AUSTRALIA REVISITED

The sixth of December will mark the 10th Anniversary of our last (and only), visit to Australia, and despite the passing years memories of the trip are still extremely vivid for both Pat and I.

Primarily, the focus of the trip was to meet our second Australian grandchild, Ben, and to re-engage with Bella and with Stoddard and Noleen as parents in their own environment, rather than as very short term visitors to SA as they were when we first met granddaughter Bella. 

Stoddard and Noleen with Benjamin shortly after our arrival

Ben enjoying one of his first "ocean" swims

In addition, we made the decision to spoil ourselves while there, and to see and do as much as we were able to in the six weeks that we allowed ourselves ……….. and that (with the help of Nols and Stoddard), we certainly did.

This entry then will be the first of a few structured around some of the really amazing experiences we had ‘Down Under’, and why so many of those memories continue to (and will probably always), linger in our collective consciousness.

 

A few faces of Isabella

First and foremost (obviously), was the reunion at the airport, followed by the indelible sighting of the Sydney Opera House as we drove across Sydney Bridge ………… then down across the Spit on our way to Manly and their home right near the junction of Manly and Freshwater, with both beaches just a few minutes walk away. In no time at all we were happily ensconced in Bella’s bedroom, which I believe she surrendered not without protest at having to move in with her brother for the duration of our stay.

First impressions: One of the houses overlooking the Spit - just a foretaste of things to come in the Sydney housing stakes

Pedestrian Mall in Manly

Both Stodds and Nols really went out of their way to show us around and introduce us to the Sydney way of life. We visited many of the beautiful beaches, including Manly, Manly Cove, Freshwater, Curl Curl, Dee Why, Narrabeen and Mona Vale………..all the way up to Palm Beach at the Northern Tip of the Pittwater where they now have their home. Pittwater is like an extremely large version (20 or 30 times), of Langebaan, with the most beautiful blue water stretching South just a little bit inland along this beautiful peninsula roughly a third of the way back to Manly. At the time, when on a separate trip up to the viewpoint on the West Head above the Pittwater, I recall thinking (and perhaps mentioning),  that that finger of land just across the water over there is where I would like to live if Sydney were my hometown.

Looking across to the northern most point of the Pittwater from the West Head view point

Two different views of the Pittwater

Shots of various beaches in and around Sydney

A highlight on a couple of occasions was the Manly Ferry into the city and that incredible approach to The Sydney Opera House with the Bridge just slightly behind and to the right. Boarding the Ferry then was another shock to my South African senses. There were literally hundreds of bicycles parked at the terminal by people commuting into the city, and apart from one or two which stood out like sore thumbs, the rest had no locks or chains. There were also a large number of motorcycles parked at the terminal, a large number of which had their owners helmets hanging from the handle bars, and quite a few of which I noticed also had their ignition keys dangling from their slots. Can you imagine that degree of trust here? 

The Manly ferry at a distance - and with us on board  doing a crossing to the city

Until one has had the experience of both crossing and sailing in Sydney Harbour very few people are aware that it has more than 240 kilometers of coastline with everywhere a variety of unspoiled beaches, beautiful terraced areas with amazing homes, little pockets of forests and numerous yacht clubs. We soon discovered that the yacht clubs were open to all-comers who lived more than 5 kilometers away - you simply sign yourself in and make the best of the facilities, which in a city where dining out at any level is a pretty expensive business, proved to be the most cost effective means of getting a good meal at an affordable price - particularly in SA Rand terms…………and on the water too nogal!

The tip of the Iceberg ....... one of the huge liners that pull into Sydney Harbour on an almost daily basis

Bella on a day out in the city with Pat and I

During our first few days there Stoddard booked me a ride on Australia 21 - an America’s Cup Challenge yacht from a few years earlier. There were a few tourists on board who weren’t sailors, but for those of us who were it was the experience of a lifetime. As it happened there was an Open Class Harbour Race about to begin as we went out and the Skipper decided it would be fun to join in ………….. right up my alley! The wind piped up to around 20 knots and made for a really glorious three hour experience on relatively protected flattish water which, in Table Bay, would have been quite unpleasant, but which in this amazing harbour had us speeding along at a comfortable 21 knots downwind, and around 15 - 16 knots upwind. With just myself and another old-timer working the coffee grinders we weren’t the most efficient boat out there, but managed a very credible second behind a really modern 60 footer. Certainly a day to remember …………. thanks again Chum for getting me on board. It really was the very best way to get a feel for this amazing harbour, and enjoy a rollicking good sail at the same time.

Racing on Australia 21 ......... fantastic!

One of the things that Pat and I were very aware of was the number of really fantastic little fresh fish shops that were evident in all the suburban shopping centers and main streets. Without exception all of their wares would be laid out in the most beautiful fashion - all fresh and pleasing to the eye - just waiting to be bought and enjoyed……………….and then of course there was the Big One - the Sydney Fish Market in Blackwattle Bay on the South West side of Darling Harbour. What an absolutely incredible experience - what an assault on the senses - pristine in every sense of the word where one would expect the smell and offal of a Hout Bay or Kalk Bay harbour  - tiny little things in comparison to this amazing market which must take up at least four rugby fields of floor space. Here we bought a “walk around” meal which was simply as good as it gets.

