This morning is even slower and I rise at 8am. The normal morning routine follows after that, changed only be a lot of reading. My body is feeling slow and sluggish today. Filen comments on the fact that the ocean drives the mood of people - the calm, quiet and still sea sets the tone.
Lorenzo, Dom and Jude walk off with their boards to Lwandile. I tell them that I will catch up with them and promise to bring my coffee making apparatus. The morning kind of runs away with me and my brother calls for a catchup. I call Jordan to her the tale of how she shaved her head and how she is doing - a cool head.
I pack the fastpack embarrassingly lightly with just the coffee equipment and jog off down the beach. I’m just going to feel out my body and see how my left ITB is doing. The route is familiar and documented quite a few times in this travel journal already. The significant parts of this trip were listing to my body and testing out some different running styles.
I did have a little flare up about four kilometres in and begin to take things a bit slower from there. I’m having the suspicion that the slow shuffle jog almost aggravates it more than a really fast run. I hypothesise that an effective way to run a long run would be the powerhike on the ups and down and then just absolutely send the flats.
I take a new route around the final hill before Lwandile; along the coast and see four surfers in the water. The wave is breaking in a completely different place to my previous experiences here, right down at the closeout section on the beach is a little peak running to the sand.
I film the boys on a few waves, but there is nothing truly spectacular. They come in shortly after that I make a coffee for us. I ask Dom if I could take his Gary McNeil 6’0” and wetsuit and paddle out for a quick surf.
I get two lefts at first that are rather average. The board is feeling really good though - it’s got about as much volume as Kim yet has a nose with a lot of rocker. It’s almost 20” wide yet feels like a high performance shortboard. I think that it would go really well in the tube with the quad fin setup.
I get one really good right: a double up that shoots me into a peeling wall with about three floaters that take me through crumbling sections and a nice roundhouse to a snap to finish. I get a few cheers from the beach.
We take a walk back, walking in pairs of two with the groups rotating organically. Jude asks a few interesting questions about the racial and economic environment of South Africa. It’s interesting to see how British person’s view on inequality and the seeming ease that policy would solve so much.
I’ve overlooked the fact that I won’t be back in time for lunch and didn’t really have an afternoon coffee. I feel a bit of a sugar crash setting in but it turns out to be manageable. I have a lovely shower in the family bathroom and then sit down to devour a huge portion of the leftover potjie from last night - it’s at least twice as good.
I come up to the common room and catch up on some travel journals. Some people come and go and I ask Lisa to put on Hermanos Gutiérrez as per Lina’s suggestion. We sit outside with Adi and Ang and talk about hiking, movie suggestions and more.
I’m feeling tired yet relaxed. I’ve promised to teach Lorenzo to play backgammon tonight. I’m sitting next to a stinky little wet dog that has snuck into the backpackers to sleep surreptitiously on a couch. I choose to let this sleeping dog lie - everyone deserves a holiday.
I talk Lorenzo through a game of backgammon and he picks it up quickly. I’m definitely becoming better at teaching people the game. We settle down around the fire that Lisa makes and I sink deep into the couch. I am about to play a game with Dom when Wayne and Pat walk in.
Wayne walks in with a coolerbox and says “I’ve come looking for friends”. Pat follows a little while afterwards with such a strong Dean energy - I’m ready! They whip out a speaker, whiskey, mixers and more from their cooler and it’s immediately a party.
Pat turns out to be Dean but with more social awareness. I find it really enjoyable to toy with the conversation and tease out some good stories. He handles a joke really well and definitely opens up. Wayne is quite a brilliant companion for Pat as he’s witty and sharp and keeps him on his toes. They both live and work in Mthatha during the week and have a little cottage close by for the weekends.
The night goes on quite late and I start to get hungry again. At about 11pm I embark on a mission to eat two packets of two minute noodles in the kitchen and read my book. I should have just had one.