The Loeries woke us this morning. What gentler way to slip back into city life after our week in the wilderness than to hear Purple Crested Loeries calling in our garden.
We've just returned from our annual Wild Coast holiday where we woke every morning to spectacular sunrises and the haunting cries of Fish Eagles.
This is the view from our bungalow. I would need to be a poet to describe the beauty of this place ..... and since I'm not, I'll share a few photos and a story or two about chance encounters and new friends.
Otter tracks on the dunes
Time to try my hand at land art. Nothing serious but quite absorbing all the same.
I played while M fished.
I thought these flowers could be from another planet.
We met many lovely, caring people who shared our enthusiasm for the Wild Coast. Two young veterinarians on honeymoon presented me with a bar of delicious Belgian chocolate on my birthday as well as a huge driftwood log (because they knew I loved wood). They hauled it along the beach, floated it across the estuary in a canoe and dragged it up the hill to our veranda where we found it when we returned from our walk. I was so touched ! So if you are reading this, Robbie and Taneale ...... the log is at home in our courtyard reminding us of you.
One evening I heard my husband talking to the couple who had just moved into the neighbouring bungalow. They spoke with American accents and had visited all my favourite places so of course I had to go out and chat with them too. Slowly it dawned on me that I actually might know who these people were. Several months ago a mutual internet friend, (a reader of Art Propelled) had asked me to email a few travelling tips to her friends who were thinking about visiting South Africa. What an amazing coincidence that we should meet them by chance and spend a lovely evening together before they left on the next leg of their trip. Synchronicities always seem to happen when we're on holiday. I suppose that's the magic about taking time out, away from home.
Of course I had to bring home a cache of Wild Coast pebbles to remind me of the happy days spent gathering them.