Herold's Bay

So we left our plot on the hills of Plettenberg Bay and drove South, I think, and we ended up in the pretty little enclave of Herold's Bay, having been directed down here by the helpful ladies at the info desk in George, ah just a few k's out of town I was told when I enquired where the nearest beach was, so we drove, and drove and headed past the outskirts of town, then drove some more and then drove past the airport, the one poor Hansie never got to in one piece, and finally after negotiating a long narrow road that dwindled ever downwards, we finally came on the town of Herold's Bay, lovely spot, enclosed by high cliffs, stunning scenery, full of people and fancy houses built one on top of each other, if they ever have a landslide here the whole lot will tumble into the sea like a box of dominoes.

my grade 7 neighbours

R4.5 million a house

my little spot in the corner

lovely beach but full of dirty foam from industries along the coast

I wonder what it must have been like for the first person to come apon this stunning little cove, maybe back in Vasco da Gama's time or maybe the first white okes running away from Shaka or one of those black chiefs, pristine in it's cleanliness and openess, no tidal pool, nor cliff faces full of brick and glass monstrosities, no dirty foam in the surf nor tar roads or a bunch of idiots to deal with, I bet I was one of those pioneers in an earlier life, I can picture the scene.

So anyway in my attempt to find this caravan park I took the road up the hill to Dutton's Cove, the sign for the camp site was on the same pole as the sign for Dutton's Cove so honest mistake, no! So there I was chootling it up this steep cliff face, narrow road, round and round and of course my instinct was telling me this could never be right, who would negotiate a road like this towing a caravan, then we heard some tinkling sounds and thought the locals or maybe the monkeys were throwing things at us from the top of the hill, but we kept going up until I eventually decided to stop and enquire about the campsite only to be told it is next to the road where we turned off to come up the cliff face, so we had to do an about turn and down we went again, came round a bend to see cars coming the other way trying to avoid a few things littering the road, the few things looked very familiar to me and turned out to be my air filter, cover and housing, so that was the tinkling sound I heard, lucky for me that I dropped them off the camper on a road I had to come back on, so out I hop to pick them up, continue on to find the campsite and find a kind Cape Coloured guy who came to have a look and set everything to rights again, this was the same air filter that Theuns fitted and told me would never come off>>>>>>>>

So here we are in the lovely Herolds Bay and I sincerely hope that this is the last of the campers problems, it is the one thing I stress about way too much. We will stay here for a few days, get rid of all the built up stress from too many angry encounters, none more so than the stupid toll gate idiots, I'm getting my money back from them, see if I don't. But in the meantime I can clean the camper out, empty all the cupboards and repack so hopefully I will know where everything is for a change, I also need to seal my windows, epoxy the gear lever top, it is an irritant when it's loose, as it is, and also fix my door chime which came off because it got wet. Now I will know what I have and have not got in the van, and what I should have packed and didn't, like my vodacom dongle because 8.ta is proving impossible, I cannot get a connection anywhere barring a very large city, I also thought I packed my lamp charger, but the camper has swallowed it and hidden it somewhere.

Slept outside our first night waking up wet, did some hand washing, walking on the beach, cleaning, sorting, a day of housework, lot of children on the beach, looks like they're having a good party.

I put some crumbs and bits of bread out for the birds today and guess who I attracted, just goes to show that I am still in Johies mode even after 6 weeks, because I came back from a walk to a bunch of monkeys clambering over the camper, hope thay had fun, because the birds for sure did not get any of those crumbs.

I'm listening to the tinny voice of Susan Boyle because I cannot get my shoxbox working again, I think it only works in Winkelspruit, stupid Chinese made piece of rubbish..............

We went for an evening walk to the beach but the rain came down on the way so we turned back, bought some fish and chips from the only shop in town, best f&c I have ever had, beats anything I ever ate in Johies, worth my R30, then headed back to the beach, Leaving Lani with a plate of food in the camper, she was tuckered out from our aborted walk and her back legs don't want to hold her up, we ran into the children on the beach, the ones that have been making so much noise, they are patently not local, the houses here average R4,5 million, most are shuttered and locked or for sale and this town is like a morgue, can't find a living breathing soul, except for about 6 security cars in and out the one and only main street, so I got talking to the children's teacher and they are grade 7's from George here on a youth program sponsored by the church and living in a hall next to the campsite which is why I hear them so much, cude coloured kids who demanded I take their picture for them and promise to send it via e-mail, you will be pleased to know that I did that in George.

