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October25, 2004 - Turtle Essays edition no 107 dated 18.10.2004 >> |
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** The main reason people publish ezines is to market their products. Here is a free marketing course for anybody interested in Internet marketing http://hop.clickbank.net/?brerrabbit/mcplants ** In this edition Editor's Blurb Plettenberg Bay's Secret Police News Commentary Bungee Jumping * Editor's Blurb. Hi there folks. Its been a long time since I last contacted you and I am sorry for that. My wife and I had a week's leave in Plettenberg Bay and when we arrived home my computer's hard drive crashed and everything was lost. Thankfully my son had backed it up shortly before we had gone away so in effect I lost about a week's worth of emails and not much else. Saved me a lot of reading! Lol Over the next few weeks I will be doing articles about the trip so look out for them. I've decided to change the way I send you my ezine and from now on it will be forwarded to you from Zinester and not from home anymore. It'll save me hassles with hard drives crashing and new email programs and it will also look after my mailing list. I've also been busy doing some more work in the movies. This time I was an extra for some of the scenes of the film Super Nova being shot here in Cape Town. These included some stunts as well. It was great fun and extremely tiring being on set all day. Enough from me for this week. See you all soon. Geoff Fairman ps :I've started a blog about CT where I will post some of my more informal articles and nonsense photographs. I've posted two articles over the weekend. Check them out at Http://turtleessays.blogspot.com Don't for get to check out the photos of the awesome Bloukrans bridge on my website. Here is the link Http://www.turtlesa.com/ezine107.html ** Plettenberg Bay's Secret Police Have you ever had the feeling you are being watched? Well if you are a fisherman and are intending to do some fishing along the golden beaches of Plettenberg Bay being watched is a reality. In these days of fishing quotas, bag limits and even the amount of bait you are allowed to take per day one knows that you will surely at some time or another be approached by a fisheries inspector to inspect your catch. It is however not these legal people that I am discussing here but the self appointed policemen and women that patrol the beaches of Plettenberg Bay. Walking onto the beach with a fishing rod in your hand you are immediately spotted by one of them and your every movement will be followed until such time as you leave. Not only will you be watched but the moment you move from your fishing equipment an inspection will be undertaken. These guys are very well equipped, they can do air reconnaiscance, or they can sneak up and do a ground inspection as well. Whatever you do, do not be untidy and leave your bait lying around. These beach policemen will confiscate it without question no matter what time of day it is. I have seen them confiscate the bait of a fisherman 5 minutes after his arrival on the beach which means that the fisherman has to pack up and go home as his day of fishing has been spoilt. There also seems to be no shortage of reinforcements as a single cry brings them in by air in seconds. On enquiry at the local police offices you will find that this police force is not authorised by any government department nor do they even know of their existence. Yet! fishermen are left to the mercy of these beach policeman. These guys have their good side as well. They don't mind if you catch more than your quota, have more bait than you are allowed or even catch fish out of season. Your only crime as far as they are concerned is being careless with your bait. I suppose you have guessed by now who these self appointed officials are. Yes they are the local sea gulls that patrol the beaches of Plettenberg Bay. After watching their antics for a couple of days and having fallen foul to their confiscation methods on one occasion I am always careful with my bait when fishing along these beautiful beaches. Next time you visit one of the beaches note how the gulls spread out along the beach. You are sure to see at least one of them sitting watching you every 100 metres or so. Sometimes they pair off and two will sit together watching opposite sides of the beach. In Plettenberg Bay other than the golden beaches there are also a number of rocky outcrops where fishermen go to fish. Just look up at the outcrops and you are sure to find a number of these birds either gliding along the edge of them or sitting eyeing your every movement. It's no wonder that the beaches are so clean, not a piece of fish or bait anywhere. While visiting Plettenberg Bay recently I sat watching a fisherman dispose of his unwanted bait by throwing it into the surf where the waves were about two feet high. The gulls were there in a flash and when they spotted a fish floating in the waves they immediately dived for it. It was amazing how they dived into the curl of a breaking wave and once the wave had passed over them surfaced with the fish in their beaks. I would have imagined that the waves would have broken a wing or something as they dived in with their wings open but this was not the case. The unwanted bait was soon disposed of and the birds made their way back to their vantage points along the beaches. A word of warning, when fishing