Travelling on the day before the Easter Weekend is madness and as I was unable to leave school early we decided to Ïtthis morning instead.  We have our youngest daughter, Laurie with us.  The rest of the family have other plans.  The Struisbaai weather does not look promising but all I really want is a relaxed and chilled break to recharge my batteries for next term.

The trip up was a pleasure – not a scrap of traffic.  We spotted the usual roadside birds – mainly jackal buzzards and blue crane and arrived at about 11:30 a.m.

I was relaxing with a slice of banana bread and cup of coffee when Earl who had been out somewhere came charging in.  Bring the camera quickly – I lept up, grabbed it and raced to the car no knowing what the heck I was about to see.  “It’s walking down the road impersonating a dog!” he said.   “What?” I asked and got no anser.  – and then I saw it – in our neighbour’s garden  under a tree – a Sharpe’s Grysbok!   They’re hard enough to find in the wild – but here in a fishing village?  There are a few vacant plots in the vicinity and people often tell us they see bokkies – but usually at dusk.   This one acted like he owned the place and didn’t  even ‘skrik’ when I got out of the car to take photographs.

What are you staring at – this is my territory!

I’ve had enough now – the grub was good though

My vacant lot has tasty food too

Goodbye – I’ll visit again soon

We are trying to get our new lawn to grow so lots of watering is required.  Of course this also attracts the birds. We enjoyed watching a couple of red-eyed doves and a fiscal fly-catcher at their ablutions.

Nothing like a nice juicy worm while you’re taking a shower

This is so refreshing

Nice view from up here

Showering is fine but lying in a bath is so much more relaxing