Our J Bay Dream Home!

Updated 23 July 2026 by Chanelle Segerius-Bruce

From the archive. This post was first published in 2016 and is kept here as it was written.

I’m so excited to share with you that we are moving! Yes, we’ve done a good few of these big moves in our lives already: South Africa to the UK, the UK to The Caribbean, the Caribbean back to South Africa and now…

We’re relocating 14 hours away from Durban to…

Jeffery’s Bay in the Eastern Cape!

That house in the picture is going to be our new home! It’s our gorgeous new rental for the next year, and we can’t wait to arrive next week.

The whole thing happened very serendipitously during our July holiday when we spent a week down there for the J-Bay Open (the WSL international surfing competition held annually), and I’m going to share this story with you now…

Before I do, if you have any good recommendations for us living down in J-Bay, please leave them in the comments below: Where to go, eat, do yoga, horse-ride, markets, travel to or things to do as a family. 🙂

I received an email from our estate agent saying that our lovely flat in Ballito was sold and that the new owner wanted to occupy from 1 September!

Ummm, great news to hear while I’m meant to be relaxing on vacation.

I started browsing properties and had written out exactly what I wanted (always get clear on what you want before you start looking). Ballito seemed overpriced for what you get, and it was looking bleak.

Out of curiosity, I did a little search for places in J-Bay as we were there and thoroughly enjoying it. See the location on Google Maps here.

I stumbled upon a 4-bedroom, stand alone house which was located 50 meters from the beach. It was listed as un-furnished, and since we don’t own any furniture, it could’ve been a bit of an issue. When we got there, we mentioned it to the owner, and he agreed that we could have the option of keeping the furniture if we wanted it.

Note that nice long term rentals in J-Bay and St Francis Bay are like hen’s teeth, very hard to come by! It’s a holiday town and most places end up going on the short-term market.

Not wanting to rush into any big decisions we headed back home to KZN and spent about 2-weeks viewing properties in Ballito, but nothing came close to this house.

We made an offer on the rental, fully-furnished (the thought of buying furniture to us rolling stones is a little daunting, to say the least!) and our offer was accepted.

OMG, we are officially moving to this beautiful part of South Africa, and we get to see places like St Francis Bay, Stormsriver, Plettenberg Bay, Tsitsikamma and Nature’s Valley which we’ve never been to.

The whole point of coming home to SA was to explore our country and since we have the kind of businesses that allow us to do so, it would be silly not to follow the signs and GO FOR IT!

Craig will be offering family portraits and wedding photography in that area from September onwards. His photography site is www.segeriusbruceblog.com

My one-day luxury business coaching intensives will now be available at The Plettenberg Park Hotel a great excuse to fly to Cape Town and do The Garden Route. My ongoing coaching clients and overseas clients will benefit as we are going from a 4-Meg broadband line speed to a 20-Meg line #nerdalert

We will both still be available for travel and work in Durban & Cape Town.

Do you ever find yourself asking for signs that you’re going in the right direction or making the right decision and then when those signs appear you’re too afraid to go for it?

You don’t want to take the big leap even when everything is saying do it, do it, do it!?

Learning to follow your intuition is like a muscle that needs to be exercised. The more you use it the strong it gets.

Being still for long enough to listen for guidance and answers is the only way to hear them. You can use prayer, meditation or yoga to help you get the answers.

When they do come, be open to SEEING them and then follow your heart and go for your dreams.

Don’t forget to leave your J-Bay / Eastern Cape recommendations for us in the comments area below. Thanks!