Morgan’s Bay Trip – 26th February to 10th March – PART 3

Sunday 4^th Woke up just after 07h00, made some coffee and went out to see how the Kiwi’s had slept. All were in fine spirits, except for Lindsay who we are not sure of as he had disappeared at 06h00 to get to church in time (after the fuckin’ and blindin’ of the night before, it’s no wonder he needed a church). Jan had ended up sleeping in her car, as she didn’t have the covering fly sheet for her borrowed tent which then flooded due to the storm, and she didn’t want to impose on us to sleep in the caravan tent. It wouldn’t have been an imposition at all… Lo and behold, it was still raining lightly, as it has been for the entire fuckin’ day since we got up. Again, the Kiwi group were huddled under umbrellas, trying to make coffee on a small gas stove, layering slices of smoked salmon onto bread for breakfast. They didn’t want to come back into the caravan tent (the cathedral, as Steph called it) so we ended up rigging up our 3m x 3m gazebo we had brought along so that they could at least get some cover. Ian rigged up a tarpaulin to break some of the wind that was also blowing and they were quite happy to sit out there. Dave was in shorts and t-shirt all the while and though he was shaking his legs up and down a bit, claimed he wasn’t cold. By 10h00, the group decided to pack it in as the weather wasn’t improving. I’d been onto the SA Weather website to check the forecast and for today there was 80% chance of rain and strong winds, and Monday’s forecast is for 60% rain and winds. To me, there’s always only a 50% chance of rain…it either rains, or it doesn’t…50/50 either way, fuck all the 80% bullshit… Tonight, Steph made a wonderful vindaloo curry with some leftover chicken from last night’s dinner. It’s going to bite my ass in the morning, I’m sure, but it was damn good, an’ all… Monday 5^th Another fuckin’ horrible day in Africa. Hahaha…. Up late, took a walk around the corner of the headland with Steph and collected some strange shells that have a flattened, almost fossil-like shell shape swirl on one side and a coral growth on the other. Steph says she wants to create a montage of them on a bottle or something. Went fishing from about 13h00 until dark to try out the new rod and had to change the tip to one of the lighter tips as I couldn’t feel the small bites on the heavier tip. Also, because of the great casting power of this new rod (a Loomis Custom-bilt 14ft 5-piece stick with 3 interchangeable tips – light, medium or heavy) I have given my left thumb another “toastie”. It hurts like fuckin’ hell. Never caught anything, again, but had a few decent bites. Not to try and make excuses, but the shoreline here is rock-strewn and tackle is lost on a regular basis, also making it difficult to catch anything. Sometimes you get a hook-up and as your sinker is stuck in the rocks, you end up breaking the line off and losing the fish too. Tuesday 6^th This WAS a fuckin’ horrible day in Africa. From the moment we got out of bed the wind howled straight in off the sea through our campsite to such an extent that not only was I using the car to form a windbreak in front of the tent, but I had every conceivable piece of rope and guy rope fastened to the tent poles to stop the tent from lifting and fuckin’ off into the bush behind us. I don’t remember ever witnessing such a strong wind coming off the sea. I guess being at the bottom righthand coast of Africa doesn’t help as the dominant southerly wind comes straight off the water with nothing to shield it. The only wind of comparable strength I faced was while at sail, two days out from Zanzibar a few years back where the wind hit sixty knots. It certainly felt like it here. We ended up bringing all our stuff into the tent, opening the side vents and door and moving things from under the caravan so that we could create enough of an opening for the wind to flow through, sort of like you see in the movies when inbred Hoss states the obvious “Thar’s a twister a’comin’ Maw” and the hillbilly’s then proceed to open all the windows and doors to try and prevent the house from being carried away to the other side of Kansas along with the cows. Only late in the afternoon did the wind die down to such an extent that I could release the tension on the main rope I’d tied between the car bulbar, the main tent pole and a tree. Just in case, I left the other storm ropes fastened through the night, but as it happens, the wind almost died down sometime through the night.