Derek & Michelle Meise - Carol, Travis & Doug Defty in happy times....
It was the 27th April 2011 and with it being a fairly dampish & miserable late afternoon down Scottburgh way in KZN – the Defty clan and Meisefam were headed southwards on the R102 coastal road, trying to find the Green Point Lighthouse near Clansthal. Now, both “Detail Doug & Detail Derek” had narrowed the search with the GPS co-ordinates provided, only to find themselves slowing down on the tarmac at a place where all they could see in the near vicinity was a pathway leading up a dodgy looking dirt road and some scary looking vegetation leaning inwards with clawed fingers.
The lighthouse was nowhere to be seen.
The inner Voortrekker emerges in Douglas and he offers to do a recce up the pathway with Travis to see if there was indeed a red and white structure somewhere up the alleyway. Doug’s Royal Star goes into V4 mode (almost like 4WD) and churns up a few small loose rocks as we watch him with Travis holding on for dear life and disappearing around the first corner.
After a few minutes the roar of the Royal had quietened down… either they had found the Lighthouse or the trail had become a Venus fly trap!
Contact was made with the Voortrekkers....
Watching my phone, it eventually rang and Doug confirmed that all was well and that we should come up one by one, as the wet weather and darkening skies would not make for a head-to-tail scamper together up the steepish incline.
Michelle ducked first, promising to maintain a steady pace until she got to the Lighthouse and meet up with the boys.
Carol opted to ride sweep and so I followed a few minutes later with the Red Baron, who churned up the wet gravel like an off-road warrior until I could see the two boy scouts waiting on top of the hill.
With the banded trophy presenting itself proudly against the evening sky - the 3 men greeted each other and I got to ask the first question…… (imagine the famous quiet... then doo-room…doo-room music from Jaws playing while the story unfolds):
Derek to Doug: “Where’s Michelle?”
Doug: “I dunno – where’s Carol?”
Derek & Doug experience an uneasy silence and sheepish looking-about…….
Doug: “We are in big sh*t”
I get to phone Michelle a few times ……. even her voice mail sounds agitated; don’t know how that was even possible?
Doug disappears down the hill to find his wife.
I think Travis is praying – for the well-being of his Dad and his silly sidekick…..
This was how the story unfolded - starting at the bottom of the hill.
Guys – you know that feeling when you lose track of time at the local pub and your missus eventually gets hold of you? Well, Michelle eventually answered her phone with “Yes?”……Though relieved to hear her unfamiliarly husky voice, visions of a not-to-distant-in-the-future punishment flashes before me…...
Doug finds Carol strolling up the road, walking past him and muttering something about him fetching her Harley off a rock somewhere down the hill…….
With Michelle still on the line, and trying to be polite, I ask her where she is…… She replies – “I don’t know - there is sugar cane all around me……”
The phone connection is cut – I was hoping it was due to poor signal in the area.
Carol doesn’t say much to me as she comes into view and fortunately she looks for her son. Though Travis was surely glad he was only a pillion on the ride, he was not sure if he was first in line for a verbal thrashing.
My attention is drawn to the distant sound of a vee motor and as Michelle approaches from the south, I decide not to hide away. Michelle parks and greets Carol, the two of them engaged in a conversion which could only be in their home language on the planet Venus.
Doug – looking like a grasshopper perched on top of the Sportster, rides into view and parks conveniently a little distance away from the two girls now using sign language as part of their conversation. Trying not to make eye contact, I notice Michelle make a gesture with her right hand index finger crossing her throat from left to right and Carol grinning in a way that made me feel uneasy.
Brave Sir Doug decides not to take refuge with me and walks straight over to the hornets’ nest. I decide there’s strength in numbers and join the happy circle of friends.
Travis decides to sms one of his buddies – a little distance away.
Sheepish grins from two old guys obviously in trouble.
So – all’s well that ends well. Michelle had overshot her mark, Doug and Derek had homed in on the target and Carol had found her own spot on the hill.
Kinda proves that men are hunters and women are gatherers - huh?
We got to claim the Lighthouse point and Doug and I got to sleep inside that night, due to the rainy weather.
Greenpoint Lighthouse done and dusted.......NEXT?