scrolling through the countless pictures on my phone of Granny's Pool, which we had stopped at before we stumbled across the trail. A solid and worthwhile recommendation from Dave, the affable owner of our guesthouse, Coral Tree Colony Bed and Breakfast. A favourite of the locals, he had called it, a whizz away from the more touristy Southbroom Beach. The cosiest nook of a beach I've ever been on - good thing crime is low in these parts.Southbroom Beach is magnificent too, with its tidal pool and smooth boulders jutting into the sea. A dog and his people splash across the shallow bit where the pool separates at low tide from the sea. A woman with her cargo on her head wades past soon after.Back to the search for a route to the main road. At last we find the way. Riverbend Crocodile Farm is next on our list of things to cram in. A single Sunday isn't enough for all this but the day before it had rained. At the farm we peer down at the fat, motionless crocs cordoned off by high concrete and steel. They warm themselves in the thin rays of a mean winter sun. We tramp to the snake house. I don't want to go in, but fair is fair; I made everyone wait earlier.Most of the snakes are sleeping. I'm relieved. Then a large family walk in and excitable children set straight to tapping the glass displays in the way the signs ask us not to. I start scoping out the exits, trying to recall if it is possible to outrun an angry mamba. The elders try to wrest back control. "It says no tapping on the glass." I'm trying to hustle my group out. I don't have the nerves for this. We linger near the exit, waiting for the other family to finish their rounds. Then we go back and I let mine stare at the jewel-like creatures to their hearts' content.At the crocodile farm's Art & Wine Gallery, founder Corky Kelly's son Howard, who runs the family-owned property, tells me a bit about the artworks and the boutique wine collection. He has a personal hand in the procurement of both. The cellar, he tells me, probably holds the best wine selection on the South Coast.A popular three-day wine festival is coming up on September 25 2015 at the farm. It's an excellent excuse to visit again.sub_head_start IF YOU GO... sub_head_endWHERE IT IS: Coral Tree Colony Bed and Breakfast is in Southbroom on KwaZulu-Natal's Hibiscus Coast, 90 minutes from Durban.WHAT IT HAS: The four-star B&B's Dave Page will direct you to the best golf courses, swimming spots and nature trails.story_article_left3WHAT TO DO: Southbroom is close to Port Edward's Mac Banana & Lifestyle Centre, with its farm produce and kids' entertainment facilities. There is quad- and mountain-biking, pony riding, an animal farm, paintball, a trampoline and butterflies.RATES: From R625 per person sharing.GETTING THERE: From Durban take the N2 South towards Port Shepstone. At the Port Shepstone toll gates, stay on the toll road. The N2 becomes the R61, travelling south. Pass the off-ramps to Shelly Beach, Margate and Ramsgate. About 8km after the Ramsgate off-ramp, you will come to the traffic lights at the end of the toll road. Turn left into Southbroom North.The road you come in on is Southbroom Avenue. Stay on this road and go over three speed humps. A few hundred metres after the third speed hump take the first road right into Berea Road. First left is Mandy Road. Coral Tree is on the corner of Berea and Mandy roads.Note: There are two Berea roads. Do not take the first one. You must go over three speed humps.CONTACT:thecoraltree.comMakhanya was a guest of Coral Tree Colony B&B...