Zinkwazi to Mtunzini

Rained all night after a low-key dinner at the ski boat club – kitchen closed, so just a cold refreshment while getting a few disapproving looks over my sarong. Baked beans on bread back at the B&B. Woke just before 4am still tired and made the call for one more hour’s sleep – the right call.

Paddled off the beach at 06h00, using the outgoing river flow to help clear the surf zone, straight into a favourable current and brown river water. The biggest challenge was the Tugela River mouth, KZN’s biggest river, notorious for its big fish and running full and strong after the rain – water so brown I couldn’t see my own paddle. After about an hour I stopped thinking about what might be under me as the wind picked up from behind and the downwind improved.

Approaching Mtunzini I spotted what looked like a line of rocks on the beach, which turned out to be the bank of the Siyaya river in flood – it hadn’t broken its mouth in 13 years and we were the first to see it. Our host Isabella, from Nkawu Cottage, had saved a turtle washed out of the flooded river and released it into the lagoon.