Sat 26th

Today Tom and myself are off clay hunting with Patrick. The idea is to get some clay so that the kids can use it to make things at school.

Patrick is a bit of a character and is in charge of another local project - the local orphange. We head off in his buccie to this remote village in hunt of our source of clay. The only problem is that Patrick has not been clay hunting himself for 2 years and in that time the village has expanded. People have built houses on the outskirts, they have brought and are still bringing electricity to the village and paths which existed 2 years ago are barely recognisable today. This was his excuse for the amount of running around we did in search of a patch of mud. To make it worse he tells us that the locals cover over a patch of clay after they have dug some out. He takes us down this valley in search of this stuff explaining that it was just behind this bush and under that tree.

In the end we find a spot and start digging, transferring the contents into plastic bags to haul back up to his buccie.

It also gave us an insight of what life was like living in remote villages. Only now are the huts getting electricity. This consists of a power line from a lamp post into each house and then to a single socket. If the owners can afford it they can switch on a light at night.

In the afternoon we take a walk into Port St Johns which includes crossing the River Mzimvube by a passenger ferry. This consists of a raft powered by a Honda outboard motor. We later learn that until last year the ferry was a rowing boat but a freak wave caught it one day and four of it's passengers were drowned.