25 Dec 2007
Posted in Travel at 1:20 am by alby
The Cape of Good Hope – 10/12/07
Damn! Dodgy weather on the hill today so no climb of the table for us. Instead we decided to head south to your actual cape. It’s more of a drive than I expected but a pleasant one.
The drive took us through a few small outposts including, in order, Llandudno, Penzance and Scarborough. We stopped in Hout Bay for a bit and went to visit Bird World (see photos). It was a nice enough place but more than a little shabby. With lots of birds comes lots of poo. And lots of mice and rats; K not happy. But there were monkeys and birds. In the squirrel monkey bit K got sat on. I got shat on. Ho hum.
After the birds we headed on to the sea front at Hout Bay and a place called Mariner’s Wharf. A fish and chip shop was there and it did very nice takeaways. Nyum.
Driving further (and having to pay tolls to do so) we ended up at the cape; oh yes and on the way I saw the best road sign ever although my camera was not to hand “Robot ahead 250m”.
At the cape itself there were loads of signs warning re baboons. The family had pre-warned us about baboons there as well. As it happened we saw a grand total of none whatsoever. Absolutely zilch.
The weather was nice, the views were gorgeous and there was some other wildlife around. K and Ruth made it down on the beach, apparently the water was bloody freezing; I didn’t fancy the walk down and up so stayed at the top. Got some more decent pics though.
That was about it for the day. A travelly see-ey sort of effort.
Permalink
24 Dec 2007
Posted in Travel at 11:18 pm by alby
Cape Town – 9/12/07
Sunday morning so a lazy start. Ruth had gone to church for a 25th wedding anniversary of her brother and sister in law. Originally K was going to go to but backed out the previous evening.
Ruth returned later wearing a sari. Very impressed.
We drove into CT and to the waterfront. Me and K would explore and Ruth was off to the family celebrations again. This would be Matthew’s start of playing with his cousins. He was looking forward to it.
For some bizarre reason the waterfront is known as the V&A. It seems though that the South Africans have had a collection brain spasm and none of them seem to recognise that Victoria married a bloke called Albert. Everything V&A in SA is “Victoria and Alfred”. I never found out quite why there’s this collective amnesia.
Wandering a bit we found some shops and bars and cafes and an aquarium. But to be honest, not the most remarkable place at all. Ooh yes we had these weird spiral crisps thing each. Probably the only large city where you can see Table Mountain (really not like a table) from the city centre though. After the wandering we were to phone Ruth who would come and pick us up. She told us 5. Waiting at 5 the weather turned very cold. Really very cold. And Ruth showed up 25 mins late. Blimey it was a tough time. From cooking gently to freezing.
We headed off to the party to pick up Matthew and ended up staying there for a while, getting fed and looked after by the extended family. Very nice family and all happy to chat except the rare one who was a little uncertain re their english.
On the way home me and Matthew were playing in the car; we even got told off by Ruth. So we pulled faces at her from the back and giggled hysterically. Was great fun.
There was a slight downer to the day though. We’d had one job in town and that was to get tickets to Robben Island later in the week. Sadly the next available trips were going to be in January. No prison visit for us then. Pffft.
The plan for tomorrow is a trek up Table Mountain which should be a giggle. Now my feet are working again at any rate.
Permalink
Posted in News, Rants at 12:45 pm by alby
Oh it’s that time of year again. This is when all those religious type stick their noses into our celebrations and start insisting that there be some religious aspect to Christmas. Of all the cheek!
But as regular as clockwork out come the untruths and rehashed “facts” that these folk tend to bring out to argue their case.
Some bishop or other who ought to know better (either that or he’s being cynically manipulative – surely not) brought out the old “Christians are under attack at Christmas” stuff and used, I can hardly believe it, the old “They called the holiday ‘Winterval’ in Birmingham the other year” argument.
I covered this either last year or the year before.
This is an utterly misrepresented story.
Birmingham City Council had a period of 6 weeks over December which encompassed Christmas as well as various other celebrations from other communities and they DID call it Winterval. The whole thing, of 6 weeks. Within that they did have Christmas and called it such; just as they had a muslim celebration and a Jewish one that they called whatever their names were. They celebrated all of them at the correct time and marketed the whole thing as “Winterval” to draw all the communities together, in theory at least.
Will people stop reporting this example as the death of christianity at Christmas? That happened years ago through too much marketing and too little christianity from the populace as a whole.
“Winterval” was NOT a synonym for Christmas in Birmingham but a laudable attempt to celebrate with many groups who live there. Hardly a bad thing now was it?
Have fun.
