Thursday
Dear Elsie
Today we had a busy outdoors day! We started off by doing some work and having a hearty breakfast. Then we set off for the Wilderness to do some rowing on the Touw river. We did this on honeymoon more than 36 years ago and thought it would be fun to revisit some of the spots we went to back then. We hired a canoe and set off up the river. We had an option to row about 3km upstream to a spot where we could leave the canoe and hop ashore. There was then a 2.5km walk to a waterfall . We set off on the canoe and were soon paddling like (slow) pros. It was so peaceful…
We were going with the wind and realised rowing back would be a challenge. Knowing our limitations, we decided to give the whole 3km trip a miss and just paddle around for an hour or so. Satisfying our rowing yen, we returned to the shore having comfortably worked our arms.
Then we went for a drive and parked at the bridge we had actually rowed under. There we saw a sign for the Kingfisher trail which went to the waterfall! Now this we were up for, so off we went. It was an easy trail with a few ups and downs. Mike walking into the light…
The most exciting thing was crossing the river on a pontoon.
It’s a platform on the river – you pull one rope to get you and it to the other side. These were tourists on the pontoon, who asked Mike to take their photo…
We soon learned the pontoon was quite heavy. Beyond it, the path was mainly a long and winding boardwalk.
Which brings me to the cost. Because this is Sanparks territory a permit is required. We had to pay this to row on the river so we glad it also got us onto this magnificent trail. It’s R52 for South Africans and about R180 for international tourists & there were a lot of them. It was super busy. It’s really well maintained and easy walking apart from some overhead branches which required some ducking. In time, we arrived at the waterfall.
We had to climb that rock to get to the falls…there were a couple of cascades.
I wasted no time in getting in. It was a bucket of fun. I’m in the water on the left.
This is the route the water took down the valley…
I got changed into dry clothes and then we walked back enjoying the amazing view of the forest. It’s not called Wilderness for nothing.
The river from the path. We had rowed along this stretch…
We were tired but happy…
We came home, had a rest and I did some work. By then we were getting seriously hungry. Breakfast had been big but it was at 8am. At 4:30pm we found a restaurant and ordered pizza. We couldn’t finish it. We’ve now showered and there is load-shedding, but I can do this as we are using a TP Link pocket router. Yesterday I called it a dongle, which it’s not! It’s great to have.
An absolutely fabulous and memorable day
Psalm 40:1
I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry.
The best is yet to come – we are only passing through.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Gran xx 🙂