So we slept indoors tonight after a nice bath where I got to scrub off six weeks of dirt and grime in places like nails, elbows, knees and ears, lots of sand came out of my ears, and there is ton loads more in the camper, no matter how much I clean and sweep and dust the sand is in everything, no wonder things rust so easily at the coast. Didn't rain until 5am but we snugg as bugs indoors all alone in this campsite, no-one but us, no other campers, no staff no office staff no-one, it felt wierd to be so alone in a site, normally that feeling is exclusively for our lonely road side stops, I don't expect to feel it for a place I paid to stay in, R172 a night but I got a pensioners rate, R172 for two nights.

Had a relaxing morning then took a slow walk to the beach as we intended to stay another night and had time to spare, but the locals were agitated enough to send the security guards after me and inform me that no dogs are allowed on the beach, in fact not on the street either so prretty much no dogs in town, no people around at all but apparently rules are rules, so of course I told him no problem we will have our little walk and leave, so we walked way down to the bottom and played in the tidal pool for an hour then took a very gentle walk back along the promenade as Lani cannot walk any more faster then a snail. Well that little episode pissed me off so we are not staying another night.

Thankfully I affectedd my camper repairs this morning and did a bit more cleaning, so not all the cupboards are yet rearranged but we packed up and were good to go in a jiffy, headed into George and stopped on the side of the road with a green patchfor the dogs to piss on and got a connection so I could answer and send some emails, update the blog a bit, it was slow going trying to get the pictures to download, did manage to get the Big Bang threory downloaded, number 24 so I think that's it for season 6 although I hope not, I do love the program and it gives me a weekly laugh.

We bought some lunch and odds and ends and hit the highway, what a stunning drive over the Outeniqua mountains, 10km of indescribable beauty climbing to 800m and then over the top and down into the Oudtshoorn valley which is flat and karoo looking. 60Km drive and into one long straight street with no character, home of the ostrich, or the dead ostrich I should say, could not find a place to stay and took a chance and pitched up at the one and only caravan park, I had emailed them and they had said no dogs, but here I am, chatting to the lovely Afrikaans ladies, and before you can say Arthur or Martha, the owner is telling e she will put me in, pensioners rate for two nights, a spot way down on the bottom end of the site and please lady, make sure your dogs don't cause any problems, very nice couple of ladies, they even phoned the Pearl of Oudtshoorn Hotel to enquire after tickets for Barry Hilton tomorrow and told me to hightail it down their, 5 blocks and the man selling the tickets will wait for me and sell me one, R95 and we are all done. It helps to have charm when you need it.

Small towns can be very friendly or completely paranoid, I went from one etreme to the other today and I'm glad we made the decision to leve this morning we may not have been this lucky if we had arrived tomorrow.

Great campsite, 4 star luxury, half self catering and half camping about 6 campers in all, mostly GP plates, ablutions are locked so we all have our own key, very smart and luxurious, baths with glass and hand shower heads, fancy showers with all the extras even a little fold out seat for us pensioners, boy I lucked out here, and we are way down the bottom of the site by the river so lots of place for the dogs to run around and bother nobody. I feel very cozy here even though the weather has changed and the barometer has dropped alarmingly, we should be snug inside tonight and tomorrow Barry can give me a laugh, have never seen him live, must have been an omen running into him in PE, he is only appearing in George tonight and Oudtshoorn tomorrow so we picked the right days to be in this area.

Outeniqua mountains from George

lovely campsite

Putting on a show for us and struttung his stuff

the dogs had plenty of braai bones

Had my nightly chat with big brother, Lorraine is sourcing me all kinds of info on campsites to come, I need a nice one in Aghulus and another in Cape Town but for the rest I am happy to find a patch of grass.

A lot of night sounds down here where we are camped, there is a stream running along the campsites boundary but it is cut off with a fence that has barbed wire on it, will have to explore a way to get through in the morning to check out what the wildlife is in the water, it's a South African fence, it's bound to have a hole in it somewhere.

Night all, hope you sleep as comfortable as we will, off to watch the Big Bang Theory.