Yes it's true. I had to go to Pietermaritzburg for a court case. No, I was not the accused, but on the witness bench. Somebody broke into my car and their deeds caught up to them 7 years later. I took fingerprints. It was probably the wrong car to break into.

Obviously I immediately checked the charts to make the trip worth my while and planned to borrow a board from a man called Barry, who is a legend kinda guy, who's son I know from surfing together in J-Bay. I booked a B&B and it turned out to be a very interesting stay because the place is owned by a gay couple. (O, yes, they seemed very happy. pun intended.)  Notwithstanding, I had a great stay and they make a wopper breakfast. (I skipped on the special Reiki therapy as well as the full body massages etc. which they also had on offer.)

Amazingly, this was an all expenses paid surgical surf strike to catch the only swell around as far as I could see. More than that, it was like a re-intorduction for me to a place I used to visit much as a child. The Wheel is still there, and as children it used to be the coolest place in town. Now it's like Hillbrow. I am definately not street wise enough, because I got ripped off by some con men before I knew what happened. I opted not to get aggressive on the spot because I did not know who was going to pull a blade out and stab me if I made a scene. In the end I just left it there and wrote the money off to the fact that I was stupid and gullable and did not listen to the obvious inner promptings.

In the booking process, I used Kulula's website to maximise my Kulula Moola and they seemed to have all their things sorted in one place. One thing they messed up with is that the first B&B I booked which was listed in the Durban region was actually located in Capetown. Turns out the real B&B has an identical street name and number to another ordinary house which is walking distance from the DBN airport. What a mission to get hold of a real person and tell them that I want my money back and that there is a mistake on their website. I can only imagine that other people had the same experience.

Here's what I did in 48 hours...

Drove 500km in total. Flew back and forth between PE and DBN.
Got ripped off on the "golden mile" by R 200 bucks in persuit of a rental surfboard after the rental shops closed and another R 70 by a guy called "David who wanted petrol for his Golf that's parked at Caltex". Eventually I got a surfboard for free from Barry and it was not worth the hassle!
Ate lots of takeaways.
Stopped the guy with the Golf keys from telling his sob story to the next surfer in front of North Beach and almost @@$% him, buthad pity on him and just left it there.
Left B&B around 4am and eventually paddled out at New Pier with local charger and photographer, Mike van Heerden, who turned out to be a very cool guy.
Raced from Durban to Pietermaritzburg magistrate's court after a quick paddle at a very fast break hard ripping New Pier.
Waitied around in court only to hear the case is moved to another date which incedentally is my wedding anniversary. The court's electricity went off around tea time and magically came on again minutes before lunch time was over. All cases were posponed.
Collected witness fees of over R 3000 which covered all my expenses. (sigh of relief due to hole in budget)
Raced back to DBN to try and catch more Eastern swell or take some photos.
Dropped a Bruce Gold movie off at a publisher and popped the question as to how much they would pay to show it on website. (I spent several hours creating it and wanted to see some return on it, but reaction was a little funny.)
Tried taking photos at New Pier but was spooked by weird looking guys following me and bailed without getting any money shots. (Tore my precious African shirt in the process as I climbed under the wire on the Pier and also cut my shoulder.)
Dropped the board of at Barry's and had a great cup of tea as we gossiped about Bruce, Clive Barber, Ross and various surf stories.
Went to B&B and had long and interesting conversations about anything from apartheid, Angola and the bush war, world banks and names like (okay, won't mention those names, sorry) and other diverse conspiricy theories.
Slept like a baby and had a huge English breakfast all before 6 in the morning.
Raced to the airport, took candid photos of people on the ground and in flight as well as some through the windows.
Asked the lady who sat next to me if she minds me taking a photo of her while reading a newspaper, but she did not want me to. She seemed a little suspicious of me and never spoke one word to me during the flight. Maybe she thought I am trying to make a move on her, even though the wedding rings were shimmering on both our fingers?!
Not long after that, while driving with my father in law, I saw the glorious J-Bay in front of me as we came down the hill at Gamtoos Valley.
Did a late afternoon surf at Tubes and Point and was so glad to be back on my own board at my own break.
Thoughts of thugs that want to take my gear and steal my money and unwilling photographic subjects being washed away with every turn and takeoff....

Maybe Dirtbin will prove itself the next time when I'm there, but it made a bad impression on me this time. The beach is destoyed as well, and it is in a horrible state. The high biuldings makes for ugly sunsets and the beach get's dark very quickly because of al lthe high rise buildings. They still have years of work to do on the beachfront and I am not sure stuff will be done for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, especially at the rate things are going right now.

J-Bay rules. Even when it's onshore like the last two days, the quality of surf is much better than Durbs. (Water was freezing though.)
See you in the water!

 

 

 

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