24 Sep. 13
We are still here and still tied to the jetty waiting for next week so
we can catch the bus back up to Durban to fetch our car and go off to the
wedding in Mozambique. After the wedding we hope to sell the car and catch
another bus back here. I don’t like leaving Yrumoar alone for too long, she
misses me I think, so we don’t have much time to sell the car and hope it sells
quickly. Sharlene and Kenny have invited us over on the weekend to celebrate
their anniversary and today is national braai day in SA so we will row over to
the yacht club and see if anything interesting develops.
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| Braaing/barbequeing on Yrumoar |
A cruising yacht came into the harbour yesterday morning and wanted to
raft up to us. I had to tell them they couldn’t since the owner of the jetty
told us not to allow anyone to raft onto us or tie onto his jetty. Later I
apologised to them when we went across to have a shower and they invited us
aboard for coffee. On board the two Australians had hijacked a South African
couple in Durban to sail down this treacherous coastline with them. They had
suffered a knockdown and all their plates had broken as they had flown out of
the locker onto the cabin floor. One of the guys told me that South African
sailors have to have balls of steel to sail in this ocean. I just laughed at
his comment thinking silently to myself how my balls turn into raisins and try
hide inside my body whenever we go out.
25 Sep. 13
So the Ozzies left sometime last night and we are still here. I wonder
how often this is going to happen to us, people coming and going and more
people coming and going while we don’t seem to move. Perhaps it will change one
day and we will become the movers while others wait.
I don’t know if I mentioned this before but doing the washing is quite a
job. I have to get off the boat with a jerry can and fill it with water. Next I
empty the jerry can into two buckets. I use one bucket to wash and the other to
rinse and soften the clothes. I am sure everyone had to do it like this about a
hundred years ago before the advent of the automatic washing machine so why am
I whining about it. It is after all just one of those little perks that comes
with the lifestyle we have chosen.
I don’t mean to sound like a disgruntled ex-housewife but after I did
the washing this morning I counted the t-shirts on the line and noticed that
Rauen and Lola are the washing culprits. Lola had numerous items on the line
and took about half the space, but then she is a girl so it’s understandable. I
won’t mention the underwear since us boys all had about the same and Lola more
than doubled that but it’s the t -hirts that got me going. Kyle and I had two
each, but Rauen had four. I know it doesn’t sound like a lot but I did washing
about a week ago and everything was clean. Anyone who knows Rauen will know
that to even find him in a t-shirt is impossible. He walks around topless all
the time and I can’t remember the last time I saw him in a t-shirt. So my
question, or gripe is, when does he wear all these t-shirts? It must be while
he is asleep because I asked him and even he couldn’t explain. As for Kyle and
myself. I know you are all thinking 2 t-shirts in a week, that’s disgusting!
But anyone who lives on a boat will tell you it’s how it is. I like to call it “eco”
dressing.
8 Oct. 13
Leaving Yrumoar is not like leaving your house when
you go on holiday. Well I suppose it is similar except your house won’t
disappear out into the ocean if you didn’t tie it down properly, or sink if a
huge log comes floating down the river and punches a hole in your hull. A
disaster could still happen to your house while you are away but is usually the
last thing on your mind while you sit on a beach somewhere sipping cocktails
through a straw. I mean the chances of the ground suddenly opening up and
swallowing your house or a river spontaneously developing in the neighbour’s
yard then flooding over your walls are rather slim. So generally when you go
away on holiday you lock the doors switch on your alarm and leave without a
second thought. Simple isn’t it?
However when you are leaving your floating home
tied to a jetty in a bouncy harbour that tests the strength of your ropes
during every tide change, things are a bit different.
We had to leave Yrumoar to fend for herself while
we headed off to Tammy’s wedding in Ponta Do Oura, Mozambique. The morning we
left I had to close all the sea cocks and prepare the toilets by rinsing them a
few times with fresh water and vinegar so the smell would not kill us when we
came back. Marine toilets stink all the time, but if left for a while and I
mean a short while like 24 hours without flushing, they really stink. Something
like the inside of a morgue without refrigeration to keep the bodies “fresh”.
The toilets are only one thing on a list that has
to be done before leaving. Checking and rechecking ropes, switching off water
pumps, testing bilge pumps, turning off the gas, checking the dingy, pumping
the fenders etc etc, and even after everything is done things can still go
wrong. Anyway I did what I could and we left her alone while we caught a taxi
to the bus stop in town. Typically we arrived an hour early and the bus was an
hour late so we had a burger at the roadhouse next to the bus stop to kill some
time. Eventually the bus arrived and we found our seats on the top floor at the
back and sat down. Both Lola and I are nervous passengers and I thought the
back of the bus would be the safest place if the bus driver decided to fall
asleep and crash into a tree.
The bus took off down the road and we tried to make
ourselves comfortable. This wasn’t easy as there is very little leg room
between the rows of seats and we suddenly realised what a sardine in a can must
feel like. Fortunately for the sardine it is dead when it is shoved into the
can. 
It was a long bus ride and the seat soon became
uncomfortable. Adding to our discomfort was the fact that we couldn’t smoke on
the bus and our addiction made us irritable. At one point I tried to pour some
Coke into a glass for Rauen as the bus went over a bump and spilled it onto my
shorts. This lead to a small temper tantrum by me and a reprimand by Lola
followed by an uncomfortable silence in the back seats of the bus. After four
hours the intercom system went squeeeeee and a barely audible voice announced
our arrival in Mthatha. The bus finally made a pit stop and we could get off to
stretch our legs. Oh, and of course satisfy our addiction.
