Standing in the kitchen of the cottage, beer in hand, and looking out at the ocean and this sunset, it’s not hard to imagine that life could be worse…
Yes, we’re away for a few days before Christmas, so the blogging may be a little scarce. I do have some wireless interwebs here this time though, so I’ll see what I can do…
I desperately want(ed) to get down to the coast this weekend. The weather this week has been atrocious (once we’d got past Tuesday with its ridiculous midwinter 30 degreedness) and the wind has whipped up some epic swells around the South African coast. The weather service were warning of 7m off Agulhas. Yummy.
I love that kind of weather. It’s dramatic, elemental, Wuthering Heights kind of stuff. I would much rather wander along a beach in a gale, with crashing surf and disturbed seabirds than sit there in the baking sun, baking.
There are other considerations though. Family, for one, two and three. Coming from South Africa, rather than the UK, they are not so keen on the epic waves and howling wind. They want sunshine and warmth. They like to be able to see the sand to sit on and to dig in, rather than have it littered in smashed weed and marooned jellyfish. Suffice to say, their preferred conditions are not going to be much in evidence this weekend. And there’s more to do with two small kids in Cape Town than in a tiny village miles from anything except a windy beach and a wild sea.
Add to that the frankly rather scary conditions forecast for the Cape on Sunday – if you thought last night’s ice storm was bad, just wait – which is when we’d be doing the 230km back and it’s sadly a no-brainer. Or rather an all-brainer and a no-hearter. Not that I struggle to drive safely in storm force winds and heavy rain, but unfortunately, it has come to my attention that a lot of other people in this country do.
So I’ll be around this weekend, I think. Which makes it all the more important for you to take the few seconds required to ‘like’ the new 6000.co.za facebook page, download the 6000 miles… feed Android app or even the one for your Nokia Ovi, thanks to Nokia SA and #mobiblog.
And – big news – the 6000 miles… iPhone app is under development and should be with you shortly. Possibly even more shortly now that I’m going to be around some internet for the next few days.
So many ways to stay in touch. No excuses anymore.
After a leisurely journey back from Agulhas (stopping briefly in Bredasdorp for food, drink and Kinder eggs for the kids) we find ourselves back in Cape Town’s leafy Southern Suburbs. Truly, I haven’t a clue what’s been happening while we were away. Something about Libya and someone getting shot in Cape Town was all I got from the newspaper billboards. I’m sure I’ll catch up just now, but I’m still in holiday mode and right now, I really don’t care. (I did pick up the Stormers v Bulls rugby result from an Afrikaans newspaper in a fish shop, is that cheating?)
I’m sorry if the blogging hasn’t been up to my usual standard: if you think things have been bad, just wait until I go away for two weeks later in the year. Expect plenty of photos.
We were greeted in Cape Town by traffic and burglar alarms: an unpleasant reminder of the negative side of living in the big city. The only sounds we’ve been used to over the last few days have been birdsong and crashing waves. The only traffic issue was slowing down to look at tortoises while walking down to the beach.
Already, the busy city existence has returned, with a dinner appointment this evening. I leave you with a few hastily-uploaded and varied photos (34, actually – including one of my best ever sunsets, I think) from the extended weekend. Right now, I wish it could have been extended some more, but once I’m settled back into normal life, I’ll be able to look forward to our next visit.
I’m not sure that I could live out in the sticks on a permanent basis; perhaps that would take away the “special” feeling of being away from home, but I think I’d also miss the amenities and convenience of urban living.
So for the moment, I’m happy to settle for the juxtaposition of city life and the weekend getaway.
Not in that way, of course. That would be very naughty.
No, my drug of choice is fresh air. That and brandy, obviously.
I took this on one of a few quick trips down to the beach from the cottage this weekend.
Rather hypnotic.
The remainder of the time there was spent sorting out the back garden (such as it is) and trying to salvage fynbos from the remnants of the building site. I’m unconvinced that we got a long way with that process, although my aching muscles are screaming otherwise.
My rationale for getting as much done as possible as soon as possible is that then I’ll actually be able to use the cottage for its original purpose, namely to chill out a little.
The place is alive with wildlife: peregrine falcons, African land snails, striped mice, scorpions (x2, in the house) and a tortoise in the bushes at the back. Then one of the neighbours came round to say hello and warned us about the the pofadders.
This sorted out a lot of a gardening worries, since I’m now going to raze the whole thing and concrete it over.
Got to love getting close (but not too close) to nature, hey?
More pics, should you wish.
Some of my readers – those with better memories – may recall this post from 2nd November last year, wherein I described how we had purchased a little plot deep in the Southern Cape and were intending to put a tiny fisherman’s cottage on it. Well, away from prying Cape Town eyes and despite the summer break, over the past 2½ months those foundations have sprung up into this:
Which is, as promised, a tiny fisherman’s cottage. Tiny, but ours.
It’s not quite finished yet (and it looks like we’ll have to sort out the weather a little too), but we’re naturally quite excited about it. And thus we’re now working on how we can spend as much time there as possible once it’s done.
Which brings me to holidays.
South African people, have you noticed the break over Easter? Take the 26th, 28th and 29th of April off and you don’t have to work for a whole 11 days. It’s not like you can wander round Woollies or Pick n Pay and spot many “Eleven for the price of Three” offers, is it?
Religion doesn’t do much for me, but I can smaak the holidays. Although some credit must also be given to left-wing politics for the 1st May. The irony of Worker’s Day being a day when people don’t actually work has never been lost on me and I will happily celebrate with the workers again this year.