Monday 22nd April
We left Plettenburg Bay this morning and continued our journey along the N2.
After driving over it, we called off at Bloukans Bridge viewing point to watch the crazy people bungee jumping the longest natural bungee in the world! Phew! It looked terrifying. We could hear their screams from where we were.
We continued our drive to another part of the Garden Route National Park, Tisitsikamma. We had already booked our adventure here. We hiked the first part of the trail to Storms River Mouth, up and down a beautiful wooded mountain. On way we saw cormorants sunbathing and a bird with blue wings on the top but red underneath when he flew over our heads. We also lots of Dassies (the giant hamsters!).
Our instructors Sylvester and Clinton were great at pointing things out along the way.
We walked over the suspension bridges which had recently been rebuilt due to a fire caused lightening.We boarded our kayaks and headed back to the mouth to kayak in the sea.
The sea kayaking was exhilarating as we hit waves and very hard work on the way back in to fight against the waves.We then paddled up the river, pausing at a cave where different species of bats live and several creatures young stay until they are old enough to hunt out at sea. These include stingray and various smaller sharks.The view is idyllic with the tall wooded mountains rising up on either side of the river. At the bottom of the cliff edge mussels were growing. The water itself is orange because of the iron oxide in the cliffs.
When we could go no further on the kayaks, we swapped for lidos. They’re like lilos but much more stable! We lay on our fronts and paddled further up stream as the current became stronger. This was hard work towards the end, fighting the rapids but when we let go of the rock at the end, the water pushed us along the way we’d come. This time giving up time to lay back and admire the beautiful views.
Before getting back in our kayak, Seb jumped from part of the cliff into the water. He said he fell much further into the water and he was expecting! His favourite part of the adventure.We paddled back to the rivers mouth enjoying the view as we came towards the sea. Then we elegantly dismounted our kayaks (at least I did!) and hiked back to base camp.We were really impressed to be offered a hot shower at the end of our trip! We didn’t take our cameras but we could have captured it better than their website: Untouched Adventures
Untouched Adventures were really well set up for this. They had wetsuits and booties to hire (90R/40R). We were given a dry bag if we wanted to take camera etc… with us. Helmets and lifejackets were provided as standard. They even had helmets with a GoPro mount on. At base camp, they recommended valuables were left in the car but had large boxes for clothes/towels. They looked after the car key too. Sylvester and Clinton really wanted us to have a great time. They were really knowledgeable and friendly. Highly recommend!(They asked to to do a Trip Advisor review so I’m writing whilst I remember!).
The Park Shop doesn’t boast much in the way of picnic food so we headed to the restaurant which was well priced and had a great selection. I had a sirloin, fig and Rockfort salad (delicious). Seb had a burger and chips!
Feeling revived, we decided to re-walk the hike to Storms River Mouth with the chance to look at the views (& take photos!). The went over the third suspension bridge onto a little beach with huge pebbles where I tried out my artistic talents!After the walk we sat by the rivers edge looking across the ocean to the Storms River Mouth where we’d kayaked this morning and at the mountain we’d hiked around (twice). We were amazed that the pathway was so well hidden.Just as the weather started to turn rainy we made our way to the Storms River Village about 20 minutes away. We’re staying in a guesthouse that has lots of little rooms outside around a garden area with pheasants (& baby pheasants). It’s really rainy at the moment and they’re hiding under the trees!We walked into the village for dinner. It’s very quiet but we found a relaxed cafe/restaurant. We chose our own pizza toppings – really nice pizza.
Exploring the Garden Route 