Postcard

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Back home, avoiding the nightmare up Houw Hoek, thanks to Google. Never leave home without it. That means that we did a detour up the Highlands Pass, which – it turns out – is much more fun in a big Toyota than it ever was in a Hyundai SUV.

Just over three hours back then, including a quick comfort break. And my back is really feeling much better, despite the prolonged sitting it has had to do today. Yesterday, I managed a couple of 1km walks. Today, buoyed by the fact that I could actually feel my right foot when I woke up this morning (first time in 9 days), I headed out into the wild, stormy weather of the Southern Tip and knocked off 4.5km on the beach.

Lovely.

Took the camera and did some snaps, rather than anything fancy: this was about the exercise, after all. This one reminded me a bit of the old fashioned (1980s, lol) postcards we used to see in the shops in the Isle of Man, so I popped a filter on it, and it now looks exactly like them:

160dpi, nogal!

Dear Grandma,
The weather is lovely apart from last night when we thought we were all going to die in the huge storm.
Today we went walking on the beach.
It was nice.
Lots of love,
6000

Football this evening, and some racehorsing tomorrow. So lots to look forward to.
Assuming we make it through tonight as well.

Wild Life

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Yeah, it’s not. Anything but, actually. We’re all happily lazing around in the Easter sunshine, enjoying doing very little. And that’s just fine.

The dirt road through to town is in such a terrible condition that you wouldn’t want to use it unless you had to anyway, so local is lekker. Cape Agulhas is a diverse, rural municipality, home to some interesting nooks and crannies*, but considering the number of dirt roads it has, to only own one grader seems like a risky move.

The grader is currently in Napier. The road to town, isn’t.

I’m going to have a wander down to the beach a little later, but I’ve been playing with the camera in the back garden here, looking at what’s around and trying to get a few simple shots, like this one.

Or these two:

That’s a Brown Button Spider and a Speckled Mousebird. If one of them bites you, you’ll need medical attention. I’m sure you can work out which one, but maybe just for safety, it’s best that you avoid the nibbly end of them both.

* 10 points if you got that reference

Getting there…

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It’s been a lazy start to the day down at the Southern Tip. No point in getting up if it’s cloudy and miserable out, and no prospect of coffee because of the lack of electricity.

Still, once we were up and about, we got a lot of the admin stuff we needed to get sorted out of the way, leaving the rest of the weekend (relatively) free for other activities.
My back continues to improve. Sitting is still painful, but yesterday’s 4 hour journey seemingly had no detrimental effect aside from to my mood. And the football results helped remedy that nicely anyway.

Fortuitous timetabling means that loadshedding won’t affect us down here again for the rest of the weekend, and suddenly, everything is looking good. Even the sun has finally come out, bathing the village in afternoon light and the hope of a pleasant evening in front of the braai.

On that note, there’s a delicious looking picanha steak to pop over the coals tonight, which I’m really looking forward to.

(Not actual footage)

Oh, and I know that I promised photos, but I haven’t taken any yet. Sorry.

Poor start

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A horrible drive down to Agulhas, through wind, rain and an inexplicably stupid roadblock outside Somerset West. The roadblock delayed us (and everyone else) by half an hour, meaning that the slippery, wet road was now filled with irritated, rushing South African drivers.

Jou ma se ‘road safety’.

Anyway, we got here in one piece, and all’s well that ends, as they say. And this did end.

Weather still a bit iffy, but due to clear by this evening, and we do have red wine and braai meat, so I think we’ll survive.

Look out for photos over the weekend.