Day 374 – Dassen Island by night

I didn’t think that the image below deserved Flickr status (that said, I think that the one of the cormorant probably shouldn’t be there either), but I still quite like it. So let’s preserve it for posterity right here.

Dassen Island sits about 9km off the coast at Yzerfontein. There’s not much there save for a lighthouse…

…a penguin colony and a lot of gannets, but a quick look at Google Maps does indicate a little infrastructure at the north end of the island – including that jetty.

And there’s even less to see at night. Because it’s dark, see?

However, if you grab the tripod, stick your short lens on, shelter your camera from the howling wind and time your longish exposure to pick out a flash from the 1.4Mcd light on the 29m tall tower, you can pick out all of the meagre detail: from that lighthouse in the south to the jetty lights in the north, through the evening heat haze. Like this:

Not amazing. But something different. And thinned. Thinned images are still very en vogue.

And that Dassen Island lighthouse characteristic?

Fl(2) W 30s – two white flashes every 30 seconds. I needed to know this so I could time my shot correctly, but when I looked it up, that setup rang a bell with me. And yes, a quick check confirmed that that is exactly the same characteristic as the Langness Lighthouse at Dreswick Point in the Isle of Man. It scares me that I recognised this.

Day 361 – Back home, but…

It was a wonderful weekend away, but I feel like I might need another weekend away just to get myself repaired from this weekend away. Sun, fun, sand, drink, laughter, cricket with the kids, some good long beach walks and not quite enough sleep (despite my very best efforts).

And I’m always happy to get safely off the R27 West Coast Deathtrap Road in one piece.

It’s back to school for the last week of term tomorrow and I’m already dreading the 6am alarm call.

For the record, I found this page all about the place in which we stayed, and its fascinating history. Suffice to say, it’s been upgraded a great deal since those images were taken (and the big spinny thing on the roof has disappeared). But you can still see the very solid, reinforced concrete structure when you know what you’re looking for.

Photos on the way – really. But let me grab a good night’s rest first, ok?

Day 360 – Birds

Ah. The full 360. And that’s why we’re just about to come back to where we started with another hard lockdown.

Anyway…

Sunnier, warmer and less windy today (although that last one starting from a very high baseline), so the Boy Wonder and I grabbed a camera and went for a wander around our weekend neighbourhood.

Not much special stuff going on togging-wise in the bright sunshine, but good to get some fresh air and take in some rays as we headed through town and then back along the coastline.

I’ll need to lob them into Lightroom when I get chance, but in the meantime (because I’d rather be looking at the sea than a computer screen), please enjoy a Cape Cormorant and a Three-Banded Plover. Despite the Cape Cormorant being much smaller than his White-Breasted cousin, there’s actually still quite a size different between the two birds above (65cm v 18cm). However, because of the cropping and the fact that one was far. away. it doesn’t seem that way.

More photos to follow. “Soon”.

The road to forever

Just a quick snap I took on the Yzerfontein road out of Darling (so yes, technically, this post should be “The road to Yzerfontein” or “The R315”, but never mind that), while heading home yesterday.
It does kind of look at the road goes into the sky and into forever, but in actual fact, just over the hill in the distance were a few ostriches and the R27. Not quite as romantic as you were thinking, right?

I’m not sure that you can possibly imagine my stupidity er… the danger I put myself in to get this, standing in the middle of the road just around a blind bend. The risks we take in the name of art, hey?

I quite like this snap already (narcissistic bastard that I am), but I think it looks even better bigger on black. Go see.

Holiday home

Ah… Yzerfontein.
The jewel in the crown of SA’s West Coast. Although, Paternoster also has a reasonable argument for that title and plenty of hipsters will be shouting about Churchaven as well, so perhaps we’ll settle for “one of the jewels in the crown of SA’s West Coast” to prevent any fighting amongst the two of you reading this.
But Yzerfontein has a particular place in my heart, since Mrs 6000 stars on the town’s official homepage after photos of her were spotted following an infinity pool testing visit there a few years ago.

Anyway, if you were to be thinking about purchasing a hazy escape in the particular jewel that is Yzerfontein, then you could do a whole lot worse than this place.

Ignoring the error in the title – this is about an hour north of Cape Town – I rather like this place. Even if I hadn’t just invested in another seaside location, I still wouldn’t be able to even dream of affording it, but then again, just because I can’t afford Minki van der Westhuizen doesn’t mean that she’s not nice to look at.

The blurb tells us:

Leaning against the dunes covered in fynbos (“fine bush” in Afrikaans), the L shaped plan is spread over three levels; the home has been designed to intensely enjoy the view and the sea air. There are two bedrooms with a bathroom on the top floor, communicating with a cobbled terrace, living room and kitchen at the intermediate level, linked to the garden and infinity edge swimming pool, and a third room plus a photography studio.

Terrible.

The design is by Richard Townsend and Stefan Antoni, who has done some amazing buildings in the more affluent areas of Cape Town. All of which brings me to the one issue I have with this place: it sticks out like a sore thumb. There’s a time and a place for this modern design and while this may be the time, Yzerfontein certainly isn’t the place as far as I’m concerned.
Never mind. To their credit, they have at least sited this home some distance back from the beach and behind the protection of the dunes, no doubt mindful of the icebergs which are a feature of this part of the coastline (as anyone who has ever set foot in the sea there will surely testify).

There’s not a lot to do in Yzerfontein besides watching the world go by, enjoying the gentle pace of life and seeing those amazing sunsets, but then, if you owned this place, why would you ever want to leave the house anyway?

Pictures: Adriano Brusaferri