Saturday 25 May
Saturday morning, we left the Karoo area and
approached the coastal area where it was just beautiful and mountainous.
We went
canoeing on the Wilderness lagoon in Wilderness National Park. It was a lot of
fun. I am pretty sure canoes were invented by Native Americans so as Neha and I
powered ahead in our canoe, naturally nerding out and discussing this fact, I
felt an odd sense of patriotism when we finally decided that Native Americans
had in fact been the first people to use canoes. #Nerdwestern. Somehow, I
managed to splash so much water on myself so I was rather soaked. We canoed for
about an hour and a half, and in the middle, we got out and parked our canoe on
the riverbank and waded in the weirdly warm water. We were told there were no
hippos or crocodiles so I felt a tiny bit safe…until they told us to look out
for snakes. It was still fun though. But we got back in our canoes and rowed
back to our vans.
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| Chance and Smitha canoeing ahead of us |
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| Neha, the navigator |
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| Not too many things can beat this feeling of utter and perfect peace and contentment. |
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| Knee deep in the water somewhere |
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| Ahhhhhhhhhh they're going to run us over. |
We then drove on to the town of
Knysna (pronounced “Nice, nah?”), saw some townships on the edge of town and
then drove into the downtown touristy area (it was so touristy!) and went shopping in the Saturday morning
markets.
We went on a boat tour of the
Knysna river/bay that flows out into the Indian Ocean and it was beautiful! The
real estate there is quite expensive with all the homes costing about millions
of rand. But even as I was gazing at this gorgeous incredible land/oceanscape,
I couldn’t help but notice the tiny township in the lens of my camera, way off
in the distance on the top of the mountain, conveniently removed from sight
when you’re in Knysna, but not if you venture out on the water and turn around.
There it is. Ugh! Apartheid. Your scars are everywhere.
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| fancy mansions on the side of the river/bay |
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| No thanks to the caves. But wow! It was so beautiful here! |
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| two out of three smiling... |
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| a different two out of three smiling... |
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| yet another different two out of three smiling... |
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| 3/3!!! |
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| where bay meets ocean |
Next, we drove up the mountains
through that very township, through an alpine, wooded area with lots of pine
trees and then a little bit down to a parking lot where we departed from our
vans and climbed down a couple hundred very steep stairs to Noetzi Beach. The
Indian Ocean! It was gorgeous! So magnificent. It wasn’t quite as warm as I was
anticipating, but it was still a lot warmer than the Atlantic in Cape Town! We
ran around in the sand and sea, took lots of pics. I drew Go ‘Cats! In the
sand.
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| THE INDIAN OCEAN! |
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| sea foam |
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| Me, Neha, Emily and Mariah. Life doesn't get much better than this. | | |
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| Footprints in the sand... |
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| Sandcastles in the sand... |
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| Nouha being artsy with my camera and taking pics... |
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| GO 'CATS! |
There is something so magnetic
about water. So calming. So beautiful. So peaceful. So necessary to the human
condition. I realized that all three of our main activities for the day
involved water – canoeing, a boat tour, and a trip to the beach. Running around
in the sand, climbing the rocks by the sea with the ocean waves crashing
against them just speaks to the human soul. It’s liberating. It’s breathtaking.
It’s right. It just feels right. Maybe it’s because we’re 60% water. Maybe it’s
because we rely on water so much for everything. Maybe it’s the sound of the
sea. Or the beauty of it all. But thank God for water. Thank God for the ocean
especially!
We then drove up to a gorgeous ocean lookout...
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| Oh hey! |
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| Selfie! |
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