Coffee Bay

Phew, from the open rubbish dump in front of the hotel to the lack of a pedestrian sidewalk on the main road to the abandoned campsite it seems there's a lot of (insert pejorative) here. I arrived in the wake of the storm earlier this week, and a series of power failures afflicted the one half of the village. The funny thing was the property in which the project house is had no power while the neighboring property (in the same fence) did. So I went to the Beach Party at Coffee Shack. The power failure lasted from 5'ish 'til about 9 and blanketed the backpackers' side of town in blackness. It was quiet weird and probably just long enough, too, for me to have too much to drink and imperceptibly cross that point, from one split syllable to the next, from interesting to annoying. Like the mosquitoes and the flies here. Not sure if I did loose (sic) my name, but at least I had a good splashdown in Coffee Bay.

Since this morning now the power failure has afflicted the other side of town. I wouldn't have noticed but that the electric gate wouldn't work, because it's wired to the other house. So I got back to Hole in the Wall to find that the cell transmitter that got hit in the storm on Monday night is still out. My cell phone is also whack... the last few battery charges have become more and more difficult, and I think it's bleeping its last gasps. It's about a year and a week old. Not funny.

The campsite here is amazing! Passed through there yesterday and I reckon it will be, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful eco camping experiences available in the world... once it's properly secured and given a little maintenance. Walking through the abandoned park is like wondering a maze of indigenous trees and plants. A huge green womb with rooms and passages of milkwood, msintsi (corral tree), mkhulwha (natal mahogany), lush plantlife, and plenty else I can't identify. It's gorgeous.

Wouldn't take much to fix it up, or make a beautiful pedestrian sidewalk & jogging path, or get rid of inkberry bushes on the point... And how about the fact that the Coast Care / Ikhamva people are not working at the moment either! There are huge opportunities for local SPWP employment and Coastal Care!