STILBAAI REPORT
26 SEPTEMBER 2004.
In September 2003, Susan Burri and her family went to Stilbaai to join their family. Susan then decided to run the 21kay race that is held annually during the local S, S & K Fees. I think that Sue said this stands for Strand, Sand and Kultuur. But could be wrong. I am not sure that we were exposed to any Kultuur except maybe the Bokdrol competition that you can read about on page 4. Anyway this lead to her organising the MPRG to run the event in September of 2004.
The Mill Park Running Group (MPRG), for the uninformed, is a small group of people who meet in the mornings on the corner of Wares and Salisbury road (next to Grey school) in Port Elizabeth. The group includes members of a number of running clubs plus those who belong to no club at all and has a variety of country members (the Fears, the Elfiks, the Richards’ & the Niebergs to name a few) ex members, ex runners, family and friends of members and anyone else who one of the current members feels will feel comfortable in the group (runners or not!). I think that there are some of the older (oops I mean more mature) members who would disagree with my summation of membership but the reality is that almost every one and any one is welcome to join the group. Membership is actually a really complicated issue that is understood by no one at all except Kobus. And that is only because he is advisor in chief to the chairman of the group. And because Andy seems to have elected Kobus as spokesman. And all decisions made in this group are determined by the chairman in his normal democratic way. Usually soon after he has re-elected himself to his position of chairman for a further ten years in office. I said complicated!
So back to Stilbaai; Those who heard of it and could make the weekend were:
Myself, (Barbara & Alli were in London to visit our family there),
Andy (the chairman in case you missed it) and Bev;
Caroliss (When Kobus is in love) or Carol and Kobus;
Benita and Andrew (Andrew has just been transferred to Botswana),
Pat, Gerald and their beautiful daughter Ronelle;
Tracey (official organiser, secretary, and communications expert) Herman (official Photographer), Leah and Kim;
Susan, Markus, MC and Emilio;
Angela and Richard (Angela is just recovering from an operation and stress fracture);
Dorothea (also know as Doortjie, lives in Sedgefield and was one of the main reasons why we agreed to this trip). Doortjie does not qualify for the status of “Jong Bokkie” because she does not engage in conversation on the run….see later commentary on Gerald’s run;
Maryna (who has never met with the group before and does little running but wears a Comrades T-Shirt and is a friend of Sue’s so immediately qualified for membership of the MPRG) Maryna had given Paula a lift to Mossel Baai where she was due to catch a bus to Cape Town for a bike fitting. On the way there the car battery had failed and so Maryna had to borrow a battery for the weekend;
Rob (Rob has only run with the group for one year and so is still a probationary visitor with no status at all!); Did I mention that membership of the MPRG is complicated?
Stuart and Rianna who kindly agreed to keep me company for the drive there and back;
Graham (known for his cheerful disposition), Cherryl and Kristin;
Baron who had travelled with the Bartons and who kept pining for Linda who had charged off to the Natal Midlands on a church mission.
Then there was Sue’s family (Sister Lora and Hennie Plus children). I cannot remember all the names of these people and was never sure which children belonged to who but just that they were a great family who loved Sue very much and seemed to enjoy the whole outing as much as we did.
This made a total of over 30 people who had to be accommodated and fed. Sue seemed to have done a marvellous job of setting up the whole weekend.
Stilbaai is a holiday town at the mouth of the Goukou River (spelling may be wrong). It is bigger than a village but not quite a town. It has a Spar, Friendly Grocer and an OK Foods if that is anything to go by. It is situated about 470 kays West of PE, 20kays off the N2 to Cape Town. The turn off is between the Gouritz bridge, where the Bungee jumping is done, and Riversdale.
We stayed in a variety of facilities from self catering, Bed and Breakfast to shared homes. The central venue was the Pink House which belongs to Sue’s sister and is right on the river / beach. 14 of us stayed in the blue house known as Bloubaasie. The travel arrangements were individually organised. Some went down on the Thursday as far a Greyton and Hermanus to see the whales. The main group seemed to arrive on the Friday which was Heritage Day and therefore a public holiday. Stuart, Mariana & I had stopped over at Ena in Plett for breakfast.
Once we had established our accommodation I saw how many children there were there I became quite sad that Alli was not there as she would have loved to be part of the group of fun loving children. I was able to finish off the Grisham book that I had been reading since Rhodes. That evening we met at a restaurant on the East Bank of the River where we occupied two long tables and proceeded to receive some of the best service that any first class restaurant could ever hope to offer such a big group. I was lucky enough to sit next to Kristin and Maryna. Graham had warned me to choose my company well as, at a table like this, the evening can be completely spoilt by the company that you have forced upon you. I also had Doortjie, Tracey and Markus opposite me so my evening was a great success and I was kept entertained.
The weekend had so many highlights and this was one of them. Kobus had decided that this was to be a slightly elitist reunion of the Greek marathon trip of 2003. Last year some of the MPRG had travelled to Athens to experience the original route from Marathon to Athens. It was also the route for the 2004 Olympics. The restaurant was decorated as Greek setting with murals that seemed almost like they had known we were coming. Kobus had a bottle of Ouzo which was opened and the cap immediately lost so the bottle had to be finished. We had a lot of laughs and a good meal as well.
The Saturday morning saw us ready to run at about 07.00am. We met where we thought the start would be and found there to be no one else there. We are so used to being at the start of a race in PE with ET blaring out all his useless information and a whole lot of runners milling around that we were quite lost for a while. At about 07.25 there seemed to be a fair number of runners at the start and at 07.30 we demanded that the race be started. The Organiser then began his announcements in Afrikaans. This town is entirely Afrikaans. And the race eventually got underway about 5 mins late. The group of runners consisted of myself, Andy, Kobus, Benita and Andrew, Susan, Richard, Doortjie, Pat & Gerald, Stuart, Baron, Rob and Graham (14 in all, although we were also joined for a short while by Alf Zemke). We had the usual photo shoot before the run with the (elitist) Greek group receiving special attention again.
We were to be supported by Ronelle and Maryna on Bicycles. Richard, ignoring all the rules and etiquette of the MPRG, went ahead with Doortjie. Doortjie soon realised that her mistake could seriously affect her continued acceptance in this group and hung back for the chairman and his cronies to pass. We stuck together for a while, Gerald searching out a Jong Bokkie decided that Sue would have to do. Graham had no training after 2 Oceans (not that he had done much running prior to Oceans) and paid the price. Pat found a friendly bunch of Outeniqua runners to take care of her and the rest of us pressed on to the turn on the East Bank. Soon thereafter Rob decided to see what the sand tasted like. He was, unfortunately, a little behind the main group and so no one was able to stomp over him or kick him when he was down. The fall seemed to anger Rob and so at 11kays, when Baron was totally bored with the 5.5min a kay pace and pushed off up the first of the hills, Rob tried to catch him.
