What should have been a relaxing morning was actually a little panicky because we were worried about running out of gas while going from one end of the park to the other.  Poor gas tank management led us to set alarms for like 7 so we could quickly dine, drive out of the park to a gas station, then check out of our room and make it to the kayaking trip by 9.

Everything went smoothly, we didn’t run out of gas, and our early rising gave us the opportunity to watch a family of otters leave the water and scurry back to their home in the rocks.  I went after them to try to get a photo (which was rude, in retrospect), causing them to drop their octopus brekkie.  But presumably the octopus was still waiting for them in the grass to retrieve after I left.

Otter breakfast. (It’s an octopus.)

After filling up with gas, we bought a gross breakfast from the camp store and ate it while watching the waves and the hyraxes going about their morning errands.  We got to the Kayak & Lilo place early because we were nervous about ocean kayaking, so of course it turned out that “Be there by 9” actually meant “We’ll show up around 9:15 and try to get the show on the road by 9:45 or 10, but NBD.”  So.  A fair amount of sitting around.

One dad in another kayaking family had an absurdly fancy camera, complete with a  fuzzy wind muffler for his microphone and tons of other accessories.  Not surprisingly, the dude filmed every aspect of the trip.  Nice enough folks though. Once the trip actually started, the ocean was too rough for the ocean kayaking portion of the trip, so we had to hike around to the suspension bridge and get in the water there.  Actual time spent kayaking was *maybe* ten minutes, which was a bummer, but then we got to get on the little industrial-strength air mattresses.

We paddled up the river to a nice swimming hole where Brett jumped off a cliff

Then he jumped again, and folks just kinda generally goofed around. The water was black black due to the tannins leached from the… something or other upstream. So said our guide..  Then we saw a bat cave!

After the swimming and goofing around, we paddled back to where we’d left the kayaks, then kayaked back to the suspension bridge and walked to camp We got snacks at the store, then after getting completely weird and conflicting information about where to park from 6 different park rangers, headed out on the Waterfall Trail.  One of our all-time favorite hikes.  Lots of rock-scrambling, with the ocean ever more than twenty feet away.  We almost turned around because we had a long drive ahead of us, but we’re so grateful we didn’t.  Not only was the waterfall gorgeous, but it emptied into a cool, dark lagoon.  We jumped in in our clothes (for modesty!  There were lots of folks around.)

We could have floated in the lagoon for ages, but time, as it does, kept slipping into the future or whatever, so we marched back to our car and drove to our little B&B in Port Elizabeth. Brett hiked in his underwear, cause he felt like it both made sense and would go unnoticed by anyone else. We’ll never know!  Pretty uneventful drive, but pretty.  Bret really thinks he saw a lion crossing the road, which would be super weird but not impossible.  Because it was in Africa.  Dinner was at a restaurant with the quality of food you can reliably expect to get at places with good views (Barncacles!  Not just for whales and old boats anymore!) The photo (last one in the gallery) makes it look like weird, dark sunset, but it’s actually a squid boat, shining bright lights to trick the squid. Seems kida like cheating, but so it goes.