Phueh, Phleh, Phfft .... There's Sand in My Mouth
Trip Start
Nov 14, 2007
1
13
20
Trip End
Dec 01, 2007
Big Bay,
South Africa
Friday, November 23, 2007
Where: at a local bar off the coastline of Big Bay.
When: November 23rd, 2007
We woke up to a bright beautiful sunny day today. The winds were still blowing but not as strong as they have been lately. So what are we to do? Its our last day here and we've been doing a lot of site-seeing and a whole lot of chillen. I personally would have preferred surfing, but was resigned to accommodate my non-surfing partner in crime, Angela. She had a better idea - Sandboarding!! Ooooh! I'm much more inclined to do something new like that. So, we signed up for an excursion this morning with a company called Downhill Adventures. Unfortunately, we had to walk around to find a cheap pair of sunglasses at the suggestion of the tour guides. Not a bad idea. Wouldn't want sand scratching my cornea. I also left my super-duper camera at our apartment. I just fixed the temperamental lens and I wouldn't want any sand getting in there and fucking it all up again.
After finding some super cheesy knockoffs, we were off for some fun in nature's sandbox.. Our destination? Atlantis, the sand dunes to the north. On the ride there, we befriended the four other travelers that came with. The first one, Eric, who ended up being THE military budget analyst for the US congress. Wow, what an interesting job, aye? Angela and I tried to coerce him to declassify some of super top secret shit he's working on. He assured us that most, if not all, the stuff that passes through his desk isn't that romantic. I begged to differ. Surely, he must have seen a proposal to build some kinda super death ray like Marvin the Martian's. He neither confirmed it or denied it. Hmmm.... make you wonder.
The other three travelers, Kenny, Adam, and Thea, were from the UK on a two week holiday to visit their mate. Two weeks?! Wow - I wish we had more days here. There are still so many things we haven't seen. Three and a half days wasn't going to cut it - 2 and a half if you don't count that rainy day. Our tour guy's name was Yaseen. A local South African of Middle-Eastern decent - very down to earth guy that says "dude" a lot. Strange to hear him to say it.
After 45 minutes, we got to our destination. We put on our tanks, sunblock, and strapped our boots on. I noticed Angela haphazardly put some sunblock on. I was going to say something to her since it was super bright out. But, I was distracted by the huge horse flies. According to Yaseen, if one of those things bite you - you will swell up like balloon. Fuck that. I'm not getting bit by some African Horse fly, even if it would be a cool story to tell my grandkids.
Sandboarding is a lot like Snowboarding - sans heavy snowgear, the frigid temperature, and chair lifts. Hiking to the top of the dune in big hulking snowboard boots whilst getting sand blown into your face isn't that fun. But coming down the dune at superspeed more than made up for it. There was a photoshoot happening in the neighboring dunes. By all indications, it looked to me like it was for a bikini & swimsuit catalog. Maybe even Sports Illustrated - wowwawweewa. I likes!! Sexy times.
We were all pretty beat up by lunch time. So we all opted to spend the rest of the day at Big Bay. This is where I find myself writing this entry. The beach is phenomenal. Almost as beautiful as the Caribbean but with nice rolling beach brakes. I'm starting to get the itch to surf. Yaseen shared with us his stories of close encounters with sharks and whales while surfing. Really interesting stuff. That quickly suppressed my urges to paddle out. Ha! - I like surfing. But I like having my limbs intact even more.
Angela and I have a Spa treatment set up for later on tonight. Perfect timing too - looks like Angela's got sunburned. Maybe I should told her about putting more sunblock on, huh?We also have to pack up tonight for the last leg of our trip - the Eastern Cape. I'm kinda bummed that we didn't get to do as much as we would have hoped here in Cape Town. Oh well - what are you going to do. On to Mufasa's hood...
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