Saturday, March 2, 2013

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.

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