Sunday 4 October 2009
Cape Town surfers Andrew Brady and Graeme De Haas were three hours off the flight from Bali to Padang when their world began crashing down around them. Graeme sent us this story and pictures, written by Andrew.
After flying in from Bali, via Jakarta, we found ourselves at Padang, Sumatra. We were directed to a “homestay” (the Indonesian version of a B&B) just down the road. What a gem Spice Homestay was - super friendly people, full of knowledge and very eager to help us on our path to surfing perfect waves in the Mentawai islands.
Our plan was to stock up on supplies, mosquito nets and food and then head out to E-bay on Nyang Nyang with the ferry the following night. We left all our gear and headed into town, where we met a quirky but very friendly and helpful girl called Ani, who became our market guide.
We had just drawn money from the ATM and were exchanging facebook details with young Ani when it started. It began like a regular tremor and we expected it to end that way to. But it didn’t end. The momentum grew, and the shaking became violent. The ground on which we were standing no longer felt like good old terra firma: it was breaking up and cracking. The buildings were shaking and we all stood there holding onto each other to stop ourselves from falling over. The entire city around us seemed to turn to liquid and the look of fear on the faces around us (ours included, double-fold) was radical.
I locked eyes with Graeme during the most violent part of the quake and the feeling of "oh f#ck" was mutual as the buildings around us began to collapse. People were falling off their scooters as they bounced along the ground. The buildings shook and the ground beneath us split apart as if it were about to devour us. Everyone was silent during the shake but when it finally subsided all hell broke loose – screaming, crying, chaos! Smoke filled the air from immediate fire breakouts and we were surrounded by a cloud of dust.
Ani grabbed us and said "Run, we need to run for high ground", and we ran! Everyone had switched to panic mode and the possibility of a tsunami was very, very real.
We ran in an overflowing human river toward the hills. Absolute chaos! All around us people were operating on survival instinct, climbing over each other, going the wrong way down streets, bikes were colliding, houses and shops had collapsed on top of cars and bikes. And people… Through the wailing Ani lead us to safety, barefoot as she was.
I lost my credit card somewhere in the confusion but this was the least of my worries. My biggest fear was losing my brah Gdog (Greame) in all the pandemonium.
G-Dog a.k.a. "rescue man" was almost in tears as he was torn between helping all the injured locals and his own will to survive. (De Haas is an active member of N.S.R.I Melkbos and trained in First Aid). I could see his heart crushing every time we saw another accident or badly injured person. We saw a collapsed hospital and elderly people on drips and in their hospital gowns were lying on the sidewalk, battered and bruised.
We had run roughly 5km in the direction of the hills by this stage and nightfall was just around the corner. We stopped at a roadside vendor to get fruit and supplies. It was now dark and the electricity was off throughout the city so we moved by light of the thousands of vehicles rushing around us.
A well-spoken female English voice caught our attention from behind. She had a small child on her hip and introduced herself as Vera. She turned out to be the wife of Mike Boyce from Planetsurfcharters.com. She directed us to her uncle's home just a few kilometres further up the hill.
By candlelight we sat with their family outside in an open area where they gave us water and food. Mike arrived in his car, who took us to his house, which was still fairly intact (apart from large cracks and busted tiles). These people are our heroes! We slept on their lounge floor, strategically not underneath the chandeliers and very close to an open door.
There were several small aftershocks during the night and being "twice shy" we were all awake and outside in a matter of seconds.
The most shattering news, for us anyway was that Spice Homestay was destroyed, along with our surfboards and all our gear.
We managed to contact friends and family back in South Africa with the use of www.planetsurfcharters.com's landline, all were relieved to know that we were safe. After much 'umming' and 'aaahing' we went back to Spice Homestay and G-Dog was convinced he could get through a hole in the wall on the Third Floor (which was now ground level) and retrieve the bags. He was decided, I tried to convince him otherwise but he was on a mission.
The building looked angry and broken (what was left of it anyway). All the money in the world would not have made me go into that dangerous looking mess ... but G-Dog did. With all of us covering our eyes, he scaled down the side of the house, disappeared into the mess. Ten seconds later, our backpacks came flying out the hole, followed by a very shaky G-Dog.
The death toll is climbing towards 1,000, and the destruction is incredible.
But we're alive and the possibility of still scoring waves is very real. Martin Daly, famous owner of the Indies Trader boats, might take us to the Mentawaiis, and provide us with boards (update from Graeme is that Martin "has left on a charter so we are sitting high and dry!")
Thinking of surf right now may sound selfish, but right now, the police and rescue services, along with other governments have control of the situation and there is not much for us to do.
Thank you Ani, our gaurdian, Scottie and Ni, Mike and Vera from www.planetsurfcharters.com/ and their golden little boy Cahaya. Little man, you're the definition of happy.
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