Wild Coast Weekend

The other day Tam, Warren, Jimmy and I head off into the unknown (unknown to us that is) for a long weekend away…the Wild Coast. We were making use of our free return flights from 1time (after they had diverted one of our previous flights and delayed us for hours!) so it turned out to be quite a cheap weekend. We had been forewarned that the cabins, which were being refurbished, were not ready but Warren had done some heroic telephone work bugging someone until they finally agreed to have a cabin ready for us. We still went prepared to camp (who says you can’t pack gas canisters in your luggage!) but were very grateful when we were given a cabin with some furniture in (which they moved in after we arrived), which included beds and mattresses!

We did some lazy beaching the next day- the first beach is on a shelf of slate that has cracked into rectangular shapes making for some interesting rocks shapes. It is a perfect spot for a beachcomber here as loads of shells have washed up –bad news for me because I always end up collecting a pocketful of shells, which get taken home and sit on my bookshelf (any ideas of what to do with a bunch of shells is most welcome!). We walked to the main river mouth which was about knee deep at the time and crossed over. This was where the rhinos in the park were meant to come for a drink, and low and behold there were a couple of tracks and some massive footprints in the sand!

We did a bit of chilling on the beach that day and some more walking.

The second day we had arranged for a guide to take us walking in the reserve. So we were up bright and early, hurrying across the wet grass and the beach in hopes of glimpsing a rhino (no luck). What followed was a 5 hour hike, with a good pace the whole way and plenty enough uphill for me! The guide, Vuyani, was very informative and had good stories to tell. Quite a smart chap- went to school in hout bay and moved back home because he didn’t like the city, then bought some guidebooks and learnt all the English names! He is now the only guide in the parks and knows his birds trees and animals, impressive! Unfortunately there were no rhino’s 

By this stage our weekend was coming to an end. We woke up bright and early (yet again!) on Sunday morning to catch the sunrise before heading back for some scrambled eggs (bought the day before at the local spaza- where we watched some kids playing with their go-cart-note the CX number plate!). Then it was time for packing up and heading back to the airport. But what a great weekend, well worth it! It would’ve been nice to have more than 4 days did we managed to pack quite a lot into our short time so we were happy campers (or cabinners!).