Surf’s Up!

We have to check out in a few hours’ time from this idyllic location on the Indian Ocean. For some stupid reason, I had imagined the Indian Ocean as a warm body of water - it ain’t! A few nut jobs actually go swimming- quite dangerous as there are warnings about strong undertow. We’ve both found it mesmerizing to simply sit here and watch the surf roll in. Our lack of ambition finally got to us yesterday, though, so we went for a hike in a National Park that’s just a few minutes drive away. The trail was quite gnarly versus what we are used to; many roots, rocks to trip on. A number of buff looking millennials blew by us geezers without breaking a sweat.

Seemed like we worked quite hard before arriving at the 1 km signpost! Had to cross the river at one point using their raft which definitely sapped our enthuse for continuing to a waterfall.

Beautiful bird songs but we couldn’t see one bird due to thick foliage.

Many German tourists here - about 60% according to the restaurant manager we spoke with last night. Most of the rest are Brits, then a mix of Aussies and Americans. Very few Canadians he says but perhaps Canadians are on tour buses which this area isn’t set up to serve as near as I can see.

The restaurant the night before wasn’t particularly busy at the time we went so we gabbed a bit with the waiter whose mastery of English was excellent. He told us he had come from Zimbabwe about 3 years ago for a one year gig in a marketing role for Unilever. Not sure exactly what happened after that but he’s not going back due to lack of meaningful employment opportunities and high inflation - about 300% according to the IMF. He said there was hope things would be different following the demise of the Mugabe regime but this hasn’t been the case. New president simply puts friends, family and other sycophants on the government payroll, apparently. (Sounds like America these days but I digress.) He struck me as a responsible person; far more so than many of his countrymen who populate the army of panhandlers in Cape Town.