A Day Of Nothing

Today our plan was to head to Mkunze game reserve for a bry. In English terms that’s a barbecue picnic and after getting up at 7am Ellie and I were happy to hang around the house waiting for Pete to send emails and make phone calls. Unfortunately due to the power load shedding the local generator had gone wrong and there was no phone signal or internet for anyone.
At 11am Pete packed the car with food and drinks and our first stop was Mbazwani for fuel and cash.
It was a total disaster area.
The queues to get get in to the petrol station were unbelievable and we had to wait 10 minutes before getting to a pump and the queues for the ATM machine were astronomical running the whole length of the row of shops in both directions and around the corner.
Once we got to the pump the attendant asked if we were paying by card or cash. We said card and he said all the power and card machines are out so if we don’t have cash there’s no fuel.
We moved off from the pump and Pete asked the car park attendant if we could get cash back from the store and he said yes so Pete parked in a dodgy little car park and Ellie and I waited in the car.
2 minutes later Pete came back and said the shops are dead, we can’t get cash back because there’s no power so unless people had cash they couldn’t buy anything and obviously people didn’t have cash because the ATM didn’t work.
We started to head back home because this transformer that was out was affecting all of towns and villages within a 40km radius, but Pete said “don’t worry we’ll just go to the beach instead”. Then the fuel light came on and Ellie and I didn’t fancy walking back from the beach so we managed to get Pete to go back home and cook on the fire pit instead and just have a lazy day.
Pete cooked us a lovely meal of wors sausage in rolls which was a great lunch and then we sat and talked until about 2pm and then my phone pinged and we knew that mobile service and internet had been restored after 24 hours.
Straight away Pete was making phone calls and messaging people while Ellie caught up on emails and messages from home while I went off and did a 30 minute workout and then had a cold shower.
At 4pm I made coffees for everyone and we all sat upstairs on the roof for hours just talking and watching the sunset and a full moon rise while the heat of the day slowly dissipated.
Then at 7pm we headed downstairs and set 2 camera traps up because we realised just before sunset that one of Petes chickens is missing.
Then we all sat around the kitchen table and luckily at 7:45pm Pete started cooking pasta for dinner.
I say lucky because we thought he’d forgotten and Ellie and I are starving.
At 8:15pm Pete brought the goods to the table, a lovely macaroni cheese African style with salad and it was well needed and appreciated. Then at 9pm it was time to head off to our beds because tomorrow we have a really early start to make up for today.Les mer