Into the Wild… Coast

Two weekends ago was a four day break. My friend Alec and I decided to go on a trip on the wild side; strip naked of any artificial and superficial aspirations we headed for the southern Kwazulu Natal. Boy did we meet Danger enough in such a short period of time.

After a good day of work we left Thursday at 4pm in our white polo; a snazzy car with no light indicators and a smashed side view mirror. At 6.15pm Alec was asleep. At 8pm I wake up Alec for him to drive a little while I rest. At 8.15pm I drive again because Alec was falling asleep on the road. At 12.20pm, while cruising across the Drakensberg I wonder where we are going to sleep as we don’t know what town we are heading for, nor when we will arrive. At 2am we park in Port Saint Johns – 1.20hours of driving for Alec, the rest for me, yes please.We sleep in a tent on the lawn of the backpackers.

The next day it rains…

The next day the sun is up, we pack our things and go. We start walking along the shore heading for the light house. Then things start to get complicated. We walk on steep hills, with the Indian ocean on one side and the wild on the other. At times we follow the rocky beachs: we walk across a deserted camp with bleeding barking dogs, when we turn around we see people with machetes and ropes hanging from the cliff nearby. Pirates! Oh dear.

At times we climb on top of cliffs and follow narrow paths following the top of endless hills. We get lost from time to time, get stuck rather and look around for a moment until we find the right way.

Danger Zone

Wild kids

Sometimes we climb, sometimes we slide, we rest, we eat or drink. Sometimes we meet people and sometimes we feel like alone in the world, in the wild.

After seeing civilization a second time, when reaching a famous beach down south, we head for our final destination, hidden god-knows-where. I see a snake looking at me when climbing a slippery rock – meet Mr Green Snake, very likely to be harmless, but on the moment you only think about all these horrible stories you heard.

A little later things get worse and I we start walking on grassy paths: on one side a 20m fall on sharp rocks and its bursting waters infested with man-eating sharks, on the other a slippery 50° angle grass hill whispering to you time and again, I will make you fall, I will make you fall like you have no idea, and me and my 15kg bag in the middle with only supported my unreliable shoes, my eager vertigo and Alec commenting on the marmots down below, yes, 50m down below.

I did it, and I am still alive and able to right these lines. A few hours later, after another perilous performance, we decide that time has come for us to set the camp. The sun is getting low. Alec points to the top of a mountain, says it’ll be safer: far away from any ill-intentioned fellow. I nod and we go. Within an hour we arrive breathless to the top. We sit for a moment drink a little – I said a little we only have half a litre for the night and the walk back. Thirst! Oh dear.

We eat our little simple meal, in the middle of the high yellow grass, with the ocean on our left, the sun set in front of us and… what’s that on top of the hill on the right? Pirates! Oh dear. They can see us like a big black fly in a thick mushroom soup. No worries. Or should we. Alec warns me that people have warned him to be careful of where he camps as people are not always friendly with strangers. History of violence. And good night. Ok, ok.

The night is already very dark, but the full moon shines enough to light our surroundings. We hadn’t been lying quiet for an hour that I start hearing voices. I sneak a peak outside and see people walking down the hill in front of us (so getting nearer) I wake up Alec. He confirms and we wait. It’s difficult to see where they head to; after a while there voices are drowned in the sound of the waves and we go back to sleep. And good night. Ok, ok.

A long while later, I am still thinking about this situation we are in. Oh dear. For no particular reason I decide to have another look. An there, as obvious as can be, I see a man running down he hill in front of us with a light. I wake up Alec again as he requested. He starts hiding his money and credit cards, keeps a few bills in his pocket and says we should wait for him outside. And so we do, we stand in the warm night, listening to the wind, waiting for the guy and his machete to come and impress us with his smart moves and his vivid anger. He never showed up.

The net day we walked back, looking at the sea to see some sharks and people running out of the water when lifeguards whistled. We slept on the lawn of the backpackers again and left at sunrise for a long while beautiful – but long – drive home.

When I think about these joyful moments I can think of at least five times where I could have died, if I had had a little less luck. But that is why Africa is so great, you are responsible for your own actions and no-one will come – in time – to rescue you. You have the freedome of living your life as it pleases you to even if you have a enormous chance of getting in irremediable troubles.

Attempted Car Theft

On Sunday night, after an evening at a friend’s house, I went back to my car – a Volkswagen Polo – to notice at first the warning lights didn’t work when I pressed the lock remote. I opened the door and thought for a second that it seemed much messier than usual with even a mini umbrella lying on the drivers floor mat. Then it stroke me that the inside lights were also off as the door was opened.

That’s when I realised that someone had broken into the car and tried to steel it. Plastic cover underneath the steering wheel and on the dashboard had been ripped off and wires where hanging. Nevertheless, the car started and I managed to drive home. I was quite puzzled still and had a few unanswered question poping up in my mind. Why didn’t they steel it as they seemed to know what they were doing? How did they brake in as I hadn’t seen any broken glass ? Did I forget to close the car? Did they just run off when I went out? Is there anything else they could have stollen inside? Why is the “trunk open” indicator on?

Then I started to think about all these crazy stories and thought that maybe there was someone hidden in the trunk waiting for me to drive back home and rob me there… Uncomfortable drive home I must say. I stopped outside my residence, next to the guardian and its – now very reassuring – shotgun. There was nothing in the trunk; not even my Kilimanjaro coat anymore… (At the light of the next day I finally manage to see where they had broken the lock to enter)

I went to the police for a rather simple testimony, quite brief, but it took us a good two hours. The police agent wrote it by hand, asking me for spelling confirmation from time to time. I was very cautious of his style too. At one point we had to start over because he was unhappy with a sentence and didn’t want to cross it out… We had a small funny chat about the broken lock issue: to my opinion, it had probably been broken with a screwdriver.

- How do you know it’s a screwdriver?

- I don’t, I said probably; I wasn’t there.

- Then tell what did they use?

- How could I know? I was not there. I can only guess from the shape of the broken lock, that it’s a tool somewhat similar to a screw driver.

- Hm… Ok. So how do you spell screwdriver?

In the end, after telling my story, he wrote the legal sentences before having me signing the testimony. Two thing I noticed: first no mention of the broken lock. His sentence said something along the lines of “I went out of the house, opened the car using the remote. I started the car which started; everything worked well but some wires were hanging from the dash board. I drove home.”

- Hm, but it doesn’t seem like you addressed the issue of attemptetd car theft here. It doesn’t even mention the broken lock!

- Well you didn’t tell me about the lock.

- I think I did, and we had a debate about the screwdriver!

He looks at me we a incredulous look, so I point with my finger the line on the “spelling paper” where I wrote for him screw driver. I had to rewrite some of it much to his despair as I was quite keen on crossing out words.

The second thing I noticed was the legal text underneath of which I had to sign. It was so funny that I wrote it down on the “spelling paper” to remind me of the exact words later. It said:

“I did not give permission to anyone to attempt to steel my company car. I swear that the content of this statement is true and help me god.”