South Africa #22.

Since this is a hiking tour, today was a hike day. We had a buffet breakfast and were on the road by 7:30.

I didn't realize that we were so close to the Indian Ocean and that it would be so visible as we hiked. This trail is called The Otter Trail, although there were no otters. The settlers gave things odd names. Although maybe “otter” means something else in Afrikaans or Dutch (South Africa was colonized by the Dutch)  You should look it up and let me know.

The trail started as a gradual climb along a well travelled path amongst the leafy trees. It was cool and relaxing.

We saw a giant locust, it was huge and jumpy. It was easily as long as my hand.

We also saw giant African killer bees. Well, I exaggerate, they were giant, they were African and they were bees, but they were not killer. They were massive though, I’d say the wingspan was an easy 2.5 to 3 inches. I kid you not. 

And more locusts.

Before long the terrain changed to both good and bad. The good was the Indian Ocean in all it’s turquoise glory was on my left, and the bad was the boulders that we had to clamber over were as big as refrigerators and small cars. My knees were literally bruised the next morning.

These boulders went on for 2-3 km. It was hot and pretty tough going. The end, however, was this:

Dipped our toes and turned around for the trip back. At one point the speedy hikers were quite far ahead and the slower ones were behind. I was wandering along by myself and heard a rustle in the bush. I saw a snake come out, and he (she? Who knows with snakes?) was across the path with his head in the bushes on the other side before his tail appeared. He was large! A bird came swooping down and pecked at him and whipped his head back towards her and opened his mouth, but then he slithered quickly away. He was diamond patterned, shiny and pitch black. I google-imaged it...sure enough, a Black mamba....only the deadliest snake around. I did not put my hands near any bushes after that let me tell you! They do have signs everywhere saying “Beware of snakes.”, but I didn't think I’d see one. 

I took my time after that, enjoying the scenery and being careful where I walked. It was a fairly hard hike, but worth it for the scenery and feeling the spray on the Indian Ocean on your face. When I showered that night, the water in my mouth was salty from the Ocean air.