I left Hermanus about mid-morning. A local taxis took me to the Baz Bus pick up point about 40 minutes out of town.
The driver was an interesting bloke. He told me that he was from Zimbabwe and had living in South Africa for five years. He had left Zimbabwe because “the economy was so bad”. He had worked at a number of jobs before getting the job as taxis driver. His wife worked in a restaurant in Hermanus. His two children were at school. He said that it was “easy to get a job because the South Africans did not want to work”. He said that he hoped to go back to Zimbabwe at some time, but he “will wait and see what happenes when Mugabe dies”.
Travelling through Moules Bay
The Baz bus was almost full. We passed through Moules Bay. It is another place where you can do the Great White Shark dives. However, I had been told that it not a very nice place to stay. That advice seemed right.
The countryside before and after Moules Bay reminded me of much of western NSW. There are a lot of eucalyptus trees and wide open paddocks.
Stop in George
We stopped in another large industrial own called George for a late lunch. There was wasn’t much on offer except for McDonalds and some very ordinary cafes.
In Wilderness
It was mid-afternoon when we arrived in Wilderness. I had decided to stay in hostel that is inland from the own on the advice of the staff at the Hermanus Backpackers.
It was an interesting place with a mixture of accommodation options, including camping sites, dormitories in an old house and some small cottages.
The owner was a bit of a character. He was very vague and a bit ‘alterative’. The place was largely staffed by backpackers who worked there for no money – they got free accommodation, food and drink at the bar.
I later found that there were a couple of staff at least working in the bar that seemed to be drinking more than they were serving. The place ran on cash. I am not sure if the owner saw all of the cash. In fact, I am sure he didn’t.
Discussion with Israeli and German Girls
When I checked in, I was told that I could book and evening meal. I took up the offer. The meal was due to begin at 7.00 p.m. The owner was in charge of the cooking. We sat down to eat at 8.30 p.m. The fare was barbequed meats and lots of it. Lots of wine and beers was drunk before, during and after the meal.
At the end of the meal, I got into a conversation with a young Israelis girl and an older German girl who was in her final year of studying medicine. The Israelis was incredibly intense. She seemed to constantly want bring the conversation back to ‘terrorism’ and how “dangerous the world was”.
I later spoke to the German girl about the experience. She said that the Israeli girl “need to take a happy pill”.
Getting Advice about a Park
Over breakfast in the morning, I got into a conversation with an English woman from Brighton who was close to my vintage. She told me that she had rented out her house and “was on an adventure”. She had been volunteering at animal parks in South Africa. She organised it all from the UK over the internet. The arrangement is that you work in the parks in exchange for “free accommodation and in some case free food; however, that was not always the case”.
She said that the best place she had worked was the Addo Elephant Park near Port Elisabeth. I was glad to hear this as this was a place that I had planned to visit.
Kayaking
The hostel has kayaks for hire. The main trip to take in the kayak is up the nearby river to a waterfall. The woman from Brighton said she was doing the trip that day. I decide to do it as well.
As it turned out there were about 20 people doing the trip. The Brighton women said she wanted to “have her own kayak”. The kayaks were stored in the grounds of the hostel and were carried to river by trailer which carried 6 kayaks at a time.
I was in the last group to be taken to the river. The women from Brighton was in the first group.
I also ended up in my own kayak. There were 3 other kayaks each with 2 in them in my group.
We headed off up the river with a strong tail wind. There were a number of large houses on the river. They seemed to be holiday houses. We also passed an ‘Adventure Camp’ that also had a lot of kayaks and canoes on the lawns by the river.
Before we had headed off the hostel member who took to the river said that “if we were tired coming back, we could leave to the river at the Adventure Camp and walk a back to hostel”.
We had been told that it would take about an hour to an hour and half to the point where we would “beach the kayaks and walk to the waterfall”.
The river passed at large camping ground and there were a lot of people heading in both directions in canoes and kayaks.
After a while the we were in large gorge and the tail wind dropped. I asked a some passing canoeists “how much further is was to the waterfall’? They said it was “about 30 minutes and then you have a long walk”.
We finally made it to the beach were you leave the kayaks and start the walk. As it turned out the walk is about 2 kilometres along a well-made a track and boardwalks. There were a lot of people at the ‘waterfall’ including the woman from Brighton who was sunning herself. She asked me “what had taken me so long”. I asked her why she had “preferred to be by herself in the kayak”. She said that she was a competitive rower and paddler and didn’t like being the same boat as people who didn’t know what they were doing”.
The waterfall was a bit of a disappointment. This part of South Africa is experiencing a serve drought and the water level of this river is very low.
Not able to make it back
I decided to head back to the river and left the Brighton woman sunning herself.
Back on the river, it took about 30 minutes to get to point where you leave the gorge. I was travelling with some other kayakers from the hostel – they were all ‘two to a kayak’. As we left the gorge we were hit by the wind. It had certainly increased significantly since the trip up the river.
I found it really difficult going. With no one in the front of the kayak it was difficult to keep it going in the right direction. As I struggled along, I heard a voice saying “do you want a tow”. It was the woman from Brighton. She passed me with relative ease.
I battled on passed the camping ground. Albeit, she passed me easily, I could see the woman from Brighton ahead in the distance.
The river made a number of turns. It was possible to avoid the worst of the wind by staying close to the one bank.
As I approach the Adventure Camp the wind become incredible strong. People that were obvious from the camp were struggling to get their canoes cross the river. I noticed a number of the kayaks that belonged to the hostel were on the lawn in front of the Adventure Camp buildings. Tried as a might I could not make headway into the wind. I gave up and beached the kayak and dragged it up onto the lawn.
There were two couples on the lawn with the hostel’s kayaks. I asked if they were going to try to go on. They said “no way”. I asked them if they knew how far it was to the hostel. They said that they had asked and “it was just next door”.
Anyway we put the kayaks together with two others that were clearly from the hostel and headed down the driveway.
As it turned out, we had been driven quite a long way down the river from the hostel to point where we had entered the water. The advice that the hostel was “just next door was right”. Back at the hostel I found the woman from Brighton in the reception. She said “how did you get hear so quickly”. I told her that I couldn’t get around the bend near the Adventure Camp due to the wind and had left the kayak there”. She said “so did I”. That made me feel better.
Nasty Neighbours
Over a beer with hostel owner, in the evening, we were told of his ‘prickly’ relationship with the operators of the Adventure Camp. They saw him as competition and had tried to stop him hiring kayaks to his guests. They had also tried to stop quests beaching on “their part of the river bank”. That was why we were taken to a “public piece of land to enter the river”. Unfortunately, it is often the case that “afternoon sea breeze makes it difficult to get back to the starting point”. He often has to collect his kayaks from the Adventure Camp”.
Great Lunch
I had a quiet time the next day, including a leisurely walk into the village of Wilderness and am excellent lunch.
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