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Knysna 29 December 2006
Well, despite the odds we’ve survived the Christmas festivities intact after 10 days at Tsitsikamma National Park.
It’s been a pleasure to sit looking out over the southern ocean soaking up the wild raw beauty of the place whilst little Johnny hurtles past on his new skateboard/bike/rollerskates (delete as appropriate), or drives his radio controlled car in to my bruised toe (I slipped whilst attempting to dive off the swimming pontoon anchored in the bay).
Most of the kids seem to have new cricket bats or rugby balls as presents, shame about the parlous state of both sports in South Africa (not that the English can hold their heads up on either at the moment!) On the rare mornings when children have been sleeping in past 5am, the Park staff have stepped in to empty the waste bins, ensuring that getting up at 7am feels like a lunchtime sleep in!
Whilst at Tsits we’ve visited the highest commercial bungy jump in the world at Bloukrans Bridge, a mere 213 metre drop in to a river gorge. I willingly paid for Angela to jump but got my money back when they insisted they would tie the cord round her ankles rather than her neck. Standing at the viewpoint made the pair of us feel sick, why would anyone want to pay £40 to do that?
We’ve walked part of the lovely Otter Trail along the coastal forest to an awesome waterfall where we swam in icy tannin stained water to the base of the falls. We’ve swum every day in the sea despite the close proximity of what they advised was a “small”hammerhead shark, snorkelled around some amazing fish and have spotted dolphins, seals, and whales offshore.
We’ve shared our blood with the usual selection of uninvited insects and we’ve watched some very large Afrikaners demolish tons of braai meat over Christmas. I’ve been advised to my face that chicken is for girls and I’ve failed to convince any of them that warm beer is better than the golden coloured fizzy p*ss most of them drink.
The national shortage of CO2 for fizzy drinks this holiday season (Coca Cola have taken out newspaper ads apologising) may help some of them stave off obesity but it is only delaying the inevitable.
Everyone has been very friendly to the extent of inviting us round for dinner, (though I never get a second invite I’ve noticed, perhaps it’s Angela table manners?) and even the national park organised a communal braai and provided the equipment, wood, charcoal, salads and pap (maize mix like mash potato which is part of the staple diet here, sadly it tastes like sawdust).
Father Christmas arrived by boat on Xmas Eve afternoon wearing sunglasses (check the photo) and by the time he’d handed out 5 tonnes of presents he didn’t have much time to get up to Europe for the evening deliveries. He managed to hit me on the head with a hard boiled sweet as he chucked them to the kids so that did nothing for my opinion of fatty in a red suit!
We reluctantly said goodbye to Tsitsikamma yesterday and have driven 100kms west in driving rain to Knysna, where we will be camping for 6 days.
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