Stoked

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There will be better photos taken of Newlands Cricket Ground, but there will be few better days for visiting teams than this.

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England piled the pressure on to SA with Ben Stokes lashing the ball all over Cape Town’s Southern Suburbs, as beautifully documented by Brian Micklethwait.
And that view, via England’s Barmy Army Twitter feed. You’d be forgiven for thinking that the view might only be improved by the removal of that factory behind the scoreboard. Until, that is, you learn that the ‘factory’ is actually a brewery, producing about a million litres of beer a day. And suddenly everything makes sense.

Because hey, we get thirsty in the heat.

P.S. I didn’t get tickets for the Test because of family stuff, but I have secured a few for me and the smaller 6000s to get to the T20 in February.

New Year

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Having spent the first morning of 2016 on the beach and in the Indian Ocean at Struisbaai, attempting to avoid being completely roasted, here’s a photo from the same spot just 12 or so hours earlier:


Ironically, it seems like we’ve spent very little time there this holiday, but the motorboat post was from there too. You do the math. I obviously can’t.

I took a lot of photos of the fireworks last night. It was point and shoot really, because I looked up how to take photos of fireworks and then basically couldn’t be arsed to go through all the complicated steps when there was MCC to be drunk and good times to be enjoyed. At first look (unsurprisingly) some were better than others (the photos – although it’s true for the fireworks as well), but I haven’t had chance to go through them yet.
I did manage to upload a couple via my phone. They’re on Flickr. Go see. More to be added later.

Happy New Year.

Trans-Agulhas Challenge

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The World’s Toughest Inflatable Boat Challenge – The Trans-Agulhas Challenge – dropped into Struisbaai last night and headed out West again this morning. We went along to watch the start, which was delayed by 45 minutes because the local sea mist was preventing the spotter plane from spotting stuff.

When it came, the start was interesting, if rather unexciting. With the boats taken about waist-deep into the water, the pilots walk back to the beach, then, at the drop of the starter’s flag, leg it into the water, start the engines (some more successfully than others) and race out of the bay towards today’s destination – Gansbaai.

The waves weren’t particularly big today, but the boats are light and there were still a couple of mildly dramatic moments to keep the patient crowd on their collective toes. Briefly.

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I don’t think it was the bright turquoise sea, blue sky start that the local ‘toggers were hoping for, but it was something different for the kids, and after the ridiculous heat of yesterday, the early-morning murkiness was actually rather welcome.

More boat pictures here.

And then, much like the last little rubber duck leaving the bay… that was it.

2015 has been a particularly rubbish year, and I’m hoping for much better things in 2016. Even if you’ve had a superb 2015 (because I’m sure someone out there must have had one), I hope that 2016 exceedings your expectations and is even better.
As I write, I am unaware of any successful plan to get this blog banned from the interwebs, so I’ll still be here, peddling my wares and entertaining at least myself, if no-one else.

Happy New Year, reader.

Brandfontein colours

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You were warned that this week would be photo heavy, and so it has proven to be. Today are no exception.

No trip through to Black Oystercatcher would be complete without several stops to see buzzards, flamingusses and these wholly unadulterated colours at Brandfontein.

And then, at the end of it all, there’s some superb food and wine to be had. And a swimming pool for the kids, which is good because it was 40 degrees celsius in the shade today. Hawt.

We had a lovely time and the Flickr album has been updated once again.