The second half of the race consisted of hills, hills and (mmmm?) Hills. Along the route we were supported by Ronelle who cycled sedately next to us at various stages and Maryna who was asked to do some acrobatics and proceeded to do the splits on the bike as she whizzed past us. And then just as we though that we may be coming to the end of the hills we passed a sewage farm that made the Haitian storm damage problems (Hurricane Ivan had recently smashed up this island and caused huge devastation), smell like Jasmine in summer. This was at the 17kay marker, here we had also seen a Dung Beetle which was trying to sort out the sewage farm stench by rolling away golf ball size balls of dung one at a time.
From here the route lead to the beach. The sand was soft and really made the going tough. The sun was bright at this stage and I began to heat up. Mercifully this stretch is only about 2 kays before entering back to the tar road and then the race ends with an uphill and the final kay on a slight incline. The feature of the last watering point was the Coon Carnival type band (sponsored by Friendly Grocer) that kept the runners and seconders in good spirits.
Baron had managed to catch Richard and finished just ahead of him in 1.44: Rob followed shortly after them and promptly ran back along the course to fetch Pat. What a gentleman! Then came the little group of Kobus (first GM and 3rd M), Benita, Andy and myself. Stuart, Doortjie, Tracey and the rest of the group followed soon thereafter. The pair of Andrew and Graham ambled in with a beer in hand provided by faithful seconding Cherryl & Kristin.
After the run we went back to the house where we were able to shower and relax. The prize-giving was at 11.45 and we arrived just in time to watch the Coons doing their song routine before the best and briefest prize-giving I have ever experienced. We had Money winners in Kobus and Pat from our group. We all expected them to invite us for drinks in the beer tent but were to be disappointed as they stashed the loot for their own enjoyment!
The prize-giving was held in the S, S & K Fees area. Here there were a number of activities; The ones that interested us the most were firstly the Bokdroll spitting competition where one could put the Bokdroll in your mouth and see if you could spit it further than the last person in the hope of winning a sheep! None of us entered this competition. Then there was the riding of the bull machine which Herman bravely entered and gave us a fair rendition of Yipee kay yeah! while waving his left hand in the air, before being dumped onto the air bag. After this we moved to the Ice cream vendor where Gerald managed to down two of these soft serves but was quite taken aback when he received no accolades nor did he win first prize for ice cream eating GM of the Fees!
I had received a message that Markus was waiting to take me on a roller coaster ride so I sped over to the Pink house where Markus pounced on me and just as the rain started to pelt down we launched his doubles paddle ski and began our quest for a new route to Australia. Maryna was also out there on a single ski looking for any friendly sharks to race. Fearless! Markus, Maryna and I went up in my list of the most intrepid people that I know. As we went further out I noticed that the swells were the size of a fairly large mountain. Markus then announced that we should paddle as fast as possible to avoid certain death. I complied. And we raced down this mountain of a wave while Markus started to tell me of the time that he had had to swim from about this spot back to shore. I looked up and found that I could not even see the shore. And paddled even faster. Exhilarating, Exhausting, Fun and Scary. Thanks Markus. I cannot wait for my next time out with you. Runners do not use their tummy muscles except for eating nor their upper body muscles except for drinking.
After this I had no energy for much except to sit and chat to the kitchen group. They were hard at work preparing for the braai that we were going to have at the Wilbur Smith home. Baron and I had purchased some goodies for the braai, Maryna was making a salad fit for a king and Sue & Tracey were creating a Lemon Meringue Pie that was to feed the masses. Later that afternoon we drove in convoy to the WS homestead which turned out to be a really beautiful farm located on both sides of the Goukou River. On the East side was the stud farm that we learnt also belonged to one of the Burri relatives (Alters. Who is reputed to be anything from an advocate to a supreme court judge). He gave us a really interesting few stories of how stud farmers can get really lucky. However it appears that he creates his own luck with some astute lineage management. Lookout for this years winner of the Breeders stakes. I think that this is an important horse race to be held in America which could help to make Alters even more famous. Alters bought the farm from Wilbur and has developed it further. He told us of how Wilbur used to row across the river to a house on the other side where he would spend his days in solitude and produce the wonderful novels that we all know so well.
Wilbur Smith
Born Zambia 1933. Educated Michaelhouse and Rhodes University
Living in London. Wilbur (after visiting his home I feel that I am on first name terms) has written 30 books.
His first book is The Lion Feeds (1964) and his latest continues with the Courtney Series, “Blue Horizon” (2003) and his next book to be released (early in 2005) is “The Triumph of the Sun”
We then followed Alters though a guided tour of the nearby valley in the farm where an aqua duct had been built from two different sources in the valley. A farmer many years ago had had the forethought to shore up the areas where the water flowed strongly from the mountain side. Alters explained that the mountain consisted of chalk and that there were huge underground dams of water deep in the mountain and that water flowed continuously from these dams. We then did a bit of Bundu bashing with the younger group amazing me how they were quite happy to run around barefoot. Leah reminded me a number of times that she was first of the girls as we made our way back eventually what Alters referred to as his “Folly”.
He has built an amphitheatre in the valley. It is an elaborate structure with ample seating for in excess of 50 people, a water feature, lighting and a stage with good acoustics as we then heard while firstly the children did a little show for us (a repeat performance was conducted later in the evening) and Maryna then entertained us with a rendition of Swan Lake that turned out to be the waterfall that flows into the Swan Lake rather than the swans swimming about. I though about giving the anxious audience a rendition of the well known folksong by Koos Kombuis: “Almal wil ‘n huisie by die see he” but Sue discouraged me. Again I felt a sense of melancholy as I missed the two girls in my life. They would have loved the evening.
Later that evening there was a huge amount of speculation regarding the potential relationship that could emerge from the Paula / Deon encounter that was in progress in Cape Town. It seems quite likely now that Kobus will soon have Peter and Adrienne Wilson as part of his family. The MPRG is waiting for the next episode of this gripping soapie.
The missing phone!
(For the original Missing Phone Story see the report on the Otter Trail written earlier this year.) When we got back to the braai area we were pleased to see that Richard was trying to redeem himself into the Chairman’s favour by lighting the fire. It was about this time that I realised that my phone was missing. First I looked around the braai area … nothing! Then I asked Andy for the keys to the car and searched the back seat. Again nothing. So I then had a brainwave and asked Gerald to phone me, but despite using his acute hearing ability to assist my search we were still unsuccessful. So back to the car I went and again tried to phone myself. I heard the ringing on Gerald’s phone but no sign of my phone anywhere. Must have left it in the room I thought to myself. But later when I searched the bedroom and the house I was to come up empty-handed. So the phone was lost I thought.
