We left our abode about 9 a.m. to head down the street to the Salt Café where we had coffee and a ham and egg breakfast panini, which were very filling. We checked email because, as I said, the wi-fi at our resort is not working.
We were looking for Bill from Tidal Tao, with whom we were going to snorkel. It actually was Billie Jean, who grew up in Port Elizabeth but started her photography career in Jo-burg. She's an enthusiastic nature documentarian who likes fthe water, ish and coral.
We almost missed her because she was outfitting a couple and three young women but never talked to us or looked for us. So I completed the sign-up sheet and eventually we got our wetsuits, fins and snorkel masks.
And off we went down to the Tidal Pool, which I mentioned in my last blog. There was a concrete retaining wall built (for reasons, we don't know) but it accidentally created an environment for coral to grow and attract fish. It was a small area, probably not larger than a city block, but it did have beautiful coral and some interesting fish.
Billie Jean could not get a wetsuit big enough for me (Ha!) so I was a little reluctant about going into the water because she said I would be cold. Beth put on a full-body wetsuit - only for warmth as there were no creatures like jellyfish to worry about (as there was at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia). I braved it - and it wasn't as bad as she indicated it would be.
We snorkeled around the area for nearly two hours, much longer than our compatriots. We saw lots of pretty creatures including a Floral Moray, which no one but us saw. Among the fish species we saw: Raccoon Butterflyfish, a Devil Firefish, the Sergeant Major, Convict Surgeonfish, a Talent Worm, a Birdfish, a Cutribbon Wrasse, a Black spined urchin, a short spined urchin, a Vagabond Butterflyfish, the Blacktail and an Arabic Courie shell. Beth saw a Blue-Eyed Hermit Crab, and there probably were others we couldn't identify.
We went back to the Salt Café for hot chocolate and a nice visit with the three American college students who are participating in a five-month study-abroad program. One was from a D.C. university, another from a small Ohio university. They were delightful, curious and polite. They made us proud, as they were what we want to project as Americans (they all disliked Trump).
It was a wonderful morning.
Thanks to Billie Jean for the underwater photos of our trip!
We went back to our resort to do laundry, and as we're sitting around, the monkeys came. Yep, there were about six of them, hopping across the lawn. Our neighbors told us they (the monkeys) stole their sweets yesterday. The windows have "monkey bars" on them so they don't go into your chalet. Guess they're smart chumps. Ha!
It was nice to have clean clothes once again, as we're now moving to Eshowe to do the Zululand cultural tour.
After hanging out at the swimming pool for an hour or so, we headed to the sports bar to watch the third (and final) game of the WNBA championship. We then ate the all-you-can-eat rib special, at which point one of the managers came to ask how the ribs compared to US ribs. I had to tell him I am a Kansas City Barbecue Society judge, and I thought the ribs and the sauce were quite good. I tried to convince him to visit the website. He knew about brisket but said "smoking" wasn't a thing here. As I said earlier, the braai's are open-fire pits so you can't really smoke anything in the sense of slow-and-low.
One reason we enjoyed going back to the same restaurant was our waiter, Aaron, which you have to say with a rolled r. He was delightful last night…full of personality, and he was spot-on as we were watching the WNBA game Thursday night - i.e. making sure I always had a beer! We enjoyed him and tipped him well.
This is the view from our little chalet at Chaka's Rocks Chalets.
We snorkeled in a Tidal Pool during our first morning. This is Beth. :)
This is me - I really don't float, do I? Ha!
This is a black tail amongst the coral.
This is some of the coral we saw.
Some pretty yellow fish we observed. Didn't get an identification on them.
This is a female parrotfish.
This is a male parrotfish.
This is what Billie Jean called a stone urchin.
This is a creature. We thought it was trash when we initially spotted it but Billie Jean explained to us that the tendrils are extended hoping to capture bypassing organisms.
We thought this looked like a pineapple, but not the kind we get in the United States. Any guesses?
These handsome monkeys visited us during the afternoon while we were doing laundry.
Look closely - those white horizontal lines in the portion of the photo in which you can see me are monkey bars.They were difficult to photograph. :)
This is common bird, kind of like a crow. There were tons of them in the tree behind us at the pool because there were tons of berries. I captured one with a berry in its beak.
After laundry, we spent time at the pool before heading to the sports bar to watch WNBA basketball and eat supper.
No comments:
Post a Comment