Adventurous Day

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Today was a really fun and active day in contrast to the lazy day I spent yesterday tasting wine.

Woke up at 6am to have and early breakfast at the backpacker's that we were staying at. Left our little town of Swellendam by 7:30 and headed towards towards the coastal town of Knysna (pronounced nize-na . Heading out of Swellendam, the fog was pretty thick creating a really beautiful effect as we drove through flat grassy green expanses of land with mountains in the background. Pillows of fog sank really low so it looked it the mountains were rising out of the clouds. We made Jen (scenic papparazzi) in charge of identifying photo ops and making Erika pull over so we could take pictures. The fog lifted later in the day and you could see heards of cows, sheep, horses, and ostriches on the big patches of green 😊

Halfway through our drive, we reached the coast of the Indian Ocean. Beautiful!!! Followed the coastline for the rest of the trip to Knysna. Knysna was a cute coastal city. There were a lot of pretty houses built on the side of the mountain facing the ocean. We took a walk around it's main street with all of its shops. We just happen to be traveling through this area during South Africa's Oyster Festival so there were lots of people around. Saw a parade go down the street commemorating their day of freedom. I also stopped to talk to one of the local artists who painted beautiful acrylic paintings on canvas. Every painting had a story that went with it and she was very elaborate with all of the descriptions.

After walking around and grabbing a bite to eat, we all met up to go to the waterfront where our big adventures of the day would begin. On our agenda: Canoeing, Quad-biking, and Abseiling. Ricky would be our guide.

We canoed across the lagoon to the Feather Bed Nature Reserve on the opposite side. The water was a very calming teal blue color. Man was I out of shape. My arms and shoulders were so sore and my boat still came in last! We hike up the mountain afterwards for about 20-30 minutes, enjoying the view and snapping some pictures. We stopped to get geared up for quad biking. I had a blast riding along the dirt trails although at some points, I could have sworn my head was going to get taken off by an overhanging branch. I also held up half of the group when I missed one of the turns and had to ride in reverse up the trail, at which point, my bike wouldn't switch into forward anymore. I was going to abandon my bike and ride on the back of Erika's bike, but her battery died. Ricky finally came back to rescue us and got us back on the trails again. After quad biking, we had to prepare ourselves for abseiling. Abseiling basically means you're in a harness attached to a rope and you have to lower yourself down by gripping and ungripping the rope and letting it feed through. We had to do this down the side of a cliff. The descent was 212 feet. There was the huge expanse of the Indian ocean on one side and the waves crashing into the cliffs below. I get a little bit queasy with heights, but I decided to do it since everyone else was doing it.....and because it was free (or included in the program). Well, obviously I survived. I think the scariest part was at the beginning when you have to lean back over the edge and trust in the physics of the ropes and the friction brake. The day ended with us canoeing back to the other side of the lagoon (of course I came back last again) and driving to our hostel in Plettenburg Bay.

I think I'm going to sleep well tonight.

Goeie nag (goodnight)

None of the computers that I've come across have had working USB ports, so pictures and videos will have to wait.

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Comments

[Susan]

Adventures at Knysna
I'd like to picture myself having lots of fun at Knysna, but maybe not abseiling. Very interesting and adventurous journey out there.