fun | Diary of an Adventurous Retiree

Struisbaai at Easter time becomes a hub of activity. Our normally quiet little fishing village is suddenly alive with tourists and events. On a normal weekend it’s busy enough for the peace-loving locals but at Easter the town explodes and there’s traffic on the normally car-empty roads. The beach, which goes on for miles, is often empty of people on a normal day, but at on this weekend it’s the first place the visitors head to.

On Easter Saturday this is exactly what happened as it dawned bright and sunshiny after two days of cloud and rain.

The Earl, our grandson, Jay and friend, Ray were off to sea by 6:00 am. They should have gone yesterday so we could have fish for Good Friday but the rain prevented that so we had to have our Good Friday on Saturday.

Jay loves sharks! He cuddled this dogfish and gave it a kiss before releasing it back into the sea.

The rest of the household rose from their slumbers a lot later and we headed to The Shed for the Food Market. There were lots of goodies to eat but all we bought were some fresh veggies from the farmer’s stall. We decided it best to go for a proper brekkie at Shipwreck Coffee Shop instead.

My gorgeous girls at The Shed’s Food Market

Me buying fresh produce for the weekend

Traffic on the main road was bumper to bumper. The NSRI (National Sea Rescue Institute) were encouraging folk to part with R 10,00 to boost their coffers. In return you got a marshmallow egg and a chance to photograph them and their vehicles.

I gave them R10,00 – after all my men were out at sea!

Rescue Boat

On Standby

Josh and I walked to the area where the Land Rover Rally was happening. We spent some time admiring the landies both ancient and new. There were time trials too which were fun to watch.

Land Rover Rally

Registration Office

A very old land rover

Land Rover Passion starting young

This one is 71 years old – I was told.

Track Trial

After taking some interesting photographs we went for a long walk on the beach – well, I walked and took photographs and Josh ran on for about 3km. I thought I’d missed his return but soon after I turned around he caught up with me.

Somebody scrawled the date in the sand

And declared her love for Daddy and family

Abandoned Sandcastles

Busy Beach

Fishermen’s Paradise

Watch out for the jellyfish!

Most Beautiful Beach in the Country

Josh running in bottom right corner

Josh returning

We continued our walk along the boardwalk and as we approached the harbour, Lisa and Laurie waved to show they were there with the former’s friends, Margaret and Frans. Their kids were having fun on the beach. Spencer invited Josh to go out with him on the paddle skis. He dashed home to change into his costume while the adults went to Pelicans for a drink.

My girls and Margaret sharing a bottle of Pink

Josh on paddle ski

Josh and Spencer

While we were there we heard the whirring of a helicopter and observed it doing a practice rescue. That was fun too.

It was after three when we finally got back home and I started preparing for the fish supper. I baked a lemon meringue for the first time in my life – and this was a Banting version that I got from a recipe book written by a local of the Overberg, Madelè Burger. Her book is called “Hier’s Die Toortsie Weer” You can see her blog Here Her posts are mainly in Afrikaans but there are some in English too. I am pleased to report that it turned out pretty well. Not a crumb was left after our dinner. I also used her recipes to make a creamy eggplant dish and a butternut salad.

Busy in the kitchen

And it’s done!

Creamy Eggplant Dish

The fishermen returned at 5 pm, sunburned, tired but happy after catching enough fish to feed eight of us for dinner. There is nothing to beat eating fish fresh from the sea.

The Earl cleaning fish

Josh helping the Earl wrap potatoes for the Weber

Fish cooked and ready to serve

Rewards of a day at sea and on the beach – Weber cooked fish for eight!

This morning we woke up to just the two of us – a rare thing in our marriage having got together after we’d both had children and then blended our two families. Of course that in itself was a wonderful thing – but when we have alone time we really appreciate it. Our first thought of what to do – was get to the beach before the crowds and have a swim so 7:30 found us wallowing in the waves and giggling like little kids. Earl seldom swims – he fishes – so it was specially nice to enjoy the sea with him in this way. I did not run as the tide was too high and my legs were still aching from yesterday’s soft sand jog! The air was a tad chilly because the wind was blowing but the sea was deliciously warm and we did not want to get out! The waves were pumping and we regretted not having boogy boards to surf. When we were too exhausted from jumping the waves – it was quite rough today – we reluctantly dragged ourselves out and went home to shower. Today was the day we’d earmarked for Bredasdorp shopping and we wanted to make an early start – who wants to be in town when you could be chilling in Struisbaai!

We decided to have breakfast there and were quite happy with what the Flame Grill had to offer. Then it was the serious business of shopping. We needed the following and eventually managed to get it all.

Christmas Tree
Christmas Decorations
Roast for Christmas Day
Christmas Pudding
Various items from a hardware store
Make-up for me
Skipping rope for me (I promised Steve I would train)
Boogy Boards – we’re stupid enough to think we’re still young enough for this – read on!

I found tree that I thought would suit at Checkers – just the right size and it included a transformer and lights. I was holding the box in my hand and contemplating the price when a woman came up to me and said, “I bought one of those last year and the tree started smoking and melting!” I decided that Providence had sent her and decided not to take that particular tree! Instead I got a cheaper one without fancy gadgets and bought some pretty baubles to decorate it. I didn’t want a tree (not much space) but thought the kids would never forgive me if I didn’t at least have a little one!

On our way to and from Bredasdorp we were fascinated to see a number of yellow-billed flying around. There were also a number of steppe and jackal buzzards perched on telephone poles. (Have to mention birds at least once in a holiday report)

Here is a regular visitor to our garden – specially when the sprinkler is on.

Female Cape Sugarbird on our lawn

Female Cape Sugarbird on the telephone wire

Struisbaai in the holidays has a market on a public open space next to the main road. On our return from Bredasdorp we stopped to see what we could find and bought mielies (corn on the cob) and spanspek (cantaloupe). We had the mielies for lunch – delicious. Still to try the spanspek .

After lunch Earl did all the chores he needed to do – light on the Milkwood tree, putting up more hooks and sorting fishing tackle. Clive dropped in and they organised fishing for tomorrow.

I cleaned house and set up the Christmas tree.

My promise to Steve had to be kept – I did not run this morning so conscious was pricking. I opened up my kettle bell boxes – and oh no – one of them was the wrong weight! I emailed and complained (politely) and had an immediate cell phone reply – huge apologies and yes my daughter could collect the correct one on her way up to Struis on Sunday and I could return the wrong one in January. Still I had one that was usable so I did a little circuit routine that Steve, I think would approve of. My usual warm up and then Skipping with my new fancy and very expensive rope, clean and press with the 6kg kettle bell, step ups on my stoep steps, swings with the 6kg kettle bell, and finishing with burpies. Then stretches to cool down. Tomorrow I intend including a run – on the beach or the road depending on whether I can catch the low tide or not!

Earl, while I was struggling through my routine on my own had gone to down to the harbour with Clive. When he got back we went to the beach – and took the new boogy boards! We were like kids at Christmas. The tide was high, the wind was blowing and the waves were hectic! But boy did we have fun — we caught the waves, were dunked several times and were totally exhausted when we finally decided enough was enough! Its so hard to remember that we are in our sixties – we can’t do these kid things at the same rate any more – but we’d rather die than not at least try!