The wanabe West Coast

Nice drive up the coast, very flat, came into town through the Country club on both sides and into an ugly little place, well big place I guess it does sprawl a bit, I have no idea why anyone would want to hightail it up here for a holiday unless you own a fancy house at the Langebaan Country Estate and plan to play golf every day or spend a week at Club Mykonos with all it's facilities, it is a haphazard, dirty town with no soul, we did love the lagoon, beautiful water and can quite understand the water sport enthusiasts, but we did not like the vibe so we hit the road and headed for Saldanha.

langebaan lagoon

langebaan

Saldanha

parked at Steve Hofmeyr's restaurant in Jacobs Bay

This turned out to be mostly harbour and all the ugly great smoke stack monstrosities that come with it in order to deal with the iron ore that comes in here and all other manner of imported crap that makes up our western society. The town is prettier than Langebaan though, in a little bay with lovely water but no beach that I could see and again lots of dead seaweed as is typical of the whole West Coast so far and again, bad vibe, so we headed out after an illicit walk on the no dogs beach front clambering over rocks and seaweed and dead fish. We took the road to Paternoster but came upon a sign to Jacobs Bay and decided to go and have a look there first, I was a bit tired of driving and did not fancy the long trip up, if 40km can be constituted as a long trip, at the moment it is so I took the 8km trip down to what can only be described as the prettiest little town I have seen for awhile, all white, apparently something to do with being classified as a fishing village, much like Paternoster, although the roofs are different colours, but such a nice vibe I just wanted to stay here for the night.

saldanha bay

jacobs bay

 

Only one tar road runs along the top of the town and then a series of dirt roads takes you into little bays with different names, spoke to a local who says their are no businesses here except a spaza type shop and the Weskusplek which is accommodtion, conference and restaurant facilities just as you come into town, everyone who lives here is retired, comes on holiday or works in Saldhana it seems, and some even work in Cape Town apparently, easy a two hour drive straight down the drag, not accounting for traffic. So he suggested I call in at Weskusplek and ask to park over night, this I did and the manger very kindly allowed me to park the van in the yard for the night with no charge, and I can go inside with the dogs later and have dinner, so that turned out to be cool. He has some chalets here with a few people staying tonight but otherwise very quite at the moment.

Their is a very flattering picture of Steve Hofmeyer in the entrance hall and Lorraine tells me this is his place, vain man. We took a walk on the little enclave, dirty, smelly and of course full of seaweed, then walked over the dunes and discovered a lovely white beach on the other side of town, not much building here, not sure why as it is much the prettier side, but still seaweed and dirty foam and a wrecked ship in the water off the rocks which I later discovered is called the Barge Margaret, left Japan in 2009 heading for the Netherlands, towing a ton load of barges and went aground here, so the wreck still sits off the coast 4 years later.

taking a stroll in Jacobs bay

So far I am at a loss as to why people are so insistant that the West Coast is the best place to be, I have yet to see anything that takes my fancy, or that I think is dynamic in any way and I hope that by West Coast they perhaps mean something a little further north, we shall see.

We tried to go and eat a meal at the restaurant but it was too full of people and kids running around and the dogs were unnerved so I had to put them in the camper and went and to eat alone. Had a terrible meal in what turned out to be a full rstaurant, Steve Hofmeyer seems to have found himself a nice little goldmine here, and I guess he probably has a house in town as well, anyway, the waitresses could clearly not keep up as my meal took forever, getting info on the menu (all in Afrikaans) took forever, I could have ended up eating monkey brains because I could not decipher it all, for the meal to finally arrive with the soup cold and came with no bread, then bread but no butter, a salad that was over salted and no knife and fork, did not feel like complaining so just ate, paid and left with no tip. Did get the children coming over to talk to me while I waited for my non meal, they were very interested in the camper, where I lived, asked about the dogs who they were talking to through the window while playing out back, one little boy wanted to know everyhing about me, at one point asked me if the dogs were my children, quite profound from a 12 year old, our conversation was semi english/afrikaans and I heard about their life in Jacobs Bay, where they went to school and who was who in the zoo, apparently lots of famous people live here, or at least own a house here.

