Category Archives: Seascapes

Cape Town’s Waterfront on a sunny winter’s morning

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    Albert Luthuli (1898-1967) President-General of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1952-1967. He was awarded the 1960 Nobel Peace Price “for his fight against racial discrimination”. Luthuli House – the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg – is named after him. – Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu (born in 1931) received the Nobel Peace Price in …

A Sunday afternoon stroll in Hout Bay Harbour

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A visit to Hout Bay harbour is always a worthwhile diversion, especially on a Sunday afternoon. Watching people walking leisurely along the harbour mole gives one a feeling of being at peace with the world. A myriad of ways – seemingly at rest. Red yellow green at the end of the harbour mole. Freshly painted …

Namibia Impressions – II – Lüderitz – ǃNamiǂNûs*

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The town of Lüderitz, named after the German merchant Adolf Lüderitz (1834-1886) who bought stretches of desert along the Atlantic between Angola and South Africa from various Nama captains, is a unique town. It still bears some trademarks of Germany’s ill-fated colonial ambitions. Without any hinterland to support it, it would eventually have been covered …

Autumn colours land and sea

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    Autumn is a very special time for people living in temperate latitudes. It is the time for gathering, reminiscences and awareness of change in light, in colour, mood and being. Autumn says: you have lived and these are the fruits of you labour, your ambitions, your dreams. And what you see and have …

Heritage Day – a walk up Lion’s Head

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Tuesday was “Heritage Day” – so called to remind us of our cultural diversity and with that to remind us of our unity as a nation. People with Zulu ancestry are celebrating the remembrance of Shaka Zulu (c.1787-1828), once king of the Zulu nation. Others are proposing this day to be called “Braai Day” the …

Mutually beneficial communities

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Our children are questioning the wisdom not so much of our institutions but of our ways of living together as human beings on planet earth. We live, they say, wastefully and could share with each other so much more of our talents. How true is that and how so very naïve. Much of what we …

Dreaming

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Much has been researched in the last almost three hundred years about dreams and dreaming, yet, we still do not know where we go when we dream. Looking at early, biblical accounts of dreams in the history of dreams, we see their images and interpretations to be of another world outside the one we experience …

Harbour Road, Kleinmond, revisited

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Despite the obvious criticism one must have in respect of sensitive town planning or the lack thereof, Harbour Road, Keinmond, is worth a visit, more than ever before. As with all new challenges in life, they raise the spirit to do well against all odds. With love as always Colleen & Walter Betty’s Bay, 1st …

Eastern Food Bazaar, Cape Town

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Cape Town is just a good hour’s drive away from Betty’s Bay and it leads along one of the most attractive routes in the country. The views over False Bay are always inspiring and apart from weekends and holiday peak times the road is surprisingly open. A troop of baboons gathering in the morning sun …

2012 in review

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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: 4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 15,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 3 Film Festivals Click here to see the complete report. Dear all …

Cave of our ancestors

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Colleen’s old friend Tim and his wife Di from England stopped by on one of their visits to South Africa. They are always keen on all aspects of South African history – last time we explored Genadendaal, which to their and our surprise they hadn’t heard of – and this time we thought we should …

A walk by the sea

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To think that two thirds of our planet is not land but water. And while the land mass seems so enormous – what about the mass of our oceans? At the Cape the waters are rough if not treacherous. The winds are strong, mounting up to gale force strength at times, never ever though threatening to …

Snoek Run and Sushi

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Last week the snoek (pronounced: snook!) [Thyrsites atun] were running in great shoals in the coastal waters off Kleinmond and plenty of fishing boats went out for a catch. The local fishermen enter the sea with their basic ski-boats without fear and often enough without adequate safety equipment. Strong currents created by two oceans merging …

After the storm, again

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Taking life at face value – the wind, the rain, the hailstorm – and then the quietness throughout the night, not a single sound, and the next day with sunshine throughout – is that okay? How does one approach life? Do I look at things as they appear to be taken for what they are? …

A week’s parenting in Hout Bay

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A pair of peacocks – extended part of the family.   Our parenting days are well behind us, but every now and then we do a run of acting in loco parentis – and we always enjoy such occasions whenever and where ever they occur – in France, Germany or like now in Hout Bay. It makes us …

Walk on the Beach

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The weather was just too irresistible not to walk on the beach. And the autumn light seduces the eye. Nothing ever is the same. Our cottage by the sea – or what you see of it in the “fynbos”. Dune scape I Dune scape II Dune scape III Dune scape IV The Beach I Strandlooper …

A summer’s day walk-about in Kalk Bay

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Kris, Anni and Leo are visiting us for a month and what better occasion than to use Valentine’s day to do an outing from Hout Bay via Chapman’s Peak to Simon’s Town along the coast to Kalk Bay. The weather was perfect, the mood festive and Leo, the little fellow all bright-eyed filled with curiosity. In …

Summertime – at long last!

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What a wonderful weekend we have had, busy but so very enjoyable. Summertime – at long last! Michaelene, Colleen’s goddaughter and her boyfriend Gary, both cerebral palsied, flying in from Jo’burg for their annual holiday with us and Thekla and Adam giving us a midday treat at Casparus. This stretch of beach will soon be inundated …

Bay Harbour – The Market, Hout Bay

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Globalized marketing has made shopping easy but has also taken the fun out of it. The loss of individuality is the price paid for convenience. You can pick and choose virtually anything anytime anywhere at your leisure from supermarket shelves. Humans do, however, need to have that casual social interaction – something that till operators …

Ride along the Wild Side

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The wonderful countryside beyond the Kei River, denuded as it has become over the centuries of all trees, is nonetheless blessed with deep dark fertile soil and could in fact feed the whole of South Africa – if the people themselves were geared for agricultural activity, which they are not – they are pastoralists – …

The Nemo Tank

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Our grandchildren were on holiday and we took them to the Two Oceans Aquarium at Cape Town’s Waterfront. Milling around with lots of other kids at 15h00 we had the good fortune to be at the tank side amphitheater to watch the feeding of rays and sea turtles. Feeding the sea turtles involved a bit …

Kite surfers

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We had been to see Glenda, Jason, Tyla and Cailyn’s new home at Atlantic Beach Golf Estate west of Cape Town – an upmarket new housing and golfing estate planned to fit esthetically and environmentally soundly into the sensitive West Coast dune vegetation. Living relatively near to a major city and yet breathing fresh sea …

Hermanus morning

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Left home for the coastal town of Hermanus to have breakfast at the Saturday morning Waldorf organic market. Lots of freshest veggies; all kinds of breads, cheeses, honey, soaps, flowers, plants, pottery, and among others solid brass replicas of maritime instruments such as an astrolabe. Nice, jolly people all around make it a pleasure to …

The Red Cliff

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Karin did not like the film. Too many battle scenes. Why would the Chinese allow and sponsor such a film? Well, after the devastation of the so-called cultural revolution, after the taste of Mao had turned sour in their mouths, it was time to re-discover the past. And there is enough political and cultural ideology …

Under a blanket of drizzle

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Sitting under a blanket of drizzle in our beach cottage. It’s supposed to be summer here. Alas, tourists will avoid our beaches. Which is a good thing. (Is it?) Or so we joke to each other: if you see three people on the beach, it is crowded. Our beach. As if. The francolins are breeding …