Kayaking, Liloing, and Hiking

Kayaking, Liloing, and Hiking

Mossel Bay, South Africa, Africa
Bar-t-nique Guest House

We had breakfast at the guesthouse this morning and checked out by 8:30am. The place was fine, but I’m not sorry to be moving on to another accommodation. We drove in to Tsitsikamma National Park, paid our fee, and found the Untouched Adventures shop that was taking us out kayaking. We had a choice to go at 9am, 11am, or 1pm, and I’m so glad we opted for the early tour. Yet again, we were the only ones on the tour this morning, so we had a private kayak guide for the morning! We met our guide Tate, got into our wetsuits, and headed out into the ocean in the kayak.

Melissa and I had a two person kayak, so it really tested our teamwork to get through the choppy ocean and into the mouth of Stormsriver, but we managed just fine. Once we got into the river, it was much easier paddling, and the surroundings were just stunning. We saw a couple of caves, learned about the geology, flora, and fauna in the area, and had time to just relax.

After about a half hour of kayaking in the river we got out of our kayaks, and traded them for lilos. We continued up the river for another half hour just slowly paddling on our lilos, and then went for a little walk up the river. It was a really beautiful place to be, and the morning couldn’t have been more perfect for it. After our hike we went back to the lilos, then paddled down to our kayaks, and then back to the ocean. We did make a quick stop off so that Melissa and Tate could jump of some rocks into the river. Crazy people. The whole tour ended up being about 2.5 hours long and we loved every minute of it. We had my GoPro camera with us so we were able to capture some of the fun moments along the way.

There was a restaurant right next to Untouched Adventures, so after we took a nice hot shower we went for a bite to eat. We needed some energy for the hike we were about to go on. The hike was supposed to take 3.5-4 hours, but we knew the rain was coming in soon and we didn’t want to be caught out in it. We hurried to get tot the waterfall, which wasn’t one of the easiest hikes we’ve done. We had to walk on the jagged rocks on the beach quite a lot, and any of them that were wet from the waves were pretty slippery. This was made a lot worse by the fact that Melissa’s boot was missing the grippy sole for the last half of our trip there. The bottom of the boot just fell off on our way there, so that made everything a lot harder.

We got to the waterfall after about an hour and even though it was really pretty, we knew we couldn’t hang around for long because the skies were getting really dark, really quickly. We headed back toward the car, and about half way back the rain started. It came in quick, and it came in hard. I have only seen rain that hard a couple of times in my life, and this was not the place I wanted to encounter it. I made sure to put the little rain cover on my camera bag, but that was all I had. Neither one of us had any other form of cover, so within about a minute we were completely soaked. And I mean from our hair, right down into our shoes. Nothing was dry.

The most worrying thing was how slippery the rocks were now that everything was soaking wet. It was a pretty dicey walk back because I just kept thinking that if one of us were to twist an ankle, I have no idea how the other person would have been able to get them back to the car, or get any help to come get them. We took it nice and slow and made it back to the car in just under two hours in total. We made really good time, especially considering the conditions we had to walk back in. We had no choice but to change in the parking lot next to the car because we were totally soaked and had to drive for about two hours to get to Mossel Bay.

The walk didn’t seem like a lot of fun when we were coming back, but looking back on it already, it was a blast! We couldn’t stop talking about how ridiculous the rain was while we were in the car on our way to Bar-t-Nique Guesthouse. This place is a huge step up from where we stayed last night so we’re going to take advantage of the niceties here. We are at the top of a hill overlooking Mossel bay, and we have a nice balcony, where right now all of our clothes are hanging out to dry.

We went for dinner at a restaurant down in the city called Gannet where I had a really nice burger. I think after the hike today anything would have tasted good, but I really enjoyed that meal. We’re back relaxing at the guesthouse now and I know I am going to sleep well tonight. After that kayaking trip and the hike, I am exhausted!

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