Tag: southern cape

Road Trip pics

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As Gwede “Uncle Gweezy” Mantashe confirms that there are no plans for the ANC to recall President Jacob Zuma and the Rand responds with a now customary gravity-inspired trip downwards, I’m still enjoying the memory of a great trip back from Agulhas yesterday.

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Not the quickest journey back. In fact, at 8½ hours, definitely the longest. But definitely one of the most interesting too. Dirt roads, ostriches, tortoises, places that Google Maps hasn’t even heard of, two lighthouses (one of which we got all to ourselves) and some uitstekende scenery.

There are photos, obviously – I’ve put them in with all the weekend stuff here. But all in all, it was just great spending some time with my Dad and having the chance to see a few places that we didn’t even know we’d be passing.

Did I mention that we had a whole lighthouse to ourselves as well?

Heart v Head

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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.

Time out

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Today was all about family time and stepping away from the hate mail and threats from environMENTALists after the post that none of them read about stuff that none of them read. I’ll reply to the comments there tomorrow. The emails have already been discarded.

Sunset this evening was a nice one. So nice in fact, that I whipped out my X10i and grabbed a quick pic. But while it was lovely, it looks completely and utterly washed out when compared to this beauty I got in the Southern Cape last week.

Bigger here.
Unadultered by Picasa, Photoshop or any other adulterating software, I promise. Not even cropped.

Top class ‘togs will be looking at this and will obviously be in awe of the composition: silhouetted cottages on the left, fishermen and breaking waves on the right. However, while I’m more than happy to take the plaudits – it was I, after all, what pressed the button – I must admit that after looking into the sunset for several minutes (as I had been doing by that time), I was just pointing the camera vaguely in the direction of the big round orangey thing amid the smell of smouldering retinae.

Still, all’s well that ends well and you can see a few more sunset pics from that evening here.

Heading South (again)

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What to do with a few days off? Head South (again).

There’s actually not much further south than Cape Town, unless you’re into swimming and penguins, but if you hit the N2 through to Caledon and head down the R316, you can drive on winding roads through rolling countryside filled with blue cranes, storks, ostriches and the odd springbok.

This time, we’ll be taking our time to get to where we’re going, so instead of the farmland flying by at 120kph, I hope to stop and get a few photos en route. These are photos which I won’t be able to share immediately, due to the lack of internet at the cottage, but rest assured, you’ll be the first to see them upon our return.

Normal service (such as it is) will continue on this site, although comment moderation may be a little delayed.

Have a great weekend.

Nearly done

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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.