Sydney Fish Market

There were of course a number of other amazing experiences in Sydney …………. Christmas with the family - New Years Eve and the fireworks which we were lucky enough to watch from the Prime Position of the platform base of the Sydney Mast on Bradley’s Head ………….. and the Cicadas that heralded our arrival at the Head that wonderful evening as we walked down through the forest from the bus station. Also our flight on the Sea Plane above the harbour and around to Bondi Beach - and the start of the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. But more about these next time.

Parked off on the mast Base of the HMAS Sydney on New Years Eve waiting for the fireworks - we got there early to secure a prime spot - and boy oh boy did we have one. The blue umbrella is ours ............ but more about that next time around

SPRING???

The first of September we are told is Spring Day here in the Southern Hemisphere ........... however, here in the Eastern Cape we know very well that it is just a teaser designed to con the trees and plants into showing themselves off. Real Spring is still some ways off, and we are well aware that summer only arrives on the first of December.

There are still quite a few chilly nights to look forward to over the next couple of months ....... but please don't tell the trees that!

All of our trees & shrubs are flowering and splashing the garden and sky with incredible color, bringing with their flowers an early morning cacophony of birdsong that we have badly missed these past few winter months ....... and all accompanied by patterns of flight through their branches that would make JFK and Heathrow look positively dull by comparison. 

The birds are loving every minute of the color and the sweetness that the flowers have to offer them........particularly the Coral and the Bohemia's. The prettiest of the flowers are unquestionably the Crab Apple buds, yet they don't seem to attract the birds at all - at least not in our garden. Perhaps there are just too many other delights to savor? (No, I'm not nuts about this American spelling either).

Anyway - with all this beauty around I couldn't resist taking a few pics. 

Enjoy!

(If you click on the pics you'll get a full frame view)

JUST A FEW DROPS OF RAIN

Well folks - its been a while since I last posted anything here - in the interim we had a good long weekend up in the Mountain Zebra National Park and I had a 'not so nice' week on oxygen in the Port Alfred Hospital getting over a bout of Covid that metastasized into pneumonia (hope I used that word in the correct sense), while Pat managed to dodge the pneumonia bullet, but was nevertheless quite ill (what a strong woman she is).

After months of dryness with hardly more than a sprinkle of drizzle every now and then Bathurst was finally blessed with 20mm of good soaking rain this week. Isn’t it amazing what just a few drops of rain can do? Suddenly one wakes up to a garden full of smiling plants - the dust of weeks washed off their leaves and the very early spring flowers suddenly bright with colour. 

The day after the rain too there were birds everywhere in our garden - in the Bohemia and the large Coral tree especially. It would seem that the sunshine had given them the opportunity to dry out after the deluge, and everywhere there were pairs of chicks. I think that they were all a little beyond fledging, but seemingly happy to get out of damp or sodden nests and into the warmth of the sun rather than waiting at home for mum and dad to bring home the bacon.

Within the time it took me to walk around the garden I spotted a pair of Dark-capped Bulbul chicks - apparently still very young. Right next to them in the Bohemia were a pair of Black-collared Barbet chicks and a few (evidently), quite young Speckled Mousebirds, two of whom I managed to capture fighting over the petal of a flower and falling out of the tree just as naughty youngsters might do.

Dark-capped Bulbul chicks with a young Black-collared Barbet youngster sharing their perch

Black-collared Barbet youngsters (Brothers?)

Speckled Mousebird enjoying a Bohemia flower petal (top) - and the culmination of the fight for the food - just before the fall (the full sequence of this fight can be seen on my Facebook page just below the link to this page)

In the Coral tree I found two young Brown-hooded Kingfishers that I had hoped might eventually appear as I knew where their nest was but was unable to access it due to the heavy undergrowth at the bottom of our garden. 

Brown-hooded Kingfisher youngsters (Brothers?)

Also in the Coral and the Bohemia were any number of young Weavers and Drongos watching and learning from their parents, as well as any number of Southern Double-collared Sunbird youngsters flitting about with their parents from flower to flower.

Cape Weaver chick (still looking a little wet)

A Yellow Weaver - a first sighting in our garden.

Down on the ground there were doves everywhere, and a couple of rather skittish Red-necked Spurfowls that simply wouldn’t stand still long enough for me to get a decent shot without blurring some part of their body. Our resident Ha-Da-Da couple were also down there making the most of the suddenly softened soil in search of those delicacies that the hard-baked ground had hidden from them for so long. Joining the Ha-Da-Da’s were a good few African Hoopoes also taking advantage of the now softened earth, while in at least three different locations their always noisy Green Wood-Hoopoe cousins (the Inhlekabafazi), were cackling like crazy and earning the reputation that their African name describes ….. the laughter of women!

