I love the beach and wanted to make sure we hit it up before we went home. Our travel agent originally said that we should go to Mozambique, but I wanted to stay in South Africa. So she found us a great place to stay in the KwaZulu Natal region.
We flew into Durban and spent a night at the Coco de Mer hotel in Ballito. The wind was so strong when we arrived that when I stepped out of the airplane in Durban, I almost got knocked over. When we got to our hotel, we decided to walk down to the beach to check it out. Because of the wind, the waves were massive. The picture below can't do the weather justice. It has been a very long time since I've seen waves that big.
So why did we spend only one night in Ballito? Our next stop, the Thonga Beach Lodge, was four hours north of Durban. And then, we had to take a 4x4 for another hour to get to the lodge. It was a long drive and South Africans who live outside of the cities avoid driving at night if they can. This is mainly due to the fact that the roads don't have lights and cows roam wherever they want, including in the middle of the road. One of our drivers told us that the cows really like to lie down in the road at night because it's warm. Imagine turning a corner and having a black cow chilling on the road right there. So there you go. That's why we don't drive at night in rural South Africa.
The lodge is located in a World Heritage Site. The beach there was so beautiful and untouched. It went for miles and miles with no one there except for the people who were staying at the lodge. The Indian Ocean was crystal clear and gorgeous shades of blue. It was truly beautiful.
Our suite was located all the way end of the property and we had a beautiful view, as well as our own pool. Every day, we ate under this massive tree and listened to the waves crash against the shore. And since the lodge can only accommodate roughly 30 people, we never felt crowded.
The lodge itself is located on property owned by a Zulu village located not too far away. The owners of the lodge are leasing it from the tribe. As with most other places where we stayed, the vast majority of the staff was from the village. We learned that when a job slot opens up at the lodge, its owner goes to the village chief and lets him know. In turn, the chief offers the job to a person in a family who really needs the money.
There was no shortage of things to do while we were there. On our second day, we went on a snorkeling in the morning and on a sundowner on the largest freshwater lake in Southern Africa at night. The snorkeling was out of this world. We saw all sorts of fish and even octopus! Mike had so much fun that he went back to do it a second time.
On our third day there, we attempted to kayak. I say attempted because it was so windy that we couldn't go all that far. There was one moment when Mike thought we were going to tip over, but luckily we didn't. If you really want to know how to test a relationship, stick two people in a kayak on a windy day. Luckily, we passed that test.
Mike and I thoroughly enjoyed our time at Thonga, even if we were the youngest people there by at least 15 years. But once we got to talking with people, that didn't matter. We made friends with a British couple who invited us to stay with them in London. Expect some posts from London :)
The beach was the perfect way for us to end our trip. Being able to do whatever pleased was truly relaxing. Mike and I could not have asked for a better finale to our trip of a lifetime.
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