along these beaches DO NOT leave your bait lying about, it WILL be gone in a flash and your day's fishing will be spoilt. Next time you spend some time on the beaches of Plettenberg Bay take someone with you to watch your back and protect your bait. See you there soon! ** News Commentary SA Cricket. After the poor showing of our national team on their tour to Sri Lanka and at the one day tournament in the UK heads are rolling. The first casualty is Eric Simons the coach and it looks as if the manager Tim Southey is also being relievedof his post. The new coach has already been appointed and he is Ray Jennings a former Springbok wicketkeeper. On the player front it appears as if Mark Boucher is about to lose his wicketkeeping position in the team. SA will be touring India shortly and will need all the experience they can muster on the turning pitches over there. ** Bungee Jumping on the Garden Route A trip on the Garden Route along the southern coastline of South Africa is the highlight of any trip to South Africa. The scenery includes mountains, valleys, dams, rivers, canyons, farmlands and much much more. In this article I will however concentrate on some of the activities that occur between Mossel Bay and Port Elizabeth. Over the years many rivers have cut through the escarpment and formed large canyons with sheer cliffs covered in trees and bush. The rivers flowing far below make a pretty picture as they wind their way through the hills on their way to the sea. For traffic to follow the Garden Route to the east it was necessary for mountain passes to be built down some of these canyons and up the other side. Of course these slowed traffic down and it was nigh impossible for the large trucks which form the backbone of trade in SA to negotiate them. When the roads were rebuilt some large bridges had to be constructed over these large canyons and many of them are quite spectacular. The Gouritz River just outside Mossel Bay is one of the rivers that required a really large bridge across its canyon. This bridge is 213 feet high and is built alongside the older bridge which is more or less the same height. As the old bridge was not removed when the new bridge was built it is still there today and is now utilised as the base for bungee jumping. At this bridge there are three types of jumps that are allowed. The first is the straight down bungee jump where you either dive off the bridge forwards or backwards and then free fall for a couple of seconds before the rope stops you from plummeting into the sandbanks of the river far below. The second jump allows you to swing out from the old bridge across the gulf between the two bridges in an arc that takes you under the new bridge. This jump also has an element of free fall in it and can be done singly or in tandem with someone else. Once you have completed the jump you are lowered to the river bed and then have to make your way back up a steep path to the top of the bridge. Sorry to say, you would not get me jumping off there if you paid me. My sons of course have more guts than Dad and have both done the jump when I was not with them. The Gouritz River jump is however the baby jump along the Garden Route. The Big Mama is the Bloukrans river bridge. To reach the top of this bridge one has to climb down the mountain side and then climb the arch of the bridge that stretches across the canyon and supports the struts holding up the road bridge. This can be very dangerous as there are sometimes strong winds blowing down the canyon and there are no handholds to keep you from falling off the edges. The operators appear to have set up some sort of harness system to ensure that no one falls off the bridge on their way the the launch site. Underneath the bridge is a narrow gorge with steep cliff faces on either side. They are covered in trees and bush. From the view point built high up on the side of one of the cliff faces one gets a good view of the bridge and anybody fool enough to want to jump off the bridge. The launching point is 708 feet (217 metres) above the river which flows directly under the bridge. People jumping off this bridge must really want an adrenalin rush. The effort to get to the launch point and the climb back to the top after the jump will really test the nerve of the bravest jumper. Once at the launch point looking down all you can see are the cliffs on either side and the river far below. The fall away from the bridge is scary and the rebound into the air once you have reached the end of the rope must do wonders for the stomachs of those hanging onto the end of the rope. This jump is definitely not for the feinthearted. You can call me all the names you like but you will never get me onto the end of one of these bungee ropes. For those brave enough to even think of jumping off this bridge I wish you luck. After this jump your life will never be the same again, yet some people come back and do it again and again. Are they stupid or just plain mad? I don't know! You can decide when you visit the bridges on your next holiday in SA. ** Lotto Loser? Change your luck today Give yourself a winning chance http://hop.clickbank.net/?brerrabbit/shaneomac2 ** Please read the disclaimer at http://www.turtlesa.com/Disclaimer.html See you all soon Geoff Fairman |
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October25, 2004 - Turtle Essays edition no 107 dated 18.10.2004 >> |
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