13 Aug. 13
We took our dingy for a ride up the Buffalo river. It was one of the
things to do on the list and the scenery was beautiful, green valleys that run
down to a rocky river edge with birds and Dassies playing on the shoreline.
Here and there someone had declared their eternal love for their girl on the
rocks with a spray can and it spoilt the pristine untouched beauty of the
river, but for the most part it was completely uninhabited and wild. I must wonder
if Petrus and Helda are still together or if he had a midlife crises and left
her for his young receptionist with the big boobs. Or perhaps he became a drunk
and they never got together in the first place except for that one perfect
afternoon in summer when they took the romantic river cruise together.
Today we caught the taxi into town to go to the museum and have a look
at the coelacanth on display along with the old human skull and footprint
fossils found here. It took the best part of three hours to walk through and
look at all the items on display and we were quite tired when we took the taxi
back to Yrumoar. I have to mention the taxi driver. The one that we have had
for the last two trips and not the owner of the taxi service that fetched us
the first time. This lady drives like she is being chased by a huge dog and
doesn’t believe in following distance at all so I find myself pressing an
invisible brake pedal on the passenger side of the taxi and bracing myself for
the inevitable impact that I feel is about to happen. Unfortunately my pedal
doesn’t work no matter how hard I press it. To add to this the roads down here
have been neglected by the government and have potholes and huge ditches across
them everywhere. I slam on my brakes as I spot a ditch but she doesn’t even
blink as her cars suspension creaks and knocks when she flies through the ditch
with her petrified passengers.
So Bryan, another one of Lola’s childhood friends picked us up this
morning at ten to go over to his house for lunch. On the way we asked him to
stop at the post office so I could ask them to reroute my book that has finally
landed in Durban. Typical it would arrive in Durban after we left but life
wouldn’t be the same if things went according to plan anyway. We ate lunch and
had a great afternoon but the time flew by to quickly and it felt we had just
arrived when we left again. On the way back we had to stop at the post office
again to write and fax a letter giving permission for the first post office to send
my book to the second one here. Now we wait and hope it arrives.
15 Aug. 13
The Perfect Day:
Coffee with dolphins playing in the background this morning. There is no
better way to wake up. An entire school of dolphins came swimming into the
harbour this morning. We even spotted a few babys.
16 Aug. 13
The perfect day.
Yesterday morning started with the dolphins playing in the harbour while
I had my coffee. Next I did a quick load of hand washing and hung it out to
dry. Yes you may wonder why I do the washing. Well, two reasons. Number 1, I
like doing it and number 2, Lola is allergic to washing powder. So anyway the
weather was great and we decided to go to Nahoon point for the day. The taxi
arrived a few minutes later with our regular Michael Schumacher as the driver
and we flew across to the nature reserve in no time with me hitting the brakes
again as usual. At Nahoon point we had the most amazing burger for lunch before
we headed out on the constructed bridge walkways towards bat cave.
After a
while the walkway ended and we strolled leisurely across the soft sandy beach
for a while. Then we arrived at a rocky outcrop and stood wondering if the
trail carried on or if we had missed bat cave somehow. After a while we sent
Rauen ahead as our scout and he climbed over the rocks to look for a trail. A
few minutes later he came back and told us he had found a way over the rocks
and we should follow him. We are not the most adventurous and we clambered our
way clumsily over the rocks. On the other side a few stairs led up into the
cliffs and we walked up the stairs and over some more rocks. The further we went
the more adventurous and daunting the trail became.
Sometimes we crossed over
narrow pathways with a cliff face on the one side and a shear drop of about
forty metres into the ocean on the other. I was at the back of the pack and
felt panicked more than once as I watched Lola and Kyle trying to negotiate
their way across the rocks and narrow slippery pathways. We continued climbing
and sometimes crawling along until we found bat cave and the blowhole. The
scenery on the hike was spectacular with small coves and huge breaking waves
smashing into and across the rocks. Once we got to the cave we decided to
continue forwards instead of going back and had to cross more treacherous
cliffs and finally a huge sand dune that was sliding and falling over a cliff.
With the hike behind us we continued walking on the beach until we
reached town, about four km away from the end of the hike. We had a waffle at
Wimpy and decided to walk back to the boat instead of calling the taxi. A few
hours later and one or two wrong turns in town we arrived back home to Yrumoar.
Nahoon point was by far the most enjoyable and exciting hike I have ever
been on and all of us loved it wanting to go back again before we leave East London. Although we were all quite bushed we were to excited to go to bed and
sat in the cockpit reliving the experience for a while before the kids went to
sleep and Lola and I watched a spectacular thunderstorm out at sea. The perfect
end to the perfect day.
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