This is my second adventure to Kosi Bay, but very different than the first. I will include notes from both trips because I want people to have all the up front info.
Kosi Bay is on the mid eastern coast of South Africa, boasting riverways, lakes with brackish and fresh water, and the Indian Ocean. Needless to say, that creates a lot of possibilities for excursions. The 2024 trip was more focused on Indian ocean activities so we will start there.
Before reaching Kosi Bay, we stopped at a Zulu village. Demonstrations of roles for tribal members, different ethnic clothing for stages of life, and how to throw spears and kill intruders was all part of our Zulu tutorial. While this is a super male dominated group of tribes where the women always walk behind the men, make beer and food for the manly men, I made a bet that the ladies in our group would be better spear throwers. Granted, most of us have never wielded a spear but nonetheless a challenge, and placed an even playing ground. And in fact, our spears had the proper arc and landing firmly in the ground while the men tried to overthrow causing the spears to undramatically flop to the ground. For non-Zulu people, I would put a bet most of the time on the female group to follow instruction for spear throwing.
We drove to Kosi Bay early in the morning, stopping at a few scenic locations and the local grocery to stock up on adult beverages. Our lodging for these 2 days was the Kosi Bay Lodge, which is an ecolodge near the Lake entrance for Kosi Lake, the biggest of the 3 regional lakes. This lodge is an excellent break from camping and allows guests to mingle with nyala and monkeys while sipping lovely beverages from a treehouse overlooking the bay. Truly idyllic. The management will arrange special walking and boating tours for you as well. As I will mention in this post, I highly recommend the hippo and crocodile boat tour if you want to be immersed in some close up wildlife.
We certainly lucked out with the accomodations in particular. Our cabin had two bedrooms with separate entrances as well as our own pool and outdoor kitchen. It was far enough from the main lodge area to be blissfully quiet, but also just a quick jaunt through the forest for pool/dinner/drinks/scenery. For the city dwellers reading this, when was the last time you truly saw the Milky Way without loads of light pollution ruining it. This place is where you see it. The monkeys are lively, and always watching. Like, looking in my bathroom window while showering watching. Like, Tim was unpacking his backpack and left a bag of doritos unattended for less than 10 seconds before the little dude had already grabbed the bag, hoisting it and a few chips as he spilled most of them. Quick lesson to lock everything up.
Full day water tour
We were booked for a combo of kayaking and snorkeling activities for the area. The region is known for it's robust and unique fishing industry which uses bamboo fish alleys that end in traps for the fish who are only too big to escape, thereby minimizing the catching of undersized fish. It is a full time job and maintenance and clearly not easy work. The fish caught in these areas is for the locals, and they are clear on that. Too much tourist industry can decimate fair prices for a local seafood supply and the diet is heavily reliant on fish. Our kayaking tour lasted about 2 hours, starting at Kosi Lake and traversing several of the marshy streams between lake beds. We saw up close how the fish traps work, but unfortunately did not get to spear one. The local mangroves and other flora were discussed in detail as well. Then we headed for a bit of snorkling in an enclosed bay inlet area. The floor of the inlet is full of coral and plant species common to the region as well as a variety of fish, eels, and other sea dwelling lifeforms. I tried my absolute hardest to get a video of a striped eel, clown and zebra fish, etc., but the item which I was not anticipating was the current and drift. In order to stay in one place, you had to lodge a foot or hand in a sturdy area of rock or coral so as not to be swept away with the riptide. Alas, balancing on one stable foot while filming under water is apparently something I have little skill for. Who knew?
Unfortunately, we arrived back at the lodge too late for the hippo boat, but since we did that in 2016, I am going to go through it. Kosi Bay national park and nearby town California is known for the hippos, lots of them. They have been known to stampede through town on occasion, leading to the second floor restaurant balconies just in case. Several outfitters run river boat tours through the area for a truly amazing hippo experience. Also, the crocs. It's not that I am dismissing the crocodiles. I love them as well, but HIPPOS are the best.
On our previous trip, we took a two hour tour on the river getting good briefings on hippo life...did you know that they actually cannot swim? A few close encounters with these amusing balls of terror were had as well. We witnessed how fast they are first hand as a group ran from shore into the water. This is why hippos are actually the cause of more deaths on game reserves than any other animal.
If you have the time to fit the hippo boat in, please do. And please spend some time in California as it is an adorable town with good shops and restaurants.
