Having purchased a tow hitch for the quad in SA, and having just returned to our mad magical island, you will completely understand the urgency of course!
Hilton invited Colin along. He is the SOS doctor and our neighbour. Good idea having a doctor along as part of the team, you may think. Think again!!
Colin followed in his 4x4 "bakkie", we went proudly on ahead. I think Hilton felt quite the king of his castle (quad!).
"One look at the sea," as Hilton recalls, "and we should've abandoned our plans!" But no..... the lure of adventure and surf proved too strong.
The quad was magnificent. Powerfully strong, plucky and quite a dream machine. However, some really soft sand and the boat had to come off the trailer and into the sea, not quite where it was supposed to be launched. Let the games begin!
With waves pounding the boat and men (by this time Marius had given up his moment of solitude at the beach with his wife and come to help (play?!) Amidst clinging to the boat, pushing and shoving to no avail, of course the pounding waves will always be the victor, no matter how strong or determined some people are! It was decided to move the boat, in the water, closer to the pier wall. Calmer there I believe.
Eventually Hilton and Colin were riding the waves, well Colin seemed to be flying, clinging desperately way up in the front of the boat. Fortunately he was able to make his way to where it was safer....then the engine cut out!!
Marius and I were watching with bated breath. (..."should I get them to come and tow them back?" came out of his mouth!) Oh horrors! "Don't let Hilton hear you utter or even think those words" I thought to myself. "He will be mortified." Well it wasn't necessary after all, not even the thought!
Thank goodness for the arrival of three young Malagasy men at the precise moment the boat had to be taken from the sea and lifted onto the trailer.
While the boat saga was unfolding before my eyes I was distracted a couple of times by the beautiful scenery surrounding me!
There were two exhausted, ecstatic, happy sixty year olds with almost spent energy that together with a recovered Marius willingly let them help.
Said Colin, no doubt with adrenalin coursing through his veins: "I can't remember when last I had so much fun!"
I cast my mind back to the moment he (Colin) gave me his phone: "I'm on call. If it rings, say, I'm the doctor and tell them to take two panados, and phone me in the morning!" And I kind've wondered what I would've done if the phone did ring while the doctor was flying high in the sky in the boat amongst the waves? Makes one wonder about being friends with a doctor.
Stopping at a beautiful vantage point on our way home, to capture some beauty and moments, we were extremely proud of our quad and it's capabilities.
Hilton the king, his quad, his boat.
And me? Oh I was exhausted, I slept like a baby, dreaming about the words and images I would use to describe today.
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