East London to Port Elizabeth.

Saturday 25th November 2017

It was great to finally arrive in East London after the battering of the previous night. The sun was shining and Port Control answered promptly when called, advising where to anchor out of the way of a car carrier that would need to turn later.  As we passed it we could see it was loading thousands of new C class Mercedes, which are manufactured here.

At the head of the port, below the rail bridge, we moored to the trot moorings, which have ropes strung between buoys. One has to come alongside the floating rope without getting it tangled in the propellor or rudders, catch it and tie up to bow and stern to lie in line with the river flow. It was a very tight turn between the lines, but it worked! We found Roland, Ditty and Sam already moored in the aluminium yawl, "Horizon".  We originally met in Curaçao in January or February last year.

There was a loud yell from the Buffalo River Yacht Club advising that 
a) the rope wasn't very strong and we should add our own, and 
b) that the rugby was just starting and come over to have a beer.  

We obeyed instructions!  At the club we were welcomed by friendly members, and cold Castle beer. The smell of woodsmoke from the braai (BBQ) was enticing.  In the end we were still there at sunset, and had pizza delivered before retiring to bed.

On Sunday 26th I arranged a tour to the Hogsback driven by a charming Afrikaner, Deon Goosen.  We hadn't fancied an "Elephant Encounter" morning at the local game park, and I'd read that JRR Tolkien had been inspired (possibly) by his stay at the Hogsback (aged 2!) and that its dramatic scenery in the mountains was worth a visit.  

Mark didn't fancy 4 hours in the car and set off bravely to walk into East London across the railway bridge, and had an adventurous day exploring. Despite all dire warnings by the locals he was neither mugged nor murdered, thankfully!  He climbed the great sand dunes, rescued a giant beach ball blown up the slope in the gale, and was then invited to a braai by the black Zimbabwean owner of the ball who had been futilely chasing it.

Meanwhile Justin and I enjoyed the chance to see some of the countryside. Our drive took us out over a vast rolling landscape, where great vistas stretched out around us.  Large clusters of housing were grouped across the land, mostly comprising lines of concrete houses with tin roofs, often painted in many shades of colour.  Notably there were many plots without a house but, like the occupied plots, these all had a concrete privy with a lean to roof and a vent pipe sat on a concrete foundation.  There was rarely any sign of electricity or water being supplied, but even on the most basic shack of wood and corrugated iron one might spot a satellite TV dish.   This area was the Siskei, a Xhosa "homeland', now renamed the Eastern Cape.    We wonder what employment was possible for this great population miles from anywhere.  There were cattle and sheep herded on green prairies, but very little sign of organised agriculture, apart from a few insignificant vegetables plots by people's houses.  

We drove through King Williamstown, with avenues of purple jacaranda, and faded elegance of colonial era mansions with pillars and porticos.  Ahead the hills rose into great flat topped masses, with parapets of stone, deeply fissured.  As we rose higher we left the grassland and scrubby trees and entered woodland, rising fast to Hogsback amongst ancient trees.  The Hogsback Inn was reminiscent of an English country pub, and served up excellent home made pie and chips.   Then we set off to stroll along the winding paths and  across little streams on quaint bridges up to a lovely cascade in the Arboretum. Everywhere there were white arum lilies growing, the sound of flowing water, and great redwood trees and oaks.

From there we drove past places called Rivendell, Bilbos Rest, and Hobbiton, to visit a backpacker hostel called Fairyland, renowned for its great views, and also for the white enamel bath set on the cliff edge, where one can lie in hot water fed from a wood fired boiler! Needless to say I got into the bath (dry)...

Sketch of the Hogsback

Monday the 27th dawned and Mark and I took a taxi to shop for provisions, while Justin packed and cleaned.   Our taxi driver, a young red-haired Afrikaner, was into fast car racing, and had lots of stories that surprised us.  He said that road rage wasn't much of a problem (although car jacking was).  However he said that someone got angry when he wouldn't let him into the traffic, had then followed him for a long time. He phoned his boss to ask what to do, who suggested going to a police station, but instead he had driven to a remote area, where the other car had pulled in front of him to block his way.  The other enraged driver got out and turned out to be a soldier.  The taxi driver walked over to him, hit him on the jaw and knocked him unconscious, took his keys, locked the car and threw the keys in the bush before driving off, leaving him lying there.  He was surprised that he was taken to court!  

Time was running out and sadly we didn't get to the museum where the first coelacanth discovered is on display. Luckily I've seen one in the Natural History Museum in London.  The fishermen occasionally catch them in the very deep water off this coast.   The other attractions at sea are the great white sharks, and Southern Right Wales, which we will be keeping an eye open for.

We said farewell to Justin, leaving him to fly home to the UK, and then cast off at 14;00 to set sail for Port Elizabeth.   We picked up 4 knots of speed from the Agulhas current, and were soon speeding along at 10 knots through the night.  It was perishingly cold, and despite all my warm gear I felt frozen after my 03:00 to 06:00 watch and needed big bowl of hot porridge.  To cap it all Mark thinks he has just spotted penguins!

Then, as the sun warmed things up, huge flocks of Cape Gannets swarmed round us, diving incessantly into the sea like white spears. We saw that they were following large pods of dolphins which were rounding up the shoals.

We will meet Richard and Maria in Port Elizabeth today who will help us with the leg to Cape Town.  The challenge as always here  is to get the weather windows right.  I hope we will be able to get there in good time for their return flights on 6th December.