Kosi bay and Ponta Do' Ouro

Morning of the 28th we finish packing the caravan and Land Rover, meet up with Monica, Andreas, Ciaran and Celina and very excited we head for Kosi bay! In the car mum and I listen to my sister's Rawlicious DVD's which is very interesting about a movement in SA that advocates eating 70% of food raw with delicious recipes of how to achieve this. We have a quick stop at Lake Pongola (Jozini) to check out the view before heading for our first night stopover at Belvedere Game Reserve. Everybody loves our very own gorgeous lodge on the Reserve and we play pool, go for walks and have a scrummy braai with salads and potatoes cooked in the fire.

 

Next morning we take it very easy and only get away around 9am, with many stops on the way and arrive at Utshwayelo camp and lodge in Kosi bay around 3pm. A good 2-3 hours of setting up camp as we have a caravan plus tent, campervan, and 4 separate tents around as well as a gazebo to erect. Thirsty work and we get beers (and grapetisers) all round, then a swim in the camp's pool before we start with the braai. The next day we get permits to enter the Kosi mouth reserve and get told we can only take 1 car so we squeeze 6 adults into the Landie and the 4 kids love sitting on the roof as we attempt the sandy roads down to the mouth! The kids (and us!) have a ball in the wonderful warm clear waters of the mouth; the snorkelling is incredible and we spend 2 days solidly on the beach!

   

 

The next day we start feeling adventurous again, get our passports ready and drive the 2 minutes to the Mozambiquen border. It takes about an hour to get through and everybody says just follow the road to Ponta Do' Ouro however what they don't tell you is that there are about 30 different sand roads coming and going in all different directions and no sign posts at all! Welcome to Mozambique. Needless to say we miss Ponta Do' Ouro completely and end up at Ponta Do' Malangane in stead which is a beautiful beach and diving mecca. We spend a bit of time there, the kids have a swim in the sea and we get more directions back to Ponta Do' Ouro which we actually find only 30 minutes later! Starving we all file into the first bar/restaurant we find and order pizzas, beer and prawns but as we're waiting for the food we decide to browse around the markets outside and bump into my mum's cousin and family!! Such a special coincidence and we are immediately invited over for more drinks and a big family reunion!

 

 

We unfortunately have to get back to Kosi due to our turtle tour that night, but decide to come back the next day for a stay-over and swimming with the dolphins. The turtle tour consists of 2 hours driving in the Utshwayelo Land Rover across those confusing sand dunes (they call it roads) to end up on this pristine beach (Banganek beach), meeting the local guide and walking on the beach for 2 hours by full moon and then waiting until the turtles come out of the ocean to lay their eggs - we saw at least 4 but felt it was perhaps a bit invasive watching them lay eggs and taking flash photography. 

 

Back in Ponta Do' Ouro the next day, Koos and Mariette, Clara and Malan take us out to their favourite Portuguese prawns on the beach joint (for Kevin's birthday) and introduce us to the infamous Ponta R&R's (rum and raspberry). We end the night at a local café and are all able to sleep at their place before dolphins the next morning.  

 

 

The dolphin tour is amazing and we see and swim with a turtle, dolphins including a humpback dolphin and a little baby dolphin :) Poor Kevin gets terribly seasick on the way back (as do I but not as bad) and little Sekeata gets a bad bluebottle sting in the afternoon so we head back to Kosi bay for our final 2 days on our favourite beach (where we stupidly decided to go snorkelling at high tide and almost got stuck, but good teamwork got us safely out of that one)!