Trying to sleep last
night was a different experience, the noise is amazing it sounds like
a powerful jet engine towards me but never getting here, obviously a
combination of the waves, the wind coming off the water in sprays,
the meeting of two mighty oceans and no land mass to dull the sound
or provide a wind break, it's all loud but amazingly does not assail
the senses it's more like an awakening of ones energy levels, drawing
you into the power of the elements, feels magical and energising and
lulled me to sleep.
Arniston cave
struisbaai
Woke to an overcast
sky, mist ans drissle and a fresh sea smell, ahd a short walk on the
beach and then drove the 3km into Struisbaai to have a longer walk on
that beautiful long stretch of white sand, along with a handful of
locals walking with dogs or catching some early morning excercise on
their stunning beach.
I thought the beaches
at the point would be dirty, all the oil spills along the coast that
have left our beaches black will have travelled down south with the
currents, I'm glad to see none of the oil has landed up on these
beaches, maybe the currents are too strong and the oil has gone out
to the antartic to muck up their party instead.
We drove into
Bredasdorp looking for an internet connection, none to be found not
even at the Wimpy, so bought a latger 900ml tub of freshly made
vegetable soup from Checkers, and still hot this early in the day, and
sat in the camper with the dogs, cold and grey outside and ate soup
and some more of my boere bread which is still going strong, I gave
the dogs some Pro Pac and soup, they turned their noses up except for
Lani who ate hers, Josephines and half of Pepi's, so now I know how
to get that skinny dog to eat, make her vegetable soup every night.
We filled with fuel,
the account for the month has hit R4000, and headed off to Arniston,
again the campsite would not take dogs, although the lady was
apologetic and said her other guests complain when dogs are in the
site, so I enquired about getting to the beach, she said go left to
thharbour or right to the cave, we went right and came into a
magnificent cove, clearly the main beach as it had all the
prerequisite signs, no dogs, no loud music etc...etc...etc....
We had a lovely walk on
the beach, of course we were all on our own, we hiked up to the top
of the cave but could not go in and through as this can only be done
at low tide, maybe we can come and try in the morning before we leave.
Then hopped in the
camper and went the other way to the harbour, so far the town is like
all others, over populated, holidaymakers haven, hotel and conference
centre, B&B's all over the place, but as I went past the harbour
and up the incline we came to a sign that says this area is in a
conservation belt, and we drove through the old fishing village,
small cobbled streets or sand roads, old whitewashed village houses,
some renovated with with local stone, simple elegance, great to see
the Cape authorities preserving this little village even if the new
parts have sprung up around it.
the fishing village
the family in Arniston
the old and the new
view from our door
The village is quiet
and I know no more fishing is allowed vegetable, driving on these
dunes is also prohibited although all the 4 x 4 tracks say otherwise,
I found a lovely little cove to stop and explore, Tannie Willeen has
her home baked shop offering meals and crafts and next door is a B&B,
behind them the village dots the dunes and overlooks what once must
have been a fishing mecca, but with the harbour and the boats I'm
sure fish are hard to come by, there is also a large professional
fishing outfit in the ara which must clear this coast of fish quite
quickly, I guess the villages are now busboys and waiters and
cleaners in the local establishments.
We moved our van to the
protected dune area and hid ourselves behind a bush for the night,
had long walks on the beach, met some locals and some guys who drove
over from Agulhas and came and took some pictures, they said they saw
me in Agulhas yesterday, small little world, ran into two Zimbabweans
who have been here for 3 years working at the hotel, they say they
earn little but live well but cannot save so nothing but a deadend
job in the end albeit in a beautiful spot.
The mist came down
suddenly after two so I am glad I had an opportunity for some photos
in the morning, we were here early, so we hopped in the camper to
write and catch up on labeling my pictrres, the dogs have had enough
of all this walking and trampling up and down the cliffs, they have
settled down to a siesta a' la Lorraine. We are completly hidden
here, had to come back from a beach walk in a hurry as I would never
have found the camper in the mist along the stretch of dunes that all
looks alike to me.
