The Elephant Coast

Today is our final full day and I was up early at 6am. I drank my first coffee alone before Pete and Ron both got up at 7am and then the chess game started.
Ellie and I pottered around our little house making sure our clothes were clean and ready to pack and then at 8am Hilapè turned up.
Even though it was Sunday and she would normally be at church we had offered to take Hilapè to the hardware store to buy her something for her house and she was very excited. She has been a great person to have here, always cleaning up after us, tidying our room, doing our washing and washing up and changing the bed clothes once a week.
Yesterday she had to go to a community meeting and we think Pete should have gone aswell but he didn’t. Ron told me late last night that the winterdodgers backpacking building next door that Pete has told us he owns actually has an outstanding debt of R15,000 left on it and he’s asked Ron to help pay it. That works out at roughly £650 and obviously Ron couldn’t give Pete that money because it wouldn’t ever get paid back.
Once Hilapè came in Ellie and I got dressed and then Pete told me he wasn’t going into town and I’d have to drive if we wanted to get her something. Now we knew Pete was hiding from the community elders.
I jumped in Karin the car slightly nervously and with Ellie in the back and Hilapè riding shotgun off we went to MBazwana and to the hardware store.
Hilapè chose a door for her house, a lovely red solid wood stable door and when we took it to the till she started crying because she was so pleased. She built her whole house herself even making the bricks by hand herself and she would never have been able to afford a door. She already said she can’t afford windows but she will put plastic sheeting in the holes and it will feel like a home. On the way home Ellie was crying aswell.
Back at the house we had coffees and then I suggested we spend the last day at the beach so we all put on our swimming stuff, grabbed some towels and jumped in the car and headed back to Mabibi beach for one last time.
For such a beautiful beach, and being a weekend it was dead with just a handful of people and our first stop was the rock pools where Ron put on the snorkelling gear and jumped in.
When Ellie and I took Hilapè to MBazwana Ron had obviously told Pete that he was leaving the same time as us and Petes mood had changed and he was quiet, looked a little depressed and didn’t want to go swimming.
After the rock pools we headed down to where the beach is really sandy and Ron and I went in a played in the surf like a couple of kids. It was a right laugh and wore us both out.
We left Mabibi for the last time just after 3pm and headed back to the house where Pete said he was going for a lay down, Ellie and I went and got changed and Ron went off to phone his girlfriend and then chill out in his room while Ellie and I sat on the roof terrace.
At 5pm Pete came back out of his room and looked in a better mood. He’s got used to the idea that tomorrow we would all be leaving and we said we’d take him out for dinner at the restaurant in Sodwana bay.
We all bundled in the car and headed back down the sandy roads, through the river and into Sodwana bay for the last time and headed to The Tree restaurant where we all had Porky Jacks burgers and they were some of the best burgers we had ever had. Ron and I had a couple of beers and Pete stopped after 1 and said he wanted to drive faster on the way home but luckily I think some sense kicked in because he actually drive home quite calmly knowing that he needed the car to do a 1,200km round trip tomorrow dropping us all off at the airport.
Back at the house Ron and I had a last beer together while Pete smoked a joint and then at 8pm it was time for bed.Читать далее