A HECTIC SUNDAY IN MARCH 2008.

A HECTIC SUNDAY IN MARCH 2008.

On Friday, 7.3.2008, evening, Barbara & I realised that we had just one weekend left to take the stuff that I had brought from Dawn’s house in East London, down to Wildcliff and that was this weekend. Otherwise we would miss taking it before the Easter weekend. Ally had been invited to Meghan Derry’s Party but was unable to go as she was feverish and not at all well. Normally we would have asked one of her friends if she could stay over for the day on Sunday but decided to take her with us instead.

We then decided to hire a trailer and that we would leave at 02.00am on Sunday morning and return the same afternoon. On Saturday afternoon, after work, I went to the trailer hire and we hired a really big (3m X 2M) trailer, took it up to Michael’s house and loaded the two couches that we had stored there. I collected Noluthando (Michaels domestic) and her child at the same time.

While driving home I questioned her a bit about her life. She told me how her mother had abandoned her and her two younger brothers when she was about 5 years old. Her mother had left with another man and went to Durban she thinks. Her father and mother had never married and so she went to live with her aunt in Walmer township while her father married and had six children of his own and lives in Motherwell. Her two younger brothers have subsequently died. It seems that the youngest was a sickly child from birth. Noluthando was introduced to us by her aunt who attends the same church as we do. She has two children. Her son is about 12 and attends a school in Peddie where he lives with his paternal grandparents and her baby lives with her in a RDP house in Walmer township.

Noluthando had agreed, at short notice, to house sit for us. That afternoon we loaded a double bed, a table with fixed stools (chairs), a TV Cabinet and some other small stuff. I tied it all down and hitched the trailer to the car ready for Sunday morning. My alarm woke me up at 01.30 and I made ready for the trip. Ally unfortunately was still not feeling well and had a fever. We bundled her into the back seat and left at about 02.15am.

The trailer was heavy and so the going was slow. We were very lucky with traffic and for the whole trip had to pass just one truck and saw probably less than 50 cars on the road. Our first stop was the Shell station at Plett where we off loaded some of the internal fluids. We had Digby with us and he did a bit of territory marking just for good measure. The BP filling station in Knysna is not open all night so we pressed on to Sedgefield where we filled up at the Engen and had a Wimpy Coffee. We are never disappointed with their coffee. As we approached the open fields of the Riversdale area we saw a Secretary bird walking the field with a deliberate no nonsense walk that said: “watch out snakes. Here I come.”. We also saw three Blue Crane feeding on the leftovers of the cut wheat field.

We swapped driving a couple of times but otherwise drove straight through and arrived at Heidelberg at 08.45am. Brett drove through from Wildcliff to meet us and we hitched the trailer onto the Bushpig. Brett had to use the 4 wheel drive facility and we had a slow drive to Wildcliff with Barbara following.

Brett told me a little of his background. His parents live in Benoni where he went to school. He has taken on a number of challenges since leaving school but seems to be destined for the outdoors which he loves. He has worked in the Timbivati / Kruger National Park where he acted as a guide. He would have to be on duty for up to six weeks at a time. It was at this time he met Emily who is from North East America. She studied at Washington DC and took on a job in South Africa. Brett makes no secret of his love for this attractive young woman and hopes that they will be able to commit to Wildcliff for a year. Brett tells me that he has a brother who is equally adventurous and who is teaching English as a foreign language in France. His brother did the same in Indonesia and England.

Brett is enjoying the experience of being the manager of daily operations on the Reserve and Emily tends to manage the house, administration and recording work. As we arrived at Wildcliff, Pascal (Swiss doing a Primates study) and Emily joined us and helped off load the trailer. We packed most of the stuff under the Casita which is now being developed into a Nursery. There are no plants yet but the netting has been put into place and Brett is busy building shelves.

We walked up to Talari where a huge amount of renovation has taken place. The floors have been completely redone, two extra bathrooms have been built, a courtyard is in construction and the garage area is now a conservatory or similar with see through corrugated roofing. The front stoep is much wider and has new tiles. Ian has made a cosy area for the main bedroom, study and bathroom leading onto the courtyard on the north side of the house. Each bedroom now has its own bathroom.

The Kitchen has been opened on to the lounge area and the cabinets should be started soon. We saw all the cabinet wood lying in the lounge. The walls of the Kitchen look old and shabby compared to the rest of the house and I am not sure if they are going to be re-plastered, painted or covered up with boards and cupboards.

There are huge piles of builder’s rubble lying around where the front garden used to be. Once the building operations and building materials have been removed this is going to be a wonderful place for all kinds of purposes. The bottom house that used to be known as the White house is also undergoing renovations and is being re-plastered with new windows and fittings.

Barbara had her eye on the old wood burning stove and we loaded this onto the trailer with the assistance of the labourers who were having tea. We did not linger and Brett hitched the trailer back on to the Bushpig and we headed back to Heidelberg. As we drove down past Heron we saw a Puffadder crossing the road. He looked healthy and in excellent condition. The Toyota Bushpig is not pulling well despite the fact that it has just been serviced. It looks like it will need to be diagnosed and repaired to restore the power that we expect from a vehicle like this.

Once back in Heidelberg we filled up with petrol and hitched the trailer back on to the Toyota and left at about 12.00 for PE. From here we again made just one stop in Knysna to refuel and buy some provisions at the Spar. When I was in Canada earlier this year I had bought a book on CD. It was a Ludlum book and we listened to about half of the story during the trip. It is not that easy to listen to a story like this as there are all kinds of characters and intrigue. You need to concentrate and if you are not the driver at the time it is easy to fall asleep and miss a whole section of the reading.

Pat phoned from Cape Town to say that she had ridden a good Argus cycle tour in just over 5 hours. Herman was also riding but we did not hear from him. We had missed Nippers and the Biathle for the day but Ally would not have been able to take part anyway. I tried, on the phone, to persuade Ena that relationships were more important than opinions and being right. I had met up with Alice the previous weekend and had heard that they are no longer “best buddies”. This upset me and led me to this vain attempt at patching up their friendship. I should know from experience that this never works.

Ally was still not feeling well and basically slept the whole journey there and back. We tried to get her to eat but nothing interested her. We had stopped at Albertina for Gekervde (sliced) Biltong and she was not even interested in that. I also tried some fruit salad that I bought at the Spar in Knysna but after a feeble attempt she left that as well. We also bought a Beef Fillet at the Albertina shop. Their prices are quite a bit better than in town. The return trip was easier pulling the empty trailer but a lot more traffic. We surprised ourselves by arriving back home by about 17.30. I off loaded and took Noluthando home.

The whole trip was 1000kays and we had taken 15 hours. But there is nothing a shower and coffee cannot refresh you for the next activity of life. We were pleased with our efforts and glad to have gotten this job behind us. It was Emily’s birthday and we returned home to a batch of photo’s of Jacqui’s family and the party. Nicci had run two events recently and seemed to have hurt her heel. She too sent us a number of photo’s of the event and of the family at the beach.