Monday, August 11, 2008

Banks' Battery and Birthday Party

Yesterday morning we had an early start to see Wilson off at the docks at 8 am. We ran a little late getting there, as Harry and Peter arrived at 7.30 to pray with Nick, but were standing around waiting at 8.15. It’s always fun to chat to everyone else who is there, and see who is going and all. By ten to nine they were calling for passengers for the last busload, and we still hadn’t seen Wilson – Nick checked with the shipping person who said that Wilson was on the very first busload, at 8! Couldn’t believe we missed him – pity. The plans for the rest of the day were unexpected, in that we went on a hike to Banks’ Battery, which is accessible from Rupert’s Bay. We went with Kyle and Genevieve and family (of course), who had phoned earlier on Saturday morning to invite us. Directly after Good News Club we headed over to Ruperts, where they were already waiting. We set out along the path with led us steeply uphill, away from the Jamestown direction. The beginning bit covered us in burrs which were very uncomfortable for Aaron especially as they kept pricking him through his clothing – we had to try pick most of them off, but their shoes and jackets are still full of them! The hike was just shy of an hour, I think – being along a coastal route it was very stony and barren, not like the walk to the flax mill on Thursday. The path was mostly level along the sides of ridges, along three or four bayheads, and we spotted a group of dolphins in the distance. I was a real ninny when it came to walking downhill on the gravely bits – I was terrified of slipping and either falling on my bum and really hurting myself, or not stopping before the edge of the path and tumbling over the cliff into the sea which was frighteningly far below us. I was right at the back and at one point I stopped completely, being too scared to carry on. Genevieve was on the point of going ahead to call Nick to come back and help me, but I pulled myself together and kept going – feeling pretty embarrassed when I finally arrived at our destination a good ten minutes after everyone! We ended at a collection of little tidal pools right on the coast, where we explored and had our lunch. We were all intrigued by the sea urchins – there were many of them growing in the largest of the pools, and Kyle gently lifted one out for closer inspection. They are alive, which I guess was surprising to me, and I don’t suppose it liked being out of the water because it was waving its spikes around quite dramatically. I tried to feed it by dropping breadcrumbs onto its mouth part, but it simply expelled them by slowly moving them to the edge of itself and dropping them off. We saw little fish and crabs, and a few dead flying fish, closely attended by myriad flies. Nick, Caleb and Kyle did some further exploration up the next ridge, enthusiastically tackling the hills. They went as far as the path would take them, where they discovered an underground tunnel of sorts. Meanwhile, Aaron needed a poo, so we had to find a spot on the rocks where the sea would hopefully wash it away. Boy, was I glad I had taken a toilet roll! The walk back to the cars was more manageable, partly because it seemed to have less downhills, and partly because on the downhills I was walking close behind Nick and could hang on to him! Aaron fell and bruised his hand, but other than that there were no casualties. All in all, a memorable walk and mostly very enjoyable! We all went back to our house afterwards – Nick rushed out to a band practice, but the rest of us flopped in the lounge where the boys watched a DVD.

Today we had more socialising planned – Sam’s birthday party/lunch. I spent the morning catching up on a few things, and then only had to make a pizza to take with us. As soon as Nick came home we left for the Williamson’s place in Longwood, and were surprised to see the sun shining there – having prepared ourselves clothing-wise for a cold afternoon. We had a delicious lasagna, broccoli, fruit salad and the pizza for lunch (we all guessed that it was an American thing to have the fruit salad as part of lunch – us South Africans would have served it for dessert!). There were, I think, ten kids in all, if you include Ema as a kid, which she really is not. The kids played outside most of the afternoon while the oldies stayed in and chatted – Pam was also there for lunch, while her husband Jeff went off to play football. Aaron picked a hibiscus flower and two daisies for Genevieve, which he said were to say thank you – how sweet!

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