No! I decided to continue the search when we were back at the house, found my torch and searched my car, drove over to where Andy was staying and searched his car again. Also asked Gerald to phone me one more time but now the phone had been switched off. Mmmmm? I thought deeply to myself. The plot thickens. Richard became so caught up in my missing phone saga and (feeling that he was missing out on some of the limelight), announced that his wallet had been stolen. But when he realised that the wallet was supposed to be in a drawer where Angela had her cell phone he realised that his story was not going to capture the attention of the group like my missing phone story. He then quickly “found” his wallet in his tog bag and I was able to re-focus the attention of the group on the missing phone! Herman even set his look-alike phone to try to locate mine. Nothing worked.
Now you probably want to hear what really happened to the phone!! There are a couple of versions; and then there is the truth. You can decide for yourself.
Version one
Andy is my insurance broker. Some time ago and at my request he examined my policy and advised me to remove the phone from the list of specified items. Of course his lovely wife, Bev had no idea that Andy would not insist on insuring such a valuable item as a phone. And seeing the opportunity for a quick profit, slipped the phone into her handbag. On the way home she and Andy were talking about my lost phone and Andy told Bev of his advice to me. Oops thought Bev! And quietly “found” the phone. Guilt was all over her face when she returned the lost phone to me. Insurance scams of incredible magnitude have small beginnings.
Version two
Andy & I use the same car phone holder and so have to use the same phone. Andy’s phone has recently given him some trouble and seeing the easy and cheapest solution to the problem he found a moment when he thought that no one would notice (I was walking in the valley, Richard was lighting the fire, others were pouring drinks etc). He then picked up the phone and slipped it into poor, innocent Bevs handbag thinking that he would retrieve it later. Andy however had more than his regulation two glasses of wine and became quite disorientated due to the effect of the intoxicating nature of the alcohol. It was only the next day as they were driving home and Bev discovered the offending item in her handbag that Andy remembered his foolish action and asked Bev to say that it was her mistake. This would explain the look of guilt on her face. Mmmm I thought to myself for the umpteenth time.
Version three
Someone does not like me (impossible!) and thought to play a prank (very unlikely). Slipped the phone into Bevs handbag knowing that it would cause me to have a sleepless night (although everyone knows that I sleep like a “Peter”). And that it would be found the next day. Most improbable version.
Version four
On Monday morning, on the run, Kobus informed me that Bev had mentioned to Carol (during the Friday night supper) that it was now in vogue to have two cell phones. In particular Bev had been eyeing mine as a fashion statement.
You decide which is the truthful version. But I did receive the phone back from a very sheepish and guilty looking Bev on Sunday afternoon.
Well we had that braai going at quite a lick when we were invited for a second look at the amphitheatre this was the chance for those who had not yet been able to start the grilling process to do so. Baron & I soon had those filet steaks cooked to a perfect medium rare. A little later when everyone there felt that they were completely stuffed and could not force another morsel into their already dilated tummy’s, Tracey emerged with the most delicious Lemon Meringue Tart that we have ever had. That was about it for most of us. Gerlad assured me that the Burri’s liked to “Kuier” and would be long before returning home. The rest of us made our weary way home and sat in the lounge chatting. It was here that I felt a sense of sadness as we thought of the Bartons leaving us. Life will just not be the same without the quick wit of Andrew and the terms of endearment from Benita. Don’t forget us. And try to visit often please.
On the way home from Stilbaai the Bartons were about 50kays into the drive when they discovered that they had Gerald’s car keys. So they had to turn round and added an extra bit of sightseeing to their trip.
And that was about the end of our 21kay run at Stilbaai. On our way home we again stopped off at Ena in Plett for coffee and a muffin and were home at 12.00. We had passed a cycle tour that started in Plett. The poor cyclists were in the rain and cold and many of the back markers were totally on their own. It seems to be a tough course with the return route taking the cyclists through both the Groot Rivier and the Bloukrans passes.
From all of us: to the Burri family:
Thank you, Dankie, Thank you!
Peter
Sunday 26 September 2004.
Sunday, September 26, 2004
MILL PARK RUNNING GROUP RUN THE STILBAAI 21KAY SEPTEMBER 2006
STILBAAI REPORT
26 SEPTEMBER 2004.
In September 2003, Susan Burri and her family went to Stilbaai to join their family. Susan then decided to run the 21kay race that is held annually during the local S, S & K Fees. I think that Sue said this stands for Strand, Sand and Kultuur. But could be wrong. I am not sure that we were exposed to any Kultuur except maybe the Bokdrol competition that you can read about on page 4. Anyway this lead to her organising the MPRG to run the event in September of 2004.
The Mill Park Running Group (MPRG), for the uninformed, is a small group of people who meet in the mornings on the corner of Wares and Salisbury road (next to Grey school) in Port Elizabeth. The group includes members of a number of running clubs plus those who belong to no club at all and has a variety of country members (the Fears, the Elfiks, the Richards’ & the Niebergs to name a few) ex members, ex runners, family and friends of members and anyone else who one of the current members feels will feel comfortable in the group (runners or not!). I think that there are some of the older (oops I mean more mature) members who would disagree with my summation of membership but the reality is that almost every one and any one is welcome to join the group. Membership is actually a really complicated issue that is understood by no one at all except Kobus. And that is only because he is advisor in chief to the chairman of the group. And because Andy seems to have elected Kobus as spokesman. And all decisions made in this group are determined by the chairman in his normal democratic way. Usually soon after he has re-elected himself to his position of chairman for a further ten years in office. I said complicated!
So back to Stilbaai; Those who heard of it and could make the weekend were:
Myself, (Barbara & Alli were in London to visit our family there),
Andy (the chairman in case you missed it) and Bev;
Caroliss (When Kobus is in love) or Carol and Kobus;
Benita and Andrew (Andrew has just been transferred to Botswana),
Pat, Gerald and their beautiful daughter Ronelle;
Tracey (official organiser, secretary, and communications expert) Herman (official Photographer), Leah and Kim;
Susan, Markus, MC and Emilio;
Angela and Richard (Angela is just recovering from an operation and stress fracture);
Dorothea (also know as Doortjie, lives in Sedgefield and was one of the main reasons why we agreed to this trip). Doortjie does not qualify for the status of “Jong Bokkie” because she does not engage in conversation on the run….see later commentary on Gerald’s run;
Maryna (who has never met with the group before and does little running but wears a Comrades T-Shirt and is a friend of Sue’s so immediately qualified for membership of the MPRG) Maryna had given Paula a lift to Mossel Baai where she was due to catch a bus to Cape Town for a bike fitting. On the way there the car battery had failed and so Maryna had to borrow a battery for the weekend;
Rob (Rob has only run with the group for one year and so is still a probationary visitor with no status at all!); Did I mention that membership of the MPRG is complicated?
