Moonshine, Dolphins, Birds, Rocks and Walks

It occurred to us that we have not really introduced "our rumbling ocean" in pictures to you. We bought our house 2009/10, on the Eastern Cape sunshine coast. We fell in love with the region immediately as it reminded us of our other favorite place in the Western Cape province of South Africa, where I asked my wife to marry me.

We have a fairly nice view of the ocean from our deck, where we sit on every occasion we can, and we even give our son breakfast there.

[caption id="attachment_443" align="aligncenter" width="474"] View[/caption]

Our favorite thing to do, is taking walks whenever we can. I take our son in the stroller for as many walks as I can, when we have good weather, which is often, as he enjoys it and you will or have seen many pictures of him in the stroller.

[caption id="attachment_444" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Walking[/caption]

We are also lucky to have great big pods of dolphins frequenting coast, swimming up and down the coast, hunting, every day. This time of the year the whales also come down the coast and a little later we see them with their calves.

[caption id="attachment_449" align="aligncenter" width="474"] dolphins[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_450" align="alignnone" width="474"] Southern right whale[/caption]

We have a nice variety of bird life both at the coast and inland in natural protected forests surrounding us.

At night the ocean can become a little town by itself, as the squid fisherman with their strong lights come fishing, we have counted upwards of 60 boats at times.

In essence that is our rumbling ocean with a final note on the beach right in front of our house. It is not a beach, but rocky ocean front, that attracts many fisherman, but we luckily do not have a massive contingent of holiday makers near us every year, the beach is about a kilometer further away, making this a quiet place even in summer holidays. Here are some more pictures of that rocky coastline responsible for the rumble, sundown from the deck and moonshine.

Great Weather Today

Weather tend to rotate between wet, windy and cold in the winter. Today was an exception, milder and windless. Good for a walk. First the morning (5.15am) ritual of deciding what toys to play with - a difficult task.



At about 9.30 am we took our walk. On the way we met a neighbor who had the same ideas, and boeta and the girl had an impromptu play date.

[caption id="attachment_162" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Similar in age (10 and 11 months), some baby fun.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_163" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Watching the dog together, boeta shoeless already.[/caption]

A little later we were off again. He has had very little interaction with the beach, first too young and then weather or time issues. We do walk early morning 7 am, but not a good time to play.

Today, however, we walked determined to do one thing, get dirty or sandy.

[caption id="attachment_164" align="aligncenter" width="474"] There you go, now have fun![/caption]

I put him down and stood back! Time to have fun and explore, son!

[caption id="attachment_165" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Off he went.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_166" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Climbing down the "mountain"[/caption]

He did some exploring on the higher level, and then decided to get lower to the water level.

[caption id="attachment_167" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Bigger rocks here to test.[/caption]

Then he saw a fish in the rock pool and decided to investigate this.

[caption id="attachment_169" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Fish in the pool.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_170" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Slapping water is fun!![/caption]

He realized this is water, like his bath and what do we do, we slap it, fun, lots of fun! Boeta had so much fun that by the time dad decided "the kid" is getting too wet, it was not a happy chappy anymore! "We will be back son", I said, and with that I walked home, fairly briskly, to change what was a sandy, wet boy and although a little sad at the time, he slept like, well like a baby after lunch. If you wondered, I also felt good and full of plans for the rest of the day!