Fire Circles
Bush Camp Sunset
Water color portrait
First Acrylic
Bush Camp Happy New Year Blog 12
There is no point in stressing about things you can’t change. We should have left on the 29th, but will now be lucky to get away by the 5th January 2011. The parts for the Kombi that should have arrived, were delayed because of customs in SA. Finally after vacant stares from the DHL office and with no small amount of assistance from Piet Marais, who occupies one leg of the laager he, his brother and “swaar” erected next to us at the Bush Camp, were traced to the Airlink office where they have been sitting for two days! One would imagine that if you formed part of the world wide transport link of a delivery chain and a parcel arrived marked DHL and adorned with every conceivable URGENT sticker you can imagine, perhaps you consider it an opportune time to stop talking on your cell phone for just a moment, so that you could walk into the adjoining office of DHL and inform them of the arrival of an URGENT parcel! You would have further thought that, having now miraculously traced the said parcel, and further advised the cell phone operator, that the contents of the said parcel was urgently required to enable two OAP’s to return to Cape Town in order to meet their soon departing daughter, it would be possible to take possession of said goods. Wrong again!
Customs need to clear said parcel and customs don’t work today, being a Thursday! “Can you not see that I am talking on my cell phone?” she says.
Having traced a customs officer at the harbour, I am told to return to the airport where I will be met by another official who will take a R100 bribe and give me the said parcel. Having received that parcel and delivered it to the mechanic, I am further informed that the machine shop has just closed, the boss has departed for a long weekend, but “I promise that your car will be ready on the 4th….latest the 5th!”
No stress. If we travel all day and all night we should be able to blow kisses to JoJo through the security glass of the now FIFA approved Oliver Tambo airport.
As I have said previously, it takes stressful situations to find the good in people, people “who care”!
Piet Marais and his wife Sonje, brother Jan and his wife Bella-Marie and their “Swaar” Casper
These are big people. Casper Pretoria
The Laager is contained in three Hannibal Conqueror all terrain trailers, transported by thee 3 litre Toyota
The sheer size of these wonderful people is intimidating. They are not the sort of people who you would approach with an offer of cash for their eldest daughter, they don’t find that sort of remark funny as a local lad on Ibo Island
I don’t think I have ever seen such an encampment. They have every conceivable gadget imaginable. The somewhat erratic supply of the Mozambique Electrical Commission is of absolutely no significance to Casper
I really had to laugh when I asked Casper if they had been to Sodwana Bay
“Ja Oom, maar daar is te veel mense van Gauteng af, met daarie groot 4*4’s” (Yes uncle (I love the respect) but there are so many people there from Gauteng
These are genuine people who look you straight in the eyes, “I don’t mind if an Oke wants to marry a black woman, but then they must be consistent, not like some of the Okes in Bloemhof who tell you one thing then do another” says Casper!
I don’t think that I have come across more unbridled generous assistance as received from the Casper and Co, and the children are a delight, they actually play made up games together, they talk to you with real interest and correct my Afrikaans with a laugh, these are not shy farm kids, they are right up there with everything, I think it is the manners, they have manners. I have said it before and I say it again, South Africa
More characters for the movie!
The Bush Camp is situated on the lagoon side of Pemba 2.5 kms down a dirt road. As we have been without transport we have done a lot of walking up to the main road, where we have joined the mass transport system into town. At 5 mets (R1) for however far you go, it is great value. However at times it gets a little crowded. The other day we counted 26 passengers in a 15 passenger vehicle! This morning had my face pressed unusually close to the bust of a delightfully unperturbed lady. It is so much more fun than the sanitised air-conditioned transport of the Pemba Resort Hotel, which drops off cool looking clients at their private departure lounge.
The markets are a photographic delight, but you would expect to find a bigger variety of produce. The goat heads and meat sections, tend to push you to the edge of vegetarianism, as does the morning catch of majestic sail fish. Such a clever advertising concept from Vodacom. They appear to give you the paint to paint your house Vodacom Blue. There are whole villages pained blue!
We have had an enjoyable time, met some truly wonderful people and enjoyed the weather in the morning and the evening! It is hot, very hot. 26 degrees at 5 in the morning quickly rising to 40 degrees by 11 am. If you want to get anything done, do it early or late afternoon, otherwise reading a book while lying in a shaded hammock, floating in the lagoon or painting a picture, tends to lower stress. But I am looking forward to moving on next week. Hopefully!
I have done my first Acrylic painting as well as a couple of other water colours. Acrylics are so different, I will try again, they are quite fun to do, if you get it wrong, it can be corrected, unlike watercolours!
Happy New Year to you all.
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