Permalink
Posted in People, Work at 12:36 pm by alby
Well sitting here on Christmas Eve at work. Everyone’s shown up this morning but it looks like this aft is rather more quiet and my last patient of the day has just cancelled which helps add to the easiness of the afternoon.
But something a little odd just happened.
I had a new patient earlier. A sikh woman if I’m not mistaken. She refused to see me on account of my ownage of a Y chromosome. Cue some re-arranging with a female physio at a different site in 2 weeks time.
Now this is in itself not too unusual but 2 things stick out.
1. The patients have my name on the confirmation of appointment letter. It’s a male name. Surely they’ll have some conception of my “not femaleness” from that.
2. This particular patient had a problem with her elbow. So no undressing beyond seeing her arm and maybe her neck. Ridiculous.
Still gives me a bit more quietness.
Have fun.
Permalink
23 Dec 2007
Posted in Travel at 2:25 pm by alby
Addo Elephant National Park to Cape Town – 8/12/07
This’ll be a long day. We had to get from the park back to where we started a few days ago. In total it’s about 800km so lots of driving to do.
I did the first half worth of drive (past Keurboom Lagoon again) remembering to stick 2 fingers up as we passed the start of the Harkerville trail.
Nothing too much of note on the way besides Matthew getting spooked by a statue of a baboon.
This is I suppose the official start of the second part of our holiday. We were to stay at Ruth’s sister in law’s house. Turned out to be a huge bungalow in Kuil’s River a large suburb quite a way out of Cape Town.
The most important aspect of the house was that it had a washing machine. Hurrah! We spent a bit of time loading and then trying to figure out how to work it. No dice.
We thought it might not be switched on at the plug. So we pulled the thing out and found it was on. We also found spectacular flotsam and wreckage and more under the machine. Cue a little bit of sweeping up.
Ruth tried to contact the housekeeper but her phone was off and the sister in law and family were in America for their holiday.
It’s important to note just how important a washing machine would be to us. Since that point where K had “ooshuz”ed me we’d had no facility to get stuff clean and I was past the time when I needed new pants and shirts etc.
I resorted to the time honoured method of whacking the thing. It sprang into life instantly. Magic hands you see.
The family also owned a PC so I spent a bit of time looking through my photos. It was too slow really but a nice way to spend some time.
Eventually to bed.
Permalink
22 Dec 2007
Posted in Self-indulgence at 10:28 pm by alby
Awww.
Permalink
Posted in Travel at 11:49 am by alby
Addo Elephant National Park – 7/12/07
Ow an achy start. Bags of soreness to the legs and foot. So walking was quite a problem. Luckily we were due to be spending the day sitting down one way or another.
I would have expected that we’d have to go on a safari bus thing but no. We were allowed to go through in the VW with Ruth driving.
The funniest bit was seeing the sign at the gate. That slapped us down and gave us a sense of our importance. But on with the show.
Ruth’s mum then said that she’d give whoever first spotted each species a 20 Rand prize. I don’t think she meant it but it was intended to get Matthew to pay attention. Didn’t really seem to work as he carried on playing on his own in the back. But no matter whatever any of us saw he claimed to have seen first. I think Matthew thinks “first” means “after everyone else”.
Fun anyway. Oh and we had a tick sheet of the species in the park. Matthew hadn’t quite got the idea that you have to actually see an example of the species before ticking it off the list. Ah the magic of youthful thought processes.
Loads of stuff seen and photos taken (see via link) and dung beetles not driven over. But sadly we didn’t manage to find the lions despite following the tips we’d sought out from other visitors.
That night we ate in the park’s restaurant and it was great to enjoy the animals we’d seen in another way.
That was another lovely day. Ahhh.. [contented sigh]
Permalink
21 Dec 2007
Posted in Travel at 7:35 pm by alby
Harkerville to Addo National Park – 6/12/07
After the exertions of yesterday I woke up feeling remarkably refreshed. A little soreness in the calf maybe but really not too bad.
We cleaned up the hut a bit and headed off. At this point I noticed that my left big toe was more than a little painful every time I descended a step/rock and led with the left foot. Nasty and not a great omen for the rest of the day.
The hike started off without too much trouble; a 2km long bit of forest wandering. The most notable bit of this was finding large numbers of piles of poo. Some looked awfully vegetarian but there were a few large piles that were clearly not. And they looked fresh so something big had been around overnight.
After the amble we hit another gert steep cliff descent. Was not quite so steep as yesterday’s but the toe pain really slowed me down. I’m slightly worried about this as we have to meet the family at 2pm at the latest or else we’d not get to where we needed to be that night.
Once descended there was another 3km of nasty scrambling as per yesterday. My energy wasn’t as bad as previous but the ups and downs were taking their toll on my foot.