Red-necked Spurfowl

Cousins: African Hoopoe (Top) & the Green Wood Hoopoe (Kakelaar or Inhlekabafazi) below

Up in the Coral too, was a Knysna Woodpecker that frustrated me horribly as it hopped about from branch to branch in search of its favorite delicacies, barely affording me a chance to get properly focused and pull the trigger - fortunately I managed to get a couple of nice shots here and there.

The flighty little Knysna Woodpecker

Aside from all these wonderful benefits of the rain there were also the more mundane ones like seeing York Road’s dust washed off our roof and walls …………. and while the grass suddenly looks a whole lot greener, it also tells me that I had better start mowing before it becomes a real chore again.

Our reservoir level went up by roughly 50mm, which, using the formula I found on Google (V=πr2h=π·2.52·0.05≈0.98175), means - I think - that we have close to a thousand liters or water available that we didn’t have last week ….. which is good - right?

Sooooooo - let’s hope that we get more of the same sooner rather than later, and that Pat’s garden can really begin to benefit in preparation for Spring.

Of Hominins, Hunter-Gatherers & Heroes

Shortly before Covid came into our lives in 2019 we attended a really great presentation by David Bristow at the Cock House Restaurant in Grahamstown, followed by a magnificent three course meal and some really very good wines. David’s presentation covered his most recent two books in his ‘Of Hominins, Hunter-Gatherers and Heroes - Stories from the Veld’ series, and as I write this I am just finishing the second of these,   “Searching for Twenty Amazing Places in South Africa”, and felt a need to share the experience with all those of you who might read this piece.

David has spent more than three decades as a travel and nature writer and has probably seen more of South Africa than all of us put together - but more than that, he has degrees in journalism and environmental sciences that allow him, better than all the other writers in this field to add something very special to the content of what he puts on paper regarding his time in the field. But more fascinating  from my point of view as a reader of the stories about these amazing places is the degree of research that he has obviously put into each of them, yet managed to distill into captivating stories and summaries of each of them without for one single minute becoming tiresome or boring……………and what makes them even more appealing for me is that I know that each and every peak that he speaks about in “Mont aux-Sources and the Amphitheatre” he has scaled, and  that each and every craggy outcrop and river crossing that he covers in “Lambazi Bay, Port Grosvenor” he has actually walked himself. Similarly with all of the other stories ……….. he knows each of the sites intimately and writes with absolute authority regarding their history and various attractions.

Every story transports the reader to the place in question, and whether or not you have been there (as I have in every every case but three), he manages to instil a need to return (or visit), without delay - to grab again and better appreciate what each location has to offer. Thanks David - and per the final sentence of your introduction, I have thoroughly enjoyed the journey with you ………….. it really never is too late to have a happy childhood.

This past week too has brought Pat and I back to Cape Town after a hiatus of close on three years. Much has changed ……… and nothing has changed. As I sit here writing the South Easter is blowing as hard as I have ever heard it blow, and I am grateful that we no longer need to suffer its often discomforting side-effects. There are new junctions and roundabouts in the Southern Peninsula roads designed to accommodate the every increasing number of people moving into the area, yet the same sellers of The Big Issue and the same beggars are at the Traffic Lights. 

The shacks along Baden-Powell on the way to Stellenbosch now stretch to the N2 and are literally on the road .......... visions of extreme poverty - yet each and every one has a DSTV Satellite Dish????? Imizamo Yethu in Hout Bay seems to have almost reached the top of the mountain while the filth of uncollected garbage is piled everywhere along the road into this once beautiful little enclave where we were once so happy for 10 years. The stench as one drives by the settlement is beyond description.  Similarly - but to a lesser degree Masiphumelele on the Kommetjie Road presents a never-ending eysore  with litter strewn everywhere and informal traders parked off along all of the road's pavements. There are new shopping malls that weren’t there when we left, in Simon's Town and Constantia, and I really do wonder at their purpose - I simply can’t believe we need more of the same old, same old retail outlets and franchise restaurants. 

What we have most enjoyed thus far (aside from being with the family and catching up as quickly as possible with old and valued friends), was the trip in through the Overberg ……… those wonderful rolling hills framed by the surrounding mountains. And the mountains! We really have missed them …………. amazing how blase one becomes about them when one lives in the Mother City, but move away for three years to flatter climes and you quickly realise what an important part they played in your life as a Capetonian while there, and how moving away has left a sizeable hole in your heart.

I took some pictures of the garden at 6 York Road the day we left - it was looking magnificent - the best ever since we moved into the house and Pat got stuck into landscaping and restoring it - I even managed to get all of the grass cut just before leaving, but I fear that it will all grow beyond even what I can imagine during the time we are away …………. and Oh Dear! The cutting will have to begin all over again. Until that then is done, Ciaio.

For more about David Bristow please go to http://www.davidbristow.co.za