Stuart and Rianna who kindly agreed to keep me company for the drive there and back;
Graham (known for his cheerful disposition), Cherryl and Kristin;
Baron who had travelled with the Bartons and who kept pining for Linda who had charged off to the Natal Midlands on a church mission.
Then there was Sue’s family (Sister Lora and Hennie Plus children). I cannot remember all the names of these people and was never sure which children belonged to who but just that they were a great family who loved Sue very much and seemed to enjoy the whole outing as much as we did.
This made a total of over 30 people who had to be accommodated and fed. Sue seemed to have done a marvellous job of setting up the whole weekend.
Stilbaai is a holiday town at the mouth of the Goukou River (spelling may be wrong). It is bigger than a village but not quite a town. It has a Spar, Friendly Grocer and an OK Foods if that is anything to go by. It is situated about 470 kays West of PE, 20kays off the N2 to Cape Town. The turn off is between the Gouritz bridge, where the Bungee jumping is done, and Riversdale.
We stayed in a variety of facilities from self catering, Bed and Breakfast to shared homes. The central venue was the Pink House which belongs to Sue’s sister and is right on the river / beach. 14 of us stayed in the blue house known as Bloubaasie. The travel arrangements were individually organised. Some went down on the Thursday as far a Greyton and Hermanus to see the whales. The main group seemed to arrive on the Friday which was Heritage Day and therefore a public holiday. Stuart, Mariana & I had stopped over at Ena in Plett for breakfast.
Once we had established our accommodation I saw how many children there were there I became quite sad that Alli was not there as she would have loved to be part of the group of fun loving children. I was able to finish off the Grisham book that I had been reading since Rhodes. That evening we met at a restaurant on the East Bank of the River where we occupied two long tables and proceeded to receive some of the best service that any first class restaurant could ever hope to offer such a big group. I was lucky enough to sit next to Kristin and Maryna. Graham had warned me to choose my company well as, at a table like this, the evening can be completely spoilt by the company that you have forced upon you. I also had Doortjie, Tracey and Markus opposite me so my evening was a great success and I was kept entertained.
The weekend had so many highlights and this was one of them. Kobus had decided that this was to be a slightly elitist reunion of the Greek marathon trip of 2003. Last year some of the MPRG had travelled to Athens to experience the original route from Marathon to Athens. It was also the route for the 2004 Olympics. The restaurant was decorated as Greek setting with murals that seemed almost like they had known we were coming. Kobus had a bottle of Ouzo which was opened and the cap immediately lost so the bottle had to be finished. We had a lot of laughs and a good meal as well.
The Saturday morning saw us ready to run at about 07.00am. We met where we thought the start would be and found there to be no one else there. We are so used to being at the start of a race in PE with ET blaring out all his useless information and a whole lot of runners milling around that we were quite lost for a while. At about 07.25 there seemed to be a fair number of runners at the start and at 07.30 we demanded that the race be started. The Organiser then began his announcements in Afrikaans. This town is entirely Afrikaans. And the race eventually got underway about 5 mins late. The group of runners consisted of myself, Andy, Kobus, Benita and Andrew, Susan, Richard, Doortjie, Pat & Gerald, Stuart, Baron, Rob and Graham (14 in all, although we were also joined for a short while by Alf Zemke). We had the usual photo shoot before the run with the (elitist) Greek group receiving special attention again.
We were to be supported by Ronelle and Maryna on Bicycles. Richard, ignoring all the rules and etiquette of the MPRG, went ahead with Doortjie. Doortjie soon realised that her mistake could seriously affect her continued acceptance in this group and hung back for the chairman and his cronies to pass. We stuck together for a while, Gerald searching out a Jong Bokkie decided that Sue would have to do. Graham had no training after 2 Oceans (not that he had done much running prior to Oceans) and paid the price. Pat found a friendly bunch of Outeniqua runners to take care of her and the rest of us pressed on to the turn on the East Bank. Soon thereafter Rob decided to see what the sand tasted like. He was, unfortunately, a little behind the main group and so no one was able to stomp over him or kick him when he was down. The fall seemed to anger Rob and so at 11kays, when Baron was totally bored with the 5.5min a kay pace and pushed off up the first of the hills, Rob tried to catch him.
The second half of the race consisted of hills, hills and (mmmm?) Hills. Along the route we were supported by Ronelle who cycled sedately next to us at various stages and Maryna who was asked to do some acrobatics and proceeded to do the splits on the bike as she whizzed past us. And then just as we though that we may be coming to the end of the hills we passed a sewage farm that made the Haitian storm damage problems (Hurricane Ivan had recently smashed up this island and caused huge devastation), smell like Jasmine in summer. This was at the 17kay marker, here we had also seen a Dung Beetle which was trying to sort out the sewage farm stench by rolling away golf ball size balls of dung one at a time.
From here the route lead to the beach. The sand was soft and really made the going tough. The sun was bright at this stage and I began to heat up. Mercifully this stretch is only about 2 kays before entering back to the tar road and then the race ends with an uphill and the final kay on a slight incline. The feature of the last watering point was the Coon Carnival type band (sponsored by Friendly Grocer) that kept the runners and seconders in good spirits.
Baron had managed to catch Richard and finished just ahead of him in 1.44: Rob followed shortly after them and promptly ran back along the course to fetch Pat. What a gentleman! Then came the little group of Kobus (first GM and 3rd M), Benita, Andy and myself. Stuart, Doortjie, Tracey and the rest of the group followed soon thereafter. The pair of Andrew and Graham ambled in with a beer in hand provided by faithful seconding Cherryl & Kristin.
After the run we went back to the house where we were able to shower and relax. The prize-giving was at 11.45 and we arrived just in time to watch the Coons doing their song routine before the best and briefest prize-giving I have ever experienced. We had Money winners in Kobus and Pat from our group. We all expected them to invite us for drinks in the beer tent but were to be disappointed as they stashed the loot for their own enjoyment!
