Day 9
After yesterday’s crazy fun, absolutely nothing eventful happened today. Unless you count the pineapple topping I had on my pizza. I knew where I was going, there were road signs with town names and distances, I arrived at Morgan Bay with time to spare and I’m already in my tent drinking beer and relaxing. Again, the drive today took me through beautiful countryside, and listening to Joss Stone, with Eastern Cape hills rolling by, was absolutely meditative.
I did make a stop at King Williamstown though to buy some warm clothes. My friends have my back on this trip (thank you Micha!) and warned me that snow is arriving on Friday in the Drakensburg, which is exactly where I’ll be when said snow starts to fall. I doubt if I’ll camp in the snow but it’s me, so you never know. I bought extra warm tops and tracksuits and I’ll wear them all at once if I have to. The novelty of being cold has completely worn off. Tonight though, I’m in a lovely warm spot near to the ocean. Hopefully, the cold tripping is over for a while now as well. I think I may have become a hippie in a single week. When I drove into Morgan Bay I thought about camping at the hotel campsite because it’s right next to the beach, but then I saw these very normal looking people walking around and I just couldn’t. After Hogsback I had to go and find my people. So I went to the Yellowwood Forest eco village campsite instead and this is definitely my spot. They have a woodfire for pizzas that has never had a non-vegetarian pizza cooked in it. Brilliant!
I’m realising that on this trip it’s a constant compromise. I have power but no wifi or cellphone signal tonight. In Hogsback I had a weak cellular signal but no power in my tent, which meant spending a lot of time in the bar. It’s so tough! In the Karoo I had to stand holding my phone above my head in the corner of the campsite to chat but had wifi on my laptop. It’s an ongoing challenge. I’ve already negotiated a discount for wifi use tomorrow, for work, because they charge R25/hour. Wheeling and dealing as I go. I have so many devices that need charging and data recharging, it’s quite laughable. I have my laptop, an iPad, an iPhone, a UPS, a power bank, bluetooth headphones and a portable router. I’m learning how to juggle the power and cell reception. Sometimes my iPhone is a portable router for the laptop while I use the laptop to power the iPhone in turn. And I charge whatever I can as I drive as well. And sometimes I just give up and stare at the stars all night. I have power tonight, but I think a fire and star-staring is on the cards.
And I did. Stare at the sky last night, that is. I couldn’t see too many stars through the treetop canopy though. I made a fire out of wet wood and was amazed that it was actually burning, even though I’m a pyromaniac and know all of the tricks. And then the flames just disappeared. Gone! I was so disappointed because I had this whole “meditate in front of the fire” vibe going by then. I thought about missioning and adding more fire lighters or newspaper to bully it into burning again but I decided to just let it be. Let it choose to burn or not. I’m a bit of a pantheist so I tend to anthropomorphise everything. You’ll notice that I’m sure. So, I was quietly watching the smoke swirling and thinking how air currents exist all around us but we only see them if a solid object, like smoke or leaves, responds to the energy, when I looked up and there was the most magnificent full moon rising above the trees in front of me. Wow! I sat enjoying that for a while and being thankful that I’d left the fire to smoulder, which meant I’d caught natures theatre. And then I looked at the fire embers and I noticed that their energy had become “animated” in a way, and as I wondered if it was going to burn again the flames suddenly jumped through the layers of wood… and that fire burnt all night. No amount of wet in the wood was going to stop it. I thought that could be a metaphor for my life. My embers have been glowing for the longest time, but I can feel my energy shifting and becoming animated. I’m hoping it stays in the metaphorical and doesn’t become an actual spontaneous combustion situation though. I’m just not sure… watch this space.
Day 10
Today has been another workday of hectic deadlines. It feels very odd to be in this forest paradise and to not be exploring. I’ll see what tomorrow brings. My Transkei office is pretty perfect though. I ordered breakfast from my desk in the tearoom and now later in the day my pizza is on its way. I don’t know why I’ve been dragging tins of food around for over a thousand kilometres when there seems to be food everywhere in South Africa. Not just Cape Town. Lesson learnt.
I don’t have signal unless I’m here at the tearoom so this will be a short post. I was going to go to the beach for a sunset walk but it’s cloudy and chilly and I still have a COB deadline. I feel grateful though that I’m able to work and travel. Tomorrow I’m heading deeper into the Transkei to Coffee Bay, which will possibly mean ongoing signal issues, so if I go dark you know I’m in a hippie (another one) community playing a djembe drum under the stars and dancing like a crazy person in the light of the full moon.