Suspects

14 Sep. 13

Feeling a bit down we decided to get off Yrumoar and go for a walk down to the beach. Our time here has dragged on for longer than expected and we are all ready to move on, however, we did a calculation and financially it makes more sense for us to wait here until after Tammy’s wedding. The bus fares will be cheaper and we would be away from Yrumoar for less time.

The beach is quite far from here but the walk was a pleasant distraction and is good for the heart anyway. Besides, it also doesn’t cost anything to take a walk. The scenery on route is not something to write about since it runs through the centre of town and East London central is not scenic by any stretch of the imagination.

About half way we stopped under a shade port next to an empty car show room to catch our breath and give our legs some time to recover. The short rest stop gave us enough energy to continue and since none of us are psychic and able to predict the future we went on our merry way not knowing our rest stop would have any significance in our future lives.

The ocean is always spectacular and we sat on a wall watching the waves crash on the rocks while we again caught our breath. When we had enough of the waves to last us a few days we headed on down the beach front road to check out the aquarium and the German memorial site. Our stomachs told us that lunch time had arrived and we started looking towards the various restaurants that are lay scattered all along the road. Our first choice was a place named Y-knot. However when we entered the doorway we were told that it was still too early for lunch and we would have to come back later so we left and looked for another place. A beautiful building on the beach with a 180 degree sea view housed another restaurant, La Vida. Here we sat down, looked at the menu, gasped at the prices, and left. Almost directly across the road another restaurant, Guido’s, advertised a really good value breakfast so we decided to give them a chance.

 

Our meal and the service from our waiter were mediocre and we left after lunch feeling disappointed in our choice. On our walk back we stopped at the same place as before and our unknown future suddenly presented itself. We were still sitting in the shade resting when a bakkie with two men inside pulled up and stopped in front of us.

They stared at us for a while before the one decided to get out. He then walked towards us and sat down on the wall next to Rauen. We greeted him in our usual casual manner and waited for him to say something. He started with a question, “how long have you been sitting here?” Then he told us something about a missing I-phone and R2000 he has in his pocket that he would swop instantly if the phone was returned to him. We all just looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders. Then he got up and left. It was surreal and we felt accused of somehow making this I-phone disappear. After a few seconds we accepted our new roles as suspects involved in cell phone theft syndicates and we got up and made our way back to Yrumoar.

 

My book is finally available in print copy at Amazon and I wanted to order a few Author’s copies to sell along the way. This plan however is flawed since the Author’s copies along with postage and import duties from Amazon makes the book too expensive to sell so Lola and I have discussed an alternative plan. We looked around on the net for a printing company here in East London hoping to print a few copies. We found one and sent an e-mail but they had not sent us a reply so while we were walking back Lola noticed their signboard and we went into their offices. We met a bubbly young lady with an infectious laugh and she quickly printed a quote for us. The price per book is more reasonable but we would need to order at least five hundred copies. Hmm, we will have to think about that.

  

16 Sep. 13

This morning three boats left the harbour on route to their various destinations. One of the boats was a Rodman power boat with a delivery skipper on board on his way to Cape Town. His next stop would be PE. We met him and his crew two days ago when they arrived and wanted to tie onto us. I told them to go tie onto the wall behind us and was glad I did that when they asked me if I had any fenders they could borrow since they didn’t have any. Power boats as a rule are not a welcome sight. They never have the correct equipment on board and their skippers are usually very inconsiderate towards other boats. Anyway I didn’t have any spare fenders so found an old car tyre on the docks and gave it to them. The next morning they asked me to boil a kettle for them since their microwave didn’t work and they needed coffee. I boiled the kettle and wondered if they would be over at lunch time when they got hungry.

The other two boats were sailing boats with very different destinations. One was heading for Madagascar with a French solo sailor on board and the other, a young couple on board heading down the coast to PE. We were tempted to follow them but had already made our decision to wait until after the wedding.