Scribbles Abroad

Guess which one is our car.

We were just floating, landing where the wind would take us.  Its been a consistent theme of our travels.  Stressing on making deadlines or meetings results in the missing of intricacies on the way.  So the rest of our trip across South Africa was spent landing where we wanted at the moment, meeting up with whom happened to be around, and seeing everything that crossed within our vision.

Our car had no stereo so much of our time was spent singing our own songs singing to the beats made by the surfboard bags and ropes banging on the roof of our sports car.

The first gush of wind left us in Mossel Bay where we met up with Pierre our buddy we met in Mozambique.  He offered us a place to stay for the night but shortly thereafter extended the invitation which we graciously accepted.  The next couple of days was spent surfing fun waves, watching the Masters divisions of South Aftrica surf contest (which our buddy Greg was in), partying, and just chilling.  Pierre was such a great host.

Pierre is about 7 feet tall.

He lived in a mansion all by himself!  His girlfriend came to visit from Johanesberg who also happens to be his best friends sister.  You would think…..dradradradrammmmma!  But it was fine!  South Africans are cool.  While at his house he had a big BBQ for a huge rugby game.  I almost got my face smashed in for cheering for Pierre’s team (Pierre was the one of the only guys cheering for the Blue Bulls).  I didn’t realize how passionate everyone was.  The team had a funny name and couldn’t help myself from being reminded of old High School days and Blue Balls.

Our eyes became quite slanted as the night wore on.  I think it was all the smoke from the BBQ.

Surfing in Mossel Bay is a bit gnarly because of the GWS factor.  There are seals everywhere playing and they even from time to time come right up to you.  There have been multiple fatal attacks in the area and just a month prior a guy was attacked and another was killed.  After we left, Pierre sent me this pic of a GWS they caught close by.  We just kept our eyes peeled and feet on our boards.  We never saw a shark but they probably saw us.

This is a GWS they caught two weeks after we left getting its picture taken for the news.  It didn’t have much to say, don’t know why they needed the microphone.

Inner pool was pretty fun on the alaia

After Mossel Bay we caught a small gust of wind to the town of Still Bay.  Not sure if that’s how it got its name but if it did, the name surely suits the atmosphere of this place.  No one is in a rush, everyone is relaxing, and lunch can last for hours.  We visited our friends Greg and Debby for a night and the next day we had a great lunch at an olive orchard/restaurant.

Debbie, Greg, Louise and I.  Greg almost made the finals in the South African Masters Championships.  Better luck next year when he moves up to the next age bracket.  I’m gonna enter the 50+ bracket next year and dye my hair and still lose.

Also while we were in Still Bay, Greg put us in touch with a guy named Jann (Yahn).  They though we’d find him very informative and interesting given our recent new passion in Alaia surfing and surfboards.  Jann is a very well educated man and during our visit were truly inspired to learn more about alternative surfboard design, pre-alluvian theory, learning about edible plants in our environment, and homeopathic healing.  All this in less than an hour!  Can you imagine if you could spend a whole day with the guy?

He showed us boards he was making for a few famous clients made out of reeds, his boards made out of yucca plants, and then took us into his yard where we went for a short walk and started eating berries on the bushes.  We felt our brains growing and wanted to return the favor.  It was time to pass on a book we knew he would be grateful to digest.  He has since read it (probably in a day) and really liked it.  The book Hokulea: The Way to Tahiti, the story of the first trip on the Hokulea by Ben Finney.  It’s a somewhat one-sided story from the initiator of the Hokulea revival but it definitely has some great information and themes that are still current.
The wind was strong this day and blew us a bit further, all the way to Botrivier.  A tiny town just outside of Cape Town.  It has recently come into fashion as a result of the thriving wine businesses sprouting up.  When I used to work for a corporate company……………..I had a great boss named Nick Buchanan.  He was from South Africa and after spending so much time there I can now understand why he is the way he is.  He still has family in South Africa and he insisted that I visit some of them.  His sister Catherine lives in Botrivier with her husband Barry, daughters Gemma and Bella, and dogs Annie, Baby, and Bambie.  Then there are the horses and the baby lamb they saved from certain death.  We were going to stay for a night or two and head into Cape Town but we fell absolutely in love with their family and the winery they lived on.

We had many a nice dinner here in their dining room.

The property was the size of Kailua and we had free rein to explore as we pleased.  At the time we were both into running and being fit.  Currently (right now) Louise is over there jumping rope, working out, and I’m eating cookies drinking coke and writing the blog.  We were running almost every day, around the property exploring and having a great time.  The surf was small for the coming week so we spent most of it relaxing.  Every night we were treated to a magnificent meal and an even better bottle or two or three of wine.

