Action in and around Saldanha

I wasn't going to talk about the heavy storms that we have recently had here on the west coast but I thought that you would find this very interesting; this a huge barge carrying eight smaller barges which were apparently en route for Rotterdam when they broke their towing lines and were washed ashore!

These pictures were taken just down the road from where I live, in the little residential village of Jacob's Bay which is about twelve kilometres from Saldanha, it is going to be a huge job to salvage this lot and in the meantime the restaurant "Weskus Plek", which I mentioned in an earlier post, is benefitting from the tourists who come down to gawk.

Today I had a rather interesting experience, driving through the centre of Saldanha I came across this scene;

It seems that the driver had just parked and got out of his car when it caught fire! Lucky for him it was after he had parked it. Someone called the firebrigade but it was too late by the time they arrived.When they did arrive on the scene it was like a comedy of errors, like something out of the "Keystone Cops", first a small van arrived with a water tank and petrol driven pump and when the fireman started the pump it sprayed water all over him, then he couldn't unravel the hose. Soon a traditional fire engine arrived, but when the driver started the pump the hose wet the two fireman who were unrolling it! By the time they got the fire extinguished the car was completely burnt out and there were three soaking wet firemen.

My next post will be about the party that we had in Capetown, I'm just waiting for some photographs to be sent to me but in the meantime here's one of the pot, which I had to raise up a bit on some bricks while I was busy browning the oxtail;

It all turned out very well and the pot was delicious, I'll tell you all about it soon