Oh and at one point Ruth was leading and took us along a little rocky outcrop, got to the end of it, turned right and led us down a really not very easy rock face. It had poor holds, no chain to help, a slight overhang and the bit she suggested we use had a stream running down it. Once we got down (after much swearing and concern for our safety) we turned and had a look at where we’d been. Off to the side (left at the top rather than right) was a rather handy wooden ladder provided for the express purpose of not having to climb down the awkward rock face. Grr.
After a few hours we emerged onto a rocky beach and were rewarded with a sighting of our first humans for 24 hours. Oh and I’d been stared at by a dhassie. It really looked bemused for the 30s or so that it stared at me. I think it was amazed by my entertainingly burnt face. Worrying that I burned badly considering that both days of the hike were overcast.
The group of humans were on a day trip to the coast and we (ie Ruth) had a chat with the tour leader for a while. Then we stopped and ate again.
After food. Another vomit inducing cliff climb. Another bout of swearing, puffing and pain.
The last few km were not too bad, rather like the first 10km yesterday only with no baboons; but we did see a few deer/antelopes. I hurt quite a lot when I got to the end point. But I bloody made it didn’t I? Woot. There was an escape route from the overnight hut but I didn’t wimp out and I’m so proud that I struggled through it.
I was nearly dead, energy wise. Hurting in the legs, my toe was killing me and I wasn’t in the best mood.
When we got back to meet the family K’s first response was to “ooshuz” at the fact that I needed some clothes washing (my kit really was filthy). No concern for my wellbeing at all. Ah well.
So in the whole, how was it?
Despite it being the hardest 2 days physical effort I can remember doing it really was a stunning experience. I couldn’t experience anything like it in ordinary life and the scenery, the animals and the challenge were all spectacular. Loved it. At least I think I did. I have fond memories anyway. I think Ruth thought I didn’t at the time and was feeling a little guilty for putting me through it.
If I ever complain of being “tired” or “exhausted” then feel free to remind of this little hike.
My toe? Later in the trip it carried on hurting despite not giving it grief. I showed it to K and her first impression? “You’ll lose your toenail”.
Bugger. So I wasn’t making it up. It really was awfully painful.
(NB it seems to have settled a bit but I have quite nasty bruising under the nail and the podiatrist at work tells me I’ll have a year or so of this “growing out”)
Once we’d eaten with the family we set off in the bus to the Addo Elephant National Park. It’s quite a way away and Ruth did the first hour or so of driving.
By the time I’d rested, eaten, drunk some coke and had some chocolate I was quite up for driving so I managed the last 250km or so. I had to go full speed ahead as the gates of the park close at 6:30 and we needed to be there before that. I got us there at about 6:22.
Once in the park we found our chalet. Actually it was more like a cottage with a thatched roof. Very nice in the whole but the details were more than a little shoddy. Loos didn’t quite work, doors of cupboards didn’t quite close etc… A shame because they could have made it utterly perfect.
Our garden overlooked a waterhole which should have meant we’d see the animals as they came to drink. Sadly the weather had meant there were lots more watering places around so they didn’t really come along.
But we had another braai and whilst eating we heard hyenas; that was exciting.
Tomorrow’s a trip or two through the park.
Ooh yes. On the way we passed a place called “Keurboom Lagoon”. I hope they have baboons there.
Have fun.
Permalink
Posted in People, Work at 7:07 pm by alby
I got in trouble at work today.
I used the verb “to bone up” meaning revise and everyone thought I was being rude. Not one of them knew what it meant.
The level of education of some folk.
Tsk.
Permalink
20 Dec 2007
Posted in Travel at 6:37 pm by alby
Oudtshoorn to Harkerville 5/12/07
Looking forward to today. Ruth had previously asked whether I’d like to go hiking in SA at some point. Hell yes. Was my response. So she’d booked me and her on the “Harkerville Coast Hiking Trail”.
So after a reasonable drive we got to Harkerville around midday.
Odd thing to me was having to book this hike. It turns out that they only allow 12 people per day on it to cut down on degradation of the habitat. Ruth was concerned that we’d not get a place so she booked it ages ago. Turned up on the day to find that it was only going to be us 2. Not ideal but doable.
Now first thing is that the trail is a 2 dayer. 14.6km on the first and a further 12 on the second. Doesn’t seem too bad does it? Not too far at least.
Ruth had also had a thought that K might like to join us but eventually decided against it. And frankly I’m glad she did. Not because I didn’t want to spend time with K but because if K HAD come along then I’m pretty sure we’d have a dead K on our hands.
My WORD! What an ordeal.
