Urging visitors to Kosi Bay not to use Thobeka Backpackers for guided tours and activities!

We had an awful experience and there was no recompense or remorse for that experience. We didn't stay here but rather paid for guided kayaking and snorkeling. Thobeka Backpackers provides a long list of guided tours and activities. We went kayaking with their guide Vusi. Vusi not only completely abandoned us on the water (going far ahead with another more capable couple), but failed to tell us about the deadly razor clams in the water. When we found ourselves alone on the water and still about a kilometer from the s****, we decided to get into the shallow water and push the kayak. Only for my boyfriend to step on razor clams and cut his foot to the bone. He began bleeding excessively and so I pulled the boat at least 800m to the s****. When we arrived at the s****, the kayak filled with blood, we discovered Vusi neither had a first aid kit nor a car to drive us out of the reserve back to our car. Luckily, the other couple had arrived with a car and had a first aid kit so we were able to ease the bleeding a bit.

Nobody came with us to the hospital (which was in a very bad state and in which we spent 4 hours) and nobody paid the hospital bill. My boyfriend had to have 11 stitches on one foot. To make matters worse, we were promised a full refund but received less than 20% of our money back- because of 'petrol money and the permit license' even though we were only driven in and didn't even get to snorkel. This infuriates me for a number of reasons: yes, we did sign a one paragraph indemnity form BUT we paid for a guided experience. We were not given life jackets, we were abandoned in an estuary in which there were nearby hippos and even after informing our guide we had little to no kayaking experience, we were not told about the deadly razor sharp clams. In light of this, the fact that we at the very least did not receive a full refund for the snorkeling which we never got to experienc, nevermind compensation for a reckless and awful outing, is completely unacceptable.

This is made even worse by the fact that we were told that this HAS HAPPENED BEFORE and that my boyfriend, who is a national sportsman, was on crutches for more than a month and that because of his injury we had to cut our trip short.

As if all of this is not infuriating enough, my boyfriend gave his go-pro to our guide in the chaos of him bleeding and being emergency bandaged by the other couple who were kayaking with us (while I was making frantic calls), and despite asking for it back, Vusi openly denies any knowledge of the go-pro, nevermind actually returning it.

This is completely unacceptable behaviour for a company which takes responsibility for guided tours in a wetland area which is rather remote. What is more unacceptable is how poorly their own misconduct was handled. I would like to urge other visitors to Kosi Bay not to make use of Thobeka Backpackers irresponsible, reckless and careless services so that they won't fall victim to potentially livelihood and life threatening risk like we did.

I have since been dismissed and ignored for raising these issues again and for trying to get my boyfriend's go-pro back. It's completely unacceptable and many have told us to take legal action. We thought we would start by warning others.