The prize-giving was held in the S, S & K Fees area. Here there were a number of activities; The ones that interested us the most were firstly the Bokdroll spitting competition where one could put the Bokdroll in your mouth and see if you could spit it further than the last person in the hope of winning a sheep! None of us entered this competition. Then there was the riding of the bull machine which Herman bravely entered and gave us a fair rendition of Yipee kay yeah! while waving his left hand in the air, before being dumped onto the air bag. After this we moved to the Ice cream vendor where Gerald managed to down two of these soft serves but was quite taken aback when he received no accolades nor did he win first prize for ice cream eating GM of the Fees!
I had received a message that Markus was waiting to take me on a roller coaster ride so I sped over to the Pink house where Markus pounced on me and just as the rain started to pelt down we launched his doubles paddle ski and began our quest for a new route to Australia. Maryna was also out there on a single ski looking for any friendly sharks to race. Fearless! Markus, Maryna and I went up in my list of the most intrepid people that I know. As we went further out I noticed that the swells were the size of a fairly large mountain. Markus then announced that we should paddle as fast as possible to avoid certain death. I complied. And we raced down this mountain of a wave while Markus started to tell me of the time that he had had to swim from about this spot back to shore. I looked up and found that I could not even see the shore. And paddled even faster. Exhilarating, Exhausting, Fun and Scary. Thanks Markus. I cannot wait for my next time out with you. Runners do not use their tummy muscles except for eating nor their upper body muscles except for drinking.
After this I had no energy for much except to sit and chat to the kitchen group. They were hard at work preparing for the braai that we were going to have at the Wilbur Smith home. Baron and I had purchased some goodies for the braai, Maryna was making a salad fit for a king and Sue & Tracey were creating a Lemon Meringue Pie that was to feed the masses. Later that afternoon we drove in convoy to the WS homestead which turned out to be a really beautiful farm located on both sides of the Goukou River. On the East side was the stud farm that we learnt also belonged to one of the Burri relatives (Alters. Who is reputed to be anything from an advocate to a supreme court judge). He gave us a really interesting few stories of how stud farmers can get really lucky. However it appears that he creates his own luck with some astute lineage management. Lookout for this years winner of the Breeders stakes. I think that this is an important horse race to be held in America which could help to make Alters even more famous. Alters bought the farm from Wilbur and has developed it further. He told us of how Wilbur used to row across the river to a house on the other side where he would spend his days in solitude and produce the wonderful novels that we all know so well.
Wilbur Smith
Born Zambia 1933. Educated Michaelhouse and Rhodes University
Living in London. Wilbur (after visiting his home I feel that I am on first name terms) has written 30 books.
His first book is The Lion Feeds (1964) and his latest continues with the Courtney Series, “Blue Horizon” (2003) and his next book to be released (early in 2005) is “The Triumph of the Sun”
We then followed Alters though a guided tour of the nearby valley in the farm where an aqua duct had been built from two different sources in the valley. A farmer many years ago had had the forethought to shore up the areas where the water flowed strongly from the mountain side. Alters explained that the mountain consisted of chalk and that there were huge underground dams of water deep in the mountain and that water flowed continuously from these dams. We then did a bit of Bundu bashing with the younger group amazing me how they were quite happy to run around barefoot. Leah reminded me a number of times that she was first of the girls as we made our way back eventually what Alters referred to as his “Folly”.
He has built an amphitheatre in the valley. It is an elaborate structure with ample seating for in excess of 50 people, a water feature, lighting and a stage with good acoustics as we then heard while firstly the children did a little show for us (a repeat performance was conducted later in the evening) and Maryna then entertained us with a rendition of Swan Lake that turned out to be the waterfall that flows into the Swan Lake rather than the swans swimming about. I though about giving the anxious audience a rendition of the well known folksong by Koos Kombuis: “Almal wil ‘n huisie by die see he” but Sue discouraged me. Again I felt a sense of melancholy as I missed the two girls in my life. They would have loved the evening.
Later that evening there was a huge amount of speculation regarding the potential relationship that could emerge from the Paula / Deon encounter that was in progress in Cape Town. It seems quite likely now that Kobus will soon have Peter and Adrienne Wilson as part of his family. The MPRG is waiting for the next episode of this gripping soapie.
The missing phone!
(For the original Missing Phone Story see the report on the Otter Trail written earlier this year.) When we got back to the braai area we were pleased to see that Richard was trying to redeem himself into the Chairman’s favour by lighting the fire. It was about this time that I realised that my phone was missing. First I looked around the braai area … nothing! Then I asked Andy for the keys to the car and searched the back seat. Again nothing. So I then had a brainwave and asked Gerald to phone me, but despite using his acute hearing ability to assist my search we were still unsuccessful. So back to the car I went and again tried to phone myself. I heard the ringing on Gerald’s phone but no sign of my phone anywhere. Must have left it in the room I thought to myself. But later when I searched the bedroom and the house I was to come up empty-handed. So the phone was lost I thought.
No! I decided to continue the search when we were back at the house, found my torch and searched my car, drove over to where Andy was staying and searched his car again. Also asked Gerald to phone me one more time but now the phone had been switched off. Mmmmm? I thought deeply to myself. The plot thickens. Richard became so caught up in my missing phone saga and (feeling that he was missing out on some of the limelight), announced that his wallet had been stolen. But when he realised that the wallet was supposed to be in a drawer where Angela had her cell phone he realised that his story was not going to capture the attention of the group like my missing phone story. He then quickly “found” his wallet in his tog bag and I was able to re-focus the attention of the group on the missing phone! Herman even set his look-alike phone to try to locate mine. Nothing worked.
Now you probably want to hear what really happened to the phone!! There are a couple of versions; and then there is the truth. You can decide for yourself.
Version one
Andy is my insurance broker. Some time ago and at my request he examined my policy and advised me to remove the phone from the list of specified items. Of course his lovely wife, Bev had no idea that Andy would not insist on insuring such a valuable item as a phone. And seeing the opportunity for a quick profit, slipped the phone into her handbag. On the way home she and Andy were talking about my lost phone and Andy told Bev of his advice to me. Oops thought Bev! And quietly “found” the phone. Guilt was all over her face when she returned the lost phone to me. Insurance scams of incredible magnitude have small beginnings.
Version two
Andy & I use the same car phone holder and so have to use the same phone. Andy’s phone has recently given him some trouble and seeing the easy and cheapest solution to the problem he found a moment when he thought that no one would notice (I was walking in the valley, Richard was lighting the fire, others were pouring drinks etc). He then picked up the phone and slipped it into poor, innocent Bevs handbag thinking that he would retrieve it later. Andy however had more than his regulation two glasses of wine and became quite disorientated due to the effect of the intoxicating nature of the alcohol. It was only the next day as they were driving home and Bev discovered the offending item in her handbag that Andy remembered his foolish action and asked Bev to say that it was her mistake. This would explain the look of guilt on her face. Mmmm I thought to myself for the umpteenth time.
