Out and about.

We were back upstairs for the night as the wind had died down nicely. Ingrid was first to wake and for the umpteenth time I thought, let me try to sleep in. I am not sure, but I think that I was downstairs with her before her coffee got cold. Cuppa for me!

I was thinking that Ingrid had to go to Pilates and suggested that she drop me off at main beach and then go with the car to main beach she duely informed me that it was Sunday today. No Pilates. Plan shot out of the water in 1 second. She suggested a walk to the wreck at Shark Point and back throught the reserve. Good idea Ingrid. Not much planning involved. Sunglasses, a bottle of water and shoes. Somehow my thighs were very stiff and the left one especially was hurting slightly on the downhill. I am still not sure what I did to it/them, it eased, but did not go away. 

As we walk over the Dune at Kingy's beach we are always struck by the beauty of the beach. The sun was also barely awake and it managed to shine beautifully on the beach and waterthrouhg gaps in the clouds. Very impressive. We walked on a bit and I began to pick up pieces of garbage washed up on the shore line. Plastic mostly. Bottle tops, plastic packaging and some rope or netting. As we neared the section where the beach gives way to rocks both of our hands were fill with trinkets. I remarked to Ingrid that perhaps the next time we should bring a plastic bag with us and that it would be wise to perhaps find a spot to keep our treasure safe until we came that way again. A lady came by with her 2 dogs and commented that she is cross with the fishermen who litter and spoil such a pristine place. 

Not much further we came along two fishermen who were diligently watching their rods. I stopped to ask if the fish were biting. They had had only 1 "take" that morning and had nothing to show for their efforts. Coming toward us was a couple with a dog and we said hi to them. I looked up and pointed to Ingrid that there was a hare (rabbit) coming down the dune in our direction. The dog saw the hare and his instinct kicked in. He chased that poor thing and we were helpless to stop him as he would evade our attempts to catch him. I guess his brain was not going, Ball, ball, ball, but hare, hare, hare. The owners calls went unnoticed. Doggy was deaf!

Dog chased that poor hare for a least 2 minutes and the hare we thought had gotten away in the distance. One of the fishermen was running after the dog who was running after the hare. Finally doggy came back trotting with his tongue hanging off to one side and the couple resumed their walk. "He has never done that before", they remarked. Most definately not I thought, when has the dog ever seen a hare before? Fisherman came walking back toward us and he seemed to be carrying something. The hare. Poor devil was exhausted and lying seemingly helplessly in fishermans arms. Ingrid took a photo of hare and it is really a beautiful specimen. Fishermand thought that dog had actullay caught the hare, but having gotten hold of it's prey the game was over or he did not know what to do with it, so just left it alone and came trotting back to his owners.

Hare was in good hands so we continued our walk to the wreck. I commented a few times on how I was enjoying the walk this time. I felt no sense of time and had no desire to "complete" the walk. We were just walking and enjoying the simple views and smells and sounds. Once near the wreck we sought out a large rock to sit on and we just sat in peace and listened and watched. I remarked that everything was just perfect. Not too hot, not too light, not too loud (waves against rock). Ingrid thought that she could have stayed there all day. 

Our walk around the point and back to Jackpot was further not so eventful. A few cyclists on their mountain bikes whooshed past us over the small trail leading back to "civilisation".  At home the first order of business was to take off the shoes. That felt really good. Next was to tap the sand out fo the shoes and go inside for some coffee and brekkie.

Not long after breakfast brother phoned to ask about the patient (My Mom is apparently having some issues - no major ones and has an appointment with a specialist next month. She phoned me literally 2 minutes later saying that she was not feeling well and was nauseous and that something was not quite right. I told her to go to the hospital (Sunday) and get it seen to. Ingrid was already reaching for her Florence Nightingale costume. We decided to have another cup off coffee before we set of for PE and to assist Mother if need be. Mom phoned during our cup and said that she was feeling much better and would see her Doctor first thing in the morning.

Long story short she sounded okay and I was happy. Ingrid suggested that we go through anyway and check on her. Yes dear! I took the roof racks off of Dusty and we drove into town to go visit Mom. We took that back road to miss all of the stop/go traffic things and it was a nice drive with Spotify spitting out 80's hits one after the other. At Moms complex you have to punch in a code at the gate and that calls her and she can then press a button to open the gate. We phoned to ask for the code and she said 3,2,1. At the gate I punched in the code and a random man answered. Oeps wrong number. We had to phone Mom again to get the correct code and were soon at her front door. Mom looked okay and so did her dog.

We spent a few hours chatting and Mom definately perked up so we were happy to go back home. We asked her for a suggestion for lunch and she sent us to a place that we had once been for breakfast with the family. We must have just made the cut as 5 minutes after we sat down they turned the open sign to closed. Our meal was good and Ingrid had a white wine to go with hers. That was yummy wine she said and decided to have a second.

Our return journey was simple and we were gald to be back at Jackpot and have a cup of Rooibos tea. No swim for us today as we had seen too many bluebottles on the shoreline this morning and I was not a fan of getting stung. We have just had dinner and Ingrid is on the couch finishing her book (I have still to begin mine). Instead of reading I took to a crossword puzzle in the You magazine that my mother had brought when she came a few days ago. I am quite surprised at how much of it I got done. SIlly things like a river in the UK (3 letters) I do not know, but generally I can come up with someting to fill in. Sometimes I have to make a correction as the word that I filled in although having the correct amount of letters, does not fit in with the words crossing. I used to love doing the crosswords in the You. I knew someone who would buy the magazine every week and then would give it to me when the next one came out. They were not a fan of crosswords.

That seems so long ago. I have been in The Netherlands for 26 and half years already. We have been in South Africa for amlost 6 weeks. It seems like we have been here for a long time.

PS Check out the photos from our walk this morning.