Ended the day by taking the dogs for a moonlight stroll on the beach and then tried to read myself to sleep but that did not work. Lots of noise from the reastaurant until after 11 and then my mind just would not stop working. Originally my plans were to settle somewhere on the Westcoast about 150km north of Lamberts Bay, then this changed to further north the more pissed off I got at people in general, then I decided a community of Bushman would make life a little more interesting as the more hands and the more local knowledge we had as a community the more involved we could make the farm. Now it seems my Bushman theory involves living either too far north or too far inland or near Kimberley in Platfontein, plus I think too far north is not practical for what I want to do, and my reality is that I don't need to be that far from people, just not near enough to hear and see and interact with them, so even 30km is enough if I can be sure it will stay 30km. So now I have decided to go back to my original theory and look for a place somewhere between Strandfontein and Brand se Baai. Looking at the map it seems that, that whole area is a 4 x 4 country plan, lots of roads going nowhere or lots of lost fisherman, lots of roads normally means a farming area but I cannot imagine that part of the West coast is inhabited by farmers as it is dry and hopeless for farming cattle or any stock and certainly no grain can grow in such an arid area, so now I am thinking it might be wise to sell the camper and buy a 4 x 4 bakkie to explore that area, then pick a spot and use the bakkie to drag in the wood and water containers and suchlike I will need to build a basic home with. Kept me awake all night until eventually at 1:30 when I got up to boil water, go outside, and have a bucket bath, maybe now that I'm clean I will sleep, did a bit but sporadically.

one of the many wrecks off our coast in Jacobs Baai, the Barge Magaret

Woke at 8 and crawled out of bed and went for a beach walk before even brushing my teeth, came back to sort out the camper which has clothes hanging everywhere because nothing dried from the clothes I washed at !Khwa Ttu and so they are all hanging all over the camper waiting for some warm enough weather to dry them enough for me to pack them away. Got hailed by someone outside before I got anything done aand when I went outside I found a lady with her very professional video camera wanting to talk to me.

Now how is this for the law of attraction, she tells me she saw me on facebook, someone had taken a photo of the van in Woodstock and put it on facebook with a caption that read, 'look what I saw when I came home', this lady saw it and was amazed to find the same self van parked right here where she is working on a documentary with Sandra Prinsloo about a lady who lived around these parts and is famous in SABC circles, she apparently is also the woman who started TOP TV.

So she introduced herself as Amelia and she starts asking me all the usual questions and we get chatting, she has a VW herself, similar model but not the camper but wants a camper, I said I want to trade it in so I can buy a 4 x 4, she says she has a 4 x 4 and will swop me, hers is a pajero, I want more a bakkie so I can fit more in it, although her Pajero has a towbar and I can always get a trailer, we talk about it but not very seriously, but how is that for attracting the very thoughts that had kept me awake all night. She is very interesting, been a freelance videographer for 23 years, we got talking about my plot and she said I should ask Sandra about who owns the land up their, Sandra did not know, she has a place in Elands Bay but after 9 years she is still renting because the estate is still in abeyance so she can't buy it, I told her that's why I won't ask officially about who owns the land otherwise I get myself caught in the same legal trap she seems to be in, she said starting a farm up there is hard with no water, I told her she wasn't the first to tell me that, she just laughed, nice lady, still looks great after the many years of acting she has done, lots of makeup helps I guess but I liked her. Amelia says she will try and ask someone who may know more, I will look her up when I get back into Cape Town, interesting talking to her, she has been and done a lot around the country with her job. She gave me R20 as a token of her belief in what I am attempting to do, I will keep it.

