The road to Heaven.........

BLOG 2

The Road to Heaven is paved with good intentions, well it is pretty good until the turn-off to Coffee Bay, there after it goes from bad to worse…..I will get back to this a bit later.

My first blog was simply an exercise in getting started, like every venture into the unknown starting is the scariest part. I have decided that I really couldn’t be bothered to record every place and thing just for the sake of record, as I know I would never want to read it again for want of complete boredom, so I doubt if anyone else would be interested in what I had for breakfast at Joe Blogs Café, unless of course it was an exceptional meal.

This blogging thing is primarialy a record for Ewa and me and the things I am interested in recording are the exceptional things; places; circumstances; people etc.  

I have just looked at my last blog and it seemed to end somewhat abruptly, maybe it had something to do with the foul weather at the time. I thought it was going to warm up as we went North. The converse has been true. Before I depart from the Rendezvous Camp Site and Chintsa in general, I have to say that it has to be one of the most beautiful camp sites we have been to. First of all it is run by an absolutely extraordinary person Ralph Jones. Ralph is 84 years old, he is a great grand father four times over, he had four children, three boys and a girl. His wife died when he was 80, his three son’s have all died, one in a motor accident, one from an accidental gun shot and the youngest from throat cancer. He is about five foot nothing, has about six teeth, not an once of fat, has a passion for collecting stone-age artefacts and has nothing but positive things to say about life. If I was looking for characters for a book or movie Ralph would be on my list. A truly inspirational person, who manages an inspirational place.

The bird life in the camp site is absolutely amazing. When you lie in bed and listen to the morning song it is amazing I don’t know when I have seen or heard such a variety of birds, Paradise Fly catchers, Fork Tale Drongas, Black headed Oriels, Olive Thrush, Crested Barbet, Scarlet Breasted Sunbirds, even a Scop’s Owl. 164 species in a camp site. Quite amazing

I have taken lots of pics of all sorts of things, I was flipping through some the other evening and it made me realise how much we are unaware of, or simply don’t see. I am attaching two pictures, the first is of some patterns in the sand (and my toes!) the second is a blown up part of the same picture. Reminds me of the Looking for Wally book we used to read to the kids.

There are so many beautiful things that we simply rush past without a care. I mentioned to Ewa that I remember going down to Bonza Bay as a kid and collecting Cowries Shells. You won’t believe how adept Ewa has now become at spotting them. So much simply passes us by……

I called this blog “The road to Heaven”

I have said I will only write about the exceptional.

We drove from Chintsa to Bulungula.

Up to the Coffee Bay turn off the road  is exceptionally good, from the turn off onwards it goes from sort of OK, to not so OK, to bad, to terrible, to exceptionally terrible to bloody nearly impassable, then 6kms of new dirt as a sort of sop to the 90ks before, which took two and a half hours. then you arrive at Heaven! Bulungula Lodge

I wasn’t sure what to expect other than one of those exceptionally beautiful Transkei Resorts with river mouth, lagoon and endless white sands. It has all that, but firstly it could hardly be described as a resort and lodge is a tad pretentious! Bulungula Lodge forms part of the Bulungula Incubator project which was started in 2004 by Dave Champion and his economist wife Rejane as a joint venture with the Nquileni Village.  There is absolutely no crime; you have to lock up nothing. There are notices that stress that visitors must not give any handouts to anyone and nobody asks for anything anyway. Three years ago his mother left the rarefied air of Deputy Principle of Herschel Prep in Cape Town, to start the preschool. The school is thriving, the mothers of the children have to cook a mid-day meal for their children in lieu of school fees, and most of the ingredients are supplied by the agricultural projects. The ethos is “Self Help” and it is working One really feels it is a privilege to be able to stay there. The accommodation is a traditional rondaval with dung floors. The “lodge” is simple but more than adequate. The eco friendly no-water lavatories and the “Rocket” showers are a talking point and work brilliantly. The crafty décor and painting are stunning, but more than anything there is a wonderfully peaceful relationship with the community, and one feels it is a real lesson in UBUNTU. A visit to Bulungula Lodge is an experience, the road to this heaven is a rocky one, but worth the pain. Check it out on www.bulungulaincubator.org. An exceptional place run by exceptional people who give caring a new dimension.

I try to paint a picture every day. These are tiny pictures that I do as a sort of diary, so they are really references and only take half an hour to do, but hopefully at the end of the trip I will get a little better than at the present moment. However I rather liked this one of the Mussel collecting ladies walking on the beach!