An Eventful Vacation

My long awaited annual vacation in South Africa finally drew close and I booked and paid for our holiday accommodation before I left Riyadh. The accommodation I booked, Pumula Cottage on the South Coast, looked good in the photograph on the internet and at R1500/day I was confident that I’d booked a great place for the family vacation to the coast.

Although it turned out that Michael couldn't get leave until the day after our booking started, and the owner/agent wasn't interested in giving us the one-day credit, our anticipation and excitement remained high. We set off in the early hours and when got to Hibberdene some eight hours later. My GPS led us to a really crappy house at the end of a dirt-road cul-de-sac where a motley collection of dogs was on hand to greet us. Once we had established that we were at the wrong place the dogs loudly  wished us bon voyage as we departed. Michael was obliged to reverse our vehicle and trailer along the dirt road as there was no place to turn, and the fact that there was a steep drop-off on one side and that the trailer was largely invisible below the back window of our vehicle made this a challenging operation.

In due course we arrived at Pumula Cottage, which turned out to be an old house in thesuburbs. We subsequently discovered that it had been standing empty for some months

Pumula Cottage

and clearly no one had been allocated to air the house from time to time. The whole place had a “mif” smell about it. Apparently the beds had also been made up several months ago as the bedding also smelt mif. After opening all doors and windows we sat out the back where we had a rather stunning sea view. The smell in the house was so bad that a cockroach came scuttling out of the window to join us outside in the fresh air.

View from Pumula Cottage

When we went to make coffee, we found that the dishes needed a rewash – whoever had washed the crockery and cutlery previously clearly didn't have their heart in it. We also avoided putting the washed dishes on the drying rack as it had mold growing on it. Reading the “visitors book” in the lounge was rather enlightening; all previous tenants (about 5 of them over the years, the most recent at the beginning of 2014) seemed to have enjoyed their stay. One mentioned that the washing-machine was very comfortable while for another, the pretty doilies made it all worthwhile. Comments that Margaux and I added to the book were somewhat less complimentary.

We decided against braai-ing at the “cottage” and instead went for supper at the local Spur in Port Shepstone. Our waiter was Toby, and on the evidence, he had only recently completed his training. We ordered drinks and waited.  And waited. Eventually I snagged another waiter who went to Toby’s aid and helped him get it all together. Sadly, Toby still hadn't got the hang of this serving thing and

Patiently waiting for the drinks to arrive

brought our main course before bringing our starters. After we explained the correct sequence to him he removed the main course and cheerfully brought our starters. When he returned the main course to our table it had in the meantime gone cold. By now I had the better part of a bottle of Graca inside of me and was quite able to take these ongoing developments in my stride.

We went home and went to bed, heads on the mif pillows, covered by a mif duvet and breathing the mif air.

In the morning we decided that there was no way we could spend the rest of the holiday here. We found that the resort where we had stayed last year had vacancies and

Chilling in pleasant surroundings

thatafternoon we were able to move in. We couldn't hire one chalet for the duration, but had to move to a second one the day before Christmas. However, just the fact of being in bright, modern and clean surroundings made this a minor matter. Unfortunately we had to hire the new accommodation for a day longer than we were able to stay as Michael had to return to work for month-end. In total we paid for three days accommodation that we were unable to use, but c'est la vie.

Meanwhile, I had contacted the agent for Pumula Cottage to tell her that we had vacated the premises and that a refund would be appreciated. She immediately arranged a meeting between herself, the owners and us at the cottage to discuss the issues. The owners turned out to be a very large farmer  with an extremely firm (intimidating?) handshake and his mousy but acerbic wife. She opined that we were being picky and just needed to keep the doors and windows open to clear the smell, while he felt that cockroaches and mold were only to be expected in the Kwa-Zulu heat and humidity. They conceded that the debris that had fallen into one of the baths (there was no shower) from the ceiling probably wasn't a good thing and that the roller blind that fell off the wall when we tried to close it didn't testify to the highest quality of workmanship.

She (the mousy wife) handed down her judgement, saying that if they were able to rent the premises out again immediately she would be prepared to refund us.  I courteously explained that my position was that I really wasn't really too fussed whether they were able to rent the premises out again or not, immediately or ever, either way I wanted my money back. Bearing in mind that the place had been standing empty for seven or eight months I really didn't rate their chances very highly of getting another tenant at short notice.

On that note we returned to our pleasant chalet.  We awoke the next morning to the news that some chalets had been burgled during the night. We were obviously next on the

Season of giving... and taking

burglars’ list as our patio window had been opened wide and a cowboy hat had been abandoned on our patio. It was our good luck that the baddies had been disturbed before they entered our chalet. The pickings would have been rich - all my technological toys were on the table and all the Christmas presents were on display.

Umzumbe beach

Overall the weather was good andChristmas day was great, despite the kids dragging us out of bed at 5am. On Boxing Day Margaux’s wound from her previous operation burst open and Michael took her off to hospital where she was admitted with a raging infection. The doctor said she would need an operation and that there was no way she could return to Johannesburg with us. This posed certain problems, namely, how to get Margaux home. I found an airline that flies from Margate to OR Tambo, with one ticket available on the 1^st January and one on 5^th January. The ad warned that not all of their aircraft had lavatories.

On the second last day Deangelo had his toenail ripped off when a nurse opened swing doors at the hospital while he was standing in from of them. Luckily she was a pediatric nurse and was able to sort him out very quickly. Keagan meantime seemed to have picked up a bug and spent a goodly portion of the day groaning quietly on the sofa. The weather for our last two days was dismal, but on a positive note Margaux was discharged from hospital and given the all-clear to travel home with us.

I probably won’t look back on this trip to the coast with too much nostalgia, but it certainly was an eventful ten days.

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PS: If you find yourself in need of an estate agency on the KZN South Coast, I would recommend Cheryl Mcinnes, the principle of CAM Properties. She is caring, professional and operates with integrity.  Contact her on  (039) 6952236 or cheryl@camproperties.co.za