Wednesday 6th March 2019

Wednesday 6^th March 2019

Wow – the days do speed by!!! Well not really but it is a few days since I last wrote.

So Sunday was fun – Nadia dropped her baby Olivia off with friends so we (Dylan, Nadia, John, Pru and Dot and David – Dylan’s parents here from SA for a few days) could all go out on Dylan’s speed boat. It’s a very natty boat – even has a loo on board!! With seating in the front and the back all under awning. We headed out from their marina towards the open sea turning right / north to find our house. We then doubled back south towards Le Morne Brabant peninsular, a beautiful spot, where we anchored – time to chill… Round tables were set up with holes for glasses – followed by a wonderful spread of snacks / finger lunch and drinkies!!!  We then armed ourselves with noodles and leapt into the beautiful clear clear sea – the skipper threw bits of bread roll into the water and the next thing we were surrounded by a myriad of wonderfully coloured reef fishies – magical!  I used Dylan’s full face mask which I definitely felt easier using than the usual goggles that cover only the nose and eyes. It’s a strange love fear thing for me using a snorkel but I was so happy with what I saw. The view of the island from the boat is spectacular – one realizes how few people live here – there is so much uninhabited rich tropical vegetation and these incredibly beautiful stark strangely shaped mountains. The sky is endless and the clouds towering – the water glistens and glows in so many shades from deep blue to pale green.  We saw the two little pinnacles of rock called Crystal Rock – extraordinary – rock sticking out of the ocean – maybe between 2 and 4 metres high and covered with vegetation – even a little tree!!- the tenacity of nature…  It was a really super outing.

On Monday I came across a house/pet sitting possibility for two weeks in April – on a Golf estate about 10 kms away so we joined the House Sitting site – really reasonable fee of R 1600 and I sent the owner a couple of messages. Wondrously I had been invited to lunch with a mutual friend of a Cape Town friend who also lives on a golf estate – I figured they had to be the same estate – anyway long story short – John and I are meeting the home owner tomorrow before my girl’s lunch!! It would be truly wonderful if we could move there for two weeks in April and have the company of 2 doggies and 2 kitties!! One of the dogs is a 4 year old Lab who needs a harness to get around – the big test will be that we can manage to lift her to get her into the harness – so here’s hoping that Ramsey is strong enough to do the deed!! Hold thumbs!!

So yesterday (Tuesday) Zodic and John carried the kayak onto the beach where – halleluiah!!! we put it in the little ‘bay’ in front of the house and I climbed in and felt really stable. John proceeded to give me LOTS of coaching and advice as I learned to maneuver the kayak using the rudder and paddles.  It was a bit windy so we decided I shouldn’t venture out beyond the rocks and certainly not towards the reef. I eventually very politely told him I would prefer it if he stopped saying left, right, back, forwards… so that I could figure it out myself relying on intuition and HA! that’s exactly what happened and I managed to ‘steer’ in the confined space!!  So I was thrilled and John was happy and felt confident that I could venture out later to more open spaces!! I chatted to a French woman who is staying next door and she told me that she had gone out on her kayak that morning at 6.30 and had kayaked among the dolphins just beyond the reef which is about 200 – 300 metres out – she said there were a lot of vessels following the dolphins – some too close to her but it was enormous fun.

Last evening, the breeze – hardly a wind, had died down and I went for a walk on the beach at about 6.30. I found a comfortable rock to sit on backed up next to another to lean on and just sat quietly gazing out to sea and the horizon, the sun had gone to bed already – a few moments to still the monkey mind!!  So comforting and so healing to be able to just sit and enjoy the beauty in that and in the next and in each moment.