It started all normally and OK with a walk through forestry. The only oddity here was that the forest was just like British woodlands, apart from the bird sounds wot were a little more tropical.
Then, after about 6km (IE we’re well away from civilisation) I heard a bark and a growl and saw a couple of shapes off to the side through the foliage. “Shit a big dog sounding very angry” was my first thought. First action? Pick up big stick (no! NOT to throw it for the dog but to smack the dog with it should it come close). I mentioned my “big scary dog” theory to Ruth, who incidentally was also picking up a BFO stick for herself. “It’s not a dog” she said. “What?”
“It’s a baboon.”
Eeeek! Oh my word.
For those of you who are not cogniscant of what an angry baboon looks like try this:
Baboon
So fearing for my leg we hurried on, wielding our sticks.
Luckily for us it may be that the second shape through the foliage was prolly Mrs Baboon who was being protected by her man. This meant that once we’d gone a little way he calmed down a bit and went back to domestic bliss leaving us in peace but a little shaken.
It was at this point that Ruth informed me that amongst the other animals in the forest were leopards. Leopards! I had a big stick and a penknife. Hardly suitable protective equipment should a bloody leopard choose to go for long pig today. Oh dear oh dear.
After about 10km we smelled less musty air and some saltiness so we’d made it to the sea. In fact we were at the top of a decent sized cliff. We sat here and cooked our dinner on the camping stove thingy. Beautiful spot and we’re the only people around for miles. What a lovely way to spend an hour. And apart from the baboon it’s all been quite easy except for an occasional bit of flooding on the path.
But then the hard bit starts.
First off is a pretty near vertical descent down the cliffside. So sliding on arses, scrambling and hanging on and a small amount of walking. Once down we’re right at the sea. With about 3km of “walking” along the “beach”. It sounds so lovely doesn’t it?
It was spectacular indeed but quite possibly the hardest physical challenge I’ve ever had to do.
Rocks and clambering and more rocks and more clambering then there are bits with rubbish hand/foot holds so they attach chains to the rocks and you dangle on the chains trying to find footholds as you go round. But not only that the sea is banging away at the cliff wall just below you so slipping and letting go is hardly an option.
After about the 12th headland and hours of this I was certain we must have been getting to the end of today’s section of hike. But no there would be a few more headlands (up over and on to higher rocks, along a rocky path, up and down a bit and then down the other side again to yet another boulder strewn “pathway” at beach level). Bloody hell, how long is this going to go on for?
At this point I was withdrawn, my legs were well past shaky, my heart was going hell for leather, I was sweating disgraceful amounts and feeling dehydrated, headache banging away. AND I needed 10 minutes rest for every 5 minutes of walking/clambering. I have never been so dead as this.
Thinking: “I can’t go back. There’s no escape route that doesn’t involve climbing the huge cliff to my left. Going on is ridiculously hard work. How about just sitting down here for an hour or two to get my 9th wind up?”. But I couldn’t. Darkness wasn’t too far away so we had to get to the camping hut before then. My word I wanted this to finish so badly.
Then I find out that the hut is at the top of the cliff anyway so the near vertical climb nearly finished me off totally. And THEN there was another km at the top through the woods to get to the hut.
I collapsed straight away on to one of the bunks and spent a good hour prone and motionless.
After this I made us a fire. Ruth had been sorting us out some food whilst I crashed.
We sat next to the fire eating our rather appetising (but only in this circumstance) meal whilst scary animal noises abounded from the forest nearby.
I still struggle to understand just why my body failed so badly on this day’s effort. Bizarre. Am I just unfit? Ill? Ruth thought I might be anaemic. K has said similar before. I must check myself in to the GP to test this.
During our chat and food Ruth showed me the bumph that comes with the map on the hike. Here’s a quote:
This circular route traverses breathtaking natural scenery. Apart from the Harkerville indigenous forest it includes an incomparable, rugged and unspoilt cliff coastline, which is more demanding and presents greater challenges to the hiker than the normal trails. A certain amount of rock-clambering is involved, nerve straining narrow rock ledges on sheer rock faces have to be negotiated, and stormy sea and high tides have to kept account of at times.
A serious warning is directed to the prospective hiker who intends tackling this route without due consideration of the specific circumstances. In spite of safeguards in the form of stepladders and chains at certain difficult and dangerous places, there is still a degree of risk involved. The short section along the coast is very exacting.
Hikers without experience of this kind of terrain should under no circumstances attempt this trail without being accompanied by at least one experienced person. Persons suffering from fear of heights may experience problems at some of the steep rock faces. [their emphasis]
To a very deep sleep.
TBC.
Permalink
« Previous Page — « Previous entries « Previous Page · Next Page » Next entries » — Next Page »
