Kosi Bay

 A scorpion we found in our swimming pool in the morning.

 The fish corrals.

 The sandbar area, which disappeared when the tide came in.

 The Indian Ocean side and Henning in the surf.

 A native working the corrals.

 It was a beautiful place to hang out for the day.

Thursday, November 30^th.

I woke up at 3:00 and found that I was being very lightly sprinkled. I waited for a bit and then it started to rain a bit harder, so I got up and closed all the window flaps and visited the toilet. I managed to get back to sleep until 6:00 at which point I got up. The rain had stopped by the sky is grey and it's a bit cool and damp.

Jay cooked up bacon, beans and eggs, but I had cereal and a banana. Then we got organized for our hike to the ocean. Most of signed out masks and snorkels as there was a reef where we were going. It was a 3-4 kilometre walk, mostly downhill on a two wheel dirt track. We went in small groups and took slightly different routes and arrived at different spots. Some people wound up at a shallow sand bar area and others, me included had walked further and wound up at a beautiful, empty sandy beach on the Indian Ocean. Henning and I got in and played in the waves. After that I decided to walk to the area where the Tonga tribe have set up the kraal. I walked along the sandbar in the bar to the kraals but only saw one man working there.

Then I walked back to where I was and went in the ocean again. I noticed that all the others had left the sandbar area as it was disappearing with the tide. I walked back around to where the they were. They told me that they had found the reef for snorkelling and Jay pointed to where it was, on the opposite side. I waded in and could walk most of the way and only had to swim a bit but the current was really strong as the tide came in. When I got to the reef I was surprised by the variety of fish, including several eels in caves in the rocks and lionfish hiding in the reef. The reef itself was not very nice, however it is behind a large sandbar which I found quite strange. As I was looking the current pushed me along very quickly. When I got the end I found it really challenging to swim back and had to stay close to the shore where I could get my footing. When I finally reached the spot where I had to negotiate the crossing back to the mainland I tried to swim with the mask and snorkel but the current was really strong, the snorkel filled up twice and I swallowed water and I got a leg cramp. I had to go back and try again, but still no. I decided I didn't want to drown here, so I gave up. As I was standing there a young man who was fishing came by and told me that the tide would turn in an hour and it would be much easier. So I waited and paced the shore. I watched the other people on the shore but couldn't signal them or call them as it was too far away (probably 200 metres). I watched as the two o'clock truck showed up and they all got on and left. About a half hour later, the tide began to change and the waves calmed a bit. I was able to swim on my back with the flippers to the sandbar and wade back to shore. There I found my shoes and my hat with a note saying that they had taken my waterproof bag with my camera as they weren't comfortable leaving it there.

So I walked the 3 kilometre walk back to camp where I had a shower and met up with the group. I told a couple of people about my episode but basically everyone thought I just wanted to stay over there longer to snorkel. I took Jay aside and told him I saved him a lot of paper work by staying over there until the tide changed.

After all of that I worked on the computer for a bit before we had dinner. Jay made a vegetarian lasagna that went wrong when he went to boil all the lasagna sheets and they all stuck together as a block. He had to scramble around and use other pasta, but it all tasted good. Then off to bed about 9:00.