After another week hard at work with the SST, Chida and I
got a ride with Seb and his fiancée Vicky down to the coast. They were headed
to Jeffrey’s Bay, and dropped us off a little further at St Francis, where we
met up with Blair and Alex, the other Canadian interns. We were hoping to
escape the rainy miserable weather in Grahamstown, since our road had become a
river over the past couple of days.
St Francis is a tiny coastal town that serves as the summer
destination to many wealthy South Africans, or to a year-round clan of loveable
beach folk. Alex and Blair live in a harbour area called Port St Francis, in a
massive apartment with a big balcony overlooking the water.
Sam and Rob are a couple who run GYPSEA, a marine eco tour company.
They’ve partnered up with SST to open an educational centre (the St Francis Sustainable Seas Centre) for all ages. Alex and Blair have been busy helping
them prepare for the grand opening on November 9th. The location is great – right in the harbour,
with lots of space for exhibits and activities. There is tons of potential for
research and education at the centre, and Chida and I will likely be involved
there for December and January.
On Friday night we went to Sam and Rob’s son’s 16 birthday
braai (a bbq – South Africans love to grill!) which was held at the centre. It
was a lot of fun and I got my first taste of life in St Francis – low key and a
lot of fun.
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| Pouring rain in the Port - waterfalls of runoff were everywhere! |
Remember how I said we’d hoped to escape the rain? Well, it
also rained for most of the week in St Francis, and on Saturday it poured and
poured and poured. The roads around St Francis became nearly impossible to
drive over the weekend – there were areas that were completely impassable due
to flooding, and about every 100m or so immense potholes riddled the road. Road
conditions in less populated areas of Africa are extremely poor, and can be
difficult to drive even in the best of conditions.
Eventually the rain became extremely damaging. The bridge across the Sand River into St Francis was wiped out, along with several other areas of major roads.
We became isolated, although at no point were we ever in serious danger. A
temporary bridge was constructed out of massive crates, and all supplies were
carried in via hand.
However, the rain was heavy across the Eastern Cape and
flooding was widespread, resulting in several deaths due to drowning and other
accidents. In one case, a massive section of road collapsed (on the road
between Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown) and a car containing an entire family
was pushed over the edge by a car that rear-ended it, unable to stop in time.
For more information about the flooding, check out these articles:
While our return to Grahamstown was delayed for a few days due
to the road conditions, the whole trip wasn’t spent indoors. Whenever there was
a break in the downpour, we managed to get out and explore. It was a blast
spending time with Alex and Blair, breaking up the monotony of the “old couple”
lifestyles we’d grown accustomed to in our separate towns (early bedtimes, lots
of reading, actually doing the dishes…) More to come on these adventures soon!
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