Lightning Storms!!

Africa » South Africa » North West » Potchefstroom
May 6th 2009

Published: May 6th 2009

Hey guys, I've managed to get on to travel blog from the rubbishy internet on the Potch computer, woot!! :D as said in my title, there is currently a lightning storm (seems to be one every evening right now!!) but the weather is sooo hot and sunny the best part of the day. Its freezing in the early morning and night though!!

So after last time (Thurs 30th April) we hoyed it to the cheap supermarket and bought cake and chocolate for the after-course braai :D was nice. Chatted to Maricelle and Ted a lot, really kool people. Wrote a letterrrrrrrrrrrrrr and Gemjar called, was kool to speak to her!! Spoke to the family as well :D and went to sleep, after tea and a civilised chat with Nolyn and Ted.

Fri - calendar-change day!! :D went for a rather wet run, nice and far compared to what I used to run in Grabouw :D but my iPod broke!! It was working fine, then after brekkie and shower it didn't turn on 😞 did safety checks in a bad mood, said bye to Maricelle and Ted and Henk, as they were going for faith-based course training in Jo'burg :S hung around, played cards with Flip, listened to Goo Goo Dolls with James :D he got a live album in town!! Collected the Breeches Boy (never know if that's what its actually called) :p then me and Maria made paup, it was soft, but nicer than most, I'd say!! :p Hoyed a couple of Brutal Fruits (SA version of bacardi breezer) and went to sleeeeep.

Sat - woke up in a bad mood - but for good reason!! :p cleaned out the paup-pot (worse, far worse than rice-cleaning) and hoyed it in the thuli to start the journey to Potch!! Stopped in at Somerset West mall, posted me letter, and drove!! Had a fair few toilet stops, I got to sit in the front and enjoy the awesome views 😊 we went along part of the same route me and G&G went - but the other way. Up the Cape Town direction, through the tunnel. Good banter in the thuli!! Got to Colesberg - our stop for the night. Ended up in a nice enough B&B (but without the breakfast!!) - I had A BATH and it was AWESOME!! Went for dinner at a nice restaurant, I hoyed a chicken pie, been sooo long since I've had one of them!! Spoke to my Roy at the table :p then we went to buy drinks at this township place, it was such a kool experience!! It was like a club that sold booze, and as soon as we walked in everyone was so friendly and so m any folk were chatting to us!! They love having foreigners in, it was wicked. Only stayed for like 10mins though, then Archie whisked us back to the B&B. Me and Natasha and Maria shared a room - the beds were heavenly!!

Sun - woke in my luxurious bed, then continued our journey. Few stops, then before we knew it we were in Potch!! The town is acutally called Venterskroon, its tiny!! Typical long dusty road, you get to a little shop and a few farms along the way, and that's pretty much it - very isolated. So different to Sedge and Gabouw, but I like it, in a way. Its got some nice views, even if it is rather plain. The base has everything you need, really, including an out-of-tune piano, with some keys not working!! The operations site isn't great though, not that much to actually do course-wise, but it does have a swimming pool to practice kayak rolling in if you want (still haven't been in yet) :p went for a 12k run with Iona Ted and James - it was hard though!! Iona went back early, and when we got to half-way (you just run along the looong road and turn back) me and Ted and James just went back at our own pace - its not fair, the guys were much faster!! Helped make dinner, ate, chatted to mawwwwwww, but got called away for a meeting!! Played the piano, chatted to Sox, he was sooo nice!! Last time I saw him was in Grabouw in Jan, when I was upset, he said he'd been all worried about me since then!! He seemed so happy that I was happy, its nice that some people really do genuinely care about you. Its kool that he's here, he really empathises with me, he misses his fiance and daughter rotten.

Mon - got up early, walked around, did tummy exercises :p had some disorganised meetings and ended up sorting rations, cut journals (painful!!) me and Iona attempted to clean the toilets... spoke to Alida the HR lady, she's gunna try and send me to Harrismith and Lapalala before I leave :D after lunch did more rationy stuff and went with Sifiso to so Site Specifics on the abseil - its not a great abseil tbh, you just walk backwards down a hill basically!! You have to screw in the hangers here though, which is quite kool. Went back, and ended up running around getting people tent-poles and knives and the like, did a little self-PT and met the teachers who are fairly interesting, nothing on the last 2 though, they cracked me up!! Chatted to my girls, then we went to bed.

Tue - me and Iona went for an early morning run!! Just 5k this time though :p hoyed a shower and Jungle Oats, then me and Natasha went up to abseil to do the set-up - nearly got lost on the way though!! Crazy stuff. I was there allllllllll day... got a bit boring, but had some of the participants to chat to. Natasha went back to do initiatives with Ted, lucky :p it was fun being the "perfect example" on how to abseil though :D rain and lightning stopped RT's group from completing the activity, so had to run back to base, didn't get too wet though. I really do need a good waterproof jacket though, next day I'm on leave I'm making sure that happens. Me and Iona put on a load of washing (they have a washing machine here!!) then went with Gladwin to drop water off at Bundu, the furthest campsite - was interesting chatting to him, he's had so much bad stuff happen to him at OB yet he's still soldiering on, but he does seem to try and always find the easy way out of things, rather than tackling stuff head-on, so I don't know how sorry to feel for him!! Its confusing. Chatted to one of the teachers about South Africa's problems, checked eeeeeeeeeee-mails, then went to bed early.

Today - going to bed early last night was a mistake, I woke up at 4-something and couldn't sleep again!! Gutted. Went for an early morning run with Iona again, luckily the lighnting storm had stopped :p rescued and hung out our washing, hoyed brekkie and me and Iona went to abseil and did the set-up. Was hot today!! Chatted about stuff, belayed Iona down to see what belaying was like, went on facebook (perfect reception on my phone at the top of abseil) prassiced myself down :D was about to come back and do initiatives when Sox arrived with his group - but he was too ill to run the activity, so I had to brief the activity!! Was kool, I enjoyed it. Its not acutally that hard to do. KG arrived to take over, and I went with Sox back to base - to find that someone had a spinal injury from falling over on one of the hikes!! I ended up going with her (and another girl who had a lung problem) in the back of the buckie to hospital - I was playing them music on my phone to try and cheer them up :p stayed with Prudence, the spinal, for most of the time, waited around in the waiting room a lot while Sox and Gladwin tried to get Bridgette to a clinic, Prudence got an X-Ray and it turns out she's fine, then there was a big kafuffle on whether Bridgette should wait for the clinic tomorrow or wait around for ages today, it was crazy, Sifiso wanted her to wait until tomorrow, against our judgement!! Mental. So came back, and it was pouring with massive hailstones (and its just started again) :p bumped in to Kobus, the area manager up here, and apparently we're all going to Harrismith on the 13th!! I feel bad, because it was me that wanted to go, and Natasha and Iona are being sent as well, even though I said it was only me that wanted to go. They don't seem to mind though, its all good 😊 looking forward to seeing it, but nervous about the whole tent-for-a-base thing though!! Its for the 2-week faith-based course, probably going to have to pretend to be an avid Christian, will be amusing. Me and Iona typed up our search-and-rescue plan (we're running that tomorrow, should be fun!!) I have to be a drunk driver who hit a runner, and feign shock, abdominal injuries, and a broken arm. While acting drunk. Should be a bag of laughs. Will hopefully let you guys know how I got on before Harrismith!!

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