Version three
Someone does not like me (impossible!) and thought to play a prank (very unlikely). Slipped the phone into Bevs handbag knowing that it would cause me to have a sleepless night (although everyone knows that I sleep like a “Peter”). And that it would be found the next day. Most improbable version.
Version four
On Monday morning, on the run, Kobus informed me that Bev had mentioned to Carol (during the Friday night supper) that it was now in vogue to have two cell phones. In particular Bev had been eyeing mine as a fashion statement.
You decide which is the truthful version. But I did receive the phone back from a very sheepish and guilty looking Bev on Sunday afternoon.
Well we had that braai going at quite a lick when we were invited for a second look at the amphitheatre this was the chance for those who had not yet been able to start the grilling process to do so. Baron & I soon had those filet steaks cooked to a perfect medium rare. A little later when everyone there felt that they were completely stuffed and could not force another morsel into their already dilated tummy’s, Tracey emerged with the most delicious Lemon Meringue Tart that we have ever had. That was about it for most of us. Gerlad assured me that the Burri’s liked to “Kuier” and would be long before returning home. The rest of us made our weary way home and sat in the lounge chatting. It was here that I felt a sense of sadness as we thought of the Bartons leaving us. Life will just not be the same without the quick wit of Andrew and the terms of endearment from Benita. Don’t forget us. And try to visit often please.
On the way home from Stilbaai the Bartons were about 50kays into the drive when they discovered that they had Gerald’s car keys. So they had to turn round and added an extra bit of sightseeing to their trip.
And that was about the end of our 21kay run at Stilbaai. On our way home we again stopped off at Ena in Plett for coffee and a muffin and were home at 12.00. We had passed a cycle tour that started in Plett. The poor cyclists were in the rain and cold and many of the back markers were totally on their own. It seems to be a tough course with the return route taking the cyclists through both the Groot Rivier and the Bloukrans passes.
From all of us: to the Burri family:
Thank you, Dankie, Thank you!
Peter
Sunday 26 September 2004.
26 SEPTEMBER 2004.
In September 2003, Susan Burri and her family went to Stilbaai to join their family. Susan then decided to run the 21kay race that is held annually during the local S, S & K Fees. I think that Sue said this stands for Strand, Sand and Kultuur. But could be wrong. I am not sure that we were exposed to any Kultuur except maybe the Bokdrol competition that you can read about on page 4. Anyway this lead to her organising the MPRG to run the event in September of 2004.
The Mill Park Running Group (MPRG), for the uninformed, is a small group of people who meet in the mornings on the corner of Wares and Salisbury road (next to Grey school) in Port Elizabeth. The group includes members of a number of running clubs plus those who belong to no club at all and has a variety of country members (the Fears, the Elfiks, the Richards’ & the Niebergs to name a few) ex members, ex runners, family and friends of members and anyone else who one of the current members feels will feel comfortable in the group (runners or not!). I think that there are some of the older (oops I mean more mature) members who would disagree with my summation of membership but the reality is that almost every one and any one is welcome to join the group. Membership is actually a really complicated issue that is understood by no one at all except Kobus. And that is only because he is advisor in chief to the chairman of the group. And because Andy seems to have elected Kobus as spokesman. And all decisions made in this group are determined by the chairman in his normal democratic way. Usually soon after he has re-elected himself to his position of chairman for a further ten years in office. I said complicated!
So back to Stilbaai; Those who heard of it and could make the weekend were:
Myself, (Barbara & Alli were in London to visit our family there),
Andy (the chairman in case you missed it) and Bev;
Caroliss (When Kobus is in love) or Carol and Kobus;
Benita and Andrew (Andrew has just been transferred to Botswana),
Pat, Gerald and their beautiful daughter Ronelle;
Tracey (official organiser, secretary, and communications expert) Herman (official Photographer), Leah and Kim;
Susan, Markus, MC and Emilio;
Angela and Richard (Angela is just recovering from an operation and stress fracture);
Dorothea (also know as Doortjie, lives in Sedgefield and was one of the main reasons why we agreed to this trip). Doortjie does not qualify for the status of “Jong Bokkie” because she does not engage in conversation on the run….see later commentary on Gerald’s run;
Maryna (who has never met with the group before and does little running but wears a Comrades T-Shirt and is a friend of Sue’s so immediately qualified for membership of the MPRG) Maryna had given Paula a lift to Mossel Baai where she was due to catch a bus to Cape Town for a bike fitting. On the way there the car battery had failed and so Maryna had to borrow a battery for the weekend;
Rob (Rob has only run with the group for one year and so is still a probationary visitor with no status at all!); Did I mention that membership of the MPRG is complicated?
Stuart and Rianna who kindly agreed to keep me company for the drive there and back;
Graham (known for his cheerful disposition), Cherryl and Kristin;
Baron who had travelled with the Bartons and who kept pining for Linda who had charged off to the Natal Midlands on a church mission.
Then there was Sue’s family (Sister Lora and Hennie Plus children). I cannot remember all the names of these people and was never sure which children belonged to who but just that they were a great family who loved Sue very much and seemed to enjoy the whole outing as much as we did.
This made a total of over 30 people who had to be accommodated and fed. Sue seemed to have done a marvellous job of setting up the whole weekend.
Stilbaai is a holiday town at the mouth of the Goukou River (spelling may be wrong). It is bigger than a village but not quite a town. It has a Spar, Friendly Grocer and an OK Foods if that is anything to go by. It is situated about 470 kays West of PE, 20kays off the N2 to Cape Town. The turn off is between the Gouritz bridge, where the Bungee jumping is done, and Riversdale.
We stayed in a variety of facilities from self catering, Bed and Breakfast to shared homes. The central venue was the Pink House which belongs to Sue’s sister and is right on the river / beach. 14 of us stayed in the blue house known as Bloubaasie. The travel arrangements were individually organised. Some went down on the Thursday as far a Greyton and Hermanus to see the whales. The main group seemed to arrive on the Friday which was Heritage Day and therefore a public holiday. Stuart, Mariana & I had stopped over at Ena in Plett for breakfast.
