Friday, October 26, 2012

Wilderness - 10/18/12



GABBY - We awoke from our slumber with enough time to make it to the breakfast we signed up for the day before.  The breakfast was placed outside for us on a picnic bench.  Ben had an omelet with bacon, mushrooms, cheese and tomatoes, and I had the muesli, fruit, and yogurt.  It was a breakfast that jump started our day that would be filled with a series of adventures.  Low tide dictated our morning plans of walking the beach.  We drove our car to a parking lot that was unknowingly a hot spot for paragliding.  The day could not have been more perfect for paragliding and beaching, but it was just about deserted.  We climbed down the tower of wooden steps cutting into the cliff to the sandy paradise below.  Walking hand in hand down the beach, Ben and I admired the mussels, colorful, vacant shells, and sea glass.  We got to talking about making a lamp shade out of sea glass.  That conversation was enough to send us off in all sorts of directions collecting as many pieces of sea glass as we could spot.  In the back of my mind I knew that we would be carrying everything we picked up in our packs, but I kept on collecting.  We filled Ben’s pockets with an impressive amount of brown and green sea glass and some opal shells that made the “you’re pretty, we’ll keep you” cut.  Finally we settled in one spot and read about 5 pages before realizing that the time had escaped us.  We were looking forward to a hike that Paul, the Fairy Knowe owner suggested that was going to take 4 hours.  Before leaving, we admired some experienced paragliders who played off the wind and discovered a dead dolphin up the beach from us.  We climbed the same steps to our car.  When we reached the top, we were enlightened by the fact that the paragliders were taking off from the patch of grass right next to where we parked Maria.  They were gaining control, running, and gliding off the mountain we had just hiked up.  On recommendation from Paul, yet again, we went to a beach front restaurant called Salina’s for some fish and chips before driving up to a lookout called Map of Africa.  We drove up a steep hill to a dirt road until we saw a woman standing in the middle of the road pointing to her left.  She turned out to be a volunteer tour guide that took us around and informed us about the area and what we were looking at.  Looking down from where we were standing, the landscape below looked much like the continent of Africa.  The confluence of two rivers formed a forested tip, much like the southern tip of Africa, Cape Agulhas and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.  After our tour, we drove back to Fairy Knowe, parked Maria, grabbed our rain coats, and set off down the path towards Wilderness National Park.  The hike began from Fairy Knowe, which was convenient and practical.  We took the more difficult Bosduif trail, which consisted of a series of switchbacks and steep stairs that resulted in a birds-eye view of Wilderness National Park.  It was getting cloudy and looking a bit ominous as we were beginning our descent that was going to bring us back to a trail leading to a waterfall.  It started to rain, but the canopy was thick enough to deter me from putting on my raincoat.  Finally we came upon a sign that told us to go right to the waterfall via the stepping stones.  It was raining decently heavy now and the water level was such that the stepping stones were completely submerged.  Ben and I wandered around aimlessly and unsuccessfully looking for another way to cross.  Eventually we looked at each other and knew we had a decision to make.  To cross the river, or turn back, which would inevitably result in a sense of disappointment -failing to reach the waterfall.  Ben said, “The camp counselor in me tells me that this is a bad idea, but the adventurer in me says hell yea, let’s do it”.  He looked at me to give away a clue as to what I was feeling, when I reached down and started taking off my hiking boots.  Ben led the way and I followed him, bare foot walking through a river to get to a waterfall.  Oh the things I would do to see a cool waterfall.  We hopped the fence to our trail and continued on unscathed.  Eventually, soaking wet, we reached the waterfall and almost collapsed with the sense of accomplishment.  It wasn’t the most beautiful waterfall I have ever seen, but it certainly seemed to be in those moments.   Ben whipped out a Tempo bar (my favorite candy bar in South Africa) and we went bite for bite under spray from both the rain and waterfall.  We high tailed it back to the stepping stones, where we observed a series of signs.  Among them was one pointing to a pontoon just down the way a couple meters.  I didn’t know what a pontoon was, so I was expecting a little rope bridge or something.  No, no, no it was a pully system that had Ben and I sitting on a raft.  Ben reminded me of Mr. Ornet from the classic movie African Queen, ensuring Katherine Hepburn’s (my) safety on the river.  It was starting to get a bit dark, and the sounds of the forest were starting to freak me out a bit.  I finally admitted my state of panic to Ben, so he started singing songs from “Newsies” to divert my attention elsewhere.  Finally we arrived back at Fairy Knowe safe and sound, but very wet and cold.  We showered quickly and went for pizza at Bongo’s before calling it a night.  What a day, what a day, what a day, yay yay.    

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