Good things, rubbish things

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Ag, let’s get the rubbish out of the way. We’re back home (that’s ok, not rubbish), but we’ve brought some crappy virus with us. To be expected perhaps, sharing a car for several (or more) hours with several (or more) people. It’s nothing serious, just one of those things that makes you feel crap for a while and then goes away. But yes, it does make you feel crap for a while, and yes, that’s rubbish.

The rest of the trip was pretty cool, though. I played a lot of taxi and let the kids (ha!) get on with their own thing. And I think that suited all of us quite well. But we still did spend some time together, enjoying the fresh air and the wildlife that the Agulhas National Park has to offer. Yesterday was an odd weather day with occasional gorgeous light, and a pretty sunset:

We headed out to Brandfontein, on a mini self-drive Cape safari. And we saw quite a bit for a winter outing…
From the classic Ostrich (after which Struisbaai was allegedly named) in that weird late morning light:

A bit of Grey Rhebok action later on:

Not forgetting a springing bok, but not a Springbok (although we did see some of them too) – this is a Steenbok:

And one should never miss a shot of an African Black Oystercatcher passing by over a huge Atlantic swell:

Thankfully, these guys are fairly ubiquitous along the Agulhas coast, but there are three times fewer of them left in the wild than the White Rhino, (and about seven times fewer than the Blue Crane). It’s strange that we don’t hear about the plight of our birds as much as our mammals. To me, at least.

There will be a battle going on in my upper respiratory tract tonight. Tomorrow morning, I expect to be either 100% or completely broken. Leaning towards to latter, hoping for the former.

Either way – this was a great few days away.

A great walk, ruined

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Yesterday was a wild one. The rain cleared out early in the morning, but the wind persisted all day, and I couldn’t resist an afternoon walk with the camera and some Norwegian deep house. I did just about 7km and saw several (or more) birds, including this Caspian Tern (Hydroprogne caspia)…

…the world’s largest tern, which apparently has “a subcosmopolitan but scattered distribution”. (i.e. It’s found all over the world, but only in patchy or isolated areas all over the world. Rasper Point was one of those areas yesterday afternoon.

All was going well, and I was really enjoying my time, when suddenly, I saw someone else on my beach.

Walk. Ruined.

Absolutely shocking.
How very dare they? Do they not know the rules of windy, weekday afternoons on the Agulhas coast?

That’s my time, on my beach, with my Caspian Terns and my Norwegian deep house music.

Go and find somewhere else to be. Honestly.

God works in mysterious ways

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So goes the well-known saying.
But even I doubt that God has worked in a more mysterious way than getting people in Mexico to worship in front of a massive effigy of his son, but one that looks like Phil Collins.

Yes:

Well, I suppose that Phil – now 74 – has been around for a while. He was in Genesis, and that’s the very first book of the Bible. I must admit that I had always thought that there was at least one woman and a snake involved, but when I checked up on this, I found that the other protagonists were called Tony and Mike.

I never really paid much attention in R.E. though.
Well, at the time, you never really consider that you’ll need some of that knowledge for a blog post several (or more) decades on, do you?

Anyway, I don’t know if anyone at the church is a big fan of Phil Collins, but you’d have to imagine that someone at the Jesus moulding factory is. Things like this don’t just happen for no reason. There’s definitely a hidden message in this story.

[don’t forget to insert a suitably amusing Phil Collins song title here to finish the post]

Are you sure this is a good idea, sir?

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After doing a few jobs this morning, I’m heading back down to Agulhas, like sometimes happens from time to time, but this time, I will be have the company of several teenagers.

The teenagers in question are lovely and all, but there are several of them, and only one of me.

Ostensibly, I will be in charge, but I think that we can all see what might go wrong should things go south – which is literally what we are going to do.

Eek.

I joke, of course. I’m looking forward to taking my daughter and her friends on a quick break down to the cottage. And because we know that the internet down there can be a little iffy sometimes, I’m plonking this advance-written post on here just in case those demons rear their ugly heads once again.

Let’s hope that the winter weather is not too wintery (although we have a big fireplace for such conditions), and we can get out and about a bit.

Do look out for stuff on IG and on here, as we play at being tourists in our own backyard for a while.

It burns, burns, burns…

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Things that aren’t funny:
– People shooting guns.
– Wanton vandalism.
– Disrespecting music performers.
– Wasting water.

Things that are actually a bit funny:
– All of the above, together.

Don’t believe me? Look at this:

The shot wasn’t quite perfect. And I know that I shouldn’t be laughing, because of all those reasons above. But it is actually a bit funny – and pretty good publicity for the town. And I suspect that the authorities in Kingsland also recognise that, by the way that they haven’t bothered to plug the leak, even after a week of their hero relieving himself from a great height.