durban to st lucia

one short flight and i was back in durban and staying with fiona in her "penthouse" granny flat in amanzimtoti. we spent the night there and drove to st lucia the next morning. once we dropped our stuff off at our accommodation in st lucia we drove to meet sam at cape vidal, a short drive up the coast through the game reserve. the water at cape vidal was the warmest i have ever swum in, i went for my first snorkel and saw lots of very brightly coloured fish. the monkey in the picture made its presence know to me by ramming into my legs and grabbing the bag of bread i was holding. fortunately for my stomach he dropped the bread when chased by a game ranger. he did return later and managed to snaffle a slice of bread while we weren't looking. sam had a connection with a friend whose parents live in st lucia and she organised a free cruise on the estuary for us. lots of hippos were seen and many vodka tonics were drunk. we ended off with a braai at the local's house. her parents keep some crocodiles in the back garden... awesome!

being on community service and up country and with some disposable income and having friends scattered around the country opens up opportunities to explore :)

cape town

being diabetic necessitated that i would need to head back to cape town some time to get some insulin. i would also hopefully be able to fetch my drivers licence and the transkei police force would stop trying to arrest me. i decided to fly from durban the reasons being: i had never been to durban before, i could visit a good friend of mine who is comm serving there, and i could leave my car at her house :) the drive up was very scenic, i drove along the non toll road on the south coast. they say durban is humid, they were right. anyhoo, i caught my flight and arrived in cape town. the pets were quite happy to see me, the cat was being exceptionally cute, kinda weird for her... after catching many taxis and getting a few lifts i managed to get all my chores done. i even baked a lemon meringue for tamwise's birthday. i found i didnt really miss cape town that much, mostly because i prefer living away from my parents. if i move back it would have to be away from them i think. i think i was also looking forwards to the weekend where i had been invited to st lucia... couldnt wait to get back on the plane

burning

the first burns patient to arrive at the department was not a good experience. he sustained a circumferential partial thickness burn of the forearm, back of hand and part of the elbow when hot porridge was spilled on him. in cape town he would have been admitted to red cross hospital and would have received daily OT and physio. here he arrived at physio 5 days post burn already stuck in a position of comfort. he has oedema of his hand due to the circumferential burn and on passive stretching the scar tissue was tearing and bleeding. he was not considered critical enough to admit to the hospital due to lack of space. we reffered him to the burns unit at nelson mandela hospital in Mthatha, but we have no idea if he will receive the right treatment. hopefully he will

port st johns

the weekend before last was spent in port st johns, the bottom photo showing the view from amapondo backpackers. we went on the backpacker's waterfall tour which took us up to lusikisiki and went to three waterfalls. angel falls is the smaller one, magwa falls is just huge. if you can handle the height, you can sit right at the edge of the cliff face. back at the backpakers that night, the cats tried desperately to steal my food, so i took one of them hostage...

coffee bay - hole in the wall

so for yet another weekend mdumbi was fully booked, so off to coffee bay we went. three backpackers in coffee bay pretty much guarantee accommodation. the bottom photo shows coffee bay from the main road leading down to it. on the saturday afternoon, after spending the morning on the beach, we went to hole in the wall. its a 15min drive from coffee bay and is just amazing. the cows in the picture were fighting but stopped before i could get my photo... so unfortunately they became just more animals on the road, just part of life. hole in the wall was amazing and i decided to swim to hole. its a nice swim and you almost think you could swim through the hole until you get close and feel the pull of its currents. i diverted to a shelf of rock which allows you to sit right next to the hole while masses of water and spray pass by you only centimetres away. hole in the wall is always worth a visit and my tiny cellphone camera doesnt really catch it that well. we returned to coffee bay around four and rob, the pharmacist, and i went fishing. we managed to find a pretty much perfect fishing spot. my fishing equipment is lying dusty and unused in cape town but after this i am definitely fetching it asap. rob started things off by reeling in a crayfish, nice but not what we were aiming for. i then caught a cob, which was eventually followed by two others, on caught by rob and one by me. fish braai anyone?

Mdumbi

the mdumbi river which passes quite close to the hospital, reaches the sea some 20kms later at mdumbi beach. the wave is quite famous even after the sandbanks were washed away in a storm in 2006, fortunately it still cooks and is reforming back to its old self. there is a backpakers on the hill above the beach, it has been rather busy and fully booked recently so we have been limited to day trips. the beach is amazing and it lacks the constant irritation of being offered weed, shrooms and all the rest the moment you step out the backpakers which occurs in coffee bay. very chilled, amazing views, warm water... plans are to spend a lot of time here

mdumbi river waterfall

a two hour hike from the hospital get you to this awesome waterfall, is it not nifty?

the physiotherapy department

so its been 12 years since there was last a physio at canzibe. however the department, although dusty and unorganised at first, is quite well equipped. there is an electric plinth, hot pack warmer with timer, IFT machine (kinda working) and two walking frames. there is a lot of old out dated equipment as well, two short wave diathermy machines are stuffed in a corner, infrared lamps are scattered around at random, and the fanciest traction machine you ever did see sits unused in one of the cubicles. the department has its own buliding, so there is planty of space. there is plenty of room for improvement tho, fortunately i have some donation money to use to get towels and arnica and maybe even a bobath plinth.

transkei thunderstorm

after a boiling hot day this thudercloud formed on the drive back to zitulele hospital. the wind was strong enough to knock out the electricity for the rest of the day