Annie was their Great Dane and she was HUGE, it would run with us everytime we’d go out for a run and you could pet her without bending over.  She was such a beautiful dog.

The baby lamb Catherine saved from imminent death.  It had porcupine spines stuck in it.  When she pulled them out the blood spurted everywhere.  Here is Gemma holding the lamb and Bella giving her famous, “you need to speak with my agent to take a photo of me.”

Here’s Barry giving it some antibiotics the hard way.

One day we offered to work in the winery and it ended up being an enlightening experience.  It gave us a greater appreciation for wine and its creators.  Louise spent her time scrubbing residue away from the barrels to keep fruit flys away and I spent my time emptying oak barrels with a pump into the large holding tanks, then cleaning the barrels.

I got wine on my shoes.

Once during the barrel time, around 8 months, they pump the wine out, clean the barrels and then pump the wine back in.  Not for all varietals but for some and tasting the wine on my fingers was quite a treat.  It was more like syrup.  My shoes and hands were temporarily stained purple and later that night after multiple bottles of consumption that night, so were my teeth.

Since Botrivier was so close to Cape Town we were able to go into town to explore and be back by dark.  We spent another day in Cape Town.  We went up the iconic cable car to the top of Table Mounatin and took a ton of awesome pics on deathly precipices.  In the US there would have been fences and warnings everywhere.  But in SA, if you fuck up its your fault for being stupid.

I love this photo.  People were watching and cracking up.

After Table Mountain we headed to the the marina to do some shopping and get a nice feed.  The town was really busy and we were soon yearning to get back to the open spaces of the Winery.

The Gabrielskloof Winery is only a few years old but already has a solid reputation as a quality producer of wine and olive oil.  They also just opened a fabulous restaurant where we had lunch a bunch of times.

We were in the vineyards during the time when the wheat was harvested and the patterns made were quite hypnotic and extremely beautiful.

These birds are endangered and it was nice to see them with babies trying to make a comeback on the vineyard.

It just happened that our friends Max and Martina from Germany who we met in the Phillipines happened to be in South Africa.

Meeting up with Max and Martina really gave us a scope of the size of the world.  Here we were, kicking it with our buds that we met in the Phillipines who were from Germany and were now in a small town in South Africa and we were travelers from Hawaii half way around the world in South Africa.  Yes the World is big, but the world has contracted thanks to technology and facebook.

This is Louise marinating chicken in the parking lot.  If you mix the marinade with carbon monoxide the bugga taste ono.  Then you let it mix with the movement in the trunk while you drive a couple hunderd kilometers, broke da mouth brah.

We took off a few days later.  It was a rainy day and we had to stick all our surfboards in our car.  Louise was stuck in the back since the boards took shotgun.

After spending so much time in South Africa, it was slightly surreal to be moving on.  South Africa is such a great country to explore as long as you know where and when not to go.  This would include the inner cities of Durban and Johannesburg, unless you are into putting your gear or your life at risk.

There are parts of South Africa that really disturbed us but the overall progress that has been made in the past 15 years overshadows the steps they still need to make.  Though the progress made does not justify the inequalities, the differential between ethnicities is narrowing.  Now it seems the segregation is moving towards one of other capitalistic societies.  One of wealth, with the white population currently holding the vast majority of it.

But, with the government being made up of a majority with African descent steps are being made in order to shorten the disparity between the average white person and black person.  There is now the equivalent of affirmative action occurring in South Africa and many of the white South Africans are feeling as though they are now getting the short end of the stick.  With instability in Zimbabwe where some of the white land owners have been kicked off their land and forced out of the country, some South Africans are fearful that the same could happen in South Africa.  Although that seems extreme it does not sit too far back in peoples minds.

2010 stands to be a huge factor in the future of South Africa.  The World Cup of Football (Soccer) is going to take place in stadiums across the country and millions of people will be attending the games from all around the world.  Not to mention the BILLIONS of people that will be watching on TV.  If South Africa is able to put together a safe and impressive World Cup, the country stands to reap in the benefits of good coverage and advertising.  Some people are betting on an increase in real estate prices and an increase on the power of the rand (their money).  But things could go the other way as well.  We only hope that the World Cup goes off without a hitch and South Africa is able to use it to their advantage some way to reduce poverty and increase equality without alienating the current middle and upper classes.

South Africa is a must on anyones around the world trip and if you are a surfer, Jeffreys Bay remains a required pilgrimage destination.  We obviously loved the country and can’t wait to come back.  Thanks to all the South Africans that showed us such a great time and took us in as family.  We hope to repay the favor to you in Hawaii.  Please come and visit us and please continue to share the Aloha you showed us.

I don’t think much is needed to be said about this one.