....whoa........(?!) .... hang on there a mo - isn't the next bit of this something like "of Mice and Men"? So then - exactly what kinds of plans do mice make, please, Mr Burns? (Or, since he's no longer around to account for himself, if any of you can help out here, then answers on a postcard please)
Actually, having now mentioned the word 'plans', I'm also reminded of our visit to the Fine Arts Gallery here in Kynsna this afternoon. There was a beautiful collection of large, brightly-coloured ceramic pots and jugs by a young local female artist, each of which, on close inspection, had a bizarre little epithet scripted into the clay and coloured with gold leaf. One of these read: "Everyone has a Plan. Until they get Punched in the Mouth". So, what's that all about then ...? Obviously too deep for me!
But, back to the point. Those of you who are still paying attention will doubtless have noticed that we are still in Kynsna - the longest stay in one place during our whole trip. Having fallen for the beauty of our surroundings here - both the town with its wonderful lagoon and mountains, and our gorgeous accommodation with its fabulous garden, pool, and bird-life - and having learned just how much there is to do and see in and around the area, we'd decided by New Year's Day that we should extend our stay for a few more days; so, we made the arrangements with our hosts, much to our satisfaction. The very next day (Thurs, 2 Jan), we went off for the afternoon to tackle one of the many hiking trails in the nearby forests. Nearly 2 hours into the hike, however, I managed to trip and fall really heavily, breaking the fall with my rib-cage crashing onto the binoculars which I'd been carrying over my shoulder. Not a very clever thing to do really. (Still, I'm 'on trend' it would seem - my sister, Jacky, has also injured her ribs in a fall just recently, Sharne's boyfriend, Pad, has deep tissue bruising, and even Angela Merkel has decided to join the party!).
Anyway, by the next morning, having checked with a local A&E Department that there was no evidence of actual broken ribs, albeit clear evidence of deep bruising, if not some cracking of ribs, the doctor ordered several days of complete rest. This proved not a difficult order to follow as it turned out, given that for nearly a week I could barely move, twitch, cough or even breath without difficulty. So, we decided to extend our stay by yet a few more days, to allow some recovery time before we could start exploring once again. But this plan was also rather thwarted as, two days after the fall, the glorious weather we'd been experiencing suddenly changed, and we've now had 7 consecutive days/nights of rain, heavy cloud and thick mists (albeit that it's stayed warm enough to sit around in shorts and t-shirts). This change in the weather has conspired to extend the days of enforced rest - even touring around by car is pretty pointless when you can't see more than 50 yards in any direction! - except for our penultimate day before moving on, when the mist lifted long enough to visit a bird, monkey and big-cat sanctuary in nearby Plettenburg Bay.
Amazingly, here we bumped into Martin, our erstwhile truck-driver for our 20-day safari tour at the start of our trip. Gerty, our Tour Guide, was also around, but was already inside the sanctuary with her group, so we didn't actually see her. An amazing coincidence, then, given that since we parted company from them on 4 December in Zimbabwe, we've been travelling all over South Africa, whilst they're on yet another Nomad Adventure Tour of 5 different countries! I've since been thanking my lucky stars, too, that my fall hadn't happened earlier - I'd never have coped with the 'African full-body massage' of that truck journey!
'Plett', as the locals call it, is another splendiferous town with a several-miles-long beautiful sandy bay, over which we had a wonderful sunset view that last evening from the Italian restaurant on Keurboomstrand ('strand' is Afrikaans for beach, and I think 'keurboom' must be an onomatopoeic representation of firing a mustket!).
We used our enforced resting time to catch up on reading several books and e-books, completing a few crosswords and sudokus, and keeping up with news stories in the local press. One of these, on 5 Jan, made us shiver a little, bearing in mind our elephant 'close encounters' in Addo. This local news item reported on an elephant attack on two people in a car in Pretoriuskop: a British woman and a South African man, had been following a lone bull elephant in musth (when their testosterone levels are at their highest and most aggressive) when it suddenly turned and attacked their vehicle, rolling it over three times, and flinging it, and them, over 40 metres! One of the elephant's tusks also pierced the back of the woman's thigh, and she had to be airlifted to hospital, where she thankfully remains in a stable condition. Sadly, however, because the attack happened next to a regular walking trail, the SANparks authorities decided that the elephant had to be put down, as it was very likely to attack again. Aaaw!
Next we're off to Franschhoek for the last few days of our trip, before flying home overnight on 14/15 Jan. Will report on Franschhoek in what will inevitably be our last posting of this blog. Meantime, however, I do want just to wish my mum, Jessie, a very Happy Birthday for Sunday, 12 Jan. Just wonder how it feels, mum, to suddenly be 'two fat ladies'?!
Sorry to hear about the ribs :-(
ReplyDeleteThis probably way too late, but I have only justspotted that you are near Plettenberg Bay, home of Barry and Ast Collins, formerly of Chiddingly.