Amelia

wesplukplek in Jacobs Bay

beautiful and wid at columbine, tieities bay

our lonely spot

self portrait at tieties bay

We finally got done and hit the road into Vredenburg where I stocked up on some food at the food lovers market and headed for Paternoster 16 km up the road which turned out to be a lovely little village and the most authentic of all the fishing villages I have been through to date. This includes the very quant Paternoster Hotel We drove through the town and hit the dirt road and took it 3km to Tieties Bay, so called for a fisherman that drowned here according to my guru, Lorraines google search. We got to the gate of the park and enquired about camping overnight, no poblem the lady said to me R79, someone will come around and collect it from you otherwise pay on your way out, oh by the way no dogs the guard says, okay I say, I'll go in and have a look see and then we will leave again and I'll also keep the dogs in the van, no she says, go and camp just park far away from everyone else and don't let the dogs go in the reserve and if law inforcement find you they will kick you out, what a nice lady. Common sense prevailed becasue this time of year their are no tourists just some fisherman who obviously have their favourite spots to come to, so in we went, a wild and woolly place with very few cars here and there, we drove along the sand roads bordering the coastline and not the main one heading up to the lighthouse, we had no idea where the campsite was so I didn't worry about it. Becasue we were ostensiby supposed to keep a low profile I decided not to look for the campsite, we just found a lovely little bay that had some rocks for wind protection and parked their for the whole day, the dogs were pleased, they love being in and out of the camper when it is not moving.

Wow again, this is like it will be for us on our own place, all alone in the world, really wild sea, lots of rocks to clamber over all day, we did ton loads of walks and took lots of pictures, we are parked below the lighthouse, the park stretches about 3 or 4 km, feels like we are at the end of the world, one thing I can say about Agulhas, I THOUGHT the fact that it was the southern tip of africa had something to do with its majestic magic, not so, this place is similar, what a great feeling to feel the pull of the powerful waves and watch the thunderous clashes of water as they spray over the rocks, I NEED to find something similar to this for our plot, it puts into perspective all things great and small.

This has been a a great day, glad I bought food and juice as their would have been nothing to eat here unless I took a trip the 6km back to Paternoster on a sand road my camper does not like, we are learning as we go along.

So a quiet spot to sleep in for the night, I am buggered after last night of no sleep so hopefully I can brave the cold wind and have myself a hot bucket wash and crawl into bed and enjoy a restful sleep, we are now getting pretty close to out plot spot, just down the road to Elands Bay, Lamberts Bay and the next stop after Stranfontein is our area. I plan to drive back to Cape Town once I have a spot in mind either to sell the camper for a 4 x 4 or if the roads are good enough for the camper to navigate, maybe put a towbar on her, find out who owns what land if I can and then also visit those places I am now going to miss, Clanwilliam, bo die kaap, Wuppertal, Ceres and so on but I'm keen now to get to my plot and stop wasting time and money on travelling to places I can explore at my leaisure once we settle down. Does not make sense to waste the little bit of money I have travelling to these places when setting up the farm is my first priority.

Feel good about that decision, all of it has been so confusing these last few weeks with no definate plan of attack, now I am sure of what I want and also confidant of being able to do it, although I still don't have a clue how.

Sandra thought that land I was looking at belongs to De Beers but I am pretty sure they don't come that far South, I think there influence stops at Hondeklipbaai, will have too find out as I am not sure.

Had a terrible night to start with, ate some dried fruit for dinner and suffered terrible stomach aches that had me doubled over for at least an hour, found it difficult to breathe, a bit like giving birth, you would think that woman who go though labour pains would learn their lesson and never do it again, but our over populated planet puts that theory on the rubbish pile, maybe we are just suckers for punishment, well I was groaning in the dogs ears like a real baby, they were sympathetic at first but soon fell asleep and left me to suffer alone but it must have sorted itself out because I finally fell asleep. Woke to a bright fresh morning, took a walk on the rocks and then headed along the road towards the tip of the mainland and found the lovely but empty campsite, wow I should have come here last night, it is a beautiful spot with a private beach and a shower, rustic and basic but well laid out with litle plots away from the main camp that I could have hid in, anyway we did sleep in a peaceful spot so no harm done. But I took advantage of the water to fill all our bottles and had a hot shower, no let me not use the word hot, but did have a solar heated shower before we hit the road, after yet another walk and time to explore, feeling clean and wide awake.

I did find the leak in my engine, it was dripping from the inlet pipe and I tightened it as much as I could, which was quite a lot so hopefully it won't leak any more and I won't have to fill up every second day like I have been doing.

