Friday, 17 May 2013

Day 40 - 13th May. Cape St. Francis


up early again and walked the beach, Gloria phoned to see if I was okay and asked me what I intend to do about Slick, said I was still thinking about it, he did not want to get up this morning again and barely walked at all, as long as he had us in sight he was happy to stay with the camper. As we were heading into town to do some shopping and find the one robot the town has, one of the ladies from last night stopped me, she was sitting on her upstairs wooden deck, she said some dolphins had hit town. We stopped and took the binocs and went back on the beach to watch a school of about 15 lazily sail by, right on the beach where the first wave turned over, almost went right past just where we had been walking, lovely site to see nature as it should be.
Thatch and white houses

St Francis Bay

outside Bev's place






I tried to get all the things I still need to fix the camper but no luck, went past a shop selling dog food and went in on the off chance, could not believe that they had Pro Pac, the lady said they had just opened up the shop, mum and 2 daughters, after dad died without life insurance, where have I heard that before, and the stock had also just arrived so I bought two bags as I have no idea when I will find it again, had to take the mom to Checkers so I could draw the R980 cash for them, I did not know that with Capitec I could draw at Checkers, I was always looking for a pick 'n Pay to draw cash, nice to know, apparently Boxer and PEP stores as well.

Headed out of town and hit Humansdorp, first thing I saw was a Vet's sign, then on the way out I past the SPCA and with Gloria's call this morning, three signs in one day, I thought maybe it's the right time to let Slick go then, I've been up and down with the idea for too long now and I know he is tired and has lost his will to do anything unless forced, I will see tonight. Drove into St. Francis Bay and what a Larnie town this is all the houses are painted white with thatch roofs, apparently when Huletts originally set this place up they insisted on thatch and white only, but they had a devastating fire come through here last year and now I see all new houses are slate or tile roofs, changing of the times, the houses are still all white though, would hate to be the paint seller in town.

This is certainlly a rich mans paradise, nothing under a million I am sure and more than one fancy green, well laid out golf course, and what is amazing is that the first thing I see coming into town is the bottle store. I think this country is built on booze, every town I have entered has a bottle store, shebeen, pub or notice for a drinks night or celebration with booze at it's entrance, is it that no-one can get through a day without booze at all, no wonder the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation, needless to say, I managed to pick up some epoxy and maybe the correct rubber for my petrol cap at the hardware and found a number for Bev in the loacal rag she publishers and left a voice message.

We found ourselves down on the confluence of the river and the sea, what a difference to J-Bay where they had a clean smelling river and thousands of water birds, okay maybe hundreds, but no water sports, here the river is dirty, it smells, there are no water birds but lots of rich mans toys, boats, barges, jet skis etc, none today in evidence, in fact this town is like a morgue it is so silent, lots of shuttered up places waiting for absent owners to barge into town at holiday time, so money can clearly not buy everything it would seem..

We then decided to go and take a look at Cape St. Francis, took the 5km trip down the coast, oh my, what a place for the rich and richer, clean, neat, obsessively controlled and stunningly beautiful, a long white beach, we went right down to the tip of seal point, the southern most tip of the mainland in this area, and had a fantastic afternoon hiking the dunes and playing on the whitest, cleanest beach I have seen in a long time, the water is sparkling, looks like it is drinkable it's so clean, didn't know South Africa still had such lovely beaches.
Cape St. francis

A hike through the dunes

our beautiful afternoon at Seal Point

We were going to park the night but the locals seem put out by our scruffy van amongst their fancy metal monsters, so we headed back to St Francis and was just looking in vain for the main beach to park on when Bev called, we got together, she showed me a lovely braai sight, not for camping of course, but it is where we will camp regardless, Slick was bad all day and I have finally decided it's time to let him go, so Bev arranged with her vet for me to come in with him in the morning. I took her out for dinner to say thanks and had a glorious hot shower at her cute two bedroom place before we left, had to leave all the dogs in the camper while we ate at a bland Italian restaurant, but they were cool with it.

We hit our night time spot and parked alongside some rich dicks fancy boat and lots of mansions on the canals, I bet my rent is less than theirs, it was a great spot, we slept in comfort and had a great walk in the morning watching the sun rise over the river and the empty houses around us, I could probably have slept in one of them, I bet the owners would never have known.

No comments:

Post a Comment