Thursday, 9 May 2013

Day 31 On the move again


Up early and out of the campsite just after 6am, feels good to be on the move again, a bit scary to leave a place of comfort for the unknown but the camper is running well and I have a yearning to be in the Cape , KZN is not for me, too hot and sticky and full of silly people.

I took the R102 and headed south, according to Lorraine and her Southern Star bisections, to me it’s all a bit wonky and thumb sucking but who am I to question a FGASA graduate?

Of course we got lost, missed the turnoff for the R102 just after the Hibberdene 25km sign, so had to do a 30km round trip to find my way back on the path, Lorraine phoned when we were walking on Banana beach and mentioned she had done the same thing, so I didn’t feel like such a Charlie after that, buy the Southern Cross has much to answer for.

St Michaels on Sea

Leisure Bay - Wild coast


The road is long and winding, lots of stops for walks on the beach, coffee and a sarmie, we tried to find a nice stop around Port Edward, but we blinked and it passed us by, before we knew it we were crossing the bridge into the Eastern Cape and the Wild Coast Sun, I knew there would be nowhere to stop there for the night so we decided to hightail it all the way to Port St John, until I saw a sign saying 184km, no way was I in the mood for that much travelling, we were driving through the beautiful Transkei, rolling green hills of lovely houses, all with grand views, lots of water tanks and some solar panels, in the poorest of areas people are leaving an almost zero carbon footprint while their greedy neighbours with their western lifestyle are locking themselves behind high walls, high fences, barbed wire and security alarms, consuming unbelievable amounts of resources to heat and supply there mansions with the luxuries they have come to rely on – who of us are living the better lives? I needed to stop for the night.
Hiding from the wind in a deserted school

Froze my buns off walking the dogs

But had 360 degree great views

I drove up one lovely hill and pulled into a high school sitting on top, with magnificent views, completely deserted this Saturday afternoon, or so I thought. The wind was howling and it was freezing my buns off to walk the dogs around, so I hid the camper behind one of the prefabricated classrooms to escape the worst of the wind, we have a 360 degree viewing area and it is truly beautiful country.

I was trying to get warm while reading with the dogs, cosy in the back when I saw a few bodies running into a classroom, I hopped out of the camper to go and say hallo and of course the dogs followed and attacked the 3 poor souls, all of whom nearly jumped out of their skins.

I had to apologise profusely, they were carting in supplies for the children’s lunch on Monday and I offered to help, there was no English from them but I got from there signing and panicked voices that they were pleased for me to go back to the camper and take the dogs with me and were happy to do without my help.

So we spent the night in our deserted school, could not get a connection but did watch the big bang theory, made some coffee to warm up, walked the dogs around a few times, but the wooses were more than happy to cuddle up in the camper and take an early siesta, Josie looks like a whipped dog when I am driving but won’t get herself out of the camper when we stop, I am not going to let her hangdog look fool me again, they had about 8 walks today, a lot more than they would have got back home, from now on she can spend more time in the camper and I will ignore the hurt look on her face which I have been feeling guilty about.

The regret I have for this lovely place is that not one house grows trees, fruit or vegetables, this school is devoid of all greenery, I know the soil is depleted due to over grazing but with a good program in place that can be rectified, what is our Government spending our tax dollars on??? Certainly not on uplifting the masses.

Cold wet night, I had three dogs under my duvet and still it took over 2 hours to thaw out and warm up enough to sleep.

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