Drove up past the Cape Columbine lighthouse established in 1936 and out the gate along the road we should have taken when we came in and we would have driven straight into the campsite, stopped to pay my 79 ronts for the night, a pleasure as it was a lovely overnight stay. Meandered our way into Paternoster past the hotel and parked on the beach for a short walk and to get a feel of the place. Was inundated with the locals wanting to sell me sea food, crayfish 'still alive madam' they said, well that did not endear me to the sale did it, got fed up with the amount of locals I had to rebuff so we climbed back into the camper and headed into Vredenberg, did not get my boekems on toast as Lorraine suggested I should, did stop for a wimpy mega breakfast though so I could email the girls and catch up on the cricket and transfer some money and send out some of our lovely photographs to interested parties.

We drove on up to Velddrif and walked on the vlei, then went throgh Laaiplek and Port Owen where we drove past a long stretch of the coastline, a few kilometeres at least, that has been turned into a community village full of units being built and sold sitting right on the beach, one day this place is going to be built up and I will be complaining about the people building on the beach and leaving no access for us poor sods, you wander why they don't leave a strip of coastline free for everyone to use and build a little further back, not gonna happen I guess, prime property the coast and probably nets them more money per plot, you wander who the official is that gives such a development the go ahead, bet he took a large bribe. So we headed for Dwarskersbos, I wanted to sleep the night their as I feel I am finally on the real West Coast and I want to get a feel for it and speak to people who have lived here for awhile and see who bought what and what land is for sale and how one goes about just establishing a place out of nothing. It is a small little place on one side of the street only between the street and the beach, I stopped in at the municipal campsite and although it is empty, they would not take the dogs, could have parked on the beach but chose to rather continue driving to Elands Bay, turned out to be a good decision.

Passed a large ostrich farm coming out of Veldrif, did not know they farmed ostriches up here, plus saw snow on the Piketberg mountains, we saw it from Velddrif all along the coast and into Elands Bay. What a pretty place, the vlei when you come into town is large and full of birds, the train tracks are hidden along the southern side of the town and go through the mountain, the northern part of Elands Bay is where the action is I think, we did stop on the southern side for a walk and some pictures and then drove around to the northern side and straight into the campsite as we came into town. We found one old guy staying there on a monthly basis for R1300 a month, has a wife in the camper who suffers from diabetes and they have 2 noisy daschunds, so I figured my girls were not going to be a problem, empty site and on the beach and not municipal so we were welcomed and for R260 we get to stay for 2 nights, pensioners rates.

Could plug in my fridge and use 220volts for awhile, give my battery a break, charge up the phones, the laptop and the camera batteries. Took a walk to explore the town but did not get far as Lani has had enough walking so only made it to the hotel behind us, did stop and talk to a realtor whose name is Irene, she has a plot in town to sell me for R1,1 million, I declined, she took my details and said she would try and find out who owns what up and down the coast. Popped into the hotel and wached a bit of the cricket on the big screen, home to feed the dogs and read a bit and back to the hotel for some more cricket, they kindly allowed the dogs to come and sit with me and we watched for a few hours before the pub, the booze and the smoke got to me, even though their were only 2 locals and 2 barmaids, one from Nelspruit, she may be the owner, not sure, been here for 5 years.

Back to the van to watch a lovely sunset over the beautiful ocean, what a pleasure it is to be on the West Coast I can feel my excitement building although the fear of living and building a place on my own in the middle of nowhere with no real skills is still paramount, I also know I will work my way though it.

It's great to have a nice, quiet and safe spot to sleep in with a hot shower to boot, and the dogs are free to roam outside when they want to and can do their thing. Pepi is looking sad and has a hot nose, also getting very skinny as she does not want to eat much, but the two of them did enthusiastically chase the cats on the way to the hotel and back, and Jos got herself lost becasue she did not want to come when I called her, so she ended up wandering through the hotel until I went back looking for her, smacked her butt but I don't think that will stop her chasing the cats again tomorrow and the next day, their seem to be a few of them around.

