Celebrating April 1st in the Forest or Monkeys Jumping on the Roof

Darn you Mr. (or should I say Mrs?) Monkey

Written 7:25 am April 2 on the deck of a forest cabin, The Crags, Garden Route, South Africa

I woke up this morning to monkeys jumping on our roof. I was warned yesterday by the proprietor of the cabin where we are staying that the monkeys liked to jump across the corrugated iron roof because jumping makes a lot of noise. He said, “it is like kids, they like to make noise.” Well Mr. Jumping Monkey at 7:10 am on a Saturday morning: Mission Accomplished.

We are in one of my favorite (well, everyone’s favorite from what I can tell) parts of South Africa: the garden route. We are staying in cabins built onto a wooded hillside. When I was here 11 years ago I met the folks building these cabins. They were kind enough to let me celebrate Thanksgiving, serving fish, not turkey, at their, “house.” Back then, the house was a 3 sided building without a real kitchen, but it was enough for a little Thanksgiving celebration and we had a lovely time. 11 years later they have built, by themselves, a lovely home, many forest cabins and the clincher, a tree top hot tub. Yesterday was our 5 year wedding anniversary, and I thought some time in a tree top hot tub would suit the occasion nicely. I was right.

We started out the day in Jeffery’s Bay (locals call it j-bay), a surfing town just south of Port Elizabeth. We had rented the “penthouse” room of a B & B for the night before. Originally, I had dreams of walking on the beach, maybe even going for a swim, but once again, a storm seems to be following us and instead we stayed inside. That night, we ate really bad pizza while watching really bad South African TV. It was a complete experience. By morning the storm had mostly cleared and the view from the “penthouse” (which really just means the top floor, but hey, works for me) was lovely. We enjoyed the view in the morning and then got in the car.
About an hour or so later we stopped at a giant, lovely bridge over a lush canyon. Everyone else on the road stopped there too and it was excellent people, as well as, landscape watching.

Then we moved onto to the Tsitsikama national park. I have fond memories of Tsitsikama from my other visits here. It is still a pretty amazing place, although crummy weather was dampening the beauty a bit. We went for a hike and then had some lunch looking over the ocean. This part of South Africa is all about eating while looking out over lovely views. That, and various adrenalin sports, seem to be the main activities here. Dodging tour groups, well, that is another major activity. We did a fair amount of that. Once again, I need to point out that tourists look funny. They may be practical, they may be comfortable, but as a group they look funny. (When I am wearing my too big, once black, now kind of gray, pocket pants that stop below my knees, I also look funny. When Andrew manages to wear 3 shades of tan, a tan shirt, tan zip off pants and tan shoes, he also looks funny. I know.)

After checking into our forest cabin, and learning about the monkeys we ran some errands. While we were in Leisure Bay it became clear that my bathing suit was done. Caput. Finished. I know this because every time I caught a big wave I would have to stay under the water for a long time after pulling it back on. The elasticity just wore out.

Once, it made it to my ankles before I managed to stop the wave induced migration. That was a close one, and I really didn’t want to repeat the experience. So, yesterday, I found a bathing suit that should stay on even while playing in the waves. Or I should say I found a “nice cozzi” that should stay on while playing in the waves. Bathing suits here are “swimming costumes“, or just “costumes”, or just “cozzies”. Andrew looked really confused the first time someone talked to him about his costume.

Finally it was time for our celebration. We drove to a restaurant on the beach. On the way there we passed a wedding. Another couple that will have April 1 as their anniversary. (And sad for this other couple’s beach wedding, someone else who will have it rain on their wedding day,) The restaurant’s tag line is “if it was any closer you would get wet”. We found a table closest to the beach and ate dinner watching the sun go down over the ocean toasting our good fortune. (We also, because we could, ordered kudu to eat. We saw so many alive, why not eat one? )

When we returned to the cabin it was time for our “appointment” in the hot tub. Our host came and found us and walked to the secluded tree top tub. There we could soak and look at the stars undisturbed. (Also, finally, now that we are more south and less east the giant crazy bugs seem to be gone. And the uber mosiquitos. They seem to be gone too. This makes most parts of life much better).

It was an excellent end to a marvelous day.