This post is for the #wednesdaywalk challenge and the #makemesmile challenge collaboration. This collaboration initially took place once a month, but due to its popularity, @tattoodjay (of the #wednesdaywalk) and @elizacheng (of #makemesmile) decided to make it a weekly thing.
If you want to know more about the rules, visit this week's post by @tattoodjay where you will find all the rules at the bottom of his post after you've enjoyed his beautiful photos from his walk.
Last week Friday I shared how we enjoyed an early morning cappuccino at the Forest Cafe in Umhlanga. You can read about it here if you missed it.
Today I would like to share more of our walk of that morning.
We arrived in Umhlanga just as the sun appeared on the horizon over the ocean.
From where we parked the car on the main road, we started the walk toward the beach.
As we arrived at the beach, we took a left turn, walking up north, with the ocean to the right.
We had some of the most beautiful views of the sun rising over the ocean.
Looking east, getting a clear view of the ocean, with the sun announcing the arrival of a new day and some ships on the horizon.
Looking a little more north, getting the sun to the right of the photos, I took some more shots.
I couldn't really decide which of the next two photos to share in my post, so I'll share them both.
In the first photo, I like the prominent waves rolling in...
In the second photo, there were more smoothness and more swells in the water...
The neat little walkway that we followed up to the boardwalk.
Then we arrived at the boardwalk which took us through the forest.
We stopped over at the Forest Cafe for a nice warm cappuccino.
After spending some time at the Forest Cafe, soaking in the calmness of the forest and enjoying the sun rising over the ocean, we decided to continue our walk.
We discovered a trail behind the Forest Cafe and decided to follow it.
It took us out to a section of the original trail, taking you over part of the wetland inside the Umhlanga Lagoon Nature Reserve.
According to umhlangarockstourism.co.za, 'Umhlanga, as we know, gets its name from the Zulu for “place of reeds”. The wetland plants grow in abundance at the mouth of the Ohlange River, to the north of the resort-town.'
This wooden walkway tasks you through some of those reeds. It allows you to cross over to the other side without getting wet.
To the left was an interesting information board about Pickergrill's Reed Frog.
In the middle of the wetland, standing on the wooden walkway, looking down south, you see the holiday accommodation at the northern end of Umhlanga.
We passed through between those buildings walking down to the beach, earlier in the morning (at sunrise).
About halfway across to the other side...
Just before we arrived on the other side, before we got to solid ground, it was clear that some wildlife also came through this area, spotting these little footprints right next to the walkway in the wet sand below us.
Arriving on the other side, we found that this portion of the trail is still closed after the floods from last year.
So we turned around and followed the same route back.
Approaching the Forest Cafe from this side...
We passed through the forest again and made our way back to the open spaces just above the beach.
Another fun way of exploring the coastline early on a Saturday morning...
We found a bench and decided to sit down and just enjoy the ocean for some time...
This was our view from the bench.
Looking down south, you could see the Umhlanga lighthouse.
The structure that you can see just in front of the lighthouse, is the Whalebone Pier. I have also shared some photos of it in the past. The pier is next to the main beach of Umhlanga.
After that, we returned to the car and went back home.
That's all for today, folks!
Thank you for reading my post! I do appreciate it!