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.

240213, Beautiful Bulungula weekend

The Bulungula backpackers.  Consists of some traditional rondavels and safari tents.

Kieron and his freshly caught fish

 (Kieron has been my student for the past 3 weeks but looks like 

he'll be heading back to Cape Town again now...  It was fun Kieron!!)

One of the safari tents with sea views at Bulungula.  I was also blessed enough to stay in one of them for the weekend. It was awesome falling asleep with the ocean rumbling in your ears and opening your eyes in the morning, half asleep watching the sunrise through the branches...

The Bulungula backpackers is on a most awesome spot,

right next to and overlooking the river flowing into the sea...

The local kids are great.  They don't beg like in most other places in the Transkei.  

Here they are playing and building some 'houses'

The view across the river...  Wish I had a canoe.

Some houses close to the backpackers.

Cows grazing right by the Bulungula backpackers

Sunset over the backpackers

220213, Mama Flo

This is mama Flo, or Florence.  She speaks pretty good English because of earlier years working in other towns and she's one of the Reading Hut's neighbors, a very special old lady.

  She lives almost right below the Reading Hut in a small room that she shares with several other people.  You can recognize her by her hunched back from far off walking up and down that steep hill several times a day.  

Sometimes, when the community tap is dry, I see her carrying two 5litre water bottles up there from the river. I see her standing still, bent over to rest, every few steps.  When I go to help her carry I ask her to hook her arm into mine so I can help but she refuses proudly.  She's quite a busy lady, at night she goes to the shebeen where she sells loose cigarettes.       

140213, Reading Hut

The Reading Hut is keeping me pretty busy, even got the first 2 adult ladies that's been coming for English classes since Tuesday.  Their levels differ quite a bit, so I give them different things to do.  Normally they arrive first and after a while of being busy with them, I turn around and see a bunch of kids who came in quietly and are keeping themselves busy in the kid's 'corner'.

When the ladies are finished after 2 hours I can spend some time with the kids again.  I'm happy to say that Mhleli's coloring skills have improved drastically and he now uses multiple colors and have become quite creative!

Occasionally I like to read the kids some Xhosa stories and let them help me with the pronunciation.  That's some mouth gym!  I really need a Xhosa-English dictionary still to understand most of what I'm reading.

100213, Happy place

It's been hot here.  Hot and humid. The sea has become my official happy place.  Every time I go there in the morning or evening, it just seems like a slice of heaven and I feel so blessed to be loved by the Creator.   Had such a nice swim this morning and Saturday morning during my walk, some dolphins surfed the waves just for me...