Going Everywhere Slowly: Witsand ... fishing!

After a long and slow journey we eventually rolled into Witsand which lies along the mouth of the Breede river.

Leon and Hanli invited us to set up camp on their farm for a bit,... a beautiful, but windy place. There are no trees, even the Port Jacksons lay low and if there is no south-easter blowing then the south-west wind is howling... sand sand and more sand everywhere! It was a constant battle but at least that was the only pressing thing we had to do the whole time we were there.

We were only going to stay a couple of days... perhaps a week at the most and then go on our way. Then Andrew went fishing... LOL

Leon laid his hands on a small rubber duck with a big engine, so loads of fun in the waves there, too...

So Andrew made the most of it and spent most of his time fishing, and I mean fishing!!! Leon invited Andrew out on the boat, and it was springtide and full moon so the fishing was ON!!

Okay, he's insisting here over my shoulder that it was a slow start but to be honest I was really impressed with the size of dinner he brought home!

He even made the local newspaper...

There's a couple of bull sharks stalking the river mouth and these fishing guys with their 17kg catches are easy targets for a lekker meal for these fat lazy sharks.

Shame I can only imagine the heartbreak when you fighting a fish for 20 minutes for it to come down to a race between the gaff and the shark - only for the haai to say 'hi, thanks & goodbye'.

So at the end of it (the rod, that is) the head weighed 4kgs! ... and that was the 2nd fish on the menu for the shark!

As the saying goes, 'all's well that ends well' - we ate amazing grunter and cob.

Andrew caught 3 cobs, (10kg, 11kg & 14kg) and loads of grunter between 2-4kgs - Erin even contributed to that lot with a 4kg grunter!

14kg cob

Massive stingray!

He even had a stingray fighting for 40 minutes...

A full catch

While they fished I caught up on some time with Hanli, mostly at the pool, where we whiled away the hours tanning and swimming... perfect! It was so cool that Erin and Troi finally bonded and were so amazing together playing. He is such a sweet boy and would spontaneously give us hugs filled with so much loves. We got to know littl' Troi a lot better and he is really so funny with quite the sense of humour! It wasn't long before he started speaking to us in English, wow that was quite amazing and even Erin's Afrikaans has since taken an upturn - in fact we all got some practice at it.

friends ... finally!

Tsonga the hunter

There was no shortage of animals milling around the campsite, everyday the geese made their rounds hissing and freaking out anyone who got in their way, so Troi made it his mission to chase them on their way, ha ha.

No lawnmower required...

Shame poor Tsonga got beaten up rather badly by some rogue assassin cat from the lodge, and this time Peppa knew better and stayed away from the chaos. I think between the dogs, sheep, geese and sleep it was more than enough to keep her occupied. LOL

It was so nice to be able to cook in a kitchen with a 6-plate gas stove and an amazing oven! I loved it, and basically took over the kitchen for the time we stayed - cooking some of the dishes I don't have the opportunity to do in the van.

It was cutting it fine with the school term starting so late and I had to rush off to Cape Town to collect Erin's 2012 curriculum from the postbox. I sat for days tracking this parcel and the moment it pulled up on the tarmac of CT airport I raced to the mother city. Hanli would not hear of me going alone and was packed before me. LOL

I never get tired of that view...

Needless to say it was a very productive trip, we had a long list of errands to run! But we made up for it by staying at such a wonderful B&B that Hanli arranged for us. The bed was ... a BED! What heaven, and I enjoyed every awake and asleep moment I spent sprawled on that bed. We also had a view to die for... Anyways towards the end of the dreaded list I was yearning for 'home' (Andrew and Erin) and by the time we finished at the storage I was racing for Witsand. I had the school curriculum and I was happy to be going back, I had enough of Cape Town and 'stuff to do on the list'. I was tired, hungry and hot!

Gratefully we got home at dusk to some very happy smiley faces, it was so cool! So now we were ready to start planning the next leg of our journey...

I literally spent the next 24hours printing out Erin's work for Grade 6 so we could get going on the road and on the 2012 curriculum...

We spent some time chatting about what's next and seeing as I was about to embark on a cheesemaking course in February we decided to head east along the garden route towards George.