Umtentweni: the story and the photos to back it up

SO here we are.

I havent posted since Jbay and i have a lot of things to talk about, i was in two towns, Chinsta and Coffee Bay, but as usual i will make you all wait a bit longer to here because the story of my first night here takes the cake by far.

The drive from Coffee Bay to Umtentweni was around 7 hours, and up[on arrival my friend Sam and I were ready to take a swim. So after the briefing from our leaders we went for a little bodysurf just behind our hostel, The Spot. The currents were strong, very strong, even though the waves were no more than shoulder high. So we were quickly taken about 300 yards out to sea and pusher down the beach towards a big patch of rocks.

Unable to fight back up against the current with much success, Sam and I decided to swim for the rocks, a hectic place and a bit risky, but we had both begun to worry about the fading light and the strong currents.

We both made it to the first patch of rocks covered in mussel shells and stood up. About 10 seconds later a broken wave washed over us. Despite my efforts to get low, crouching and grabbing the rocks with my hands, the wave picked up my feet and washed me over on my back, pushing me further on the the rocks. I could the stinging pain as my back scraped agains the rocks and shells and knew that i was not gonna get out of this situation without a bit of a thrashing.

Once the wave died down i stood up quickly and saw that Sam had been pushed a bit farther to the right thyan I and was already in the lagoon ahead of me. I made a dash for it over the shells and jumped into the lagoon to swim the final 75 yards or so to the shore.

Once out of the water, and happy have done so relatively safely, i first saw blood on the palms of my hands, then on my elbows. I knew it was bad when Sam looked at my back and said something like uhhhh....maybe we should go find nikki. Trying to make it sound not so bad.

Back at the hostel Nikki immediately began to clean up my back and patch up the cuts, which rinsed every single medkit that we had of all its gauze and band aids. Eventually we decided to go the ER and get it patched up and cleaned properly.

The ER was a crazy experience. It smelled terrible and looked dirty, there was blood on the floor which got cleaned up shortly after we arrived, and many people laying in hospital beds, some bleeding onto their sheets, some just writhing in pain. One man was praying quite loudly as, i assume, his family member was rolled off in a bed.

I was seen fairly quickly and found the nurses and doctors to be friendly and helpful, although they tried to give me a medication that i am allergic to. And i was out of the ER in less than an hour. They gave me medication and i stood there waiting to pay somebody for my medicine and care but i was told to go, without paying more than 3 american dollars so they could create a file for me. Universal Healthcare is alright by me!

All told I estimate that i got about 100 cuts on my legs, hands, elbows, feet, and back. Lucky Sam only got a few minor curs on his arms and chest and a few gashes in his foot. Both of us are on the mend well though and i will hopefully be back in the water in the next 2 or 3 days. Going to the clinic for a follow up tomorrow, i'm sure that wont be free.

Ok folks that is the story photos to back it up. I have some amazing stories about Coffee Bay and Chinsta, two incredibly beautiful places and i promise to put them up in the next week or so but i need to get off the computer now because this is costing me 1rand per minute to type on the Hostel Computer