South Africa Diary 16 August 2002
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Should have left today, but I didn't. Instead, I decided to canoe the river that I walked up the bank of yesterday. The beauty of being on the water is that the birds are less terrified of you. Sure they still fly away when they realise that this noisy puffing Englishman powered bright yellow object is bearing down on them, but I managed to get much closer than when I was scrambling up and falling down the path cut in to the side of the hill yesterday. I almost wish that I was a bird watcher as at least that way I would know what that, 'big one with the black body, red eyes and a bit of a gamy leg' is. One the other hand, I think that it's probably best that I don't. Having canoed up to the end of the river, I turned around and rather predictably started coming back down it. I then decided that I was having much too much fun to go back straight away. I hung a left rather than turning right to go back into town and headed off to the romantically named Island Lake at the other end of the logically named Serpentine river (or is it the other way round for those adjectives?). I was warned that this section of the river was 'rather monotonous'. Not only was it rather dull, it was also a bloody long way with the wind blowing in my face all the way there. I got there (eventually) and couldn't even see the damn island!

Have I mentioned yet that it's been raining? More or less all the time over the last couple of days those little drops having been falling out of the sky. So much for topping up my tan before going home!

To tomorrow

Created by Dan Leigh 16/08/02