Kayak/Lilo Adventure

CLICK HERE: TODAY'S PHOTO ALBUM

It poured all night.  Woke up to gray skies and rain on the roof.  Made coffee and had breakfast.  It was about 9am and I gave the bank a call to see about our bank card.  More good news while I was trying to talk on the phone - "you have one minute left".  How can that be?? We just filled up the card with minutes the other day.  I left a quick message at the bank. Being nowhere near a MTN shop, we downloaded the app as suggested.  After about the second try attempt at trying to buy airtime and getting declined, we gave up!  We are literally in techno hell right now - except the data thing seems to work ok - for now anyway. By the time we were finished with all of that the rain had stopped.

Not wanting to waste anymore time, we took out to the adventure center to see about today's adventure.  While we were there, the phone miraculously rang and it was Sive from the bank.  No, the 'card was not in yet but she will email when it arrives. OK - feeling better about that.  The skies also looked like they were clearing so it seemed that we were good to go. Talked to the man about the kayak/lilo thing got some more info on the whole thing. Stopped at the shop on our way back - may come back here later.  Back in the cabin, we gathered out stuff and got ready to lilo!

There were only four other people in our group. All of which rented wetsuits and water shoes.  We had our own water shoes and It was feeling pretty warm so we said no to the wetsuits.  Glad we did. It got really warm on  the 1km climb up and down, across the suspension bridge, and some more up and down till you finally reached the kayaks.  They were all sit on top tandems.  The water was cool but no freezing.  Kayaked through the cliffs and into a bat
cave until we reached the lilo site.  Lilos are basically flat floats - heavier material than I expected.  You lie down and paddle with you hands.  I thought we were going to go through some tight places but it was pretty wide and you certainly could have taken a kayak through.  Quite honestly, I was not that impressed.  We made a u-turn and it was back to the open water where the brave souls dove into the
water from the cliffs.  My husband being the first one to jump.  He looked like a pro! There was only one other gal who made the jump.  Then it was back in kayak, paddling back to our start and then the walkway -- up and down, up and down till we were back at the adventure center.  Well, we can cross that off the bucket list and never  have to do it again.  There was more hiking up and down the boardwalks and climbing over rocks than actually being in the kayak or lilo.  Hope we have a better experience tomorrow with the zip line.


Back in the cabin, we showered off and rinsed our clothes.  Checked the email and bingo! Sive from the bank wrote and our card is there.  Dressed quickly and jumped in the car.  Currently, I am writing as we are driving down to Plettenberg - should be there in 10 minutes.  Later

Going to a bank on a Friday is never a good idea - being  in South Africa doesn't help!  Direct deposit doesn't seem to be a thing here. The place was packed.  We had to pick a number and I thought I would lose my mind if I had to wait. "Can we speak to the manager, please."  Well that's all it took before we were exchanged id for our card and we were on our way.  We wanted to try it out at the ATM at the bank but the line was going around the corner by this time.  We'll try it at the next town we go to.  Phew! Glad that was done.

Now it was on to the MTN store.  I can't even begin to explain what happened here.  Way too many rules and programs and "Oh, that rule just changed today"  Duh!!???  I discovered that the 1gig of data they gave us for downloading the app expires at midnight!!??  Anyway, we got some more minutes and will probably never use them.  But you never know.

With all that taken care of, we were back on the road and back at our cabin by 4:30.  All in all, it seemed to have worked out without too much loss on our time.  We got in our adventure, which was good.  The skies have turned back to gray.  Hoping for some sun tomorrow for our trip through the trees.

Just returned from dinner - we are already laughing about the bank card caper.  Life is good.

Early night.

CLICK HERE: TODAY'S PHOTO ALBUM

Next time... Zip lining through the trees