Our first full day at this beautiful backpackers with camping area near outdoor showers near the beach and with beautiful views. And so many activities to choose from! What will it be? Mountain biking? Horseback riding on the beach? Another safari tour to see cheetahs and leopards? Surfing lessons? A swim on the beautiful beach? A nice massage?
But wait a second… It’s a holiday weekend here in South Africa! That means we’re competing with all the locals for these activities.
Let’s see…
Mountain biking? Cancelled due to an accident with the trailer they use to transport the bikes out to the mountain bike trails.
Safari tour? Fully booked out.
Horseback riding on the beach for 3 hours? Fully booked.
Quad bike safari? Only a one our tour available. We grabbed it!
Surfing lessons? Booked!
Massage? Booked!
Well, the quad bike safari was a first for me. Never been on a quad bike before and the idea of riding one in a private game reserve with The Big Five (Lions, Elephants, Leopards, Buffalo, and ) sounded pretty exciting. We were able to take the bikes off road and through paths amongst thick bush. The most dangerous animals, we were assured, were at the far end of the park.
Did we see any animals? No! For the first time, we didn’t see anything. Why? We were told it was too windy and the animals were hiding in thick bush at the bottom of the valleys.
Next on our schedule: Surfing! Would the wind effect that plan? Sure would! Our surfing instructor couldn’t even get on his board due to the wind, we were told, so surfing lessons were cancelled.
Oh well, there was always a nice massage you could get. That was still going to happen, right? Oh no! The masseur was sick and all massages were cancelled.
What else could I do? There was always a walk along the beach across a shallow river to visit the local shops. Not real exciting, but I did manage to walk along the beach to explore some pretty amazing tide pools afterwards. They were like little aquariums in the holes of the rock.
On the way back to the camp site I bumped into our tour driver while he was trying to psych himself up for a swim in the cold windy conditions. I promised him I would join him for a swim after I had the chance to run back to the campsite and get changed.
The water turned out to be warmer than the air and the beach seemed very safe and very gradual as it descended into the sea. We had a good splash be he kept me from going in too far. I wasn’t sure exactly why at the time, but afterwards he told me that someone had died from a shark attach while surfing there the last time he visited. Yikes!