Once we had established our accommodation I saw how many children there were there I became quite sad that Alli was not there as she would have loved to be part of the group of fun loving children. I was able to finish off the Grisham book that I had been reading since Rhodes. That evening we met at a restaurant on the East Bank of the River where we occupied two long tables and proceeded to receive some of the best service that any first class restaurant could ever hope to offer such a big group. I was lucky enough to sit next to Kristin and Maryna. Graham had warned me to choose my company well as, at a table like this, the evening can be completely spoilt by the company that you have forced upon you. I also had Doortjie, Tracey and Markus opposite me so my evening was a great success and I was kept entertained.
The weekend had so many highlights and this was one of them. Kobus had decided that this was to be a slightly elitist reunion of the Greek marathon trip of 2003. Last year some of the MPRG had travelled to Athens to experience the original route from Marathon to Athens. It was also the route for the 2004 Olympics. The restaurant was decorated as Greek setting with murals that seemed almost like they had known we were coming. Kobus had a bottle of Ouzo which was opened and the cap immediately lost so the bottle had to be finished. We had a lot of laughs and a good meal as well.
The Saturday morning saw us ready to run at about 07.00am. We met where we thought the start would be and found there to be no one else there. We are so used to being at the start of a race in PE with ET blaring out all his useless information and a whole lot of runners milling around that we were quite lost for a while. At about 07.25 there seemed to be a fair number of runners at the start and at 07.30 we demanded that the race be started. The Organiser then began his announcements in Afrikaans. This town is entirely Afrikaans. And the race eventually got underway about 5 mins late. The group of runners consisted of myself, Andy, Kobus, Benita and Andrew, Susan, Richard, Doortjie, Pat & Gerald, Stuart, Baron, Rob and Graham (14 in all, although we were also joined for a short while by Alf Zemke). We had the usual photo shoot before the run with the (elitist) Greek group receiving special attention again.
We were to be supported by Ronelle and Maryna on Bicycles. Richard, ignoring all the rules and etiquette of the MPRG, went ahead with Doortjie. Doortjie soon realised that her mistake could seriously affect her continued acceptance in this group and hung back for the chairman and his cronies to pass. We stuck together for a while, Gerald searching out a Jong Bokkie decided that Sue would have to do. Graham had no training after 2 Oceans (not that he had done much running prior to Oceans) and paid the price. Pat found a friendly bunch of Outeniqua runners to take care of her and the rest of us pressed on to the turn on the East Bank. Soon thereafter Rob decided to see what the sand tasted like. He was, unfortunately, a little behind the main group and so no one was able to stomp over him or kick him when he was down. The fall seemed to anger Rob and so at 11kays, when Baron was totally bored with the 5.5min a kay pace and pushed off up the first of the hills, Rob tried to catch him.
The second half of the race consisted of hills, hills and (mmmm?) Hills. Along the route we were supported by Ronelle who cycled sedately next to us at various stages and Maryna who was asked to do some acrobatics and proceeded to do the splits on the bike as she whizzed past us. And then just as we though that we may be coming to the end of the hills we passed a sewage farm that made the Haitian storm damage problems (Hurricane Ivan had recently smashed up this island and caused huge devastation), smell like Jasmine in summer. This was at the 17kay marker, here we had also seen a Dung Beetle which was trying to sort out the sewage farm stench by rolling away golf ball size balls of dung one at a time.
From here the route lead to the beach. The sand was soft and really made the going tough. The sun was bright at this stage and I began to heat up. Mercifully this stretch is only about 2 kays before entering back to the tar road and then the race ends with an uphill and the final kay on a slight incline. The feature of the last watering point was the Coon Carnival type band (sponsored by Friendly Grocer) that kept the runners and seconders in good spirits.
Baron had managed to catch Richard and finished just ahead of him in 1.44: Rob followed shortly after them and promptly ran back along the course to fetch Pat. What a gentleman! Then came the little group of Kobus (first GM and 3rd M), Benita, Andy and myself. Stuart, Doortjie, Tracey and the rest of the group followed soon thereafter. The pair of Andrew and Graham ambled in with a beer in hand provided by faithful seconding Cherryl & Kristin.
After the run we went back to the house where we were able to shower and relax. The prize-giving was at 11.45 and we arrived just in time to watch the Coons doing their song routine before the best and briefest prize-giving I have ever experienced. We had Money winners in Kobus and Pat from our group. We all expected them to invite us for drinks in the beer tent but were to be disappointed as they stashed the loot for their own enjoyment!
The prize-giving was held in the S, S & K Fees area. Here there were a number of activities; The ones that interested us the most were firstly the Bokdroll spitting competition where one could put the Bokdroll in your mouth and see if you could spit it further than the last person in the hope of winning a sheep! None of us entered this competition. Then there was the riding of the bull machine which Herman bravely entered and gave us a fair rendition of Yipee kay yeah! while waving his left hand in the air, before being dumped onto the air bag. After this we moved to the Ice cream vendor where Gerald managed to down two of these soft serves but was quite taken aback when he received no accolades nor did he win first prize for ice cream eating GM of the Fees!
I had received a message that Markus was waiting to take me on a roller coaster ride so I sped over to the Pink house where Markus pounced on me and just as the rain started to pelt down we launched his doubles paddle ski and began our quest for a new route to Australia. Maryna was also out there on a single ski looking for any friendly sharks to race. Fearless! Markus, Maryna and I went up in my list of the most intrepid people that I know. As we went further out I noticed that the swells were the size of a fairly large mountain. Markus then announced that we should paddle as fast as possible to avoid certain death. I complied. And we raced down this mountain of a wave while Markus started to tell me of the time that he had had to swim from about this spot back to shore. I looked up and found that I could not even see the shore. And paddled even faster. Exhilarating, Exhausting, Fun and Scary. Thanks Markus. I cannot wait for my next time out with you. Runners do not use their tummy muscles except for eating nor their upper body muscles except for drinking.
After this I had no energy for much except to sit and chat to the kitchen group. They were hard at work preparing for the braai that we were going to have at the Wilbur Smith home. Baron and I had purchased some goodies for the braai, Maryna was making a salad fit for a king and Sue & Tracey were creating a Lemon Meringue Pie that was to feed the masses. Later that afternoon we drove in convoy to the WS homestead which turned out to be a really beautiful farm located on both sides of the Goukou River. On the East side was the stud farm that we learnt also belonged to one of the Burri relatives (Alters. Who is reputed to be anything from an advocate to a supreme court judge). He gave us a really interesting few stories of how stud farmers can get really lucky. However it appears that he creates his own luck with some astute lineage management. Lookout for this years winner of the Breeders stakes. I think that this is an important horse race to be held in America which could help to make Alters even more famous. Alters bought the farm from Wilbur and has developed it further. He told us of how Wilbur used to row across the river to a house on the other side where he would spend his days in solitude and produce the wonderful novels that we all know so well.
