Friday, July 11, 2014

A break in the Wilderness

Our self catering apartment was in a house hanging high on the cliff top overlooking the lake, with the N2 and the sea behind us
The lake has a small island and reminded Lynne so much of a favourite childhood book Swallows and Amazons and others by Arthur Ransome, as it does resemble the Lake District in England
A view at sunset down the road at other properties and the far Outeniqua mountains
The bedroom area, with a very comfortable bed, crackly percale linen and a good warm duvet
It also has a seating and a dining area with the wonderful view from the ‘picture’ window. There was a small kitchen with a two burner stovelet, a bar fridge and a microwave, and a small shower and loo. We were very comfortable for the 4 nights we were here, if a little cold. They did bring us a fire. There are three other apartments with much more space and all have balconies
The view from the house changes hourly as the light and clouds alter the affect. Wonderful to paint

We saw so many birds, drongos and shrikes came to our windowsill, we had swallows or swifts nesting in the eaves above us and were enchanted when we saw at least 7 pairs of Knysna loeries fly past below us in the forested areas. And Lynne had one incredibly beautiful brief flash of kingfisher blue when we walked on one of the Parks Boards boardwalks

Fiscal shrike. Also known as a Butcher Bird, these birds eat anything and everything
A drongo preening on the upstairs balcony railing
A walk on the breathtakingly beautiful Wilderness beach. Temperature was about 9 degrees
Houses built right on the edge of the dunes
Barefoot beachcombers and sea mist
A young black backed gull struts
The gathering storm clouds were sensational
Golden sands and glimmering water
The tiny white-fronted plovers kept us amused for ages
And the water made beautiful reflections
They were feeding on Plough Snails
and John managed to get quite close
There are round and oval pebbles which make lovely patterns in the sand
Lynne finds a broken paper nautilus shell which had just washed up
Booty from our beachcombing walks on Wilderness beach
Lots of jellyfish had washed up after the last storm, this man of war was being picked at by the gulls
Plough Snails make wonderful patterns as they skate across the sand
They find a meal on a jellyfish
They look like opals on the  sand
A skein of cormorants suddenly appears
A cloudscape of note
How the light changes on the lake
At sunset it was mirror like
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

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