march 5 | main index | march 7

Upon awakening this morning, we discovered that Courtney's room takes on the pleasant characteristics of an aquarium during the day. The curtains and walls are a greenish-blue with dolphin accents. Thankfully, Doug warned us last night that in addition to the local dogs barking in the morning, we may hear a strange yelling noise. Not to worry, says Doug, it's just the crazy hadeda bird. Turns out, this bird is a variety of ibis and also owns the distinction of being one of the loudest birds in Africa. It's call, 'hadeeeeda,' gives the bird it's name. I'm here to tell you that this bird is indeed very loud.

A little after 10 am this morning we walked to the beach and checked out the surfing and tide pools. Cody had gone out earlier in his wetsuit to body board, but by the time we joined them the waves had died down considerably. We noticed several dogs running on the beach, none with leashes attached. Consequently, there were few birds to be found. Eric took some photos of the surf and the limpits along the rocks onshore.

After some incredibly yummy low-fat milk (silky and thick) and a piece of rusk (very similiar to biscotti), we drove to the Kalk Bay Fish Fare. It was a festival to benefit the Holy Trinity Church with food, music and prizes. We parked along the pier and walked through town stopping for photos and peaking in shop windows. Once inside the fare, we bought raffle tickets and got in the long line for the R25 yellowtail braai. Meanwhile, Veda bought me a mussels snack for R12. Amazing! Two huge green lipped mussels in the shell with several smaller mussels in a seafood tomato broth and a huge wedge of French bread, all for under $2! I would have ordered another, but I decided to try the yellowtail since I was already in line. Although a bit overcooked for my tastes, everyone tried a little of the fish (including Eric).

We plopped down in the shade for a bit listening to the traditional music and people watching. We noticed there were many unaccompanied little kids running around and figured this must be a pretty safe place. Courtney went to get ice cream for her and Eric and we got to see what 'flake' is. A thin flaky Cadbury chocolate bar is placed into an ice cream cone which is then filled with ice cream. Tasty. She also entered a few raffles and came back with various little prizes to show off to us.

On our way back to the car, we stopped off at a few art shops and I bought an 3-D elephant card. We also stopped at one of Veda's favorite places, the Brass Bell and ordered Fishhoek (a Namibian beer) and watched the waves splash against the seawall right outside the window next to the bar.

Eric walked out to the end of the pier to take some photos and as we were walking back a fishing boat, followed by a seagull entourage, was coming back in with some huge geelbek to sell around 4 pm.

At this point, Courtney asked if we could go to the Scratch Patch, a precious stone factory nearby. You pay for a certain size bag and then you look for polished stones in this large enclosure. We started out looking in the shops and learning where certain precious stones come from then Eric and I each got a small bag and Courtney helped us look for some pretty stones. We managed to fill our bags full just as they were closing.

To get home, Veda took the scenic route up Red Hill past the grave of Just Nuisance. This great dane was a member of the Royal Navy and he used to get into all kinds of mischief including riding trains throughout Cape Town to bring home soldiers who had too much to drink. There is a huge statue of this large beloved dog in Simon's Town.

We stopped for a glass of wine and Eric had a mango flavored Brutal Fruit at Cobbs at the Cape in Scarborough. Many of the patrons were watching the Stormers rugby team game and from the sound of things, they weren't doing all that well.

We had a lovely view of the Kommetjie lighthouse on the way back home, but Eric's camera batteries died, so we vowed to return later in the trip.

For dinner we had spaghetti with bolognese sauce and portuguese rolls. At this point, I was pretty exhausted as I managed to get burned two days into this trip. First for not having sunblock on after getting off the plane, sitting in the sun yesterday and from being out again all day today. The best part of the day (besides the mussels!) was hanging out with Courtney, who happens to have the same size feet as me!

march 5 | main index | march 7