(Freezing) Cold Cobham
After another 5 days in the office, half of them spent moving to another section of the building, it was time to get out there and have some fun. So after work on Friday, Western and I hopped in the car and headed straight for Cobham to do a bit of camping, and maybe even some fly fishing.
Sharon and Karen (this could get confusing) seemed to be working just that little bit harder than us, so they drove up together a few hours later. Now they claim this was due to work, but in reality, I think this was just so us boys would have camp set up before their arival…hmmm…very tatical…
Anyway, after a two hour drive, with a stop in at the Underberg bottle store, we got down to setting up camp. An hour, and a couple of beers, later, and camp was ready just in time for us to enjoy a magnificent sunset, and a few more beers. This is when the girls chose to arrive. I’ll say it again…clever.
After a few sundowners we built a roaring fire and made dinner…oepsies, steak, wors, meilies and potato bake, all cooked on the fire. Mmmm… Once we’d skoffed it all down, the good old guitar came out, and we spent the rest of the evening huddled around the fire singing (badly). And then, after a great day, we cuddled up in our brand new tent, which is by the way, absolutely fantstic.
We awoke on Saturday to a cold and misty morning, which Western deemed too chilly to attempt any fly fishing. So instead we ate a good skotteled breakfast, and then relaxed around camp playing Scrabble. My word we’re getting old!! This is when the disaster of all disasters happened. Okay, maybe thats an exageration. While sitting around the table playing Scrabble a sudden gust of wind blew through, lifting my gazebo into the air, and dropping it upside down on the braai. Luckily we didn’t have a fire going, but there is now a huge hole in the roof. Grrr!
At around lunchtime the sun came out and it started to warm up. Even though it wasn’t the best time, Western and I kitted up the fly rods and took to the Pholela. He picked up on the tactics and casting quickly, but sadly, after an hour or so of fishing we hadn’t landed any fish. At this point we had to head back to camp to prepare the epic potjie that we had planned for dinner.
The evening was cloud free, which meant the temperature dropped a lot lower than the previous night. When we last checked, it was 2 degrees, and I promise you, it got a lot colder. Western and Karen were on dinner duty and prepared us a mutton curry potjie and a peach cobbler, which was also cooked in a potjie pot. We all huddled around the fire (a little closer than the night before) and drank sherry while we watched the potjie bubble away for four hours.
The potjie was good, although not as good as Western’s last one. However, the highlight of dinner for me was definitely the peach cobbler…you just had to eat around those irritating peaches.
Being a lot colder we all shot off to bed a little earlier, and soon we were falling asleep to the gentle sounds of Western’s snoring and several jackals howling in the background.
We awoke on Sunday to a field full of frost. Luckily the sun was out so it warmed up quickly, and after a hearty continental breakfast Western and I hit the river again. Unfortunately after an hour or so the wind picked up heavily and we had to call it a day. So sadly there were no fish this weekend.
After a short walk back to camp we packed up slowly and headed home. It was another great weekend in the berg, but then again, it always is.