22 November 2016: South Africa- Wilderness, Mossel Bay

It was a quick drive from Knysna to Wildnerness. I drove up to the hostel called Wild Farm (R100/night camping) on a super bumpy road up a long hill. Among lots of soft grass, open space, and great views, I set up my tent. Needing to recover a bit from my night out in Knysna, I went to sleep pretty early. I only stayed one night, and in the morning, I packed up my worldly possessions and went down to the beach for a hot second. I was really apathetic about the beach, actually, it being cloudy once again, and decided to press on to Mossel Bay.

                I got to Mossel Bay and arrived at Mile Crunchers Backpackers (R140/night for a dorm), which is upstairs kind of in the middle of a shopping center, which was a little weird. It’s a nice place, though, with lots of space and some big tents set up in the common area. I arrived in the morning, so I dropped my stuff and started wandering around town. I went to the cape and watched really good surfers in one little part of the bay and boogie boarders spinning around on waves in another little part. There was also a lighthouse over there, and the start of a very long oceanside hiking trail called St. Blaize Trail that I elected not to do. Walking around, I watched seals and dolphins swimming just offshore. There is also another hostel on the beach that is made out of a train, which looked pretty cool.

                Then, being sufficiently bored of wandering around, I met up with the two South Africans I had met in Knysna, as they were also staying in Mossel Bay. They work as a chef and a game drive guide at this place in Outshorn, another inland place popular with tourists where, I’ve heard, you can ride ostriches. We made a tiny braai dinner and then walked along the beach where there was an insane amount of jellyfish strewn across the sand. There were enormous, firm ones, puffed up blue bottles with super long tentiacles, and so many others. Apparently this jellyfish graveyard was due to a recent spring tide, which, I learned, is an unusually high tide that happens every few weeks.

                The next day, I went to one of the main beaches to try to surf, but the surf shop never opened. That was all I wanted to do! Agh. What’s a girl gotta do to go surfing around here? All in all, Mossel Bay wasn’t super exciting. But you can do shark diving and sky diving and other activities if you want.