Granny and the forbidden fruit.
It was getting late; the evening chill was making its presence felt. Clad just in a running vest, I felt a small sense of concern creeping in as we crossed donga after donga in search of our pickup point, somewhere in the valleys ahead. The last rays of sun were bouncing along the hilltops, radiating off the mass of dust whisked up in the dry air of this parched landscape. The evening sky looked like a massive volcanic cauldron of swirling larva.
We rounded the hill and running down we picked up a track heading in the exact direction of our pic up point. This sent us heading towards a farm house, on we ran as night was closing in on us.
A dog’s bark could be heard as we neared the house, rounding the bend an old lady appeared with a little child. She looked up and got quite a fright as she saw these two dirty bearded aliens bearing down on her. She bent down, picking up a stick as she shielded her little grand daughter from us, shouting verbal abuse at us, we tried to explain ourselves, but we decided it was better to escape he wrath and headed into the apple orchard behind the house.
Red succulent tempting apples hung all around me the hunger from the long day and the tempting fruit got the better of me. Out went my hand and plucked 2 plump apples from the tree in mid stride as we trundled on.
Then all hell broke loose, the old lady, dog, child and the rest of the extended family had followed us. Not only had we run into her orchard, but we had borrowed a few apples in full view of her. We decided the only way out was to bolt, but being in china everything has a wall, including the orchard. We were trapped, I looked around, and things were heating up considerably. I looked for Braam ,and out of the corner of my eye I caught him doing an Olympic qualifying jump over the wall. I was less fortunate with no run up I scrambled up the wall, pieces breaking off as I clambered over it and belly flopped onto the baked clay earth on the other side. I was up in a flash and off, eating Braams dust as we bolted up the hill, to the shouting ringing in my ears, but in all of the commotion, still managing to hold onto my prize.
