Kosi Bay sojourners

December 28, 2008:

Yesterday we returned from a 4-day camping trip to South Africa’s Kosi Bay National Park, a World Heritage Site located on the beaches just south of the Mozambique border. We went with 3 other PCV friends and had a really great time spending Christmas with them and the other locals we met there. Kosi Bay is a very remote spot, so we managed to avoid the big holiday crowds that flock to the beaches this time of year. We'll put the pics in the next entry (they're both being posted at the same time anyway).
Kosi Bay National Park protects a string of big lakes that empty into the ocean, and it features huge sandy beaches cradling warm Indian Ocean waters, all surrounded by a dense “sand forest” housing hundreds of bird species, antelope, and other wildlife. We stayed just above one of the lakes at a bush camp. Swimming in these lakes isn’t advisable: they’re home to hippos, crocodiles, and Zambezi sharks. But we did plenty of swimming in the ocean, playing in the waves and floating in little coves sheltered by outlying reefs and rocks. Jamie-girl was able to run 30 minutes down the beach in bare feet, dense vegetation on one side and dazzling blue water on the other side, without anyone in sight after the first 5 minutes. The emptiness and beauty of our surroundings were stunning.
Our Lonely Planet-Southern Africa guidebook calls this park “the jewel of the KwaZulu coast… some of the most beautiful (and quietest) beaches in South Africa.”
Our hosts, the owner of the camp and his friends, were great; sea fishermen with jaw-dropping shark stories, generous personalities, and a rugged old land-cruiser truck to haul us around on the tricky sand roads of the Park. This group of South Africans basically included us in their Christmas activities, taking us to the beaches, sharing their camp kitchen, campfire, huts, and beautiful screened-in camp dining room. We made some good friends and good connections to guides who know the KwaZulu area like their backyard, and we’re definitely returning for more. It took us 3-4 hours to get there, and our total cost for the entire 4 days—rental car, groceries, lodging, everything—came to about $100 (US) per person.
I didn’t do any surfing, partly because I had no board and the nearest surf shop was about 1-1/2 hours south of the Park, and partly because I had no idea what we were going to find out there. It’s quite remote, no surfers were in the water, and around sunset the tiger sharks come out to feed—3 to 5 meter-long beasts with a dangerously curious nature. But I did get my saltwater fix by playing in shore break until I felt truly broken, and by getting enough saltwater up my nose for my sinuses to feel normal again. Ocean water temp: mid-70s. perfection. The place was hard to leave.
One of the coolest features of this place, aside from the gorgeous empty beaches, was it’s so-called “sand forest.” Imagine miles and miles of big sand dunes, covered with a multi-layered canopy tree forest and beautiful grass meadows—all this plant life growing directly on sand dunes. You could dig down and all you found was more sand, no actual brown dirt. Apparently there’s enough consistent rain and drizzle to support the forest despite the water’s rapid drainage through the sandy ground. There are lots of mangrove, fig, raffia-palm, acacia, and other trees in this forest, and some kind of fern/palm species that takes four hundred years just to get as big as a bush. All the roads winding through it are deeply-rutted sand tracks.
After parking our rental car at our host’s home in the nearest town to the Park border, we rode in the back of his old truck for about an hour over these crazy roads just to get to his bush camp. And then it was another 30 minutes’ bumpy and beautiful drive from there out to the nearest beach. By the time we got to the sand we were so far off the proverbial map that it felt like we’d time traveled. The beach was a nesting area for loggerhead and leatherback turtles, and there was a little research station built into the hill out on the point; other than that, there wasn’t a structure in sight. The shallow water was topaz blue, the sand was the color of tanned skin and fit perfectly between my toes, and the breeze was fresh and light.
Amazingly, the heat wasn’t at all oppressive, thanks to a bit of cloud cover and rain that came and went during the first few days, blocking some of the intensity of the African sun’s direct rays. It’s truly amazing what the sun can do to a person down here, and we’re getting smarter: we escaped getting burned while on the beach. We’d expected extreme humidity and heat, but we managed to get some relatively mild conditions. Our host said we’d lucked out.

For New Year’s Eve we’ll be joining some other PCVs and close friends at a backpacker’s lodge in Swaziland’s Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary. It’s supposed to be a really nice and low-key lodge with a pool and private rooms (Heidi/Xtophe and Fed/Lekha: the description of this place reminds me of that great hostel in San Jose, Costa Rica). It’s not far from home-- we’ll just stay a few days there, but I’m looking forward to it.
Then, at the end of January or the beginning of February we’re planning to take one more little trip before summer goes away. We’ll take some days and go to Durban, which is also on the KwaZulu section of South Africa’s eastern coastline—just much further south than Kosi Bay. It’s known for great surf breaks and swimming beaches in the summer (that’s now), but it’s too crowded to properly enjoy during the holiday season. So we’re waiting until school starts up again and things calm down before going. While there, we’ll get some boards and catch some much-needed waves, stay in a room near the beach with indoor plumbing (the opulence!), jog along the beach promenade like in San Diego, explore the Indian spice markets Durban is known for, and maybe even go out to eat at a restaurant.
Anybody want to come along? I’ll make you a deal: you pay for your airfare, I’ll rent you a board AND buy you dinner. I’m serious—I’ll do that. Think about it… let me know.

Happy New Year everybody. We love you and miss you all, and we miss all the great traditions of gathering and celebrating with friends and family that make this time of year so special for us.
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, your gifts and cards, your support and encouragement.