The next morning, after a really uncomfortable night on the hardest mattress that I have ever experienced, we woke up so see the sun rising behind the mountain,
while the moon was still up over the sea.
It was the Alph's birthday but I didn't have anything to give him so we just ate our oats-so-easy and muesli bars, and drank our instant coffee (yukk) and consulted the map of Day 2 - which was a bit longer than yesterday, but sounded like an easy 7.9 kms.
All set to go are Gareth, Kate, Jonathan (checking the route on his GPS -please Coco, tell the Alph that I want one of those for my birthday next year), Richard and Lucy.
The path immediately set off straight up the mountainside and we had tea high up on the Skilderkrans with great views all around. Just the kind of viewpoint you like Coco!
Then is was down, down, down, down, down again to cross the Kleinbos River.
The younger six of the group decided to spend some time on Blou Baai beach, but the "oldtimers" carried on up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up to yet another viewpoint where we looked down to see them all on the beach far, faaaaar below. They are down there somewhere!
I was pretty exhausted by the time we got all the way back down to the next river mouth - the Geelhoutbos River - where the huts were: a very welcome sight I can tell you! We just flopped into the lovely cool sea for a chilly but refreshing swim.
And you and Dougal have your very own hut here!
There were Cape Clawless Otter pawprints (no claws!) on the beach, as well as baboons crossing the river bed.
Then at night we saw lots and lots of these funny cat-like creatures (from the family Viverridae) called genets (most likely the Large-spotted Genet, Genetta tigrina), that you and Dougal would have loved to chase. One even came into the hut and tried to steal our food - but Wyndham chased it away with a mighty ROAR.
Some of the group did a bit of laundry and this is them trying to dry shirts and towels around the fire after supper while we had a happy birthday celebration for the Alph - Richard gave him a cold beer much to his astonishment,
all the while being closely watched by the genets.Hope you are looking after Simon and not bugging him to take you walking all the time. He is trying to learn for exams you know.
lots of love from the Alph and Food Lady
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