I am hoping to go over
to Tannie Willeen later for some of her fresh scones and cream, will
have to pop over when I can see through the mist and put in my
request, otherwise I am stuck with the balance of my soup and bread
for dinner, boring when scones are on offer, have not had much in the
line of sweet things so far in our 7 weeks, will be a treat.
our beautiful afternoon spot
the mist blanketing us in
seagull weather
So no scones, Tannie
Willeen only provides those in season, she did tell me that this
village was declared a protected area in 1986 but no gaurantees it
will stay so as the building and need for land for the fat cats is
encroaching, some guy bought up a ton load of the beach front next to
where I am parked and who knows who will buy up what next, a
precarious life they lead.
We had a really nice
walk on the beach again watching the tide recede and came across a
local guy who had come down earlier to look for driftwood, forgot to
turn his lights off and is now stuck with a flat battery, he had a
friend come down in her little car to help him but apparently her
little battery was no good, we tried to push the bakkie over the
dunes to the camper, but we could not budge it out of the sand and no
way was I going to attempt to get the camper over to him through soft
sand and lots of rocks, so I walked up to the village to find help
but no-one there has a working car, we ended up getting about 10 guys
to go off and try and push the bakkie over to the camper.
I was standing chatting
to his friend, who has just left Cape Town and the rat race and lives
here now designing swimwear, she has a boyfriend that works on the
rigs 6 months a year and the rest of the time they stay here and
surf, good life, when all of a sudden we hear the bakkie come
careening around the dune with these 10 guys flying after it, they
were trying to push start it but that was a bust, they then had to
back up and push it behind the camper, at one point I thought the
bakkie, them, me and the camper with the dogs in it were going to go
flying over the cliff face onto the beach, quite a boisterous bunch
these locals, the mist was still heavy and drissle was keeping us all
wet, the wind has also picked up, we tried to get their jumper leds
connected to my battery from the back, quite a job, we finally
managed to do it but no amount of revving made a single impact on his
car starting, we finally surmised that the jumper cables they were
using were buggered, so I had to kick the warm and dry dogs out of
the camper, upend the bed, open the cover, remove the solar panels
and kit, take out my jump leads, open up the back screen and window,
feed the cables through, try and find a way to connect the leads on
to my batteries that have a hundred wires attached to them for the
camper, the fans, the solar panel, the battery charger, the inverter
and I don't know what else, this we finally managed to do and with a
bit of revving and some patience we finally got him going, then I had
to repack everything, dry the dogs yet again, get them back in the
camper, wave the hordes off and discourage them from trying to find
the snakes.
So after all the help I
have needed over the last few weeks, it's nice to be able to help
some-one else for a change.
The evening ended up
with us getting snuggled into the camper because it's now blowing a
gale outside, I had to close both the back window and the door and
the doors window from the rain and spray off the sea, plus I could
not have my nice hot bucket wash outside because their is no way I
was taking off my clothes and putting my bare ass out in that wind,
so I had to make do with a face wash in hot water and a sponge off to
get rid of the sand and sea air, although why I bother I don't know,
there is sand in everything, no matter how many times I clean and
shake out the blankets I cannot get rid of the sea sand, my bed is
full of it and I am like the princess and the pea, I cannot sleep
with even one crumb in my bed so I spend all night getting up and
dusting off my sheet, ah well, who says camping is boring.
We are snug indoors now
and I can write in peace, I even had time today to start a new Deon
Meyer book, I bought it in November and am only starting to read it
now, that's what I call self control because he is my favourite South
African author and I can never wait until he has a new book out, so I
will enjoy this one which has started in his customery fashion so I
am already right into it after chapter one. All the dogs are out like
lights so I'm going to join them. Good day and what a magnificent
spot we found ourselves in.
Night folks.
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