And then it rained; and rained; and rained some more… The forecast rain and flooding had moved in and it seemed like it was going to stay! We only ventured out to the ablutions once during the first morning and for the rest of the day were pottering around inside, very thankful that we have a solid structure over our heads. Mike, the campsite manager measured 120mm of rain on the 4th.
When we arrived the river was very clean and Roger had watched some prawns swimming next to the bank. He had been looking forward to doing some fishing, but that was before the rain and mud! With all the rain the river had now turned a very muddy coffee colour and risen quite substantially. Luckily the mouth was open so there was no risk of flooding the campsite. Mike showed Roger some pictures of an earlier occasion when the mouth was closed; the bar and restaurant got flooded and Mike’s car destroyed!
Roger went out once more after lunch, dressed in a speedo (sorry girls, no picture!), to empty Splash and rescue the electrical plug which was under threat of drowning in a puddle of water.
During the mid-afternoon the power failed a number of times. Initially it was an intermittent Eskom problem. Then it was off for such a long time that Roger went to enquire and it turned out to be a problem on our side. Next step: find out where the fault is. Roger couldn’t understand why the contactor was getting power but the rest of the electrical system was dead! After much frustration he found a wire behind the DB board that was not connected to anything but could not figure out where it should go. It was now quite late so we left it for the evening. The next morning, after a few photos were sent to Hein, followed by a few phone calls, the problem was solved. The wire had worked itself off the contactor as a result of the power cuts. Thankfully without any damage we were functional again.
Being so close to the river of course produced its share of wild life, besides the flock of Egyptian Geese and numerous Woolly-Necked Storks.
One advantage of the heavy and continuous rain is that we are now (thankfully!) relatively sure that Roger has solved the leaking hatch problem.
We made use of the forced stay indoors to catch up on some admin and even started consolidating our bird lists. We’ve had a PDA since 2006 that has now decided to retire so I bought SasoleBirds for my BlackBerry which we have been using since we were in Phinda. The problem is that all the birds we logged prior to the new program are on the PDA and therefore need to be transferred.
The rain continued on and off during day 2 so our first foray outdoors was late in the afternoon. We decided to take Splash up the river. It was SO good just being outdoors again.
The weather started clearing up and day 3 turned out to be stunning. However, we had an appointment to have a modification done to Ufudu’s exhaust so no time for play. Since the start of the trip Roger has been complaining about the way the exhaust points straight down, thus blowing up a cloud of dust on dirt roads, even at very low speed. Roger had scrounged a short piece of scrap exhaust pipe in Shelly Beach and had a plan! All he needed was a saw to cut the pipe and someone who could weld. Flynn gave us Dick’s contact details. Dick owns Munster Motors, approximately 8 Km from Port Edward and he kindly agreed to squeeze us in. Roger is very happy with the result.
While they were busy I had a long chat with Dick’s wife Sylvia, who extended a hearty invitation for us to stay at their house when we fly Buzz down the coast. Again, what wonderful and spontaneous people one comes across when you travel!
Back in camp we decided to go up the river as far as we could. It was so beautiful and serene. The river and surrounds form part of the Umtamvuna Nature Reserve so there are no buildings, people or signs of human activity. It really felt like we were in another world. When the going started getting rough in terms of being too shallow and rocky, we beached Splash and walked the last short distance to the rapids.
On our last morning we took Splash to the river mouth. En route we passed under the bridge over the river that in the previous era formed the border between KZN and Transkei (now the start of the Wild Coast). Then we took a long walk on the beach, all the way to the next river mouth and back.
Due to the weather our activities were rather limited while we were at the Old Pont so we intend moving to the TO Strand Caravan Park (recommended to us by Sylvia) in order to come back and do at least one hike in the reserve. Why there? Well they are significantly cheaper than the Old Pont and they have a Laundromat which only residents can use, and we are in desperate need of getting some washing done…
