oh golly

So i left hogsback - it was beautiful, and I found this absolutely amazing unpasteurezed milk that still had the creme on the top of each litre of milk and I made spaghetti carbonara from scratch, which lacked salt but was good and unhealthy.

But I decided to go the wrong way, not towards cape town and south america but backwards, where i'd already been.
I backtracked because i wanted to go to this place bulungula. I heard loads about this backpakcers, it was supposed to be chill and beautiful and less developed and I got a ride with a very fit, very aryan, German girl and her friend.

She has a boyfriend.

I only learned this after I arrived at my destination.

Rash decisions.

Well, I got to Bulungula the day after,
Man it was nice.
But without internet
So i'm posting now.

So bulungula is co-owned by the villagers in the area. It's a group of Xhosa people that live in the area and is located on a smallll hill overlooking the sea. You can hear the waves from your bed and wake up to cows outside your room.
I was going to talk about the vibe etc. but don't know how to compose my thoughts, so I'll just jump to the fish.

On the 2nd day at Bulungula I went on a fishing trip with a local fisherman.
His name was Kesha,
what a nice man.
Well, Kesha had a fishing pole about 10 feet high (lenghts, amounts, distances always increase with fishing stories i've learned), and a hand-made metal trident.
And we walked to some rocks out on the ocean. He cast his rod out and then let me hold it.
I wanted to cast, but spoke no Xhosa except for water, fish when I remembered the word, thank you and sorry, so I gestured etc. but, he didn't want me to cast onto rocks. Fair enough.

So he cast and I waited and reeled in a number of times.
I wasn't sure If i was doing it right, and I could only point and gesture pulling up a fish or reeeling in, but he just told me (with his hands) to keep holding the line betwixt my 2 fingers 2 wait for the catch.

After about an hour I thought I'd let him fish so I could observe the finer parts of sea fishing and hopefully watch how to cast so I could get a chance to cast.
Well he stood well away from me to cast so I couldn't see what he was doing with his hands, he gave me the rod and I gave it back to him. Then, after about 1 minute the rod bows over, and he let's the line out and reels in back and forth.

I'm all smiles and laughs.

He fights and tugs, gives and pulls for 20 minutes (fishing times) and then I see this fat piece of fish flopping out of the sea onto the rocks. I start yelling high pitched and giddily out of Xcitement and he has me hand him the trident. The fish is fighting and tugging and then CRACK the dull scimitar goes right through the gills and face of the fish. we pull him up to the rocks and he's about 2 1/2 feet long.

Kesha takes out his rusty, dull knife and cuts a deep V shaped incision under it's jaws and leaves the fish to suffocate. The small pools of water on the rocks surrounding the fish turn a fake, acryllic red and the fish lays still. Then, every 30 seconds it tenses its muscles and contorts his body towards me in an upward curving u-shape and then lyss still. I look into the eyes of the fish, watching it's v-shaped opening gaping and the gills gasping for oxygen, the violent shutter of life squeezing out, one useless breath at a time and I think, should I be a vegetarian?

But it's exciting getting such a big catch (well watching anyhow), and if God didn't want us to eat animals, then why'd he make them out of meat (props George)?

The fish finally died, i tried to cary it by the v-shaped hole, but it soon became too slippery and heavy for 1 arm, (it weigh maybe 25-30 pounds and my miniscule muscles have been mollified to mush)

we broought deadfish back to bulungula, took soome pictures and then took it to the rocks to clean and scale.
We divided the fish into 2 with myself taking the back fillet portion (i'd also paid $4 for the fishing trip).
Then I cooked fish fillets for dinner.

The next day I made some pasta and used up some remaining ingredients to make one of my favorite dishes in a while:

Here goes:
4 cloves garlic
2 tbs butter butter
1/4 cup Walnuts crushed
1 apple diced
1/3 cup creeme
4 oz camembert cheese
pinch of nutmeg
2 tsp mixed italian herbs
1/2 tspcinnamon
salt/pepper.

Take white fish fillets and rub with salt, pepper, italian herbs and cinnamon. fry in 1tbs butter with 2 cloves of garlic until almost cooked through, then remove.
Heat remaining butter in saucepan and add diced garlic, after 30 seconds add walnuts and apples. cook for 2-3 minutes and add creme and cheese cook until cheese is melted and flavors mesh, add a pinch of nutmeg, return fish to pan and cook for 2-4 minutes longer. toss with freshly cooked pasta and serve.

MMM

Now I just took a bus to East London, I still had a half of the fish, but there was a problem getting on the bus and I was rushed, so a Swiss lady took my bags, but didn't realize the fish (and my precious butter) was in the cooler of the car, so I've lost and wasted 1/4 of a beautiful big fish. I feel bad for it.

I'm trying to find a flight or bus to Cape Town ASAP. I have a tenative seat on a plane to Buenos Aires on the 7th of December. If I can't get the seat (i.e. no one misses or cancels their flight) then I think I have to wait until the 26th. Merry christmaS!