24.1.2021 Lockdown Day 304 Level 3
Today is Sunday. The weather is windy and rainy, clearly a lazy day.
I am sitting in my favourite room upstairs, behind me the TV is streaming some negative news and in front of me i am looking at an unsettled ocean.
This is the typical mood these days…Who knows, maybe someone will read this in 500 years and pictures life of a corona stranded dive operator…hahaha.
Normally Beulah, Günter and i are at the BOOT Expo in Düsseldorf this time of the year. Every year i was sorry to miss out on 4-6 weeks of proper summer time here in South Africa.
To be honest, this year i miss being at the great BOOT Expo, miss being with mother in Burladingen and miss two weeks or real snow experience.
Yes, we have great summer times here with heat and humidity of note. We spend hours whaling around in our pool and burn our skins to shit.
But this is traditionally a very quiet time for us here and being here and dealing with Corona and having a quiet business is just not much fun…
Last year we went to Gudauri in Georgia and skied the Kaukasus Mountains. That was something else. I got to get back there before the whole world discovers Ski Georgia…
Although our daily infection rate has dropped from 20000 plus to 12000 last week this damn virus is still coming closed to home on a daily basis. Everybody knows lots of people who got infected and several people who died of it.
Our vaccinations have not yet started but although i should be on top of the list, i don’t mind waiting a bit longer to see how people in other countries are reacting to it. No rush.
Beulah spends a couple of hours in the shop every day, i stay out of the public and either spend time at home or go to the Diver Villa for odd jobs.
From tomorrow we will start working on the boats again. The two most used boats need a bit of glueing on the tubes and fibreglassing on the hulls. Got to stay on top of this.
From February we have employed a young intern. He will get a week’s intro to the shop and then we hope to go away on a two week break somewhere. Most likely we will go to Kruger Park, unless i am looking for trouble with Beulah….
We got to get out of this house. Even our dogs are tired of seeing us…!!!!
Renier, our new Intern is an amazing individual. Very special young chap. I will introduce him here next month.
17.1. 2021 Lockdown Day 297 Level 3
Not much has changed this last week. Our business has gone eerily quiet since the Ukrainian group left on Thursday. They dived with us for a couple of days. And they loved it here on Protea Banks. Of course they would if the water is clear and warm and the sharks are happy.
On our Baited Shark Dive we had 5 Zambezis, 5 Black Tips and a Great Hammerhead in the background. On our reef dives we had constant shark encounters throughout the dive.
Really nice !!!
January and February are traditionally quiet months here at African Dive Adventures. Therefore it was a perfect time to go to the BOOT Expo in Düsseldorf and visit family afterwards.
But this year there is no expo, there is no family visit, no snow and ski holiday for me. Sad…
Our super virus keeps spreading at very much the same rate as they have in Germany. The difference however is that we don’t have so many deaths , about half of Germany’s numbers. Nevertheless, it seems like South Africa has been isolated again. All flights to and from SA have been suspended except for Qatar Airlines. Even Emirates have stopped for the time being because they discovered a South African variant in Dubai…I hope, our virus knows that it is supposed to stay home in South Africa.
My friend Supp and his group flew from Johannesburg to Namibia where they spent their last 9 days before they went back to Germany.
Namibia is not on any red list so coming home from a non listed country was supposed to make things easy. The irony is that nobody asked them where they came from, nobody asked them for a negative Covid Test, nothing…looks like all those strict rules are not filtering down the lines.
10.1. 2021 Lockdown day 290 Level 3
First Corona News
Our very own South African super spreader virus is running around at a rate of knots. 20 thousand people a day seems to be the average at the moment. This throws the theory of winter- and summer spreading right out the window. Crap !!!
We are nowhere welcome these days as South Africans, can’t go to any country. But this is not the end of the world for us as we do indeed live in a holiday destination of the finest.
Our beaches are closed and so are our bottle stores. This means we can’t really buy alcohol anywhere, including in our restaurants which are not allowed to serve booze. However, this is Africa and life goes on. If you go to a restaurant you buy a bottle of alcohol free beer. This bottle stands on your table while a real beer is served to you in a glass. What the hell…
Out dive business is still operating almost normal. We are allowed to load 75% of our boat’s capacity which means 7 divers, Spike and i.
I wish we would always have so many divers…
On 15.1. the government will re-look at the restrictions and the situation. I have heard that a hard lockdown is not on the books at all. This country is hanging on a string right now and cannot afford a further tightening of the rules.
So we wait for Friday next week and see what Rampies is telling us.
I find it increasingly difficult to stay positive about this goddamn Covid. It is hardly possible to avoid it as people still make you feel really bad if you stick to the rules.
Maybe we should just get it done, get the virus and see if we’re lucky to survive it of meant to give space to new life…
Everybody knows somebody who either got really sick from covid or even died. I think there are not many conspiracy theorists left who still haven’t realised what’s going on.
Corona is real and Corona is dangerous.
Protea Banks News and Private
Up to now we have dived eight times on Protea Banks.
Everyday we have deep blue water with visibilities of 25m – 30m and beyond.
Everyday we have 26˚C water temperatures .. Ou man, this is amazing !!!
Everyday we see bull-sharks, black tip sharks, giant guitar sharks and great hammerhead sharks.
Plus sunshine and hot summer temperatures.
When i get home from diving i head straight to my pool bar, grab an ice cold drink and jump into the pool. This one has 31˚C…what can i say…
Today, Sunday and tomorrow we are off. Then Tuesday and Wednesday we have a group of eight Ukrainians with us.
I must say, these guys have got guts. They arrived in South Africa yesterday and are fully aware of the situation in the country. Everything is open here and if travellers have a negative Covid test they walk into South Africa without any troubles at all. And off they go on an amazing holiday. It is probably quite interesting to be here these days when you are more than welcome, get better price deals and have lots and lots of space to yourself.
My mate Supp should have arrived back in Germany today. He was really smart by ending his holiday in Namibia. This country is not on the red list and entry from Namibia to Germany should be a breeze.
As far as i know, everybody still needs to self isolate for 5 days and if they get another covid test done with negative results, life can carry on as usual. Without the second test, self isolation is ten days.
On the other hand, my friend Wilkens was told by his boss, he will not be allowed to travel to South Africa unless he is willing to risk his job…
I personally would not be happy to have my boss running my private life. No way, Jose.
That’s why i don’t have a boss. Not my parents or my good wife have ever managed to tame me…hehehe.
Born Free. Live Free. Die Happy…
1.1. 2020 Lockdown Level 3 Day 281
HappyNew Year again to everybody.
I hope it went all smooth and better than it went for me.
For some unknown reason a higher power had decided to send me into the new your with a deep cleanse.
Yes, i was writing my last post for the year and had two beers. Harmless of course but i noticed, the second beer did not taste as nice as the first.
Next i lost my appetite for dinner and as we were watching a bit of TV i got more and more nauseous .
By eight o’clock i was a sick as a dog and didn’t know what do do with myself. Subsequently i decided to go lie down for a while. But after a while i got violently sick.
Oh man. Seven meters of intestines, fifteen litres of stomach and 2 litres of bladder all emptied out of me. This of course helped quite a lot but i still had a pretty bad night.
I am now wondering if i should not use this unique opportunity and think carefully how i am going about the refill of my body.
Maybe healthier food and less booze is a really good idea for 2021.
Anyone join me ?