A tale of six colours and one very expensive bird

15/12 trip day zero 1pm. Question (to driver) : will we reach CraggySpur by 4pm? Bad Answer: No. We left too late. Good Answer: “Aaraam se” (and pray for a traffic jam) 5pm. Missed train.

There was Tash’we, Jalal, Bacchju, Windrea, myself (‘Kal’), and a hitherto unmentioned colour I shall call Foofy. We were headed to CraggySpur to catch a train to BrahmaSpur at 4.30 and were running late. Of course, Murphy wasn’t going to stop there and gave some of us near escapes from death-by-decapitation, followed by a traffic jam thru which our cabbie managed to weave in and out of in some insane fashion.

Phew… reach CraggySpur (or rgp as commonly known). Missed train. Well, c’est la vie! Got ourselves a good meal at Hotel Fark (and little did we know how rare that would be!) Bacchju thinks we should order one more starter. Over dinner I came to know that Tash’we might’ve been a doctor, and that Foofy had indeed had a girlfriend. Anyway, get back, get on next train to B’Spur. In the meanwhile purchase stuff to read. Between us, we covered every possible genre. TTs weren’t very helpful. Jalal and Windrea got stuck on the other half of the train for a bit in the middle. 16/12 Then J, F and I spent the night berth-hopping and contorting into unusual shapes to get snatches of sleep. Finally we get to B’Spur. Oh, and I procured in rgp. We get to our final destination, JeeSpur-On-C at about 8, check into Hotel C Cide Breeze (By The Beach), and head out for breakfast.

Breakfast was gooooood. We have again ordered the menu, including ice cream.

Who is Amrit Anjan? … Sitting on the beach with ChcknMnky after nice long re-acquaintance with my old friend. Wave after wave lashed against us and we laughed. The louder it hit us, the longer it dragged us, the more we laughed. Laughed at the awesomeness of the ocean, its sheer strength and our puny (or as some would say – older and in shape) bodies against it – a tribute to its greatness. Or maybe we laughed at the challenge, the feeling of combating, the thrill of pitting ourselves against one of the grandest forces of nature.

1pm. I now know what happened to my green pyjama. Fruits by the beach bplan.

Later that day, we started discovering that food in this place was going to be a problem. Lunch stank because the restaurant we went to took forever with the food and didn’t have half the things on the menu. Plus the food sucked. At another place, we were told we should order the food an hour in advance, and that we should do that for dinner. Spent the rest of the day with B and F walking around G’Spur… the trinket shops with sea-shell stuff (didn’t buy anything… hmm… I wonder why…), the light-house (where they wouldn’t allow cameras), back to the beach at dusk… a group of fishing boats were coming in, and we saw catches being auctioned off. Some of those fish fetch 1,200 bucks a piece, and sharks get 8 grand apparently…!

Some sight those boats. A lot of them in the water look like twisted orange and yellow and black flags, well aligned with one another. When one’s near the beach it expertly rides the waves to the shore. The fish, of course, are quite something else measuring several feet in length, strung together on a stick carried on the shoulders of two men, or in baskets by brisk-paced women.

Ho-hum… came back to our rooms. Our rooms opened out to the beach. Step out to the veranda and we could see the entire expanse of the ocean. I believe some more activity took place after a reasonably disappointing dinner, but I went to sleep. Hadn’t had much on the train.

17/12 Up bright and early! Went to BaculChillkuh. Had semi-decent lunch. Came back to G’Spur. Decent dinner at Hotel C Paarl. Kalled. Sat outside and listened to the waves crash against the shore. Ugh… all the Cfood made me sick. Actually the food got to almost all of us.

18/12 Another heavy breakfast! KneelCamel is definitely the best place to eat as far as our experience of G’Spur goes… and it’s a vegetarian establishment. Back to the beach, and this time B was giving swimming lessons to T, F and W. He failed. Instead we had running races. ChcknMnky stole my last djinn *pfft* and I was too lazy to make another one. Naah, no biggie. Rush back to B’Spur for train to rgp at 6. Got SOME berths this time, still W, B and I were next to the doors. 19/12 Train back home was the best, lots of room to crash.

Photo-taking credits? F...

This last one was taken by B.