March 9 – Buccaneers at Chintsa

The room might have been nice but the people were noisy. Some were chatting right out side our room till past 1 am. At 5:15 am someone used the bathroom down the hall and kept banging something. It woke me up even through ear plugs. The fluffy towel was nice but I prefer a good night’s sleep. 😦

The bus picked us up at 6:45 am and we headed for Chintsa. The baz bus was becoming a social time where we catch up people we’ve met other places along the way. Two girls (Eva and Louise) we did the Addo with were on there and we picked Sean up as well. We chatted with an American girl and a Dutch man who is planning a 6 day hike in the Drakensberg Mountains. Lots of interesting people!

We all wondered where Jay, our trusty driver was taking us today when we left the main highway onto a dirt road further and further into the jungle. Then we arrived at Buccaneers on Chintsa Beach. We said good bye to our bus mates and went to check in. This place was another great surprise. Our room was upstairs in a chalet like building. We had two beds in a room off to the side and there’s a big room in the middle with 6 beds. We had an upper deck with a great view and a kitchen downstairs with a lounge area. It was very cosy!

The village was “across the river”, which meant over a walk bridge, across a sand bar separating the lagoon from the ocean and up the other side. After checking out the supply store we went to go for lunch but the restaurant was closed. She said we could take a tuk tuk up the hill to a restaurant that was open. While we were waiting a man with 2 little girls offered us a ride as he was going there too. Why not? So we hopped in, enjoyed a chat with them and thanked him for the lift.

The waiter boxed up our left over pizza and we walked back down to the supply store and got food for pasta dinner and two breakfasts and walked back. After exploring the property, checking out the beach and options for tomorrow, we headed back and made ourselves dinner. A few others came in and we enjoyed some great chats and headed off for bed where we fell asleep to the sound of the ocean….MUCH better than our “nice” room in the city the night before.

March 10

What a great beach day! Low tide was at 10 am so we decided to check out the rocks to the right of the camp and the life in the tide pools. There was no one else on the beach until a couple came down some stairs on a dune and started poking around too. I asked the woman about star fish. We found lots of urchins so I expected to see star fish as well. She said there used to be lots of really big ones but she hasn’t seen them in a while. She then proceeded to spear a nice octopus. While they are quite tasty, it did seem a little violent when you’re just poking around.

We walked a bit further to find a tidal pool created by a resort down there and went for a nice refreshing swim.

Once back at our cottage, we enjoyed leftover pizza and headed out again to explore the left side of the beach, past Chintsa. We walked for almost two hours and didn’t see the end of the beach, nor another person. They say there’s 18 km of pristine beach!  On the way back we met some people heading home after their work day. The clouds threatened to rain a few times but it didn’t hit hard until we got back, shortly before 6 pm. VERY timely!

After a shower and reheated pasta, I checked the garmin; 32,000 steps. No wonder we’re tired! We did our best to stay up past 9 pm by watching funny geckos chase each other while editing and deleting photos.