I was thinking today about our universe being a large round ball of bubble bath, the rolling motion through space and time blows bubbles out at regular intervals, each filled with communities and families living comfortable, safe lives within there individual bubbles, insulating themselves from the big picture, with an ever increasing need to draw from our dwindling resources in order to maintain their materialistic lifestyles and keep up with the other bubbles. As each bubble bursts and the occupants find it necessary to go through the chaos of reinventing themselves in a new bubble by destroying yet more of our limited resources in order to create for themselves another comfort zone within a new bubble when all the time the bubbles are bursting faster and faster with the occupants unable to keep up, the world is slowly producing less and less bubbles and more of them are proving defective until one day the last bubble will burst and we will be nothing more than what we were before the ape stood up on his hind legs and learnt to walk.

I would like to know when people will wake up and see this analogy as a reality and not some pie in the sky stuff, we need to start reversing the process of self desruction before the point of no return, I hope my little mission to build a permaculture lifestyle will encourage others to do even one thing every day to improve the world they live in instead of helping it to deteriorate in an ever faster spiral, we are at present a disgrace to what our maker had planned for us when he first put us on this earth.

Here's another thought I would like to share:

I never thought of this, but every time I stop and let the dogs out of the camper, it is in a new place, with new smells, tastes and sounds, must confuse the hell out of them, probably why they get out a little aggressively, trying to mark new territory, I bet they are thinking that one day they will get out of the camper, after this extemely long walk they have gone on, and they will be back home in familiar territory with garden, pool, bed and food bowl just waiting for them to be reclaimed. Poor pups, no wonder they look sad and depressed. I hope they like the new life that's in store for them.

Woke to a bright day and a beautiful sea and lovely white beach and more importantly, peace and quiet, no one disturbing us. Managed to get the clothes washed, even though the one washing machine is fairl caput, but hand washing has become my forte so I made a plan.

I aired the camper, washed all the dogs pillow cases, towels and even washed the blanket, broke down and did it, washed my little bit of accumulated clothes and linen and hung out the duvet, swept and dusted and cleaned and then walked down the beach to what we thought was the end of town, we had to walk over the dune and we discovered just the railway line, town actually ended about 200m from the caravan park, which is in the beginning part of town, we walked back along one of two streets that make up Elands bay, at least on the north side, I think actually the south side is probably where it is all at, can see the houses are of a larni kind across the bay so that must be the wealthy side of town, this is clearly the other side of the railway line in terms of money. We did figure out that the only place to eat is the hotel that is behind us and their brochure claims they own the backpackers, which I have not found, and the caravan park.

Had a lunch there, (which broke a part of my molar off so I will have to search out a dentist soon before it becomes a big problem, or a painful one) and can buy some internet time at R20 for 50megs so will probably go and sit in the pub later and try and update the blog and check the mails and the cricket score, but a pleasant and relaxing day in a very pretty place, cut Lanis nails yet again as she has caught them too many times and broken them off with blood everywhere as the result, also ran a nit comb through all three of them to de-tick them and make them feel a little less salty, bought them some bones in the little shop that passes as the local grocery store, cheap bones, they were in heaven eating them even though they were full of sea sand, gave some to the old mans two daschunds who took them so daintily, very sweet.

Feel a bit sorry for this old couple who are basically sitting here every day with nothing to do and waiting to die, they don't seem to have friends or relatives and rely totally on each other, one is old and bent over and hacks with a smokers cough enough to wake the dead, the other sits all day in the camper clearly the worse for wear with her diabetes, I am glad I am doing what I am doing, I would rather die living my life on my own terms than wait death out in a cold and impersonal campsite far away from anywhere I may have any connection to.

Sat in the camper correcting my blog when the wind came up and took over the afternoon, decided not to go and sit in the hotel after all, very comfortable here,still need to feed the dogs and with 220 volts I have great light in here and can read all night, we can maybe do the internet thing in Lamberts bay, I do plan to stay there a few days if I can and find out as much info about land ownership up and down the coast, this place is too small and too far away from my target area for me to expect much in the way of decent and reliable information.

So another day comes to a close, a pleasant one, dogs are relatively happy and I am relaxed and we are also in a clean camper, feels great, wow I'll never take a hot shower for granted again.

Sleep well