The Easter weekend at the west coast
First of all, I hope that you guys had a nice Easter weekend. :) My holiday weekend was really nice. I went with Bridget, Pia and Margi to Velddrif at the west coast were we had a wonderful long weekend and I have seen and learned a lot of interesting new stuff.
We lived in the house of Bridgets friends which is more or less directly located at the so called Bergrivier in ... a nice river with a great diversity of water birds (e.g. Pelicans, Flamigos, ect.). I decided to camp in the garden to have a first test if my tent is Africa proof. ;)
After we arrived in Velddrif, we went for a walk with the dogs along the river and we enjoyed the nice weather with some beers and lekker cream mussels at a river bar.
Friday, we spent the day with Nana (a really lovely and very creative friend of Bridget) in Velddrif. Nana lives there and she showed us the beach, her workshop and her house. After that, Nana organized a fresh snoek (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyrsites) for us. She prepared a typical western coast supper with the snoek for us which was super delicious ... she cooked some pieces of the snoek in water and the rest of the snoek was used for a braai. The braai snoek was brushed with a mixture of homemade apricot marmelade, garlic and butter. Yummy ... I didn´t expected that fish will taste soooo good with marmelade.
Saturday, we went to Paternoster ... a little town at the coast with a wonderful long beach. We visited a small craft market, spent some time in a beach bar, had a fantastic walk at the beach and so on.
Sunday, we were invited at Arthurs farm. Arthur is also a nice friend of Bridget who lives in Velddrif and owns a huge farm. However, before we went to the farm we joined Arthur to his weekly play of the so called game "Bowls". It has similar rules like Boule but the Bowls are bigger and they also have a bias which makes it more difficult to calculate the correct way to stop close to the jack. (for more information see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowls). I had kind of a private bowl lesson with one of the bowl club members and I must say that it is a quite funny and interesting game. Maybe I should think about a bowls career. XD
After finishing the sporty activities at this day, we finally went to the farm. The farm is directly located at the river and we had a nice boat tour with Arthur. During the boat tour we have seen a lot of beautiful births like the Malachite Kingfisher (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malachite_Kingfisher), the Pied Kingfisher (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pied_Kingfisher) and the African Fish Eagle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Fish_Eagle). Back from the boat tour, Arthur took me to a bush drive to show me his farm and the Fynbos growing there. It was fantastic to see this huge farm with all the different vegetation types and I´ve seen more Fish Eagles, an owl and several springboks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springbok). After dinner, all of us went for a little night game drive at the farm ... we have seen a porcupine :) ... and more Springboks, but sadly no wild pigs.
You can see ... we had a wonderful and funny weekend. I´m thankful to Bridget for taking me with to Velddrif and introducing me to her nice friends.
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| Britget and I at the river bar in Velddrif |
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| my little camp in the garden :) |
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| "our" house in Velddrif |
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| "our" house in Velddrif |
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| Orbea variegata |
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| Bokkom shop ... Bokkom is dryed fish that you can buy everywhere along the coast ... I tried some Bokkom but it is really not my favorite food :D ... it´s pretty salty and fishy |
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| Sybil enjoyes the river |
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| Pelicans |
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| Bridget, Savanna and Sybil at the beach in Velddrif |
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| at the beach in Velddrif |
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| at Nanas workshop |
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| at Nanas workshop |
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| at Nanas workshop |
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| at Nanas workshop |
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| Nanas supper preparations ... snoek at the braai grid and the marmelade sauce |
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| yummy ... braai snoek with apricot marmelade, salad from Bridgets nursery, cheese and bread |
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| camping buddy |
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| Bridget, Pia, Nana and Margie (from left to right) ... at the beach bar in Paternoster |
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| the beach in front of the bar |
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| black mussel banks at the rocks |
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| Paternoster (view from the beach) |
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| Me in the Atlantic ocean :) |
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| Tidal pool ... can you find the little fish? |
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| Tidal pool |
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| beach of Paternoster (this part of the beach is called "Mosselbank") |
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| sunset at the beach |
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| at Arthurs farm ... the river and the boat right behind the house |
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| at the boat tour |
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| at the boat tour |
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| at the boat tour (in this "jungle" of reed, we have seen several kingfishers) |
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| Arthur, Pia and I during the boat tour |
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| sunset at the farm |
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| sunset at the farm |
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| the farm house |
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| hawk moth ... they are sooo cute and fluffy :) |
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| hawk moth |