Wilbur Smith
Born Zambia 1933. Educated Michaelhouse and Rhodes University
Living in London. Wilbur (after visiting his home I feel that I am on first name terms) has written 30 books.
His first book is The Lion Feeds (1964) and his latest continues with the Courtney Series, “Blue Horizon” (2003) and his next book to be released (early in 2005) is “The Triumph of the Sun”
We then followed Alters though a guided tour of the nearby valley in the farm where an aqua duct had been built from two different sources in the valley. A farmer many years ago had had the forethought to shore up the areas where the water flowed strongly from the mountain side. Alters explained that the mountain consisted of chalk and that there were huge underground dams of water deep in the mountain and that water flowed continuously from these dams. We then did a bit of Bundu bashing with the younger group amazing me how they were quite happy to run around barefoot. Leah reminded me a number of times that she was first of the girls as we made our way back eventually what Alters referred to as his “Folly”.
He has built an amphitheatre in the valley. It is an elaborate structure with ample seating for in excess of 50 people, a water feature, lighting and a stage with good acoustics as we then heard while firstly the children did a little show for us (a repeat performance was conducted later in the evening) and Maryna then entertained us with a rendition of Swan Lake that turned out to be the waterfall that flows into the Swan Lake rather than the swans swimming about. I though about giving the anxious audience a rendition of the well known folksong by Koos Kombuis: “Almal wil ‘n huisie by die see he” but Sue discouraged me. Again I felt a sense of melancholy as I missed the two girls in my life. They would have loved the evening.
Later that evening there was a huge amount of speculation regarding the potential relationship that could emerge from the Paula / Deon encounter that was in progress in Cape Town. It seems quite likely now that Kobus will soon have Peter and Adrienne Wilson as part of his family. The MPRG is waiting for the next episode of this gripping soapie.
The missing phone!
(For the original Missing Phone Story see the report on the Otter Trail written earlier this year.) When we got back to the braai area we were pleased to see that Richard was trying to redeem himself into the Chairman’s favour by lighting the fire. It was about this time that I realised that my phone was missing. First I looked around the braai area … nothing! Then I asked Andy for the keys to the car and searched the back seat. Again nothing. So I then had a brainwave and asked Gerald to phone me, but despite using his acute hearing ability to assist my search we were still unsuccessful. So back to the car I went and again tried to phone myself. I heard the ringing on Gerald’s phone but no sign of my phone anywhere. Must have left it in the room I thought to myself. But later when I searched the bedroom and the house I was to come up empty-handed. So the phone was lost I thought.
No! I decided to continue the search when we were back at the house, found my torch and searched my car, drove over to where Andy was staying and searched his car again. Also asked Gerald to phone me one more time but now the phone had been switched off. Mmmmm? I thought deeply to myself. The plot thickens. Richard became so caught up in my missing phone saga and (feeling that he was missing out on some of the limelight), announced that his wallet had been stolen. But when he realised that the wallet was supposed to be in a drawer where Angela had her cell phone he realised that his story was not going to capture the attention of the group like my missing phone story. He then quickly “found” his wallet in his tog bag and I was able to re-focus the attention of the group on the missing phone! Herman even set his look-alike phone to try to locate mine. Nothing worked.
Now you probably want to hear what really happened to the phone!! There are a couple of versions; and then there is the truth. You can decide for yourself.
Version one
Andy is my insurance broker. Some time ago and at my request he examined my policy and advised me to remove the phone from the list of specified items. Of course his lovely wife, Bev had no idea that Andy would not insist on insuring such a valuable item as a phone. And seeing the opportunity for a quick profit, slipped the phone into her handbag. On the way home she and Andy were talking about my lost phone and Andy told Bev of his advice to me. Oops thought Bev! And quietly “found” the phone. Guilt was all over her face when she returned the lost phone to me. Insurance scams of incredible magnitude have small beginnings.
Version two
Andy & I use the same car phone holder and so have to use the same phone. Andy’s phone has recently given him some trouble and seeing the easy and cheapest solution to the problem he found a moment when he thought that no one would notice (I was walking in the valley, Richard was lighting the fire, others were pouring drinks etc). He then picked up the phone and slipped it into poor, innocent Bevs handbag thinking that he would retrieve it later. Andy however had more than his regulation two glasses of wine and became quite disorientated due to the effect of the intoxicating nature of the alcohol. It was only the next day as they were driving home and Bev discovered the offending item in her handbag that Andy remembered his foolish action and asked Bev to say that it was her mistake. This would explain the look of guilt on her face. Mmmm I thought to myself for the umpteenth time.
Version three
Someone does not like me (impossible!) and thought to play a prank (very unlikely). Slipped the phone into Bevs handbag knowing that it would cause me to have a sleepless night (although everyone knows that I sleep like a “Peter”). And that it would be found the next day. Most improbable version.
Version four
On Monday morning, on the run, Kobus informed me that Bev had mentioned to Carol (during the Friday night supper) that it was now in vogue to have two cell phones. In particular Bev had been eyeing mine as a fashion statement.
You decide which is the truthful version. But I did receive the phone back from a very sheepish and guilty looking Bev on Sunday afternoon.
Well we had that braai going at quite a lick when we were invited for a second look at the amphitheatre this was the chance for those who had not yet been able to start the grilling process to do so. Baron & I soon had those filet steaks cooked to a perfect medium rare. A little later when everyone there felt that they were completely stuffed and could not force another morsel into their already dilated tummy’s, Tracey emerged with the most delicious Lemon Meringue Tart that we have ever had. That was about it for most of us. Gerlad assured me that the Burri’s liked to “Kuier” and would be long before returning home. The rest of us made our weary way home and sat in the lounge chatting. It was here that I felt a sense of sadness as we thought of the Bartons leaving us. Life will just not be the same without the quick wit of Andrew and the terms of endearment from Benita. Don’t forget us. And try to visit often please.
On the way home from Stilbaai the Bartons were about 50kays into the drive when they discovered that they had Gerald’s car keys. So they had to turn round and added an extra bit of sightseeing to their trip.
And that was about the end of our 21kay run at Stilbaai. On our way home we again stopped off at Ena in Plett for coffee and a muffin and were home at 12.00. We had passed a cycle tour that started in Plett. The poor cyclists were in the rain and cold and many of the back markers were totally on their own. It seems to be a tough course with the return route taking the cyclists through both the Groot Rivier and the Bloukrans passes.
From all of us: to the Burri family:
Thank you, Dankie, Thank you!
Peter
Sunday 26 September 2004.
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