I think my cigarette was alight before my feet
touched the ground but I can’t really remember the moments before I lit up to
clearly. When my mind finally cleared a few minutes later we went into the shop
to buy a pie and a snack for the rest of the trip. The shop was quite busy but
we found what we wanted and the queue moved quickly and a few minutes later we
left the shop. As we walked out the door we saw our bus leaving and had to run
after it. Someone on the bus noticed us running waving our arms in the air and
told the driver to stop. As we got on and walked towards our seats at the back
I could hear the comments as each person on the bus had to add their 5 cents
worth. “ah nearly got left behind hey” giggle giggle. “almost missed the bus
hey” giggle giggle. I didn’t find it quite as funny as they did but I think it
was due to nicotine withdrawal.
Our next pit stop was in Kokstad. It was already
nine in the evening and we had been on the bus since midday so just wanted to
get off already. This time however we stood right next to the bus so it
couldn’t leave without us. Rauen was asleep at the time so we left him on the
bus. As we stood there the bus started up again and this guy standing next to
us whose job title I don’t know but he had walked around offering coffee and
tea on the bus so I assumed he is like a bus steward or something told us it
was going into town to drop off and would be back in a few minutes so we could
just wait. We did that but stood panicking about Rauen as we watched the bus
drive off. What if he woke up and couldn’t find us? Anyway it happened just the
way we panicked and I could see Rauen running around in the bus as it drove
down the road. His phone had died so he couldn’t call us but managed to find a
lady on the bus that gave him her phone to use and he called to tell us the bus
would be back so we mustn’t panic. Still not sure who panicked the most.
It was one in the morning when we finally arrived
in Durban and called a taxi to take us to Kim’s house. The taxi cost R160 for
the 12 km and we watched the meter all the way as it counted up rapidly. More
than once we considered telling the driver to stop and we would just walk the
rest of the way. Fascinating how a bus ride from East London, around 700km
costs R350 but a taxi ride from Durban to Durban a short trip of 12km costs
R160.
11 Oct. 13
We stayed over a Kim’s house and she took us to the Bluff Yacht Club to
fetch our car in the morning. We had left it there under a tree and wondered if
it would start after standing for more than a month. It started first time and
we went back to Kim’s with a few stops along the way to get some stuff for her
son, Devon, whose school project was due the next morning. I helped Devon with
his project and by 10 in the evening we all went to bed. The next morning we
left at sunrise and headed towards Richards Bay. We decided to buy a new camera
and made a few stops along the way but couldn’t find what we wanted in our
price range. After walking Gateway mall flat we left empty handed thinking we
would try again in Richards Bay.
It was really good to see our old friends again and we spent a pleasant
evening at their house. The next morning after a good breakfast we left for the
border at Kosi Bay. Dylan gave us directions and told us it was a three hour
journey so we had timed our departure to arrive at 2 in the afternoon. The trip
took a bit longer due to extensive road works with many stop go’s and we
realised we would miss our arrival time by over an hour so tried to call the
guy who was supposed to collect us at the border. Unfortunately Vodacom had
other ideas and our cell phone signal only lasted long enough for his phone to
ring once. We were about 10 minutes from the border before the signal came back
and had a slightly irate Mike meet us there after about 20 minutes. He told us
the Taxi had already left for Ponto and we would have to wait for it to come
back. Living on Yrumoar has made us extremely relaxed so we didn’t mind at all
and I think he was way more concerned than us as I watched him trying to make
phone call after phone call to find out the progress of the taxi.
The taxi eventually arrived and it reminded me of the taxis in SA, small
minibus terrorists intend on killing everyone on the roads. My suspicion was
confirmed when we came flying over a sand dune and stopped directly behind a
four by four going in reverse. The inevitable happened as the four by four kept
reversing and we went forward only stopping once we had collided with his tow
bar. In typical Mozambique style both vehicles drove off after the accident
without even blinking an eye or swearing at each other. The drivers didn’t even
get out to access the damage.
For the rest of the journey we bounced up and down and held on for dear
life as he sped his way across the dunes avoiding the occasional four by four
going in the opposite direction on the same path as us. It’s only about 15km
but it was the most treacherous and bouncy ride I have ever experienced in my
life. At one point I tried to take a photo of Kyle as he had wedged himself in
the back seat with his arms holding onto the roof but the taxi bounced so much
my photo couldn’t catch the moment very well.
Tammy and Jason had a very romantic wedding service on the beach and we
had a great weekend with very little sleep. They stayed some distance from us
and we had to cross the sand dunes a few times to get to their place and back.
Fortunately it wasn’t in the taxi as they arranged someone to collect and bring
us back so the trips were a lot more comfortable.
Sunday arrived all to quickly though and we had to say our goodbye’s.
It’s never easy parting with friends and this time Lola broke down in tears as
we headed back to our tent in a friend’s Subaru. I just left her to cry and
didn’t say anything to make her feel better. I thought she needed the tears.
Monday morning we left Ponta Do Oura in the taxi and had another
breakneck journey back to the border. This time the taxi got stuck in the thick
soft beach sand and had to be towed by a passing truck. We stayed overnight
with Dylan and Niccolette before leaving on Tuesday morning to Durban to stay
at Kim and Darren.
We left Durban at 5 on Thursday morning and arrived back at Yrumoar in
the late afternoon. She was happily waiting for us and it felt great to be back
home.
Along the way I noticed something and asked Lola and the kids if they
had the same experience. When the bus arrived in Durban it didn’t feel like
home even though we had spent almost a year there. The same thing happened inRichards bay and again in East London. I thought back to the last time we had
been up to Joey’s and realised we didn’t feel at home there either. It made me
wonder where, if anywhere, we would feel at home again.
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