Ah, away at last. Last weekend our long planned trip through to Witsand finally came to fruition and late Friday afternoon Terrance, Chantelle and myself were packed into the car and on our way to Witsand to join up with Dean and Zania who had already arrived there earlier that morning.
Originally it was just going to be the four of us thanks to Chantelle’s work commitments (and as such we had sourced a four-sleeper accommodation) but a last minute change in plans saw Chantelle join us, much to my (and Zania’s I would imagine!) relief of course! :)
The drive through to Witsand was about an hour longer that what I had originally estimated, and driving over a poor defenseless skunk/badger that deemed it proper to cross the road right in front of my 120 km/h screaming tires didn’t help to improve my mood either by the time we finally arrived at our quaint wooden little destination. Thankfully though this bad mood was equally offset by a large supply of Woolworths Chuckles that Chantelle had secreted in as padkos (like I was telling Terrance, when she finally got the green light to join us, my luggage suddenly quadrupled!) and the fact that on arrival Dean already had the fire going and we sat down to enjoy some delicious late, late night braai cuisine.
Of course, one can’t just go straight to be on the first night and so Terrance, Dean and I stayed up until 01:00 playing some fiery rounds of UNO in which Dean completely decimated the two of us, before we finally packed up for the night, put away the leftover champagne, wine and coffee and headed off to bed, them to the room and me to the kitchen floor – sigh, the sacrifices one makes for their liefie!
The little housie we were staying in was essentially this cute little wooden place nestled amongst all the other beach holiday homes, literally big enough just to swing a couple of cats around in but at the same time with all the furnishings and finishings that one could need – even if the layout of some of these leaned towards the slightly odd side of things. One disadvantage of the two stuck together wendy houses was of course the fact that they got exceptionally hot inside rather quickly, but needless to say this wasn’t such a great hurdle seeing as we were spending 90% of our time outside in the gorgeous summer’s weather anyway!
So Saturday morning we kicked off the weekend away with a beach trip proper, and after a quick exploration tour of Witsand we hit their main beach (which essentially sits at the river mouth) where we joined the multitudes of people already out and about in the sun. The beach was bustling, the lifeguards were on duty and even the stranddienste were at play, and we lost no time in heading off to the water to enjoy a thoroughly refreshing dip in some gorgeous ocean water. The waves weren’t too bad either, and Dean and I quickly fell into step with the other seal-imitating bathers and I can happily report that I caught at least two or three decent waves with my rather unrefined body surfing technique!
And while Mr. Brown didn’t join us in the water, he did join Dean and myself for the long trek across to the river and back again, where we finally convinced Zania to join us in the brilliant blue. Now it is at this point that I wish to withdraw, roll up my sleeve and kick myself in the groin for being just plain stupid. Can you believe that at 28, three perfectly rational and well informed adults can make such a stupid decision as to not apply sunblock – at all? Well that is exactly what Mr. Brown, Ms. Montgomery and I did, and needless to say, we paid most dearly for this rather large oversight!
By the time we arrived by at our rented abode after enjoying a lovely little ice-cream in the sun, the three of us started turning into bright pink lobsters, with us omitting such squeals of agony and pain that surely we must have scared off at least half of Witsand’s inhabitants! And try as we might to still enjoy the weekend by playing a tough putt putt shootout, indulging in long sessions of UNO and cards and braaing for supper, it quickly became apparent that we had entirely shot our weekend to pieces – and all thanks to a ridiculously stupid lack of common sense! The frustration of it all I tell you! :) (Oh, and Dean and Chantelle shared top honours in the putt putt if you wanted to know).
So Saturday night ended a lot earlier than Friday night, there was a lot more moans and groans emanating from Mr. Brown and Ms. Montgomery’s sleeping quarters (Dean and Zania on the other hand will make good parents one day) and even I struggled to get a comfortable on the wooden floor of the kitchen – though that said, I slept like a baby of course!
Sunday and the pain was still there, with Chantelle and Terrance all but sidelined, leaving Zania, Dean and myself to indulge in a spot of cricket in the vacant lot behind our abode, before starting up the fire and enjoying yet another delicious braai feast for lunch – truly a man’s food weekend if you ask me! Yes, the women tried to sneak in salad at every attempt, but each time they were thwarted and all that got eaten was the spanspek instead. You’ll just have to try harder next time girls! ;)
More card playing, more cricket and then finally the decision that I really didn’t want to make – it was time to go home. So with much oohing and ahing, complaining and girly shrieks of pain, I bundled Terrance, Chantelle and our luggage into the car, bid Dean and Zania farewell (they still stayed of for another two days) and drove us back home, lamenting all the way at how the Chuckles had all mysteriously disappeared.
So damn it, if it wasn’t for the stupid sunburn this would have been the most excellent of weekends away ever – but that said, it still felt pretty good to get away from home for a change! So thanks to Dean, Zania, bokkie and Terrance. It was yet another good one for the books! :)