GS blue

At first we were a little weary of taking on the open ocean. Everyone in this area seems to be very concerned about big fish with many white teeth, especially in the vicinity of the seal island between Diaz Beach and Hartenbos. It makes sense that sharks will be more prominent in that area but its rather weird to think that something that swims to Australia for his annual summer vacation will confine itself to such a small area. For the amount of people who make use of the warmer waters along this coast, especially at Diaz Beach, there have been very few attacks to this day. That said, we were very cautious and careful, maybe even more cautious than usual.

Launching in Mossel Bay is best done from Santos Beach. In mid season you are going to struggle to get parking so make sure you get there early so you don’t have to walk your boat too far to get to the water. There are buoys in the water indicating the swimming areas and you should avoid paddling in these areas as you are considered to be a boat. Just be aware that there is also other boating traffic in the area as you are very close to the harbour and the Yacht Club.

You can paddle quite close to the shore but there are a few sections along the coast where surprise breaks could cause some entertainment especially on days with good swell. Areas to look out for are The Point, De Bakke, Diaz Beach and Ding Dangs.

Ok, now we made a bit of a boo boo on our trip, we assumed it would be ok to paddle into the harbour as there is a marina in it, and guys on yachts often have kayaks, NO NO NO - not a good idea. We were kindly informed by someone shouting at us from the harbour wall, that you are not allowed to paddle in the harbour. No loss, its not a very pretty harbour anyway, besides they pumping too much fish guts in the water, dem teethie dudes might be around  If you decide to paddle past the harbour, you must be very careful as there is quite a bit of boating traffic in the area. Remember that Mossel Bay is home to Mosgass.

Dolphins are a common site in these waters and the one day we spotted a few hundred dolphins swimming past. It was incredible to witness all of them making their way past the beach, their speed and agility is incredible. I also heard from a good source that spear fishing is good along the Mossel Bay coast so if that tickles your fancy, give it a bash.

We paddled about 10.5km in total.