200313, Reading Hut

Mhleli

Afekile

At the moment I'm staying with my parents in Greyton, working on some wedding photographs.  It's always great to be able to come and visit at this side of the country...  I hope and trust that all is well in Coffee Bay and that the Reading Hut is standing with no problems. 

 It was a real good first 'term'.  I found it very fulfilling, and I'm looking forward to going back and spend more time with the kids.

040313, Wild Lubanzi

Will, checking if we're still heading in the right direction

Way to go!

Morning view from our dorm room door

Lubanzi chilling

Hole in the Wall on the way back

At Hole in the Wall

A little leap of faith

On Saturday evening I met Will and Hanni at Coffee Shack for dinner. They told me that they're walking to Lubanzi the next day.  Since we were all supposed to be in Bulungula that weekend for the NGO forum, but didn't go because of the rain and difficult roads, I reckoned there should be nothing stopping me from joining them, except maybe for laziness.

So Sunday morning at 7:30 we set out on our hike to first, Hole In the Wall, where I had a nice cooling off swim, (IT WAS HOT), had breakfast, chilled by the Hole a while and then did the last stretch to Lubanzi. I must say the first bit was tough for me, these hills always are.  Just going up and up this steep never ending hill and then another and another.  At one point I had to sit down because I was feeling dizzy and my 2 eperienced hiking partners just had to patiently wait for me.  I guess I'm not the fittest hiker around.  We did do it in quite good time though, about 2hr 30 min to Hole in the Wall where the last time I did it with a guide and some other backpackers it took us 4 hours to get there...!

We went  around the rocks a couple of times, which was much more fun than the hills, but one time I almost saw my life flash before me.  We got a little bit stuck and these young boys came to show us which way to go, I had to get a foot grip on these tiny rocks, looking down at more rocks and water down below and I thought that it probably works better if you've got tiny kid's feet and no shoes.  But thankfully I made it.  Luckily the other two found another route.  After that I was quicker to opt for the steep hills.

My two hiking partners are Dutch and I told them they have to speak Dutch all the time so that I can get used to hearing it again and try to remember some of my long lost Dutch (I used to be fluent 18 years ago when I lived in Rotterdam!  Man, I'm getting old..), which was fun.  I must say a few times my head was so confused with all the languages,  I'd be thinking in Dutch, Afrikaans, English and Xhosa all at the same time.

Lubanzi itself was excellent.  Have to go there again.  The backpackers is great and has such a lovely atmosphere created by it's owners (a South African guy married to a Swiss lady) who are also able to provide most interesting information regarding self-sustainability from a veggie garden for one thing.  And what a feast of a dinner we had, prepared by our lovely Swiss chef, father of Rahel.  Pork rashers, egg-plant marinated in a special sauce, carrot-and-egg salad, potato salad and a wonderful green salad with a great variety of fresh ingredients.

When you arrive at the Wild Lubanzi backpackers, you are greeted by a big cold beer (for free!) and a view from a deck that makes you feel you must be in paradise.  I was too tired to do much else than hang in the hammock, checking the view.  No guilty feelings.

I went to sleep early because the day's heat got to me a little.  Today on the way back, I wet my sarong and covered my head and shoulders with it, to create a cooling down tent.  It worked.  The way back seemed much more easy than the way there! We left there about 9 this morning, a bit late because we wanted to wait for the yummy fresh bread to be baked for breakfast.  And of course we had to check out the awesome garden and improve our own knowledge a bit.  At Hole in the Wall beach we had a nice swim again and got back to Coffee Bay around two.  Hungry and happy.

Awesomeness!

020313, Not an ordinary breeze

In the course of Wednesday evening the electricity flickered a couple of times and then cut out.  A little while later a ferocious wind started whipping through the air.  This was no ordinary wind, but a wind so hot it must’ve escaped directly from the furnaces of hell. 

I had to go outside and bring in my chair and dishes that were standing outside the tent, things just started blowing away.  And it was hot.  Aquila stood panting in the tent, looking confused.  My skin felt like it was burning.  I zipped up all the ‘windows’ to stop the heat waves coming in.  My caravan was still the coolest place and I had to be real quick to close everything I could, cause every second things just got hotter and hotter.  Eventually the caravan was also too hot to handle and I took a wet cloth to try and cool myself down, without much affect.  I couldn’t sleep much, listening to the wind blowing and not being able to open my window to cool off.

Miraculously all my tent poles stayed intact, I reckon I must’ve been at a good angle in the wind.  The next morning our gardener told of houses that lost their roofs during the night, both zink and thatch.  There is an old, mostly abandoned, rondavel not far from the Reading Hut of which the roof shifted completely to the one side.  I hope no-one was in there when it happened…

Another little strange thing that happened this week…  I’ve been suspecting a rat coming into my tent,  during nights, because something nibbled on some pears lying on the table, and have been looking out for the culprit.  Last night Aquila was standing in the tent, sniffing the air and I took my little light to investigate.  What I found was not a rat no, but instead a baby bat!  Hanging fast asleep on my little ‘washing line’ inside the tent.  Very strange little creature.  Amazing how it’s ‘wings’ (if that’s what it’s called) wraps right round it’s body, even the back legs and tail are all part of it.  I threw the little sleepy bat out and hope he doesn’t come back.