Day 19 - Day 22: Port Elizabeth - Lauries Bay

As I have been travelling to France and have not had regular communication with Robert, the blog has suffered a bit. Hopefully this should get better in the next few days...

Robert last night had reached Lauries Bay, which means that he has now done over 169 km in the last 4 days, totalling 800 km... By tonight, Robert will have done over the half of the whole distance!!!

Here is the weather forecast for the next couple of days:

South Africa - Port Elizabeth (GFS 17.12. 06 UTC, NWW3 17.12. 06 UTC)

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	Mo 17.	Mo 17.	Mo 17.	Mo 17.	Mo 17.	Mo 17.	Tu 18.	Tu 18.	Tu 18.	Tu 18.	Tu 18.	Tu 18.	Tu 18.	Tu 18.	We 19.	We 19.	We 19.	We 19.	We 19.	We 19.	We 19.	We 19.	Th 20.	Th 20.
	08h	11h	14h	17h	20h	23h	02h	05h	08h	11h	14h	17h	20h	23h	02h	05h	08h	11h	14h	17h	20h	23h	02h	05h
Wind speed (knots)	6	8	14	12	9	8	8	8	9	11	18	21	17	15	12	10	6	9	11	11	8	6	9	9
Wind gusts	7	8	14	12	11	10	10	9	11	12	18	24	24	21	15	11	7	9	11	12	10	7	10	11
Wind direction
Wave (ft)	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	5	5	5	6	7	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	6	5
Wave period (s)	13	12	12	12	11	11	11	11	11	11	10	5	5	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	7	7	7
Wave direction
Temperature (°C)	21	23	23	22	21	21	21	21	22	23	23	23	21	21	21	20	22	24	24	23	21	22	21	21

On Wednesday, Robert had what he calls a once in a lifetime experience with about 20 bottlenose dolphins. Robert says they stayed with him for about 45 min and were obviously very interested in him as they kept coming right next to him to look at him. They kept on jumping in front and around the kayak. Robert says they were so close to him, it seemed they wanted to touch him. Robert was absolutely ecstatic about this encounter! Bottlenose dolphins are between 2 and 4 meters long and are supposed to be the most intelligent mammals on earth... It really must have been a magical moment!

Robert spent the day on a beach in Port Elizabeth on Friday where he met a guy from Garmin to get a replacement for his GPS. Thanks a lot to cousin Richard for having organized this and also to Joy & Richard for the constant support.

It was not exactly a restful day on the beach though as Robert got caught by a sandstorm. It was so hot in the tent that Robert had to leave it open for the night and when he woke up the next morning, everything was covered by about 1 cm of sand!

On Saturday Robert had a very hard paddle going against the wind and currents... so he decided to spend Sunday on the beach again to recover. He says he has at least 20 sores all over and quite a few of them are infected. Just like Joy, I have suggested that he takes some more antibiotics but for now, Robert does not want any... Let's hope it does not get too bad...

Yesterday Robert managed to catch a big octopus for his dinner. He used some of his guts as bait and caught a very nice fish too. With all this, Robert cooked a fish and octopus risotto... Justin Bonello, watch out, competition is here!

Comments

[Kira]

Hi Rob, my apologies i saw you off Robberg today and told NSRI that some one was out there but not sure of the situation, they said they would just check, you had an audience of about 30 people watching you from the view point. I am sorry for any inconvience caused and all the best on your journey,I thought you were a holiday maker that went off the beaten track. Enjoy

[Jason Berry]

Congratulations on reaching half way, it's all downhill from here, free-wheeling to Cape Town.

[Mom and Richard]

Congratulations Robert on reaching the halfway mark, gruelling though it has been - just awesome! Congratulations too Sylvie for your magical blog, allowing all interested parties to follow in such detail what Robert is doing and amongst all the hardship, sprinkled so liberally with your lovely sense of humour!

[Mike]

Good to hear you are on track Rob! Keep it up. I have it on good authority that half of Finland is following your blog and living their armchair adventure through your blog!