Day 34 Morgan's Bay

Up and out by 7am, hit Butterworth at peak hour, took a whole 10 minutes to get through a very pretty green town, you wander why the rest of the place can’t be as forestry. Nice road but oh my god, the drivers are maniacs, they will overtake ANYWHERE and at ANY SPEED, up hills, down hills, solid double white lines, round blind bends, detours, in front of cops and often push drivers on the other side of the road to move over almost into the ditch, I am waiting for the day one of them decides to play chicken, me, I just get out of the way because clearly they have absolutely no respect for their lives or anyone else’s.

stopped at Kei mouth

Morgan's Bay

We stopped to fuel up at the Kei bridge after going through the great Kei Pass – wow stunning, up and down and round the beautiful lush mountains of what was once Ciskei, magnificent, but nowhere to stop for a picture, the road to Morgan’s Bay was tarred, recently, so the 44km down to the beach was pleasant, not so pleasant to arrive in this magnificent bay and find no way on to the beach, a handful of old colonialist thinkers have built their houses along the beach front and now effectively own it, my worst bugbear. I saw a no dogs sign at the campsite and had to go and enquire at the hotel for a place to park, they said they would accept dogs at the campsite as it was out of season, more likely because there was only one other couple their (From George for 4 days) and some added custom was appreciated, the rate was R195, I said I’m a pensioner so it came down to R156 a night, dogs free, I booked in for 2 nights and parked on the river where it meets the sea, no fences, building or obstructions in front of me, a view to die for.

We set up our bed outside and walked, hiked, played and swam all afternoon, collected fire wood off the beach for a nighttime camp fire, plenty around, not sure why, but the beach is littered with it.

The beach near the main town centre is rock strewn but down the bottom end where we are is a clean stretch of beach so we can walk a long way if we cross the river to the open stretch, tomorrow I’ll climb the mountain in the South ( I think it’s south, will have to ask the brainy Lorraine, I still don’t get that Southern Cross thing)

It took a while to get the fire going, not enough kindle, my neighbours offered me some blitzkrieg, I declined in horror, they laughed, but down to the beach I went for more kindle, back to get the fire up again and roaring, went over to check theirs out, started with a firelighter, and mine was much better, and lasted a long time. Could relax in front of the fire until it went out so off for a shower and into bed under the stars. A very fresh is wind blowing, I had to wear my beanie, Jos slept in the camper, Peps under the duvet, the old ones out in the wind, what a lovely sensation to sleep under the stars with the surf alternatively crashing and whispering us to sleep.

Woke to a glorious sunrise, off for a walk after making the river crossing, the tide is up so it took awhile to get the old dogs across, Lani gets washed away because she is so skinny. Back to get two loads of washing done, met the locals who persuaded me to do a talk on snakes later, made a grand cup of my famous coffee to drink on the beach, then went and climbed that lovely mountain. All 4 dogs made the hike, stops along the way to rest and drink from the streams, lovely to sit up on top of the mountain and contemplate life surrounded by such pristine beauty, I just wish the town had built itself further back so more people, including locals could enjoy the fruit of this little inlet, as it is the owners of the beach front properties effectively own the beach, a sin in my book.

We walked over the mountain to the other side where the view is even more stunning with the waves crashing into the sheer cliff face and in the distance, the bay of Haga Haga. I found the perfect spot to camp, the parking lot at the bottom of the mountain, it is on the cliff face, faces the town, is secluded and an excellent place for us to park for the night. We were going to leave tomorrow around lunch and travel all afternoon to get to Hogsback, not my ideal time to drive, so perhaps we can come up here tomorrow night and camp, walk the dogs early in the morning up to the top again, and leave around 7ish which gets us to Hogsback around lunchtime, a much better way to travel so I can take lots of stops and the dogs feel good if they walk in the morning, more chance of them sleeping a bit as I drive, except for Jos of course.

We had a lazy afternoon, no food with me except some bread, biscuits and dried fruit and nuts, don’t want to walk to the supermarket up a long hill with the 4 dogs, apparently it is off the main road we came in on coming into town and not a good walk on leads but not sure if the older two will stay put with the camper if I walk with the youngsters, ah well - can do with a lesser eating plan for awhile, will go there tomorrow in the camper when we leave and see what is on offer to eat, then back to our mountain spot, typical Jew, I’ll get 3 nights for my R312 which I think is fair, for two nights I felt R312 was expensive.

Apparently it is going to rain tomorrow, I’m not sure why everyone I meet seems determined to update me on the weather, maybe they think because I sleep outside I need to be so informed, I’d like them to find something else to talk about.

This is turning out to an idyllic stop, met two big girls from Pretoria, they want to stay here forever, not sure what they would do after a week or so, I saw them driving around town, all of one street, no wonder they are ‘big’ girls.

Made such a great fire this evening with my bed outside and was just getting prepared for a snake talk and a chill out night when up came a monstrous wind and blew everything to hell and gone, today our campsite doubled in size, a couple in a bakkie arrived, clearly seasoned campers the old ducks, as they had their tent up, tables and chairs out, fire going, dinner on, lights up, all in the matter of minutes, and a caravan with people I never saw, they all scattered back indoors in a hurry, putting all their fires out, I was reluctant to put mine out because it was such a great fire and I had tons of wood, so I braved the wind for more than an hour and used most of it but had to put my bed in the camper or lose it I think, eventually decided to go for a shower and hit the sack, only for the wind to die right down and piss me off, so I took my mattress and blanket back outside to sleep . It took the dogs awhile to figure out that I wasn't coming back in the camper and they hopped out and came to join me, I hadn't put their beds out so their noses were out of joint because they had to sleep outside like real dogs for a change instead of under the duvet like the wooses they are.

Raindrops falling on my head woke us at 5;30 to scurry back indoors for a few more hours of sleep before getting up to take a long walk on the beach in the howling wind, then packed up and hit the road, couldn't get another night on the mountain for free unfortunately, not a great place to be if it rains all day and I like to use rainy days as driving days so I can keep the dogs from trekking muddy paws in and out of the camper making it uncomfortable because everything gets wet so quickly and then they have to sleep on wet pillows and towels, they don't like that and I get subjected to all the dirty looks, like it was my muddy paws that did the damage in the first place.