Lily Pad Hut to Fish River Diner:
The next morning Ted and I woke up early and he started a little fire with the hot coals still in the pit and some new wood. This is officially his first 100% Teddy fire and he was quite proud of it! We sat and talked over cocoa, coffee and some gluten free rusks.
We saw more giraffes on our way out of the reserve:
And then it was back to the beach! This day we had quite a long hike down the beach and then over farmland to an old stone cottage.
But we had to take our time on this section... because there is coal AND shards of pottery from shipwrecks that you can find on the beach with careful hunting. I was skeptical, but we started to look.
The coal was pretty easy to find but we also found pottery shards! Sasha found the first one and after that it was "game on". They were tough to spot... with hard searching you could find 1-2 pieces per hour, but it was addicting and hard to stop looking!
When we found Dave's markers we started our trek though the dunes:
And what dunes they were!
Climbing piles of slippery sand is TOUGH! But the kids just laughed and grabbed each other and we made it to the top of each hill.
Finally we popped out the other side onto solid ground. Check out Teddy's hiking stick... it got more tricked out as the trip went on!
"I think I see the cottage!"
We had a 4 km hike through beautiful fields and lots of cows. Then we came around the corner and spotted this: an old stone cottage built in the 1800's! How cool!
First thing we had to do was check out our stash of shipwreck pottery. We were pretty impressed with our efforts!
A closer look:
This was our last night and it felt like the Stone Cottage was kind of like a halfway house transitioning us back to real life. Lily Pad was pure nature but Stone Cottage had electricity, running water, and a lot of comforts. Can't really call it backpacking but it let us ease back into reality! Dinner in the old kitchen:
Another shot of the cottage:
After dinner we gathered in the little living room with a fire and our book:
The next morning we had yogurt for breakfast and I got to test-drive my wilderness spoon that I made from a shell on the beach and a piece of rib bone we found in the reserve:
Then we had a 14km hike to the mouth of the fish river. The wind was blowing hard but thank heavens, it was at our backs! Teddy likes to climb every dune and you can see the wind whipping the sand off of this one!
Made it to the top!
We passed the Fish River Lighthouse:
And these 2 spent the morning laughing and singing together. What awesome hiking buddies!
All too soon it was time to brush off the sand and put our shoes on for the last time....
Most hikers end their trip with a meal at the Fish River Diner but we were lucky enough to finish on a Sunday when they have a brunch that is locally famous. We got there around 2pm and we were HUNGRY! The brunch didn't disappoint us and we sat down to a fabulous meal of good old fashioned country cooking - Africa style!
It was a trip we will always remember... so many wonderful moments and we have to figure out what to do with all that pottery!
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